On the eve of Mother's Day, my best friend, Chloe, suddenly sent me a group-buying link for flowers. "Mia, Mia, group-buying flowers is such a good deal! Please, please split it with me!" Her tone was playful and cute, as always. But I had already refused her three times. Yet she asked for the fourth time. The anger in my heart was hard to suppress, and my tone of refusal wasn't very pleasant. "My mother passed away less than a week ago. Do you think I need this?" "But... you can buy them for yourself." This time, she sent a voice message. Her voice was soft and sticky, the ending tone even carrying a hint of aggrieved dissatisfaction. At that moment, I felt exhausted, physically and mentally. Suddenly, I felt that this friendship should end right here. 1 My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long time, unsure of what to send back. Or maybe, I should say nothing and just block her directly. But twenty years of friendship made it impossible for me to be so ruthless. I could only close the message dialog and open my work app to deal with business matters. But she wouldn't let it go. She racked her brains, trying to come up with reasons to convince me. "Look, you're already in a bad mood because of your mom's passing, and flowers can make people happy. You really can buy a bouquet for yourself." "If you're happier, your mom down there can rest easy." Half an hour later. She probably thought she had finally come up with a perfect solution. She excitedly messaged me: "I have an idea! You can buy them for my mom!" "We're so close, my mom is your mom. You can express your love to my mom, and my mom can give it back to you. This way, you won't always live in the pain of losing your mother." "Am I super smart or what?" Actually, if you take these sentences out individually, every one of them sounds nice and can be interpreted with good intentions. I could understand it as her wanting me to move on from the pain of bereavement sooner, hoping to alleviate my grief, hoping beautiful things could let me face the rest of my life more happily and easily. If I ignored her selfish goal of just saving money. Just like every time in the past, interpreting her words and deeds with kindness. This matter could actually pass. After all, we have known each other for too long, our relationship as close as family. I knew her strengths and weaknesses like the back of my hand. I knew she was overly selfish, habitually self-centered, often living in her own world, requiring excessive accommodation from others. For example, chatting was usually her home court, endlessly revolving around her work, her family, her complaints about everything. Looking through the chat history, it was always "I, I, I," with the word "you" appearing very rarely. Occasionally when I mentioned something about myself, she often wouldn't even reply, switching back to her own affairs without transition. Going out to eat, shop, or hang out, we went wherever she wanted. It was hard for me to win against her stubbornness. By nature, I don't like arguing; most of the time, I'm very easygoing. Only once, she wanted to eat hotpot. But because I had been clearing out ingredients from my fridge and ate hotpot for a week straight, I was at the point where hearing the word "hotpot" made me want to vomit. So I rejected her suggestion. "Pick somewhere else. Anything but hotpot." She pestered me for a very long time, seeing that I really wouldn't budge. She reluctantly agreed. But after walking around the food street, she finally pulled me to stop in front of the hotpot restaurant, begging me pitifully. "But I still don't want to eat anything else. Besides, I just bought a coupon on my phone." "At worst, I won't make you treat me this time. Let's go Dutch, okay?" "Please, please, I really, really want to eat hotpot. Listen to me this time, and I'll listen to you next time, okay? Okay?" She pulled at my sleeve, acting coquettish. Of course, by "next time," she would have long forgotten such a promise. In the past, I could always tolerate her. If she didn't pick up on the topics I brought up, I rarely talked about myself again. Even if I encountered something annoying at work, I would just silently digest it myself. After all, no one wants to be someone else's emotional trash can. What she wanted to eat, where she wanted to play, I could yield. 