Xu Anyi's Old Friends

"Yes you, turn around."

It was a girl who spoke and Xu Anyi could hear that the voice came from the couch. She froze and her fingers clenched on tightly around the tray as she stood there, not moving.

The girl didn't continue to speak and Xu Anyi took another step forward, hoping that she could just sneak out.

"I told you to turn around!" The girl said louder this time, her voice forceful and with a condescending tone. By this moment, the room had quieted down already and the only sound came from the television.

Xu Anyi took a deep breath and slowly turned around, her head bent down to face the ground so no one could see her face as she stood in the dim lighting.

Everyone in the room was looking at her, and the girl who spoke also narrowed her eyes as she examined the worker closely, "Lift your head up."

Xu Anyi didn't move.

"Do you work here? Didn't you hear her? She told you to lift your head up," another man said this time, his voice coming from the same direction as the girl.

Xu Anyi didn't know why the girl had suddenly called her to stop, but there was nothing she could do now. She slowly lifted her head up slightly, keeping her eyes on the ground.

However, once she had lifted her head ever so slightly, the girl jumped up from the couch and marched over in her heels, grabbing onto Xu Anyi's hand as she pulled her into the light before Xu Anyi could even react.

Her eyes shot up as she scanned the room, and at once, Xu Anyi felt her heart skip a beat.

She recognized at least half of the people in the room, as a group of them sitting on the couch were people she used to be friends with. . . or more like a group of people that used to want to be friends with her and always asked her out to play.

The girl who had grabbed onto her also seemed familiar, although Xu Anyi couldn't remember exactly who it was. Probably the daughter of another rich family.

The girl let out a gasp as she dropped Xu Anyi's hand right away and took a step back, muttering, "I knew it. . ."

The room was completely silent by now as everyone in the room stared at Xu Anyi, and many of them were also too shocked to speak as they figured out who she was.

Slowly, people began whispering amongst themselves, and a few people who did not recognize her began asking the others what was going on.

"Is that Xu Anyi or am I going crazy?"

"I think that is Xu Anyi. She looks so different, I almost didn't recognize her."

"Xu Anyi. . ." There was a gasp, "Like the Xu Anyi from the old Xu family? What happened to her? Why is she here. . . dressed up like that?"

"Don't you know? I heard she went to prison."

"Xu Anyi? Is that really her?"

Xu Anyi looked down once again, pushing a strand of hair back as she took a step back, wanting to leave. However, before she could take another step, the girl who had stopped her grabbed onto her arm again, smiling insincerely as she spoke loudly, "Xu Anyi, is that really you?!"

Before she could even reply, the girl continued, "When did you come out of jail?"

Xu Anyi pulled her arm away, not saying anything.

The girl did not seem to care that she was being ignored, but she wasn't going to let Xu Anyi go so easily. After all, they were "friends" five years ago.

"You should have told us!" She exclaimed, pulling Xu Anyi over to the group of people on the couch, "We would have totally gone to welcome you back."

The girl's fake voice was like a fly buzzing in Xu Anyi's ears, and she would have certainly talked back at the girl if it were five years ago. However, after five years alone in prison, there was one thing that Xu Anyi had gotten better at, and that was controlling her emotions.

She had absolutely nothing now, and she would only hurt herself if she tried to fight back. She knew these fake people better than anyone. . . They would certainly not let her go if she fought back.

"Come, come. Sit down and have a drink."

The girl dragged her down towards the couch and poured her a cup of red wine, holding it up to her. Xu Anyi looked at the glass but did not take it from her, and instead looked away as if she had not seen or heard anything.

The girl's face turned slightly green, but then she chuckled mockingly, taking a sip of the wine herself, "Oh, I almost forgot! They don't allow alcohol in prison. You probably haven't had such expensive wine in a long time already, right? You won't be used to it even if you drink it."

The other people in the room laughed at her words, and someone paused the television as more people began sitting down to watch the live show that was going on.

Everyone in the room knew of Xu Anyi. Who could forget the precious pearl of the prestigious Xu family, once the proud red rose of the entire City A?

