After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 64.3

Secretary Wang rested her chin on her hand, puzzled. “Are you buying a toy for a child? What colors do they like? Boy or girl?”

Chi Yi glanced at her but didn’t explain. Secretary Wang took the hint and didn’t press further, quickly selecting a few designs to send over before smoothly changing the subject.

After landing, the owner of a custom toy factory delivered the tiny bed to the airport.

It wasn’t until the afternoon, post-meeting, that Secretary Wang finally understood its purpose. It was now a decorative piece in Chi Yi’s office.

The gauzy curtain of the toy bed was pulled open, revealing a skull necklace inside. Chi Yi had placed a spare phone horizontally in front of the skull, currently playing a recent brainless rom-com hit: The Priceless Little Wife.

Secretary Wang:

Chi Yi lifted her head, her long hair loosely tied back, swiftly signed the documents, then handed them back to Secretary Wang, urging her to leave.

Secretary Wang was slow to react, her attention entirely captured by the sixth episode of the drama playing on Chi Yi’s desk.

On screen, the domineering CEO was throwing a wad of cash at the construction worker who had bullied the female lead.

For the first time in her career, Secretary Wang found herself questioning reality,Who am I? Where am I?
“Were you even listening?” Chi Yi asked.

Secretary Wang snapped out of it, meeting Chi Yi’s displeased gaze, and immediately replied, “Of course. Understood. I’ll get right on it.”

She pushed open the office door to leave but paused outside when she suddenly heard Chi Yi muttering to herself inside:

“It’s normal for subordinates not to like me. The difference between me and the vice president is that I play the bad cop while he plays the good cop. Tension and release,that’s how you manage people.”

For a brief moment, Secretary Wang had the impulsive urge to take matters into her own hands and call Xie Shaojun, who was still unconscious back in the capital because if she didn’t wake up soon, Chi Yi was beyond saving.

She suspected Chi Yi wasn’t just suffering from psychological issues but also regressing into childhood speech patterns.

Meanwhile, the supposedly mentally unstable Chi Yi tilted her head, amused, and asked Xie Shaojun in a leisurely tone, “Is the show really that good? You’ve been watching it all day.”

Xie Shaojun grinned. “As artists, we must embrace all forms of culture. This drama has the highest viewership right now, proving market demand. Watching it helps me study color contrasts and other visual techniques. It’s a necessary learning process, you should understand.”

Though she would never understand, Chi Yi still humored her by watching a few scenes and lying, “Alright. I’ll try.”

“Want to watch with me?” Xie Shaojun invited.

Chi Yi declined politely and turned to the mountain of work waiting for her.

However, she focused on her work and didn’t ask Xie Shaojun to turn off the brainless drama. At the same time, she stubbornly refused to let Xie Shaojun go to the lounge to watch it.

Later, even Xie Shaojun herself began to feel a little guilty, lounging arrogantly in Chi Yi’s office chair while letting the male lead’s greasy lines from the drama corrode Chi Yi’s ears.

By the time work was nearly over, Chi Yi had finished her tasks and was left puzzled by the logic of the idle, superfluous CEO character in the drama.

She leaned down and asked Xie Shaojun, “Does a domineering CEO not need to work when they’re in love?”

Xie Shaojun couldn’t help but laugh and teased her, “Well, you should ask yourself why your way of being in love is so different from others always busy. A real domineering CEO doesn’t need to work because they’re too rich. They don’t need intelligence for work, just a love-struck brain, unconditionally devoted to their partner. Compared to them, you’re quite pitiful, you can’t even be called the perfect lover.”

Chi Yi fell silent, looking somewhat aggrieved.

Xie Shaojun laughed at her but added that her dedication to work was charming. After waiting for her to finish laughing, Chi Yi slipped her icy fingers under Xie Shaojun’s little blanket, pressing them against the skull and solemnly admitting, “I am pitiful.” And then, “Since I’m so pitiful, warm my hands for me.”

Xie Shaojun had no retort. Though she wanted to point out that the skull had no warmth, she silently pressed the smoother side of the skull against Chi Yi’s fingers.

“Chi Yi.”

With no one else around, Chi Yi dropped her pen holder.

Xie Shaojun whispered, “There is someone I love very much. Her name is Xiao Chi. I love her deeply, and I will continue to love her in the future…”

Chi Yi’s fingers suddenly curled inward. She lowered her eyes and forced a strained smile, saying, “I know.”

Xie Shaojun rolled slightly in Chi Yi’s palm and glanced at her.

The smile on Chi Yi’s face was painfully forced, nothing like the understanding she had claimed last time, when she said she accepted that Xie Shaojun had someone else in her heart and was silently enduring it as a backup. Xie Shaojun had barely begun speaking, and Chi Yi’s expression had already darkened.

