If you could go to Heaven.

"If you knew heaven existed, would you choose to go right now?"

"What?"

A 16-year-old teenager named Xiao Turen blinked as an old dying man in a nursing home bed asked him that question.

"I said…"

*cough cough*

"Are you alright?!?"

The old man didn't have many days left. When Turen began going to the nursery home at the start of the summer to complete his high school volunteer hours, he had been told this specific resident was diagnosed with incurable cancer. That combined with the fact that he was pushing 100 already meant death's inevitable meeting was right around the corner.

"I'm alright I'm alright," the old man said. He had lost all his hair, his body was thin as a twig, and he couldn't even go anywhere without Turen's assistance to operate a wheelchair for him. Still, as he calmed down from his cough, he had a smile on his face.

"Would you go right now if you could boy? If you knew for sure, absolutely sure, there was heaven after death?"

Turen faked a smile back. At that age he imagined most people were constantly talking about ideas of the afterlife to cope.

"Yeah sure I guess. I mean it's heaven, right? The place where you can have and do anything you ever desired? Who wouldn't want to go to such a place?"

The old man laughed at the reply.

"To tell you the truth boy, I used to have the same attitude when I was a young man."

Turen raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? And what about now?"

"Well, to be honest, boy, I know I'm a goner soon. And in all my 99 years of life, I experienced so much suffering. When I was born the damn world was already at war! In my 30s I had to fight in one myself. In my 60s, my son died fighting in another. And at one point you know, we all thought those damn fools in Russia and America were gonna blow up the earth into smithereens!"

"Sounds uhhh… rough," Turen replied not sure how to relate.

"Rougher than kids these days will ever know hahahahaha. But you know what, boy, you know what?"

Turen backed up a bit. The way the old man continued to smile while talking about his tragedies was almost disturbing to him.

"What?"

"I wouldn't trade living this life, all the sad, suffering, tragic parts too, for anything. Not one minute of it. Hahahahahahaha."

Turen smiled awkwardly back.

"Oh and just so you know boy, there is a heaven out there and ohhhhh is it a fine one, a green-haired woman told me!"

"A green-haired… what are you talking about?"

"Ohhhhh who knows anymore boy hahahahaha, I hardly know myself. Aye, it must have been one of those fever dreams or something but I swear it now, and I swore it then, a green-haired woman appeared in my dreams and told me for sure there was a heaven!"

"Uh-huh, and what did you say to her?"

"Well boy, if I remember correctly though it was 50 years ago, she asked if I wanted to go then ahahahahahaha. Seemed like a solid option with nukes ready to blow up the damn world any minute. But I told her nah, nah. This is my life! Heaven can wait. Even if I have to live through a world of rubble dammit, this life is mine."

"That's uh very noble of you?" Turen said faking another smile. The old man must have been coping so hard that he was deluding his memories.

"You a Buddhist boy?"

"Uhhhh… my grandfather was? I'm not really religious."

"To live is to suffer, you ever hear that before? You ever hear that?"

"To live is to suffer…"

Turen shook his head. In truth, the only things he remembered about Buddhism were from the action dramas his father watched and whatever he remembered from "Journey to the West".

"Well it's the damn truth boy, you can't live without suffering, that ain't living!"

"Residents of the nursery home, the afternoon Mah-Jong session will begin in 15 minutes," a voice from the intercom said.

"Hell yeah, Mah-Jong!" the old man said slowly sitting up, "boy, you can get me there can't ya?"

"Sure, not a problem," Turen replied with a smile. Was this what he would act like too when he was about to die? Surely someone who knew their time was soon wouldn't be so… happy. Right?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-8 years later-

"Turen, Turen…"

"Huh, what?"

At a small bar in Beijing, a middle-aged bar owner shook awake the 24-year-old man.

"Turen… come on, time to go."

"One more shot please!"

"No… no more, it's way past closing time."

"What?!?! No it's nooootttt. I swear there are still people…"

Turen turned to look around and see that there wasn't in fact, anyone there left with him aside from the staff members that were cleaning up for the night.

"Oh…"

"Urghhh…"

The bar owner sighed giving Turen an annoyed look.

"You've been the last one here for 30 minutes now, please Turen, just go home."

He went down and lifted Turen onto his feet removing the chair before Turen could sit back down.

"Alrighttttt, see ya tomorrow boss!"

"Tomorrow's Sunday, bar's closed… and you really should lay off the alch for a bit."

"Monday then! Hahahaha," Turen laughed as he stumbled out the door.

The owner sighed again closing the door behind him as he did.

"Those bottles will be the end of him…"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-30 minutes later-

Turen continued to stumble across the streets of Beijing for a while. Even at 2 AM, the streets were as lively as ever with people going every which way as the bright lights flashed everywhere.

"Where to go now?" Turen thought, "Maybe the park?"

