Qian Fei smiled brightly and said, “I’m guessing your father’s name is Li Qiansheng. Am I right?”
Li Yifei’s mouth gaped open, his expression frozen in utter shock, a stark contrast to his usual haughty and beautiful demeanor.
“How did you know?!” he blurted out. After a moment’s thought, he realized this wasn’t the most pressing question and quickly changed tack. “When did you find out?!”
Qian Fei picked up her phone, opened WeChat, found their conversation, and showed Li Yifei a photo. It was the one he had sent her when he was working overtime on the weekend.
Earlier that day, as the meeting dispersed, Qian Fei sat at the head of the table, looking down. The sea of heads before her stirred an inexplicable sense of familiarity. A flash of insight struck her, and she quickly pulled out her phone.
She was right! The photo Li Yifei had sent her was taken in this very conference room! And his vantage point must have been exactly where she was sitting now.
What kind of person would be in a position to sit here and command such authority? A bold hypothesis began to form in her mind.
To confirm her suspicion, she probed Deputy General Manager Liao for information. He revealed that Chairman Li Qiansheng’s wife had passed away many years ago.
Later, she rushed to the bathroom and searched Baidu for gossip about “Li Qiansheng’s son.” Unfortunately, the tycoon had done an excellent job of protecting his son’s privacy. She found almost nothing online, except for this brief exchange in an interview:
Reporter: You’ve never mentioned your children to the public. People only vaguely know you have a son. Are you trying to protect him?
Li Qiansheng: Actually, I want him to see people for who they truly are, from the perspective of an ordinary person. I worry that if others knew he was my son, their motives for associating with him might not be pure.
As she pondered this exchange, Qian Fei reflected on many details she had previously overlooked.
– When dealing with Hu Zining, Li Yifei had mentioned calling in a favor from an uncle in the city government, who spoke directly to the hotel’s chairman.
– Once, while drinking beer together, Li Yifei had seriously told her he was a second-generation rich kid. She had thought he was joking and didn’t believe him.
– He had once told her that his father worried people only befriended him for his money. She hadn’t taken it to heart at the time.
– He and Liao Shiyu were childhood friends. The group’s shareholding structure showed that Liao Shiyu, her parents, and her uncle all held shares in the company.
– Then there were the luxury teas, Wuliangye liquor, and special porcelain.
These details surged through Qian Fei’s mind like a tidal wave.
Her bold hypothesis seemed increasingly close to the truth.
Steeling herself against the urge to call and ask him directly, she turned off her phone.
Li Yifei watched anxiously as Qian Fei remained silent for nearly ten minutes. He tentatively reached out and poked her arm. “Jinyin, don’t just stay quiet. Say something! Anything!”
Qian Fei looked at him. “Anything?”
Li Yifei nodded vigorously.
Qian Fei exploded, “Li Yifei, you bastard!”
Li Yifei silently lamented that both he and his father were only sons, so he didn’t have an uncle to be called a bastard.
After this emotional outburst, Qian Fei fell silent again. Li Yifei continued to prod her, “Don’t stop now. Say something else. If you don’t want to talk, you can hit me instead!”
Qian Fei glared at him.
Then her phone rang. She answered it. Liao Shiyu’s panicked voice came through the speaker.
“Qian Fei, I went to find Wang Ruohai, but he’s been vomiting non-stop. He even passed out for a moment. I’ve brought him to the hospital! But he won’t let the doctor examine him. He only says he wants to see you!” Her voice was so loud that Li Yifei could hear every word.
Qian Fei’s heart sank. She asked for the hospital and room number.
Hanging up, she told Li Yifei, “We’ll settle our score later. I need to go to the hospital now.”
Li Yifei sprang to his feet. “So what if Wang Ruohai is throwing up? Why should you go just because he says he wants to see you? Doesn’t he know your man outranks him? Doesn’t he understand the concept of shame? No way, I won’t let you go!”
