Chapter 2

A strange sense of lightness suddenly seized me, as if invisible threads were pulling at my soul, tearing me away from that heavy, painful body.

I suddenly opened my eyes.

My gaze was no longer looking up at the ceiling, but looking down. I was suspended beside the chandelier, and beneath my feet lay my own corpse.

What a horrific sight that body was!

His face was a horrifying bluish-purple from extreme oxygen deprivation, his eyes bulged, and his fingers were digging into the floor, with dark red blood vessels running under his fingernails. His hand was less than ten centimeters away from the life-saving medicine bottle.

"No...no!" I instinctively wanted to cover my face and scream, but I couldn't make a sound.

Driven by intense fear, I lunged at the growing cold body, my hands digging straight into the floor. There was no sensation, no warmth. I had become a ghost, utterly abandoned by the physical world.

The laughter downstairs was like rusty saws, cutting through my transparent nerves along the cracks in the floor.

The sound guided me involuntarily downwards. I passed through the wooden door that had once sealed me away, through the mezzanine, and like a drop of water merging into the ocean, silently descended into the center of the living room.

The revelry continues.

A huge multi-tiered cake was pushed to the center of the living room. Father, beaming, cut the first slice with a knife in hand; Mother, holding a freshly opened glass of champagne, laughed so hard she almost fell over, tears of joy even welling in her eyes. Little brother Matt, surrounded by a group of classmates, his cheeks slightly flushed, raised his glass to receive congratulations from all sides.

The scene was so beautiful, so beautiful that it felt like a sharp knife, precisely piercing my transparent chest and twisting it violently.

Where is Alex?

An abrupt sound suddenly shattered this perfect harmony.

It was Ben. Matt's best friend. He frowned slightly, his gaze passing through the joyful crowd to the dimly lit stairwell leading to the second floor. "Should we call him down for a piece of cake? After all, today is Matt's special day."

I turned sharply to look at Ben, the first and only person to mention my name that night.

There was a momentary stagnation in the air.

The smile on her mother's face vanished instantly, replaced by undisguised disgust. She waved her hand forcefully, as if shooing away a repulsive fly.

"Ignore him!" The mother's voice was sharp and cutting, particularly jarring in the noisy living room. "He just can't stand seeing others do well. Every time there's something happy happening in the family, he has to make a scene to get everyone's attention. Let him cause trouble!"

I floated in front of my mother, staring intently at the hands that had just been gripping my arm so tightly, now elegantly holding a wine glass.

“Yes,” the father said coldly as he handed the cut cake to the guest, “He’s always been like this. He ruins everything Matt does. This time, he finally got into college after taking a year off, and he does this again. He’s such a selfish jinx.”

Every word is piercing to the heart.

My soul trembled violently before them.

"I didn't... I really didn't!" I screamed, reaching out to grab my mother's shoulders and shake my father's arm, but my hands could only pass through their bodies again and again.

Matt stood in the center of the crowd, his fingers gripping the wine glass turning slightly white. He lowered his head, a hint of struggle flashing in his eyes.

Finally, he put down his wine glass, picked up the sliced cake on the table, and turned to walk towards the stairwell.

"I think I'll go check on my brother," Matt said softly, with a hint of guilt. "He looked really bad just now..."

"stop!"

The mother sternly stopped him. She rushed over in her high heels, snatched the cake plate from Matt's hand, and slammed it heavily on the table.

With a "smack," the exquisite cream paste turned into a puddle of mud.

“Your brother loves to act! Go up and watch him now, he’ll only get more worked up!” The mother pointed at Matt’s nose, her eyes sharp as if she wanted to devour him. “Today is your celebration party, and I won’t allow anyone to ruin it! Especially that good-for-nothing who only knows how to drag us down!”

I floated between my mother and Matt, looking at them with despair.

"I'm dead!" I roared hoarsely at my mother's angry face, waving my arms wildly. "Go and see! Go and see that corpse upstairs! I wasn't acting! I'm really dead!"

There was no sound. There was no response.

My shouts echoed through the living room, filling it with laughter, without disturbing a single speck of dust.

Matt looked at his mother's face, contorted with rage, and then glanced up at the dimly lit second floor. The last vestige of struggle in his eyes vanished instantly under his mother's overwhelming pressure.

"...I understand, Mom."

He turned around, picked up the glass of champagne again, lowered his head, and drank the golden liquid in one gulp.

The students gathered around again, continuing their jokes. After a brief pause, the atmosphere in the living room resumed in an even more frenzied manner.

I floated listlessly in mid-air, looking down at the revelers below.