Gui Lili frequently clogged the sink, and Qian Fei felt she lacked many basic life skills, such as knowing what could and couldn’t be poured down the drain. The first two times, she reluctantly called someone to clear the pipes, spending several hundred yuan. By the third time, when Gui Lili informed her that the drain was clogged again, she couldn’t bear to call for help anymore.
Recalling how the plumber had done it before, she rolled up her sleeves and tackled the task herself. Although the process was a bit disgusting, the result was good. The drain reluctantly cleared under her persistent prodding with a wire. She happily realized she had successfully mastered another survival skill – unclogging drains.
While she could now solve drain problems at any time, she began facing a new worry – the refrigerator crisis.
The market was a bit far from home, so she was used to buying enough vegetables to last three to four days and storing them in the fridge. However, Gui Lili had gradually turned the refrigerator’s insulation layer into her face mask storage room. She had stockpiled a mountain of face masks in the fridge! The first time Qian Fei saw those face masks having a meeting in the refrigerator, she felt that even if she had ten giant faces, it would take ten years to use up all those sticky things.
She couldn’t bring herself to tell Gui Lili, “You have too many face masks. Can you leave some space for my vegetables?” So she could no longer store food in the fridge and had to walk the extra distance to the market every day to buy fresh produce.
Fortunately, the weather was getting cooler. After the National Day holiday, vegetables wouldn’t spoil even if left out of the refrigerator. Qian Fei had never loved autumn as much as she did this year.
Before she knew it, it was the end of October, the most unbearable time of the year in Beijing. During this period, the city hadn’t yet turned on the heating, but winter had already set in, making the rooms feel like giant freezers. Qian Fei could only console herself by reading posts on Weibo from southerners crying out, “We want heating in the south too!”
At least she had something to look forward to – in a couple of days, the citywide heating would make things warm. But those poor southern compatriots could only endure one cold winter after another with no relief in sight.
Recently, Qian Fei often heard the couple next door arguing incessantly over trivial matters. Sometimes she felt that such a torturous relationship, with arguments as regular as going to work, wasn’t worth it. It would be better to just break up cleanly like she did with Wang Ruohai.
They frequently fought over who should take out the trash, sweep the floor, clean the bathroom, or do the laundry. When they argued, they would give each other the silent treatment for two or three days. During those days, neither would clean the house, and in the end, she would have to clear the garbage from the kitchen, and living room, and study.
One night, it got worse. When she returned home, she saw Gui Lili and Li Yifei arguing in the living room. The main battleground had moved from the bedroom to the living room, suggesting the room was probably uninhabitable. The focus of their argument remained centered around household chores.
Gui Lili said, “Li Yifei, I’m your girlfriend, not your maid. You can’t expect me to do everything!”
Li Yifei retorted, “Gui Lili, as a woman, isn’t it natural for you to do laundry and cook?”
Gui Lili fired back, “I’m an only child. My parents raised me like a son. Why should I be the one doing all this?”
Li Yifei snapped, “If you can’t even do these things, can you even call yourself a woman?”
Gui Lili cried, “Li Yifei, can you stop bullying me? I don’t want to do housework!”
Gui Lili seemed to have had a few drinks and was swaying in the living room.
Qian Fei, after overhearing just a few sentences, felt extremely uncomfortable. She lowered her head, piously chanting “Don’t see me” in an attempt to sneak back to her room. But when she was just two steps away from her door, Gui Lili called out to her.
Gui Lili, still swaying, exclaimed, “Qian Fei! You’re back! That’s great!” She stumbled over to grab Qian Fei’s hand and turned to Li Yifei happily, saying, “Yifei, I have an idea!” She turned back to Qian Fei, “Qian Fei, can you help us with the housework? We’ll pay you!”
Qian Fei was dumbfounded.
Li Yifei walked over and pulled Gui Lili away. “Gui Lili, can you sober up? Can you stop acting drunk after drinking with your boss? Can you stop embarrassing yourself? Look carefully, she’s the landlord. You’re living in her house! She’s not a housekeeper! She’s been kind and tolerant enough towards you. Can you stop taking advantage of nice people?”
Li Yifei glanced at Qian Fei, muttered an apology, and dragged Gui Lili back to their room.
Qian Fei stood at the doorway, stunned for a while.
She suddenly felt that Li Yifei wasn’t so bad after all. Although he seemed arrogant and difficult to deal with, he still had a good sense of what was right. For instance, he recognized that she was kind.
She returned to her room.
That night, even through her earplugs, she could hear them arguing for most of the night.
The next morning, to avoid the awkwardness of running into them, Qian Fei left early.
At the company, she received a WeChat message from Hu Zining, asking if she had time for dinner that evening.
She replied yes.
Things were going smoothly between them. They would occasionally have dinner together or watch a movie. Last month, while watching a movie, Hu Zining held her hand. Last week, on Hu Zining’s birthday, Qian Fei had splurged a bit and bought him a wallet as a gift. Hu Zining had been elated the entire evening, and when they parted, he had kissed her.
When his handsome face leaned in, Qian Fei realized she wasn’t as excited as she had imagined she would be.
The kiss felt like nothing more than a touch between her upper and lower lips. It didn’t make her heart race or skip a beat.
She remembered when Wang Ruohai first kissed her, her whole body had felt hot, and her ears had burned like boiling water, rumbling and gurgling. When the kiss ended, her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her throat.
Even after they had been together for a while and the initial passion of a new relationship had faded, she still found their kisses comfortable and something to look forward to.