Qian Fei looked up at him, emphasizing certain words: “When I left ‘your family’s big building’ tonight, a sign fell from the building opposite ‘your family’s property.’ It was heading straight for my head, but Wang Ruohai pushed me out of the way from behind. So it hit him instead. He took the blow for me, and now he’s showing signs of a concussion. Don’t you think I should go check on him?”
Li Yifei frowned. “Then I’ll go with you!”
Qian Fei’s face turned cold. “Do you still think I’m as easy-going as before? Let me tell you, Qian Baodai’s temper has flared up! We haven’t even sorted out the matter of who your father is, and right now, just looking at you irritates me! I’m warning you, if you dare follow me, I’ll break your legs!”
She picked up her bag and walked to the door. After changing her shoes, she pointed fiercely at Li Yifei, who was fidgeting in the living room. “Stay right there! Don’t move!”
Li Yifei stood with one leg twitching. “Qian Baodai, are you going to leave me alone and go see your ex-boyfriend? Is that right? It’s not very loyal of you!”
Qian Fei raised an eyebrow. “Or should I take you to see your father? I’m telling you, just seeing you makes me angry. You’d better go home now, lest we have a sequel to ‘Where’s Dad?'”
Li Yifei, still twitching, asked, “What sequel?”
Qian Fei answered sarcastically, “Your dad calling you later, asking, ‘Son, son, where have you gone?'” With that, she left, slamming the door behind her.
Li Yifei stared at the closed door, feeling like his twitching leg might be cramping up.
On her way to the hospital, Qian Fei felt a suffocating pressure in her chest. She didn’t know exactly who she was angry at, but she was angry.
If she blamed Li Yifei, well, he had told her he was a second-generation rich kid. She just hadn’t believed him.
But if she didn’t blame him, he had gone to great lengths to convince her that he was just a spoiled child from a small business family.
The more she thought about it, the more stifling the pressure became. By the time she reached the hospital and saw Wang Ruohai’s self-destructive behavior – refusing treatment and insisting on waiting for her – her pent-up emotions finally exploded.
She pulled up a chair and sat by the hospital bed. When Liao Shiyu tried to leave to give them privacy, Qian Fei stopped her.
After Wang Ruohai finished vomiting, she calmly asked, “Wang Ruohai, what are you trying to do? Why won’t you accept treatment unless I’m here?”
Wang Ruohai, his face pale, said, “I don’t know what I’m trying to do, but if you don’t come, I feel like there’s no point in getting treatment!”
Qian Fei took a deep breath. “I appreciate that you took that hit for me, but now I wish it had been me instead because then I wouldn’t be emotionally blackmailed like this. I didn’t want to say anything harsh, but it seems I have no choice. Wang Ruohai, do you think you’re unhappy? When you dumped me, seeing how well you were doing, I felt unhappy too. Let me tell you, the reason you feel unhappy today is because I’m doing well. If I were living a different life – constantly going on blind dates with balding old men who still found fault with me – would I even catch your eye? You probably wouldn’t even want to look at me. And how unhappy would I be living that kind of life? If I hadn’t met my current boyfriend, honestly, I might be living exactly that way. So when you admire who I am now, don’t forget all the causes and consequences that led to this. Your current unhappiness and sadness aren’t necessarily because you still have feelings for me. To put it bluntly, it’s just a sense of loss.”
She paused, then continued, “Your life is your own, it has nothing to do with me. You’re vomiting like this and won’t let the doctor examine you, insisting that I come – what’s the point? Tell me.”
She then turned to Liao Shiyu and said, “If you want to be the bad guy, then commit to it fully. Don’t be so accommodating. He tells you to find me, and you just do it? Don’t you have any self-respect? Am I a doctor? Since you’ve already become the third wheel, have the guts to go all the way. Don’t stop halfway. You’re being so noble that even I can’t stand it!”
With that, Qian Fei pressed the call button for the doctor.
When Qian Fei returned home, Li Yifei was still there.
Seeing her return, he sprang up from the sofa, trying to get close to her.
