Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 61

Chapter 61: The Tables Have Turned

Before hanging up, Dajun told Li Yifei one more thing.

"When I was talking to Qian Fei, she kept checking her phone because some creep was messaging her on WeChat. The continuous buzzing was so annoying. I called her out for not respecting me and told her to blacklist whoever was causing the disruption, so she shoved her phone into my hands and told me to do it. When I took the phone and looked, holy crap, that messenger was truly shameless as hell! He actually named his account 'Interstellar Handsome Hunk'! Damn, was the entire Earth not big enough to hold his ego that he had to boast his vanity across the whole universe? One look at that name and I knew he wasn't up to any good—definitely a regular user of the 'People Nearby' shake feature. So, without another word, I blacklisted the guy without any hesitation! I even took the opportunity to lecture that tomboy not to just use the shake feature randomly anymore! I know that after hearing this, you'll want to thank me for returning good for evil and stopping a total creep from harassing your woman, but I want to tell you that I did all of this out of brotherly devotion, so there's no need to thank me!"

As Li Yifei listened, the veins on his forehead began to throb violently.

"Thank your granddad! The person you freaking blacklisted was me!"

That was the alias he had shamelessly forced onto Qian Fei's phone by snatching it from her back then.

Li Yifei felt that the ancient saying was absolutely correct: Fear not a god-like opponent, but a pig-like teammate.

Even if he twisted his intestines thinking about it, he would never have guessed that the WeChat message he sent—the one where he exhausted all his internal energy, depleted his true essence, and cast aside his dignity—was intercepted and blocked by a spendthrift child like Dajun.

He gnashed his teeth and thought to himself that next time, he absolutely couldn't just give away that brat's gaming equipment; he would have to directly give away the high-level account Dajun had spent real money to build up just to vent his anger.

●︶3︶●

When Qian Fei called Yao Jingjing, her state of mind was somewhat frantic.

"I feel like I might never be able to face stir-fried eggplant strips again for the rest of my life."

Yao Jingjing asked her, "Seeing the object brings back memories of the person?"

Qian Fei said, "I am currently working hard to overcome this phenomenon."

Yao Jingjing said, "I'm starting to doubt if I taught you the wrong thing. Is that three-day theory a bit too absolute? Or how about we loosen the deadline a bit and turn it into a three-to-five-day theory? If we look at it that way, Li Yifei's text message was actually sent within the appropriate timeframe!"

Qian Fei said, "It has nothing to do with how many days it's been. I just purely feel like we are genuinely not from the same world. Even now when he reaches out to me, he only says let's make up, without fundamentally understanding that the issues I see are actually issues. If he doesn't think my issues are issues, then even if we make up this time, all kinds of problems will continually stem from this same issue in the future. Therefore, a short pain is better than a long one; it's better to state everything clearly right now and make a clean break."

Yao Jingjing asked, "Then can you really bear to let go?"

Qian Fei fell silent for a short while. After a good long moment, she said faintly, "But I really can't afford to be hurt again."

She no longer had the courage to slowly adjust to a thrilling, heart-stopping love. She was not young anymore; having experienced so much, she only hoped for stability—to find someone who, even if he didn't have much money, and even if her heart didn't flutter when she saw him, could settle down and live a grounded life with her day by day.

After a thousand sails have passed, what does love even amount to? In the end, doesn't everyone still have to live a life made of firewood, rice, oil, and salt?

Ultimately, although the happiness Li Yifei brought her was magnificent, it never touched the ground. Their happiness floated suspended in mid-air, unable to connect with the earth. Hanging there for too long, that happiness was bound to dissipate sooner or later anyway.

●︶3︶●

Sister Jin told Qian Fei that there was a three-minute speed-dating event at a certain park over the weekend.

"Feifei, go take a look. What if you meet someone suitable!"

Qian Fei thought about it and agreed.

It was better than staying home alone over the weekend and overthinking things.

What Qian Fei didn't expect was that she would meet that man named Juncheng at the speed-dating event.

The phone-bill little prince let out a sharp cry the moment he saw her, pointing his finger at her as he asked, "You came out to speed-date, does Li Yifei know about this?!"

Qian Fei slapped away his wildly pointing hand and told him, "I share no blood relation with him, nor do I owe him any money, so why should I let him know!"

Dajun, however, unyieldingly raised his hand again, pointing at her and shouting, "Sister, this isn't right of you! For your sake, Li Yifei can't even choke down stir-fried eggplant strips anymore!"

