Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Little Harmony

When she returned home, Qian Fei saw Gui Lili sitting on the sofa in the living room. She had turned the brightness of her phone and laptop screens to the absolute maximum, casting two eerie, ghostly glows onto her face, which gave Qian Fei a sudden jolt of fright.

Seeing her return, Gui Lili looked like a poor person from the old society finally setting eyes on the Communist Party, throwing herself forward with her eyes welling with tears.

"Qian Fei, you're finally back! I was just wondering what on earth I would do if my laptop and phone both died later!"

Qian Fei couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

She had already checked when she walked upstairs; her apartment was the only one in the entire building without power. Therefore—

"The power isn't out. A fuse must have blown!" Qian Fei told Gui Lili.

Gui Lili raised her beautiful face, looking at her with a look of complete bewilderment.

Qian Fei let out a sigh. It seemed that expecting her to figure it out and say it herself was utterly impossible.

"Were you using several high-power household appliances at the same time at home?" she asked Gui Lili, getting straight to the point.

Gui Lili's expression shifted, and she denied it instantly. "Are you suspecting that I blew the fuse? How could that be possible! I didn't use several appliances at the same time, Qian Fei!"

Qian Fei's eyelids twitched. She gave up on arguing the details with Gui Lili, went back to her room to take off her coat, and used a flashlight to guide her way into the kitchen to look for the toolbox.

While searching for the toolbox, she noticed something in the kitchen wastebasket. Shining her flashlight over, she saw a slim, thin booklet. Pulling it out to inspect it closely, she discovered it was the instruction manual for a two-thousand-plus-watt electric space heater. Tucked inside was a receipt, which showed a purchase date from a month ago.

Holding these things, she suddenly understood why this month's electricity bill had skyrocketed. Previously, she had assumed something was wrong with the meter and had intended to schedule a time for the power company to come over and take a look.

Staring at the manual in her hand, she thought about it over and over, hesitating whether or not to discuss it with Gui Lili.

During this gap, the front door clicked outside. Li Yifei was back.

She heard Li Yifei ask Gui Lili, "What happened? Did the power go out?"

Gui Lili gave him a soft, delicate "mm" in response.

Hearing that "mm," Qian Fei suddenly felt a surge of irritation rise within her.

While Li Yifei went back to his room to change his clothes, she walked out into the living room, holding the manual and the receipt, and said to Gui Lili, "Gui Lili, you've been running an electric space heater, haven't you? You can't leave this thing running constantly; it easily causes a short circuit if it's on for too long. The broken fuse tonight was most likely caused by this. Furthermore, you see, this thing consumes a ton of electricity. This month's electricity bill is way higher than usual, so how about we split this month's bill equally?"

Gui Lili tilted her head, facing her with that refined, beautiful face. "But Qian Fei, we already agreed clearly in the contract that you cover the electricity, water, and broadband fees!"

Qian Fei felt quite vexed, completely unaware that she was starting to mimic Gui Lili's tone. "But you used a high-power appliance!"

Gui Lili blinked her large eyes and said, "But you didn't say in the contract that it wasn't allowed! The weather is so cold, it's perfectly normal to run a space heater. You can't expect someone to get sick just to save electricity! Don't you think so?"

Qian Fei was instantly choked up, completely at a loss for words.

She felt her brains hurting so damn much.

At this juncture, Li Yifei finished changing his clothes and emerged from his room.

"We will pay for this month's electricity bill," he said suddenly.

Gui Lili jumped up from the sofa instantly, standing on the floor and shouting at Li Yifei, "Li Yifei, are you sick in the head! I was home all by myself in the pitch black, consumed by fear and anxiety, and you don't come home until the middle of the night. The moment you walk through the door you start making trouble for me, what do you mean by this!"

Li Yifei's temper flared up as well. "Don't you have any idea how much electricity you consume every day? You're bullying her? Do you have no shame! Can't you see that she is poorer than us!" He pointed at Qian Fei as he barked at Gui Lili.

Standing to the side, Qian Fei felt incredibly conflicted in her heart.

To actually be pointed right at the nose and called poor to her face... Does Li Yifei really not understand the phrase 'life is already hard enough, don't expose the harsh truth'?

