Shen Zicheng

Sometimes life is so unpredictable and unpredictable.

I don't know how many days after my death, I suddenly realized that this was not a dream.

It is as real as a bunch of flowers that have just withered, withered into petals all over the ground, and then were crushed by wheels or pecked by sparrows.

"How did this happen? How did we die?"

Those souls who cannot be freed will cry in such pain and ask such desolate questions.

It seems like everyone who has just died should not be able to accept this unbelievable fact, that they should, over and over again, reach out to something that exists and watch their non-existent selves penetrate it, as if they Air.

Everyone should be like this.

Maybe I should too.

Howl, cry, or almost collapse.

But unexpectedly, my feeling is normal.Ordinary to the same as usual.

People are as numb and busy as ever, and I am as confused and humble as ever.

Except occasionally being passed through the middle of the body.

Yes.

I am dead.

I am dead.

Even though I still don't understand why I died, I am dead, my body has probably been burned into a small pile, those who wrote the death report for me, those doctors and media people, They should have announced my death to the outside world.

I am dead.

The heartbeat stopped, the bones did not exist, and he was helpless.

I can only wait for people to forget me and forget the traces of my existence in this world.

Everything happened naturally, I am not special, this is the law of natural replacement, not just for me.

I have this realization, which has existed since a long time ago.

But the anger overflowed from the hearts of the people who were suffering from the same disease, almost burning all the air.

The invisible time can't convince them either, they don't believe in the established facts, and stubbornly believe that Yan Luo has drawn the wrong name, and impermanence has drawn the wrong soul.

They don't deserve to die, they don't deserve to die.They insisted on this, and they asked me aggressively: "Do you want to find the cause of death with us?"

But I didn't have much emotion.

Death was so close to me.

The moment the car fell off the cliff, the moment I was thrown out of the car, the moment I watched the car and the people in the car grow a mushroom under the cliff, death has left me So close that I almost thought I felt the cold breath of death.

But when I embraced death myself, when death found me, I realized that there is no death god.

Only Shen Qiao appeared instead of him.

Shen Qiao asked me: "Why don't you go with them?"

These words, with a hint of curiosity, sounded when the souls seeking companions left me, caught in the crowd, pierced my eardrums like the crowd pierced my body.

I turned my head to look for the voice, and found a slender figure.

Shen Qiao stood there, as if standing in a distant place.

I saw earphones plugged into his ears.

"I'm talking to you." Shen Qiao said, preventing me from turning my head to look for the person he was talking to.

I answered him, "I don't really care, live or die...it doesn't make any difference."

—I'm not surprised, and I don't want to be hysterical.Perhaps this has something to do with my highly enlightened outlook on life and death.

Just as I naturally accepted the fact that I was dead, so it was natural for me to accept that someone could see me and even communicate with me.

Have I always been like this?Should I be so calm about such a weird thing?

"There are really not many guys like you who are so calm even after turning into a ghost." Shen Qiao waved to me and led me to his side.

It was a bone-piercing pain - something that could hurt me was hidden in Shen Qiao's body, and it took root in my soul and absorbed nutrients from it.

I distanced myself from him again.

"But it's still the same...won't come close to me." Shen Qiao laughed, a natural smile appeared on her clean face, and she didn't hide that he wanted to test whether I could get close to him—maybe to hurt him, After all, I'm a ghost now - mind.

I guessed Shen Qiao's identity in my heart, whether it was another ghost or a god of death... or something like black and white, I was a little curious.

"Do you think it's weird? That's right, I haven't had time to tell you. My dad's time is coming up, so I'm going to come back to inherit the family business and become a spirit master, that is, the hard labor responsible for killing ghosts, so I can..." Shen Qiao paused at this point, and then naturally picked up the next topic, "Although it sounds amazing, it is actually no different from other jobs, except that there is no salary... Leaving aside this In terms of identity, I am still the original Shen Qiao. ——Shen Qiao who is still alive."

He paused, raised his chin, his expression seemed to be expecting my reaction.

