Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Slapping Him Across the Face

Qian Fei stared intently, completely certain that she had not misread the situation. That woman was indeed Gui Lili, and the man she was clinging to was around forty years old, slightly plump, with the distinct demeanor of a wealthy fat cat.

Qian Fei quickly dodged to the side and turned her back to them.

Gui Lili clung to the older man as they walked gracefully past her. Her entire attention seemed focused on the sparkling pigeon-egg diamond ring on her finger, and she failed to notice Qian Fei's presence the entire time.

Qian Fei faintly heard the older man ask, "Do you like it?"

Gui Lili replied in a coquettish, sweet voice, "I love it, I just think it's too expensive!"

The older man patted her hand. "As long as you like it, that's all that matters! Right, didn't you take a fancy to that Lexus sports car? I've already settled everything with the people at the dealership. I've already wired the funds over, so you can go pick up the car next week!"

Gui Lili said something else, but Qian Fei could no longer hear it clearly as the two gradually drifted further away.

Connecting this with the contents of the argument between Li Yifei and Gui Lili that she had overheard earlier, Qian Fei guessed that this older man might be Gui Lili's legendary boss.

She sighed with endless emotion from the side, feeling as though she had just witnessed a deeply profound real-life drama.

She suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for Li Yifei.

Look at how that big boss courted girls—how grand the scale was, how willing he was to spend a fortune, offering both a massive pigeon-egg diamond ring and a Lexus sports car. Meanwhile, Li Yifei was currently just a low-level investment banking employee who had to share a rented apartment with someone else. Even if he was handsome, a handsome face couldn't be eaten as food, let alone spent as money. Furthermore, his bones were so delicate and pampered that he didn't do a single household chore; his hands were so lazy he didn't even like operating a fully automatic washing machine, and he would very extravagantly take his clothes out for dry cleaning at the drop of a hat. Making such a comparison, Qian Fei almost felt that if she were Gui Lili, she might have run off with the wealthy big boss too.

After returning home, her eyelid kept twitching. She felt an urge to ask Li Yifei what he intended to do regarding Gui Lili, wondering if she should tell him what she had seen this afternoon to sound an alarm for him. However, she also felt that speaking out would deal a massive blow to the pride of a man who cared deeply about his dignity, leaving her momentarily hesitant and undecided.

As she wavered back and forth, her phone suddenly rang. She glanced at the caller ID and froze.

It was actually Gui Lili.

Connecting the call, she heard Gui Lili speak to her from the other end of the line: "Qian Fei, it's like this. I plan to break up with Li Yifei. I'll be coming back tomorrow to move my things out. Help me tell Li Yifei in a bit to pack my things up so I can just load them up and leave when I arrive tomorrow."

Qian Fei was startled. "Uh, about that, Gui Lili, why don't you tell Li Yifei yourself? It's not really appropriate for me to convey this kind of matter, is it?"

Gui Lili spoke with a stuffed nose, a wronged, weeping tone in her voice: "I have no way of speaking to him right now. He has completely broken my heart!"

Qian Fei suddenly recalled the scene of seeing her at the entrance of Love All Over the City during the day.

If she hadn't seen her this afternoon, hearing her wronged voice right now would have definitely made Qian Fei's heart soften. But given that she could accept material benefits from another man and still cry with such a delicate, gentle voice, Qian Fei felt thoroughly impressed. Life is like a play, it all depends on acting skills. This saying truly wasn't wrong; she had really encountered a superb actress.

"Gui Lili," Qian Fei did not want to be a soft pushover who was used by others anymore, "I am merely your landlord. I feel it's inconvenient for me to pass on messages for you regarding this kind of matter. You should still tell Li Yifei yourself!"

She wanted to hang up the phone, but Gui Lili called out to her loudly from the other end: "Qian Fei! Wait a moment!" In a momentary lapse of judgment, Qian Fei really did wait for her.

