As dusk settled, the coffee shop bustled with a stream of customers, weary office workers who had toiled all day, coming here to take a seat, sip on a coffee, and enjoy the enchanting twilight.
Wang Yang and Jessica sat at a table by the floor-to-ceiling windows, each cradling a cup of coffee to taste.
After watching "Titanic," they had come to this cafe next to the movie theater, but along the way, there wasn't much conversation. After the initial joy of reunion, now both of them seemed at a loss for what to say. Although their friendship had been strong enough to talk about anything in their childhood, almost ten years had passed, and estrangement was inevitable.
"Yang, there's something I need to apologize to you for," Jessica broke the silence. She looked at Wang Yang and said apologetically, "When I transferred schools and left that year, I didn't say goodbye to you in person. I'm sorry." She sighed, explaining, "At that time, my dad left the military to do business in Los Angeles, so we had to move the whole family here. But as you know, back then I was very timid. I didn't know how to say goodbye to you, so… in the end, I just left that letter for you."
Wang Yang asked with confusion, "That letter? What letter?"
"Oh?" Jessica frowned slightly, also confused, "The farewell letter I left for you, it was in your drawer, you... didn't receive it?"
"No, what letter?" Wang Yang shrugged. When Jessica left, she simply left without treating him like a good friend at all. He had complained about it for a while and so had almost completely forgotten about her afterwards.
Jessica was stunned. From the moment her dad told her they were moving to Los Angeles, she began writing that long, several-pages-long letter. She wrote and tore it up, tore it up and wrote again, spending over a week until the last day of school before she left. She finally settled on the contents of the letter and carefully placed it in Wang Yang's drawer. How could Wang Yang have not received it?
"Impossible, what's going on?" Jessica couldn't figure it out, anxious as if she had lost a treasure, "I clearly put the letter in the drawer, weighing it down with your book… Oh, God, I understand now. No wonder I didn't receive a letter from you, you didn't see my farewell letter and naturally didn't know my new address. Oh, where did things go wrong?"
"Wait a moment, let me think..." Wang Yang rubbed his temples, trying to recall the events of that year. His memory was very vague. That day, he went to school as usual, walked into the classroom as usual, and then found out the desk next to him was empty, Jessica's textbooks and everything were gone, the teacher said she had transferred away, he felt annoyed, and complained about why Jessica hadn't said goodbye. After class, looking at the empty desk next to his, he felt somewhat lost...
"Finally, that little black girl is gone, I get annoyed just looking at her, ugly freak..." "She's always like an ostrich, never saying a word, it's no fun even to bully her..." "Look who that Chinese kid can talk to now, I felt sick hearing their laughter before," the few bullies—white kids—in the class discussed among themselves, and then the ringleader, Peter, suddenly held up several pages, proudly declaring, "Guys, look what I found." Then that group of white kids gathered around, erupting in wave after wave of mocking laughter. And then he felt those people were boring, so he simply walked out of the classroom to the outside.
Later, his dream of becoming a director spread around the class, and many people mocked him behind his back. He remembered Peter saying, "Find your ugly ghost to be your leading lady, Mr. Big Director! Haha!"
Thinking of this, Wang Yang already basically knew what was going on. He asked Jessica, "Did you write about my dream of becoming a director in the letter?"
"Um..." Jessica pretended to ponder, although she remembered the content of that letter all too well—she could even recite every single word now. After "thinking" for a while, she nodded and said, "I think so, I wrote some encouraging words, I probably mentioned it."
She tried her best not to blush. The truth was, the farewell letter she wrote back then was extremely cheesy. It was the first time she mustered the courage to confess her feelings, saying that once she arrived in Los Angeles, she would try hard to convince her parents to let her attend performing arts school. She would strive to become an actress, and she wrote telling Wang Yang to also work hard to become a director, so they could meet in Hollywood, Los Angeles... Those words were so cheesy that she remembered them clearly—as if she could ever forget.
Now that she thought of it, especially with Wang Yang sitting across from her, it made her feel somewhat flustered and restless. Was Yang playing with her?
"Then I know what happened! Damn it!" Wang Yang couldn't help but curse, saying, "It's Peter! That bastard stole the letter you wrote to me. No wonder he suddenly knew I wanted to be a director and that you wanted to become an actress! Apart from you, I didn't tell any other classmates about these things. Damn it, may God curse him!"
