Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Getting Drunk for Once

While grumbling about how terrible the alcohol tasted, Li Yifei simultaneously downed a massive gulp. Then he raised his head, looked at Qian Fei, and asked, "Can you tell me about the time your boyfriend cheated on you?"

Qian Fei almost slapped him right across the face. "What for? Looking to find some balance at my expense? Does seeing someone worse off than you make you feel happy? No, Li Yifei, what kind of intentions are you harboring! Even if you want to find relief yourself, there's no need to drag me along and rip open my wound again just to show it to you!"

Li Yifei took another gulp of alcohol. "I don't want to use your misery to prove that I'm actually not that miserable. I just want to help you summarize the reasons and lessons behind being cheated on!"

Qian Fei glared at him viciously: "Who are you helping summarize for? As if I'm going to spend the rest of my life being cheated on by people!"

Li Yifei had absolutely no idea how annoying he was being. "Well, that's hard to say for sure!"

Qian Fei stood up to leave, but Li Yifei grabbed her in one swift pull. "Alright, I won't say it anymore. Just sit with me for a bit!"

Qian Fei looked down at his proud yet tsundere expression, which carried a faint hint of pleading, and felt both exasperated and amused. No matter how she looked at it, that face buried in stubble closely resembled Won Bin. Won Bin was the Korean male celebrity she fangirled over the most (this was 2012, Professor Do had not appeared yet, so it was Won Bin, wahaha! Sorry, did I make you break character? Wahaha!), and facing a face like that, she really couldn't harden her heart.

She let out a long sigh and sat back down. "Li Yifei, has anyone ever told you that you are just a downright rogue and a slippery rascal!"

Holding up his beer can, Li Yifei said to Qian Fei, "Come, let's bottoms up for the downright rogue and slippery rascal!"

Qian Fei clinked her can against his, and Li Yifei said, "Since we clinked, we have to bottoms up! Do you know what a bottoms up is? It means drinking the alcohol until it's gone in one breath! If you clink and don't bottoms up, you'll be broke for three generations!"

Qian Fei glared at him, her teeth itching with pure hatred.

With a tilt of her head, she downed the alcohol. Once finished, she saw Li Yifei staring at her without blinking once.

The alcohol had been poured down too fiercely; she felt a wave of dizzying heat rush straight to the top of her head.

"What are you looking at!" She gave Li Yifei a push.

Li Yifei looked at her and said, "Qian Fei, you really are foolish enough. I just said it like that, and you actually downed it!"

Hearing this, Qian Fei wished she could strangle him to death.

Li Yifei tilted his neck and also drank his alcohol clean.

"Tell me, how can there still be someone like you nowadays? Every day acting like a holy mother, being nice to everyone, cooking, cleaning the house, fixing fuses—able to do absolutely anything, and believing whatever others say. Tell me, how do you live so completely without complaints or regrets for humanity?"

Qian Fei frowned: "Are you praising me or insulting me?"

Li Yifei pulled out another two cans of alcohol, handing one to her and keeping one for himself. "Just consider it as me praising you!"

Qian Fei ground her back teeth. "Which means you are actually insulting me, right? Li Yifei, let me tell you, seeing as you've recently suffered a heartbreak, I won't hold a grudge against you for now. But I'm keeping track of all of it. Just wait until you get past this period, and see how I inflict retaliation and revenge!"

Li Yifei actually smiled. "I'll be waiting!" He raised his beer can and asked, "Do you dare to do another bottoms up?"

The alcohol was hitting Qian Fei a bit now. Her mind grew heated, and raising her beer, she clinked it against Li Yifei's. "What's there to be afraid of! Let's go!"

The two of them chugged down another can back-to-back.

With several consecutive cans of alcohol down their stomachs like this, their chatterboxes were unlocked right along with the alcohol's potency.

Li Yifei began to act shamelessly with Qian Fei again: "Hurry up and tell me, what exactly happened between you and your ex-boyfriend!"

Qian Fei rolled her eyes at him. "Why don't you tell me what happened between you and Gui Lili!"

Li Yifei said, "Fine, then I'll go first. After I'm done talking, you talk!"

