Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: I Have Fallen in Love with You

Wang Ruohai had become very different from before; he now carried quite a bit of a successful professional's air. Qian Fei felt that money truly was a vexing little goblin. It could drive deeply in-love people to stray, yet it could also arm a once-ordinary guy into a social elite.

Many old classmates took turns bombarding Qian Fei, advising her to accept Wang Ruohai one more time. Even Yao Jingjing said to her during a phone call, "Feifei, the class monitor told me that although those nightly gatherings before were hosted in turn under different people's names, Wang Ruohai actually paid for all of them. Sigh, I don't know whether to advise you two to get back together or continue spitting on him as a scumbag now either. I'm afraid that in case he really has thoroughly mended his ways, cast off his old self, and turned over a new leaf, and I instigate you not to give him a chance, you might marry someone else in the future and end up not very happy. I think I would take a knife and stab myself to death!"

Qian Fei spat at her. "Can you chant some pleasant scriptures for me! Why on earth should I be so blind as to marry someone else and be unhappy!"

Yao Jingjing said, "You aren't blind, you're stupid!"

Qian Fei decided to subtract one hundred yuan from the wedding gift money she was saving up for Yao Jingjing and give it to the old grandpa selling deceptive newspapers on the railway station footbridge instead.

Even wasting the money rather than giving it to her—now that was what she called letting out her spite!

When Wang Ruohai called Qian Fei, Qian Fei told him, "Tell the class monitor not to organize any more gatherings." When Wang Ruohai asked why, Qian Fei said, "It's about to be my turn soon, and I don't want to shell out the cash."

Wang Ruohai said, "I'll shell it out on your behalf!"

Qian Fei let out a "heh" sound. "You really are getting scorched by your money, you have a little cash and you just don't know how to flaunt it enough! Isn't it better for you to save your money? Do you absolutely have to spend it like this?"

Wang Ruohai laughed softly over the phone. "Alright, I'll save it! But I can't hold onto savings by myself, why don't I place it with you and have you help me save it instead!"

Qian Fei said, "Please get lost!"

Putting down the phone, her heart felt both sourly choked and full of sighs. What was meant by "time moves on and things change, environments shift and the world alters"? This was exactly it. In the past, she wanted to help him save money, but she ended up saving him right away from her. Now it was his turn to come beg her to help him save money on his behalf, yet she felt that she no longer possessed that state of mind anymore.

The date for the resumption of IPOs remained up in the air indefinitely. Stocks couldn't be issued, capital couldn't be raised, and securities firms couldn't obtain sponsor and underwriting fees, causing them to begin struggling in deep water and scorching fire. Qian Fei's company finally couldn't hold out any longer; they were about to start layoffs.

Because she had requested a few days of leave due to her illness, Qian Fei had somehow given them a pretext, becoming a primary target for layoffs within the investment banking project department. Sister Jin risked her life to leak this piece of news, and Qian Fei went entirely blank upon hearing it. She originally wanted to go find Manager Kong and Liu Yifeng to think of a solution, but Sister Jin told her, "Don't go. Manager Kong and Liu Yifeng are about to jump ship to another company, leaving next month. It’s not convenient for them to fight for anything on your behalf anymore either. You should think of other ways. This matter is managed by the vice president. If someone could pass a word along to him, there might still be hope!"

With her mind in a complete flurry, Qian Fei returned home. If this had happened in the past, she wouldn't have been afraid of being dismissed; at worst, she would just spend half a month or a month finding another job. But now she didn't dare. She carried over seven thousand yuan in monthly mortgage payments. Without a job, she could only go to the hospital to have a kidney harvested or bone marrow drawn.

She racked her brains but still didn't know what to do, when a sudden stroke of wit made her think of Li Yifei. He was in the same industry and had unconventional connections, so perhaps asking him could yield some kind of solution.

Thinking this way, she plucked up her courage and sent a WeChat message to Li Yifei: When will you finish your business trip?

