Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 66

Chapter 66: I Have to Resign

Zhao De's sudden death had a massive impact on Qian Fei.

She came to understand a fundamental truth: people should not suppress their emotions. If there is something you want to do, be brave and do it. Do not hesitate, and do not let countless worries hold you back. Otherwise, if you unexpectedly pass away one day before you ever get the chance, it will only leave a lifetime of irreversible regret for both the living and the dead.

She calmed her mind and thought through many things in precise detail. She felt that her previous positioning and attitude toward Li Yifei had truly been a bit overly dramatic and affected. In the past, she had considered it being thorough and deliberate—polishing Li Yifei and discerning whether or not this person was truly a good man to whom she could entrust her entire life. But now, she felt that she had simply been wasting her life.

How could there be so many worries? Life was so short and fleeting, and no one knew how far away an unexpected tragedy was waiting. How could one not enjoy life while they could?

In the morning, on their way to work together, Li Yifei reached over to hold her hand while they were stopped at a red light. At that moment, a surging wave swelled up deep inside her heart. She did not say, half-seriously and half-playfully as she usually did, "Men and women should maintain proper distance, don't behave like a rogue." Instead, she turned her hand over and gripped his tightly.

Li Yifei turned to look at her in surprise, letting out an astonished "Huh?" before saying, "You're remarkably obedient today!"

Qian Fei turned her head to look at him and said with utter seriousness, "Li Yifei, starting from today, let's officially date!"

Li Yifei froze, failing to notice even when the red light turned green.

The cars behind them honked their horns furiously. Li Yifei stole a glance at Qian Fei, retracted his gaze, shifted into gear, and drove forward.

Once the car was driving smoothly, Li Yifei looked ahead and spoke up, "What's the situation with you?"

Qian Fei said, "Originally, I thought that I would wait until I finished the Sponsor Representative Examination before carefully considering what kind of relationship we should develop. But now, I feel that nothing is more important than enjoying life while we can! I don't care anymore. Even if there comes a day in the future when you grow tired of me, I'm throwing caution to the wind. One can't give up eating for fear of choking—I can't give up enjoying a wonderful journey just because I'm afraid of a bad outcome!"

Li Yifei remained silent, not saying a word, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel one after another in a wave-like motion.

Qian Fei nudged him and asked, "What are you thinking about? I've attained a grand realization about life, yet you're just keeping quiet on the side. Is that appropriate?"

Li Yifei took a moment to glance sideways at her and said, "It has always been me pursuing you. It wasn't easy for you to pursue me for once. Is it so wrong for me to extend the time of being courted, experience the feeling of being courted, and torment the person doing the courting for a bit?"

Looking at his combination of shamelessness and tsundere pride, Qian Fei laughed helplessly.

●︶3︶●

On November 30th, Qian Fei calmly headed to the examination hall.

A week later, she checked her scores on the Securities Association website.

She had passed!

Out of this batch, only four people from the company's several Beijing branch offices had passed. The other three had already taken the exam numerous times and were relatively older. Consequently, the young Qian Fei became famous with a single exam, becoming the only female Associate Sponsor Representative in their department, as well as the youngest female Associate Sponsor Representative in the entire company.

On the day the results came out, the Vice President's attitude toward Qian Fei underwent a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree transformation. He clapped Li Yifei on the shoulder and said, "Little Li, you were indeed right! Little Qian really passed on her very first try!"

Qian Fei proposed that she wanted to treat everyone in the department to dinner together after work that evening.

She said to Li Yifei, "I want to thank everyone for their tolerance beforehand, when I was only focused on reading my books and didn't do any actual work!"

Li Yifei raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. "Then you really ought to thank me. Your share of the work was all done by me on your behalf!" After laughing, he patted her shoulder. "If you want to treat them, then go ahead and treat them to a meal. After all, you will be their leader in the future. Building a good relationship now will make it easier to get work done down the road."

Qian Fei was stunned by his words and asked, "How could I become their leader? Isn't the leader of our department you?"

Li Yifei smiled faintly. "I suppose I've reached the very top of this industry, haven't I? So I think I probably won't continue working in this field for much longer." He patted her head. "I need to build you up and train you as quickly as possible!"

Qian Fei thought about it and asked, "And after that?"

Li Yifei said, "After that, this world will be yours, and I will go do the things I ought to do."

Qian Fei originally wanted to ask him what the things he ought to do were, but then she remembered the import-export company he had opened on the outside, so she didn't probe any further.

She figured that the "things he ought to do" he spoke of meant expanding that company.

