Wang Ruohai had changed significantly from before. He now carried himself with the air of a successful man. Qian Fei felt that money was truly a bewitching little spirit – it could drive loving couples apart, but it could also transform an ordinary person into a social elite.
Many classmates bombarded Qian Fei with messages, urging her to give Wang Ruohai another chance. Even Yao Jingjing said during a phone call, “Feifei, the class monitor told me that although the nightly gatherings were hosted by different people in rotation, Wang Ruohai was paying for all of them. Sigh, I don’t know whether to advise you to get back together with him or continue cursing him as a scumbag. I’m afraid that if he has truly changed and turned over a new leaf, and I encourage you not to give him a chance, only for you to marry someone else and end up unhappy, I might just stab myself to death!”
Qian Fei spat, “Can’t you say something nice for once? Why would I be so blind as to marry someone else and be unhappy?”
Yao Jingjing retorted, “You’re not blind, you’re just stupid!”
Qian Fei decided to take a hundred yuan from the wedding gift money she was saving for Yao Jingjing and give it to the old man selling fake newspapers on the railway station overpass. Wasting the money instead of giving it to her – that’s what you call revenge!
When Wang Ruohai called Qian Fei, she told him, “Tell the class monitor to stop organizing gatherings.” Wang Ruohai asked why, and Qian Fei replied, “It’s almost my turn, and I don’t want to spend money.”
Wang Ruohai said, “I’ll pay for you!”
Qian Fei scoffed, “You’ve been burned by money, haven’t you? You get a little cash and don’t know how to show off! Wouldn’t it be better to save your money instead of spending it like this?”
Wang Ruohai chuckled softly on the phone, “Alright, I’ll save it! But since I can’t keep it myself, why don’t I give it to you to save for me?”
Qian Fei snapped, “Please, get lost!”
After hanging up, she felt a mixture of bitterness and wistfulness. What does it mean when times change and the world moves on? This was it. In the past, she wanted to help him save money, but that drove him away. Now he was asking her to save money for him, but she felt she no longer had the same mindset.
With the IPO opening date still undetermined, stocks couldn’t be issued, funds couldn’t be raised, and securities firms couldn’t receive underwriting fees. They began to struggle in dire straits. Qian Fei’s company finally couldn’t hold on any longer and started laying off employees.
Qian Fei had taken a few days off due to illness, and somehow, this became an excuse to make her a prime target for layoffs in the project department. Sister Jin risked her life to leak this information, and when Qian Fei heard it, she was stunned. She thought about seeking help from Director Kong and Liu Yifeng, but Sister Jin told her, “Don’t bother. Director Kong and Liu Yifeng are about to jump ship to another company. They’re leaving next month and won’t be in a position to fight for you. Think of another way. The Vice President is handling this matter. If someone could put in a good word with him, there might still be hope!”
Qian Fei returned home with her thoughts in disarray. In the past, she wouldn’t have been afraid of being fired; she could have found another job in a month or so. But now she didn’t dare risk it. She had a monthly mortgage payment of over seven thousand yuan. Without a job, she’d have to sell a kidney or donate bone marrow.
She racked her brains, not knowing what to do. In a moment of desperation, she suddenly thought of Li Yifei. He was in the same industry and had a wide network. Maybe he could help her figure something out.
With this in mind, she mustered up the courage and sent Li Yifei a WeChat message: When will you be back from your business trip?
She remembered hearing from Zhao De that his business trips usually lasted a month. By her calculations, he should be back by now.
However, after waiting for a while, Li Yifei’s reply was: Not sure yet.
These four words plunged the glimmer of hope that had risen in her heart back into a deep abyss.
During this period, Li Yifei had been incredibly busy.
The project team had originally planned for a one-month business trip, but the enterprise leader was a real troublemaker, constantly making numerous demands that were difficult to satisfy. This led to very slow progress in the later stages of work. There were also significant disagreements between the project team and the enterprise regarding the issuance plan, with both sides stubbornly sticking to their positions. As a result, the business trip had to be extended.
This enterprise was truly difficult to deal with. He and the other members of the project team were practically being skinned alive by the enterprise boss. The project leader even said he regretted taking on this project – they hadn’t earned much money, but their hearts had been shattered into pieces.