Neither of them would yield, and they started bickering again. Taking the brunt of their flying spit, Qian Fei opened the front door and headed downstairs to buy a replacement fuse.

She deliberately walked to a hardware supermarket quite far away, one that stayed open very late. After purchasing it, she lingered outside the front door for a good while. Only when she heard that the noise inside had died down did she open the door and enter the apartment.

She saw Li Yifei sitting on the living room sofa, while their bedroom door was shut tight.

She asked Li Yifei, "Is everything alright?"

Li Yifei glanced at her. "It's fine. Once she's tired from crying, she'll go to sleep."

She uttered an "oh."

Li Yifei said to her, "Tomorrow I'll take a half-day off from work and have the property management come over to change the fuse."

Qian Fei thought for a moment and said, "How about I give it a try first?"

Li Yifei knit his brows. "You?"

Qian Fei handed him a flashlight. "I already bought the fuse back! Come on, let's go out to the hallway. You help me hold the flashlight while I give it a try. If I can fix it myself, then neither of us will have to miss work tomorrow!"

Li Yifei wore an expression that screamed "stop messing around," asking her, "Do you need to write a suicide note first? What if you get electrocuted to death in a moment?"

Qian Fei gave him a vicious glare. "No wonder people say the young masters of Beijing have wicked tongues! Can you say something positive and encouraging for once!"

Li Yifei shrugged, holding the flashlight as he followed Qian Fei out into the hallway.

Over the next few minutes, he held the light and watched Qian Fei replace the fuse in no time at all, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.

"How do you even know how to do this? Are you even a woman!" He couldn't help but utter such an exclamation.

Qian Fei let out a "tch." "My dad is an electrician at his workplace. I grew up watching him change fuses at home since I was a child!"

Li Yifei let out a click of his tongue and said, "Can your family buy some fuses with solid quality, instead of changing them every few days! Is it because the good ones are too expensive?"

Qian Fei couldn't resist rolling her eyes. "Big bro, that was just a figure of speech, alright!"

Li Yifei let out an "ah." "What else do you know how to do?"

Seeing that his attitude in initiating conversation was quite good, Qian Fei couldn't resist talking a bit more to show off. "There's a lot I know how to do! What I'm best at is soldering radios. If you give me a pile of components, I don't even need a circuit diagram to hand you back a multi-channel radio!"

Li Yifei let out a snort. "You're boasting, right! Then do you know how to solder a cell phone?"

Qian Fei was choked up for a second. "Well, no, but my dad said that knowing how to solder one thing in life is enough to bluff people. Back then, the radio I used to practice my English listening comprehension broke, so I learned how to solder radios from my dad. If I had known back then that English would be phased out of the college entrance examination, who would have bothered soldering this just for listening practice? I would have learned how to solder a money-printing machine instead!"

When she finished speaking, she heard Li Yifei let out what sounded like a chuckle.

"Since you're so knowledgeable about electricity, how did you end up working in investment banking?" he asked her.

Qian Fei put on a theatrical sigh. "Just to live up to my surname, 'Qian'!"

Li Yifei let out a soft chuckle.

The two of them packed up the tools and returned inside. They switched on the entryway light to test it, and the lost current successfully made its return.

Qian Fei went back to her room to wash up. Once she finished, she checked her phone, but Hu Zining hadn't sent her any messages. It seemed he was indeed still somewhat displeased.

After giving it some thought, she took the initiative to send Hu Zining a WeChat message: "Goodnight, Zining."

There was no reply. Qian Fei figured he must have already gone to sleep.

She turned off the light and climbed into bed.

Before drifting off to sleep, she suddenly felt that certain things were quite amusing.

At the very beginning, she had assumed Gui Lili was very easygoing and pleasant to talk to, whereas Li Yifei's arrogant, nose-in-the-air demeanor would make him highly difficult to get along with. Yet after interacting with them over this period, the actual reality turned out to be completely opposite.

Gui Lili was genuinely troublesome; the mere thought of dealing with her now gave Qian Fei a headache. On the contrary, between herself and Li Yifei, she actually felt that they were starting to develop a bit of harmony.

