Li Yifei informed Qian Fei that on the night of her return, he had some last-minute business and couldn’t get away, so he would ask his buddy to help pick her up.
Qian Fei said there was no need to go to such trouble, “Why be so fussy? For the first eighteen years of my life when I didn’t know you, I always managed to drag my suitcase out of the airport without getting lost!”
Li Yifei let out a “Ha!” and said, “You have the nerve to bring up the number eighteen! Jinjin, this isn’t being fussy, it’s a way for me to express my love for you. Try to appreciate it!”
He also told Qian Fei, “By the way, the buddy who’s going to pick you up is that infamous idiot, the Phone Bill Prince. He’s a bit stupid, has a sharp tongue, and a flighty heart. Just treat him like a breathing driver when you see him. No matter what he talks to you about, don’t pay him any attention.”
Qian Fei asked, “Why can’t I pay attention to him?”
Li Yifei said, “Because this kid is a bit of a blabbermouth. If you engage with him, he’ll get excited and might end up talking for ten thousand words straight while trying to woo you or something.”
Qian Fei said, “That sounds great! Stupid and rich, I need just such a male friend!”
Li Yifei was silent for a moment, then said, “Forget it, just take a taxi back by yourself when you arrive.”
However, that night when Qian Fei got off the plane, it was still Da Jun who came to pick her up.
It was Qian Fei’s first close encounter with this legendary Phone Bill Prince, and she felt that his features were the kind that became more endearing the more you looked at them, like a boy-next-door type.
This was her impression of him before he opened his mouth. Once he started talking, Qian Fei immediately surrendered.
In her life, she had truly never met anyone more talkative than this person…
Da Jun introduced himself to her, saying, “Hello, Qian Fei. My name is Jun Cheng. ‘Jun’ is in the army, and ‘Cheng’ is in prime minister. I was Li Yifei’s classmate in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school. You must be wondering why I’m being so detailed instead of just saying we were classmates all along. It’s because I think this better illustrates how long I’ve known Li Yifei, and it’s easier to reduce your sense of unfamiliarity with me. This way, our interaction won’t be too awkward!”
Qian Fei didn’t feel awkward now; she felt a headache coming on.
On the way, Qian Fei said, “I thought your name was something Jun, but it turns out it’s Jun something. Your surname is quite rare!”
Da Jun, while steering the wheel, said, “Indeed! My nickname should have been Da Cheng or simply Da Chengxiang, but they insist on calling me Da Jun. My perfectly sophisticated name has been reduced to something so ordinary, can you feel it? Also, Qian Fei, I need to correct you, I’m not called Jun something something, I’m called Jun something. My given name is just one character.”
Qian Fei felt her brain starting to throb. How could someone who loves to save phone bill money be so talkative…
She decided not to chat with him about himself anymore, fearing he might go on for ten thousand words without stopping. She shifted the topic to Li Yifei.
“You and Li Yifei have been classmates all these years, your relationship must be really good, right?” she asked casually. She thought men always loved to brag about their brotherly bonds.
“Not good!” Da Chengxiang replied, “That guy is just a scoundrel, a jerk, a blackmailer! If he didn’t have dirt on me, I wouldn’t even bother with him! He never includes me in any good things, but leaves all the dirty work to me! Take you for example, your tea, your tickets to see Da Peng’s performance, your flight ticket home during Spring Festival, your iPhone 5, and those two bottles of Wuliangye liquor – which one of those didn’t I run around to arrange? Yes, he laid out all the connections, but in the end, wasn’t I the one running all the errands? How come, in the end, he’s the one who got close to you? I even think I liked you before he did! And now today, it’s the same thing again. Tch! Scum, beast, big animal!”
Qian Fei was about to break into a sweat. What did Li Yifei say again? This Phone Bill Prince did start confessing his feelings as soon as he got excited…
However, she caught a few things from his words.
“What did you just say about the iPhone?” she asked Da Jun.
Da Jun, amid his busy driving, turned his head to glance at her – or more accurately, at the phone in her hand, “That one you’re holding, I was the one who ran around to buy it!”
