Every Lifetime I Fall {COMPLETED but undergoing revisions}

Chapter 7: The Underworld

Does that mean I'm dead? I died from that head injury? Glad, I don't feel the pain anymore.

Placing a hand over my chest, I remembered a different type of pain. The pain from losing Grandma, and the pain from Yi Huai's betrayal.

"All right, name?" The person dressed in all black asked me. I was finally at the front of the line.

"Chen Mu Dan."

"All right, you're assigned to Ji Nian. He'll be your case manager."

"What? Case manager?"

"Next!"

Before I could even ask any more questions, I was pulled by a force of energy into a large room filled with hundreds of people. No, probably thousands. There were people dressed in all black at desks talking to a variety of people. Men, women, old, and young.

"Chen Mu Dan, please approach," calling out to me, a man waved for me to take a seat in front of his desk.

I sat down with eyes wandering.

The desk on the right of me:

"What do you mean I acted sinfully?"

"Ma'am, you slept with over two-hundred patrons at the Midnight Love House?"

"So a woman exploring her sexuality is considered sinful? What is being said about the men who slept with me and countless others?"

"Hmm, well that I'm--"

The desk to the left of me:

"Sir, please calm down."

"What do you mean eating and drinking isn't good karma?"

"Well, you did die at age twenty-five."

~~

"Miss Mu Dan?"

"Huh? Yes?"

"Please try to pay attention. I understand that it can be distracting in here. Let me turn down the volume."

Pressing down on a switch on his desk, the noise of the other people started to fade out.

"So let me take a look at your file... uh-huh.... hmmm... oh... well... okay..."

I tried to peer over at his documents because he was reading so intensely that I wondered what was making him make those facial expressions.

"Dear, dear... You've lived quite the life for the short amount of years."

I guessed I did.

"You're the first new soul we've had in all these thousands of years," he smiled, "Luckily with my good tract of case management, I was able to snatch you right up!"

So he wanted to add me to his work pile?

"Let me explain a few things to you. First, this is the Underworld. I work as a Soul Case Manager. I meet with thousands of souls every day going over their good deeds and their room for improvement. I submit their files to the department above for approval to reincarnate. If a soul has done horrendous crimes during their time on Earth, they are immediately sent to purgatory to receive punishment. Depending on their level of sin, they may never reincarnate again."

Remembering the pain I felt when I was alive, I asked, "Why do people even want to go back?"

He smiled wide, "Very, very good question. I, myself, never felt the need to reincarnate over and over to suffer mortal longing. That's why I was only human once and decided to stay here and work as a case manager."

I see, so that's an option.

"I understand you're still hurting from the life you had. Can you explain to me what happened?"

"I was born to a wealthy government official. He had a good friend who was like a brother to him. My father's family helped raised him. When they grew up, my father betrothed me to his son. Due to his greed for power and luxuries, he killed my parents and sabotaged my family as traitors of the royal family. They executed my family and burnt down our home... I didn't die but suffered an injury to the brain and became an idiot. His son..."

I didn't want to say his name. I couldn't say his name.

"He... maybe used to like me, but I wasn't the same anymore. I wasn't the same intelligent Mu Dan. He abandoned me and broke our vow to get married to each other. I went to see him in the capital city, and he told me to get lost. While escaping kidnappers, I died when I hit my head on a rock. That's it."

Nodding along with his hands under his chin, he said, "It was hard for you, I'm sure."

Flipping through the documents on his desk again, he started to write on a different piece of paper.

"Here's what I'm thinking. You have been a good person who survived a lot of suffering in this lifetime. It might be difficult to erase that trauma in the next one, but you will forget it by drinking Old Lady Meng's tea. There is a pending period each time you come back. You have to wait at least ten years before you reincarnate. We just find souls regulate better if given time to reflect on the past life they've led."

"So I'll see Grandma, and Mother and Father?"

He grinned, "Yes. You will be able to meet them."

"Can I go see them now? Where are they?"

"They should be at the Interval Stage below the Reincarnation Stage. It's right by the River of Forgetfulness. Well... everything's by the River of Forgetfulness."

"I'm going to go meet them!"

For the first time since I've been in the Underworld, I was actually happy. I got off from the chair and started to run out the doors behind.

"Wait! Let me know! Do you want to go back?!"

"Yeah! I want to at least get married this time!"