He drank a few mouthfuls of alcohol. After drinking, he couldn't resist complaining for the thousandth time, saying, "Can this cheap, trashy alcohol be any more terrible to drink!"

He began to tell Qian Fei about his and Gui Lili's affairs.

"Back when this young master was abroad, you have no idea how many people were captivated by my elegance and style—counting both men and women!" He placed himself on a very high pedestal right at the opening, making Qian Fei roll her eyes continuously as she listened.

Even if he was indeed handsome, for him to be able to praise himself like this so tirelessly and flagrantly, he really possessed a thick enough skin.

"At that time, I was discussing a breakup with my then-girlfriend, and my side happened to be empty. That was when Gui Lili appeared. You've seen her too—long flowing hair, long legs, fair skin, and beautiful; she's the dream girl in the hearts of many boys. When she was abroad, she wasn't like she is now. She was gentle, sensible, and completely obedient to me, so this young master took her in. But when my dad came to see me, he met Gui Lili once. On the day he arrived, he was wearing a set of tattered sportswear, looking a bit like a vagrant. I asked him why he dressed like that, and he said wasn't it all because he was saving money for me to go abroad and study. I just laughed. Up to this point, everything was still pretty good.

"But Gui Lili didn't know he was my dad at the time, so she wasn't very welcoming toward him. Later on, the old man told me that this girl Gui Lili is absolutely not ordinary. He said she is completely obedient to me now because I am squandering the money he saved by wearing tattered sportswear to buy her clothes and gifts, letting her live comfortably. He said once the family stops providing money to support us in the future, there's no telling how she'll treat me. The old man firmly insisted that Gui Lili was not suitable to be my wife and ordered me to break up with her. I felt it was extremely bizarre at the time. This isn't ancient times; whether she's good or not, or suitable or not, shouldn't I live through it and see for myself? He's a generation apart, so what was he doing meddling along! Furthermore, ever since I was a child, I've had a persevering good habit: if the old man says to go left, I will absolutely go right. In truth, I had never thought about a matter as distant as marriage, but since he wouldn't let me marry Gui Lili, I intentionally used marriage to scare him.

"The old man then said that if I didn't break up with Gui Lili, he would sever our father-son relationship. He also said that if I left him, I would certainly achieve nothing, and that when I could no longer get by, I would go back to beg him, at which time he would absolutely not give me a single glance. What a strong-willed person this young master is; could I tolerate that? So I told him, if you want to sever it, then sever it. I don't believe that I won't be able to live without you!" He took another sip of alcohol. "At that time, the old man told me, 'Don't say I look down on you. Even if you can feed yourself, you won't be able to feed that woman!' I refused to accept it, saying she was easy to support. The old man then cursed me for being blind, and I argued back and forth with him for a massive session, arguing to the point that he nearly suffered a myocardial infarction. The two of us completely severed relations right then and there! Looking at it now, I really was quite blind!"

After finishing speaking, he turned his head to look at Qian Fei, who was currently listening with a dumbfounded expression.

"What kind of expression is that?"

Qian Fei smacked her lips. "Why do I feel like I've just watched a melodramatic Korean soap opera! You said your dad stinted himself into looking like a vagrant just for you to study abroad, yet you still severed relations with him. Aren't you being a bit unfilial?"

Li Yifei gave a snort: "You really are a qualified holy mother, able to worry about anyone! Go ahead and listen to him say that! The old man has his own private stash of money!"

Qian Fei asked, "What does your dad do?"

Li Yifei said, "Self-employed businessman."

Qian Fei asked again, "Is business good?"

Li Yifei said, "It was decent a few years ago, but a few problems have cropped up over the last year or two."

Qian Fei let out an "oh." "Then your dad hasn't had it easy. Running a private business yet able to send you abroad to study, and you still picked a fight with him. I feel you did wrong in this matter!"

Li Yifei said, "My family's matters are relatively complicated, so stop following along and worrying about it!" He gave her a nudge. "Don't just listen to the excitement without contributing; it's your turn to speak!"

