The Beginning

Chapter 8: The Ninth Cycle of Time (II)

After Li Shiqing pulled Xiao Heyun out of the car, he just thought he had met a madman, cursed a few times and then admitted his bad luck and continued to the other side of the bridge, trying to find a taxi or hitchhiker to cross.

As a result, before he could get very far, the bus collided with the tanker and even formed a small mushroom cloud when it exploded, scaring him into running away.

He was not far from the scene and lost his ears from the shock on the spot. In the course of his escape, he fell and got on the kerosene leaking from the ground, and when he was hit by the flying explosives, he immediately ignited his clothing and was badly burned.

Luckily he escaped the first wave of explosions and although he was burned, at least he lived and was then rescued by an ambulance that arrived on the scene.

He was still conscious when he first got into the ambulance, and when the ambulance paramedics used a note to confirm his identity with him, he said he was a passenger who had got off that bus temporarily, but passed out without saying much because he was in too much pain.

By the time he was brought back from the emergency, there were already police officers waiting at his bedside, but by then he was in such poor health, deafness notwithstanding, with his face still covered in oxygen and intubated, that he was unable to say a few words, and could only drop a few key messages, including that he had been dragged out of the car and did not know the other man, who had got out and run away.

All the rest, indeed, he knew nothing about.

He just couldn't have imagined that Li Shiqing, who got off the bus before him, wasn't much better, knocking himself into a concussion as soon as he got off and completely forgetting all about what happened on the bus.

"Are you saying that you were not far from the scene and were badly burned?"

Li Shiqing was shocked, "But the officers just told me you were deaf!"

She had questioned why they didn't go to the other survivor when she was repeatedly questioned until she couldn't breathe. The answer given by the police at the time was that he was deaf and could not communicate easily.

Xiao Heyun froze at Li Shiqing's words and, after a moment's thought, speculated, "It's probably some kind of questioning technique, isn't it? If you were the real culprit in the bus accident, or if you really knew something, you would have bitten off more than you could chew if you knew I was seriously injured and dying."

After all, there is no proof of death.

"So that time I saw you on the bus, you jumped up and fumbled with yourself because ......"

Li Shiqing's arms were crawling with goose bumps at the thought of that possibility.

"Hmm."

He responded in a low voice, "As you can imagine, one moment I was dying in a hospital emergency room, expecting God to spare my life, and the next I was well and alive again in the bus, good hands and feet, skin intact, nothing wrong with me except my tinnitus ...... "

Boy gave a sad smile, "Anyone would have felt dead at that point, right?"

Xiao Heyun was indeed frightened and terrified until he saw the girl beside him, who was both familiar and unfamiliar.

He was sure then that the girl had "escaped" from the crash as he had, and that she had run away from the "death zone" as soon as she got out of the car, so there was no reason for her to "die" as he had. There was no reason for her to be as "dead" as he was.

The fact that she didn't recognise herself next made him even more certain that this world didn't quite seem real.

"So are we, now, still lying in a hospital room, or ......"

Li Shiqing winces a little, voicing an even creepier possibility.

"In fact, we're already dead?"

"No, it can't be."

Eyeglass Boy stumbled over his words as he turned blue at her speculation.

"No one could have survived an explosion of that magnitude, could they?"

Li Shiqing started wiping her tears again, "Why did I wake up with no injuries at all? It's only the soul that has to keep reincarnating and not the body, doesn't that mean I'm dead even more?"

When she was alone in the "time loop", such speculation was the last straw that broke the camel's back, so she didn't dare to think about it or allow herself to find out "the truth".

At that time, even if you just want to live a second longer, you have to fight to the death.

Now that she has an "ally" and a moment to breathe, all the anxiety and fear that had been building up inside Li Shiqing came out like a Pandora's box that had been opened.

She sobbed and added, "I've heard that if one dies in vain, they are trapped forever in the same place where they died and keep time cycling through that day. I used to just think of it as a shibboleth legend, but, but ......"

