白费

to waste (one's energy etc)

white / snowy / pure / bright / empty / blank / plain / clear / to make clear / in vain / gratuitous / free of charge / reactionary / anti-communist / funeral / to stare coldly / to write wrong character / to state / to explain / vernacular / spoken lines in opera

surname Fei

to cost / to spend / fee / wasteful / expenses

to whistle down the wind / to waste one's breath (idiom)