Falling

I died.

Not a metaphor, not an illusion, but truly died – my neck twisted to the right, then jerked sharply downward twice. Three distinct cracks, the sensation of vertebrae snapping as clear as ice shattering. Then, the world abruptly fell silent.

So it turns souls really do exist after death – I became weightless, deeply feeling my flesh, bones, and heartbeat detach from myself, gradually turning into an empty shell, like a hydrogen balloon held by a fishing line.

With my soul, I desperately rushed towards my parents. Fortunately, they could sense this soul, but their cries seemed muffled and distant, as if separated by a thick pane of frosted glass. None of the three of us wanted to let go. I could still feel their body heat. I incoherently said, "I'm sorry," "Don't be sad," "You are the best parents, I will always love you"... Their tears fell on my gradually transparent skin, scalding hot.

Outside the window, the sky suddenly lit up with a dim yellow light. The clouds, as if pulled by some force, surged upward, rolling into huge high waves, abruptly bursting into a dazzling golden waterfall that poured backward into the universe, carrying fragmented rays of sunset. I was almost sucked away by a gust of wind. My parents grabbed my feet, and I clung tightly to the railing. In a daze, I saw others who had just died downstairs being dragged upward by winged messengers.

I couldn't escape either. The wind dissipated. A messenger clad in black bodysuit and helmet, suddenly spread its wings. As its eagle-like claws gripped the back of my neck, I frantically tried to touch my parents one last time. When I was dragged away, I clearly saw my own corpse left in the human world: the twisted neck turning the face backward, the wide-open eyes still holding unshed tears. The messenger's bone wings slammed shut, and I fell through the raging wind.

The sensation of falling felt more real than death – wind screeched past my ears, the ground approached at a terrifying speed. I could even smell the damp earth in the air. My feet had nowhere to land; the airflow brushed past every pore. Just as I thought I would be shattered to pieces, everything stopped abruptly.

I stood steadily on a floating circular platform. Here, there was only a gate leading to an endless space.

Not heaven, not hell, not even like the underworld – this place was almost identical to the real world. Pedestrians came and went, street stalls were filled with a dazzling array of goods, a few exquisitely dressed girls chatted on a bench, and a distant skyscraper displayed an LED billboard scrolling with "Welcome New Residents."

"Don't just stand there. Newcomer registration is over there." The female messenger who dragged me down pointed coldly and impatiently towards an office at the street corner. Her black outfit flipped down like scales, transforming into jeans and a T-shirt. Her wings were folded like decorations, and she was scrolling through her phone. I glimpsed a WeChat interface on the screen; her contact list even had a "Living Relatives and Friends Group."

"You... can see the social media of the living?" I asked nervously.

"Duh." She rolled her eyes. "We have the death world version of blogs, the death world version of WeChat. You can search for any deceased user you want and see news from the living world – but you can't send messages or comment. Against the rules."

I immediately thought of senior Pofei. After he died suddenly of a heart attack while playing basketball last year, our chat dialog forever stopped at his message: "Next time you're free, want to have a meal together?" I had always refused due to time constraints, and now I felt deep regret and guilt.

"Can you help me search for someone's name? On this... blog？” I hoped to find him in this special world. But the search yielded no results. Still unbelieving, I frantically begged the staff at the office to search for his name. The result was still only a foreigner with the same name and some handsome internet celebrity, not him.

"Some people choose to emigrate," the staff said without looking up, typing on the keyboard. "To the upper-level Northern Europe Death Zone... the procedures are troublesome, but not impossible."

I opened my mouth but couldn't ask, "Is Pofei somewhere else?" I was even more afraid to ask why the messenger had dragged me down here, and where those deceased I saw flying upward had gone.