When Li Yifei rushed home, Qian Fei and Liao Shiyu were sitting in the living room, watching TV and chatting.
Qian Fei was complaining, “How does this woman with sausage lips always play the beauty? Is it to train the male lead’s patience and endurance?”
Seeing him appear, Qian Fei was startled and asked, “Big Brother, didn’t you say you were working overtime?”
Li Yifei looked at Qian Fei, then at Liao Shiyu, yawned, and said, “I’m too tired. I came back to catch up on some sleep.” He walked towards the bedroom as he spoke.
Qian Fei followed him in and cautiously asked, “Are you sure you’re ‘sleepy’ and not ‘hungry’?”
Li Yifei flopped onto the bed and said, “I need to grab a quick nap.” After a pause, he added, “Jin Jin, I remember I still have a suit at the dry cleaners. Could you help me pick it up so I can take it when I leave later?”
Qian Fei pouted and scoffed, “You still dare to order Qian Bao Dai around for these chores. I don’t see much future for you! You don’t know how to treasure talent! Tsk tsk!” Despite her words, her feet were already moving towards the door.
After she left the house, Li Yifei sprang up from the bed. He opened the door and said to Liao Shiyu on the living room sofa with a solemn expression, “Liao Shiyu, come here for a chat.”
Li Yifei leaned against the doorframe and got straight to the point, “It was the old man who told you to move in, wasn’t it?”
Liao Shiyu smirked, “I knew you had already guessed.”
Li Yifei frowned, “Besides that, are there any other reasons?”
Liao Shiyu raised her head, looking at him, “It seems you already know the other reasons too.”
Li Yifei’s frown deepened, “Liao Shiyu, what exactly are you planning to do? Would you mind telling me?”
Liao Shiyu said, “Nothing much. I just want to know what makes her so unforgettable.”
Li Yifei said, “It’s fortunate that she doesn’t know who you are, and you haven’t caused her any substantial harm. Otherwise, Liao Shiyu, our childhood friendship probably wouldn’t be enough to save you from the consequences.”
Liao Shiyu laughed, “I’ve never seen you protect someone like this before! She’s truly enviable!”
Li Yifei didn’t take her bait and coldly said, “You should move out tomorrow. If you don’t, I’ll fire that Wang guy.”
Liao Shiyu stopped laughing. She stood up from the sofa, walked to Li Yifei, and said firmly, “I didn’t fire him when we broke up, so don’t think about touching him.”
Li Yifei scoffed, “Calculate the shares of your father, mother, uncle, and yourself. Do they add up to more than what I’m going to inherit? If not, stop playing these mind games with me and find a suitable reason to move out quickly.” He paused and added, “I’ve been annoyed by your scheming nature since we were kids!”
Liao Shiyu thought for a moment, her face showing signs of compromise, “I’ll move out tomorrow. Don’t touch him.” After a pause, she added, “I originally planned to do something to Qian Fei, but now I don’t want to anymore. You can rest assured. But what about you? When do you plan to tell her your real identity? Hiding it from her like this, how is it any different from what I’m doing? Aren’t you afraid you might hurt her in the future?”
Li Yifei pondered and said, “Didn’t the old man tell you? This is an agreement between us.”
Liao Shiyu shrugged, “You think he wants me as his daughter-in-law and would tell me everything?”
On New Year’s Day, the notorious hot-tempered old man, Li Qiansheng, called Li Yifei.
His first words were, “How long do you plan to keep sulking?”
Li Yifei replied, “Until you admit that I can do well and stand on my own without you.”
Li Qiansheng said, “I know you’ve started a company and acquired assets – the villa at Siji Qing Bridge, the property at Shoucheng International, the Cadillac sedan. Besides that, you’ve invested the money you and Jun Cheng earned from your company into the online game that Jun Cheng is so obsessed with, making a fortune. You’ve done very well. I admit I underestimated you before.”
The recognition Li Yifei had long hoped for came so easily that he felt almost at a loss.
“Old man, are your words sincere? And didn’t we agree to sever ties? Can you stop investigating me so thoroughly, digging up everything? I say you’re throwing this recognition at me so easily, you’re not asking for something, are you?”
Li Qiansheng said, “You need to come home.”
Li Yifei said, “I won’t.”
Li Qiansheng said, “You must return. Some subsidiaries of our listed company are having internal issues, with declining business performance. If we don’t take measures soon, they might even face delisting. Also, my heart hasn’t been good lately. You must come back to take charge.”
Li Yifei hesitated, “Can you give me three more months?”
Li Qiansheng scoffed, “For that girl called Qian Fei? I really can’t understand your taste in women anymore. This one is even worse than the last one. She hasn’t even studied abroad, she’s nothing, and she has a seven-year history with another man.”
