Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Cherish as We Go

Sometimes Qian Fei felt that Li Yifei was a truly magical person. A matter that seemed incredibly difficult in the eyes of others could always be accomplished by him very quickly using his own methods. Furthermore, during this process, he never let her know just how much effort he had put in or how much hardship he had endured. He would only say to her lightheartedly after the matter was settled: "I’ve got this sorted out for you, if you want to thank me, hurry up and pledge your troth by marrying me."

Qian Fei felt that this kind of Li Yifei was exceptionally manly.

It was the same this time. Within just a few days, Li Yifei put his words into practice and got her into their company. She was even placed in the same department as him, with him serving as her direct departmental supervisor, and she and Zhao De became colleagues under the same master.

She asked Li Yifei how his efficiency in handling matters was so high, and Li Yifei said, "If I didn't move faster, we would have missed the registration date for the exam!"

The sponsor representative exam had to be registered through a securities firm; it was impossible to register under one's own personal name. Seeing Li Yifei take her matters so much to heart, Qian Fei's heart felt warm, filled with an indescribable sense of being moved.

A week later, she officially started working at the new company and, with Li Yifei’s help, successfully registered for the sponsor representative exam.

Those female employees who had gossiped about her before all wore expressions of utter shock when they saw her.

Qian Fei figured that they would probably hold another excretion-and-discussion conference while squatting in the toilet stalls:

"Oh my, that woman is thorough enough! She even chased our Manager Li all the way to our company!"

Visualizing this scene, Qian Fei suddenly found it quite amusing.

When Zhao De saw her, his whole being went out of sorts. He was shocked beyond measure, his mouth hanging open so wide he could have swallowed a whole egg: "Feifei? It's actually you! I was wondering who on earth this person could be to make our Manager Li slam the table and challenge the boss that day just to recruit them. I never expected it to be you! This is wonderful, now the three of us can play Fight the Landlord together again!"

Qian Fei laughed merrily. She felt that Zhao De truly remembered the food but not the beating, forgetting the pain of the six twos so quickly.

With only two months left until the end of the year, it was exactly the busiest season. Word had it that the China Securities Regulatory Commission was planning to make drastic reforms to the new stock issuance policy, so everyone was straining their nerves waiting for the high command's new moves.

Yet during this most chaotic and busy period, Qian Fei was shielded tightly by Li Yifei. He told her to focus entirely on reading her books and didn't require her to do any work whatsoever. Or rather, the share of work that should have fallen onto her shoulders was completely done by him on her behalf. He created every possible condition to let her review and study with a peaceful mind.

Qian Fei could actually sense that some people in other departments were quite disgruntled by her behavior. She had mentioned to Li Yifei that maybe she should work on the projects alongside them during the day and then study when she went back home at night.

Li Yifei did not agree.

He said, "You had to take care of the old man before, so you've already fallen too far behind compared to everyone else. Now there's only one month left. If you don't fight hard now, you definitely won't pass the exam! If you fail to pass, it's highly likely I won't be able to protect you! I told the higher-ups that the reason I recruited this person was because she is certain to pass the sponsor representative exam!"

Qian Fei said, "But Zhao De secretly told me that some people have already started whispering behind our backs. They're saying they don't know what the company leadership is thinking, paying to support an idle person who does no work every day and only knows how to read books. If she wants to take the sponsor representative exam, others want to as well, so on what grounds does she get to prepare for the exam with single-minded devotion!"

Li Yifei pondered for a moment, then said, "Don't pay attention to those gossips. They are just green with envy because I shower you with love and care! I pamper you and love you because I'm willing to, is it any of their business! Just study with a peaceful mind and don't worry about anything, I'll shoulder whatever happens for you!"

●︶3︶●

Then one day after finishing lunch, Li Yifei took Zhao De to an enterprise for a meeting, leaving Qian Fei alone at her desk reading her books. At some unknown point, the deputy manager of the investment banking department strolled over and asked her with a beaming smile, "Qian Fei, what project are you currently working on?"