She seemed to recall hearing Zhao De mention that the duration of his business trip was one month. Counting the days, he should be back by now.

But after waiting for a short while, the reply Li Yifei sent back to her was: Don't know yet.

These three words instantly dragged the threads of hope rising within her heart right back down into a deep abyss.

●︶3︶●

For this past period of time, Li Yifei had been busy to the point of losing track of day and night.

The project team had originally estimated the business trip duration to be one month, but the corporate leader was truly a difficult thorn. From time to time, he would put forward numerous requirements that made him very hard to serve, causing the later-stage work to progress exceptionally slowly. The project team and the enterprise also developed significant differences of opinion regarding the issuance plan. Both sides consistently stuck to their own views in a deadlock, causing the business trip date to be extended out of necessity.

This enterprise was truly difficult to deal with. He and the others on the project team were practically stripped of a layer of skin by the corporate boss's tossing and turning. The project leader even said he regretted taking on this project—he hadn't earned much money, yet his heart had been worried into broken shreds.

Compared to the project leader's depression and agitation, Li Yifei possessed a bizarre sort of composure instead. Others all knew he wasn't some easily served master either, yet they couldn't fathom why he would display such uncomplaining endurance and allow himself to be slaughtered this time around.

Only Li Yifei understood it himself. He was using the frantic busyness of the project to dissolve those things that were stirring restlessly inside his heart. While everyone else cursed the project for being hard to do and the boss for being hard to handle, he genuinely thanked this enterprise's boss for being a difficult thorn, keeping him busy dealing with him every day. If this project hadn't required too many areas to divert his attention, he really felt that after having enough time to let his mind wander randomly, he would definitely be unable to restrain himself from calling Qian Fei.

Before he was certain whether he wanted to be together with her, he couldn't flirt with her like this.

When the night was deep and all was quiet, he would roll around in bed, also enduring the unbearable torment as he wondered: Why is it that since he isn't looking for her, she isn't looking for him either? This child was far too stubborn; her playing hard to get in this unconscious manner practically made his heart itch even more.

She had finally sent him a WeChat message with great difficulty, but the timing was truly entirely wrong.

When her message came over, he and another colleague were currently having an argument with that thorn of a corporate boss.

He returned a message to her in the midst of his frantic busyness, which happened to be spotted by the corporate boss. The man slapped the table and howled, acting almost as if he had gone completely mad: "Can you still show me some respect? I'm currently reasoning with you here, yet you're actually lowering your head to play with your phone over there? Is this how you do investment banking?"

If it weren't for professional ethics restraining him, he really wished he could rush up and slap that guy across the face.

●︶3︶●

Li Yifei had sent the WeChat reply while braving shouts and curses in the midst of his frantic busyness: Don't know yet.

But in the eyes of Qian Fei, who had plucked up her courage to send the message only to receive an ambiguous answer, these three words actually translated to "evasion" and "rejection."

Qian Fei completely gave up all hope, deciding never again to do something as foolish as actively pressing her warm face against a cold shoulder. She felt that things had already reached this point; if she still couldn't see that Li Yifei wanted to distance himself from her, she truly would be too blind.

She didn't send another WeChat message to ask Li Yifei about what to do regarding the layoffs. She only called Yao Jingjing to vent a little about her mindset regarding going to the hospital to sell bone marrow shortly. Yao Jingjing comforted her: "Count your bone marrow as mine, don't go to the hospital to sell it. If you really get fired, I'll pay your mortgage for you!"

Qian Fei felt that at critical moments, what configuration of a male confidant or a male best friend was all complete nonsense—the one most capable of offering timely help in the snow still had to be her close friend, the great goblin.

Since there was no remedy available, she simply stopped worrying altogether, going to and leaving work as nature dictated, waiting to be laid off with complete openness.

But when the day the layoff list was finalized actually arrived, Sister Jin informed her that she wasn't on the list.

She was stunned, not knowing how her moral luck had burst its banks to make her a fish that escaped the net beneath the list.