Compared to the project leader’s depression and frustration, Li Yifei maintained a strange sense of calm. Everyone knew he wasn’t easy to please either, but they couldn’t understand why he was so willing to work hard and be at everyone’s beck and call this time.
Only Li Yifei himself understood. He was using the busyness of the project to suppress the restless feelings in his heart. While others were cursing the difficulty of the project and the troublesome boss, he was genuinely grateful that the enterprise boss was such a thorn in their side, keeping him occupied with negotiations every day. If it weren’t for the many distractions this project required, he truly felt that given enough time to overthink, he wouldn’t be able to resist calling Qian Fei.
He couldn’t tease her like this when he hadn’t decided whether to be with her or not.
Late at night, as he tossed and turned in bed, he agonized over why she didn’t contact him when he didn’t reach out to her. This girl was too stubborn. Her unconscious playing hard to get was making his heart itch even more.
Finally, she sent him a WeChat message, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
When her message came through, he and another colleague were arguing with that troublemaker of an enterprise boss.
He quickly replied to her message amid his busy schedule, but the enterprise boss saw it and started yelling, pounding the table like a madman: “Can’t you show me some respect? I’m trying to reason with you here, and you’re lowering your head to play with your phone? Is this how you do investment banking?”
If it weren’t for his professional ethics restraining him, he would have loved to go up and slap that guy across the face.
Li Yifei’s hasty WeChat reply amidst the chaos was: Not sure yet.
But to Qian Fei, who had mustered up the courage to send the message only to receive an ambiguous answer, these four words meant “evasion” and “rejection.”
Qian Fei completely gave up hope, deciding never again to take the initiative to warm up to someone who gave her the cold shoulder. She felt that at this point if she still couldn’t see that Li Yifei wanted to distance himself from her, she would truly be blind.
She didn’t send any more WeChat messages asking Li Yifei for advice about the layoffs. She only called Yao Jingjing to vent about her impending trip to the hospital to sell bone marrow. Yao Jingjing comforted her, “Consider your bone marrow mine. Don’t go to the hospital to sell it. If you get laid off, I’ll help you pay your mortgage!”
Qian Fei felt that in crucial moments, all that talk about male best friends was just nonsense. The one who could help in times of need was still her mischievous demon of a friend.
Since there was nothing she could do, she stopped worrying and simply went about her work as usual, calmly waiting to be laid off.
However, when the day came for the layoff list to be finalized, Sister Jin told her that her name wasn’t on it.
She was stunned, not knowing how she had suddenly become so lucky as to slip through the cracks and avoid being on the list.
Later, it was Yao Jingjing who solved the mystery for her.
“I told Wang Ruohai about this, and he said one of his clients was a Tsinghua MBA classmate of your Vice President and might be able to put in a good word. I just took it as hearsay, but I didn’t expect him to make it happen! Hmm, I’ll give him some extra points for this!”
Qian Fei’s heart was filled with mixed emotions. She never expected that in the end, it would be Wang Ruohai who saved her job.
The next evening, Wang Ruohai invited her to dinner at Justin’s, a French restaurant on Jianguomenwai Street.
When she heard the name of the restaurant, Qian Fei was stunned for a long while. Before paying the deposit on the house, Wang Ruohai had proposed to her there. They had always been frugal, never dining at restaurants where the average cost per person exceeded 50 yuan. But that day, Wang Ruohai insisted on going to Justin’s, which led to an argument between them. They were quite upset with each other before going.
In the end, halfway through the meal, he suddenly knelt and proposed to her. She burst into tears, and many people around them started applauding. She felt that moment was truly romantic, beautiful, and dreamlike.
However, when it came time to pay the bill, she no longer felt the romance, beauty, or dreamlike quality. Wang Ruohai didn’t have enough cash in his wallet, and she had to count out the remaining money to cover the bill under the sympathetic and pitying gaze of the waiter, all while scolding him for choosing such an expensive place to eat.
That look in the waiter’s eyes seemed to say, “How pitiful that you have no money yet still try to play at being romantic here.”
When they got home later, Wang Ruohai lost his temper with her, saying, “Couldn’t you have put more money in my wallet? How embarrassing was that for me today!”
She got a bit angry too, “Isn’t it better to enjoy things within our means? Why do we have to copy others and create romance through material things? Others have money, but we don’t!”
