His Present - Chapter 5

 Today was a sunny day.

       After I muddled along without any aim for some time, I began to gradually figure out that my return might indeed be meaningless.

       I had a talk with the grim reaper on the other side.

       I used to love my life, everything I had, my good friends, my parents, and even the college days when I stared at Ji Qin for so long and had a crush on him.

       We kissed at Ji Qin’s university graduation party.

       After the kiss, I didn’t feel like playing anymore and pretended to be embarrassed and said I wanted to withdraw. In reality, my heartbeat had engulfed all the noise in the room, and my mind had no room for anything else.

       Ji Qin also said that he was going to withdraw. He didn’t look at me and silently sipped a glass of wine.

       I sneaked up on him and then shyly asked him for his WeChat.

       Ji Qin didn’t say anything, he looked at me with great interest, as if he was thinking carefully, and scrutinizing me. Just when I was disappointed that he was going to refuse, he opened his phone and asked me to add him.

       I was ecstatic and grinned to the fullest.

       The first step in a long journey, I made it.

       After that, I would send messages to Ji Qin every day and tell him about my daily life. I would also say good morning and good night to him or forward some short articles that I thought were funny.

       Surprisingly, Ji Qin would reply.

       I was elated and drifted off thinking I was in a relationship with Ji Qin, and when I told Fu Shan about it, she was also very optimistic about our relationship.

       Could I really chase after Ji Qin?

       I really wanted to take the initiative to ask him out, just the two of us, but I didn’t dare to. Just like this, summer vacation was almost over, until one day, Ji Qin suddenly said to me, “Are you free tomorrow?”

       I froze, and some kind of premonition rushed through my head. I didn’t have time to confirm before I replied back in seconds, “Yes.”

       “Can you come out to meet me?” Ji Qin said, “I have something to tell you.”

       The next day, I couldn’t wait to rush out the door, but I never saw him again.

       It was also a sunny day, and I felt the daylight was so sunny it blocked my vision, and then I heard a blaring sound of a car.

       I was gone.

       The grim reaper told me that I was dead.

       I was in so much pain, thinking that I would never see my parents who loved me again, my lovely Fu Shan, and Ji Qin again—I told the grim reaper that I didn’t want to die.

       The grim reaper told me that at best I would be a vegetative person who would not wake up.

       I began to despair, not knowing what to do. In the midst of the darkness, the black shadow, probably feeling I am too unlucky, said to me, “There is another way.”

       I began to think that I had heard it wrong and looked up excitedly as the grim reaper said slowly, “There is a soul in a similar situation to you, but his time has not come, and he can’t go back to his physical body. Let him stay in your body for enough time, and you just take a good rest during that time. A rest for your soul and a punishment for running a red light and disrupting traffic.”

       Huh? Something doesn’t feel right about having someone replace me. With different behaviour patterns, won’t it be discovered?

       I asked my question, and the grim reaper said, “No one will know. People who believe in science will only think that you have amnesia or a split personality. When you go back, you will say that you are cured.”

       He said it as if everything was already a matter of course, and I was convinced by him to agree to this solution.

       I didn’t want to be in a vegetative state, and I didn’t want to die like that.

       That I would feel so sorry.

       Everything was clearly just beginning.

       After that, my eyes went black and I fell into a deep sleep. Sometimes I seemed to hear some buzzing human voices, sometimes I couldn’t, and everything that had happened over the years felt like a dream to me.

       Something was wrong, would I never wake up again?

       Would someone ever forget my existence?

       I started to get anxious for no reason, I struggled to wake up. I asked the grim reaper if it was the time, that I wanted to go back, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

       The grim reaper was silent for a very long time this time, and I felt as if he was staring at me, with a look that I didn’t understand, like a pity.

       After a long time, he said, You should go back.