Qian Fei's brain was already turning a bit sluggish. "Is that matter of yours considered finished just like that?"

Li Yifei said, "Yeah, it's finished! What else do you want to hear? Didn't you hear everything that happened afterward when Gui Lili and I were arguing? Just integrate and comprehend it yourself, and wouldn't that be the grand finale!"

Qian Fei shook her head and said, "No! I wanted to ask, with you and your dad fighting to this extent, doesn't your mom care? Doesn't she come out to mediate between the two of you?"

She saw Li Yifei's expression instantly dim down.

"My mom passed away back when I was a child."

Qian Fei's heart gave a sudden jolt.

She suddenly remembered the words she had said when she slapped his face before—

—Li Yifei, regardless of how spoiled and pampered you are at home, over here with me, you'd better cut it out with your endless 'mother' this and 'mother' that! You have a mother yourself; do you hope your mother gets dragged out to be greeted by people for no reason?

She remembered that at the time, something akin to remembrance and sorrow was surging deep within his eyes.

Qian Fei suddenly felt that her words on that day had been spoken a bit too harshly.

"I'm sorry!" she said softly.

"What?" Li Yifei asked in confusion.

"Nothing!" She shook her head. "In fact, back when I was in university, my mom also passed away!"

Li Yifei looked at her, the depths of his eyes becoming gentle and tender.

"For sharing the same plight, let's have a drink!" He raised his beer can.

Qian Fei clinked with him, tilted her head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

She didn't know if it was the alcohol getting to her head, but her emotions gradually spiraled out of control. Qian Fei felt the corners of her eyes grow a bit damp.

She raised her hand to wipe her face and said to Li Yifei, "Let me tell you my story. I guarantee it'll be so soul-stirring you won't be able to sleep!"

She recounted the matters between herself and Wang Ruohai from beginning to end.

These matters were things she had never narrated to anyone in such detail before. She had thought that her little history with Wang Ruohai would rot in her stomach for the rest of her life. After the breakup, she wanted to deliberately forget those past events, thinking that only in this way could she stop feeling heartbroken and sad. Every day, she forced herself to live with a resilient smile, compelling herself not to recall the beautiful past and regret her current emotional failure with hot tears in her eyes just because she heard a certain song they had once listened to together. She didn't want to live her life like a resentful woman.

It wasn't until this evening, while having a late-night talk over alcohol with a tenant who couldn't even be considered a close acquaintance, that she realized she hadn't forgotten a single one of those past events; she still remembered every bit of them.

She couldn't help but feel sad. She had worked so hard, believing she had already cast off these emotional shackles, yet she hadn't expected that she was merely deceiving herself; she hadn't forgotten anything at all.

Having finished speaking, she looked at Li Yifei and asked, "After listening to my story, do you feel a lot more comfortable? Because I'm far more miserable than you, right!"

Li Yifei also looked at her and said, "Yeah, pretty miserable. You've even cried yourself miserable!"

Qian Fei sniffled twice: "I'm not usually like this. How can I lose my composure so much upon drinking alcohol!"

Li Yifei comforted her: "When heartbroken, you have to lose your composure once, otherwise you won't truly walk out of it!"

Qian Fei cried and laughed at the same time: "How has it turned into you comforting me?"

Li Yifei said, "In truth, you are still comforting me. When a person is troubled, seeing that someone else is even more troubled than him is a tremendous comfort that can be encountered but not sought."

Qian Fei suddenly found herself unable to cry.

On this evening, the two of them didn't know how much alcohol they drank. Midway through, Li Yifei even went downstairs to buy another round. What he bought back was imported beer. With just one sip, Qian Fei knew why Li Yifei had kept grumbling about the previous alcohol being terrible to drink.

Without realizing it, they also drank all of the alcohol purchased later. They spoke a grand mess of words, basically all of it being nonsense. Qian Fei felt that given her dizzy and heavy-headed state, she wouldn't need to wait for the next day—after just one hour, she wouldn't be able to recall what she had said sixty minutes prior.

In her haze, she felt a strong urge to vomit. Adhering to the principle of proximity, she ran to the bathroom used by Li Yifei. However, just upon pushing the door and entering, she wanted to cry.

