Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Birthday Gift

Qian Fei heard from the people in her project group that Li Yifei had apparently broken up with his new girlfriend. The girl was heartbroken and had come to find him to return his things, leaving in tears once she was done.

In the afternoon, Qian Fei ran into Gui Lili. Her complexion looked incredibly good, and a hidden sense of delight peeked through her eyes and brows.

After work in the evening, Qian Fei told Li Yifei to head out first while she went to a pharmacy to buy some medicine to mail back home to the old man. By the time she got home, she found the security door to the apartment slightly ajar, not fully closed. Standing at the entrance, she could clearly hear the sound of a conversation coming from inside the room.

Judging by the voices, it was a man and a woman. The man was naturally Li Yifei, but the woman surprised Qian Fei a bit—it actually turned out to be Gui Lili.

The two of them were right in the middle of a tense part of their conversation, leaving Qian Fei standing at the door for a moment, unsure whether she should walk in or not.

Standing at the entrance, she heard Gui Lili crying as she spoke, "Yifei, let's get back together! I finally know that material things aren't what I want most. The one I love most is you! Seeing you at the company every day while you don't look at me, don't smile at me, and don't even call my name makes me suffer so much!"

Qian Fei shuddered. That long-lost Mary Sue feeling had once again arrived in grand style alongside Princess Gui.

She heard Li Yifei say coldly, "Chairman Niu would be heartbroken to death if he heard you say that."

She heard Gui Lili sob while asking, "Yifei, do you really not love me anymore? I don't believe it! That new girlfriend you found, wasn't she just to spite me and put on a show for me? She looks so much like me! Aren't you just using her as my substitute? I don't believe your heart is as cold as the words you are speaking right now!"

Qian Fei shuddered violently once more. It really was a massive loss to the acting industry that this girl hadn't gone into acting.

She heard Li Yifei let out a scoff, "Heh! How can your opinion of yourself be this high? How come I never noticed it before? Doing this really makes one feel both speechless and bored! I beg you to get it straight. I have always liked girls with long hair, fair skin, and big eyes. Since when did that suddenly turn into finding a substitute for you? Gui Lili, you weren't like this before. Why are you acting so dramatic now that you're practically brain-dead!"

Gui Lili wailed in heartbreak, "I don't believe it! I don't believe it, I don't believe it! You have been living here all this time, refusing to move out. Aren't you just waiting for me to come back? I don't believe what your heart thinks is the same as what your mouth says! You must be saying this because you are angry with me, aren't you, Yifei?"

Li Yifei's voice carried a mocking tone, "I'm not interested in things that others have used. Don't tell me you haven't slept with your Chairman Niu. If you actually dare to say you haven't slept with him, I really will agree to let you come back!"

Gui Lili was utterly devastated, "Yifei, don't treat me like this!"

An impatient note entered Li Yifei's tone, "How others treat you is entirely a result of your own doing. Alright, stop crying endlessly here. Before you completely wear out the very last bit of affection I have left for you, hurry up and leave!"

Qian Fei froze. Intuiting that this play had already reached its end, she quickly stepped to the side, clearing the doorway.

Just as she slipped to the side, Gui Lili pushed open the door from inside the room and ran out crying, masking her tear-stained face as she dashed toward the elevator.

Looking at the half-open door, Qian Fei was unsure for a moment whether she should enter the apartment. While she was standing there in a daze, she suddenly heard Li Yifei say crossly from inside, "The show is already over, so why aren't you hurrying home? Are you waiting to watch the sequel!"

With a dry chuckle, Qian Fei walked into the apartment.

"So, uh, are you alright?" she asked probingly.

Li Yifei raised an eyebrow. "What could possibly be wrong with me?"

Qian Fei pointed outside the door. "Why did she suddenly think of coming back to find you?"

Li Yifei sneered, "Who knows what she's thinking. Probably pre-marital cold feet!"

Qian Fei didn't quite catch his meaning, "Pre-marital cold feet? With whom? Chairman Niu?"

Seeing Li Yifei nod, Qian Fei found it mind-boggling. Gui Lili truly was a new-era woman with a broad mind and universal love for all living things. She was almost about to marry a tycoon, yet she still couldn't forget her past little loser boyfriend.