"Why kill him?" I complied with his expectation and asked this question about my future.

"Because ghosts are in the way." Shen Qiao replied, "If there are too many dirty things, it will affect human beings. So we have to clean up and clean up the dirty things. So I said, this is hard work."

"Why not catch and reincarnate?" I thought this was what I would experience.

"...Of course it's because there is no place. Do you think that places like heaven or hell really exist? Well, maybe they do...I don't know. My job is to make you disappear. Who knows what will happen after you disappear? Where did you go? Before this, you could only stay here, except for the healer and other ghosts, you could not touch anyone or anything. Loneliness, loneliness, biting cold, piercing pain, one side Overwhelmed by loneliness while waiting to die again. Do you want this?"

"...Then, when are you going to make me disappear?"

"..."

Shen Qiao didn't answer my question that day, but smiled and said to me: "You should learn from other ghosts, take advantage of this opportunity when nothing can hinder you, play around, look around, maybe —Maybe you'll find some good way to pass the time."

Finally he told me: "When you have had enough fun, come to me. I have an aura that you hate in my body. As far as you are now, it is easy to recognize, right?"

Shen Qiao whistled and left.Walking along the stream of people, I saw that he was wearing thin clothes, with a backpack slung across his shoulders, and he was no different from a normal person.

……

Everyone is working hard.The dead are trying to investigate their deaths, and the living are trying to forget that we exist.

One side failed and the other succeeded.

It's like the footprints left by someone on the beach. Before the tide rises, I try my best to make myself deeper and farther away from the water.

However, after doing a lot of useless work, the light and icy water rushed gently, and the footprints were finally emptied.

The sandy beach that is flat again must be reserved for those who come later to walk.

When I saw Shen Qiao again, I carved No.20 marks on my hand.

This won't make me feel pain, but it can help me who is gradually losing my memory to remember that this is No. 20 days after I regained consciousness—more precisely, it should be No. 20 after I met a certain uncle. [-] days.

I tried to find Shen Qiao, let him get rid of me, and get rid of this status quo of being out of touch with the whole world.

However, I didn't succeed, I didn't find the smell of him that I hated.

That's not what he said.

The days with nothing to do make people crazy, I can only pretend that I am still alive, close my eyes at night, open them in the morning, and wander with the crowd.

If I hadn't met that uncle, I would have felt that these days were no different from before.

In fact, for me, this kind of life is indeed the same as before.

The same is ignored by no one, and the same is not noticed by anyone, existing like air.Before I was alive, I was not a person with a strong sense of existence, and I knew it myself.

I couldn't remember how many days it had been since I died, or how many days since I met Shen Qiao.

But on this day, after breaking away from the group of ghosts who stubbornly sought the cause of death, I met the first ghost other than myself.

It was still an ordinary workday, and I wandered into a classroom, pretending to be like the lively students.

Just as I was staring at the window sill in a daze, the uncle jumped from upstairs and fell freely.When passing by the window sill, his eyes passed over me, and then he smiled at me.

I didn't hear the loud noise, and I couldn't imagine what he looked like next, but I couldn't help shaking all over my body.

A few minutes later the uncle appeared in front of me again.He looked at me and said, "How old are you?"

I told him my age, but the uncle said, "It's not about how old are you...I mean, how long have you been dead?"

"...?"

"Oh, it looks like it's still a new ghost."

The uncle was lying on the window sill, most of his body was immersed in the air.He told me: "Being polite, you can't directly ask how long someone has been dead, or you might offend some old ghosts."

Uncle is almost 20 years old, and according to him, this is the time to get rid of the title of new ghost.

20 years is not a short time. The uncle used these days to travel around the world and achieved things that he did not do before his death, which made him very happy.

"Then I'm going to look around again, go to heaven and earth, whatever," said the uncle, but he also felt sad because of it, "but I have to guard against those bastards, take off the hat of the new ghost, and enter their Blacklist..."

Those bastards are referring to the spirit masters.