Qian Fei, holding her head in fatigue, said, “Don’t crowd me. I’m especially annoyed with you today. Go home quickly! We’ll talk tomorrow if we need to!”
She went into her room and closed the door.
Li Yifei stood at the door and asked dejectedly, “You didn’t hold his hand and say something like ‘Wang Ruohai, you must be strong,’ did you?”
Qian Fei’s muffled voice came from inside, “Mm-hmm, I did. And I also told him, ‘Don’t cry, Wang Ruohai,’ and ‘Hang in there, Wang Ruohai!'”
Li Yifei’s eyes widened, and he felt like scratching at the door. “Damn it, are you serious? I only briefly deceived you mentally with infinite guilt, you don’t need to torture me both mentally and physically like this, do you?”
Qian Fei ignored him.
Li Yifei knocked on the door. “Jinyin, don’t go to sleep yet. Tell me which hospital Wang Ruohai is in. I want to go see him!”
After a while, Qian Fei asked from inside, “Why do you want to see him?”
Li Yifei said, “I want to tell him that if he gets another concussion, he should come to me directly. I can also hold his hand and encourage him, saying ‘Wang Ruohai, if you’re man enough, don’t cry,’ and ‘Wang Ruohai, if you’re man enough, stand up and fight!'”
Two seconds later, there was a thud against the inside of the door.
Qian Fei had thrown a pillow at it from her bed.
“Get lost! Go home and fight yourself!”
Early the next morning, after Qian Fei arrived at Qiansheng with her project team, she heard gossip all over the building.
“I heard the young master is officially returning to court today and will gradually start taking over the group’s affairs!”
“Have any of you seen the young master? Come to think of it, our chairman has protected him too well! I don’t even know what he looks like!”
“Important middle and upper management have worked overtime with him in the first conference room. They say he’s incredibly handsome!”
…
A member of the project team asked Qian Fei, “Manager Qian, what do you think this young master is like?”
Qian Fei smirked. She wanted to tell them, “He’s your former boss, haha.”
“Who knows? He’s probably just some sleazy rich kid,” she said vindictively.
Her colleagues all nodded in agreement. “What good kid could come from a rich family? He’s probably just a good-for-nothing!”
Qian Fei felt a bit of satisfaction.
After she arrived at the office specially prepared for them by the group, she received an internal call from Deputy General Manager Liao.
“Manager Qian, it’s like this. Today is the first day our Chairman Li’s son is officially coming to work at the group. He says he wants to understand the specific situation and progress of the project. Do you think we could call the other intermediary agencies and have a meeting with our group’s senior management? If there are any issues, our young Mr. Li can join the discussion! You might even know our young Mr. Li since he used to work in investment banking too!”
Qian Fei agreed and hung up, unable to suppress a chuckle.
She wondered if Deputy General Manager Liao really didn’t know or was just pretending not to. She certainly knew their young Mr. Li.
She led her project team to the conference room. The other intermediary agencies had already arrived. This time, she insisted on not sitting at the head of the table.
She wanted to give that sleazy rich kid a chance to show off completely.
Looking around at everyone present, she saw curiosity on many faces. Especially her colleagues, who all wore expressions that screamed, “Who is he?”
The conference room door opened. Everyone turned to look.
Li Yifei strode in confidently.
He wore a tailored suit that must have cost a fortune, accentuating his tall and elegant figure. His gait and demeanor were graceful and charming. His handsome face, compared to when she first met him two years ago, now showed not only confidence but also determination and resolve, along with an unmistakable air of nobility and dominance that he no longer needed to conceal.
She noticed that everyone except her was stunned. Her teammates, the people from other intermediary agencies, and the group’s staff all looked at the young Mr. Li with undisguised admiration and appreciation.
Qian Fei inwardly lamented that this world, which valued appearances so much, would probably never change.
She watched several female accountants following Li Yifei with starry eyes and thought irritably, “Shit.”
Did this sleazy rich kid need to make such a dramatic entrance? She was finding it hard to maintain her angry stance!