After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 19

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.

10:00 AM.

JIM entered the park holding Xie Shaojun’s phone.

“Xiao Xie, your sister’s calling.”

“Got it.”

Xie Shaojun was feeding a dolphin. The weather was scorching, and Blue Sky had no appetite, turning its head away after just a few bites.

The phone rang again. JIM glanced at her and asked helpfully, “Want me to hold the phone for you?”

Xie Shaojun shook her head and stepped further away toward another pool.

She told JIM to leave the phone aside, she’d call back after finishing feeding the dolphin.

JIM nodded and walked away, though his expression was slightly hurt. Xie Shaojun seemed wary of getting too close to part-time colleagues, and he wondered if she looked down on them.

July in Sri Lanka was unbearably hot. Even with the air conditioning on in the park’s shelter, sweat still rolled down from Xie Shaojun’s hairline. Blue Sky’s tail swayed lazily, clearly not in the mood for food.

Xie Shaojun tossed the remaining bait aside, nuzzled Blue Sky’s face, and told it to go play with its friends.

Only then did she pick up her phone and, with practiced ease, take the staff passageway to the break room. She changed out of her light-blue uniform.

“Big Sis.”

“Why did it take you so long to answer? Did the Sri Lankan detention center confiscate your phone?” Xie Qingcheng’s tone was laced with exaggerated surprise.

Xie Shaojun couldn’t stand her, bringing up last week’s incident as if it had just happened. Normally, Xie Shaojun would’ve snapped, Are you brain-damaged or what? But since Xie Qingcheng wasn’t some delicate darling, Xie Shaojun had to endure her eldest sister’s nonsense.

Given Xie Qingcheng’s domineering presence at home, Xie Shaojun meekly placed the phone on the counter, turned on speaker, and stayed silent, letting her sister ramble embarrassingly.

None of the Xie sisters were easygoing. Xie Qingcheng, the eldest, acted like a queen at home, wielding her authority with an iron fist, especially when spanking Xie Shaojun, which she did with righteous conviction.

Xie Zangxing, the second sister, wasn’t any better. Soft-spoken and the shortest in the family, she was also the most scholarly. But when Xie Qingcheng disciplined Xie Shaojun, Xie Zangxing would cheer her on from the sidelines.

So Xie Shaojun had learned her lesson never interrupt Xie Qingcheng. Let her embarrass herself to her heart’s content.

And no matter how sweetly Xie Zangxing later served her tea, applied ointment, or massaged her sore backside, Xie Shaojun refused to be fooled by her gentle facade. She was an accomplice.

“I didn’t tell Mom and Dad about you waking up in some woman’s bed and getting detained. Xie Zangxing kept insisting on visiting you, but I sent her away.”

“She wasn’t coming to see me at the detention center, she was coming to beat me up.”

Xie Shaojun couldn’t help but blurt out the truth. She squeezed some hand soap, rubbed it into a lather, and quickly rinsed it off.

Before Xie Qingcheng could start fuming, Xie Shaojun cut in, “Big Sis, just kidding! I thought you were joking with me.”

“Does it look like I’m joking? My sister got detained as your guardian, do you think I find this funny?”

Xie Shaojun shot back, “Is Xie Cheng dead? Or is Mom Feng Qianqian dead? How could you curse our parents like that?”

“Get back to the country! Right now!” Xie Qingcheng’s voice burned with fury, her words already losing coherence.

“I was wrong.”

Xie Shaojun took the initiative to kneel in apology after all, teasing the whiskers of a tigress was no easy feat.

But Xie Qingcheng, this particular tigress, was utterly unreasonable. Only when she was at a disadvantage did she show the slightest hint of charm. Though, to be fair, it was Xie Qingcheng’s own fault for insisting on working at the banking regulatory commission, sipping tea all day while frowning over financial data, her forehead already etched with worry lines.

Their parents had named her “Qingcheng” (meaning “city-toppling beauty”), yet she had somehow managed to become the least attractive member of the Xie family.

Of course, Xie Shaojun wouldn’t dare say that to Xie Qingcheng’s face. Instead, she quickly changed the subject and called out, “Sis.”

Xie Qingcheng ignored her.

Undeterred, Xie Shaojun shamelessly tried again, “Sis If you’ve got nothing else, I’m really gonna hang up now. Xie Zangxing just sent me a video no idea what she wants. Maybe you should focus on our second sister’s love life instead? Otherwise, the two of you pestering me every day is getting old.”

A loud, unprofessional shattering sound. likely a cup being thrown came through the phone.

Xie Shaojun immediately shut up, swallowing her pride and muttering, “Fine, fine. Speak. I’ll listen properly, okay?”

Xie Qingcheng, clearly done wasting words, got straight to the point.

“Go pick someone up for me. She’s coming to Sri Lanka for a seven-day trip. You’re to accompany her the entire time.”

Without hesitation, Xie Shaojun asked, “Can I refuse?”

“You dare.” Xie Qingcheng snapped. “She’s my client, my close friend, the biggest financial backer of our banking commission, your second sister’s wealthy patient, and a business partner of our dad’s company.”

“Wow, quite the heavyweight,” Xie Shaojun remarked, playing along. “But honestly, I’m not the only Chinese tour guide in Sri Lanka. If I say no, will it really hurt you guys?”

“Of course.” Xie Qingcheng, anticipating her resistance, revealed a bit about her client’s mental state.

Xie Shaojun frowned. “Uh… Sis, are you sure you’re not setting me up here? What if she gets depressed and jumps into the ocean? That’d be a whole mess for me. And even if that doesn’t happen, I still have… that condition of mine.”