Qian Fei answered him exactly according to what Li Yifei had instructed beforehand: "Right now, I am mainly following up on two initial public offering projects with Manager Li, the hotel and the central business district trading company!"

The deputy manager uttered an "oh." Still smiling, he nonetheless let out a sigh: "Alas, the initial public offering tap has been turned off for over a year now, and the company's performance is getting worse and worse. Everyone with ambitions has left. Little Qian, do you have any thoughts about changing jobs?"

Qian Fei blanked for a moment. Hadn't she just jumped over here? Jumping again? Did she have spring-loaded legs?

She shook her head, "Not for the time being!"

The deputy manager said with a beaming smile, "Is that so! Ah, keep busy with your work, I just came to stroll around a bit after eating!" Having said that, he paced back to his independent office with his hands behind his back.

Qian Fei consistently felt that this conversation carried some other underlying meaning. Right around closing time, Li Yifei returned to the company with Zhao De.

Li Yifei went first to report his work to the leadership, while Zhao De flew like a bird straight to Qian Fei, saying with righteous indignation, "It's all your fault! You siren! In the past, after we finished a meeting at an enterprise, we could just skip work and go straight home. But today, that little calf Li Yifei insisted on dragging me back to the company, saying some nonsense about finishing today's tasks today and that the spirit of the day's meeting must be reported to the leadership on the very same day. Bah! He just wants to pick you up from work, does he think I'm blind and can't tell!"

Qian Fei silently handed a bottle of mineral water to Zhao De.

"Replenish your fluids. You're spraying saliva everywhere, don't go dehydrating and fainting in a moment!"

Zhao De took the water, gave a "hump," and tossed his head aside. "You two annoy me to death! Truly annoying! Without you guys, I would have left work long ago!"

After finishing the water, the expression on his face instantly shifted from righteous indignation to that of a gossiping, petty snob. "That being said, Little Feifei, when did you two hook up together? I was quite bewildered before—why on earth did you treat me to dinner twice in a row for no good reason, and kept asking about Yifei's matters in a roundabout way during the meal! Tell me the truth, did the two of us get down to collusion and villainy right after that and secretly get together? Let me tell you, we are good brothers who walked out of the smoke and flames of Fight the Landlord together, it's not honorable of you to keep it from me like this!"

Qian Fei silently raised her tutorial book high to block her face. She thought to herself just how much he must love the term "collusion and villainy"...

Zhao De refused to let it go, "Hey, Little Feifei, what are you hiding for! Is your skin really that thin? I even suffered the loss of six twos at your place. If you were going to be embarrassed, you would have been embarrassed back then, why wait until now!"

 

Qian Fei silently put the book down again, looking at Zhao De with a hollow, skin-deep smile: "Brother De! Rest your mind, next time I will definitely let you play your twos first!" Just as she finished saying this sentence, she heard someone from the side chime in with a rogue-like tone, "Why are you calling him brother? He has to call you sister-in-law! Does your wild calling like this do justice to the ethical morality that our ancient sages valued!"

Qian Fei nearly choked. Struggling to turn her head, she saw Li Yifei with a face full of righteousness.

Zhao De smirked: "I knew there was something fishy going on between you two! Stinky Little Feifei, you actually tricked me!"

Li Yifei walked over, helped Qian Fei pack up her books, and pulled her up. "Come on, let's leave work and go home!" Then he turned his head to the slightly dazed Zhao De, whose expression hadn't quite kept up with the rhythm, and said, "I just said, this is your sister-in-law. Don't call her Little Feifei in the future. Your lack of manners makes your brother very unhappy to hear!"

Zhao De blanked for a moment and asked somewhat simplemindedly, "My brother is unhappy? Who's that?"

Li Yifei raised his eyebrows and said, "Me!"

The corners of Zhao De's mouth and eyes all began to twitch.

Qian Fei burst into laughter with a pfft.

As they walked out of the workspace, Li Yifei suddenly turned around and said, "By the way, Zhao De, when you have time, go to the hospital for a checkup. Today during the meeting at the enterprise, I saw your face turning pale and you were breaking out in a cold sweat!"