Qian Fei slapped his hand away once more and asked, "Are you here to speed-date, or are you here to discuss Li Yifei with someone?"

Dajun said, "I originally came to speed-date with people, but seeing you, I can't face this with a speed-dating posture anymore! I'm afraid that if Li Yifei finds out, he'll destroy me!" He paused, the expression on his face instantly switching to a pleading mode, "Sister, can I negotiate something with you? Stop torturing Li Yifei. When you torture that jerk, that jerk messes with my gaming equipment. He messes with it so much that I really want to die!"

While he was seriously using his life to plead and complain over here, Qian Fei's phone over there started buzzing continuously without stopping. The frequency was extremely cocky, basically a short interval every five rings.

Qian Fei lowered her head to look.

Dajun felt that this feeling of being ignored was truly unpleasant.

He tapped the table calculatedly with dissatisfaction, "I say, sister, even if the deal fails, the friendship remains. Although we don't constitute the substance of an actual speed-date, can you leave me with a little dignity at least? When you lower your head to play with your phone like this, if other girls see it, they'll think I'm such an annoying guy that people can't even tolerate me for three minutes! How am I supposed to go through the rest of the process! Hey, hey, hey, Comrade Qian Fei, can you listen to me speak! Is it okay to look at WeChat later! Hey, hey, hey, who is this person messaging on WeChat like this, buzzing continuously! Qian Fei, do you dare to throw him into the blacklist first! If you dare to blacklist him, I'll dare to never mention Li Yifei to you again!"

Qian Fei raised her head and tossed the phone over to him, "Come on, blacklist him!"

Dajun caught the phone in a flurry.

The outdoor sunlight was very bright, glaring against the phone screen so much that it made the chat content a bit difficult to see clearly. He could only clearly see that the profile picture of the person messaging Qian Fei was a default photo-less avatar, and the name was one that made people angry at first glance, called "Interstellar Handsome Hunk."

Dajun cursed, thinking to himself how narcissistic could this guy be—was the Earth unable to hold him anymore! This was freaking obviously not a good person! He was absolutely the type of creep who used a flirtatious name to hit on girls through the shake feature or drift bottles when he had nothing better to do.

With a swift up-and-down movement of his finger, he directly pulled the creep into the blacklist. After completing this action, he felt that his entire being had become holy and noble.

He felt that he had done something incredibly magnificent for his buddy—he had blocked a creep from harassing his buddy's woman!

When he finished blacklisting and looked up at Qian Fei, he found her mouth half-open, her expression somewhat dazed.

He asked, "Hey, what's wrong, sister?"

Qian Fei shook her head with her mouth still half-open, saying, "Nothing, I just feel that if you had been born into a family without money, you probably would have died in infancy at a very young age, unable to grow to be as big as you are now!" This child must have spent a lot of money since childhood to treat his brain.

She sighed silently in her heart.

Was this the will of heaven? He actually really deleted that whoever-he-was for her!

When Dajun returned the phone to Qian Fei, he said, "Qian Fei, don't add friends who use such flirtatious names in the future! Seriously, although that guy Li Yifei is quite underhanded and gave away all my equipment, he's still better than this kind of scammer on WeChat! Really, I feel that Li Yifei actually cares about you quite a bit. Why don't you find another opportunity to cook a plate of stir-fried eggplant strips for him..."

He spoke with a complicated heart (thinking of those pieces of equipment), incoherent speech (really wanting to kick a man while he was down), and in a chaotic mess (but Li Yifei was a brother after all). As Qian Fei listened, she silently stood up.

 

He hurriedly cut off his own speech and asked, "Hey, what are you doing leaving? I haven't finished speaking yet!"

Qian Fei said, "Big brother, the three minutes passed long ago. It's time for us to switch people." Having said that, she twisted her body and walked away.

Leaving Comrade Juncheng like the character Zhou Erkan with his five fingers splayed out, reaching his hand toward the front as he shouted, "Hey, listen to me say one more word! Don't use the shake feature in the future, that thing is unreliable! The people you find are not even as good as Li Yifei!"

He saw many people look toward Qian Fei following his words, especially the men. He felt that his merits were truly boundless, having blocked who knows how many male rivals for Li Yifei.

Up ahead, Qian Fei's foot suddenly twisted hard. After limping for a moment, she steadied her body, then turned her head forcefully, giving Dajun an extremely ferocious glare.

