After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 11

The elevator doors closed behind them, and Xie Shaojun, lost in thought, let Chi Yi lead her a few steps forward. A nurse passing by gave them a knowing glance at their intertwined hands.

For a moment, Xie Shaojun’s blank mind was filled with just six words, repeating over and over: Holding hands is wrong.

Truthfully, the day she brought up divorce, Xie Shaojun hadn’t considered that lingering attachments were a mistake.

She had simply felt suffocated, not because of Chi Yi’s fault, nor her own, but because the weight of their relationship had long eclipsed the joy.

Negative emotions had piled up over time, waiting for the right moment to erupt, and when Chi Yi had slapped her, Xie Shaojun’s emotions had shattered completely.

So, when she made the decision to divorce, emotion had overridden reason. She hadn’t even thought about what she would do afterward or how she should act toward Chi Yi.

Chi Yi must have noticed. She handled it far better than Xie Shaojun calm, composed, like some higher-tier human being.

In the days since their separation, Chi Yi had shown no intention of reconciling, yet she also refused to discuss the aftermath of the divorce.

She was letting time smooth over the conflict.

When Xie Guangqi called her, Chi Yi had considerately rushed to the hospital without hesitation.

And even now… just as before, she stepped forward to solve Xie Shaojun’s problems.

But if they walked into the hospital room hand in hand, their dependency would reignite, and everything would return to square one.

Ever since meeting Chi Yi, Xie Shaojun had always been the one pointlessly getting angry, then making up.

Round and round it went, so much so that even now, she had still been wondering whether, through the doctor’s words, there might still be a chance for them.

Fortunately, she was clear-headed now, stable enough to discern what was right and what wasn’t.

Like right now.

Chi Yi’s hand was soft, warm the very touch Xie Shaojun had cherished in her heart.

An hour ago, when she had woken from that nightmare, if Chi Yi had offered her this hand, no one could have resisted the temptation.

A few minutes ago, in the elevator, if Chi Yi had reached for her, Xie Shaojun under the sway of reckless, self-destructive thoughts, would have gladly taken it.

But not now. Xie Shaojun was steady, capable of rational thought. What was the point of going back to the beginning?

Some people in life were meant to pass you by, meant to meet again. Xie Shaojun loved Chi Yi deeply, so she had tried.but after being together, their clashing personalities, perspectives, backgrounds… all these incompatibilities had left her exhausted, suffocated, unable to think straight.

The emotions had built to a breaking point. Even without external factors, their relationship would have erupted like a volcano sooner or later.

As much as Xie Shaojun hated to admit it, they simply weren’t happy together.

Chi Yi’s destined partner was Jian Qing. Forcing apart that pairing would only lead to tragedy.

Right now, whether she accepted it or not, Xie Shaojun’s cancer cells were spreading relentlessly, unaffected by anything else.

The dead couldn’t return to life, but Chi Yi still had to keep living.

Xie Shaojun knew she had to be rational. Ending things here was for the best.

Even if she despised Jian Qing’s trash personality, who could deny that Jian Qing was the true white moonlight in Chi Yi’s heart?

Xie Shaojun decided to help Chi Yi find her happiness.

“As friends, holding hands is wrong.” She tried to pull away, but Chi Yi’s grip didn’t loosen. Left with no choice, Xie Shaojun could only look at her.

Chi Yi silently lowered her gaze. The way she looked at Xie Shaojun made Xie Shaojun uncomfortable, but this time Xie Shaojun had improved she didn’t soften again.

“Can you take your hand away?”

Chi Yi obediently let go, but within seconds, she suddenly grabbed Xie Shaojun’s right hand, pressed her palm against Xie Shaojun’s shoulder, and pushed her toward the emergency exit just a few steps away.

The open door was kicked shut by Chi Yi’s foot, and then she shoved Xie Shaojun against the wall, standing on her tiptoes to press a kiss against her lips as if trying to prove something.

Xie Shaojun’s back ached from the impact. It was the first time she had seen Chi Yi so urgent, but this time, Xie Shaojun had learned her lesson. She didn’t part her lips, nor did she steady Chi Yi’s waist with her hands as she usually did to prevent her from stumbling from the uneven pressure on her heels.

A few seconds later, Chi Yi’s stilettos couldn’t support her forward-leaning weight, and she took a step back before falling. Her entire demeanor turned icy, her peach-blossom eyes slightly lowered as she stared intently at Xie Shaojun. For a moment, her gaze made Xie Shaojun feel as if she were being scrutinized at a negotiation table.

But soon, Chi Yi reined in the aggression in her eyes, seemingly doing everything she could to suppress her emotions and calm herself.

Xie Shaojun wanted to smile at her, but when she tried to lift the corners of her lips, she found she couldn’t muster one. Instead, she stepped aside and said to Chi Yi, “Actually, I don’t need your help. I just won’t go to the ward or see Xie Guangqi that’s all.”

With that, Xie Shaojun shoved the sterile pad she had been holding in her left hand into Chi Yi’s arms. “Could you take this to Jian Qing for me?”

Chi Yi finally couldn’t hold back anymore. Her expression shifted repeatedly, not a trace of a smile on her exquisitely poised face. “Friends don’t interfere in your family conflicts. Think carefully before giving me an answer.”

Chi Yi crossed her arms, adopting a posture of patience.

But her composure was already gone. Her delicate willow-leaf brows were furrowed, unable to comprehend why the puppy she had gone through so much to find had suddenly become like this.