Like many young men who went out drinking alone on the weekends, he had initially gone out just to escape. To escape the realities of his everyday mundane life of food deliveries, taxi drives, and failed attempts to publish anything of importance. Not to mention, a return to his 1-bedroom apartment meant a confrontation with empty beer bottles, ramen cups, and random articles of clothing all spread throughout the floor. A confrontation with his life state.

"Did you hear Lu's planning to get married soon?"

"Finally. Isn't he almost 30 now?"

"Yeah haha, I mean it takes a while for some to find love I guess."

Turen sighed, relieved that he didn't have to listen to the couple next to him talk anymore as he began crossing a busy road. Forget marriage or love, Turen didn't even have a friend in Beijing since moving there a couple of years ago. Back then things were different, back then he still had so much life, so much vigor, so much hope.

Turen was a writer, or well… at least he inspired to be a writer. Despite his parents' wishes, he had decided to take up a major in creative literature, a major that not only his parents, but most of his friends and other family members as well had told him would be entirely worthless and that he might as well drop out and stop using up the college tuition money his parents provided him.

Like most 20-something-year-olds, Turen wouldn't listen. He was going to be special, he was going to defy the 1 in a million odds stacked against him, and he was going to not only have all his works be best sellers, but also popular enough to one day become big-budget movies and TV series as well. But after years of rejection letters from major publishers as well as minimal success in self-publishing, Turen had grown tired and weary as he dredged through whatever minimum wage job would get him by.

"It'd be easier just to disappear…" he thought as he sat down on the ground. His head was heavy and his vision was blurry from the alcohol. It was becoming increasingly difficult to walk so he had to take a rest. Everything in the city was so bright. So many flashing epileptic lights blinded his vision making it even harder for him to concentrate. Why did he even move to this city? He should have just studied to be an engineer, or accountant, or…

"Huh?"

His thoughts were interrupted as suddenly a single light began flashing brighter than all the other ones. A bright white light that appeared to come from the headlights of a taxi. A taxi that approached him at rapid speed as he sat there, in the middle of the street.

"What the…"

And before he had any time to react, the last thing he remembered seeing was the face of a distressed taxi driver as the front of the red car made direct contact with his body.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Hu… huh?"

Turen awoke to the sound of pencil writing. As he looked up, he saw a pretty woman with long brown hair and thick glasses writing on a clipboard. She was wearing what appeared to be a lab coat. Around her was an empty room with white walls on every side and a door behind her.

"Oh, you're awake," she said as she looked up at him, "how are you feeling?"

"What… what is this place?" he asked, "and who are you?"

"Mmmm… I could answer that question now but to ease you in, why don't you answer this for me first? What's the last thing you remember?"

"Last thing I…"

Turen paused trying to recall his foggy memories.

"I… I was drinking last night."

"Like most nights according to this report," the woman said lifting a sheet on her clipboard.

"Report?"

"Oh nothing nothing," the woman replied quickly going back to the first page. "Continue."

"Right… so I was drinking and… I must have had too much to drink again. I remember leaving the last bar heading to the park and…"

He paused for a moment.

"Are you getting it now?" the woman asked.

"I… I was on my way to the park, when somewhere… I think I stopped somewhere. It's all blurry but if I remember correctly I saw… I saw…"

He turned his head to face the woman.

"Is this place…"

"The afterlife."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Turen sat there for a minute staring blankly at the woman who continued to write notes down on her clipboard.

"Are you god?"

"Huh?"

The woman looked up at him.

"Are you God in the afterlife?"

The woman looked back at him blinking a few times.

"Ahahahahahahahahaah"

Suddenly she began laughing.

"What… what's so funny?"

"Nothing nothing hahaha," she said, "it's just, you're the first person in a while to ask me that.

"Really? Doesn't that seem logical?"

"I guess. Most people just don't tend to think God uses a clipboard to take notes."

"So you're not God then?"

"Definitely not, I'm more of like mmm… her secretary."

"… what?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's what you'd call me. By the way, this "God" you're imagining in your head is just one of thousands of Gods.

"Thousands… what?! How does that work?"

"Well, that's just an estimate, for all I know there could be millions. But you don't have to worry about those other Gods, they're all busy bossing around their own secretaries right now anyways."

"Uh-huh, so what happens next is this place…"

"Heaven?" the woman said not pausing her writing, "Many people have asked that. No… that's higher up. Where you're at right now is the "Purgatory labs."

"… what?"

"Well. not this room specifically, this is just one of the soul respawn rooms. But this entire place is the Purgatory labs."

She looked up at Turen's bewildered face.

"Errr… alright how about you just follow me, your paperwork's done for now."

She motioned Turen to stand up and follow her.

"My name's Rosa by the way. Nice to meet you Turen."

"Rii…right," Turen said blushing a bit as she looked at him. "Likewise."