Later on, it was still Yao Jingjing who cleared up her bewilderment.

"I mentioned this matter to Wang Ruohai, and he said he has a client who was a classmate of your vice president in the Tsinghua MBA program, so he should be able to pass a word along. I just took those words lightly at the time, but I didn't expect he would actually get the job done! Mm, on this matter, I'll award him some points!"

 

Qian Fei's heart felt mixed with five distinct flavors. She hadn't expected that the one who protected her in the end would be Wang Ruohai.

The next evening, Wang Ruohai sought her out for dinner at Justine's French Restaurant on Jianguomen Outer Street.

Hearing this restaurant's name, Qian Fei was dazed for a long while. Before the down payment on the house was made, Wang Ruohai had proposed to her right here. They had always scrimped and saved, never going to restaurants where the per capita consumption exceeded 50 yuan. Only on that day, Wang Ruohai insisted on going to Justine's no matter what. For this reason, she had even disputed a couple of sentences with him, and the two of them had made themselves quite unhappy before going.

As it turned out, halfway through the meal, he suddenly dropped to one knee and proposed to her. She had instantly cried a messy puddle of tears, and many people nearby clapped along with them. She felt that moment truly was romantic, beautiful, and dreamlike.

But later on when it came time to pay the bill, she didn't find it romantic, beautiful, or dreamlike anymore. Wang Ruohai actually didn't have enough cash in his wallet. While scolding him for why he picked such an expensive place to eat, her heart ached terribly as she made up the remaining amount under the sympathetic and pitying gaze of the waiter.

That gaze seemed to be saying: It must be hard on you guys to come here to play at romance when you have no money.

Later upon returning home, Wang Ruohai threw a temper at her, saying, "Couldn't you just put a little more money in my wallet! How much face did I lose today!"

She also grew a bit angry along with him: "Isn't it good for us to enjoy ourselves within the scope of whatever capability we have? Do we absolutely have to copy others by relying on material things to manufacture romance? Other people have money, we don't!"

After that, he didn't pay attention to her for the rest of the night.

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that starting from that day, the frequency of Wang Ruohai's overtime gradually began to rise.

Qian Fei looked back on the past and felt that she really had lived far too strictly as well. She had also cross-examined herself later on—was it because they were too familiar with each other that she frequently forgot to give the other party face in front of people? Actually, regarding many matters in the past, she really hadn't done very well. In the past, she merely felt that her current frugality was all for the two of them's future happiness, yet she had never thought about how what was lost in the present could never be compensated back in the future no matter what.

The phrase "gain wisdom from a fall" was completely right. After the breakup, she finally came to understand a truth: actually, when it was time to enjoy oneself, one truly had to enjoy oneself; if she didn't enjoy herself any longer, she would grow old.

When work ended the next day, Wang Ruohai drove his car down to the company building to pick her up.

The table Wang Ruohai reserved actually turned out to be their old spot from before.

Revisiting an old haunt, Qian Fei felt only a faint sense of sighs and an indescribable sourness in her heart.

As she lowered her head to cut her steak, Wang Ruohai called her name.

She lifted her head, meeting a pair of earnest eyes from Wang Ruohai.

He reached his hand over to clasp her hand. "Feifei, give me another chance, let's start over again, okay? Treat it as if I lost my way before and walked down a fork in the road, but now I want to come home! In the past I didn't know how to cherish you, but in the future I will take good care of you! Without you to help me manage my money, I really, consistently haven't been able to save any money!" As he spoke on, his eyes reddened and his voice choked up.

Qian Fei suddenly felt exceptionally miserable in her heart—a misery of extreme grievance.

During this period, when she needed that person to be by her side, that person avoided her as if she were a venomous snake. She felt exceptionally aggrieved and exceptionally miserable. On the contrary, it was the one before her eyes who had taken her to the hospital when she was sick, and who had protected her job when she was about to be laid off.

Thinking of that person's attitude and thinking of everything that had occurred recently, she actually developed a feeling of cold disappointment for a moment.