Qian Fei was stunned, “Bought it? How much did it cost?”
Da Jun said, “The market price was over 5,000 yuan!” He paused, then exclaimed, “Oh no, when we were coming up with the story back then, I don’t think that’s what we said. I think we were supposed to say this phone was confiscated by customs!”
Qian Fei turned her head to look at him blankly, feeling that this Phone Bill Prince was truly living up to his reputation of being stupid and rich.
“Then what’s the story with the Wuliangye liquor?” she asked again.
Da Jun said, “What did Li Yifei tell you?”
Qian Fei said, “I forgot!”
Da Jun said, “Then I forgot too!”
Qian Fei said, “When I get home, I’ll tell Li Yifei that you already let slip about the iPhone.”
Da Jun wailed, “Big sis, don’t do that! Those two bottles of Wuliangye, Li Yifei asked me to go to his house, under the pretext of paying New Year’s respects to his father, and steal them from under the old man’s bed…”
Qian Fei felt like she was about to crack… She thought this person must have spent time in the pediatric ward of Anding Hospital when he was young, it must be so.
Qian Fei thought for a moment, then said, “You just said Li Yifei never includes you in any good things but leaves all the dirty work to you, and then you said he’s doing the same thing today. What’s that about?”
Da Jun glanced at her and said, “Oh, it’s nothing much. Just that he went to a business reception by himself today. I wanted to go too, but he wouldn’t let me. He said he was taking a female companion, and my gender was ambiguous, so I was directly passed over.”
Qian Fei also let out an “Oh” and didn’t say anything more.
For the rest of the journey, no matter how many conversation starters Da Jun tried, she didn’t have the heart to engage anymore.
After returning home, she didn’t know what had come over her, but she opened her computer and went straight to Baidu, typing in the keyword “business reception”.
Unfortunately, all that popped up were things like “Purpose and Process of Business Receptions” and “What to Pay Attention to at Business Receptions”, all sorts of messy information, not the news-like descriptions she wanted to see, such as “A business reception will be held at a certain venue on a certain date”.
She reluctantly closed her computer and went to take a shower. After showering, she lay down on her bed. When she picked up her phone, she remembered its price and sighed inwardly. She thought she must get a proper birthday gift for Li Yifei in a couple of days.
Then she lit up the screen, and the time was already 11:30 PM.
Usually, by this time, Li Yifei would have already started bothering her. But today, her WeChat was still completely quiet.
She aimlessly tapped on her phone screen and sent a message to Li Yifei.
“I’m home.”
After a long while, Li Yifei replied: “Master knows, Da Jun has already reported. I still have some things to finish up here. You go to sleep early, and tomorrow Master will dote on you again.”
Qian Fei looked at the screen and let out a “puff” of laughter.
She turned off her phone, switched off the lights, and prepared to sleep.
But just as drowsiness was about to overtake her, her phone suddenly made a “ding” sound.
She fumbled for her phone to look, thinking it was Li Yifei sending her a message, but it turned out to be from Xiao Yuan, who had sent her a voice message.
Drowsiness enveloping her, she hesitated whether to listen or not. After a brief struggle, considering that Xiao Yuan never bothered her this late unless it was urgent, she opened the voice message.
Xiao Yuan’s voice, filled with excitement and thrill, resonated in the dark room.
And after she finished listening to the message, her drowsiness instantly vanished.
Xiao Yuan said: “Feifei, quick, go on Weibo! Then search for a female celebrity I like, called Jin Tian! Hurry and look at the photo she just posted! Doesn’t the guy in the photo look like Li Yifei from the partner company? The more I look, the more I think it’s him! I feel it must be him!”
In Qian Fei’s ears, Da Cheng’s words from when he picked her up echoed again, those words that had been making her slightly absentminded all evening no matter what she was doing.
“It’s nothing much, just that he went to a business reception by himself today. I wanted to go too, but he wouldn’t let me. He said he was taking a female companion, and my gender was ambiguous, so I was directly passed over.”