He followed her out the door in the back and…

"Woahhhhhhhhh"

Turen gasped at the sight before him. She wasn't kidding when she said the place they were in was a lab. Seemingly everywhere, there appeared to be scientists wearing white lab coats going about every which way. Most of them were coming towards him. As he turned around, he noticed the wall of the door he came out of was ginormous. It was so big in fact; he couldn't even see either end as doors lined up in neat rows stretching the whole length. Every scientist there appeared to be heading towards the wall doors or exiting out of them some bringing souls like Turen with them. To his right were several other scientists typing on computers.

"What's that?" Turen asked pointing to another side of the room. There, a few scientists stood around an area where there appeared to be some sort of upright hyperbaric chamber though Turen couldn't tell from the distance.

"That's where we're going, Turen." Rosa said, "The reincarnation chambers."

"Reincarnation?"

"Yep!" she looked at him, "Congratulations, you're about to be reincarnated!"

Turen looked at her more confused than ever. At this point, he wondered if he was actually in some sort of coma dream and was still alive in a hospital bed on Earth.

"Does everyone get reincarnated?"

"Nope, just people like you."

"People like…"

It hadn't occurred to Turen until now but somehow despite the fact Rosa spoke in English, he could understand her perfectly.

"What do you mean people like me? Like… Asians?"

Rosa stared at him with a judgmental look.

"Noo… not because of that. In fact, statistically, Asians have the lowest chance of reincarnation. You're quite the unlucky one. Or lucky I suppose depending on how you look at it.

They began approaching the reincarnation chambers.

"The only requirement for reincarnation is to die before the age of 25.

"Oh…," Turen replied a bit ashamed at his assumption, "I see."

"Yeah, so sorry we have to do this but it's what Eve wants."

"Eve?"

"That's who you'd call your God or errrr goddess I guess since she tends to prefer the female form."

They made their way to the upright hyperbaric chambers where Rosa led him to one of the chambers. Next to it was a display pad where she entered a few keys in.

"Now then, if you'll step into the chamber over here, let's begin the reincarnation process."

"Wait what? Just like that?"

"Just like that!"

"Wait but…"

"I can answer whatever you want but it won't matter because you won't remember a thing," Rosa said opening the chamber and insisting Turen get in.

"Wait but… heaven hell, do those exist?"

"Yes but again, it's irrelevant since you won't remember any of this."

Turen attempted to resist but for some reason, Rosa appeared significantly stronger than him as she easily pushed him into the chamber.

"Wait but… my family, my friends. Am I…"

"Once again irrelevant!" Rosa said running back to the display pad. "They're probably super sad mourning your death like the other 301525 that died today."

She began pressing some buttons on the pad and suddenly a light shined underneath Turen.

"Wait but how do I get into heaven?!"

"We're pretty lenient, just don't kill anyone! Okay bye!"

The chamber door closed as a light began shining underneath him.

"This… this is it huh," Turen thought. All remnants of his past life would be washed away, just like that. And those 24 years of struggle, happiness, and alcohol would be ultimately worthless. Guess there was no meaning after all.

He felt a tingling sensation in his body.

"Or maybe I'll just wake up in the hospital bed soon... one way or another"

He closed his eyes bracing himself for whatever came next. At that moment, Turen realized how small his measly life was compared to all that was out there. The light continued to tingle him. What kind of new life would he have? The light continued to shine. Did Rosa confirm he'd be a human? What if he's a platypus in his next life? That'd be pretty cool. The light continued to shine. This reincarnation process sure is taking a while.

"Huh?"

He opened his eyes to see an irritated Rosa as she spam-pressed buttons on the display pad and looked up at him.

"Is this supposed to take this long?!?" he shouted. It was clear she couldn't hear him though. As she continued to press some buttons, another scientist suddenly ran up to her. He handed her a piece of paper and pointed at Turen. Rosa took the paper quickly reading through the contents. She then face-palmed and began talking with the scientist.

"What the hell is going on…" Turen thought.

After about a minute, the scientist nodded before walking away. Rosa pressed down on the display pad and the hyperbaric chamber suddenly opened in front of Turen.

"Wha… what?"

"Urghhh… alright Turen you can come out."

He took a step towards Rosa.

"What happened?"

"Sorry, there seems to have been a mistake. Take a look at this."

She handed the paper to Turen who began reading the report out loud.

"While it appears that the soul Xiao Turen had passed already after a night of heavy drinking and an accident with a taxi on the busy Beijing Streets, it is only his brain which right now isn't working as he appears to still have a pulse in his body. Currently, he is being held at the Beijing Central Hospital in a vegetarian state!?!!?!?!"

Turen looked up at Rosa who just sighed.

"What… what the fuck but…"

"Yeah, quite unfortunate. Now your family and friends have to suffer for muchhhhh longer than if you had just died cleanly."