"Qian Fei! I beg of you! Just help me pass on this message this one time, alright? I beg of you! If I call him myself, he will definitely throw all my things away! A lot of my clothes are very expensive! Qian Fei, please! Go speak to him nicely. Just persuade him that it's best for people to come together amicably and part ways peacefully so he doesn't act on impulse, and then help me organize my things a little, alright?"

Her voice grew increasingly soft and pleading, giving Qian Fei a straight-up headache just listening to it.

"Gui Lili, I am an outsider. You should clarify a breakup face-to-face with Li Yifei. What is the meaning of relying on a third party to pass on messages like this, don't you agree?"

Gui Lili pleaded with her relentlessly: "Just help me, Qian Fei. I don't dare to call his number!"

Qian Fei felt a bit irritable. "Gui Lili, it's really not good for me to meddle in this matter. At most, I can only help you pass on a message, alright!"

Hanging up the phone, Qian Fei felt a throbbing ache in her head.

Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the door of Li Yifei's room and knocked.

The moment Li Yifei opened the door, Qian Fei felt as though she had traveled through time and space to an era of chaotic war and turmoil.

Li Yifei's room was so messy it looked like it had been ransacked by an enemy troop.

Qian Fei was dumbstruck. "Li Yifei, you can't be serious. You can actually live in a room this messy? And you can still head to work looking completely presentable every day—how on earth do you manage that? You truly let me witness a miracle every single day!"

Li Yifei maintained a cold, detached face. "Don't act like this is the first time you've seen what my room looks like!"

Qian Fei was startled. Previously, she had only caught a glimpse of him kicking the coffee table from his doorway, but her attention had been completely drawn by his foot back then, so she hadn't managed to look at what his room actually looked like.

Qian Fei asked in disbelief, "This room of yours, it couldn't have been this messy the entire time since you moved in, right?"

Li Yifei raised his eyebrows and looked at her. "You didn't come knock on my door just to discuss the cleanliness of my room, did you?"

Qian Fei froze, and remembering the words she had to say next, she immediately began to feel her scalp go a bit numb.

"It's like this. Gui Lili called me and said, uh, for you to pack up her things and whatnot. She's coming over to pick them up tomorrow..."

Her voice grew weaker and weaker as she spoke because she watched Li Yifei's expression turn increasingly close to a furious iron-blue color.

"What does she mean? Why didn't she call me herself?" he asked coldly.

Qian Fei didn't dare to meet his furious, glaring eyes for a moment, her gaze darting around randomly. "How should I know? This is a matter between the two of you. I'm just a messenger, so don't go harming the innocent!"

Li Yifei let out two cold laughs, took a step back, and cleared the doorway. "Didn't she tell you to pack up her things? Then you come pack them up for her!"

Qian Fei was stunned. How could both of these people be such utterly shameless scoundrels?

She reached the absolute limit of her patience. "Are you two out of your minds? Whether you want to break up, make up, live, or die, can you please leave me out of it! I am merely one ordinary member among thousands of landlords; I don't work a part-time gig at the neighborhood committee's coordination office! How about this: I've delivered the message. Whether you pack the things or not is your business, and whether she comes to pick them up or not is her business. Just completely forget about me! Goodbye!" Once she finished speaking, she cradled her startled heart and supported herself against the wall as she retreated to her own room.

While she stayed in her room, she suddenly heard a burst of loud clattering and banging outside. Once things quieted down slightly, she quietly opened her door and poked her head out to look.

With one look, she was furious to the extreme.

Li Yifei had thrown all of Gui Lili's things into the living room, creating a massive, chaotic pile.

Enduring it time and time again, she suppressed her anger, fetched a few large black trash bags from the kitchen, and began gathering Gui Lili's things inside them.

Just as she was tidying up, the door to Li Yifei's room opened. As if possessing the Shadowless Hand, he flung out several more of Gui Lili's belongings. Among them was a bottle of perfume, which hit the floor with a loud clattering sound that made Qian Fei's liver tremble, fearing that the glass bottle wasn't sturdy and would crack open with a snap as it rolled.

