Death comes unexpected in many ways, like how a seemingly harmless cup of instant noodles was the cause of his, Li Zimu’s. And how he immediately discovered the miraculous existence of souls after.

He look down at the seemingly sleeping body with instant noodles flopping out if it’s mouth. No, it’s a corpse now. His corpse to be precise.

Floating a little higher, his ethereal body continued to gawk at the scene. Death by choking on instant noodles.

Bzzt!

The cheap phone, a model from three years ago, vibrated softly with a text from his best friend, “Happy Birthday!”.

Warm feelings rose up from his imaginary heart, washing over him in a comfortable manner. It was at this moment that the minute hand struck twelve did he finally turn 18. Well, his corpse turned 18. Or maybe dead people don’t count? So was he 17 and 364 days old for eternity?

Plagued by these useless thoughts, Li Zimu lamented his unfulfilling life. He had barely experienced anything other than school, studying, webnovels and the terror of an editor’s wrath.

Thinking of all the delicious foods in the world he hadn’t tried yet, he felt his heart break into a million pieces. He hadn’t accomplished his dream of eating delicacies all over the world, and yet here he was, just a lonely little soul floating in the night sky.

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Wait, night sky? Since when did he fly this far up? And with a woosh, a formless hand plucked him out of the sky and hurled him into space.

“Aaiii! At least be a bit gentler! Don’t dissipate me!” Li Zimu wanted to scream, but nothing came out. He had forgotten souls don’t have mouths or vocal cords.

What a shame, at least his habit of throwing punchlines for his father hadn’t let him down in this moment of distress. Without humour, one’s sanity would deteriorate. With humour, at least one would become a happy crazy person instead of a sad crazy person. That’s what the wise daddy li had always said.

….

In a certain dimension, a young boy sat on, well, nothing, as he slowly sipped his tea. In his hands was a book with big letters written on the front stating “Book of Fate”.

Gently putting his teacup down onto nothingness, he flipped the page with elegance. The teacup sat still as if it were on a table, yet in this space, there existed nothing but the teacup, the book and the young boy. And of course, the tea in the cup and the clothes on the boy.

An esteemed god couldn’t show up naked after all, contrary to what many would think.

Suddenly, a small wormhole opened up in the middle of the room, disturbing the peacefulness present in the air. And through the hole, a small white ball of soul came hurtling through.

This soul was indeed Li Zimu’s soul, as it grumbled in his non-existent heart about lighter treatment to avoid bruising.

Gazing around, stunned, he found the little boy staring at him with an amused expression. His eyes opened wide, fully displaying his golden eyes and deep irises that seemed to contain the whole universe.

No, this description was definitely not cliche as he did own the whole universe. This seemingly young boy was also known as ‘god’.

Of course, not knowing this, Li Zimu simply stared back, with the equivalent of a glare a soul could give.

Upon witnessing this reaction, the boy chuckled and read out his script. He most definitely didn’t practise this several times to act tough, why would anything suspect such a thing.

And the 8th grader syndrome words spewed out of his mouth.

“I.. am god, nice to meet you Li Zimu.”

Fuck, if you’re god then can’t you change my idiotic name.