But what if it were true?

Li Shiqing, who was crying, heard Boy with glasses across the room gagging and gasping for air, unable to say anything in defence, and cried even more.

"That, that doesn't make sense either."

Xiao Heyun's heart was also in shock, but he tried his best to calm himself down, "This, I've heard this legend too, doesn't it say that if you find a 'scapegoat', you can escape?"

He patted Li Shiqing's drooping shoulders and reassured her, "If you were a ghost, you would have found me as a 'scapegoat' by now, there's no reason to stay stuck here, is there?"

"I... I didn't think about any scapegoat ......"

Li Shiqing looked up a little embarrassed when she heard Xiao Heyun mocking herself as a 'scapegoat', "I was just scared ......"

"I understand, and I don't blame you. But it's too soon to conclude that we're dead."

He nodded his head.

"There are always things in this world that can't be explained by science, and there are plenty of novels and movies with situations like ours, and don't they all end perfectly?"

Boy, wearing glasses, is still very much in charge of the girl's psychological situation and is not very skilled at making comforting remarks.

"You don't keep thinking of it as a punishment from God, why can't you imagine it as a chance from God?"

"You see, I was supposed to be blown up on that bus, and now I'm not standing in front of you in good health?"

Boy with glasses spreads his hands and shows her an intact version of himself.

"You saved me, at least."

Before a comforted Li Shiqing could be moved, there was a vigorous rapping on the door outside the dressing room.

"Is there someone in there? This is a supermarket changing room, go home and play with whatever you want, someone has complained!"

The older man outside tapping on the door shouted menacingly.

"You're hogging public resources, if you don't come out I'll call the police!"

They were inside for almost half an hour, during which time there were people trying to come and try on clothes, knocking on the door and being dissuaded by Boy's voice, and probably someone who felt that something was wrong and finally went to the mall security.

When their "hiding place" was revealed, they looked at each other and Boy made a gesture of "go out and talk", to which Li Shiqing nodded.

So Boy with glasses opened the changing room and dragged Li Shiqing out, against the scornful gaze of the security guard.

The security guard originally wanted to scold them, but once he saw Li Shiqing's tear-stained face being dragged away, his anger instantly turned to alarm and he followed him out several steps.

"Is there something wrong, little girl? Do you need my help?"

After saying this, he looked warily at Xiao Heyun, who was pulling someone in front of him, and then turned to Li Shiqing and said, "Don't be afraid, girl, tell me anything, I will help you."

Li Shiqing was still sad, but when she heard the uncle's words, she knew that he had taken Boy with glasses as the bad guy.

"It's okay uncle, I know him ......"

She looked up at Boy with glasses and saw that he was also looking amused and amused, and hastily added

"Thank you, he, he's my friend."

After making sure that the girl really knew Boy and was not being coerced, the uncle gave up following him in disbelief, but still taught him a lot of things like "changing rooms are a public environment and you can't just occupy them without coming out" and "you have to be careful about the impact of a relationship". The first time I saw him, I was convinced to stop following him.

Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun, two youngsters with shallow skins, were so ashamed of the older man's words that they fled.

It was almost three o'clock by the time they found a fast food restaurant on the top floor that was not crowded.

"It's now been an hour and fifteen minutes since the car exploded."

After losing his backpack on the run, Boy Glasses asks the waiter at the fast food restaurant for a pen and paper and begins to analyse the events with Li Shiqing.

"Do you remember where your first accident was?"

"It's probably right in the middle of the bridge over the river."

Time has cycled so many times that many of Li Shiqing's memories are blurred, but it's good to have a point of reference, "I remember there was a small pavilion there for pedestrians to rest, there aren't many places on the bridge with pavilions, the one I saw must have been in the middle."

"And then what?"

He asked again.

"It should still be on the bridge."

"A third time?"