Staring fixedly at Xie Shaojun, unable to control her emotions, she asked, “Then what about me?”

Her tone was full of sorrow. Xie Shaojun replied, “You?”

Deliberately slowing her words, she continued, “That night at the Nancy show, I turned back to look for you. On the second floor, I saw you talking with Jian Qing, so I didn’t disturb you. But we met in the elevator… That night, you weren’t standing by the vent, and I was ready to turn back for you.”

“After the doll dissolved in sulfuric acid, I was dazed, and some memories surfaced, from when I was six. Number One was me, not Jian Qing. You were my childhood companion. We spent New Year’s Eve together, exchanging necklaces. That freezing winter, you traded two discounted legs at the pharmacy to get me a fever-reducing pill. I remembered all of that.”

“Meeting Feng Cinian, Xie Guangqi, and Jian Qing again, I didn’t really care. That’s my strength as a task-taker: I don’t look back, only forward. The past stays in the past. The good memories remain, the bad ones are thrown in the trash, never to be revisited. But with you, whether good or bad, I keep looking back, helplessly indulging in it.”

Chi Yi’s lips felt dry. She licked them, but the dryness remained, spreading from her throat to her heart.

She took a sip of the now-cold coffee, feeling slightly better.

Finally, she spoke: “So early, and you’ve already forgiven me.”

“There was never any hatred to begin with, so forgiveness doesn’t apply. I couldn’t move forward, which made me feel useless. It was like you were a sack dragging behind me, pulling me down. My rational mind resisted, filled with self-loathing, but time and again, I’d soften toward you.”

Chi Yi’s gaze met the hollow eyes of the skull.

She heard Xie Shaojun speak slowly, each word deliberate: “Before, I didn’t understand why I became like this. Now I know. I’m not sure if it’s too late to say these things, but I just want to tell you my softening toward you isn’t because I’ve transferred my feelings to someone else, nor because I’m keeping you as a backup in my heart. It’s because Xiao Chi is Chi Yi, and Chi Yi is the person I love.”

“The last time you said you loved me, I agreed. I love you too.”

Chi Yi stood frozen for a long moment before tossing the skull onto the table and rushing to the sink. She splashed water on her face repeatedly, staring into the mirror. Minutes later, she emerged without drying herself, droplets falling from her sharp chin. She grabbed Xie Shaojun and held on tightly.

Xie Shaojun reminded her that she was about to be crushed. Chi Yi loosened her grip slightly but didn’t let go completely.

Her expression remained calm. She didn’t press Xie Shaojun about how she’d reached this conclusion, that Xiao Chi was her, that she was Xiao Chi.

But Chi Yi felt none of it needed verification. Xie Shaojun was the kind of person who lived freely, if she had wanted to leave, she would have long ago.

The fact that she could return and accept Chi Yi again meant she genuinely loved her. In that black notebook, Xie Shaojun had warned herself: Don’t love Chi Yi. And yet, Xie Shaojun had still fallen for Chi Yi.

So Chi Yi had no reason to distrust any of it.

After work, Chi Yi took Xie Shaojun home. On the way, she signaled wrong twice, earning curses from drivers behind her. Xie Shaojun watched nervously.

“Are you tired? Focus,” Xie Shaojun warned.

Chi Yi said she wasn’t tired, popping a mint into her mouth to steady herself.

Finally home, she parked and stepped into the elevator, forgetting to press the floor button until Xie Shaojun called her name.

“Chi Yi.”

Only then did she absentmindedly press the button.

Minutes later, she stood at the entrance, wearing the wrong slippers.

Then, while cooking in the kitchen, she cut her finger.

Xie Shaojun watched her half-heartedly tend to the wound and snapped, “What’s the deal?”

“Is what I said too hard for you to accept? Or do you want to reject me?”

Chi Yi paused bandaging her finger and nodded. “A little hard to accept.”

Xie Shaojun fell silent. After a while, Chi Yi placed a fried egg on a plate and, amid the sizzling of the pan, murmured, “I’m just too nervous.”

“The fact that Xie Shaojun loves Chi Yi and that Chi Yi loves Xie Shaojun, it’s the same thing.”

“Sorry, I got carried away. I couldn’t control how happy I felt.”

Xie Shaojun laughed in exasperation, then scolded when oil splattered onto Chi Yi’s arm, telling her to run the burn under cold water.

“Fine, I won’t say it again next time.”

After washing her hands, Chi Yi lowered her gaze and said, unbearably, “No, say it. It’s fine.”

“I like hearing it.”

