After My Death, Everyone Repented (Transmigration) - Chapter 71.2

After explaining, Chi Yi fixed her dark eyes on Xie Shaojun, who sat beside her, uncrossing her legs and patting her own shoulder. “Want to lean on me?” she offered.

That night, to Chi Yi, Xie Shaojun’s shoulder seemed frail and fragile, like a delicate doll from next door something that might break at the slightest touch. But the doll-like girl with puppy-dog eyes curved downward, smiling brightly at Chi Yi as she patted her slender shoulder in invitation. Chi Yi closed her eyes, unable to resist the temptation, and without another thought, buried her head against Xie Shaojun’s shoulder.

Suddenly, she wanted to say: You’re the one who chased after me. From now on, you’ll have to let me lean on you forever.

Xie Shaojun entered her third year of junior high. Nothing major happened that year, except for one notable thing: she and Chi Yi were now in the same grade.

The less notable thing was that, after that night, Xie Shaojun had gained a new burden. Somehow, the ever-stoic Chi Yi had convinced Xie Cheng that Xie Shaojun’s grades were too abysmal and that she needed tutoring from Chi Yi, the academic prodigy.

Throughout the entire summer, the cicadas’ chirping filled the air with noise. Chi Yi, with her graceful and slender figure, bowed her head slightly as she held Xie Shaojun’s fingers. The scent of shampoo wafted into Xie Shaojun’s nose while Chi Yi corrected her stroke order in writing, her tone lilting with laughter as she asked, “Did you get it now?”

Xie Shaojun felt her ears grow warm. In a daze, she lowered her head and saw the character Chi Yi had guided her to write, “Yi” (ripples), the same “Yi” as ripples stirring in one’s heart.

That night, Xie Shaojun returned home and had a dream. When she woke up, she went to the bathroom herself to wash the bedsheets.

With a hundred days left until the high school entrance exams, Xie Shaojun asked Chi Yi which high school she planned to attend.

Chi Yi said she was aiming for Guang City No. 1 High School. After a brief pause, she turned to Xie Shaojun and asked, “Can you try a little harder and join me in high school?”

Under the moonlight, Chi Yi’s gaze was pure and sincere.

Xie Shaojun averted her eyes, hesitating for a moment as she calculated her ranking from last month’s mock exams. With a troubled expression, she looked at Chi Yi and said, “Do you really think my grades are good enough to scrape into the same high school as you?”

Chi Yi gave her a once-over, and Xie Shaojun instinctively straightened her posture, lifting her chin and pulling in her stomach.

“I think if your dad donates a building, your chances of getting into a top high school would be much higher.”

That was just cruel.

Xie Shaojun glared at her and, in playful retaliation, grabbed Chi Yi’s arm and pretended to bite it.

“You’re like a little puppy,” Chi Yi remarked, though she didn’t resist.

Her fair, jade-like arm now bore two neat rows of teeth marks.

Xie Shaojun hadn’t actually bitten down hard. To prove her innocence, she gently rubbed the marks with her fingers.

Chi Yi’s hand twitched, and for some reason, she suddenly pulled it back.

Her eyes fixed on the ground as she murmured, “But it still hurts.”

Xie Shaojun eyed her suspiciously, assessing Chi Yi’s downcast expression and deciding she wasn’t lying.

So she pushed back her chair, making a show of standing up to fetch the first-aid kit.

Chi Yi then said there wasn’t one at home.

After a moment’s thought, Xie Shaojun took Chi Yi’s hand and said, “Then let me blow on it for you.”

Her lips exhaled warm breath over the faint teeth marks. Chi Yi stared at Xie Shaojun for a long time without moving.

“Chi Yi, are you cold? You’ve got goosebumps,” Xie Shaojun asked, pointing at the raised skin around Chi Yi’s arm.

Chi Yi didn’t answer. Instead, she withdrew her hand and called Xie Shaojun, “Little puppy.” Then she added, “Don’t go around biting people from now on.”

“And don’t just blow on anyone’s wounds either.”

Xie Shaojun thought Chi Yi was being overly controlling, but she still replied, “Do you really think I’m a dog? What if I catch something from random biting? Even my own sister doesn’t get this privilege only you do. Happy now?”

For some reason, Chi Yi looked at Xie Shaojun and smiled brighter than ever before.

“Mm,” she said.

A year has four seasons, and by the time spring arrived the following year, the lingering heat from the previous summer seemed to stretch into the new season.

At the time, Xie Shaojun didn’t understand what any of it meant. She only felt that her relationship with Chi Yi had somehow accelerated, leaping forward at an unstoppable pace until it reached the pinnacle of friendship.

Two stones that once repelled each other like mismatched magnets now blended seamlessly sharing a bed, copying each other’s homework, attending the same tutoring sessions, and setting the grand goal of attending high school together.

In the final month before the high school entrance exams, Xie Shaojun’s grades improved by leaps and bounds, though the effort left dark circles under her eyes.

Yet, while Xie Shaojun burned the midnight oil studying, Chi Yi stayed up late right alongside her.