He didn’t speak to her again that night.
Thinking back carefully, it seemed that from that day on, Wang Ruohai gradually started working overtime more frequently.
Reflecting on the past, Qian Fei felt that she had indeed lived too frugally. She later examined herself, wondering if they had become too familiar with each other, often forgetting to save face for each other in public. She hadn’t handled many things well in the past. She had always thought that their current frugality was for their future happiness, but she never considered that what they lost in the present could never be regained in the future.
The saying “learn from past mistakes” was right. After the breakup, she finally understood a principle: when it’s time to enjoy life, you should enjoy it. If you don’t, you’ll be old before you know it.
The next day after work, Wang Ruohai drove to pick her up at her company building.
Wang Ruohai had even reserved the same table as before.
Revisiting old haunts, Qian Fei felt only a faint sense of nostalgia and an indescribable bitterness.
As she lowered her head to cut her steak, Wang Ruohai called her name.
She looked up to see Wang Ruohai’s sincere eyes.
He reached out to hold her hand, “Feifei, give me another chance. Let’s start over, okay? Consider that I lost my way before, and took a wrong turn, but now I want to come home! I didn’t know how to cherish you before, but I’ll take good care of you from now on! Without you helping me manage money, I really can’t save anything!” As he spoke, his eyes reddened and his voice choked up.
Qian Fei suddenly felt extremely sad, a kind of sadness born from utter grievance.
During this time, when she needed that person by her side, he had avoided her like the plague. She felt incredibly wronged and sad. Instead, it was the man before her who had taken her to the hospital when she was sick and saved her job when she was about to be laid off.
Thinking about that person’s attitude and everything that had happened recently, she suddenly felt disheartened and disillusioned.
She looked at Wang Ruohai and said slowly, “I can’t immediately agree to be your girlfriend again. I can only promise that for the next month, I’ll try my best to see if I can accept you again!”
Wang Ruohai held her hand, his eyes moist, “That’s enough, Feifei! I’m already content with this!”
Early in the morning, Li Yifei called Zhao De to discuss work matters and gossip about other things. Hearing Zhao De’s listless voice, he asked what was wrong. Zhao De said, “I’ve been feeling chest tightness lately.”
Li Yifei advised him to rest earlier every day and stop staying up late. Zhao De changed the subject and mentioned the layoffs at Qian Fei’s company.
Zhao De told Li Yifei, “I heard from Liu Yifeng that our little Feifei was almost laid off! Fortunately, someone surnamed Wang managed to put in a word with the Vice President, and little Feifei kept her position!”
Li Yifei’s heart skipped a beat when he heard “someone surnamed Wang.” He asked Zhao De when this happened. Zhao De said, “Just last week!” Li Yifei calculated the time – it was exactly when Qian Fei had asked him when he would be back.
Now, looking back, she must have sent him that WeChat message because of this. She must have felt so helpless at that time. But how did he reply to her?
“Not sure yet.”
He suddenly felt panicked, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Then did she go to find that ex-boyfriend surnamed Wang?
All along, he seemed to have overlooked a very important question. He had fallen for Qian Fei, but what about her?
When it came to women, he had always considered himself sensitive, confident that he could discern whether a woman liked him or not. In his perception, he had always felt that Qian Fei liked him too. But he had overlooked one thing: during the month he took to sort out his thoughts, she might not have waited for him in the same place. She wasn’t committed to him; she had no obligation to do so. And more fatally, he hadn’t considered that another man might appear in her life.
He had been too confident, almost stupidly so. How could he forget that she still had an ex-boyfriend she couldn’t let go of, whose photos she couldn’t bear to throw away?
In an instant, under this external stimulus, he had an epiphany. Amidst self-reproach, regret, and fear, he sorted out his feelings as clearly as possible. He felt a bit pathetic – when there was no crisis, he had to be pretentious about sorting out his feelings. Only when faced with a crisis could he decisively see through his own heart?
He felt increasingly panicked.
He realized he missed her terribly and wanted to go back; he couldn’t wait any longer! He discovered that he no longer needed to confirm anything. He had seen clearly into his own heart – he liked her, he had fallen in love with her, and he was willing to try to be a person who was faithful and responsible in love and marriage for her!
He couldn’t wait any longer. He was afraid that if he delayed further, he might truly miss out on something.