At some point, every single girl in the room was once jealous of her and every man in the room had dreamt of being with her for at least a moment.

But now. . . The rose had fallen and they were certainly not going to let go of the opportunity to step on her even more. After all, people found pleasure from other people's pain, especially the pain of someone who used to be above them.

"Tingting, are you sure that is her?" Another girl from the other side of the room asked, "She doesn't look like Xu Anyi."

Tingting. . . Xu Anyi frowned. The name sounded slightly familiar, but she never really cared about these upper class "friends" in the past, so she did not remember many of them.

In the past, Xia Yiwei would always be the one to drag her out to play with these people, and they would always come to try and butter her up, so she never really bothered or cared about them.

But it seemed like they had quite some issues with her. . .

"She does look a little different," the girl named Tingting agreed with a smile.

"What do you mean different? She looks uglier than before." A man spoke this time, and he did not bother to hide the disgust and resentment in his voice.

Hearing it, Xu Anyi glanced over at the man but did not recognize him at all.

The man made eye contact with her and he narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward and opened a bottle of wine, pouring it into a thick glass until it was all the way full. Then, he slid it across the table at Xu Anyi so some of the wine spilled out as he sat back down, "Drink it."

Xu Anyi knit her eyebrows together, not moving as she looked over at the man. Why did he seem to dislike her so much? Who was he?

"I'm telling you to drink it." The man ordered.

Xu Anyi still did not move, and she stared at the man, who suddenly smirked as he looked away, pulling out his wallet.

He took a thick wad of cash out and threw it at Xu Anyi, the cash hitting her shoulder and falling onto the ground, the thin papers separating and slowly falling down like confetti.

"I almost forgot. You people need money to do things. Now drink it."

Initially, some people in the room were still subconsciously scared of Xu Anyi as they still remembered her as the precious pearl of the city, but seeing the man humiliate her like that, the people in the room realized that the old Xu Anyi was gone.

She was a nobody now.

A few people in the room whistled in excitement as several of them urged Xu Anyi to drink it.

"Drink it! You don't get to drink something as expensive as this often."

"Young master Lin is being generous to offer you such an expensive drink! Don't be so ungrateful!"

Xu Anyi clenched her fists together underneath the table as she scanned the room.

The man glared at Xu Anyi, watching her closely. The apathetic look on her face annoyed him, as it reminded him of the old Xu Anyi, the one that had rejected him several years ago.

Young master Lin. . . Finally, Xu Anyi matched a name to the man's face, and she frowned as the man looked very different from what she remembered, although her memory was very blurry.

If she remembered correctly, he was one of the many guys she had rejected before when she was still the beautiful rose of the city and everyone wanted to be with her.

He had spent a whole month planning out how he would ask her out, and she had simply said, "You should go look in the mirror," and rejected him. After that, he began the laughing stock of the city.

Is that why he seemed to loathe her so much?

It looks like he got plastic surgery, as he looked very different, and even from a distance away, his nose looked slightly awkward.

Suddenly, the man slammed his hand onto the glass table, and several girls shrieked in surprise, "Hurry and drink it!"

The girl who had dragged her to the couch grabbed onto the cup and lifted it up to Xu Anyi's mouth, also urging her to drink it, "Don't worry, you don't have to pay for it."

She pushed the edge of the glass to Xu Anyi's lips, and some of the red wine spilled onto Xu Anyi's lap.

Xu Anyi's frown deepened as she looked down.

Seeing the stain on her white clothes, she finally could not hold it in anymore as she jumped up from the couch, knocking the glass over as it fell out of the girl's hands, crashing against the table as the glass broke into pieces and the wine inside it spilled all over the table and onto the floor.

Several people gasped as they stared at the glass with their mouths open in surprise.

Xu Anyi did not care as she scanned the room, a look of disdain in her eyes, "It's been five years, yet all of you haven't changed at all. Not only are all of you still ugly on the outside, but it seems like inside, all of you have gotten uglier too."

--- Author's Note:

Go Anyi!! ^o^

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Love you <3