Watching the living room she had just organized instantly become messy all over again, and seeing the lotion and toner Li Yifei was currently preparing to hurl out of his hands, Qian Fei's anger flared up immediately. She stopped him loudly: "Li Yifei, don't you dare throw those! If you do, I'll call the police and say you're behaving like a hooligan!"

She really wanted to ask Li Yifei if the adults in his family had ever taught him to have morals, be polite, and not cause destruction when staying in someone else's home!

She said in a thoroughly displeased tone, "Forget it, stop flinging things! I'll go inside and pack them directly, alright? Please show some mercy and accumulate some virtue for my apartment!"

Dragging the black trash bags and restraining herself from suffering a brain hemorrhage, she entered Li Yifei's room, gritting her teeth with every step.

While stuffing the things on the floor into the bags, she thought resentfully to herself about how she had been so deaf and blind to rent her apartment to these two dramatic troublemakers in the first place.

Qian Fei was a bit habitual with her hands. While clearing away Gui Lili's clutter, she naturally straightened up any areas that looked messy along the way. By the time she finished handling Gui Lili's belongings, Li Yifei's room had actually been organized by her to look somewhat tidy. Straightening her back and realizing this fact, Qian Fei hated herself so much she could practically spit blood.

She truly wished she could pretend to suffer a sudden bout of temporary insanity just to mess up the room back to how it was before!

She piled the several black bags in the living room, waiting for Gui Lili to come collect them the next day.

In the evening, she felt a bit exhausted, so she lay down on her bed and drifted off to sleep. She slept very deeply this time. The next day, she was abruptly jolted awake by a woman's piercing cries.

Even through her earplugs, she could sense that the person crying was practically reaching a dolphin vocal range.

She pulled out her earplugs and rolled out of bed. In the time it took to change her clothes, she heard Gui Lili crying heart-wrenchingly outside the door.

"Li Yifei, why do you have to be like this! On what grounds do you call me a loose woman! On what grounds do you say there is nothing but money in my eyes! I just want to make myself live a bit more comfortably and treat myself a bit better, is that also a crime? I still wanted to part ways with you on good terms, but why must you act like this! Must you absolutely destroy the very last shred of affection between us before you'll be satisfied?!"

Shaking her head, she then heard Li Yifei say, "You're not a loose woman? If you're not a loose woman, then who is that man waiting downstairs? Do you take me for an idiot? Isn't he just your boss! Have him come up here!"

She heard the sound of scuffling outside. Fearing that the two of them might truly come to blows, she didn't even care to wash up; she flung her bedroom door open and rushed out.

It was Li Yifei attempting to charge out the front door, while Gui Lili was desperately holding him back.

Qian Fei let out a sigh of relief.

For a moment, she didn't know whether she should retreat back into her room.

Spotting her, Gui Lili cried out to her, "Qian Fei, don't just stand there like a fool! Hurry up and help me pull him back!"

Looking at Li Yifei's appearance, he truly intended to charge downstairs, so she quickly rushed over to hold him back together with Gui Lili.

Li Yifei roared at her, "Qian Fei, this is none of your business, let go of me!"

Gui Lili also yelled at her, "Qian Fei, you must hold onto him! You hold the fort here first, I'm leaving now!" Saying this, she let go of her grip.

Qian Fei instantly felt the entire weight and strength of Li Yifei's body transfer completely onto her, while Gui Lili ran toward the front door in a flood of tears.

Reaching the doorway, she stopped again, turned her head, and spoke to Li Yifei with boundless bitterness: "Yifei, let's just leave it at this. Perhaps separating is a good thing for both of us! Don't go downstairs to find him, alright? I truly don't want to see either one of you get hurt because of me! Yifei, I know you are doing this because you still can't let go of our relationship, because you can't let go of me, but our personalities are truly incompatible! Even though I love you so much, I've made up my mind—let's break up! Starting from today, just forget about me!"

After delivering this speech, she pushed open the door and continued running away in tears.

Qian Fei felt that she was truly, deeply impressed by Gui Lili; scene after scene, it really was just like acting in a play.

She sensed that Li Yifei was practically driven mad with rage.