Although she wasn’t the one studying, Chi Yi’s contribution throughout Xie Shaojun’s learning process was indispensable.

She took on Xie Shaojun’s teaching, tutoring, highlighting key points, time management, and even efficiency improvements in daily habits beyond academics.

Though most of the time, Xie Shaojun felt that Chi Yi was just using the excuse of teaching her to tinker with data on the computer data that Xie Shaojun couldn’t make heads or tails of.

In May, Xie Shaojun was assigned the task of painting the blackboard newspaper by her teacher due to her outstanding academic improvement.

This was one of Xie Shaojun’s few hobbies, so she gladly accepted the teacher’s suggestion.

She spent several self-study classes slacking off outside.

That morning, she went to the teacher’s office to request a ladder and took the opportunity to thank the teacher for the reward. However, the homeroom teacher revealed that the reward wasn’t originally their idea it was Chi Yi who had applied for it.

Dazed, Xie Shaojun walked out of the office and sat on the makeshift ladder, painting spring willow branches. Her efficiency remained low all afternoon.

Her mind kept wondering why Chi Yi had applied for the reward on her behalf, then recalling how, during the last school break, she had complained to Chi Yi about the school’s newspaper.

“If I were to paint spring, I definitely wouldn’t do it like this.”

“Want to try?”

“Yeah. But I’m in ninth grade now.”

In this late spring, on the cusp of summer, Xie Shaojun’s brushstrokes slowed and quickened as she thought about Chi Yi painting spring.

After finishing a willow branch, she lifted her head and saw, not far away on the playground, a boy handing Chi Yi a love letter.

Xie Shaojun glanced at them a few times before pretending nothing was wrong and turning her attention back to the blackboard. But when she tried to paint again, the lines smudged.

Her gaze couldn’t help but drift back to the corner.

The boy was tall, half a head taller than Chi Yi and his shadow enveloped her, almost like an embrace.

Xie Shaojun believed middle schoolers shouldn’t date too early. Besides, they were about to graduate from ninth grade neither their maturity nor the timing was right for romance.

Tossing aside the chalk, feeling righteous, she called Chi Yi’s name from afar at the top of her lungs.

The boy startled and took a step back. Chi Yi turned around, her ponytail swaying, her clear gaze sweeping over before warming instantly upon seeing Xie Shaojun.

She returned the gift box the boy had handed her and said, “Classmate, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.”

“My little sister is working on the blackboard over there. I’m afraid she might fall. Lives are at stake.”

With that, she ran toward Xie Shaojun.

The boy, who hadn’t even finished his confession, had no choice but to follow. The two of them arrived at the foot of Xie Shaojun’s ladder.

Chi Yi steadied the ladder while the boy, seemingly still wanting to say something, awkwardly tried to make conversation.

“Is this your sister? Why does she have permed hair?”

Chi Yi’s expression cooled. She subtly blocked the boy’s line of sight and gave him a pointed look before slandering Xie Shaojun with feigned sincerity.

“She’s a delinquent, part of a gang. The teachers can’t control her. From now on, if you see her, stay away, from both of us.”

Her blunt words left the boy red-faced, and he quickly ran off.

Standing high on the ladder, Xie Shaojun listened to Chi Yi’s effortless lies and felt a surge of anger. She threw down several pencil stubs, raining them onto Chi Yi’s long hair.

Chi Yi didn’t seem to notice or mind. She continued holding the ladder steady, watching the boy leave before calmly looking up and asking, “Trying to murder me?”

“Not at all,” Xie Shaojun replied with a forced smile, deliberately ignoring her.

After finishing the blackboard, she climbed down and suddenly smeared the chalk dust from her hands onto Chi Yi’s face, pinching her cheeks.

“You’re the worst. Ruining my reputation.”

As she spoke, she checked the time half an hour had already passed.

“Why are you still here?”* Xie Shaojun asked Chi Yi. *”Aren’t you going back to self-study?”

“I’m leaving, who’s going to hold the ladder for you?” Chi Yi said with a pink-flushed face, adding, “The annoying me is afraid the annoying you might fall.”

Xie Shaojun was amused and grabbed her hand, saying, “Alright then, let the annoying us go wash our hands together.”

“Mm,” Chi Yi agreed readily, curling her lips into a smile as they laughed together. The two of them folded the ladder and stored it in the utility room before heading hand in hand to the bathroom to wash up.

The high school entrance exams arrived as scheduled. The weather was scorching that day, and Xie Shaojun had brought cold drinks, only for Chi Yi to confiscate them.

Once the two-day exams were over, Xie Shaojun had planned to get her revenge.

But that day, outside the exam hall, Chi Yi got into a stretch Lincoln.

After that, there was no news of her.

On the day the results were released, Xie Shaojun couldn’t help but call Chi Yi, wanting to ask, “Where are you? Did you check your scores?”

The call went unanswered.

The text messages she had sent earlier seemed to vanish into thin air along with that unanswered ring.