"What? Isn't there something you can do?"

"I mean… I can ask Eve but I doubt she would do anything."

"What do we do then?"

"That's why this is such a pain, I have no idea. All I know is this is going to be a ton more paperwork. Urghh… couldn't you just have like I don't know, not braced yourself and accepted death when the taxi came? Would have made things easier for both of us."

"I'm uh… sorry I didn't?"

"Well anyways, for now just stay here, I still have at least 50 souls to go through today so…"

She paused her sentence however as she saw someone approach behind Turen.

"Or actually, I have a better idea, oh Xing Yue!"

Turen turned around and before him, he saw another girl.

"Woah," Turen whispered as he saw her.

The scientists he had seen so far had all been pretty normal-looking people including Rosa. This girl, however, made him feel like he was really in the afterlife. Her short hair was an unnatural green color. Her eyes were a matching green one. Despite the unnaturalness, they made her look no less beautiful as they shined like emeralds staring back at him. She wore a grey sweatshirt with its hood up covering parts of her face. She walked towards Rosa and Turen.

"Yes Rosa, can I help you?"

"How would you like to make a friend?"

She looked over at Turen and then back at Rosa.

"You know I can't have those."

"Ohhhhh don't be so stingy. Turen here is in the same position as you."

She looked back at Turen, her green eyes staring through him before back at Rosa.

"He doesn't have green hair. Is he really a devil?"

"What?"

"Oh don't mind her, that's just an archaic term Eve made up to make things easier. But no… he's not a devil."

"Then what makes him like me?"

"Well you see Xing Yue, Turen here also died before reaching the threshold of 25 years old. In those terms, he's an incomplete soul like you."

"Shouldn't he be reincarnated then?"

"Well, that's where the problem lies. Turen is in a brain-dead coma. His body's pulse is still beating but his mind well…"

Xing Yue looked over at Turen.

"That true? How'd that happen?"

"So according to the reports…"

"No," she interrupted. "I want him to answer,"

Her green eyes were once again piercing through Turen, stunning him in place like Medusa.

"How'd you end up here?

"Well I uhhhh… I I…"

The girl continued just staring at him with a deadpan expression as he stumbled over his words.

"I… I was out in Beijing drinking when I had one too many at a bar. At around closing time, I had already been passed out a while when the bar owner kicked me out and sent me onto the streets. And then…"

He paused for a moment.

"And then…?

"And then well… I don't remember exactly. I think at some point I stumbled onto a busy street and forgot where I was and sat down in the middle of the road."

The devil girl raised an eyebrow.

"Did a taxi hit you?"

"Huh? Yeah, actually one did. How did you…"

"Lucky guess," she said. She then turned to Rosa.

"What exactly do you want me to do?"

"Want you… no no this is 100% your choice Xing Yue and I have no problems with whatever decision you make even if it saves me a boatload of trouble."

"That didn't sound very convincing…" Turen thought.

"You're done with your job for the week right? Could you… oh, I don't know, have Turen here live with you for a while? Maybe you could show him around realm 2063?"

"How long's a while?"

"Oh well, until we figure out what to do with him or he wakes up from his coma naturally. Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be in 50 years!"

"What?!?!? 50 years? Is that possible?"

"Not sure, never had a situation like this before." Rosa said, "But of course, if it is 50 years of his family mourning painfully as their funds get drained in hopes of Turen one day waking up… he won't live with you the whole time, just until we figure something out."

"Did she really have to add those extra parts in…" Turen thought.

Xing Yue looked at Turen again observing him.

"Were you an alcoholic?"

"What? Well… I did drink a bit but…"

"Biggest in the city based on our statistics!" Rosa interrupted.

"What really?"

"Yep! Based on our calculations, this month you consumed the equivalent of 245 beer cans. Most in all of Beijing."

"Is… is that so…" Turen said lowering his head in shame, "Okay yeah… I'm an alcoholic.

Xing Yue giggled a bit at the reply as a soft smile showed on her face. Turen blushed at the sight of her pretty face lighting up just a bit.

"Fair enough."

She turned to Rosa.

"Okay, he can live with me."

"Great great, hear that Turen, you get to stay at a new home while your body's comatose!"

"That's nice I guess…"

"Alright, I'll be leaving now then. Another soul is scheduled to spawn in 1 minute so I must be going. Just take him to the escalator. See ya!"

And with that, she left the two there alone. Xing Yue and Turen just stood there awkwardly.

"Come on," Xing Yue said grabbing Turen's hand. Turen blushed again as they began walking toward the other end of the laboratory. It had been 5 years since he last held hands with a woman.

"Sorry... did Rosa say escalator just now?"

"Yes?"

"Right… an escalator to where exactly?"

When they reached the end of the lab, a large wooden door appeared attached to the wall. Xing Yue turned its knob.

"An escalator to heaven."