Love Apartment: Yifei is my junior aunt

Chapter 47 What exactly are the standards for judging a gift?

Zhanbo and Wanyu looked at each other, unsure of what to say to comfort Nanfeng.

"Alright, you two are practically wearing your hearts out on your sleeves." Nanfeng glanced at them and walked straight to the refrigerator. "Choose, what kind of drink do you want?"

"I want an iced cola," Zhanbo said.

Wan Yu was still a little reserved: "I'll just have a glass of orange juice."

Nanfeng opened the refrigerator and glanced inside: "I don't think I have any of the drinks you guys are talking about."

"How about... a glass of ice water?" Zhanbo asked tentatively.

"No, not at all."

"So what do you have here?"

Nanfeng answered matter-of-factly, "Only lemonade."

"Then what are we supposed to choose?"

"Of course, you can choose whether you want lemonade, hot lemonade, iced lemonade, double-concentrated lemonade, five-concentrated lemonade, or lemon juice."

"No, just give us a glass of water," Wanyu said, covering her teeth.

Forget about drinking it, just hearing Nanfeng muttering a long list of lemonade made Wanyu feel like her teeth were going to ache.

Nanfeng poured each of them a glass of warm water, then sat on the sofa on the other side, watching the two of them with amusement.

Feeling a little uneasy under Nanfeng's gaze, Zhanbo couldn't help but ask first, "Nanfeng, why are you looking at us like that?"

"It's nothing," Nanfeng teased. "I just wanted to see how long you two were going to hold hands."

"Ah." Only then did the two realize that their hands, which had been clasped together out of fear, were still tightly clasped together.

Zhanbo and Wanyu quickly let go of each other's hands, pretending nothing had happened.

Nanfeng watched all this with a smile: "Why did you relax so suddenly? I thought you two came here specifically to feed me your lovey-dovey stuff."

Nanfeng gave Zhanbo a thumbs up, saying, "Although I'm unhappy that you guys are treating this place like a haunted house, your behavior of standing in front of Wanyu just now was very manly. Thumbs up!"

"Nanfeng!" Zhanbo glanced nervously at Wanyu, and only relaxed when he saw that Wanyu didn't take Nanfeng's teasing seriously. "Stop messing around, we're here to ask you about that Transformers set."

"Transformers?" Nanfeng frowned, asking with some doubt.

"What Transformers?"

Wan Yu thought Nan Feng was still making fun of them, and replied somewhat anxiously, "It's the Transformers set that I asked you and Teacher Zeng to help me sell this morning."

"Nanfeng, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have sold the gift Zhanbo gave me to pay the rent, and I shouldn't have lied to you and Teacher Zeng, saying that this Transformers set was a toy I had collected since I was a child."

"Nanfeng, just tell us where this set of Transformers is now, and who it was sold to, and we'll figure out a way to get it back."

Please.

Nanfeng became increasingly confused: "When was it this morning...?"

Before he finished speaking, Nanfeng's expression suddenly changed. He rubbed his temples and took out his phone from his pocket to look at it.

Zhanbo and Wanyu looked at Nanfeng's extremely pale face and were both a little scared.

"Nanfeng, what are you doing...?"

"It's nothing." Nanfeng turned off the phone's memo app, which showed today's date. "I just caught a cold and have a bit of a headache. I was thinking of making an online appointment for an outpatient visit so I don't have to queue up early tomorrow morning."

He put his phone away, taking in the worried expressions on their faces.

"It's just a minor illness, I didn't even take it seriously myself, look how scared you two are."

Nanfeng sat up straight, trying his best to appear more energetic, but this physical fatigue and weakness was not something he could fake.

"That Transformers set... I remember now. Didn't Teacher Zeng already mail them out?"

"I estimate that they should have been signed for by the buyer by now, and the four thousand yuan should have been in Teacher Zeng's merchant account. It's just that Teacher Zeng went to work at the radio station and didn't have time to transfer it to you."

"It's already been signed for? How could it be so fast!" Wan Yu exclaimed in disbelief.

If the package is still en route, the sellers have a lot of leverage to get the Transformers set back. However, once the model has been signed for by the buyer, the money and goods are settled and the sellers are no longer involved. It becomes extremely difficult to get the model back from the buyer.

Nanfeng spread his hands, indicating that he was also helpless: "Because the buyer happened to be in the same city and was willing to spend more money to use express delivery, the package was sent out in the morning and the buyer signed for it in the evening."

"By the way, the buyer also gave Teacher Zeng a good review, saying that he had never seen a 20-year-old rare item still in such good condition."

Nanfeng laughed gleefully as he spoke.

Upon hearing this, Zhanbo was heartbroken. He was so anxious that he could hardly sit still: "Can't we just talk to the buyer and ask him to return the item to us? We can fully compensate him for his losses, even if it means adding more money."

Nanfeng laughed and said, "Who are you referring to as 'we'? You and Wanyu?"

"When Wanyu put the Transformers up for sale, she didn't say it was something you two were doing together. Whether to contact the buyer or offer a full refund, these are decisions that don't seem to be your place to make with me, are they?"

"But this Transformers set is mine."

"They were yours before, but now you've given them to Wanyu."

Perhaps due to illness, or perhaps due to a bad mood, Nanfeng's words today were far less gentle than usual. At this moment, he was more like Hu Yifei, whose words were laced with barbs.