Can this fucking thing get any messier!

Enduring the contents that had already rolled to the back of her throat, she forcefully held it in and ran to the bathroom in her own room. Seeing her frantic and disoriented state, Li Yifei followed her into the toilet, fearing she would bump into the door. She vomited a grand mess, while Li Yifei pinched his nose with a face full of revulsion as he helped pat her back.

"This combat effectiveness of yours won't do!" In truth, his tongue was also somewhat tied.

Qian Fei turned her head, looking at him listlessly as she said resentfully, "Li Yifei! How can that bathroom of yours be that dirty, messy, and bad! To the point that it left me with zero desire to even vomit! You actually have the nerve to claim you're someone with a obsession for cleanliness!"

She looked for a water cup to rinse her mouth.

Once she was done rinsing, Li Yifei supported her, wanting to help her over to the bed. "You're already in this pathetic state, so stop brooding over my bathroom! Go take a good rest, and if you can't stand the sight of it, help me clean it up tomorrow!"

Unable to tolerate it any further, Qian Fei spat heavily right toward his face with a "pui," her two hands flailing wildly. "You really take yourself for a young master, don't you! I am your landlord! My status is far more honorable and lofty than yours, do you know that or not!"

Li Yifei tossed her onto the bed. "Go to sleep!"

Qian Fei's hands were still clutching his arm, pulling him down to fall flat right on top of her in an instant.

For a moment, the faces of the two individuals were incomparably close, and Li Yifei came within a hair's breadth of kissing her.

Muddled and confused, Qian Fei pushed at his face. "Wang Ruohai, get away from me. What kind of Korean drama plot are you playing at in the middle of the night! This old aunt wants to sleep!"

Li Yifei froze for a moment, climbed up, and looked at Qian Fei, who was spread out like a massive character on the bed. He was incomparably certain that the tiny, tiny, tiny bit of illusion he had felt just a moment ago—thinking that she actually looked pretty decent, especially since her lips were very pink and moist—was absolutely the effect of the alcohol! He thought that even if he had pinned down a sow just now, looking at the pink and tender nostrils of the pig, he would probably also have the illusion of thinking it looked quite good!

Looking at Qian Fei, who had already closed her eyes, he let out a long breath of alcohol fumes.

This is just a completely unteachable, super invincible tomboy!

"As for you, having been cheated on once already, open your eyes wide and grow a bit of a brain!"

Qian Fei gave a murmur and fell asleep.

When Qian Fei woke up the next day, it was already noon. Baring her teeth, she rubbed her head, feeling as though her headache was about to split it into two halves. She swore never to drink alcohol with anyone like this ever again.

Getting up to drink a glass of water, she suddenly remembered that before going to sleep yesterday, Li Yifei seemed to have said something to her.

But what on earth was it that he said?

No matter what, she couldn't remember clearly.

※※※※※※

After Li Yifei helped Qian Fei onto the bed, helped her pull up the blanket, turned off the light, and closed the door, he returned to his own room.

He picked up his phone, seeing countless missed calls from Da Jun and several WeChat messages of exceptionally agitated emotions displayed on the screen.

"You beast, do a good deed to the end, ah, ah, ah, ah! You finally requested a week off for me, you can't give up halfway like this, ah, ah, ,ah, ah, ah, !!!!! It was agreed upon tonight that you'd help me clear the level, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! But where are you, ah, ah, ah, ah!!!!!!!"

"Animal, come out, ah!!!! Don't let our one week of hard work go down the drain, ah, ah, ah, ah!!!!!"

"Li Yifei, you massive scoundrel!!!! If you don't come out again, I'm going to be beaten right back to square one, ah!!!!!"

"Li Yifei, you are just a massive brute!!!! My equipment was dropped from the explosion, ah, ah, ah, ah!!!! I'll hate you for ten thousand years!!!!"

"Request another week off next week!!! Accompany me to re-clear the level!!!! Or! Else! We! Sever! Relations!!!"

Li Yifei lay down on the bed, unhurriedly replying with a WeChat message.

"Then let's sever relations."