●︶3︶●

For the entire month of December, Li Yifei took Qian Fei to Zhejiang to work on a private placement bond project. This project was not very difficult and went very smoothly, so Li Yifei felt it didn't truly test or train Qian Fei. What he most wanted to do was a seasoned equity offering project, so that Qian Fei could sign off as the project associate. Once the seasoned equity offering was completed, Qian Fei could officially register as a Sponsor Representative.

In late December, the on-site work for the private placement bond project was completed. Li Yifei brought Qian Fei and the project team back to Beijing.

Before the end of the month, they submitted the materials for issuing the private placement bonds to the Shanghai Stock Exchange to complete the filing. This was the first time Qian Fei had fully completed a project in her capacity as a core project member. Although the project was not large, it held extraordinary significance for her.

On December 31st, Qian Fei got up very early in the morning, only to see Li Yifei already sitting in the living room.

She asked him why he was up so early.

Li Yifei gave an indirect answer to her question: "Do you know the saying about 1314?"

Qian Fei stared blankly for a moment, then nodded.

Over the past couple of days, countless internet users on Weibo had been frantically flooding the screens saying: "On December 31st, 2013, the person who spends New Year's Eve with you will accompany you from '13 to '14. From then on, the two of you will be together for a lifetime, through thick and thin!"

Qian Fei asked with a beaming smile, "Are you indirectly confessing your love to me?"

Li Yifei narrowed his eyes and smiled at her, his expression looking slightly playful, but his voice and words were genuine and full of deep emotion: "Today, the two of us aren't going anywhere. We're staying right at home, just the two of us, to quietly ring in the New Year. During the day, we'll be sweet and affectionate at home. In the evening, you can stir-fry some eggplant strips for me, and I'll help you cook the rice. Let's make a beautiful start for the '1314' after tonight, and for the rest of our lives that follow!"

Qian Fei looked at him and smiled happily.

●︶3︶●

On January 1st, Li Yifei answered a phone call. After this call, his face darkened, and he was very displeased.

Based on the scattered bits of conversation she faintly overheard, Qian Fei deduced that the phone call should have been from Li Yifei's father.

She couldn't hear clearly what they were arguing about, and when she went to ask Li Yifei, he wouldn't tell her.

After the New Year's Day holiday, the company headquarters received a new project. After some discussion, they decided to dump it onto the Beijing branch office to handle. It was a seasoned equity offering for a listed company. Several departments in the Beijing branch office all desperately wanted to snag this project. In order to let Qian Fei register as a Sponsor Representative as quickly as possible, Li Yifei exerted effort both openly and covertly, finally standing out from the fierce competition and securing the project.

He took Qian Fei and the other members of the department to form a project team, and they traveled to another city together on a business trip.

When he was working, in Qian Fei's eyes, that was when Li Yifei was at his most dazzlingly charismatic. His ability and talent were displayed to the absolute fullest. He seemed to possess a natural-born leadership quality; though he was young, every analysis and decision he made was bold, accurate, and completely convincing. Sometimes, being ordered around by him even felt like a form of enjoyment.

This time was different from the past. In terms of work, Li Yifei's demands on her were exceptionally strict, borderlining on harsh.

At the very beginning, due to carelessness while organizing the financial data of the corporate client and its suppliers, she reversed the accounts receivable and accounts payable items. Li Yifei gave her a massive lecture, reprimanding her for how she could make such a low-level mistake. He didn't shield her from others when he scolded her; right in front of everyone, his voice and expression were harsh, his words stern and furious.

She was scolded to the point that tears kept welling up and spinning in her eyes.

Later, after returning to the hotel, Li Yifei came to knock on her door.

She felt stifled and aggrieved in her heart and refused to open it. Li Yifei simply waited outside the door the entire time.

A few minutes later, that suffocating grievance dissipated. She opened the room door.

The first sentence he uttered after coming inside was to ask her, "Are you mad at me?"

She nodded. "You humiliate me as if you're humiliating a grandchild. Your phrasing and tone are far too harsh. Yet, because it's done under the guise of work, I can only endure it and can't strike back like I usually do. It feels awful!"

He raised his hand and stroked her head, just like petting a kitten or a puppy. "Jinjin, isn't there an idiom that goes 'the deeper the love, the harsher the rebuke'? My doing this is also because I want you to grow up faster. I know you; you're actually very smart, but your disposition is too easygoing and lax. If no one uses a whip to drive you, you won't muster up all your strength to run forward. I cannot protect you for too long. You must be able to take charge of an entire project independently as soon as possible!" He patted her cheek and asked, "Are you still angry now?"

Qian Fei thought about it and shook her head. "It seems I'm not angry anymore. But for some reason, hearing this grand speech of yours brings a wave of inexplicable sadness. What do you mean by saying you cannot protect me for too long? Is there something about to happen that I don't know about?"

