Chapter 19: My World

Chapter 19: My World

Fang Xiaoling lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Light spilled through the crack under the door from the living room, where her mother waited anxiously for her husband who had yet to come home.

She faintly heard her mother muttering to herself, “Why can’t I get through on the phone? It’s so late already. Where on earth is he?”

Suddenly, a wave of overwhelming sorrow surged through Fang Xiaoling. She clutched her chest, feeling a fierce resistance in her lungs that made it difficult to breathe.

For some reason, a strange compassion blossomed in her heart—this compassion made her unwilling to resist the sadness that enveloped her.

Tears silently soaked the pillowcase as she turned onto her back, staring blankly at the ceiling. In the dim, not entirely pitch-black darkness, she let this emotion spread freely inside her.

In the midst of her dazed emptiness, she seemed to sense that the darkness before her eyes was not a solid block, but composed of countless tiny black dots. She realized this was no illusion, and immediately got up to turn on the room light.

At first, everything seemed normal. Once her retinas adjusted, the room became clear and bright. Yet Fang Xiaoling was astonished to see that when she focused on a particular object or the wall, countless luminous dots filled the air. Looking more closely, these lights were colored, not confined to a single plane, but densely packed, occupying the entire space around her. She understood then that the air wasn’t filled with these points—they were the air itself.

She recalled what she had learned in middle school physics: water is made up of countless water molecules. She guessed that what she was seeing were the molecules of air. Focusing all her attention on a single point, the tiny speck, invisible to the naked eye under normal circumstances, became increasingly clear to her, reflecting the light with a dazzling, multicolored glow.

It was truly marvelous. She reached out a finger, wanting to touch the glowing point, but the moment her fingertip made contact, a powerful force sucked her entire arm in—like a black hole in the universe. Fang Xiaoling had no chance to pull back; she was drawn into a completely black space.

It was silent here—no heartbeat, no breath. Although all she could see was darkness, she sensed the vastness of this place, expansive as a universe without any planets, not even a speck of dust.

Fang Xiaoling thought, “If only there were light.”

And then, there was light.

The light radiated from her position, swiftly dispelling the surrounding darkness, stretching into an endless horizon.

The world was a blinding white, and yet she could see nothing clearly. She felt the light’s intensity was like countless spotlights shining directly into her eyes. She wanted to close them but could not. However, when she wished for the brightness to lessen, it dimmed instantly.

It was as if she could control everything in this infinite space—except herself.

Just as she wondered where she was, suddenly the scene shifted. She saw her home room again, still in the same spot, as if nothing had happened.

She tried to scratch her head with her fingers, but to her horror, she realized she had no hands to control. A wave of intense terror washed over her. Only then did she truly understand that her legs had vanished—everything had disappeared, leaving behind what seemed to be only her consciousness.

At this moment, Fang Xiaoling felt as if she did not exist, yet undeniably existed in a non-physical form.

Confused, she suddenly found herself moving back and forth across the room. She could not control these movements, only accept the images her retina saw. She watched a hand open the door, then saw her mother sitting on the sofa, repeatedly dialing a number. Even though the calls never connected, her mother kept trying.

“Mom, I’m home.”

Fang Xiaoling was not speaking, yet her voice echoed as if from all directions. Then the voice added, “Don’t wait for Dad anymore. He’ll never come back.”

That sentence struck the deepest fear in her mother’s heart. Fang Xiaoling saw her suddenly stand up and slap the air fiercely.

She felt the sting on her face but could not locate where her own face was—a strange sensation, beyond words.

At that moment, her mother’s phone rang. It was an unknown number. Trembling, she answered. After a few brief questions, she began questioning the caller repeatedly. Then she stood frozen, silent.

Time seemed to stop. Fang Xiaoling watched as her mother stood still for a long while before collapsing to the floor, wailing in sorrow.

After fainting and twitching for some time on the ground, her broken mother choked out, “Xiaoling, your father… he…”

The scene abruptly flipped and sped to the kitchen. A hand took a cleaver from the knife rack. Fang Xiaoling felt muscle soreness as if she truly held the knife, though she could not feel the presence of her whole hand.