※※※※※※

During lunch the next day, Qian Fei asked Xiao Yuan, "Say, if your boyfriend wanted to do that with you and you didn't let him, how long would he usually stay mad at you?"

Biting the tip of her chopsticks, Xiao Yuan smiled in an extremely lewd manner. "He wouldn't be mad. He would only fall to his knees immediately in pure gratitude that I was willing to let him off for a day!"

Qian Fei was shocked. "I didn't expect you to be so voracious!"

Xiao Yuan rolled her eyes at her. "As if you don't have physical needs yourself!" Shifting her tone, she asked, "What's the matter? Did that new boyfriend of yours want to do that with you, and you refused?"

Qian Fei nodded, her face full of righteousness as she said, "Yeah, I don't know why, but from the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to maintain a high moral ground for once."

Xiao Yuan let out two clicks of her tongue. "Just you? Wanting to practice yin-yang harmony to cure your mustache, yet you talk about high moral ground? If you ask me, you just haven't fallen for him from the bottom of your heart!"

Qian Fei gave it some serious thought.

"But I feel like I really like him!"

Blinking her eyes, Xiao Yuan asked her, "What, did he get angry because you didn't let him do that to you?"

Qian Fei set down her chopsticks, her head drooping. "Yeah, he's completely ignored me since yesterday!"

Xiao Yuan said, "This is easy to handle. Just find an opportunity to let him do that to you once. As soon as your yin and yang are balanced, you won't grow a mustache anymore, his anger will fizzle out, and won't that be the end of it!"

Qian Fei glared at Xiao Yuan. "Big sis, can you have a shred of values regarding chastity! I still don't even know if I'll end up marrying him or not. To just carelessly let him sleep with me like that—what if we end up breaking up in the end? I can't exactly turn around and ask him for compensation for that sleep, it'd be a massive loss, alright!"

Xiao Yuan said, "Someone like you is lecturing me about chastity values? Alright, you don't need to overthink this matter either. I've read countless men in bed; for someone as high-maintenance as your current boyfriend, you shouldn't indulge him. The more you coax him, the more arrogant and delicate he'll become. Just leave him out to dry for a few days, and he'll behave himself. In a couple of days, he'll definitely come crawling back to find you!"

Qian Fei wore a face full of disbelief. "For real?"

Xiao Yuan cast her a flirty wink. "For real, would I ever lie to you! Men are just things that cannot be spoiled!"

Qian Fei said, "No! I was asking—the part about you reading countless men in bed, is that for real?"

Xiao Yuan raised her hand, balled up a paper napkin, and threw it right into Qian Fei's face.

※※※※※※

Qian Fei decided to listen to Xiao Yuan and leave Hu Zining out to dry for a few days.

In the afternoon, right before finishing work, Director Jin from the back-office support department assigned her a task, asking her to help compile the Investment Banking Quarterly Business Information Statistics. Director Jin said to her, "This was originally Xiao Ma's job, but she went home on maternity leave starting last week, so there's suddenly no one to handle this work! You're the only one who has done this before and knows how to compile the statistics, so Qian Fei, I'll have to trouble you!"

She had originally belonged to the back-office support department and had only found a way to transfer to the project department after breaking up with Wang Ruohai. She felt embarrassed to refuse a request from her old boss, so she had no choice but to accept it.

Director Jin needed it urgently, stating that it would be best to hand it to him tomorrow morning. Qian Fei had no choice but to stay up late working overtime to rush through it after returning home.

Before she knew it, it was already half past eleven. Drowsiness began to hit her, and she yawned with tears and a runny nose.

She stood up and opened her door to head to the kitchen, attempting to find something in the refrigerator that could refresh her mind, like coffee or tea.

Yet the moment she opened the refrigerator door, there was an overwhelming avalanche of facial masks, facial masks, facial masks...

She silently closed the refrigerator door.

She was truly so sleepy that she couldn't recognize her own relatives and had completely lost her memory, actually forgetting that the refrigerator at home was no longer a refrigerator—it was already the homeland of facial masks.

As Qian Fei passed through the living room preparing to return to her room, the front door clicked outside. Li Yifei was back, carrying a bag of items in his hand. Gui Lili was not following behind him.

She asked casually, "Just getting back?"