Peter? Upon hearing that name, Jessica had a vague image of a white kid's face spring to mind. She couldn't believe it and said, "Peter? The bad kid who liked to use hair gel to make his hair stand up? Right, I remember now, when I put the letter in your drawer, he was the only one in the classroom, and he was smiling at me... Oh, my God! He actually stole the letter?! How could he do that?!"
Jessica looked as if she had been seriously struck, first, her face went blank, then she grabbed her head in agony. She remembered moving to Los Angeles, being bullied at her new school, and waiting every day for a letter from Wang Yang that never came. She had even secretly cried several times. Eventually, her family agreed to let her attend performing arts school and, as she slowly became more beautiful, she managed to escape her plight.
If she had received a letter from Wang Yang at that time, maintaining their correspondence, what a wonderful thing that would have been! She thought she would have been very happy, even while being mocked and bullied by those mean kids every day.
It was all Peter's fault! Jessica clenched her fists, her face red with anger, and muttered to herself through clenched teeth, "How could he do this, how could he do this!? Why are there such people!? I'm going to kill that bastard..."
Wang Yang was also very angry. If he had known back then that Peter stole his letter, he would have definitely beaten that jerk up!
After being angry for a while, they both took a sip of their coffees simultaneously and looked at each other, laughing. The laughter was tinged with helplessness and regret. But all that was in the past now, beyond retrieval. Fortunately, they were reunited now, weren't they?
Putting down her coffee cup, Jessica gradually calmed her agitated emotions and looked at Wang Yang, speaking softly, "Yang, I'm really grateful for your help back in school, you were the best friend I ever had there." She shook her head, "You have no idea, I became the target for those bullies again at my new school in Los Angeles. They wore fancy clothes, but their hearts were ugly; they kept hurting the soul of a young girl. To be honest, I really missed you then."
She cracked a slight smile, coughed, and then cleared her throat, imitating Wang Yang's voice from the past, "Hey, you want to bully her? Did you ask me? She's under my protection!"
"Wow, I didn't even know I was that great," Wang Yang felt a bit embarrassed by her praise; he knew that back then he didn't fight for Jessica because he wanted to be some kind of "knight in shining armor." He simply relied on having learned some boxing and was just too eager to prove himself.
"Yes," Jessica nodded seriously, then said mysteriously, "Actually, at that time, you really did have a bit of a Superman vibe. Ha ha!" She laughed again, "Too bad Superman wasn't on duty in Los Angeles later on. Oh, those were some dark days, but fortunately, I got through them."
The two laughed heartily again, reminiscing about the old times before moving on to talk about their current lives. And then, the question Jessica was most concerned about, and the one Wang Yang least wanted to address, finally surfaced. Jessica smiled and asked, "Yang, how does it feel to be studying at the University of Southern California?"
"It's alright, feels good..." Wang Yang hesitated. Seeing Jessica rest her chin in her hands, eagerly waiting to listen, he felt a headache coming on. He took a sip of his coffee, tasting the bitterness, and thought, 'okay, this lie cannot be maintained.' He forced a smile and said, "Actually, as of a week ago, I'm no longer a student at USC. I was expelled."
"What!? You were expelled?" Jessica's shock was evident, she exclaimed with wide eyes and urgency, "What happened? Oh, I'm so sorry, what's going on, Yang? Why did they expel you?"
Wang Yang's expression turned even more bitter and powerless, he said, "Racial discrimination, they accused me of racial discrimination."
"Racial discrimination? You?" Jessica was stunned. The moment she heard that Wang Yang had been expelled, she had thought of many possible reasons; poor grades? Marijuana use? Criminal activity? But she would have never imagined it to be racial discrimination. She shook her head in disbelief, half laughing, half crying, "Yang, you're joking with me, right?"
Wang Yang shrugged, "I wish I was joking, but it's true. I've been wrongfully accused. To put it simply, USC had a jerk like Peter named Terrence Ben. That day he kept insulting and provoking me, blocking my path, and pushing me around, so I got angry and knocked him down. A teacher happened to pass by just as I was beating him up."
