"What kind of person is considered normal?"
This question could be utterly ridiculous, or profoundly philosophical.
The reason it was ridiculous was simple: ordinary people would not ask such a question for no reason.
If someone around you suddenly asked that question one day, your first reaction would definitely be to laugh, wouldn't it?
After all, a normal person would not suddenly feel the urge to ask something like that.
The philosophical reason was even simpler. From an objective perspective, this question could also become a debate topic rich in substance.
It was just that no one would bring up such a debate topic and turn it into a school subject before high school.
Yet Fang Li had asked his teacher that very question on his first day of first grade.
That year, Fang Li was only eight years old.
One could imagine just how awkward and bewildered the elementary school teacher standing at the podium and the surrounding group of ignorant children had been when such a question came from the mouth of an eight-year-old child.
From that alone, Fang Li could no longer be considered normal.
Such a question should never have appeared in an eight-year-old child.
Yet no matter how one looked at it, Fang Li had actually been a normal person.
When children his age played around, Fang Li played around too.
When children his age got into trouble, Fang Li got into trouble too.
When children his age were innocent, Fang Li was innocent too.
When children his age acted childish and silly, Fang Li acted childish and silly too.
In other words, Fang Li was neither precocious nor abnormal. Whether physically or mentally, he was a normal child.
Yet on his first day of school at the age of eight, Fang Li could not help asking that question.
Because the confused and ignorant Fang Li had realized the one abnormality that made him different from everyone else.
That year, Fang Li was only seven years old.
Before the age of seven, Fang Li had grown up as an ordinary child.
At that time, because his parents had to work all day to support the family, the person who spent the most time with Fang Li was his grandfather.
His grandfather loved Fang Li dearly.
When Fang Li wanted to play, his grandfather would play with him.
When Fang Li was scolded by his parents, his grandfather would step in to defend him.
When Fang Li was bruised or injured from a fall, his grandfather would comfort him through the unbearable pain.
Whenever Fang Li took an interest in a toy, his grandfather would buy it for him as well, just to make Fang Li happy.
Therefore, Fang Li liked his grandfather very much too.
Even after growing up, Fang Li could naturally tell those around him that the person he loved most was his grandfather.
When such a person vanished from your world, how would you react?
Fang Li had never considered that question before.
But when he was seven, Fang Li had no choice but to consider it.
"Waa... waaaah..."
Crying echoed throughout the entire space.
Some of it was deeply suppressed, while some was utterly unrestrained, but anyone could feel the sorrow and grief within it.
Beneath those cries, an atmosphere of sadness filled the vast space.
Affected by those cries, the ignorant children began to bawl one after another.
Fang Li stood amid that environment, one hand held by his mother while his gaze fell on the space before him.
There stood a black-and-white photograph.
The person in the photograph was Fang Li's grandfather.
Looking at that photograph, Fang Li truly missed his grandfather.
Fang Li knew that the people around him missed his grandfather too, which was why they were shedding tears at that moment.
But Fang Li could not shed even a single tear.
Even though his parents were crying, and the adults and children around him were crying, Fang Li still could not cry.
So Fang Li asked.
"Mom, why is everyone crying?"
At that time, his tearful mother answered Fang Li like this.
"...Because Grandpa will never come back."
Fang Li knew.
He knew that fact.
Fang Li knew that his grandfather would never return.
But...
"But why do we have to cry because of that?"
When Fang Li asked that question, his mother's expression was both surprised and confused.
Then, his mother answered him like this.
"Grandpa will never come back. Normal people feel sad when that happens, so they cry."
Hearing that, Fang Li said nothing more.
However, a question arose in his heart.
"Do normal people have to cry at a time like this?"
That was why Fang Li asked his teacher that question when he was eight.
Only after growing up did Fang Li learn that it was indeed only natural.
When a loved one died, a normal person would naturally cry.
Because feeling sorrow and grief was what made someone normal.
