Situ Jie was sitting in the front row, on the aisle, but she was the last person to get off the plane. She watched the other passengers from her flight stream past her. At first a few of them thanked her for yielding the way so many times in a row, but by the end people were simply giving odd looks to the woman who seemed nailed to her seat.

Only when a flight attendant with a textbook smile came over and asked, “Miss, the flight has ended—is there anything else I can help you with?” did Situ Jie finally stand up. She gave the woman a bright smile. “No, thank you, I’m leaving now.”

She spent a long time touching up her makeup in the restroom, and so, quite naturally, became the last person on the flight to retrieve her checked luggage. Even so, as she walked toward the exit, she made herself take five deep breaths.

This time she was flying home from Los Angeles, connecting through Shanghai back to City G, on a red-eye. The exit was already crowded with people waiting to pick up passengers. She hurried past, dragging her suitcase, and didn’t see a single familiar face. Of course, no one called her name from some corner either. For someone who hadn’t set foot on her homeland in a full seven years, faced with this scene, she felt two parts disappointment and, surprisingly, eight parts relief.

The airport gate at night no longer resembled anything in her memory. Every unfamiliar scene before her eyes was a reminder that those seven years had truly passed. Time always changed things—wasn’t that the very reason she’d finally been able to talk herself into coming back?

The line for taxis was slowly shrinking, and finally it was her turn. Just as Situ Jie was about to toss her suitcase into the trunk, a pair of hands reached out from behind and to the side, and without a word slammed the trunk shut.

Situ Jie startled, spinning around with a guarded expression. But after a few seconds of studying the person and confirming who it was, she let her guard down completely and broke into the brightest of smiles. She immediately let go of everything in her hands and threw herself into a huge hug, met by a pair of steady, strong arms.

She wasn’t actually fond of sentimental scenes, but the tears came so naturally, flowing down until the person stroked her hair and let go—only then did she surface from her blurred eyes back into the real world: the humid southern night, the crowds coming and going through the airport… and behind her, an irritated taxi driver and the next person in line looking on in bewilderment.

She couldn’t help but burst out laughing, exchanging an equally sheepish look with the man, and hastily apologized to the driver and the next passenger. The man took her suitcase without asking and put an arm around her shoulders, steering her the other way. “My car’s parked over there.”

Situ Jie asked, “Didn’t you say you had a surgery tonight and couldn’t come?”

“The patient’s condition changed, so the surgery got pushed back a few days. Whatever the case, I had to come pick you up. Good thing I didn’t tell you ahead of time that the surgery got rescheduled—they say a surprise needs an element of shock, or where’s the joy in it? Otherwise I’d have missed that wonderful bear hug just now. I really should’ve had someone film it, so I could tease you about it later. Anyone who didn’t know better would’ve thought they were watching some Korean melodrama.”

Situ Jie laughed at that. “Look at you, Wu Jiang—a married man is a different breed. Even watching Korean dramas now.”

“Can’t a person change?” Wu Jiang sighed, half in earnest. “Haven’t you changed too? Honestly, before you turned around and said hello, just going off your back and the side of your face, I wasn’t even sure it was you.”

“Are you implying I’ve gotten old?” Situ Jie stopped in mock outrage, touching her own face, and at the same time caught her own familiar reflection in her friend’s glasses—hair swept smoothly back, forehead still clear, figure still slender, even the faint little freckles by her nose exactly the same as before, no more, no less. On the surface, nothing had changed at all. But she understood what Wu Jiang meant.

Everyone had changed. Time was such a strange thing—it hadn’t only changed Situ Jie. Even Wu Jiang, who used to be so restless and lively that he couldn’t sit still for a moment, had been worn down into a man who poured his whole heart into the operating table and cared little for anything else. Only in front of old friends could you still catch glimpses of who he used to be.

The two of them, wrapped in the joy of reunion, fell quiet for a moment without quite meaning to.

“Situ, thank you for making it back this time. I’m really glad.” Wu Jiang’s tone turned earnest—he’d decided to steer everyone’s attention back to something worth celebrating before too many bittersweet memories came flooding in.

Situ Jie played along easily. “You’re getting married—how could I possibly miss that? That would be far too rude of me.”

She said it lightly, as if she’d simply come from some neighboring city to attend, rather than as someone who’d been gone seven years and had treated her hometown like a flood or a wild beast through every twist and turn in between.

“Don’t get too sentimental on me, if you start crying I’ll lose my mind. And you know perfectly well the main reason I came back this time is for work.”

Situ Jie’s tone turned brisk and teasing again, and the two of them kept walking side by side.

Wu Jiang shrugged. “I timed the wedding around this conference on purpose. With two reasons stacked together, there was no way you weren’t coming back.”

“Please don’t say that, I couldn’t bear the pressure.”