●︶3︶●

At the speed-dating event, apart from that Juncheng who forgot to take his medicine before leaving the house, Qian Fei dated a total of four other people. After the four people, she felt it was truly meaningless, so she quietly slipped away.

Upon returning home, she called Yao Jingjing to complain about how the various quirks of the people she met at the speed-dating event were vexing to the soul.

The first person was too dull, unable to speak, which was vexing;

The second person was too talkative, going on endlessly, which was vexing;

The third person had a good temper but felt bland, which was vexing;

The fourth person was smooth and slick in all directions but lacked personality, which was vexing.

After she finished complaining, Yao Jingjing maintained silence for a long while before finally asking a single question, "My dear sister, do you even know what kind of person you are actually looking for?"

Qian Fei repeated after her, "What kind of person am I looking for?"

Yao Jingjing said, "You just need to find someone like Li Yifei so that it won't be vexing!"

Qian Fei stopped speaking.

She felt a bit sad in her heart. She felt that, without realizing it, she seemed to have fallen into Li Yifei's trap. She originally thought that without him in the future, life would still be life, yet she would always inadvertently discover that life after losing him was embedded with his lingering ghost everywhere.

She asked Yao Jingjing sadly, "You enchantress, tell me, what am I supposed to do?"

Yao Jingjing sighed, saying faintly, "Go ask around to see if Li Yifei has a twin brother or something. If he does, capture him immediately. Drawing a pancake to satisfy hunger, loving the house and its crows, or a substitute lover—maybe then you'll be saved!"

Qian Fei decisively hung up on this unreliable best friend.

●︶3︶●

Because of the WeChat blacklist incident, Li Yifei gave Dajun a severe thrashing. Then he asked, "How many people did she speed-date in total?"

Dajun rubbed his butt and scratched his face, "I don't know, later on I went to do my own speed-dating!"

Li Yifei's face darkened, "Turn around!"

Dajun howled, "You can't kick me again, if you kick me again my mom won't get to hold a grandson!"

Li Yifei went to the bar counter and poured a glass of wine. After draining it in one gulp, he pointed at Dajun and said fiercely, "You, introduce another woman to me! I want one with a perfect figure, a stunning face, a hot body, a childlike face, and massive breasts!"

Dajun was stunned for a moment, shouting, "Do you take me for a pimp! Don't I only know Jin Tian, and I've even forgotten how I met her!"

Li Yifei frowned with irritation, "Don't mention her to me! Without her, none of these things would have happened!"

Dajun carefully leaned in close to his side, "Do you really want to get to know other girls? You don't want the tomboy anymore? Really don't want her? Are you sure you don't want her? Because if so, I'm going to charge forward myself? Anyway, the more I look at her, the more pleasing she is to my eye... Ah, why did you hit me!"

Before he could finish his words, the back of his head was smacked by Li Yifei's open palm, "You dare!"

Dajun rubbed his head and asked, "Are you still planning to find another young girl?"

Li Yifei pushed him away with one hand, "Find your sister!"

●︶3︶●

Holding his phone, Li Yifei built up his feelings again and again, drafting his words repeatedly. He wrote two to three hundred words in the text message box, editing back and forth, and finally deleted it down to just over a dozen characters to send to Qian Fei: "Can you add me back on WeChat?"

He prepared himself for it to sink into the deep sea without any echo or reply.

As a result, the phone let out a howling notification sound; there was actually a reply.

"Sending text messages is the same."

Qian Fei replied as such.

Li Yifei became excited. She was finally willing to pay attention to him!

"Can I say two more sentences?" He sent another text message over.

Two seconds later, Qian Fei replied: "First sentence."

Li Yifei hurriedly typed: "I know what I did wrong."

This time the interval lasted a full minute before Qian Fei replied: "Second sentence."

Li Yifei sent: "I miss stir-fried eggplant strips, and I miss you even more."

This time the interval was very long. Li Yifei waited until his heart and liver trembled a bit. He had never experienced the emotion of "nervousness" before, but now he did.

Roughly ten minutes later, his WeChat let out a notification sound.

The woman who could cook the flavor of stir-fried eggplant strips to be one-of-a-kind had finally added him back.

●︶3︶●

While Qian Fei was snuggled on the sofa, letting her eyes drift over the television show Happy Camp without truly paying attention, she received Li Yifei's text message.

"Can you add me back on WeChat?"

