After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 44

The curator led the way, taking the elevator up to the second floor.

The arc-shaped glass railings enclosed the exhibition hall, with five private booths set up at the far end, likely reserved for VIPs.

The curator walked ahead but received a call midway, excusing herself for an urgent matter. After pointing Xie Shaojun in the right direction, she hurried off.

The surroundings were quiet. Xie Shaojun shoved her hands into her pockets, took a couple of steps forward, then stopped in place.

Her assistant turned back in confusion. “Teacher?” she asked. “Why’d you stop?”

Xie Shaojun curled her lips into a faint, ambiguous smile and glanced toward the booths ahead. She dialed Qin Wan.

“Last time, you said you took on Lancy’s show as a favor to your ex-girlfriend,” Xie Shaojun said. “Qin Wan, I never got the chance to ask is this ex-girlfriend who’s about to get married the same one I’m thinking of?”

Qin Wan asked her to hold on, then quickly stepped out of the booth to ask where Xie Shaojun was.

Unwilling to be sidetracked, Xie Shaojun heard the clinking of glasses and the sound of a door closing. She cut straight to the point. “You’re having dinner with someone?”

“Yeah,” Qin Wan replied. “Clients and the organizers.”

“Find somewhere we can talk. I have a few questions.”

“I’m out now,” Qin Wan said. “I was looking for you earlier, where are you?”

Xie Shaojun claimed to be on the first floor at the show, then discreetly glanced up at the booth the curator had pointed out.

The booth door remained closed, with no sign of Qin Wan. So Xie Shaojun turned and walked back, her assistant trailing behind, hesitating as if wanting to say something.

She heard Xie Shaojun ask, “Is the ex-girlfriend Jian Qing?”

Qin Wan replied, “How’d you guess?”

It wasn’t so much a guess. Xie Shaojun knew better than anyone what kind of person Jian Qing was experience had taught her that.

She’d called Qin Wan just to see if she’d step out to answer.

Because on the night Qin Wan got drunk, she’d mentioned that her ex-girlfriend was marrying a man.

Coincidentally, the gossip Xie Shaojun had heard was that Jian Qing was also about to get married.

“That night you got drunk, were you with Jian Qing?”

Qin Wan confirmed it.

Perhaps worried Xie Shaojun might misunderstand, she rushed to clarify, explaining the reason for their breakup.

“Back then, the resources I had couldn’t propel Jian Qing into the world of fame and fortune, so she found a man better suited for her.”

Qin Wan continued, “That night, she told me she doesn’t actually like men. She’s just doing it to secure her position and because the Sui family elders are pressuring her to marry Sui Yang.”

Xie Shaojun refrained from commenting. “Still like her, huh?”

“Because I’m too useless,” Qin Wan said, describing herself.

Xie Shaojun wasn’t sure how to respond. She knew all too well that Jian Qing was a carnivorous little white flower, her halo made people willingly submit to her manipulations.

When it came to a willing victim and a willing abuser, the polite thing was not to judge.

So Xie Shaojun told Qin Wan, “You know what you’re doing. I won’t tell you to forget her, but she’s about to marry a man. No matter how much you like her, you still have to keep things dignified, right?”

“I won’t do anything,” Qin Wan burst out laughing, then sighed. “Xiao Xie, you’re really something.”

“Don’t trust me so easily. Right now, it’s just mutual benefit between her and me.” Qin Wan might have been revealing a bit of sincerity when she added, “I want to climb higher. She has the resources I need. And I have…”

Her voice trailed off, cutting herself short.

Xie Shaoyun said, “Fine, as long as you know.”

She told Qin Wan, “From now on, decline any shows involving Jian Qing for me.”

“Why?” Qin Wan didn’t understand. “Xiao Xie, business is business, personal is personal. Even though Jian Qing is my ex-girlfriend, our relationship was just mutual exploitation at best.”

“Enough.” Xie Shaoyun said to Qin Wan, “I’ll talk to you after this busy period.”

Qin Wan’s expression darkened slightly, already guessing what Xie Shaoyun intended to say once things settled down.

Her lips pressed into a straight line as she told Xie Shaoyun that she was having dinner with a few lead planners at a restaurant across from the venue and gave the address, inviting Xie Shaoyun to join them for the networking.

Xie Shaoyun dismissed her assistant and walked out of the show venue alone, sitting on a park bench outside. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight with her fingers and said, “No, I need to think about something.”

Then, lazily yawning, she hung up the phone.

In mid-August in Nan City, the midday sun burned like a furnace.

Xie Shaoyun hated the heat, and before long, she began to sweat.

Yet, for some reason, she didn’t feel like returning to the show. She thought about what Chi Yi had said the other day that she wasn’t truly happy.