Li Yifei raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. "The things that are about to happen are all unknown. Don't let your mind wander, just focus on doing the project well!"

From then on, Qian Fei rarely made mistakes. Under Li Yifei's iron-blooded special training, she grew up at a rapid pace.

Sometimes Qian Fei found it quite baffling. Li Yifei was only one year older than her, yet his ability at work was countless times stronger than hers. She asked him how this gap between human beings was formed. After all, everyone grew up eating white rice and receiving the same nine years of compulsory education. Even if he had gone abroad, she hadn't been idle either, having attended a top-tier, premier university domestically. How could an age difference of a mere three hundred or so days create such a massive life gap?

Li Yifei didn't explain it in an overly complicated way, giving her just a single sentence: "When it comes to matters of the business world, this young master has been thoroughly immersed in them since childhood. For my abilities to be a bit outstanding is simply unavoidable."

Qian Fei felt that this perhaps had something to do with that father of his who worked as an independent entrepreneur.

On one occasion, as one topic led to another, she asked Li Yifei once more what exactly his dad did, asking Li Yifei whether he was actually a second-generation wealthy heir or not.

After thinking it over, Li Yifei told her, "My dad really is an independent entrepreneur, he's just done a bit better than the average entrepreneur. As for me, to tell you the truth, I actually quite dislike the term 'second-generation wealthy heir.' If possible, I want to make myself a first-generation wealthy creator directly! I believe I completely have the capability!" It was just that the first-generation wealthy old man above him refused to give him the chance. The old man had built the family estate from scratch, so he couldn't very well wash his hands of it and refuse to help him guard it just so he could go conquer the world for himself. No matter how much they usually locked horns, at the end of the day, that was still his biological father.

Listening to Li Yifei's supremely confident words, Qian Fei felt that she was truly courageous—to have actually picked such an arrogant man out of the vast sea of people.

Qian Fei's competence at work improved day by day. However, the trouble brought about by her personality remained prominent.

The corporate leaders frequently brought up various requests, and Qian Fei's trait of not knowing how to refuse caused a great deal of trouble for their work. For this, Li Yifei reprimanded her with extreme severity, telling her: "This disposition of yours absolutely must change! Otherwise, you will always soften your heart and compromise, unable to stand firm on your own opinions. Whatever the enterprise says, you accommodate; constantly modifying the proposal for them to the point that the proposal almost starts to deviate from policy requirements—this is absolutely unacceptable! You ought to be tougher. You need to learn to stick to your guns. It is up to you to propose the most suitable plan based on the condition of the enterprise, and then the enterprise should do its best to cooperate with you! After all, when it comes to issuance, you are the expert, you are the leader, and you must hold the right to speak! You must straighten your spine and have your own definitive opinions. Otherwise, even if you register as a Sponsor Representative, you yourself will never be able to shoulder a project on your own!"

This speech of his hammered heavily against Qian Fei's heart. She listened to him, striving to change her style of interacting with people, working, and socializing, ensuring that she was no longer an overly soft-hearted martyr, no longer a pushover, and no longer accommodated others without principles.

She gradually developed her own temper and sharp edges. When it was time to argue her point strongly with others, she would absolutely never compromise easily again. She also gradually formed her own style of handling matters; when she rejected people, her refusals were tactful and reasonable, making people feel as comfortable as a breath of fresh spring air.

Yet she did not know that, in Li Yifei's eyes, she had already unconsciously grown into a highly capable, exceptionally charismatic, and captivating woman.

At the end of January, Qian Fei went home to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

It had originally been agreed that Li Yifei would return with her, but just before their departure, Li Yifei told her that something had come up at his home. The old man had gone for a medical checkup, and they discovered his heart wasn't in good shape, so he had to return home.

With the matter of Zhao De fresh in their minds, everyone now practically paled at the mention of illness. Qian Fei earnestly admonished Li Yifei not to play any games of cutting ties between father and son anymore. While everyone was still alive and healthy, thoroughly enjoying the happiness of family life was better than anything else.

During the New Year period, they remained in constant contact over the phone.

When she returned from home after the New Year, she discovered that Li Yifei had faintly become a bit anxious.

He told her that they absolutely had to finish the project as quickly as possible, and that they absolutely must get her registered as a Sponsor Representative as soon as possible.

Not long after, the project was successfully completed. A short while later, the shares from the corporate seasoned equity offering were successfully issued.

Qian Fei was finally registered as an official Sponsor Representative.

On the evening of the day Qian Fei registered as a Sponsor Representative, Li Yifei told her, "Jinjin, I have to resign.”