The midnight in LA remained sleepless, as a party for young people was just beginning. Su Ruiyi and her university friends were gathered, seemingly with inexhaustible energy.
Su Ruiyi pulled her best friend away from the bustling crowd towards the bar. Tonight, they were the stars of the show.
Su Ruiyi adjusted Sasha's strap; the magenta sequined tight dress was a gift from Su Ruiyi.
Sasha: "Honey, I need to tell you something."
Su Ruiyi cupped her hand over her ear and shouted, "What? Speak up, I can't hear you!"
Sasha put down Su Ruiyi's drink and pulled her towards a relatively quiet corner. Su Ruiyi stumbled along behind her.
"Yiyi, I'm going back home."
Su Ruiyi finally heard her and felt a pang of envy. She hadn't been back home in ages.
"Wow, going back for New Year's? When will you return? I'll pick you up."
"I... might not come back," Sasha said regretfully.
Su Ruiyi grinned, thinking Sasha was joking.
"Don't kid around. Didn't we promise to go on a trip to Egypt together?"
Sasha's voice grew softer.
"Yiyi, you're the best friend I ever had in college. I never thought I'd be friends with a rich girl like you. You didn't look down on my poverty, and you're not like what those people said."
Su Ruiyi didn't care what people thought of her as a rich girl. As long as she considered someone a friend, she would treat them with all her heart.
"We're best friends, and you should have everything I have!"
"Thank you, Yiyi. But I can't just play around like you forever. We come from different backgrounds. After graduation, I need to go back home, find a good job, and then get set up on blind dates with a suitable man, get married..."
Su Ruiyi laughed heartily, "I'll support you!"
Sasha sternly stopped her, "Stop messing around. We're from different countries, and we might never see each other again."
Su Ruiyi finally realized her best friend was serious. Sasha was leaving, and Su Ruiyi began to resent why she was only telling her now. Sasha, whom she had dressed up like a doll, wouldn't be her inseparable friend forever.
"It's fine. You can go back to Country C. I still have Peter and the others. We others can still travel." Su Ruiyi's words were a little tough, though her heart was already aching.
"Yiyi, they're going back too..."
Su Ruiyi disliked hearing this. She pushed Sasha.
"Go then, all of you go! If it weren't for my charity, how could you have become my friend!"
"I don't need you! You vulgar dog, you're not worthy of playing with me!"
In her rage, Su Ruiyi said the cruelest words to Sasha. Friends in the distance saw this. Wang Ziran rushed over immediately and dragged Su Ruiyi away, while others took Sasha and left.
However, the calm Su Ruiyi soon regretted her words. She ran to the balcony and looked down from the height at her friends leaving the party. When she saw Sasha's retreating back, she turned away and wept uncontrollably.
Su Ruiyi had no idea that Sasha, standing on the street, was also gazing up at her friend from above.
Wang Ziran handed Su Ruiyi a handkerchief, "Stop crying. They've all left."
Su Ruiyi glanced at this childhood companion who had been with her through thick and thin. Over the years, he was the only one who had stayed by her side.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
Wang Ziran patted Su Ruiyi's shoulder, "If everyone else leaves you, I won't."
"I don't believe you. Sasha even said she'd be my forever best sister, yet she's going back home."
"I'm different from them. I've known you since we were kids. They are just our college friends."
"I was so good to Sasha. What will she do back home without me?"
"I was good to Peter and the others too, yet I couldn't keep them. It's fine, it was just a fleeting friendship anyway."
"It's all over... That's good. I don't have to pretend anymore, and you don't have to report to my mom about my friends anymore."
"Do you know why I could be friends with Sasha? Because she was poor. So poor that every time I gave her something nice, she'd secretly sell it..."
"Even knowing that, I never abandoned her. She'll never find another friend like me who spends money on her."
"But before she met us, they were living just fine..."
"If I had known this, I really shouldn't have abandoned those friends. At least they would have stayed by my side for money."
Wang Ziran quickly shook his head, "Those weren't friends; they harmed you..."
Su Ruiyi glanced at Wang Ziran and said, "But they didn't break my heart!"
"Are we still going to Egypt?"
"No! It's just you and me now, what's the point!" Su Ruiyi sighed, leaning regretfully against the railing, gazing up at the starry sky.
"Where do you want to go then?"
"To find my mom."
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you, your aunt is back home."
Su Ruiyi's eyes widened, "What? When? Why are you only telling me now!"
"Just... a few days ago. Auntie said if you didn't want to come back, she wouldn't tell you."
"You should have told me as soon as you knew! I can't let my mom go back home!"
Wang Ziran looked at Su Ruiyi in confusion. Su Ruiyi's furrowed brow made him sense that things were rather serious.
Su Ruiyi leaned closer to Wang Ziran and spoke in a low voice.
"I'm only telling you this. You absolutely cannot tell anyone!"
"Okay, I swear, I won't tell a soul!"
"Remember that year I got into trouble because I was scammed and got taken in for questioning?"
"I remember. We went back home together that year, and my father helped, so the matter was suppressed."
"It was around that time that I suspected my dad was seeing someone else!"
Wang Ziran's eyes widened, his mouth agape.
Su Ruiyi gently patted Wang Ziran, "Don't look at me like that. My parents have been living apart for years; I expected this to happen!"
"Then Auntie...?"
"My mom doesn't know. I didn't tell her. So I can't let my mom go back home. If she goes back and finds out my dad is fooling around, what then!"
"But Auntie is already in the country now, what should we do?"
"What else can we do? We'll go back home too!"