He handed over his work to other team members as quickly as possible and bought a flight ticket for noon that day, eagerly flying back to Beijing.
After getting off the plane, he took a taxi straight to the Financial Street.
On the way, he called to reserve a table at the Italian restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton, then called Qian Fei.
When the call connected, he suppressed the tumultuous waves in his heart and tried to speak calmly to the person on the other end: “I’m back!”
He heard that silly girl’s voice sounding a bit hesitant, “…Oh.”
A small excitement of reunion that was hard to suppress welled up in his chest. He said in a hoarse voice, “Qian Fei, let’s have dinner together tonight. I have something to tell you!”
He heard the silly girl agree somewhat hesitantly again, “…Okay.”
After hanging up, he sent the address to Qian Fei.
Then he told the taxi driver, “Driver, let’s go to the Roseonly Exclusive Love Flower Shop in Sanlitun first!”
Qian Fei didn’t know how she managed to endure until the end of the workday. She felt that Li Yifei wanting to talk to her probably meant he wanted to make things clear, perhaps saying something like, “Don’t overthink it, that night was an accident, I’ve always considered you just a friend.”
As the end of the workday approached, she sent a message to Wang Ruohai saying she had something to do and asked him to have dinner by himself. Then she rushed to the Ritz-Carlton.
Seeing Li Yifei again after more than a month, she suddenly felt as if a lifetime had passed.
Watching him stand up from his chair, formally dressed in a suit and tie, smiling with his lips pressed together as he approached her, she suddenly felt a corner of her heartache with a slight sourness.
It was a scorching June day outside, but the air conditioning inside made her feel a bit cold. Looking at him, she almost shivered.
He politely declined the waiter’s help and pulled out the chair for her himself. After sitting back down, he raised his eyebrows as usual and said in that familiar, prideful tone, “I never pull out chairs for anyone!”
She couldn’t help but laugh, a laugh-filled with a bitter taste.
“Aren’t you hot wearing so much?” This was the first thing she said.
“Even if it’s hot, I have to dress like this. It’s a matter of attitude!” He smiled, raising the corner of his mouth, looking at her. His gaze suddenly deepened as he asked softly, “How did you get so thin all of a sudden? Your eyes are as big as a calf’s now!”
She touched her face, a bit bewildered, “Really? Maybe it’s because of the fever I had a while ago.”
He froze for a moment upon hearing this and asked, “When did that happen?”
She smiled lightly and said, “It’s been a long time ago, no big deal!” Then she asked, “Didn’t you say on the phone that you had something to tell me? What is it? I’m ready, go ahead and say it!”
Li Yifei picked up a long box from the chair beside him and handed it to Qian Fei.
Qian Fei took it, puzzled.
The box was printed with the letters “Roseonly” and tied with a ribbon. She suddenly felt a bit alarmed. She knew what this was; she had seen a female celebrity with the surname Li show it off on Weibo before – it was flowers her husband had bought for her. She knew that the flowers from this brand were as expensive as robbery, with the main concept being “Only give to one person in a lifetime.” Out of curiosity, she had even visited their official website to check.
She opened the box lid with confusion and slightly trembling hands.
Eighteen Ecuadorian pink roses lay in the box, blooming fully towards her.
It was the “Emotion” collection.
The designer’s message was: At this moment, the heart races, control is lost, and at this moment, love falls in love. Your quirky charm has me completely mesmerized.
Qian Fei’s heart pounded as she looked up in confusion, “What does this mean?”
Li Yifei looked at her deeply, his voice tinged with emotion: “I wanted to use this business trip to sort out how I feel, and after more than a month, I’m certain – I’ve fallen in love with you!”
Qian Fei was stunned.
After a while, she suddenly smiled and said, “Li Yifei, you’re so funny. You were avoiding me like the plague before, and now you say you’ve fallen in love with me!”
Li Yifei looked at her without blinking, “I avoided you because I wanted to see clearly how much I liked you. I was afraid of hurting you if I got involved with you for no good reason.”
Qian Fei let out an “Ah,” closed the box, and handed it back to him, still smiling, “I see. You don’t need to do this, because I just got back together with my ex-boyfriend!”
Li Yifei looked at her in shock, as if he had been struck by something, appearing somewhat pained and incredulous.