Li Yifei got angry, “How dare you investigate her too? You’ve even investigated what I haven’t? That’s too much! And can we not make such random comparisons? What do you mean this one is worse than the last one? This one is better than the last one and the one before that by leaps and bounds! Besides, who doesn’t have a past? Were you and Mom first loves? Didn’t you date hundreds of times before falling for Mom? You’re quick to criticize others, why don’t you criticize your son? I’ve had romantic histories with more than seven women, why don’t you criticize that? And how is she nothing? She’s a female Bao Dai, you know! Bao Dai, Bao Dai, understand?”
Li Qiansheng sneered, “She’s just a trainee Bao Dai, isn’t she?”
Li Yifei let out a soft “Damn.” He had forgotten that his father’s subsidiary was a listed company. His father knew more about the listing process than he did.
“Give me three months. In three months, I’ll make sure she’s registered as a Bao Dai!”
Li Qiansheng disagreed with this, but Li Yifei refused to compromise. The conversation ended on an unhappy note.
Afterward, Li Yifei was constantly anxious, hoping Qian Fei could grow rapidly. During this time, he didn’t tell Qian Fei his identity. He didn’t want her to know he had a father who didn’t approve of her. He wanted to tell her about his father’s background only after she gained recognition.
Throughout this process, the old man kept urging him to return, and he could only delay as much as possible each time.
Later, when Qian Fei finally officially registered as a Bao Dai, he resigned the next day.
Then he quietly canceled his Bao Dai qualification and returned to the family company.
He began thoroughly auditing the accounts of the entire group and found that some subsidiaries indeed had many problems.
Especially the listed subsidiary of the group, dragged down by a sub-subsidiary, its business performance had been declining year by year. If measures weren’t taken for asset restructuring, the group’s listed subsidiary was likely to be dragged down to delisting.
Since he returned home, the old man had been constantly whispering in his ear, telling him that marriage should be between equals and that finding a commoner female Bao Dai was not as good as finding a childhood friend holding group shares. He spared no effort in trying to match him with Liao Shiyu.
He asked the old man what it would take to stop interfering between him and Qian Fei. The old man thought and said, “Let me see her abilities. If she has enough capability to assist you, I can consider overlooking her background.”
So he agreed with the old man.
Once he sorted out all the group’s affairs and accounts, Qian Fei would be the project leader, completing the asset restructuring project for the group’s subsidiary.
Before the asset restructuring plan was formulated, he couldn’t tell her his true identity, nor could he provide her with any help. If she could rely on her abilities to help the company through this crisis, the old man would no longer obstruct their relationship.
But if Qian Fei failed, or if she caused any losses to the company during the process, Li Qiansheng stated, “Then she won’t be qualified to be my daughter-in-law in the Li family.”
Li Yifei agreed to this requirement. He had enough confidence in his woman.
She was no longer the same as before, no longer a meek employee. What she needed now was a battlefield to deploy her abilities and strategize.
He was willing to give her this battlefield, to see how she would win a beautiful war.
Qian Fei returned from the dry cleaners, fuming with anger.
As soon as she entered the room, she pounced on the bed, straddling Li Yifei and gripping his neck, angrily demanding, “Are you getting early-onset dementia? Do you even have a suit at the dry cleaners? The owner and I turned every piece of clothing in the store inside out but couldn’t find anything! Then I remembered you moved out a long time ago!!!”
Li Yifei feigned sudden realization: “Oh, right! I moved out ages ago! I guess I’ve been too busy lately, my memory’s all jumbled up.”
Seeing his nonchalant expression, Qian Fei wanted to find a knife and stab him a couple of times.
Li Yifei’s hands crept to her bottom, patting it, his face full of mischief: “Since we’re in this position, why don’t we have a ‘meal’ right now?”
Qian Fei hurriedly tried to crawl off, but Li Yifei held her firmly in place.
His hands began to explore buttons and belts. Just as things were heating up, there was a sudden knock at the door.
Outside, Liao Shiyu was calling for Qian Fei.
Li Yifei cursed, “Shit,” gritting his teeth: “That damned woman, she’s doing this on purpose!”
Qian Fei tumbled to the ground, quickly straightening her clothes, and opened the door, asking Liao Shiyu: “What is it?”
Liao Shiyu glanced behind her, a flash of schadenfreude in her eyes, then looked at Qian Fei and said: “My apartment’s renovations are finished. I’m moving out tomorrow, just letting you know.”
Qian Fei was stunned for a moment, “Ah? Oh, okay, let me know if you need any help.”