He clenched his teeth, controlling his anger as he continued, "Terrence turned the tables on me, claiming that I was racially discriminating against him, that I insulted and provoked him before hitting him. Unfortunately, the school chose to believe Terrence, and then I was expelled."
Jessica also appeared to be full of anger, saying, "How could this happen, they can't just wrongfully accuse someone like that! Yang, to say you're racist, I could never believe that, how could they be so foolish?"
"There were no other people around when we fought, so no one could testify for me. And that teacher who witnessed me beating up Terrence, he was willing to testify for Terrence." Wang Yang recalled the helplessness he felt at the time and cursed, "Damn it, I went all over the college asking every single person, trying to find someone who was there at the time to tell the truth, but not one person spoke up! Just like that, I was pegged as a racist!"
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." Jessica frowned deeply, upset by Wang Yang's torment. She really wanted to help Wang Yang, just like he helped her in the past. She tried to calm herself down, thinking about various solutions when suddenly an idea struck her, she excitedly said, "Yang, can I go to testify for you? I can tell the story of how you helped me when I was younger, to prove to the USC authorities that you're definitely not that kind of person!"
Wang Yang shook his head, "It's no use, I already tried doing that. I got a few of my high school's African-American friends to speak for me, but those people at the school, they're all a bunch of stubborn old fools!" He became more and more agitated as he spoke, then slammed the table, "They even suspected that those friends of mine had been paid off by me!"
"Is there really no other way?" Jessica said, unable to accept the situation. How could this be? She had become an actress, and Wang Yang was supposed to become a director just as they had dreamt as children. But now... Oh God, why would You arrange things this way?
Wang Yang didn't answer. Jessica looked at him, wanting to say something but unable to find any solution. They fell into a prolonged silence, merely sipping their coffee continuously.
After a while, Jessica, with sadness in her voice, asked, "So, what are your plans?" She knew that Wang Yang was in a difficult position – tarnished with the stigma of racial discrimination – to even find an ordinary job had become extremely challenging.
What plans, what was he to do next? Wang Yang asked himself the same question. He gulped down the coffee in his cup, which was so bitter it made him want to vomit.
His options were few, or rather, he had no options at all. Going back to school or finding a job were no longer viable paths. His funds were running low, as well; the living expenses provided by his parents for the semester, combined with the money he had earned from part-time jobs, amounted to just over ten thousand US dollars. Now that he was expelled from the University, he needed to rent a place outside, pay for utilities, and without any chance of a scholarship, his funds wouldn't last long; in terms of time, less than two months remained until the end of the second semester. By then, the news of his expulsion would undoubtedly not be concealable from his parents any longer, and a storm was bound to erupt. If he had nothing to show for himself, he would be dragged back to San Francisco…
Ten thousand US dollars, two months, what could he do?
Wang Yang looked at the beautiful face of Jessica Alba opposite him, his heart skipped a beat and then tightened. She was destined to become famous – to stand on the stage that belonged to her and captivate the whole world. And what about him? Would he return to that rundown restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown to stir-fry food and wash dishes every day, drifting further and further away from movies, from being a director, from this girl? Damn it!
Jessica noticed the fleeting pain on Wang Yang's face. Her heart also tightened – it hurt. How could she help Wang Yang? After thinking for a while, she said, "Yang, after my father retired from the military, he started many businesses and now runs a real estate company, which is doing fairly well. He's also hiring at the moment..."
"No, no, no! Jessica, thank you for your kindness, but I won't become a salesman." Jessica hadn't finished speaking when Wang Yang interrupted her with a smile. He already had an idea! He said with a smile, "You know, I've always wanted to be a director, to make movies, ever since I was very, very young. And now, I've made up my mind. I'm going to take action, not just think about it. I want to make a movie— an independent film!"
Yes, he was going to make a movie. That was the path he was meant to follow! Even if he encountered difficulties so severe they left him battered and bruised, he wouldn't give up because he wouldn't allow himself to lose certain things!
"Jessica, you are an ugly duckling now, but you will become a beautiful swan someday! Believe me, you must become an actress! Then, once I become a director, I can cast you as my leading lady."
That sentence, the first part had already come true; one day, the second part would come true as well! He believed it with conviction.