As they emerged from the small alley, Qian Fei asked Li Yifei how much money he had spent.
Li Yifei raised an eyebrow. “Why? Can you afford it?”
Qian Fei shuddered, “Is… is it very expensive?”
Li Yifei said, “Forget it. You can’t afford it anyway, so don’t ask.”
Qian Fei said, “Even if I sold myself, I couldn’t afford it?”
Li Yifei looked at her pitiful expression, his eyes sweeping up and down her face and body. He chuckled, “Well if we haggle a bit, you might fetch the price of a few pounds of pork!”
Qian Fei wanted to walk past him and ignore him. But she had forgotten which side of the alley they had entered from…
Li Yifei saw her well-groomed face contort into a constipated expression and couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry about it. I had a card here before with some balance left. Today’s expenses will be deducted from it.” He paused, then added thoughtfully, “It would expire if I didn’t use it soon anyway.”
Qian Fei was skeptical. “There’s a time limit on this?” Weren’t rich people always begging to be served here, even if they weren’t necessarily welcomed? Was such a forced consumption method necessary?
Li Yifei nodded solemnly, “The key is that Steve has a poor memory. If too much time passes, he can’t remember who has tens or hundreds of thousands left on their card. It’s hard to keep track of the accounts!”
As Steve was thrown under the bus, Qian Fei felt that Li Yifei had taken another opportunity to brag and show off.
On the way home, Qian Fei took Li Yifei to the market and bought a large bag of eggplants. Surprisingly, after paying, Li Yifei voluntarily took the vegetables.
Qian Fei looked at him in disbelief: “I can almost guess what you’re going to say to me!”
Li Yifei looked down at her with his chin raised, “What am I going to say?”
Qian Fei snorted, “Definitely something like, ‘Let me tell you, this young master has never carried groceries for a woman before. Don’t take it for granted, this is another first for me!'”
Her imitation was spot on, and Li Yifei laughed heartily.
“You’re right! This is the first time this young master has carried groceries for a woman. Don’t just laugh stupidly without appreciating it!”
Qian Fei rolled her eyes at him and asked, “But why are you behaving so well today?”
Li Yifei said, “I’m afraid you might not know the way, twist your ankle, and drop all my eggplants!”
Qian Fei wished she could poke his mouth with the thin heel of her high heels.
She knew he couldn’t say anything nice.
That evening, Qian Fei cut a large pile of eggplant strips and threw them into the wok to stir-fry.
While she was cooking, Li Yifei paced back and forth in front of her like an impatient cat, constantly asking, “Is it ready? When can we eat? Do you know how starving I am?”
Qian Fei was both annoyed and amused. “How did you manage to grow up safely? With such an impatient mouth, didn’t anyone take responsibility for disciplining you when you were young?”
Li Yifei snorted, “Who would dare?” He leaned against the kitchen doorframe, arms folded across his chest, observing Qian Fei as she wielded the spatula in front of the induction cooker.
“Tsk tsk, if I had known earlier, I would have implemented your makeover sooner! Watching a pretty figure cook is much more pleasant than watching a disheveled yellow-faced woman cook!”
At first, Qian Fei felt flattered by these words, as her focus immediately fell on the phrase “pretty figure.”
But upon closer consideration, she became displeased.
So, only her “figure” was pretty; and that “disheveled yellow-faced woman” seemed to refer to her as well…
Qian Fei turned angrily, brandishing the spatula at Li Yifei, and said fiercely, “If you keep babbling and don’t shut up, I’ll burn all these eggplant strips!”
Li Yifei snorted and walked to the living room with his chin held high.
For dinner, Li Yifei ate a full three bowls of rice. When he wanted to serve himself more, Qian Fei was shocked.
“Brother, have you never eaten before? Are you trying to stuff yourself to death? Aren’t you afraid of turning into a pig and losing your handsomeness?”
Li Yifei’s expression changed when he heard the last sentence, and he put down his chopsticks.
But just a second later, he picked up his rice bowl again.
“I’ll have half a bowl more! I’ll go for a run later!”
He trotted off towards the rice cooker…
Qian Fei watched his trajectory with tears in her eyes.
In her eyes, Li Yifei was now equivalent to a glutton.
After dinner, Li Yifei went back to his room and fiddled with his computer for a while. While Qian Fei was washing the dishes, she shouted, “Didn’t you say you were going for a run?”
Li Yifei mumbled a response.
Just as Qian Fei had finished tidying everything up and was preparing to go back to her room to read a book before bed, someone knocked on the door.
Li Yifei rushed to open it.
Several people in uniforms came in carrying a large object.
Li Yifei greeted them: “Come in, come in, just put it in the living room!”
Qian Fei came over and asked, “What’s this?” Then, looking at the delivery men, she said, “You guys are too accommodating, delivering so late at night. Aren’t you tired?”
The delivery man smiled, “The customer is always right.”
Qian Fei pouted, “But you shouldn’t spoil the customer’s bad habits!”
Li Yifei pulled her aside, “Don’t interfere. Can’t you see they’re installing a treadmill? Be sensible and let them finish quickly so they can go home early.”
Qian Fei was speechless: “Your mouth is truly crooked, able to twist straight things into curved ones! Did you ask me about buying a treadmill? This is my living room! You’re treating this as your own home, aren’t you?”
Li Yifei tossed his head, “In a couple of days, I’m planning to buy an ab machine too. That way, I won’t have to go to the gym every weekend in the cold!” He patted his belly, “I need to take measures to protect my six-pack from being submerged in your rice pot!”
Qian Fei shook her head, clicking her tongue, “So you know you’re greedy and just eat? I say you’re just wasting money! It’s a good thing your dad doesn’t want you anymore, otherwise, he’d be angered to death by your extravagance!”