Without a reply from Chi Yi, Xie Shaojun felt restless. A deep sense of loss made her realize that over the past year, she and Chi Yi had grown too close.

So close that when Xie Shaojun got her period, she would boss Chi Yi around to buy her pads. So close that once during gym class, when blood stained her pants, Chi Yi took off her school jacket and tied it around Xie Shaojun’s waist to hide the embarrassment.

Because the most awkward moments had already happened in front of Chi Yi, Xie Shaojun had redefined her from the “fake” girl next door to a confidante she could share anything with.

She had assumed they would be the first to tell each other their exam results. But in reality, Xie Shaojun only learned from a teacher while filling out her high school application that Chi Yi had scored the highest in the city.

However, Chi Yi didn’t show up that day to submit her application, nor did she come to the farewell gathering.

It was as if she had suddenly vanished from Xie Shaojun’s life no notice, no goodbye, not even a single reply in her phone.

The front door of the neighboring villa gathered a thick layer of dust, and an old tree had stubbornly taken root, its branches stretching out from behind the wall.

One day, as Xie Shaojun passed by her own house, she noticed a withered branch and fallen leaves at her feet.

It suddenly struck her that autumn had arrived, and in this autumn, a friend had disappeared from her life.

Just like that night when this friend had urgently knocked on the door of Xie Shaojun’s sympathy, desperately and lonely, seeking her out just to hear the words “Happy Birthday.”

Xie Shaojun had pitied her, thought she needed saving, so she had wished her a happy birthday and helped Chi Yi through that brief, difficult time.

Chi Yi had recovered well, no longer feeling lonely, living normally again, so she left without saying goodbye.

Xie Shaojun suddenly felt an overwhelming sadness.

At that moment, she thought maybe Chi Yi hadn’t said goodbye because she had made new friends and no longer needed Xie Shaojun.

Friendships between girls come and go childhood, adolescence, youth each phase seems to bring different people into one’s life.

And Chi Yi was just a passerby in hers.

That autumn, Xie Shaojun started high school. The workload was intense, the courses like a crushing machine, squeezing every last bit of energy from the students.

Because she was so busy, Xie Shaojun rarely thought about Chi Yi.

The following year, when she heard Chi Yi’s name again, it took her a few seconds to recall who it was. When she did, she’d think to herself with mild surprise, “Oh, that girl next door Chi the fake.”

In the third year, during a visit home, Xie Shaojun heard from Xie Cheng’s words that their father was enviously mentioning the name of that “other people’s child” Chi Yi.

Chi Yi was abroad, attending a prestigious school. In just two years, she had been exceptionally admitted to Harvard ahead of schedule.

Xie Shaojun suddenly realized that long ago, the code Chi Yi had written while tutoring her was actually for a software program.

During those tutoring sessions, the English materials Chi Yi was reading were preparations for the TOEFL exam.

The year Chi Yi repeated a grade, she barely touched middle school test papers, the competition problems she brought home were advanced mathematics Xie Shaojun had never studied.

So many things Chi Yi didn’t belong here.

Xie Cheng said Chi Yi’s only hobby since childhood was studying. She had long surpassed the level of a middle schooler, but back then, the Chi family had been sabotaged. To mislead their opponents, the bullying incident involving Chi Yi wasn’t immediately clarified, and she had to endure and bide her time, delaying her study abroad plans.

Xie Shaojun had once soberly described Chi Yi as a perfect answer sheet, her actions and decisions could always be the standard answer.

But later, this perfect star fell from tens of thousands of meters high, landing at Xie Shaojun’s feet, covered in dirt. Xie Shaojun picked her up, mistaking her for a fallen meteor.

But in truth, a star would always be a star.

That day, Xie Shaojun thought of a saying: stars don’t need the pity of ordinary people, because they’ve always been shining.

But humans, once accustomed to light, cannot bear to plunge back into darkness.

Two years later, on this night when resentment toward Chi Yi surged violently in her mind, Xie Shaojun went out and stood outside Chi Yi’s house for a long time, throwing many stones at it.

As if hurling them at Chi Yi herself.

After finishing, Xie Shaojun turned and walked away without looking back. She was unburdened, this chapter with Chi Yi was closed.

Senior year kept her busy, and Xie Shaojun never thought of Chi Yi again. But just then, Chi Yi returned to the country.

She still lived next door, attending University A the very school Xie Shaojun wanted to get into.

At eighteen, Xie Shaojun graduated from high school. During the graduation photo session, Chi Yi approached with a camera, asking to take a picture together. Xie Shaojun coldly refused.

The next evening, at a banquet, Xie Shaojun wore a formal dress but kept adjusting its plunging neckline.

Chi Yi walked over, took off her own jacket, and offered it to Xie Shaojun. Xie Shaojun couldn’t be bothered to respond and simply turned to leave.

Chi Yi chased after her and asked, “What can I do to make you less angry?”

“I’m not angry.” Xie Shaojun smiled, surprisingly relaxed as she replied, “I just don’t consider you a friend anymore. How could that count as anger?”