Chapter 2:Did I have a nightmare of dying?

"This is heaven", Yin Lan said while taking a deep breath as she spun herself around in the frigid vacuum space. There was a pleasant smirk on her face.

She could feel her body becoming so light, floating and sinking in the air. It was as if she were flying in the sky.

This feeling was really comforting, making her body experience an odd wave of bliss, which caused her to experience unusual happiness. Yawning with a long face, she whispered, "This is the best," as she felt herself falling slowly on the cotton cloud.

She scorned, "I guess dying was not bad at all," as she experienced warm comfort behind her back, which was giving her an assured feeling.

Exhaling deeply while making herself at ease, she stressed in her tone, saying, "Now I know why all the demons in the book of ancient mythologies want to ascend into heaven."

She cornered her lips and scoffed, "Why would anyone not want to accent this place?"

"This comfort and feeling are what I've been looking for my entire life, but..."

All of a sudden, an influx of emotions started to rush through her head as a dejected mumble escaped her lips: "I didn't get it in the end." What could she expect from an ungrateful life filled with hardship and misery at every step? In her whole thirty-year lifespan, there was not even a single time when she had a peaceful moment. Isn't it ironic to die this early when some people are just starting their lives?

There was a small drop of water lurking around the corner of her eyes that could roll down at any moment, but before it could, she grumbled in annoyance. "Hah, why am I recalling my life? It's already ended. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? The time period of my pain is already over, and I don't expect anything from anyone. So now it's time for my enjoyment. Let's not think about that rubbish anymore." She changed her mood as she jerked her head and turned her attention toward her surroundings when she realized there was nothing but darkness everywhere.

Her eyes were closed from drowsiness, but she mistakenly believed that she was seeing the surrounding blackness with them open.

A silent whisper left her mouth, "There is nothing in here," which was dry and became cold, "like my life, it's all empty."

Controlling her thoughts, Yinlan said to herself, "But at least it's comfortable, I think because there is no human here who can judge me, speak to me, or look down on me." Throughout her entire life, she had been looked down upon by the people around her. Now that she thinks about her life, she just can't comprehend why she even worked hard in that life and got nothing in the end. That was really stupid. Well, sometimes people learn something the hard way.

She clicks her tongue as she shakes her head over the cloud. Her hand started to create butterflies on the cloud, rubbing ups, and downs as she said happily, "This is the perfect space—the kind of space that I wanted." She was smirking a lot as she was speaking to herself. It had been over a decade since she found herself smiling carefreely like a child. For a moment, she kept smiling, but after a while, something struck her mind, that made her stiff. "Did I just shake my head earlier?"

A chilling wind started to cover her body, which was wrapped in an unknown fear.

A reasoning thought, which was full of questions, started to rush over inside her head. "Didn't I lose all the strength in my body before dying?"

"Then how?"

The memory of her last breath in that person's arms, though still vivid, is not far from being clear. She clearly remembered that, before dying, her body was becoming numb without any strength. So it was impossible for her to move her body as she pleased.

As she was going through her thoughts, she suddenly felt the heat sweep through her body and began to gently encompass her entire body. It was unique and lovely, luring her into a brief state of ecstasy. She even began to feel physically heavy and noticed a slight spinning in her head.

Moaning softly in her pain, she exclaims, "My head, why does it hurt?" she felt a pinching pain inside her head that felt like a needle throbbing with a hammer. But all of a sudden, the pain disappears, giving her some moments of rest.

"Wait a second. Didn't I lose all the senses? How come I am feeling these again?" Yinlan asked as she felt a violent shudder that rocked her bones. She was now feeling an unknown horror spread over her entire body, making her perplexed in response. Why is she feeling everything again?

Without even realizing it, she found her hand moving and even covering her face. It was then that she realized she could move her hand too, even though she had moved her hands earlier. It was really shocking for her to find out that her hand had strength again. Before dying in her previous miserable life, she lost her senses and strength in her body. And her hands were severely brushed with a deep cut in her previous life.

The human hand is the most powerful weapon for self-defense, but it was the first thing she lost in her previous life before dying, leaving her vulnerable to death. And that's not the end of it. After that, she slowly lost her strength in all body parts one after another, and after losing strength in her eyes, she finally died, which is why it was shocking for her to have strength in her body again.

As her hand touched her face, her body reacted to that touch. Now that her attention was pulled towards the pain, she realized she was also not feeling any pain at all from her wound.

"My wound!"

Her wound was on her stomach. After all, it was made with a knife, and it was quite deep. So it can't just heal all of a sudden. This was also the wound that made her die, which is why her hand suddenly reached toward her stomach to confirm her theory.

"Why. It's. Not.There?"

After not finding it there, the cut was made by the knife, and it made her breathing become erratic.

She quickly turns her attention toward her burns.

She had a severe burn on her face that extended all the way down her left side, from her face to her stomach.

An exclamation leaves her mouth: "No way!"

There was nothing at all—no wound, no scar, no burn.

"This is... How can this be?" Yinlan has now become speechless. Her mind started to race with so many questions.

Did she somehow recover? Or did she not die? Or maybe the shock of her pain is making her hallucinate and in reality, she is dying. That could be a possible reason, and she could also be dreaming. What could be the reason she doesn't know? All she was trying to do was make things sense. But how can someone dream if they die? They are unable to do so. Aren't they? After death, don't they cease to exist? Or are there different sets of rules after death that haven't been known?

Her elated emotions, which were making her anxious, suddenly took a rest as she thought, "Are all the perceptions about death just stories made by others? So that's why they don't know the details." She broke into a teary smile. She had a habit of hearing stories from her grandpa when she was little, but how could she naively believe it all? She can't blame herself for believing everything from her grandpa's mouth because he was the only person who loved her unconditionally.

She sighed as she said, "My poor grandpa died before knowing the truth about death and has been misled all of his life with false stories. But wait, not only Grandpa, but most people know only false facts about death."

"Maybe I should correct their perceptions and knowledge about death so they will have a clear view of death and won't mislead the people with false stories."

"That's a really nice idea." A soft chuckle left her mouth, which rang in her ear. She was even holding the cotton-cloud-like pillow near her chest without giving it a proper thought.

"But wait! How am I going to do that? Didn't they say the soul can't touch anything because it is basically air? And also, they can't feel anything because they are nothing."

She was rolling here and there on the cloud when the warm sensation of a firm hand brushed against her skin at once, making her quiver deeply in surprise and jolting her away in response.

Despite the fact that her eyes were closed, they rolled in fright. "Do I have strength back in my eyes too?"

It made her open her eyes abruptly in panic. She then learns that the darkness she had been experiencing with her eyes closed earlier is a result of the absence of light in the place she was in.

"What is happening here?" She sat up at once and found out that the thing she was clutching near her chest was not a cloud but really a pillow. and the warmth she was feeling from her back, thinking it was a cloud, was nothing but a bed. and it was not a small bed; instead, it was a king-sized bed loaded with comfortable mattresses.

"Where is this place?" Her heart started to race in fear, making her feel stuffy. She was sure that she had died. How could she be alive and able to touch everything? What's going on?

She crouched her legs quickly in the baby position in a sudden response and asked, "Did I have a nightmare of dying?"