Her mother cried out, “Meng Ling, why are you holding a knife? Please don’t scare me anymore. I can’t bear any more blows…”

“Mom, I know who the killer is. I want revenge!”

A woman is weak, but for her mother, she becomes strong. Hearing this, her mother thought her daughter was overwhelmed by the trauma. She wiped her tears and said, “Listen to me, Meng Ling. The police told me themselves—the taxi your father took home was involved in an accident on the road.”

“Mom, this is hard to explain, but trust me. The tragedy in our family was all caused by Roland. She is the one who killed Dad!”

Hearing this, Fang Xiaoling finally realized who was speaking. Throughout the ordeal, she had suspected it might be someone else controlling her body, but she had assumed that if Meng Ling’s soul was in control, then her own soul should have returned to her body.

Clearly, things were not that simple. Now, in her soul form, Fang Xiaoling was trapped somewhere. Though she hated to believe it, she had to suspect this place was where Meng Ling’s soul had been for the past two days.

The souls had exchanged control over the bodies. No matter what Meng Ling did, Fang Xiaoling could only watch helplessly, unable to interfere.

“Maybe watching a VR movie feels like this,” Fang Xiaoling thought. Suddenly, the scene switched back to the white space. A giant VR device descended from above—the very latest model she had just imagined. Every accessory she pictured appeared in this white void without exception.

“These are all things I used to dream of. Could it be that in this space, I get whatever I want?” Fang Xiaoling muttered excitedly. “Can I really watch movies with this? But I don’t have hands—how do I hold it?”

Suddenly, a hand appeared, floating eerily in the white space.

Fang Xiaoling felt as if she had discovered a new world and hurriedly thought, I want a head, a body, legs—I want to be a real person with a physical form.

Everything happened exactly as she wished. Suspended in the white void, the VR device hovered before her eyes. She reached out, but her arm wasn’t long enough. She swam through the air, yet remained rooted in place.

“I need a ground!”

An imagined vast grassland appeared, but Fang Xiaoling was still floating midair.

“Uh… no gravity?”

Suddenly, she plummeted, crashing heavily to the ground. The VR device fell with a thud.

“Phew—how amazing! Normally, falling from such a height would hurt, right?” She thought about pain just as her body was seared with sharp agony.

“No pain, no pain. People don’t really feel pain when they fall!” she kept repeating, trying to convince herself—and indeed, the pain dulled.

Fang Xiaoling stood up and gazed into the endless white. She murmured, “The sky is pink.”

A pink sky, like an oil painting brushed with delicate strokes—just as she had imagined.

“Oh my…” Fang Xiaoling was both shocked and thrilled. “Everything here changes at my will. I am the creator of this world. This is my world.”

Step by step, she approached the VR device. “So, I can watch any movie I want, and even feel like I’m really there.”

“Wait!” She suddenly stopped, slapped her forehead as if remembering something. “This isn’t the time to explore VR movies! I need to find out what’s happening with Meng Ling!”

At that moment, she returned to Meng Ling’s perspective. Outside the car window, streets, buildings, and scattered pedestrians rushed backward.

“Driver, please go faster,” Meng Ling said calmly.

Though only a soul without a body, Fang Xiaoling still felt the cold cleaver in her arms.

Meng Ling’s gaze fixed on the car window, watching her own reflection. She forced a smile over and over, rehearsing the line: “Hello, Roland, I’m Fang Xiaoling.”

After repeating it many times, she changed the tone, “Sister, I’m Xiaoling.”

Just as Fang Xiaoling felt a chill run down her spine and realized what Meng Ling intended, Meng Ling’s eyes suddenly glinted fiercely. She stared at the faint face in the glass as if looking at someone else entirely.

Without any explanation, Fang Xiaoling knew Meng Ling was speaking to her: “Just wait and watch the show. I know where Roland’s home is.”

(End of chapter)