The Iceberg Ex-Wife Doesn't Want to Take My Tragic Ending Script (BE Script) - Chapter 8

The next day, the sky was clear and bright. Towering buildings, continuous traffic, and hurried people formed the city.

“It’s good to be young.”

Shi Xiu climbed out of bed, stretched, and walked downstairs. Her foot, which she had been afraid to put weight on yesterday, could now bear weight and walk. Her seventeen-year-old body had its own biological clock, allowing her to wake up naturally without an alarm. She woke up refreshed, which significantly improved her mood, as if the discomfort she felt before sleeping the previous night no longer existed.

Shi Xiu was full of expectation and eager for the start of her new life.

Coming down from upstairs, the dining room was immediately visible. There was breakfast made by the housekeeper, two identical portions of simple sandwiches. It seemed the adults in the house had gone on a business trip and wouldn’t be back today. Her stepsister, who was a sophomore, must have returned, as her uniform shoes were placed in the foyer, rigidly separating her space from Shi Xiu’s.

They look united, but they are strangers at heart. This home was just as Shi Xiu remembered.

“It’s best if nothing changes, best if everything remains as it was in the past,” Shi Xiu thought, chewing her sandwich while sitting on the shoe-changing bench.

She didn’t know if she herself had changed. She lacked any interest in hopeless matters and no longer wanted to change them. She couldn’t change anything. She had already tried.

Shi Xiu sighed heavily. Her thoughts wandered uncontrollably, circling back to those issues. She suddenly felt breathless again, abruptly stood up, and walked out of the house.

The morning breeze lifted the girl’s long hair, chilling her slightly. But hormones were such a magical thing. One moment Shi Xiu was feeling low, and the next, the moment she stepped out, she was filled with vitality again.

She realized she didn’t need to change anything. Reborn, she just needed to be herself. To live for herself. Nothing could defeat her!

“…Oh, hell.”

Shi Xiu looked at the math homework Guo Xiao had assigned and buried her head in her desk.

Just kill me now. She had just figured out what a quadratic equation was, and now quadratic functions arrived. There wasn’t a moment’s respite.

“Great news! The P.E. teacher said the next class is P.E.!”

Just then, the sports representative rushed in through the front door of the classroom, excitedly announcing the good news to everyone. The previously dull atmosphere in the class instantly dissipated. A few students, seemingly regressing to a primitive state, howled their way from the classroom to the outside.

Shi Xiu also felt a sense of relief. She finally didn’t have to face those damned math formulas. Thick white clouds drifted heavily past the window, as if gently waving to her, signaling her to embrace freedom.

Shi Xiu immediately put down her pen and strode out, looking nothing like someone with a sprained ankle. The exercise book, which she had neglected, lay lonely on the desk, suddenly flipped open by a hand.

The hand paused over the heavily marked red problems, waited for a long time before turning the page, silently, as if memorizing something.

The slow turning of pages echoed in the nearly empty classroom. No one paid attention, thinking it was just a gust of wind, sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

Until a voice came from the back row of the classroom:

“Shang Jinyue, aren’t you going to P.E. class?”

Having never done such a thing, Shang Jinyue was a little clumsy, instantly tucking her hand behind her back. Her expression was both flustered and calm. She nodded to the girl at the doorway: “Going now.”

“Together?” the girl invited.

Shang Jinyue didn’t like being touched, and habitually shook her head: “You go first.”

The girl looked a little disappointed but left alone. Shang Jinyue methodically put away her indecent act of prying. In the surrounding quiet, she seemed to hear Shi Xiu’s voice.

“It’s okay, I’ll wait for you.”

“Are you ready yet, Shang Jinyue? The ball is about to be gone.”

“Can you teach me this problem later? I read the answer analysis, but I still don’t quite understand.”

“Shang Jinyue, you know what? You’re the best person in the world!”

…

This person was always chirping when they were in school, constantly having things to say around her. A shadow was always cast by her desk. No matter how many times she refused, Shi Xiu would just stand nearby and wait for her.

The afternoon sun grew piercingly bright. Shang Jinyue slowly moved her gaze to her desk. Heavy, complex books were stacked into a tall wall. No one tried to break it anymore.

Senior year P.E. classes were like opening a blind box; you never knew if you’d actually get to have them until the bell rang. So, the students in the class cherished this P.E. period, lining up as soon as the warning bell rang, trying to gain every second of free activity time.

Shi Xiu was the tallest in the class and usually stood at the head of the line. However, because she claimed to have a sprained ankle, she was sitting by the flower bed today with a few other students with similar minor injuries. She looked tall, but curled up on the low flower bed, she looked tiny.

As the classmates did their warm-ups, she watched quietly, sitting next to the small cart filled with volleyballs and basketballs, as if she were one of the items waiting to be chosen by the students later.

Shang Jinyue walked through the rows of outstretched arms on the right, watching her quietly. The thought in her mind was the same as what she saw, and her gaze lingered.

Until a tall figure blocked her view.