Zhao De smiled and said, "It's nothing! It might just be that I haven't been eating well lately, so my body is feeling a bit weak!"

Seeing him smiling thoughtlessly with a pale face, Qian Fei felt a bit sour in her heart. He was all alone in Beijing with no one to take care of him, and he didn't know how to look after himself either. Word had it that he just bought whatever random food was available every day to make do.

She nudged Li Yifei's arm and said, "Tomorrow is the weekend, let's have Zhao De come over to our place for dinner!"

Li Yifei looked down at her, raising his eyebrows as he said, "Right in front of my face, you want to lead another man to our home, is this appropriate?"

Qian Fei rolled her eyes at him, turned her head, and asked Zhao De, "I plan to invite you to come over to our place for dinner tomorrow, I'll cook something good to nourish you, are you coming?"

Zhao De nodded his head frantically like a chicken pecking at grain, "Yes, yes! Can I order dishes? I want to eat the legendary stir-fried eggplant strips!"

Qian Fei couldn't help but be amused: "Can you show a little promise? Putting in so much effort just to order stir-fried eggplant strips! You ought to order a meat dish or something. Don't fear large dish names; as long as you dare to order it, I can make it!"

Zhao De said with a grin, "Then tomorrow I'll bring a whole squirrel over, and you can make me a squirrel climbing a tree!"

Qian Fei sputtered: "According to your understanding of dish names, if you wanted to eat husband and wife lung slices tomorrow, wouldn't you have to bring me a set of living people!"

●︶3︶●

On the way home, Qian Fei repeated the contents of the conversation between the deputy manager and her at noon to Li Yifei.

Li Yifei pondered for a while, then told Qian Fei, "I'll send you home first, then I'll go take care of some business."

Qian Fei arrived home, cooked dinner, and waited for quite a while before Li Yifei returned.

Qian Fei asked him where he had gone, and Li Yifei said, "To sit a while at the deputy manager's house."

Qian Fei wrestled with her thoughts for a bit, finally unable to resist asking, "You didn't go to slap his face, did you?"

The corners of Li Yifei's mouth curled into a smile: "If you didn't have to take the exam, I really would have slapped his face! On what grounds does he have to drive you away? But since you have to take the exam and cannot be without this job, I could only endure him first. I went to his house to tell him that I don't want my project bonus anymore. When the time comes, I'll have the finance department transfer that money directly into his account under the guise of project development expenses."

Qian Fei looked at him with watery eyes, not knowing what to say.

Li Yifei raised his hand to pinch her face, shaking it back and forth. "Don't look at me like that, I easily become impulsive. If I can't hold back and force myself on you, leaving behind a pretext that the landlord forced the tenant to pay rent with her flesh, that wouldn't be good! My doing this is actually just to let you know how good I am to you. Once the exam is over, hurry up and pledge your troth to me, don't hold back anymore!"

Hearing him use an open, upright face to speak such wretched words, the watery, gratitude-filled little bubbles in the depths of Qian Fei's eyes popped instantly.

●︶3︶●

After finishing dinner, Qian Fei asked Li Yifei to send a text message to ask Zhao De what time he would come over tomorrow and what else he wanted to eat besides stir-fried eggplant strips. Zhao De replied to the text message saying that any dish style Qian Fei knew how to make would do, and there was no need to pick more than the four options with the highest cost.

Li Yifei laughingly cursed, "This shameless guy dares to order my woman around like this, see if I don't crush him later," and then replied with two words: "All right."

Zhao De also asked whether he should bring a deck of cards over to play Fight the Landlord. Qian Fei said great, while Li Yifei said what's so great about it, he would make him get lost right after eating. You read your books; once the exam is passed, never mind playing Fight the Landlord, no one will care even if you fight the president of the United States.

Qian Fei went back to her room to read her books with a giggle.

Early the next morning, Qian Fei and Li Yifei went downstairs to the vegetable market to buy groceries.

Around nine o'clock, Qian Fei asked Li Yifei to check if Zhao De was up yet. Li Yifei called over, but no one answered.