She asked Li Yifei, "Say, what if you actually agreed to let her come back? What kind of ending would I see in that sequel?"

Li Yifei's face was full of sarcasm, "Nothing more than her coming back to sleep with me for a night, and then waking up the next morning to tell me she still has to go marry Tycoon Niu, asking me not to hate her, and praying that she can come back to sleep with me whenever she wants in the future because she loves me!"

Hearing the word "sleep," Qian Fei felt like she was about to gag.

For dinner, she had originally wanted to make stir-fried eggplant strips for Li Yifei, but for some reason, she suddenly couldn't muster up the energy.

She piled the eggplants in the kitchen, took out two cups of instant noodles—one for herself and one for Li Yifei—and told him, "I'm a bit depressed today. This is dinner. Eat it or don't. If you don't eat it, find a way to solve it yourself."

Holding the instant noodles with a bewildered face, Li Yifei asked structural dissatisfaction, "What's the situation? Did your Auntie Flow arrive? Is it really necessary to throw a tantrum and get depressed like this!"

Carrying her instant noodles, Qian Fei walked to the doorway of her room. Before closing the door, she stopped, turned her head to look at him, and said ominously, "Show some respect to Auntie Flow. At any rate, she is an elder!"

●︶3︶●

Li Yifei went on a temporary business trip for two weeks. He had been called by others in their company to go to a certain province to conduct due diligence on an enterprise planning to issue corporate bonds. Because he had participated in bond issuance projects before, that project group had specially borrowed him over.

Before leaving, Li Yifei told Qian Fei very cockily, "Sanitary Pad, I have a premonition that you will definitely miss me terribly!"

Qian Fei expressed utter detestation for the nickname he repeatedly brought up, "Li Yifei, just based on those three words 'Sanitary Pad,' it is impossible for me to miss you!"

But Qian Fei discovered that Li Yifei's crow mouth turned out to be damn right; she actually did miss him a little.

She suddenly felt that being home alone was truly lonely.

Without her realizing when it started, from opening her eyes in the morning, to working during the day, to leaving work in the evening, to closing her eyes to sleep at night, she was with Li Yifei almost every single moment.

Unknowingly, they had actually kept each other company for this long—so long that once he went on a business trip, she felt the apartment was empty and a bit lonely.

And they, starting from strangers who initially looked down on each other a bit, had bit by bit actually developed to such an intimate stage, like friends, like brothers, like partners.

Li Yifei would call her every few days. The two of them always ended up trading barbs as they spoke over the phone. If the bickering didn't reach the heavens, it wouldn't count as finished, and they absolutely had to choke each other until one side coughed up blood before stopping.

Li Yifei said, "Sanitary Pad, do you know? The people at the enterprise on my side say that listening to the two of us talk on the phone is bound to cause a heart attack! There are just too many continuous climaxes!"

Qian Fei just laughed.

In truth, being able to meet someone who could trade barbs with her on equal terms felt incredibly awesome. That unspoken understanding and joy of crushing each other line by line was something outsiders could never experience.

On the weekend evening, after eating a casual dinner, Qian Fei turned on the television. In the past when she watched Mango TV, Li Yifei would always roast it from the side, and the more he roasted it, the more she felt Mango TV was good to watch. Now that there was no Li Yifei to roast it, she suddenly felt the television programs were actually a bit dull and flavorless. She turned off the TV, stood up to set up the treadmill, and planned to exercise a bit after her meal.

Just as she stepped onto it, her phone rang.

She ran to her room to grab the phone, and the three words "Li Drama Queen" flashed on the screen. The corners of her mouth curved up.

"Sanitary Pad, I'm arriving home tomorrow. Make me some delicious food, there absolutely must be stir-fried eggplant strips!" The moment the call connected, Li Yifei spoke up from the other end.

Qian Fei felt a bit happy in her heart, but her tone was foul as she asked, "Did your company abuse you or something? A single business trip made you this greedy for food?"

Li Yifei let out a "tch" and asked, "Sanitary Pad, isn't your birthday coming up soon?"

Qian Fei paused, "Seems like it, why?"

Li Yifei said, "Nothing. Anyway, I am currently by the seaside, so I can dig up some rotten seaweed to bring back for you to brew seaweed soup or something. Isn't that how it always plays out in those Korean dramas you watch! By the way, no need to thank me!"