“It’s just a wedding. It has to happen sometime—what difference does the timing make?”

Situ Jie shot him a sideways look. “It’s one of the biggest events of a person’s life, how can you be so cavalier about it? By your logic, next you’ll be saying, ‘A spouse is just something you need eventually, what difference does it make who?'”

Wu Jiang actually laughed and nodded. “Exactly the principle. That’s why they say no one understands me like Situ does.”

“Nonsense!” Situ Jie couldn’t let that stand. “Nobody’s holding a gun to your head making you get married, Wu Jiang. Let me tell you something—you can stick to your theory all you like if it’s just about yourself, but for most women, marriage is the most important choice of their life. Either stay single forever, or if you get married, actually commit to it properly. Don’t drag someone else along and waste their time. That’s absolutely outrageous.”

Wu Jiang laughed loudly. “A woman who’s gone through nine boyfriends in seven years is going to lecture me about the way of marriage?”

Situ Jie looked baffled. “Was it really that many… I never should’ve told you. Don’t twist my words—dating and marrying are two completely different things. I saw the photo of your future Mrs. Wu, by the way—the one surnamed Ruan, right? She’s lovely, young and pretty, with a really pleasant look in her eyes. Even I liked her. Treat her well.”

“See, our tastes align again. Don’t worry, of course I’ll treat her well. But how do you know that, in the eyes of the future Mrs. Wu, I’m not just some incidental fixture who happened to show up in time for a wedding? Every pot needs its lid—isn’t that a perfect match?”

Before Situ Jie could argue back, they’d already reached the car. Wu Jiang said quickly, “Hold your breath—there’s another surprise waiting for you.”

“As if I’d believe that. Wait, you got a new car. That’s not the one you told me about last time—”

Before she’d even finished, the driver’s-side door opened, and yet another person appeared before her, grinning.

“Guess who?”

“Lin Jing!” Situ Jie let out a shriek, and the bear hug played out a second time. If Wu Jiang’s appearance had been more or less expected, Lin Jing’s arrival was a genuine surprise. Situ Jie and Wu Jiang had grown up together practically joined at the hip, so their bond went without saying, but Lin Jing had been one of her closest friends during her years abroad. The two of them had attended the same university, and her spare apartment key had often been left in Lin Jing’s keeping—until he’d returned to China first. One reunion after another with old friends like this—how could she not be overjoyed?

“See, I told you—Situ’s signature move. We had a good cry on each other’s shoulders just now,” Wu Jiang said to Lin Jing with a laugh.

Situ Jie let go of Lin Jing. “You’re the one with self-control. Wu Jiang cried so hard a minute ago he soaked my shirt, honestly, there’s no helping him.”

Lin Jing was smiling too. “Three years apart, and that’s all the hug I get? I was expecting a bit more.”

“I held back. Once I get too excited I start biting people.”

The three of them, laughing and chatting, climbed back into the car, Lin Jing behind the wheel. Situ Jie sat in the back seat, still not quite recovered from the whiplash of emotions, chattering away as if she had endless things to say.

“How did you two end up coming together? Did you plan this? Lin Jing, are you still at the procuratorate? Weren’t you supposed to stay in Shanghai? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to the airport—”

She rattled on like a child, as if by doing so she could stretch this moment of joy a little longer, could linger a little longer in this high spirits of hers.

She’d fired off several questions in a row before she noticed that neither man in the front seat had answered any of them. Lin Jing’s gaze seemed fixed on something off to the left; so was Wu Jiang’s.

Curious, Situ Jie followed their line of sight, but there was nothing in that direction except a black Lexus. Just as she looked over, an airport staff member walked up to the car and knocked on the window, apparently reminding the driver that parking wasn’t allowed there.

Lin Jing noticed Situ Jie’s questions had trailed off, and he glanced back with a slight smile. “I did say that spot’s a no-parking zone… Situ, you’re firing off questions too fast. What’s the rush? We’ve got plenty of time to catch up slowly. By the way, your perfume today is lovely.”

Situ Jie leaned back lazily against her seat, never in a hurry, never missing a detail—that was Lin Jing all over. “You like it? Then I’ll give it to your girlfriend—though one bottle might not be enough.” She kept up the joke without a second thought, pretending she hadn’t noticed, just before the car pulled away, that the Lexus which had caught both men’s attention in the front seat had opened and then closed its door.

“Ha, a particular scent is only appealing on a particular person.”

“Oh, please, you’re clearly worried one bottle won’t be enough to go around fairly. Lin Jing, Dr. Wu here is about to get married—what about you?”

“Maybe soon too,” Lin Jing said, half joking, half serious.

“Seriously? Just last month on MSN you were telling me you hadn’t found someone to ‘spend your life with,’ and now suddenly it’s ‘soon’?” Situ Jie eyed him with open suspicion, making no effort to hide her curiosity.