Li Yifei acted as if he couldn’t hear what she was saying, completely ignoring her.
After the treadmill was installed, he ran on it excitedly. His show-off behavior in the middle of the night annoyed Qian Fei so much that she wanted to kick him off.
The next day was Christmas Eve. Qian Fei went to work with her new look and received unanimous praise from her colleagues. Zhao De even exclaimed dramatically, “Fei Fei, as long as you don’t open your mouth to speak, you’re almost as good as Assistant Gui!”
Qian Fei looked at Li Yifei, who was sitting straight-backed and expressionless beside her and felt a bit conflicted about this compliment.
In the afternoon, Liu Yifeng gave Qian Fei some documents and asked her to go to the top floor with Li Yifei to cross-check some data with the general manager.
Then, an earth-shattering event occurred.
When the elevator stopped midway, a handsome young man got in. The young man’s eyes lit up when he saw Qian Fei. He then very proactively struck up a conversation with her, introduced himself, asked for Qian Fei’s name, and tried to leave his contact information and get hers. But before Qian Fei could respond, the elevator had reached the top floor, and she was dragged out by Li Yifei with a cool and aloof “Don’t dawdle, the general manager is waiting,” leaving the young man standing in the elevator, gazing longingly with unfulfilled desire.
Qian Fei couldn’t help but say fiercely to Li Yifei, “You’re blocking people’s love lives, you’ll go to hell for this!”
Li Yifei gave her his classic droopy-eyed look and said sarcastically, “You dare to mess with a cologne-drenched pretty boy? I’m worried he might have been interested in me!”
Qian Fei almost choked him to death.
His self-esteem was so inflated that he had started competing for her romantic prospects.
After cross-checking the data, it was almost time to get off work. Li Yifei asked Qian Fei what they would eat for dinner. Qian Fei told him magnanimously, “We’ll eat out tonight! Big sister’s treat, I’ll take you out for Christmas Eve!”
Li Yifei asked why, “A miser parting with money, this is a bit scary, isn’t it? You don’t have some ulterior motive, do you? I’ll tell you in advance, I’m not moving out!”
Qian Fei gave him a contemptuous look, “Look at how small-minded you are! You call yourself a young master, but have you ever seen the world? Just wanting to treat you to something nice scares you!” She composed herself, trying to appear serious, “I just want to thank you for making me attractive enough that someone would come and chat me up!” She winked at him as she finished speaking.
Li Yifei looked at her for two seconds, then made a retching sound, “Sister, please don’t wink like that again. I always feel like I’m looking at a drag queen!”
In that instant, Qian Fei felt utterly disillusioned and no longer wanted to treat him to dinner.
Qian Fei asked Li Yifei what he wanted to eat. Li Yifei said, “Considering your poverty, I won’t ask for the Imperial Court Feast or anything like that. I’ll lower my standards by ten thousand steps, just treat me to Golden Money Leopard!”
Qian Fei ignored him and directly took him to Hannashan.
As Qian Fei was grilling the beef, Li Yifei sat beside her, drinking the free barley tea as if it were top-grade Da Hong Pao, and grumbled, “Why did you even ask me what I wanted to eat if you weren’t going to listen to me?”
Qian Fei didn’t even look up, “Just pretend I was talking nonsense!”
Li Yifei choked on his water.
Qian Fei said, “Can’t you help me grill a bit? How can you just wait to eat without doing anything?”
Li Yifei laughed, “Heh! I’ve already lowered myself enough at your place. Do I now have to grill meat too? Besides, aren’t you treating? Have some host’s grace and generosity, don’t mind these little details!”
Qian Fei was truly fed up with him. His mouth could make the entire world weep in frustration.
When they were almost done eating, they heard a few young girls at the next table talking about celebrity crushes.
Li Yifei curled his lip and said, “Childish!”
Qian Fei put a piece of meat in her mouth and mumbled, “You’re not childish? Picking on little girls you don’t even know!” She swallowed the meat and continued, “Besides, how is having a celebrity crush childish? It’s very normal. I even like a celebrity so much it’s crazy!”
Li Yifei curled his lip and asked, “Which celebrity do you like? What’s their name?”
Qian Fei said, “His name is Da Peng! You know, the host of ‘Da Peng Debade’, Da Peng! Zhao Benshan’s 53rd disciple, the one who acted in ‘Diors Man’!”
Li Yifei burst out laughing, “So you like the rural style. I’ve never even heard of this person!”
Qian Fei’s face changed immediately, “Li Yifei if you dare say one more word if I don’t cut ties with you, I’ll change my surname to yours!”
Seeing that she was very serious, Li Yifei reined in his playful expression and stopped joking. He asked seriously, “Alright, then why do you like him?”
Qian Fei said solemnly, “Because I find him inspiring. Do you know what he studied? He graduated from Jilin Jianzhu University, studying something completely unrelated to arts, variety shows, or performance. But he went from being a small-time Beijing drifter, a small ‘loser’, to where he is today, step by step, becoming a host, director, and actor! He even got so many big stars to play cameos in ‘Diors Man’!” She paused, not knowing how to express her feelings, and then said, “You don’t understand. Every time I see him, I feel that heaven doesn’t overlook those who work hard. As long as you keep persevering, whether for your dreams or life, you’ll always achieve something!”
Li Yifei looked at her, her eyes bright, and fell silent.
He felt that at this moment, Qian Fei was a bit enchanting. She was foolish, naive, and long-winded, but she lived life with effort, was moved by effort, and made an effort to appreciate every hardworking person.
Her celebrity crush was so sincere that he could no longer utter the word “childish.”