"I can't let go of your granddad! Damn it, this master simply can't stand you cuckolding me!"

While wrestling with Qian Fei, he bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Qian Fei, let go of me! Let go of me! Are you a fucking woman? Why do you have so much strength?!"

First thing in the morning, Qian Fei had already absorbed a stomach full of inexplicable, sandwiched frustration from these two people. The curse words drilling into her ears instantly ignited the very last thread of her good temper.

She let go of Li Yifei in response.

In the very next second, she didn't even know how she had suddenly been possessed by a wild, crazed protagonist from a Korean drama; without even thinking, she planted a sharp slap directly across Li Yifei's face.

Li Yifei instantly froze on the spot.

Cradling his face, his eyes widened as if he had just witnessed an alien invasion of Earth. "You struck me? Qian Fei, you actually fucking dare to strike me?!"

Hearing him curse again, Qian Fei didn't even think; she planted another sharp slap across his face.

This slap was intercepted mid-air by Li Yifei.

Griping her wrist, Li Yifei asked with uncontrollable fury, "Qian Fei, have you gone completely mad?!"

Qian Fei wrenched her hand free from his grip. "Li Yifei, regardless of how pampered and spoiled you were raised at home, while you are here with me, you better stop using that endless, foul language! You have a mother yourself; would you want your mother to be dragged out and insulted by people for no reason whenever nothing is going on?"

Li Yifei stared intently at Qian Fei, the look in his eyes appearing as though he wanted to swallow her alive. For a split second, Qian Fei even felt that he was about to raise his palm to strike her back.

Fortunately, however, he merely glared at her, and she forced herself to maintain eye contact with him despite her inner fear. It wasn't until she was stared at to the point where her knees began to tremble with false bravado that he finally turned his face to the side.

The apartment suddenly became extraordinarily quiet.

Qian Fei quietly observed Li Yifei. From his profile, she could actually see a trace of something akin to nostalgia and sorrow welling up within the depths of his eyes.

Her heart softened instantly.

He had just been broken up with in such a flamboyant, cuckolding manner by his girlfriend, and then she had slapped him twice and spoken such a harsh set of words to him; his heart must currently be feeling an absolute world of pain.

Unable to bear it, she murmured to him in a small, quiet voice, "I'm sorry..."

Li Yifei ignored her, glaring at her with a sidelong glance before turning around to head back into his room and shutting the door.

Standing in the living room, Qian Fei looked at the corner where Gui Lili's things were still sitting—she had just fled in panic and hadn't managed to take anything with her.

Feeling a wave of disgust in her heart, she moved the large black bags out into the stairwell one by one, then sent a text message to Gui Lili, telling her that her things had been placed right outside the front door and that she should just come quietly to move them away without entering the apartment again.

After a while, Gui Lili replied with a text message: "Is he doing alright?"

Looking at her question, Qian Fei felt thoroughly irritated. She felt that Gui Lili was just like Wang Ruohai on this point, causing people a distinct blend of anxiety and loathing. Since the decision to break up had been made, there was no need to pull this "I still care about you" routine anymore.

She replied to Gui Lili: "When you come back to collect your things, leave the key under the doormat outside the entrance."

A few seconds later, Gui Lili sent another message: "Qian Fei, help me take care of Yifei for these few days, alright? I left so suddenly, I'm afraid he won't be able to let go!"

Looking at the text message, Qian Fei suddenly found herself laughing. This girl's sense of superiority when it flared up could practically rival schizophrenia.

She replied: "You should just take good care of yourself first. I'm a bit busy, let's stop talking."

She tossed her phone onto the sofa. Suddenly, she felt a bit of pain in her arm. Rolling up her sleeve to look, a large area of her arm had turned black and blue, completely bruised from being pinched by Li Yifei when they were wrestling earlier.

Gritting her teeth as she looked at the purple marks on her arm, Qian Fei grew increasingly furious, suddenly no longer feeling any guilt over the slaps from earlier. She even felt that the large slaps she had delivered just now could actually have been backed by a bit more force.