A week later, Li Yifei moved out. During that week, he had barely come home.
Qian Fei looked at the empty house, feeling an indescribable sadness in her heart. After living together for so long, now only she remained in this vast space, all alone once again.
She mustered her spirits and cleaned the entire house inside and out. While tidying up the rooms, she discovered that Li Yifei had left many of his belongings behind. After much deliberation and hesitation, she decided to call Li Yifei. She wanted to ask if he still wanted these things.
But no matter how many times she called, his phone was always off.
She put away her phone, smiling self-mockingly.
Two days later, to her surprise, Li Yifei called her.
“I lost my phone, which is why it was always off. I got a new one today and saw the text from my secretary saying you had called. Did you need something?” He briefly explained the situation, his voice flat and formal, as if he were giving a project report to all team members.
Qian Fei responded with an “Oh” and said, “There are still some of your things at home. I wanted to ask if you still want them.”
Li Yifei paused before saying, “I don’t need them. You can throw everything away.”
Qian Fei said, “Understood,” and hung up.
She posted a rental notice online, and within three days, the house was rented out again.
The new tenant was a woman in her early thirties, still unmarried, very polite, and always on business trips. Although the house was rented out again, Qian Fei still felt it was cold and empty. Sometimes when she reminisced about sitting in the living room drinking beer and chatting with Li Yifei, it seemed like something that had happened in the last century, a feeling of long, long ago, vague and elusive, making her feel increasingly lonely as she recalled it.
In early July, Qian Fei heard from her project team that Li Yifei from the partnering securities firm had passed the sponsor representative exam and was now a pre-sponsor. Coincidentally, their company had a private placement project, and he had signed as a co-organizer. He would soon be registered as a sponsor representative and rise to prominence. Everyone said his luck was really good.
Qian Fei listened on the side, and after hearing this, she didn’t express any opinion, just quietly walked away.
Since he moved out, they hadn’t been in contact, even for work-related matters. She would communicate directly with Zhao De instead. All information about him, she heard from others.
Before they knew it, August arrived, the hottest time of the year in Beijing.
Over the past two months, Wang Ruohai had been diligently and conscientiously trying to play the role of a reformed good man. He was different from before. When Qian Fei was late for dates, he always waited patiently, never showing impatience. When Qian Fei worked overtime at night, he would buy dinner and bring it to her office, then wait in the car downstairs until she finished, even if it meant waiting until two in the morning, feeding mosquitoes all night, always with a look of contentment.
Qian Fei was touched by this familiar yet unfamiliar man. Her initial thoughts began to waver. On a breezy midnight after working overtime until two, she finally agreed to let Wang Ruohai “come over” to her place.
That night, she allowed Wang Ruohai to kiss her, her body relaxed, but she just couldn’t get aroused. She was as calm as a bystander, coldly watching his eyes closed in passionate excitement as he kissed her.
Finally, she got impatient, pushed him away, straightened her clothes and hair, and said calmly to his stunned face, “Wang Ruohai, let’s stop here. I think my heart and body will never open up to you again.”
She stood up, walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked at the sea of lights outside. Calmly, she said, “Wang Ruohai, do you know how I got through it last year when you cheated on me and asked for a breakup?” She turned her head, looked at him, and said softly, “I originally wanted to do the same to you once, but now I’m tired. Let’s just end it here.”
Wang Ruohai panicked, his eyes reddened with urgency, his voice almost choked with emotion: “Feifei, it was all my fault before! Let’s take it slow, one day you will accept me again!”
Qian Fei felt exhausted, from her heart to her body.
“Wang Ruohai,” she called his name quietly, “Sometimes I wonder, do you still love me? Or is it because after I left you, I didn’t wither away, didn’t become haggard, but instead became radiant, so you felt lost? Have you ever been puzzled about why your departure didn’t bring me pain?
“Wang Ruohai, I think maybe you’re just momentarily unwilling to accept it. Unwilling to accept that I left you but became better and better.
“I think we really can’t be together anymore. In my heart, I will always remember the image of you opening the door in a bathrobe, forever.”
She closed her eyes and said softly, “Wang Ruohai, let’s end it here between us.”
The next day, Qian Fei called Yao Jingjing and told her, “Wang Ruohai and I broke up again.”
Yao Jingjing was startled and shouted, “What’s going on? Did he cheat again?”
Qian Fei said, “No, I was the one who proposed it this time.”
Yao Jingjing was silent for a long time before speaking: “Feifei, tell me the truth, is there someone else in your heart?”
Qian Fei laughed, “I don’t know either.”
In late August, the two companies were to hold a progress meeting on their previous two projects. On the day of the meeting, Li Yifei didn’t show up.