2 Because I thought these were small matters. Although she had such an unbearable flaw, her strengths were equally charming. She was enthusiastic, cheerful, brave, and upright. She was always so courageous in speaking up for what she wanted. Unlike me, who would mentally prepare over and over, only to forcibly suppress my needs in the end. I hated my own stifled cowardice but couldn't change it. I drink a lot of water. At every gathering, while others barely touched their tea, I was always the first to finish mine. I looked at everyone else's relatively full cups, hesitating again and again, feeling like they didn't need refills, and I was too embarrassed to pour only for myself. I could only endure the thirst and wait. Wait until the next person who needed water picked up the teapot and poured a round, filling mine. Even though I knew very well that I just needed to pick up the teapot and naturally ask, "Do you guys want water?" It would solve my dilemma. But socially anxious me just couldn't open my mouth. So I always envied Chloe, who seemed to have "social butterfly syndrome." She lived so brilliantly and boldly, making life flavorful. So even if she was sometimes overly self-centered, I felt it didn't matter; I could tolerate it. Until this time, I truly felt she stepped on my bottom line. I didn't reply to her for a long time. At two in the afternoon, she probably couldn't hold it in anymore and sent another voice message. "How about this? You don't even have to take the flowers. Just transfer the split cost to me, and I'll deal with the flowers for you. Is that okay?" Knowing her as well as I do, I was very clear that such wording meant she was already unhappy. If it were in the past, involving trivial matters not touching on principles, I would have started coaxing her long ago. But now, not only did I not want to, but I was also infuriated by her selfish and overbearing tone. I couldn't help scrolling up the chat history and clicking on the link she sent. I wanted to see how much money a group buy could save to be worth her poking at the pain of my mother's death again and again. Single purchase: $16.80. Group purchase: $14.80. It was only two dollars. So our friendship wasn't even worth two dollars. I felt incredibly ironic. "If you can't afford it, don't give gifts. Is two dollars worth you harassing me again and again to make me group buy with you?" "How many times did I refuse? Can you completely fail to understand my feelings, stabbing my sore spot over and over with words like 'Mother's Day' and 'flowers'? Besides, aren't there other people on the app to group buy with you? As far as I know, strangers can also group buy successfully. Why do you have to latch onto me?" "Why are you so fierce? I just asked you for a small favor. Of course I can find someone else to group buy with me. I was thinking we are best friends, aren't we? I wanted you to experience the holiday atmosphere with me and be a little happier. Was I wrong?" She suddenly sent a close-up selfie. Her expression was scrunched up, looking very sad. But the corners of her eyes were dry, without a single tear. Looking at it made me even more repulsed and nauseated. "Look at how sad I am now. Why do you have to say that about me? Aren't we best friends?" "I know you're sad about your mom dying, but I didn't cause any of this. I'm sad too. When your mom's funeral was being arranged, I was with you the whole time, running around, helping you contact people. Did you forget all that?" As she brought up old matters, I couldn't help thinking of those days. 3 I had no appetite, so she brought me all kinds of delicious food. I was too busy to touch the ground, and she took leave to accompany me, helping me contact the funeral home, buying wreaths and paper houses, etc. I was so heartbroken I was in a trance, almost losing the cash guests gave as gifts. It was she who discovered it in time and reminded me to keep it safe. My heart couldn't help but soften. I also began to suspect if I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Maybe she just had low EQ and didn't know how to handle things, without meaning to hurt me. I was physically and mentally exhausted, really too lazy to analyze. So I decided not to think too much and hastily explained to her. "Sorry, maybe I've been suffering too much lately. My mood is really bad, and it's easy to lose my temper. Thank you for staying with me during that time, but I really don't want to help you group buy these flowers." "Okay then." She was disappointed, but finally stopped pestering me about this. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the matter could pass. But unexpectedly, in the evening, her boyfriend suddenly added me on WeChat and scolded me in the verification message. "Bitch, do you have a death wish? Daring to bully my woman." I thought he was crazy and rejected his request. But the more I thought about it, the more unbalanced I felt. So I messaged Chloe, asking her what this was about. I thought maybe it was a misunderstanding that could be cleared up with an explanation. Unexpectedly, she replied lightly: "Who told you not to help me group buy? I just complained a few words to my boyfriend. I didn't expect him to go to you either. Don't take it to heart. I already found someone willing to group buy with me." Even through WeChat, I could feel she was in a good mood. I didn't know if it was because she successfully group-bought her favorite flowers or because she felt her boyfriend standing up for her was cool. Anyway, that inexplicable pride made me very uncomfortable. I tried hard to endure my displeasure and asked her: "What did you say to your boyfriend? Why did he come to scold me for no reason? Send me the chat history." Actually, my intention was to see if she had failed to express herself clearly, and her boyfriend was eager to stand up for her, causing this farce. Because my favorability towards her was dropping uncontrollably bit by bit. So I desperately looked for reasons and evidence for her, proving everything was just my misunderstanding of her, trying to stop the decline of our friendship. But unexpectedly, she understood it completely in the opposite direction. She seemed quite vigilant: "Why do you want to see our chat history? That's crossing a line, isn't it? I was just in a bad mood and cried a bit. He happened to call, heard it, and kept asking me, so I just said a few words casually. There's no chat history." Actually, there wasn't. Actually, she took my sentence "If you can't afford it, don't give gifts. Is two dollars worth you harassing me again and again to make me group buy with you?" out of context, took a screenshot, and sent it to her boyfriend to complain. She also exaggerated and said many bad things about me, provoking that boy to run and scold me immediately. But at that time, I didn't know. I just felt that since she had said this much, if I kept asking, it would indeed seem strange. So I let it go again. But less than ten minutes later. I found she posted a screenshot of our chat on her Moments. The caption was: "Really speechless. How can there be someone with so little sense of boundaries, actually asking to see the chat history between me and my boyfriend? Does she have some special fetish? Or does she like my boyfriend? I'm so annoyed. Can anyone help me analyze this?" 4 I don't know for what purpose, but in the chat screenshot she posted, she even mosaiced a sentence. So, my questioning sentence became: "What did you say to your boyfriend? Send me the chat history." I don't know who replied what on her Moments. I only saw her public reply below: "She doesn't have a boyfriend, but I don't know if she really likes my bf. After all, I really don't want to speculate about my friend with such malice." And another sentence: "Naturally. A little fairy must be kind." I was so disgusted I almost threw up last night's dinner. Just as I was about to comment a few words, I found the status was gone. I opened the chat box with her, about to question her, but suddenly felt it was pointless. Maybe just blocking her would be fine. Was there any need to continue communicating? But after all, we were friends for many years, perhaps with too much tacit understanding; she actually sent me a message. First, she sent a puffy angry emoji, very fitting for her tone of acting coquettish before speaking. "Let's get this straight, I was just asking. If you're unwilling, just refuse me. You're not allowed to be fierce to me." "I'll ask you one last, last time. Those Mother's Day flowers, do you really not want them? Thinking about it, I still feel it's such a pity. How can anyone not love such beautiful flowers?" Anger burned in my chest. I suddenly felt like a spring pressed to its lowest point, unable to go any lower. Instead, there was a trend to bounce back. So I calmly and leisurely replied to her: "I've picked out an even more beautiful bouquet, very suitable for you. Do you want me to buy it and send it to you?" She replied with a voice message instantly, her tone revealing a cheering joy: "Of course, that would be great! I accept with pleasure. I'm not like you, always a buzzkill. Me? I'm a little fairy, the best at providing emotional value." "Then I'll be waiting. On Mother's Day, you send me flowers, and I'll accompany you for a walk and chat." "Okay." We ended the chat very happily. But when Mother's Day actually arrived, and the courier delivered my gift to her, she was so angry she jumped three feet high. "Mia Li, what is the meaning of this? What did you send?" "On Mother's Day, you sent my mom a funeral wreath? Just you wait!" She uttered harsh words through gritted teeth on the phone. She was probably truly furious; her voice was trembling. I knew why she was so angry, because what I sent wasn't just a funeral wreath.
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