She held her phone, struggling between replying and not replying.

In the end, the twitching of her fingers defeated the hesitation of her brain, and her limbs responded ahead of her brainwaves. She typed a few characters on the screen, clicking send: "Sending text messages is the same."

The phone immediately received a follow-up message.

"Can I say two more sentences?"

Two seconds later, her limbs exerted force ahead of her brain once again.

"First sentence."

The other party replied almost within a second: "I know what I did wrong."

The hand she used to hold the phone nearly trembled. Looking at those few words on the screen, she didn't know if she was being too overly sentimental, but she actually felt a sense of looking back across lifetimes.

This matter of mutual understanding—sometimes some people might spend a whole lifetime and still not necessarily pierce through it. She thought that the mutual understanding between her and Li Yifei was about to fall into such a state, but at this very moment, he said he knew what he did wrong.

She touched the screen: "Second sentence."

A few seconds later, the message he sent over was: "I miss stir-fried eggplant strips, and I miss you even more."

Looking at the phone, she burst out laughing with a pfft sound.

As she laughed, for some reason, her vision began to blur a little.

She thought that this thing called stir-fried eggplant strips had probably already become her crying point.

She raised her head to continue watching Happy Camp, but what those five hosts were actually saying seemed completely impossible for her to remember.

Her vision went from blurry to clear, and from clear to blurry, over and over again.

Finally, she eventually calmed down, lowered her head, picked up her phone, and opened WeChat.

She added that man back.

●︶3︶●

Qian Fei felt that after being well-behaved for two days, Li Yifei began to pull strange tricks again.

He told her supervisor that, in view of some new problems arising in the hotel project, several project team members should be sent to the hotel site to keep an eye on things for a few days.

Reasonably speaking, with his status as a sponsor representative and department head, he already didn't need to personally visit the site anymore, yet he humbly expressed that he would personally go to the site to supervise the work.

Thus, her supervisor also excitedly expressed that they would definitely find someone to actively and unconditionally cooperate with the opposing sponsor representative's work. And the person responsible for cooperating was her.

The Landlord-fighting iron triangle of yesteryear reunited at the hotel site once again. At noon, just like before, they still played Landlord. Everything looked no different from last year, except that Li Yifei had become a boss, while she and Zhao De remained losers.

But the actual change, to use Zhao De's words, was simply a world of difference.

"Big brother, is this play you're staging called the tables have turned? Li Yifei, as a leader, do you dare to act a bit more subservient? Little Feifei just swallowed her saliva and hasn't even clamored that she's thirsty yet, and you eagerly run to pour water! Feifei just brushed her hair and wasn't wiping sweat, and you proactively rush to turn on the air conditioner! Feifei just casually said that lunch was tasteless, and you run out like a jumping monkey to buy fruit! Holy crap, you suddenly becoming this subservient is simply unbearable for me to watch, you know! Where did that young master's proud spine of yours go, tell me! And do you know what the most shameless part about you is? Damn it, can you not drag me in as cannon fodder just to let little Feifei win the cards! I've lost so much that I'm about to pawn my underwear, okay!!!"

To this, Li Yifei expressed calmly: "Right now I am the leader and you are the subordinate. A subordinate must have a subordinate's awareness; do not question the leader's policies and decisions." Then he turned his head, his expression shifting in an unidentifiable instant, suddenly transforming into a genial smile, "Manager Qian, are you free tonight? Why don't I play host and treat you all to eat stinky mandarin fish!"

Qian Fei looked at him, threw down a bomb combination of cards, and said calmly, "I'll consider it."

On the other side, Zhao De looked at those four 2s and was practically about to faint: "Damn it! Li Yifei, you are too shameless! To please little Feifei, do you dare to mix a few more 2s into the deck!" He threw down the two 2s in his own hand, "This is the first time I've ever played Landlord and come up with six 2s!"

Li Yifei looked at him, his face completely expressionless, "Since there are so many 2s, then whoever plays first will have theirs count as the real cards."

With a pale face, Zhao De looked toward Qian Fei, placing his final hope on her, expecting her to say something fair and human.

Qian Fei tucked her hair behind her ear with immense charm, looked at him, and said gently, "Zhao De, the time has come for you to air out your underwear!"

Zhao De felt as though a mouthful of blood was about to squirt out of him.

"Weren't you two having a falling out? How did you end up colluding together again! You are simply an adulterous couple!"