Liao Shiyu returned to her room to pack.
Qian Fei closed the door and said to Li Yifei: “The progress of her apartment renovations is quite mysterious, suddenly finished just like that.”
Li Yifei pulled her over, pressing her down on the bed, grinning mischievously: “The sooner such surprises come, the better! I couldn’t be happier about her moving out quickly! This way, we can expand our ‘dining area’ to every room!”
The next day, Liao Shiyu quietly went to Li Yifei’s family home.
She walked to the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room and called out “Uncle” to the person lying in the rocking chair, sunbathing.
The man opened his eyes and turned his head.
It was a handsome middle-aged face with a character, very similar to Li Yifei’s, but with an added sense of determination and decisiveness.
He smiled slightly, the hard lines of his face softening for just a moment before returning to normal.
“Yu’er, you’re here. How did it go?” he asked in a deep voice.
Liao Shiyu sat down in a nearby chair, automatically pouring herself a cup of tea and taking a sip.
“She’s a good girl,” she said softly after a sip of tea. “No scheming, pure and kind. She likes money, true, but only if she earns it herself. I’ve observed her character, and there’s no problem. Once she takes on the company’s asset restructuring project and proves her abilities, you can feel at ease letting Li Yifei continue his relationship with her.”
The middle-aged man leaned back in his chair, rocking slightly.
“It’s rare to see such magnanimity from you, speaking well of your rival in love.”
Liao Shiyu laughed lightly: “Because even if I spoke ill of her, it wouldn’t make her a bad person. It would only lower my standards.”
The middle-aged man rocked in his chair again, “Do you not want to tell those two about why you initially sought out Wang Ruohai?”
Liao Shiyu put down her teacup, “There’s no need. It would be like trying to whitewash myself. Why should I live like I’m some pure, spotless lotus? I think living as I am is fine, it has its flavor.” She paused, then added, “Besides, I did indeed steal someone else’s love.”
The middle-aged man looked out the window, his voice low and deep: “I remember the summer of your second year in high school, you insisted on going on a solo backpacking trip. No one could stop you. When you came back, you secretly told me that you had met a boy in a water town in Jiangnan. You fell into the water and almost drowned, but he saved you. You also told me that you liked him so much, and before parting, you two made a promise to apply to universities in Beijing together. But in your third year, your parents emigrated, and you couldn’t persuade them otherwise. You ended up going abroad. Later, you emailed me saying that after arriving in America, you lost contact with this boy, and you even fell ill because of it.”
He paused for a moment, then said softly: “That boy was Wang Ruohai, wasn’t he?”
After a while, Liao Shiyu sighed deeply, “Sometimes I’m really angry that he just forgot about me like that.”
The middle-aged man’s lips twitched slightly: “You wore glasses and braces in your second year of high school, quite different from now. And didn’t you say that to prevent your parents from finding out where you were traveling, you used your cousin’s name and ID?”
Liao Shiyu said: Yes. After I finished my master’s degree, I insisted on returning to China, hoping to find him by chance, thinking he might have really studied at a university in Beijing and stayed there. And I was indeed lucky, I didn’t expect to meet him at Qiansheng. I recognized him at first glance. I waited for him to remember me, but he didn’t. I didn’t hide my feelings for him, and he noticed. I asked him out, and he refused the first two times but accepted the third time. At first, he didn’t tell me if he had a girlfriend, and I didn’t ask. Later, when I found out he had a girlfriend, I asked him to choose. He was very hesitant and couldn’t make a decision. Until later when we both got drunk and went to a hotel, and he was caught red-handed by Qian Fei, he finally made a choice. In the end, I’m still the bad woman.
“When he first got together with me, we were very good. But gradually, he always compared me with Qian Fei. He complained that I couldn’t cook, didn’t do housework, was delicate, and had a bad temper. When I went home with him for New Year, his mother kept calling me by Qian Fei’s name. I was very annoyed and didn’t give her a good face. As a result, after we returned to Beijing, he proposed to break up with me.
“When we were at his home, walking along the small river where I almost drowned years ago, I asked him if he remembered anything. He looked gloomy and a bit sad. I knew he wasn’t thinking of me at that moment but of Qian Fei.”
Liao Shiyu mumbled, looking at the teacup in her hand with some sadness.
“No matter how beautiful first love is, it can’t compare to seven years of companionship.”
The middle-aged man lying in the rocking chair asked softly: “Why don’t you tell him all this?”
Liao Shiyu took a sip of tea, “If he can remember on his own, he will. If not, so be it. I don’t need sympathy or to be moved. I am a bad woman, and I’ll live my life being bad. It’s quite invigorating.”