Deciding not to force herself, she walked to a shaded bamboo grove behind the park to escape the heat.

Before long, Lin Dan sent her a message asking about the art exhibition.

Xie Shaoyun was slightly puzzled.

She called back, but the signal was poor, crackling with static. Lin Dan said she was at the airport.

Xie Shaoyun hung up again.

She replied: “Didn’t we already settle the exhibition details last time? Did you forget?”

As she reached a shady spot near a garden pond, Lin Dan’s message came through.

“I’m asking for Chi Yi. You’re at that show in Nan City, right? She’s a little worried. Don’t tell her I told you the truth.”

There was a bench nearby, hidden behind an ancient tree in the shade. Xie Shaoyun sat there silently, staring for a long time at the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind her.

“Why did you call me out here? This is a public place, full of people. We agreed to pretend we don’t know each other in front of outsiders.”

Xie Shaoyun instinctively glanced over. The speaker was Jian Qing, dressed in an evening gown that revealed a stunning expanse of her back, a navy-blue shawl draped over her elbow. She must have been heading back to the show soon, as she stood there in slender high heels, nearly as tall as Xie Shaoyun.

Opposite her stood a striking mixed-race woman with puppy-dog eyes and light-colored irises, her gaze fixed on Jian Qing, the corners of her eyes slightly red.

“They say you’re getting married,” the woman said, grabbing Jian Qing’s hand anxiously. “It’s not true, right?”

“It is true. I’ve been busy lately and didn’t have time to tell you. Our relationship ends here.” Jian Qing frowned, pulling her hand away.

But when she saw the woman’s tears, her expression softened. She called her “sister” sweetly and carefully wiped away her tears with her fingers, saying, “Don’t cry. Haven’t these days with me made you happy?”

The woman froze.

“Of course they have. I divorced for you, got rid of his child, came out to my family. Doesn’t all this prove how much I love you? Jian Qing, I know you love me too. We should be together.”

Tears streamed down the woman’s face. “Don’t get married.”

Jian Qing took out a tissue and meticulously wiped away the tears of the heartbroken woman before her, desperately trying to salvage their relationship. She loved the woman’s eyes, caressing them tenderly before withdrawing her hand.

With pity in her voice, she said, “Do you know why I go out of my way to comfort you every time you cry? Because when you cry, you don’t resemble her at all.”

The woman looked up, bewildered. “She… who is she?”

Jian Qing placed a hand over her own kidney and replied, “She’s here with me.”

“My beloved,” Jian Qing whispered to the woman. “You’re just her substitute.”

Xie Shaojun, sitting on a bench nearby, heard a loud splash from the pond and instinctively stepped out from behind a tree.

The mixed-race woman who had been crying earlier had jumped into the water. The pond wasn’t deep, only reaching her waist.

Jian Qing didn’t even glance her way. Standing by the garden pond, she scoffed, turned, and walked away. But after a few steps, she suddenly looked up and locked eyes with Xie Shaojun.

She stopped in her tracks and approached Xie Shaojun.

When she was close enough, she greeted her with a smile.

“We meet again.”

Jian Qing said to Xie Shaojun, “Sister, I invited you to dinner upstairs earlier. Why didn’t you come?”

Xie Shaojun gave her a cool, indifferent glance, unsurprised by her despicable behavior.

Human nature could be vile, and Jian Qing was no exception.

In the past, Xie Shaojun might have felt disgust, but now, she didn’t see it as her concern. She didn’t even bother to spare any emotion.

Stepping out from the shade into the sunlight, her long, wavy hair cascading behind her, she wore a black halter-neck dress with a green staff access pass hanging around her neck down to earth yet striking.

She walked past Jian Qing and asked the disheveled woman in the pond, “Are you alright?”

The woman, her lips trembling and bruised, muttered that she was fine, her gaze still lingering on Jian Qing as if clinging to hope.

Xie Shaojun didn’t say much, leaving her jacket on the bench.

To the woman in the water, she said, “If you’re embarrassed, I’ll leave so you can get up. A broken heart isn’t the end of the world. If she doesn’t care, why should you?”

The woman in the pond stared blankly at Xie Shaojun before hesitantly parting her lips. Seeing Xie Shaojun waiting patiently for her response, she instinctively nodded and whispered, “Thank you.”

Bathed in sunlight, Xie Shaojun turned her face slightly, her eyes curving gently as she reassured the woman in a soothing tone, “It’s nothing.”

The harsh light blurred her features, yet somehow, it faintly mirrored the face Jian Qing had been recalling day and night.

Jian Qing stared at her intently, her entire body beginning to tremble uncontrollably for reasons she couldn’t explain.