Qian Fei scrambled up, turned on the light, grabbed her phone, and logged into Weibo at the fastest speed, searching for the keyword “Jin Tian” and clicking on her profile.
Then she saw a post with text and an image. The literary style in the text was enough to make one shudder.
“Midnight makes one’s heart stir with desire. Liking someone, yet unwilling to say it, so I call him brother. Brother, after tonight, I hope you can still accompany me as you do now…”
Below the text was an accompanying photo, a selfie. On the left side of the photo was the beautiful, delicate, formally made-up little face of the one called Jin Tian; on the right side, the profile of a certain man standing behind her was captured in the frame at a sneaky angle.
The profile of that man was so handsome it made Qian Fei’s eyes sting.
She clicked on the comments and saw many fan messages:
“Is this the person Little Sweetie likes? So handsome! Grab him quick!”
“Little Sweetie, go for it, no man can resist you! The idol is so handsome! Hope you two last forever!”
“Little Sweetie, you’re the most beautiful, cutest, and loveliest girl. He’ll be conquered by you!”
“Little Sweetie, I can’t imagine any man not liking you! Brother must be head over heels for you! Otherwise, why would he attend the reception with you? After tonight, you two will be together! No, better yet, stay together all night tonight! *covers the mouth and laughs*”
“Wow, calling your lover ‘brother’! So cute! Crying from cuteness!!!!”
…
Qian Fei couldn’t read anymore. The more she read such comments, the smaller she felt.
She exited the comment page and scrolled down with her finger. There were a few more posts below, also with several photos, of Jin Tian telling her fans what kind of reception she had attended.
She clicked the refresh button, wanting to see if Jin Tian had updated any new content.
As a result, she found that Jin Tian had deleted her most recent Weibo post.
She was stunned for a good while before remembering to reply to Xiao Yuan.
“You didn’t see wrong, that guy is indeed Li Yifei from the partner company.”
Qian Fei told Xiao Yuan that Jin Tian had deleted the Weibo post and asked if she had saved the photo from earlier. Xiao Yuan said she had.
Qian Fei said: “Send it to me.”
Xiao Yuan asked: “What do you want it for?”
Qian Fei, suppressing the indescribable gloom and dull pain in her heart, replied: “To blackmail the person involved for a meal when we have a meeting together.”
Xiao Yuan sent the image over, followed by another text message: “To be honest, my sixth sense always thought he had feelings for you…”
Qian Fei replied: “Your sixth sense has been immersed in the world of pleasure for too many years, it’s worn out and no longer accurate.”
Then she stared at the photo for another long while. As she looked, she suddenly found that the image was starting to blur.
She quickly sniffled, admonishing herself not to be so pathetic.
She wanted to force herself to lie down and sleep, but she couldn’t suppress her restless fingers and ended up sending a message to Li Yifei.
“Where are you? Not home yet?”
After a while, Li Yifei replied: “Busy with something, will head home after dropping off a friend. It’s late, you should sleep!”
Qian Fei put down her phone, thinking about the “friend” sitting in his passenger seat, imagining her beautiful face with a radiant smile, imagining her soft, gentle voice calling the driver “brother”. That was his girlfriend after Gui Lili.
Somehow, she overlapped tonight’s impressions with the scene from years ago when she went to the hotel to catch Wang Ruhai cheating.
She asked them where they were, and they told her they were working overtime, busy with something; they all told her to go to sleep quickly.
Suddenly, her eyes felt hot.
One after another, all the same.
He said he had already cut ties cleanly with all those flirtatious women. She thought perhaps his standard of “cutting ties cleanly” was different from hers.
After all is said and done, it seems they were ultimately not of the same world.
She closed her eyes to comfort herself.
It’s good that she hasn’t fallen too deep yet.
It’s good, it’s good that she discovered this issue of them being from different worlds quite timely.
It’s good, it’s good, it’s good that she didn’t discover it at a point when she couldn’t extricate herself, that his ex-girlfriend was calling him “brother”.