From a psychological perspective, if a person's subjective world and objective world followed the principle of unity, then that person was normal.
Because the psyche reflected objective reality, every normal psychological activity and behavior had to remain consistent with the objective environment, even if only in form and content.
When a person's mind or psyche lost unity with the outside environment, that person would inevitably become incomprehensible to others.
At that point, that person would become abnormal.
Therefore, by that theory, Fang Li was not a normal person.
That day, Fang Li had not cried.
When others felt sorrow and grief, Fang Li felt only calm.
When others took things for granted, Fang Li felt only confusion.
When others cried and shed tears, Fang Li felt only surprise.
How could such an out-of-place reaction, one that could even be called cold and heartless, not be abnormal?
After all, that person had raised him since childhood, shared an excellent relationship with him, and was the loved one Fang Li cherished most.
Such a person had died and could never be seen again. Precisely because Fang Li was a child, should he not have felt even more sorrowful and grief-stricken?
Yet from beginning to end, Fang Li had not felt even the slightest sorrow or grief, nor had he felt any urge to shed a single tear.
At the time, the adults had not paid much attention to it. They merely assumed that Fang Li truly did not understand the meaning of death, or that he was somewhat precocious and had not been influenced by the other children around him into crying.
Only Fang Li, in his confused state, understood one thing.
That was...
"I'm different from everyone around me..."
That was Fang Li's only thought at the time.
After growing up, Fang Li came to understand why he had been like that back then.
Not only because Fang Li had begun to understand things, but also because he inevitably experienced the same thing several more times.
At those times, Fang Li still could not cry, nor could he feel sorrow or grief.
Then, Fang Li understood.
No matter how important someone was to him or how close they were to him, once they died, he would never shed a single tear or feel even the slightest sadness.
It was not because Fang Li was immature, nor because he was excessively cold-hearted.
It was merely a flaw.
A personality flaw hidden deep within his heart, one Fang Li had vaguely begun to sense when he was seven.
"I can't feel anything about other people's deaths..."
Then...
"I probably can't feel anything about my own death either..."
That fact was confirmed when Fang Li was eighteen.
"Bang—!"
It was an exceptionally loud impact.
The instant the impact rang out, Fang Li felt the world spin around him. When his vision recovered, the first thing that entered his sight was a patch of sky.
But that sky gradually turned red, little by little being replaced by black.
The red appeared because Fang Li's irises had begun to bleed.
The black appeared because Fang Li's consciousness had begun to fade.
At that moment, Fang Li felt as though his body no longer belonged to him. He could not even move, and he could no longer feel anything.
The only thing Fang Li could feel was—heat.
Very hot.
Extremely hot.
His entire body was burning up.
Around him, pedestrians began gathering one after another, appearing in Fang Li's blurry vision.
Fang Li could not hear what they were saying.
However, he could sense an atmosphere of panic and fear permeating the surroundings.
And it felt as though something important was leaking from his burning body, making the ground beneath him begin to grow wet.
Fang Li laboriously turned his head and saw the asphalt road close at hand.
There, it was gradually being dyed red.
Dyed red by the blood flowing from Fang Li's entire body.
Only then did Fang Li finally understand.
The important thing leaking out of his body was not merely blood, but life itself.
At the same time, Fang Li finally understood what had happened.
A car accident.
Merely a sudden accident.
More than a hundred thousand such accidents occurred in this country every year.
Fang Li was merely one of this year's hundred thousand car accidents.
"So that's how it is..."
Fang Li accepted his fate in an instant.
There was no unwillingness, no resentment, not even fear or resistance.
After all, Fang Li could not feel any emotion toward "death."
It was a fact he had vaguely realized when he was seven.
Now, it had merely been confirmed.
If Fang Li had any thoughts about his impending death, there was only one.
"Where do people go after they die?"
With that thought, Fang Li closed his eyes.
At the very instant Fang Li completely lost consciousness, an icy voice poured into his mind.
"Number 11273 has entered the Main God Space."
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