She looked at Wang Ruohai and said slowly, "I cannot agree to be your girlfriend again all at once. I can only promise you that during the upcoming month, I will try my best to give it a shot and see if I can still accept you one more time!"

Holding her hand, Wang Ruohai's eyes grew moist. "That's enough, Feifei! This way, I am already content!"

●︶3︶●

Early in the morning, Li Yifei called Zhao De to finish discussing work matters, before casually gossiping about a few other things. Hearing that Zhao De's voice sounded listless, he asked him what was wrong, and Zhao De said, "My chest has been feeling stifled lately."

Li Yifei advised him to go to rest a bit earlier every day and stop staying up late, but Zhao De shifted the topic to the matter of the layoffs at Qian Fei's company.

Zhao De told Li Yifei, "I heard from Liu Yifeng that our little Feifei was almost laid off! Fortunately, someone surnamed Wang later twisted through many turns to pass a word along to the vice president, allowing little Feifei to keep her position in the martial world!"

When Li Yifei heard the four words "surnamed Wang," his heart skipped a beat. He asked Zhao De when this matter had occurred. Zhao De said, "Just last week!" Li Yifei calculated the time, and it happened to be exactly when Qian Fei had asked him when he would return before.

Looking back now, her sending a WeChat message to him back then must have been for the sake of this matter. She must have been very helpless at that time, right? But how had he replied to her?

——Don't know yet.

He suddenly felt a bit panicked—a panic that caused a layer of cold sweat to break out over his body.

And so she went to find that ex-boyfriend surnamed Wang right after?

All this time, he seemed to have overlooked a very important problem. He had fallen in love with Qian Fei, but what about Qian Fei herself?

In terms of women, he had always considered his perception sensitive, confident that he could completely detect whether any woman harbored good feelings toward him. Within his perception, he had consistently felt that Qian Fei also liked him. But he had overlooked one point—during the month he went out to straighten out his train of thought, she wouldn't necessarily wait in place for him to finish straightening it out. She wasn't his anyone, she had no obligation to do so, and what was even more fatal was that he hadn't thought at all about how perhaps another man would appear by her side.

He truly had been too confident—confident to the point of near stupidity. How could he have forgotten that there was still an ex-boyfriend in her life whom she couldn't forget, to the extent that she hadn't even been willing to throw away the photo album.

In an instant, under the stimulation of an external force, his mind cleared up as if enlightened by a sudden revelation. Amidst self-reproach, regret, and fear, he straightened out his own feelings to the absolute limit. He felt that he truly was a bit cheap—when there was no crisis, he had to pretentiously straighten out his feelings, yet he absolutely had to wait until a crisis arrived before he could decisively see through his inner heart.

His heart grew increasingly panicked.

He felt that he missed her to an unbearable degree; he wanted to go back, unable to wait a single moment longer! He realized that he no longer needed to confirm anything at all; he saw his own heart clearly—he simply liked her, he had simply fallen in love with her, and he was willing to try to become a person who was single-minded and responsible toward feelings and marriage for her sake!

He could no longer wait; he was afraid that if he delayed any further, he would truly miss out on something.

Using the fastest speed possible, he handed over the matters at hand to the other team members, bought a plane ticket for that afternoon, and flew back to Beijing with arrows of longing guiding his heart home.

Stepping off the plane, he took a taxi straight toward Financial Street.

On the way, he called to reserve a table at the Italian restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton, before calling Qian Fei.

The call connected. Restraining the surging, tumultuous billows in the depths of his heart, he used a calm tone as much as possible to tell the person on the other side, "I'm back!"

He heard that silly older sister's voice actually sound a bit hesitant: "...Oh."

A bit of uncontrollable excitement from a long separation rippled within his chest. He said with a raspy voice, "Qian Fei, let's have dinner together tonight, I have something to say to you!"

He heard the silly older sister agree with that same slight hesitation: "...Alright."

After hanging up, he sent the address to Qian Fei.