Qian Fei tried her best to appear nonchalant and asked Zhao De, “Why isn’t Li Yifei here?”
Zhao De sighed deeply and told her, “Don’t even mention it, that guy’s been neck-deep in lawsuits recently!”
Qian Fei listened, her mind unsettled. After the meeting, Zhao De said he hadn’t seen her in a long time and missed her, insisting on taking her to Yuxiang Renjia for dinner.
During the meal, Qian Fei noticed Zhao De’s face was a bit pale and he was sweating profusely. She asked what was wrong, and Zhao De said, “It’s nothing, maybe my lifestyle hasn’t been great lately, I’ve been feeling a bit of chest tightness! I’ll rest up properly once the project is done and I’ll be fine!”
He changed the subject, looked at Qian Fei teasingly, and said, “Little Feifei, it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder! You’re getting more and more beautiful! Do you have a boyfriend now? If not, I might start getting ideas!”
Qian Fei smiled without responding.
After eating for a while longer and chatting about various topics, the conversation finally turned to Li Yifei.
Qian Fei asked Zhao De what exactly had happened to Li Yifei. Zhao De said, “Don’t even mention it. You know he was pulled to another group to work on corporate bond issuance, right? Well, they had all the materials prepared, but the company’s boss kept delaying and wouldn’t let them submit. He even dug up some issues, and Yifei and the others were stuck there for ages without coming back!
“Later, when the project team finally came back, they prepared the materials and sent them to the company’s boss for confirmation. They were waiting for his confirmation so they could submit the materials to the bureau, but while waiting, they discovered that the company had already issued the bond! It turned out they thought we were asking for too much money, so they took all the materials we prepared and privately found another securities firm to do it! Our company then started suing this rogue enterprise for breach of contract.”
Qian Fei asked, “But that’s between the company and the enterprise, what does it have to do with Li Yifei personally?”
Zhao De took a sip of water and continued, “Listen on! Since negotiations fell through, we’re going to court. The company hired a lawyer, and this lawyer was annoyingly arrogant. When organizing materials and evidence, he said a guaranteed contract was missing and insisted it had been given to Yifei earlier with instructions to keep it safe. Yifei was in a daze during that period, not sure what was going on with him, and he couldn’t be certain whether he had kept that guaranteed contract safe or not.
“Then the lawyer asked everyone in the project team to compile their communication records, text messages, and emails with the enterprise, requesting that these be printed and notarized to prove that there was indeed a business relationship between the project team and the enterprise and that they had indeed done all the preparatory work for the enterprise’s bond issuance. But Yifei said he had lost his phone, so the communication records and text messages couldn’t be found, as for his email, it was Yahoo, which is no longer usable, and he hadn’t backed up his emails. This lawyer then went to the vice president with a little report saying Yifei was a mole, claiming he must have received some benefits from the enterprise and wanted the lawsuit to fail, otherwise how could he afford his extravagant lifestyle with the little money he earns!”
Zhao De paused and took another sip of water.
Qian Fei firmly said, “Li Yifei is not that kind of person!”
Zhao De continued, “Of course not! None of our colleagues believe Yifei could do such a thing, but it’s strange, during that period Yifei was indeed quite absent-minded, documents were lost, his phone was lost, and before the email became unusable, he didn’t think to transfer all the emails out. I don’t know what kind of shock he received!”
Qian Fei said, “But they can’t just determine he’s a mole based on these things alone! What kind of lawyer is that!”
Zhao De said, “I guess that lawyer is just seeking personal revenge! Yifei wasn’t in a good state during that time, and his mood was quite irritable. This lawyer was always acting high and mighty, telling everyone to do this and to cooperate with him. Yifei had once snapped at him in front of everyone, making him lose face. Now that he’s got the chance, how could he not take the opportunity to get back at Yifei!”
Qian Fei anxiously asked, “So what’s going to happen next?”
Zhao De said, “In theory, it shouldn’t be a big deal, but the problem is that this lawyer was hired by the company and has some connection with the CEO. We don’t believe his nonsense, but we’re afraid the CEO might! If the CEO believes it, Yifei probably won’t be able to stay!”
Qian Fei quickly asked, “So we need to find a way to prove that Li Yifei is not a mole, right?”
Zhao De sighed, “How can we prove it? His phone is lost and his email is closed!”
For the latter half of this meal, Qian Fei ate as if chewing on wax.
Upon returning home, Qian Fei anxiously turned on her computer, plugging her phone in to charge while opening QQ.
She had a middle school classmate who happened to be in Zhongguancun, and she thought she could ask if there was a way to retrieve emails from Yahoo.