Qian Fei fiercely caught his drift and said, "Tomorrow I will prepare a signature dish for you—arsenic stir-fried with meat. No need to thank me!"

The two of them bickered for a while longer before hanging up the phone.

Qian Fei turned off the treadmill and went to watch TV again.

For some reason at this moment, she felt Mango TV was good to watch again.

●︶3︶●

The next evening, Li Yifei returned from his business trip, and Qian Fei made a table full of excellent dishes. While eating, Li Yifei praised her somewhat half-heartedly, "Sanitary Pad, the dishes you make taste better than the ones made by the five-star hotels in the place where I went on my business trip!"

Qian Fei kicked him under the table, "Saying the three words 'Sanitary Pad' at the dining table, don't you find it disgusting!" Then she leaned her head over and asked delightfully, "Have my culinary skills already become this good?"

Li Yifei glanced at her sideways, his gaze drifting as he said, "Actually, I just said it casually, mostly wanting to make you blindly happy. If you take it too seriously and puncture my lie, then it becomes totally pointless."

Qian Fei stood up to snatch his chopsticks and rice bowl, "Since it's so pointless, just don't eat at all!"

Holding his chopsticks and rice bowl, Li Yifei quickly turned his body to dodge, "Hey, hey! Don't mess around! Let me tell you, this set of tableware is incredibly expensive. If it falls to the ground and shatters, it will be too late for you to cry!"

Qian Fei didn't believe him, "Come off it, it's not like it's a golden rice bowl. If one shatters, I'll buy ten back!"

Li Yifei let out a snort, "If you can buy back even half of one, I'll call you my grand-auntie!" He turned back around, used his chopsticks to tap the bowl, and then tapped the plate on the table, "Do you hear how crisp this sound is? This is all porcelain specially supplied for the exclusive use of the central government!"

Qian Fei snatched the bowl from his hand, lifting it to look it over left and right.

Li Yifei let out a "damn it," "Our bowls are exactly the same, what kind of mindset is it for you to insist on grabbing mine to look at!"

Qian Fei ignored him. After looking at it for a good while, she returned the bowl to him and said, "The bowl looks decent, but it's a high-quality replica, right? I just don't believe porcelain specially supplied for the central government could end up falling into the hands of a common civilian like me!"

Li Yifei burst out laughing.

It really turned out exactly as he had guessed; she actually said the words "high-quality replica."

After finishing dinner, Li Yifei helped Qian Fei clean up the room. Qian Fei discovered that over this period of time, without her realizing it, Li Yifei was able to proactively help her share some of the household chores.

After cleaning everything up, they watched TV for a while. Li Yifei said he was tired and went to the bathroom to wash up. Qian Fei also went back to the bathroom in her own room to wash up and use the toilet while she was at it.

While using the toilet, she was reading jokes on her phone. As a result, she laughed too excitedly, and when she turned around to press the flush button, her hand accidentally slipped, and her phone tragically fell straight into the toilet bowl. Facing the colorful toilet bowl, Qian Fei wanted to cry but had no tears. Suppressing the urge to vomit, she wrapped her hand in a plastic bag and fished the phone out.

She rinsed the phone a bit and then used a hair dryer to blow on it forcefully. After it blew dry, she held the phone attempting to power it on, but the screen remained completely dark.

Swallowing her pain, she comforted herself: Forget it, just change phones. Maybe even the heavens couldn't stand her not using an iPhone anymore.

Lying on the bed, she suddenly felt unsure of how to fall asleep. In the past, she always played on her phone for a while before sleeping. She climbed up, opened the door, and poked her head out to look. The door to Li Yifei's room was open; he was still in the bathroom washing up.

She paced out, walked to the bathroom door, knocked on it, and asked, "Li Yifei, do you have a spare phone?"

Li Yifei opened the door from inside. Mouth full of toothpaste foam, he asked indistinctly, "What do you want to do?"

Qian Fei said vaguely, "My phone fell into the toilet..."

Li Yifei looked at her without speaking, then quickly turned back to the sink to rinse his mouth clean. When he turned back around, he wiped his mouth, looked at Qian Fei, and asked with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile, "Did you guess what kind of birthday gift I prepared for you?"