The next day, Chi Yi had to inspect the factory and was out all day. She asked Xie Shaojun for her opinion, but Xie Shaojun didn’t want to tag along for the bumpy ride, so she stayed home.

Perched on the large sofa in Chi Yi’s home, the tiny skull nestled comfortably on an incredibly soft cushion.

In the morning, Xie Shaojun called her dad, mom, Xie Qingcheng, and Xie Zangxing one by one for long chats.

The last call took a while.

Damei was with Xie Zangxing. After finishing the conversation with him, Damei took over the phone.

Reunited after so long, Damei had originally prepared herself emotionally, but Xie Shaojun wasted no time on pleasantries and got straight to business.

The gist was that she wanted Damei to handle the remaining tasks for her upcoming projects.

“Honestly, did you plan this all along, deliberately calling me here?” Damei asked. “Luring me to Sijiu City wasn’t for a heartfelt reunion but to make me manage your studio? You’re something else.”

“Let’s be fair, Damei-jie. You came to Sijiu City for your wife, how is that my fault?” Xie Shaojun immediately defended herself. “Besides, you’re here with nothing to do, stuck at your in-laws’ place every day. Must be boring, no?”

Damei replied flawlessly, “I get along great with your mom. Our relationship is excellent.”

“Talking about me, of course you’d get along. But aren’t you worried you’ll run out of topics and make future meetings awkward?” Xie Shaojun left Damei speechless, prompting her to curse Xie Shaojun’s sharp tongue.

Xie Shaojun grinned and piled on the pressure: “Last time, Hua Bi got his arm slashed. After recovery, he mentioned wanting you to do the coloring big project, right? Three weeks might not even be enough.”

“Deal,” Damei said without hesitation. “I’ll manage your studio, but you’ll have to help me out too hold down the fort at Twilight.”

Since she’d already been recognized, Xie Shaojun didn’t plan to refuse the tattoo studio work. Damei wouldn’t let her off the hook anyway. Xie Shaojun claimed she was delicate and weak now, unable to overexert herself.

Damei cursed her, calling her “Xie Daiyu,” but there was nothing she could do except relent step by step.

Finally, she lowered her demands. “No less than this. Don’t play games with me. Two days a week, none of that nonsense. Unless you can resist flying back to Nan City to see Chi Yi every week.”

Xie Shaojun smiled sweetly. “Chi Yi comes to me. I don’t need to fly to Nan City every week.”

“You really dote on your wife!”

That evening, when Chi Yi returned, Xie Shaojun asked her to bring out the black notebook.

Glancing through its contents, Xie Shaojun flipped through it casually. At six years old, she had recorded many things in pencil.

She told Chi Yi she could read what was written inside the notebook had 108 pages, detailing the story of Chi Yi and her from their past life.

She asked Chi Yi, “Do you want to know?”

Chi Yi looked at her and asked, “Is it a tragedy?”

Xie Shaojun thought for a moment, then nodded. She gently explained that while Little Chi and Little Xie had loved each other in the end, they never got to be together.

“Then let’s not talk about it.”

“I think you’d want to hear it.”

Chi Yi admitted, “I did at first. But if talking about it means reopening old wounds for you, then I don’t want to anymore. The past doesn’t matter. At least now, and in the future, we’ll be happy.”

Xie Shaojun didn’t say much more. She had already told Chi Yi everything she needed to the day before.

She told Chi Yi that if she ever wanted to hear it,

Xie Shaojun would tell her.

That evening, Xie Shaoyun discovered an extra oil painting in Chi Yi’s study, the very one that had recently fetched a high price at auction.

Xie Shaoyun asked Chi Yi, “Why didn’t you just sign your own name at the auction?”

Chi Yi replied, “If you knew it was me, what would you have done?”

“I wouldn’t have sold it to you.” The weather was cold, and Chi Yi seemed to have anticipated this answer. With a calculating smirk, she said, “So there was no other way. Don’t blame me.”

Xie Shaoyun felt that Chi Yi had a knack for manipulating her.

Usually, when Xie Shaoyun caught onto something, Chi Yi would immediately admit fault, claim there was no alternative, and then proceed to do as she pleased anyway.

Xie Shaoyun lifted her skull and lightly thumped Chi Yi’s chest, sinking into it before suddenly feeling embarrassed.

Chi Yi didn’t seem to notice. She sat on the sofa with a needle and thread, having prepared a thick quilt for Xie Shaoyun.

Xie Shaoyun suggested she sit on the sofa to watch TV, so Chi Yi tucked the skull into the quilt.

Xie Shaoyun burrowed inside, peeking out with just her eyes, watching as Chi Yi took two rose-red fabric strips and began stitching dense, uneven seams into a lump of cashmere wool.