After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 34.4

Xie Shaojun couldn’t bear to let her continue. She pressed her face against Chi Yi’s icy neck repeatedly, but Chi Yi didn’t react. She just kept staring down at Xie Guangqi.

“Why?” Chi Yi demanded. “I want to know, why did you agree to let Xie Shaojun donate her kidney to Jian Qing?”

Xie Guangqi clutched his head, covering his ears in agony, tears streaming as he cried out to Chi Yi, “I’m sorry!”

“I’m so sorry!”

“I didn’t know about these things, no one told me. That day, the doctor warned us to prepare for the worst with Jian Qing. Neither my wife nor I were a match for her kidney transplant, but Yunyun was. So I told her that the Xie family couldn’t owe anyone anything. Since she caused Jian Qing to lose a kidney, she should repay it to settle the debt, I also told her that if she donated her kidney to Jian Qing, we wouldn’t sue her friend Zhu Sicheng.”

No one had expected this reason. The very air felt sickening.

Jian Qing smashed her teacup. For two years, ever since she witnessed Xie Shaoyun’s death, she had avoided hospitals, quit staying up late, stopped drinking tea and coffee anything that could harm her kidneys.

There couldn’t be any beds or bright lights in her home because they reminded her of the operating table, the cold glare of the surgical lamp casting a deathly pallor over Xie Shaoyun’s face as she lay there, barely conscious, tilting her head weakly. Her puppy-like eyes curved as she silently mouthed to Jian Qing with a bright, wordless smile: “Jian Qing, you, really are useless.”

For two years, Jian Qing had believed Chi Yi was the one who deserved to die the most. But she never imagined the truth behind Xie Shaoyun’s kidney donation would be so absurd.

Her gaze was icy with hatred as she stared at Xie Guangqi, her words even more venomous than Chi Yi’s: “You’re disgusting. Do you even deserve to be parents?”

“She didn’t owe me a kidney.” Jian Qing cruelly revealed the truth to Xie Guangqi: “Back in senior year, it wasn’t Xie Shaoyun who got me beaten up. It was my own scheme. I wanted to study abroad, Uncle.”

The chair snapped with a sharp crack.

Xie Guangqi’s palm struck out, whipping Jian Qing’s face to the side. The veins in his arm bulged as he pointed at her head and roared: “You wretched”

Xie Shaoyun watched as Jian Qing tilted her face, suddenly lifting her eyelids in a mocking imitation of Xie Shaoyun’s mannerisms. She smiled at Xie Guangqi and said, “Dad, you hurt me.”

Xie Guangqi froze. It was as if he saw Xie Shaoyun in Jian Qing’s smile. His raised hand slowly lowered, and he slid down the side table, collapsing to his knees, where he remained for a long, long time.

Finally, Xie Guangqi said to Chi Yi: “Chi Yi, just kill me.”

Chi Yi laughed.

“I won’t kill you,” she said. “It’s too ugly. Live with your guilt.”

What Chi Yi felt was relief, she could finally be free. But they would remain trapped in their eternal ugliness.

After leaving the teahouse, Xie Shaoyun realized Chi Yi was retracing the exact path she had taken on the day of her death two years ago.

She saw Chi Yi go to the hospital, then later to the tattoo parlor.

There, she met the last person Xie Shaoyun had interacted with before her death a tattooed man with full sleeves. At first, he didn’t say much to her, but Chi Yi lingered over the sketches Xie Shaoyun had left behind in the studio.

The tattooed man finally spoke up: “These are Teacher Xie’s drawings. High-level stuff, right? That Tengshe design looks even more vivid and lifelike when inked than on paper three times more striking.”

Chi Yi nodded. “She really was incredible.”

“You’ve got taste.” The tattooed man gave her a thumbs-up. “Anyone who appreciates Teacher Xie’s art is a friend of mine.”

Chi Yi, clearly uncomfortable, still shook his hand.

She steered the conversation: “Were you and Xie… Teacher Xie close before?”

The tattooed man showed no hint of guilt, nodding boastfully: “She was the best tattoo artist in the industry, unmatched at such a young age. It’s a shame good people don’t always live peaceful lives. If I’d known she was in the late stages of cancer that night, I would’ve never let her stay up late to finish my tattoo.”

His voice dropped, tinged with sorrow: “Teacher Xie would always remind her clients tattoos are for life. Once inked, they can’t be washed away. So before making that permanent mark, don’t act on impulse.”

“I never understood her words until the night before she passed, when she left me with this tattoo a soaring serpent.” He lifted his shirt to show Chi Yi.

“She gave me her final piece. If I’d known she would die the next day, I wouldn’t have let her work through the night.”

After chatting briefly with the tattooed man, Dami returned to the studio and saw Chi Yi inside.

Her expression darkened as she scolded the receptionist for letting her in. She pushed Chi Yi out, disgust in her voice: “Don’t come here.”

“Just leave,” Dami said. “You were the one who said it yourself that night she was drunk, when I called you, you told me you were divorced.”

She stared at Chi Yi’s impassive face. “What’s the point of coming back now?”

Dami shoved Chi Yi out the door and stormed back inside. Seconds later, she rushed out again, eyes red, and demanded, “Was Xie Shaoyun ever happy with you?”

Chi Yi couldn’t answer, as if flames had scorched her throat. Finally, she whispered, “I was happy.”

She stood there, enduring Dami’s slaps and curses until the woman collapsed in tears by the doorway.

Only then did Chi Yi turn and walk away in the opposite direction of the tattoo parlor.

Xie Shaoyun followed her, watching as she merged into the subway crowd.

At the turnstile, the attendant gave her a few odd looks.

“I’m sorry,” Chi Yi said. “I’ve never taken the subway before.”

She had never apologized before, so she pressed her lips together, trying to make amends. The attendant, flustered, reassured her it was fine and explained how to scan in.

Chi Yi thanked her and boarded Line 2, from Shuiyang Lake to Shuiyun Bay.

It was rush hour, packed with people.

She stood where Xie Shaoyun once had, gripping the thin, silver-gray pole. As the crowd swelled, she was nearly pushed away, forced to crouch down and cling tightly to the slender metal.

A young man with dyed blond hair noticed her pale face and offered his seat. Xie Shaoyun watched as Chi Yi suddenly turned away, covering her face, and wept soft, helpless sobs.