It all made her feel terrible, bewildered, and unable to focus on work or life.

Then, after waiting ten seconds, she couldn’t help but glance at Xie Shaojun again only to find that Xie Shaojun had even taken off the skull necklace, their childhood token of love.

Chi Yi’s expression completely froze. Her eyes sharpened slightly, turning piercing as she coldly demanded, “Where’s your necklace?”

Xie Shaojun instinctively reached for it. The necklace had still been around her neck that morning. She had originally planned to return it to Jian Qing, but between the tattoo consultation, Jian Qing’s miscarriage, and the sheer density of events, she had forgotten in the midst of her anger.

“Maybe I lost it in the studio,” Xie Shaojun said uncertainly. “I’ll look for it later.”

Chi Yi’s expression darkened. She cared deeply about that cheap skull-shaped necklace, because of those two matching necklaces, they hadn’t even bothered with wedding rings when they got married.

Chi Yi had once said that those two identical skull necklaces were irreplaceable tokens of sincerity, something even a twenty-carat diamond ring couldn’t compare to.

“Why can’t you change this bad habit?” Chi Yi was furious at Xie Shaojun’s indifferent attitude. “You’re always careless about everything, absentminded, constantly losing things…”

Xie Shaojun lifted her eyelids and cut her off. “You still have yours. That’s enough.”

Chi Yi fell silent under Xie Shaojun’s glare, as if she too found it exhausting to converse with the present Xie Shaojun. Rubbing her temples, she said,

“You’re nothing like you were as a child. You weren’t like this before.”

Perhaps it was those words, or maybe it was the icy look in Chi Yi’s eyes, but Xie Shaojun felt a bitter taste rise in her throat, suffocating her.

Suppressing her discomfort, she countered calmly, “What was I like before?”

“When I met you at seven, you were only five…”

Chi Yi was different from other children. Exceptionally intelligent, while others were still playing with Legos, she had already taught herself engineering and surveying from the books lining her father’s shelves. Impressed, her father arranged for her to take an IQ test in the U.S.

The conclusion? She was a child prodigy.

But her precociousness came at a cost, she couldn’t relate to kids her age. While they played with toys, she found such behavior childish and absurd.

At seven, Chi Yi’s father took her to visit her grandmother’s grave. On the way back, they were in a car accident. Her father fell into a coma, and Chi Yi was dragged from the wreckage, only to wake up in a human trafficker’s den.

There, she met “Number One.” Unlike the younger children who cried and wailed incessantly, Number One never made a sound. Instead, she’d sit cross-legged, singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to the others.

The den was full of children, but the traffickers operated cautiously, allowing only one buyer per week to come in and select a child.

Number One taught the kids to smear dirt on their faces when potential buyers arrived to act ugly and unruly. Chi Yi followed her lead.

Eventually, only three obedient children remained unsold.

The traffickers wouldn’t feed them for free. They ordered the trio to go out and steal.

Chi Yi refused, enduring brutal beatings. But Number One and the other child fared better Number One could craft bamboo dragonflies, play Chopin on the violin, sketch portraits, and do countless things Chi Yi couldn’t.

Number One performed on the streets, earning money that the traffickers took, though they’d give her and the other girl one steamed bun each.

Soon, the other child was adopted by a trafficker’s relative, leaving only Chi Yi and Number One. One day, Chi Yi, emaciated from hunger, lay battered on the ground. Number One approached, tearing her own bun into pieces and feeding them to Chi Yi with well water.

“Hey, wanna be friends?”

The skull pendant was carved by Number One’s own hands, while the necklace was bought with money Chi Yi earned tutoring the trafficker’s son two matching tokens of a bond forged in survival, one Chi Yi could never forget.

Yet now, Xie Shaojun was casting it aside.

A pang of bitterness twisted Chi Yi’s heart. Her voice carried a sorrowful weight, as if she were trying to bluff Xie Shaojun into remembering how they had once clung to each other for survival.

But when Chi Yi finished reliving the memory and looked up, she saw Xie Shaojun distractedly pressing a tissue to her lips.

“What’s wrong?” Chi Yi asked.

“Nothing,” Xie Shaojun replied, her voice muffled by the tissue as she took a step back, meeting Chi Yi’s gaze directly. “Just tired, can’t stop yawning.”

Then, quietly but firmly, she added, “Chi Yi, let’s not do this anymore.”

“I can’t stand your constant nagging, and you can’t stand my carefree lifestyle either. Being with you makes me feel utterly useless, like I’m good for nothing, whether it’s in life or my career.”

Xie Shaojun finished speaking in one breath, feeling somewhat exhausted. She paused to catch her breath.

Then, she drew a final line under their relationship: “At the latest, let’s get the divorce paperwork done next week, okay?”

Chi Yi opened her mouth and answered firmly, “No.”

Instinctively, she reached out to stop Xie Shaojun from leaving in another emotional outburst, but her hand was ruthlessly slapped away.

This time, the force was different Chi Yi felt the sting and withdrew her hand. She stared unwaveringly at Xie Shaojun’s retreating figure and called out loudly, “Xie Shaojun!”

But this time, Xie Shaojun didn’t even pause. She truly didn’t want Chi Yi anymore.

Not a trace of reluctance remained.

As she walked out of the emergency exit, she didn’t look back only leaving one last sentence for her.

“I’m sorry, Chi Yi,” Xie Shaojun said. “Could you do me a favor and send the sterile pads to my hospital room? If not, that’s fine too. Trash belongs in the trash bin.”