Adam Bolton remembered that when he got into the car accident, he only felt his body being violently thrown out, and lost consciousness while still in the air, not even having time to feel the fear of death. Looking at the bloody scene, it was only then that he truly experienced the terror of a car accident and the fragility of human beings. Adam Bolton sat on the ground holding the little girl, utterly dazed.

After the accident, the crowd seemed to seep out like water from a sponge, instantly filling the street corner.

A black sedan pulled up, and two middle-aged men got out of the car, shouting loudly. Adam Bolton's mind was sometimes clear, sometimes muddled, and he couldn't hear clearly. He saw one middle-aged man walk over to help up the young woman who had collapsed on the ground, and another middle-aged man came over to take the little girl. Adam Bolton handed the little girl over: "I don't know if she was hit, I don't know if she was hit..."

"The girl is fine, this young man is good, he rushed over to save the girl, look, such a deep tire mark..." someone said nearby, "The young man was scared out of his wits too, but he probably wasn't hit, it was that close. I was just ten meters away, saw it all clearly, my legs are still shaking now, only this young man dared to rush over and save the girl..."

The ambulance arrived soon after, and the loud siren calmed Adam Bolton's chaotic mind a little.

Adam Bolton didn't dare look at the person who had been thrown by the car. Anyone in Adam Bolton's place wouldn't dare to face such a shock again. He wiped his face; the blood had dried and in a short while had formed a scab. His limbs felt weak as he struggled to stand up, muddle-headedly walking out of the crowd. A nurse ran over to support him: "You can't just walk around..." "I wasn't hit, the blood just splattered on me, go take care of them..." The nurse paused, then hurried back without thinking much, not even considering to keep Adam Bolton or his contact information.

Adam Bolton turned back to look for the driver, who was lying under the roots of the second poplar tree he had crashed into, face pale, the alcohol probably long since worn off. Adam Bolton felt he should say something to comfort him, but didn't know where to start, so he gave a bitter smile. Crossing Dongsheng Bridge, he finally saw two traffic patrol cars heading toward North Street.

Only then did Adam Bolton remember that on July 18, 1994, almost all the traffic patrol officers in the West District had been dispatched to maintain order around the Bell Tower Square. Because on this day, nearly a hundred workers from the Xinguang Paper Mill had gathered at Bell Tower Square to protest. The old Xinguang Paper Mill was located on the banks of the Shugang River in the southern part of the city, with outdated technology and severe pollution. The southern district had decided to relocate the mill out of the main urban area, and had started building a new factory in the southern industrial park. But after building the new factory and buying equipment, all the bank loans were used up, leaving no working capital, so they couldn't buy raw materials and the new factory never started up. On top of that, the workers complained that the new factory was too far from the city and didn't want the old factory to be shut down, so every few days they would gather in front of the city government to protest.

Chapter 3: The Reversal of Fate

Adam Bolton was still shaken when he got home. He took off his bloodstained T-shirt and shorts, stuffed them into the washing machine—an old Little Swan twin-tub model—which started up with a clattering sound.

Although he didn't know exactly what had happened, there was no doubt he was in the real world. In terms of time, he had returned to fourteen years ago, the summer of 1994.

Adam Bolton remembered that he was only sixteen at the time.

Adam Bolton curled up on the sofa, his memories of being sixteen a bit blurry. He thought that before he came down with a high fever, he should have already received his high school entrance exam results, which were pretty good—third place in the West District for the 1994 exams. The day the results came out, the provincial inspection team happened to arrive to investigate Henry Harris's case, so the family barely felt any joy from his exam results.

Adam Bolton's mind was a mess; he didn't even know what kind of expression to use to face the things that were about to happen.

As night gradually fell, his parents still hadn't come home.

The symptoms of the high fever had all subsided, but his stomach was growling with hunger, though he had no appetite. Adam Bolton glanced up at the quartz clock hanging on the wall opposite; it was almost time for the evening news. He turned on the TV, and saw Olivia Bolton's Lux shampoo commercial playing. By 2008, Lux had already faded away, and many people had even forgotten the brand, but in Adam Bolton's memory, besides the Olivia Bolton version, there were also Emily Morgan, Lily Cooper, MAGGIE, and Olivia Thompson versions of the Lux shampoo commercial. Adam Bolton's favorite was the MAGGIE version, in which MAGGIE was incredibly charming, like a delicate orchid, exuding a blend of Eastern and Western qualities that even women couldn't help but be drawn to. It was said that after this commercial aired, Lux sales tripled, and many women in supermarkets were delighted to pick up Lux with MAGGIE's picture on the packaging, as if using it would make them as beautiful as her. Of course, that was a lovely wish.

Adam Bolton tapped his temple with his finger, remembering that David Brooks had switched to using Lux shampoo after seeing MAGGIE's commercial. Thinking of David Brooks, Adam Bolton felt a pang in his heart, realizing that at this moment, David Brooks had no memories of him yet, and it would be another four years before they might meet again in another city.

For now, the memories between him and David Brooks belonged to a past that had not yet happened.

Adam Bolton's lips curled slightly, but he did not smile; his mind still couldn't quite adjust.