Chapter 1【A Car Accident and Reversed Time】

　　Hiss!

　　It hurts!

　　Am I going to die?

　　A faint taste of blood lingered in his nose and mouth. In the pitch darkness, Alan Cooper tried to move his fingers—no response. He tried to turn his neck—no response either. Finally, using all his strength, he managed to slowly open his eyelids a crack. Through his blurry vision, he saw an overloaded dump truck filled with sand and gravel. Nearby, an old man in his seventies or eighties and a beautiful woman under thirty lay motionless in a pool of blood. Crowds of bystanders had gathered on both sides of the road, mouthing words next to the bodies of the old man and the woman, but in Alan Cooper's ears, there was not a single sound—he couldn't hear anything!

　　The old man was dead, Aunt Evelyn was dead, and with such serious injuries himself... he surely wouldn't survive either!

　　Looking at the blood-streaked, tragically beautiful face of his secret crush, Evelyn Carter, Alan Cooper's heart ached as if pierced by needles.

　　His neighbor Evelyn Carter was an especially kind woman. Just moments ago at the intersection, seeing the old man struggling to walk, she had offered to help him cross the street. But even though the light was red, the truck driver coming from the side—whether drunk or just exhausted—had barreled straight through. Seeing Aunt Evelyn in danger from afar, Alan Cooper had rushed over, trying to pull Evelyn Carter away, but he didn't make it in time and ended up dying himself.

　　Regret!

　　He had never felt such regret!

　　If only Alan Cooper had noticed the out-of-control truck a moment earlier and run over to save them, maybe all three of them wouldn't have died.

　　But now... it was too late for anything!

　　Alan Cooper's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He couldn't bear to look any longer at the mangled bodies of Evelyn Carter and the old man. He closed his eyes, waiting for death to come.

　　Boom!

　　It sounded like thunder! A thunderclap that seemed to shatter his very soul!

　　The next moment, Alan Cooper's vision blurred, and he suddenly leapt out from endless darkness.

　　Strength returned to his body, and his hearing and sight instantly recovered. Alan Cooper froze for a moment, blinking in confusion as he looked around, only to find himself standing perfectly fine at the traffic light of the same intersection. All around him was the unique sea of cars in Beijing—sedans, trucks, and taxis speeding past. Under the dim evening streetlights, pedestrians hurried by.

　　"Sir, let me help you cross the street."

　　"No need, thank you, young lady. You go on ahead."

　　"My home is just across the street, it's not out of my way. Here, let me help you."

　　Alan Cooper looked over in astonishment at the source of the voices. There, on the crosswalk not far away, stood Evelyn Carter with a gentle smile. She also saw Alan Cooper and gave him a bright, pursed-lip smile. "Little Alan, just got back? Went out to play with classmates?" Beside her was the very same old man who had just died. The old man glanced at Alan Cooper, then hunched over, coughing weakly into his hand.

　　"Ah, um, just got back." Glancing at one, then the other, Alan Cooper replied instinctively, still not quite processing what was happening.

　　What was going on? He wasn't dead? Aunt Evelyn wasn't dead? The old man wasn't dead either?

　　Alan Cooper dumbly stretched his hand into the air, opened and closed his fist—no blood, no injuries.

　　Was it all a dream? No car accident? Just a hallucination?

　　The red light went out, the yellow light came on, paused briefly, then the green light lit up on the opposite side. The pedestrians waiting at the intersection began to cross the street one after another. The old man was the slowest, shuffling forward with his cane, while Evelyn Carter carefully supported him, accompanying him across.

　　So familiar!

　　Such a familiar scene!

　　Suddenly, a loud engine noise roared in his ears. Alan Cooper instinctively looked over and saw a large dump truck coming from the right-turn lane on the left side of the road, its bed packed full of sand and gravel, bulging out. The truck wasn't going especially fast—maybe forty or fifty kilometers per hour at most—but it was rumbling straight toward the intersection!

　　Alan Cooper rubbed his eyes, his heart pounding in shock. Wasn't this exactly the scene before Aunt Evelyn and the old man were hit?

　　How could this be? Had time really reversed? Was it not a hallucination?

　　With no time to think, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Get out of the way! There's a truck!"

　　Everyone nearby froze, quickly looking around.

　　"What truck?"

　　"Where's the truck?"

　　Evelyn Carter saw the truck and turned to Alan Cooper with a puzzled look. "Why are you shouting? The light's red over there."

　　The old man didn't think much of it either—the truck was in the right-turn lane and wouldn't affect them.

　　But Alan Cooper knew this was the truck that would kill all three of them, and as he ran, he shouted anxiously, "Aunt Evelyn! Get out of there! Move!"

　　Evelyn Carter's black high heels paused, and she laughed, "Little Alan, what's with you today? That truck isn't—"

　　Before she could finish, the massive truck was already barreling over the stop line, showing no sign of slowing down!