Xie Qingcheng fell silent for two seconds before speaking in an uncharacteristically gentle tone. “Do you think I want to drag you into this? Ever since you woke up from that car accident two years ago with that issue, Mom and Dad have been desperate to lock you away from the world. Why would I casually throw you into the deep end?”

Xie Shaojun considered this. “So this person is really important to you, Dad, and Second Sis?”

Xie Qingcheng scoffed. “Not as important as you.”

“Then why ”

“Your second sister and I both think she can’t keep sinking like this. Look at the phone you’re using right now two years ago, her company developed the 6nm chip inside it. Before that, only the Netherlands had the technology for sub-7nm chips, and the world had to rely on imports from the U.S. Do you understand what that means? This breakthrough in chip technology means China now has a real shot at rebuilding its own lithography machines.”

Xie Shaojun was stunned. Xie Qingcheng rarely praised anyone, but shrinking chips to 6nm was, for China’s semiconductor industry, as groundbreaking as the national soccer team making it to the World Cup.

“That is impressive,” Xie Shaojun admitted, already forming a mental image of this “Chairwoman Chi” probably a forty- or fifty-something woman in a pencil skirt, black-framed glasses, sipping health tea with two worry lines on her forehead, just like Xie Qingcheng.

She asked, “How did someone that accomplished suddenly get depressed?”

Logically speaking, a female entrepreneur capable of leading an industry into a new era would possess psychological resilience and visionary insight far beyond ordinary people.

Xie Qingcheng didn’t explain the reason to Xie Shaoyun. She said, “Other people’s privacy should be disclosed only if they’re willing to share it themselves. Xiao San, just do this for me and for your second sister and keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t do anything reckless, alright?”

“Don’t call me Xiao San. Your whole family is Xiao San,” Xie Shaoyun relented but couldn’t resist snapping back.

Then she heard Xie Qingcheng’s laughter over the phone: “Hmm, well, you’re still Xiao San.”

Xie Shaoyun: “…”

“I won’t make you work for nothing. I’ll arrange a venue for your art exhibition in the second half of the year, deal?”

“Dearest sister,” Xie Shaoyun chuckled. “Done.”

After Xie Qingcheng sent over the VIP client’s information, Xie Shaoyun carefully reviewed it.

She stared blankly at the name on the passport for a while. For some reason, the characters “Chi Yi” made Xie Shaoyun think of the ripples formed when a diver enters the water familiar yet distant.

Changing into casual clothes, she parked her car in the compound lot.

On the way, she ran into Yu Hua and told her she’d be taking a week off and wouldn’t be coming in for part-time work.

“Did your sister come back?” was Yu Hua’s first reaction.

“No.”

“Then are you going on a sketching trip?”

Xie Shaoyun couldn’t even fake a smile. “Ugh, no inspiration. Otherwise, do you think I’d have spent the last six months doing part-time work at your compound? It was all for inspiration.”

Yu Hua patted her shoulder and said not to rush it, offering a few words of comfort before the museum director came to fetch her for a meeting. With a quick goodbye, she left.

Back in the car, Xie Shaoyun took out the client’s passport again.

The face on it was pixelated, instantly killing her interest. A middle-aged businesswoman with such strong defenses, if she had rules against people scrutinizing her appearance, other aspects were bound to be even more troublesome.

Not that Xie Shaoyun was curious. Ever since her condition developed, she’d “slept with” all kinds of stunning beauties blonde, blue-eyed, raven-haired, long-legged so she certainly wasn’t desperate enough to fantasize about a middle-aged woman.

On this point, Xie Shaoyun wanted to make her stance clear upfront. She wasn’t worried about her own behavior but rather the possibility of the elite middle-aged woman developing an instant crush on her.

That would be disastrous!

This concern wasn’t self-aggrandizement. Based on her experience over the years, Xie Shaoyun was simply too irresistible to women.

Fair skin, striking features, long legs, a slender waist, a perfect bust, and fingers as delicate as scallion roots, everyone who saw her for the first time was left speechless.

As long as Xie Shaoyun kept her mouth shut, she was the undisputed C-position Hong Kong-style beauty in any crowd.

When it came to looks, it was hard to explain. It made perfect sense that Eldest Sister Xie and Second Sister Xie had loved beating her up since childhood, their parents had given all the good genes to her, leaving her older sisters with less flattering appearances. A little psychological resentment was understandable.

Of course, Xie Shaoyun never dared to say this at home where Eldest and Second Sister could hear.

After dialing the number, Xie Shaoyun was kept waiting a full five minutes, unacceptable for a beauty like her.

She was about to give up on the woman when, at the last second, the call was returned.

“Hello, I’m Xie Shaoyun, Xie Qingcheng’s sister,” she said.

On the other end of the line, the person fell silent for three seconds. Xie Shaojun heard her stumbling a few steps and assumed she was drunk.

Doing a quick calculation, it should be midday back home so the female boss was already entertaining clients at noon.

Tsking, Xie Shaojun asked, “Are you okay?”

Then, things got even stranger. The sound of a faucet running and someone washing their face came through. Xie Shaojun waited a full ten seconds, deciding that if the other person didn’t speak up soon, she would hang up.

Finally, the voice came: “I’m Chi Yi.”

The tone was youthful, gentle, with each word enunciated deliberately, making it impossible to feel any dislike.

Xie Shaojun froze. She realized, inexplicably, that something sour and bitter had welled up in her chest, which was strange.

So she tried to continue the conversation: “This is my phone number. Save it, and add me on WeChat. Send me your flight details for tomorrow.”

Xie Shaojun: Don’t remember any of you. Don’t bother me.

I have a happy family and a gorgeous woman to “sleep with”, who the hell are you people?