But why did she feel nothing when Hu Zining kissed her?
She didn’t even want to deepen the kiss with him. So when Hu Zining tried to pry open her teeth, she pulled away.
Hu Zining thought she was shy and looked at her with a smile, asking in a sultry voice, “What’s wrong, hmm?”
She didn’t know why she couldn’t bring herself to look directly at his handsome, peach-blossom-like face. Lowering her head, she stammered, “It’s a bit too fast!”
He embraced her, chuckling, and said in a doting tone, “Shy, are you? My little Feifei is so pure and cute!”
She shuddered at his words.
She didn’t know she could be described with such sickeningly sweet words.
That evening after work, Qian Fei and Hu Zining had dinner at the Food Court on the seventh floor of Parkson. After dinner, Hu Zining suggested, “It’s still early. Why don’t you come to my place to get familiar with it?”
Qian Fei thought for a moment. She had nothing to do at home anyway, so she agreed.
Hu Zining shared a rented apartment with a classmate. When they arrived, no one else was home.
Hu Zining turned on his computer, preparing to watch a movie.
He asked Qian Fei, “What type of movie do you want to watch?”
Qian Fei replied, “Anything is fine, as long as it’s good!”
Hu Zining thought for a moment and asked, “How about ‘Lost in Beijing’?” As he asked, his gaze on Qian Fei’s eyes and brows was more tender and affectionate than usual.
Qian Fei hadn’t seen this movie before. Judging from the title, she guessed it might be an inspirational story about a farmer-turned-entrepreneur who becomes wealthy by growing and selling apples through hard work. She nodded and said, “Okay! Let’s watch that!”
Hu Zining found the movie, pressed play in full screen, and pulled Qian Fei to sit with him on the sofa.
Qian Fei waited with a heart full of mainstream values, expecting to see a plot praising the hardworking people of a socialist society. However, as she waited, she saw a scene where a naked Fan Bingbing and a naked Tong Dawei were moaning and groaning in a bathroom…
She realized Hu Zining seemed quite fond of Fan Bingbing.
She wanted to look away but was afraid Hu Zining would think she was being prudish. Yet staring at the screen felt extremely awkward. As she was caught in this dilemma, not knowing whether to watch or not, she felt Hu Zining’s hand languidly crawling up her thigh.
His head also moved closer, his mouth near her ear. She could hear his breathing becoming rapid. She dared not move, fearing that any movement might give Hu Zining the wrong signal.
On the computer screen, Liu Pingguo was being pressed against the bathroom wall by her husband, moaning loudly. She felt Hu Zining licking her ear.
His hand moved from her thigh up to her waist.
She didn’t dare to breathe.
His mouth moved from her ear to her cheek, trying to kiss her lips.
Qian Fei retreated a little and asked awkwardly, “When is your classmate coming back?”
Hu Zining held her chin, preventing her from retreating further, and said in an ambiguous tone, “Don’t worry, he won’t catch us!”
As he spoke, he leaned in to kiss her, forcefully pushing his tongue against her teeth.
Qian Fei was in infinite inner turmoil, unsure whether to let him have his way or push him away.
She felt that physiologically, she had no desire to let Hu Zining press her down on the sofa and start moaning. But he looked very aroused, and she wondered if pushing him away now would be too harsh. Would it hurt his pride?
As Qian Fei was hesitating, her phone suddenly rang. She felt she was finally rescued from her decision-making paralysis.
At first, Hu Zining didn’t want to let her go, but as her phone kept ringing incessantly, he finally gave up.
He reluctantly stood up, allowing Qian Fei to answer the call.
Qian Fei looked at the caller ID – it was Gui Lili. She wondered what trouble this “goddess” was causing now.
She suddenly felt it might have been better to just let Hu Zining have his way.
As soon as she answered the call, she heard Gui Lili asking in a weak and pitiful voice, “Qian Fei, when are you coming home? The power suddenly went out, and I was a bit scared! Yifei had to go out for something and won’t be back until later. Can you come home first to keep me company?”
Qian Fei rubbed her forehead, struggling internally.
Should she choose to be pressed down by Hu Zining or go home to face this difficult “goddess”?
After some thought, she felt that being pressed down tonight would be too fast, making it seem like her body was too easily obtainable. So she told Gui Lili, “Wait for me for half an hour, I’m coming home now!”
When she hung up, she saw Hu Zining’s displeased expression.
She laughed dryly and explained, “This girl is timid!”
Hu Zining looked annoyed and said, “But Feifei, you’re just her landlord, not her mother! You know, for tonight, my roommate especially went to stay at his friend’s place!”
Qian Fei’s heart skipped a beat.
No wonder he had told her not to worry about being caught by his roommate earlier. He had planned all along to bring her home tonight to watch an “inspirational movie” and then sleep with her.
Qian Fei could barely manage a smile now. She tidied her slightly disheveled hair and said goodbye to Hu Zining, “This… it’s not urgent anyway. I’d better go home first!”
Hu Zining seemed a bit unhappy and didn’t offer to send her home. She consoled herself, thinking that even if he had offered, she would have declined anyway, so the result would have been the same whether he offered or not.
She walked to the subway station by herself.
On the subway, she couldn’t help but send Hu Zining a WeChat message:
“I’m sorry, Zining!”
After about twenty minutes, Hu Zining replied with a message: “It’s okay, who told you to be so kind!”
Before, she loved hearing him praise her kindness, but tonight, for some reason, she suspected he was being sarcastic.