At almost ten o'clock, Qian Fei had Li Yifei try calling again. The phone still went unanswered.

By twelve o'clock noon, both of them were getting a bit impatient from waiting, yet Zhao De still didn't answer his phone.

Qian Fei asked Li Yifei, "What do you think this kid is doing?"

Li Yifei said, "Sleeping, probably. His daily routine is famously chaotic." He thought about it and said to Qian Fei, "You start cooking. I'll keep calling his mobile phone. Once the food is ready, I refuse to believe he still won't be up!"

Qian Fei then tied on her apron and went to the kitchen to get busy.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, a table full of dishes had already been prepared, but Li Yifei still couldn't get through to Zhao De's phone.

The two of them had already become a bit impatient and angry during the wait.

Li Yifei said resentfully, "Just wait until this kid gets up, see how I deal with him!"

Qian Fei also said, "Whether you're going to slap him or kick him, count me in for a share!"

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the dishes had grown cold, yet Zhao De still didn't answer the phone.

Li Yifei and Qian Fei had both completely run out of patience.

"Don't wait any longer. Let's reheat the dishes and eat first. If we keep waiting, your stomach will start hurting from hunger," Li Yifei said.

Qian Fei got up to go to the kitchen to reheat the dishes.

When she was carrying the dishes back after reheating them, she heard Li Yifei's phone ring. She thought it was Zhao De, but she heard Li Yifei call out the name of another colleague.

She watched as Li Yifei listened to the phone call, his face suddenly turning deathly pale.

Her heart hung up high along with his.

After Li Yifei hung up the phone, she asked nervously, "What's wrong?"

Li Yifei looked at her, his eyes reddening, his voice raspy as he said, "Zhao De is gone. The time should have been midnight last night, a sudden cardiac infarction!"

The dish plate in Qian Fei's hand crashed straight onto the ground.

●︶3︶●

On Monday morning, Li Yifei and Qian Fei went together to attend Zhao De's funeral. Quite a few colleagues had come as well. At the funeral, Qian Fei cried very sorrowfully.

This was the second time, following her mother, that someone had departed from her side.

Thinking back to those times in the past when they bickered and played Fight the Landlord together at noon, thinking about how just three days ago he had come to her place with a face full of gossip, thinking about how he clamored two nights ago saying there absolutely must be stir-fried eggplant strips, thinking about how she had made a table full of dishes yesterday to wait for him but in the end he couldn't even manage a single bite, a deep sorrow welled up from within Qian Fei.

Life was truly far too fragile; it could be gone just like that, leaving absolutely no buffer zone for the living.

When the company leader stood before the remains reading the funeral oration, Qian Fei's chest was in aching pain from grief. Such a good person, such a warmhearted friend, gone just like that—he didn't even ask if those who remained alive could bear to part with him.

Coming out of the funeral parlor, Qian Fei's eyes were already swollen. Li Yifei asked her to take a day off to go home and rest, but Qian Fei shook her head, "I don't want to stay at home alone."

Li Yifei then brought her back to the company together.

At noon, Qian Fei had no appetite and did not go downstairs to eat.

She walked to the pantry, resting her head against the glass as she looked outside blankly.

In the Financial Street crowded with tall buildings, there would never be that person named Zhao De again.

Someone walked up behind her.

"What are you thinking about?"

It was Li Yifei's voice.

Qian Fei's nose felt sour.

"I was thinking that we need to treat ourselves a bit better and treat the people around us a bit better while we are alive! If there is something we want to do, we must do it while we are still alive, do it at the very first moment. We can't be affected, we can't have misgivings, and we can't calculate gains and losses. Otherwise, who knows which day it will be too late!"

She stood up straight, turned around, and raised her head, tears welling up in the depths of her eyes as she looked at Li Yifei. "Right now I only want to do one thing!" She opened her arms, hugging Li Yifei, resting her head against his chest as she murmured, "Right now I just want to hold you like this!" She closed her eyes, tears rolling down from beneath her eyelashes, "Li Yifei, hold me too!"

Li Yifei closed his arms, binding her tightly, tightly within his embrace.