Then he told the driver, "Master, please make a trip to the Roseonly specialty flower shop in Sanlitun first!"

●︶3︶●

Qian Fei didn't know with exactly what kind of mindset she had managed to endure until the end of the workday. She felt that Li Yifei having something to say to her meant he probably wanted to lay things out clearly with her, along the lines of "don't think too much, that night was an accident, I've always treated you as a friend" and so forth.

Before enduring until the end of the workday, she sent a text message to Wang Ruohai saying she had an engagement, telling him to have dinner by himself tonight, before rushing over to the Ritz-Carlton.

After over a month, when she saw Li Yifei once more, she suddenly had a feeling as if a lifetime had passed.

Watching him formally dressed in a western suit and tie, pursing his lips into a smile as he stood up from his chair to welcome her, she suddenly felt a corner of her heart throb with a slight, sour ache.

In the June weather, the scorching sun blazed outside, yet the air conditioning inside the room blew until she felt slightly cold. Looking at him, she almost wanted to break into a shiver.

He tactfully declined the waiter, personally pulling out the chair for her. After sitting back down, he arched his brow as he always did, using that familiar, arrogant tone of voice to say, "I never help people pull out chairs!"

She instantly couldn't restrain a smile, a smile that left her entire mouth washed with a wave of astringent sourness.

"Wearing so much, aren't you hot?" This was the first sentence she uttered.

"Even if it's hot I have to wear it like this, this is a question of attitude!" The corners of his lips quirked into a smile as he looked at her. His gaze suddenly turned a bit deep as he asked in a soft voice, "How did you suddenly lose so much weight? Your eyes are so big now they practically look like a young calf's!"

She touched her face, a bit bewildered. "Did I? It might be from burning during that fever a while ago."

Hearing those words, he froze for a moment and asked, "When did this happen?"

She smiled with absolute casualness, saying, "It passed a long time ago, it's fine!" Then she asked, "Didn't you say over the phone that you had something to say to me? What words are they? I'm prepared, speak quickly!"

●︶3︶●

From the chair beside him, Li Yifei picked up a long box and handed it to Qian Fei.

Qian Fei took it in puzzlement.

The English letters Roseonly were printed upon the box, with a ribbon tied around the middle. Her heart suddenly experienced a bit of alarm. She knew what this was; she had previously seen a female celebrity surnamed Li show it off on Weibo before—it was the flowers her husband had bought for her. She knew that this brand's fresh flowers were expensive to the point of highway robbery, with a core philosophy of "only sending to one person in a lifetime." Out of curiosity, she had even specially run over to the official website to look at it.

With hands that trembled slightly in her puzzlement, she opened the lid of the box.

Eighteen Ecuadorian red and pink roses lay inside the box, blooming to their absolute limit toward her.

It was that specific style named "Heartstirring."

The designer's monologue read: A heartbeat at this moment, a loss of control at this moment, falling in love with love at this moment. You, with all your eccentric whims, have completely infatuated me.

Qian Fei's heart beat like a drum as she lifted her head in puzzlement. "What does this mean?"

Li Yifei looked at her with a deep gaze, a hint of emotional raspiness present within his voice: "I wanted to take advantage of this period on the business trip to properly straighten out exactly what I was thinking. Then after this month or so, I've confirmed that I have fallen in love with you!"

Qian Fei was stunned.

After a good while, she suddenly began to laugh, saying, "Li Yifei, you're truly hilarious. A while ago you were dodging me as if I were who knows what, and now you say you've fallen in love with me!"

Li Yifei looked at her without blinking once. "I dodged out to see clearly to exactly what extent I liked you. I was afraid that if I provoked you for no good reason, I would end up hurting you!"

Qian Fei let out an "ah" sound, closed the lid of the box properly, and returned it to him. Still smiling, she said, "So that's how it is. Actually, you didn't need to do that, because my ex-boyfriend and I just got back together!"

Li Yifei looked at her in shock, looking as if he had been struck by something, a face full of a pained and hard-to-believe expression.