Boy starts drawing the table on paper.

"...... seems to have just come on the bridge?"

Li Shiqing is not so sure, "I just remember that I was already on the bridge when I had the accident."

Each "time loop" is accompanied by a variety of weaknesses, and each negative emotion builds up in them, especially the first few times when they have just had an accident, and each time they have to overcome both psychological and physical pain before they dare to open their eyes.

Because of this, Li Shiqing can no longer say where she was when she was awake, only where she was at the time of the accident.

But this information is enough for Boy.

"The first time I 'time looped' was near one of the junctions closest to the approach bridge."

Boy drew a diagram with his hand and marked the location.

"This is the junction where the crash happened and we are here ......"

"By the time I 'time loop' a second time, we're here. The third time, it's here."

Boy drew a few 'X's further back in the intersection and asked Li Shiqing, "Do you see anything?"

"Each time loop in time puts us a little further away from the bridge?"

Li Shiqing looks at the schematic for a moment, then looks up in surprise and asks.

These recent locations are some distance from the bridge compared to where she was when her first "accident" took place.

"Wrong, it's not that we're further from the bridge, it's that we're moving ahead at the start of each time loop."

Boy haughtily hid his amusement at discovering the truth, "Time and space are forms of existence of matter, and they correspond to each other. So it's not just our location that changes, but the time we spend awake each time as well."

"Do you get it?"

Looking at the girl who was staring intently at the schematic, Boy told her seriously of the conclusions he had drawn.

"We are not trapped in the original timeline, we are in a different world each time we 'time loop'."

Li Shiqing's eyes watered and she choked up and covered her mouth and nose.

She knew why Boy had made a point of saying this to her.

She had feared she was dead and now it was just a "replay" of her death.

"If the process is different each time, but only the result is the same, then perhaps 'breaking' away from the result is the key to leaving this cycle of dead time."

You can see that this conclusion lifted Boy's spirits and made his next words sound much lighter.

"We managed to get off once, so 'getting off' is not the way to leave this time loop."

Such emotions also infected the girl and she too began to analyse, "I managed to avoid my own 'death', but I still joined you in the time loop afterwards, so 'immortality' is not a way to leave this time loop either way out."

"That only leaves the other possibilities ......"

She pondered the course of each time loop and made the deduction, "Either that or getting this car to the terminal successfully ......"

"Either ......"

Boy went on to say, "...... managed to save 'everyone' in the car?"

The emphasis on the words "all people" made Li Shiqing's brow furrow even more as he understood what he meant.

"My God, aren't these two 'possibilities' the same thing?"

She let out a wail, "We're just two new players, should we be on this hell mode right off the bat?"

Saving everyone meant that there could be no casualties, including the criminals.

One of them is an ordinary college girl and the other is a programmer who can't even run 500 meters without gasping for breath, how could they be able to ask God for such an ashen task?

"It's actually a message in our favour, which means we'll have more and more time."

Boy is clearly very familiar with this mode and emotions are running high with it. "Isn't the ability to 'read the file and start over' our biggest advantage in this 'game'?"

"I'd be worried about ......"

Li Shiqing wanted to say something, but eventually chose not to demoralise, "Forget it, let's not talk about that, let's talk about what we do next."

"We need to get more information if we are going to stop the scourge. Where the explosives were placed in the car, how they exploded, and whether that mobile phone ringing was from the explosive device."

Boy looked up at the dining room clock.

"Even if the police were too desperate to find us at the beginning, now that more than an hour has passed, the police who are looking at the CCTV footage must have noticed that we got out of the car early and I'm afraid they are trying to find us ......"

As soon as they got out of the car, the two turned off their phones and then looked for a place where they could exchange information.

"Now we are faced with the choice of ......" Boy circled the word "police". "Do we continue to hide from the police, or ......"

He raised his head and looked at Li Shiqing.

"...... cooperate with the police investigation?"