Lin Jing said, “So you’ll have to wish me luck.”

The car pulled onto the airport expressway. Lin Jing hesitated, then asked, “Situ, where are you staying this time you’re back?”

Wu Jiang turned to look at her from the front. “Why not stay at my place?”

“Are you out of your mind?” Situ Jie laughed and scolded him. “Even I’m not shameless enough to move into the home of a man who’s getting married in a few days. Don’t worry, I won’t be a bother to either of you. I… I already booked a hotel.”

Neither Wu Jiang nor Lin Jing said anything more. Situ Jie knew exactly what they were thinking. This was the city where she was born and raised—not to mention that her parents were still alive here, and countless relatives, friends, classmates, and old acquaintances were scattered across every corner of it. And yet all she could do was stay in a hotel. Anyone would find it a little strange, a person returning to her hometown as though she were a stranger passing through.

“Oh, Lin Jing, Lin Xi asked me to say hello to you. If you settle down soon, I think she’ll be happy too—it’ll finally put something to rest in her heart, once and for all.”

Lin Xi was the girlfriend Lin Jing had been with the longest during his time in America—a third-generation Chinese-American, and someone Situ Jie had also been close to. At one point Situ Jie had been sure the two of them would end up together, but three years ago, when Lin Jing returned to China, things between him and Lin Xi had ended. Lin Xi was a proud, strong-willed girl. Situ Jie had urged her to hold onto Lin Jing, or at least to have it out with him properly, but she hadn’t. After Lin Jing left, she never contacted him again. But Situ Jie had seen her tears and her weakness after too much to drink. In the end, Lin Xi had married a Canadian-Chinese man living in the States. She’d once told Situ Jie that the reason she hadn’t tried to keep Lin Jing, hadn’t dared to go back to China with him, was that she’d realized something: Lin Jing was a good lover, but he had never loved her.

Situ Jie understood that particular despair only too well. Some women could want very little—they didn’t mind that a man had nothing, didn’t mind the hardships of staying with him. But at the same time, they wanted a great deal—they wanted the whole of a man’s true heart, and if they couldn’t have that, they’d rather have nothing at all. So there had been a stretch of time when Situ Jie hadn’t understood Lin Jing at all. Later she came around to it—matters of the heart were like drinking water, only the drinker knew whether it was warm or cold, and how much could anyone else really understand? Even if Lin Jing had failed Lin Xi, that was between the two of them. To Situ Jie, he was still a good friend.

“Lin Xi—how’s she doing these days?” Lin Jing’s tone was measured, the same as one might use asking after any old friend.

Situ Jie sighed. “She’s doing well. Her son just turned three months old, adorable little thing, and her husband adores her.”

Lin Jing said, “That’s good to hear. She’s a good woman. She deserves that kind of happiness.”

“Lin Jing, when are you going to let me meet this ‘terminator’ of yours? I’m dying of curiosity,” Situ Jie said.

“Sure,” Lin Jing agreed easily. “If nothing goes wrong, you’ll meet her at Dr. Wu’s wedding.”

“You’d better introduce us properly then.”

“Depends whether she’s willing to give me the time of day. Honestly, I can’t say for sure myself.”

There was something in the way Lin Jing said “her”—a mix of helplessness and indulgence, an unguarded warmth he himself might not even have noticed. Situ Jie felt a small pang on Lin Xi’s behalf, thinking of all those years of quiet longing, but she couldn’t help teasing, “Now I really can’t wait to meet her. Fair warning—when I get back I’m absolutely going to gossip about this to Lin Xi with extra flourishes.”

Lin Jing couldn’t help laughing.

Wu Jiang said, “Women’s interests really are strange.”

“You two should both take me out for a proper meal to keep my mouth shut, because I’m holding way too much material against you both. Never badmouth women in front of me—don’t forget, women are the pettiest creatures alive, and the moment something upsets us, we can’t help but stir up trouble.” Situ Jie arched an eyebrow.

“Other women, maybe. Not you. You’re the most easygoing woman I’ve ever met.”

Situ Jie laughed. “Lin Jing, at least you know how to flatter me. Keep it up.”

“Every word from the heart.”

“Then you’re wrong about me. I’m actually quite petty. Whatever I hold a grudge over, I never forget, not for the rest of my life.”

The car finally entered the city proper. It was late, but the busier streets were still lively, streetlamps stretching on endlessly ahead like a road with no end. Leaving had only taken gritting her teeth and steeling her heart for a moment; coming back demanded far more resolve. But this day had to come eventually, hadn’t it—she just didn’t know if seven years had been long enough. This return was bound to be a rocky journey, one that would inevitably dredge up things she least wanted to think about. But there was no better way to begin than this. She was content.