“Come on, let’s go play volleyball,” Chang Luo, the sports representative, flipped her ponytail, took out the volleyball she had already set her eyes on from the cart, and hooked her finger, inviting Shi Xiu.

“No, I sprained my foot,” Shi Xiu leaned back on her arms. The sunlight aligned with the bridge of her nose, making her look a bit cynical.

In high school, Shi Xiu was the best volleyball player in the class. Teams would always seek her out during P.E. classes. Unfortunately, to stick close to Shang Jinyue later, she didn’t play much in senior year, something she regretted when talking to Feng Xinyang.

“Get real, you walked down the stairs faster than I did just now,” Chang Luo didn’t believe her, patting the ball in her hand. “Just don’t jump, that’s all. It’s no fun without you.”

Shi Xiu liked the feeling of being valued. She emphasized again: “Chang Luo, you said it. If I miss a ball because I can’t jump, you can’t blame me.”

“I said it.”

Chang Luo nodded, then extended her hand to Shi Xiu. Shi Xiu didn’t hesitate. She was already itching to play and grasped the hand offered to her.

It was completely different from yesterday. The sunlight grazed Shang Jinyue’s eyes, precisely cutting the scene into the angle between her sight and Chang Luo’s back. Shi Xiu was not unwilling to accept kindness from anyone; she was just unwilling to accept hers.

Shang Jinyue’s breathing deepened slightly, but her face remained as calm and indifferent as ever. She thought she had other things to do, and easing the tension with Shi Xiu couldn’t be rushed. Suppressing the disappointment in her heart, she walked to the side and sat down.

The sports field was divided into two scenes: the exercise area was full of running and jumping students, while the students chatting and doing homework sat in scattered groups in the spectator stands.

Shang Jinyue, uncharacteristically, sat in the area where the girls of the class were concentrated, opening her math review outline and looking through it methodically. She didn’t wear headphones. The sound of everyone loudly discussing popular topics filled her ears, interspersed with Shi Xiu’s voice.

This was the closest spot to the volleyball court.

The sun cast a rainbow-colored halo along the tree branches. If Shang Jinyue lifted her gaze slightly, she could see Shi Xiu’s face opposite her.

Despite her unhealed ankle, she was still playing with all her might, a proud and rebellious smile spread across her face. Shang Jinyue hadn’t watched Shi Xiu play volleyball much in the past; she disliked any sweat-soaked sport. But precisely because of this, she realized she seemed to have missed many moments belonging to Shi Xiu.

This person played with a powerful drive, her eyes fixed on the ball like a hunting hawk. When the ball came her way, she swung her hand for a hit, her ponytail flicking sharply behind her head. Sweat refracted the sunlight, turning her features golden. Her pupils were clean and spotless, drawing the attention of several girls from other classes.

Shang Jinyue’s heart stirred slightly. The sound of the volleyball slapping against arms thrummed, drowning out the sound of her own heartbeat.

And then…

“Shang Jinyue! Look out!”

A warning suddenly sounded near Shang Jinyue’s ear. She had no time to gather her thoughts before a sharp pain shot from her shoulder, making her entire body tilt to the right. A ringing sound filled her ears. Shang Jinyue felt dizzy.

She seemed to hear many footsteps, accompanied by overwhelming concern rushing toward her.

“Shang Jinyue, are you okay?”

“Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”

“How’s your arm?”

“Can you sit up? I’ll help you.”

…

But amidst all these voices, Shang Jinyue couldn’t hear Shi Xiu’s voice. She was helped up from the ground, her hair messy, looking somewhat disheveled. In the past, Shang Jinyue would absolutely not have wanted anyone to see her like this.

But this time, facing the increasing number of onlookers and the increasingly loud reassurances, she remained silent. The sun made her head fuzzy. Shang Jinyue’s composure seemed to have been defeated by the attack of the unidentified ball.

Unease caused agitation. Her empty heart had somehow filled with stagnant water. Too much comfort rushed toward her, stirring up layers of ripples. Shang Jinyue couldn’t find the words she wanted. So, she desperately wanted comfort from that one person.

No, it wasn’t like this in the past. When she got hurt, Shi Xiu would always be the first one to rush over and worry about her.

Shang Jinyue thought, Maybe this isn’t enough of a scene. She needed a bigger commotion…

But even after the P.E. teacher, who was acting as the referee on the volleyball court, arrived, Shi Xiu still didn’t appear.

“Move! I’m here!”

The girl’s clear and decisive voice seemed to possess the power to penetrate everything, cutting through the overlapping concern around Shang Jinyue, reaching deep into her. Shang Jinyue seemed not yet to have accepted reality, her raised gaze filled with expectation.

What she was met with, however, was Shi Xiu leaping high into the air. Taking advantage of the opposing students’ distraction due to the commotion outside the court, she powerfully slammed the ball over. A beautiful spike, grazing the white boundary line and landing in, destroying the opponent’s last bit of defense.

Shi Xiu won.

Author’s Note:

Pigeon Referee (whistling): “Beep—halftime. The first half is over.”

Match Record: Human-Machine Miss was critically hit for 100,000,000,000 points, dealing 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 damage.