The moment she plugged her phone into the computer, iTunes automatically popped up, but Qian Fei ignored it and logged directly into QQ.
Fortunately, IT people are always online, so she found her old classmate without much effort. She explained the situation, and her classmate immediately agreed to help her recover the emails.
Her classmate asked if Qian Fei knew the email account and password. Qian Fei remembered that when she was setting up Li Yifei’s phone, he had told her the login for the Apple store. The account was his work email, his name in full pinyin, and the password was the same as his email password – his birthday. At the time, she had teased Li Yifei: “Remember to change your password, I might peek at your emails!”
Li Yifei had replied, “Feel free to look, they’re all work emails. After you’ve read every email in this young master’s inbox, I believe your professional skills will improve dramatically!”
She sent the account and password to her classmate, who then asked for her address, saying, “I’m afraid you might not know how to operate it, so I’ll just print out the emails and courier them to your company tomorrow!”
Qian Fei expressed her immense gratitude, promising to treat him to a good meal someday.
With the email issue settled, she finally felt somewhat relieved.
As her mouse hovered over the iTunes interface, a sudden inspiration struck her.
When she had previously imported Li Yifei’s contacts, she had backed up everything on his phone! The backup included call logs and text messages! Based on the timeline, it would have been when he was in most frequent contact with the company, discussing the project!
Realizing this, her heart lit up!
But immediately after, she began to panic again.
She had used her old computer to back up Li Yifei’s phone, and she had given that computer to Yao Jingjing’s cousin!
Looking at the time, it was already past ten. She could only force herself to restrain her restless legs and go to bed. Early the next morning, she got up early, took leave from work, and took a taxi straight to the culinary school in the suburbs.
Upon arriving at the school and asking, she learned that Yao Jingjing’s cousin had already finished her studies and returned to her hometown. She slapped her forehead in frustration, wondering how she could have been so absent-minded. She should have realized the cousin’s course had ended. It was truly a case of haste makes waste, a wasted trip.
She quickly called Yao Jingjing, briefly explained the situation, and asked where her aunt lived and if there was a phone number to contact them.
Yao Jingjing first gave her aunt’s phone number, then said, “Feifei, you’re going to such lengths to help Li Yifei, does he know? What are you getting out of this?”
Qian Fei replied, “I don’t need him to know!”
Yao Jingjing sighed, “It’s over!”
Qian Fei asked, “What’s over?”
Yao Jingjing said, “I mean Wang Ruohai is done for, he has no chance now!”
Qian Fei had no time to argue with her. She hung up and called the aunt. Fortunately, the cousin was still at home and hadn’t left to find work. She asked the cousin if she had deleted any software or files from the computer, and the cousin said she hadn’t.
Qian Fei clasped her hands together, took a deep breath, and silently thanked the heavens.
She got the aunt’s address and hung up the phone.
She then called Xiao Yuan, asking her to help request two days of leave, booked a flight ticket, and took a taxi straight to the airport.
She dozed off on the plane, and after landing, she headed straight for the bus station.
The aunt’s house was in a small village under the provincial capital. There was no direct train there, so the only way to get there was by a four-hour long-distance bus ride.
As Qian Fei sat sweating profusely in the crowded, non-air-conditioned, dilapidated bus, she seriously considered Yao Jingjing’s words.
Why was she going to such lengths to help Li Yifei?
She didn’t know the answer herself.
After more than four bumpy hours, feeling like her insides were about to be shaken to pieces, the small bus finally reached its destination. She got off the bus, sticky with sweat, to find the aunt and cousin waiting for her by the roadside.
The moment she saw them, for some reason, Qian Fei just wanted to cry.
After copying the backup from the computer, Qian Fei rested for a night at the aunt’s house. Early the next morning, she got up and caught the first bus back to the provincial capital. By the time she boarded the plane in the provincial capital, it was already afternoon. When she arrived at the Capital Airport, it was evening, and by the time she got home, it was completely dark.
Qian Fei collapsed on the bed, too exhausted to move.
Her phone was ringing, and it took great effort for her to get up and answer it.
It was Wang Ruohai. Since she had clarified things with him, he still called her from time to time, in the name of classmates and friends, leaving her unable to refuse.
Wang Ruohai asked why her phone had been off earlier. She didn’t hide anything and explained the whole story.
She could hear that Wang Ruohai was a bit sad on the phone.
He asked, “Feifei, why are you willing to go to such lengths for him? Have you fallen for him?”
Qian Fei answered honestly, “I don’t know either, I just felt from the bottom of my heart that I wanted to do something for him.”
Wang Ruohai hung up the phone.