"Zhanbo, you're an adult now. Before making any decision, you should be prepared to accept any consequences that the decision may bring."

"Since you've decided to give Wanyu your most cherished possession, you can't just assume she'll like the gift. You also have to accept the possibility that she might use your sentiment to make money or throw it away."

"But no matter what Wanyu does after receiving the gift, it has absolutely nothing to do with you, do you understand?"

"You can go to Wanyu to demand an explanation, but you can't bypass Wanyu and go to this buyer."

"Whether it's contacting the buyer, issuing a full refund, or paying extra to get the item back, these are decisions only Wanyu can make. You have no right to tell me these things."

Wan Yu lowered her head in shame. Nan Feng seemed to be educating Zhan Bo, but in reality, every word he said was like a knife stabbing into her heart.

"Wanyu, what do you say? The buyer's money should have already arrived. If we do as Zhanbo says, what will happen to your rent?"

"I can pay Wanyu's rent in advance." Zhanbo was intimidated by Nanfeng's cold gaze as soon as he finished speaking.

"I was asking Wanyu, not you. Why are you presumptuously giving me this answer?"

"But..." Zhanbo wanted to say something more, but Wanyu's hand firmly grasped his wrist.

"Zhanbo, stop talking." Wanyu raised her head. "Nanfeng is right. Since I started this, I should be the one to end it."

She took a deep breath and said firmly, "Nanfeng, I've changed my mind. I don't want to sell this Transformers model anymore."

"Whether it's a full refund, apologizing to the buyer, or even spending extra money to buy them back, I'm willing to accept it."

"I just want them back, is that okay?"

Nanfeng rubbed his temples and pondered for a moment: "It's possible, but if we have to spend more money to buy back that Transformers set, where will you get the money given your current financial situation, where you're struggling to even pay for food and rent?"

"I will make up for the mistakes I made myself. Even if I have to borrow money, I can pay it back slowly after I find a job." Wan Yu gritted her teeth and said, "If all else fails, I will call my dad and ask him for money. No matter how much it costs, I will get this Transformers set back."

"Wanyu!" Zhanbo shouted in shock, "If you call your father, you'll definitely be taken back."

"I know, Zhanbo." Wanyu looked as heartbroken as a canary that had just gained its freedom but was about to be trapped in a cage again, but her tone remained firm. "I've made up my mind, Zhanbo."

Zhanbo grabbed Wanyu's hand and stood up to leave: "Let's go, Wanyu. We don't need this Transformers set. There's nothing in this world that you have to exchange for your freedom."

However, Wanyu resolutely let go of Zhanbo's hand, tilting her head back, her eyes filled with a mixture of tears and joy.

"Zhanbo, listen to me."

"I won't listen." Zhanbo couldn't understand. "This Transformers set represents my life's work. I don't want it anymore, so why are you so fixated on it?"

"Because this is the first truly heartfelt gift I've ever received."

Wan Yu tilted her head back, desperately trying to hold back her tears.

She wasn't the kind of girl who cried easily. She didn't cry when she struggled to find a job, nor did she cry when she missed her parents late at night.

I've never worried about money since I was a child, but now I have to call someone politely asking them to return the 50 yuan I mistakenly topped up, only to be verbally abused in return. I didn't even cry.

But she felt like crying all day.

It's all because of you, Lu Zhanbo.

You are a really, really annoying person.

"Zhanbo, do you know that before I met you, I had never received a sincere gift from anyone other than my family?"

"I don't know how you view the sincerity behind a gift, but in our circle of peers, the sincerity behind a gift doesn't exist; all that exists is the price of the gift."

"It's not that I haven't received limited edition gifts, but are limited editions really that precious to people in our circle?"

"Whether it's a limited edition or a luxury item, in the end it's just a matter of the price of the gift."

"Five figures, six figures, seven figures—it seems like the more expensive the gift, the more attentive the person is to you."

"But is that really the case?"

"Whether it's a five-figure sum, a six-figure sum, or even a seven-figure sum, so what? The person giving the gift won't care about such a small amount of money. As for eight-figure or nine-figure sums, which would make people care, they're unlikely to spend money to give you those.

"We don't care about the money, or even the gifts themselves. Often, we just arrange for someone to buy these so-called expensive gifts for us. The person giving the gift may only see it for the first time on the day of the gift-giving."

Wan Yu smiled self-deprecatingly: "The person who gives the gift won't care about it, and the person who receives it certainly won't care either."

"After a birthday party, we can receive a whole walk-in closet full of expensive clothes, jewelry and bags, but often we can't even tell who gave what."

"After all, your friends won't gather together specifically to discuss what gifts to give you. If everyone buys expensive items, the gifts will inevitably be the same.

"Gradually, gifts became just a form of social interaction within my circle, and I got used to judging gifts by their price. If I liked a gift from someone, I would keep it; if I didn't like it, I would give it away. Otherwise, it would just take up space in my walk-in closet."

"That's what I thought too this time, but I don't know, I don't know..."

Wan Yu finally couldn't hold back her tears: "I didn't know this time was different, completely different."

"Zhanbo, that's why I have to find this Transformers set, not just for you, but also for myself."

Let me first clarify: the author himself is a poor, uneducated country bumpkin. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events in the descriptions of the wealthy circles in this book is purely coincidental.

(End of this chapter)