Qian Fei didn’t know if her honesty was right or wrong. She could feel that Wang Ruohai was a bit hurt. But a short pain is better than a long one. They really couldn’t go back to how things were before, so it was better to let him see sooner rather than later.
She washed up hastily and climbed into bed, sleeping like the dead.
The next day at the company, she printed out the call logs and text messages, along with the email printouts her classmate had sent her, and sent them via STO Express to Li Yifei.
In the sender’s field, she left it blank.
Coincidentally, in the afternoon, Zhao De came to the company to deliver a document related to joint sponsorship. After work, Qian Fei invited him to dinner together.
After sitting down, Zhao De broke out in a sweat again, his complexion was not good, and he kept complaining about chest tightness after walking a few steps.
Qian Fei sighed and sincerely advised him, “Stop staying up late. Work belongs to everyone, but your body is your own. You don’t need to ruin your health for work!”
Zhao De nodded and agreed, vowing to start sleeping early from tonight.
After the food arrived, Zhao De said while eating, “Feifei, I have good news for you! Yifei’s problem is solved!”
Qian Fei looked at him, stunned for a moment.
She had only sent the courier this morning, could Li Yifei have received it already? She then thought, it’s possible, after all, they were all in the Financial Street area.
She asked Zhao De casually, “What do you mean?”
Zhao De said, “Yifei’s buddies are impressive! Several of them dealt with that arrogant lawyer so badly that he almost knelt! I don’t know what methods they used, but anyway, that lawyer doesn’t dare to talk nonsense anymore!” He paused, then sighed, “I always felt Yifei was different from ordinary people, but I didn’t expect his methods to be so wild and unconventional!”
Qian Fei smiled and agreed, not saying much, but her heart was in turmoil.
It seemed her courier package was a bit unnecessary.
When she got home that night, she tried calling the STO Express delivery person, wanting to ask if it was still possible to get the package back. The delivery person said the package had been delivered to its destination at 5:30 PM, but the recipient wasn’t at work, so a colleague had signed for it.
After hanging up the phone, Qian Fei collapsed on the bed, dejected.
She had gone to unnecessary trouble.
The entire next day, Qian Fei didn’t receive any calls or messages from Li Yifei.
Her mood fluctuated like a roller coaster, not knowing if he had received the courier package, what he thought after receiving it if he would guess it was from her. If he did guess, what would he think? Would he find her annoying, meddlesome, and dislikable?
She spent the day absent-mindedly. Finally, in the evening, she made it to the end of the workday. She ate some street food without tasting it and then went home. She couldn’t remember how she entered the door, how she changed her shoes, how she collapsed like a vegetable on the sofa.
She was in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking about, her memory as if soaked in alcohol, blanking out.
When she heard a series of urgent knocks on the door, she finally seemed to wake up a bit.
She got up, walked to the door, and lazily asked, “Who is it?”
The knocking stopped, and for a moment, silence fell on both sides of the door.
“It’s me.”
A familiar voice sounded.
Qian Fei was stunned for a moment, then moved to the peephole to look.
Her heart immediately started racing.
She opened the door.
She stood inside the door with a surprised look, while Li Yifei stood outside, his chest heaving as he caught his breath.
The next second, he suddenly gripped her shoulders and lowered his head to kiss her.
He kissed her while pushing her into the room, hastily took off his shoes, hooked the door closed with his foot, pinned her against the wall, and kissed her lips with all his might. He pressed against her, his chest squeezing her so tightly she could barely breathe.
At first, she was stunned, and by the time she came to her senses, she was already pinned against the wall and being forcefully kissed. She wanted to push him away, but every inch of her body was tightly pressed against him, unable to exert any strength. She gradually lost her strength, her whole body softening, responding to him dizzily.
His tongue pried open her lips, dominating as it explored her mouth. She felt a tingling sensation from the soles of her feet up her spine, her legs so weak she could hardly stand.
At this moment, she could only hear their mutual heavy breathing and the pounding of their hearts.
She didn’t know how long they had been entangled in the kiss, only feeling that when he finally released her, her lips were swollen and numb.
Breathlessly, she asked, “Why did you come?”
He answered hoarsely, “I received the courier package. I called Yao Jingjing, I know you went to the countryside!” He cupped her face, his nose almost touching hers, his eyes staring directly into hers, his voice with a kind of restrained hoarseness, asking her, “Why did you do all this for me? Why? Hm?”
Qian Fei, listening to her heartbeat, replied with rapid breaths, “For no reason!”
He pressed his forehead against hers and smiled, “Yao Jingjing said you broke up with that Wang guy again!” He moved to kiss her lips, “So, is it my turn now?”