The Beginning

Chapter 39: The Twenty-third Time Cycle (I)

"So the last time you were so aggressive, you threatened the older woman's life to stop the car was an act?"

After listening to Boy's explanation, Li Shiqing was enlightened.

"You're trying to test out what the soft spot is that will impress them!"

"It's not all an act."

Boy smiles blushingly, "I was mad at first, thinking it would be good to let off steam, but then I came around and thought it was stupid to threaten two people who were going to kill themselves with 'safety of life' ...... "

"Probably the same as you were before, a sudden flash of light, the idea just popped into my head."

He brought up the last time loop, not ready to say too much, "Anyway, I think there's still hope for this, let's do it again."

"Yes!"

Li Shiqing gave him a thumbs up.

Once the text message has been sent, all that remains is the concrete execution.

After so many cycles of time, the two have developed an understanding of each other to the point where they can communicate with each other with just a glance, and there are some details that don't need to be planned in advance, except for a little bit of "convincing" of the driver, which Boy has given a little bit more of.

"It's the same as before, I'll take care of the auntie, you take care of the driver."

He lowered his voice and whispered in Li Shiqing's ear, "Perhaps you haven't noticed that the driver treats you differently from the other passengers."

"...... treats me differently?"

Li Shiqing was stunned.

"Remember the time I tried to talk to the driver about the motorbike on the right? When I spoke to the driver, he didn't even bother me, but you did and he listened."

Boy recalls details from the past, "When there was a disturbance in the car, when others called for help or shouted, the most he would ask was what was going on, only when you shouted, he would keep turning around; only when you had questions, he had the patience to answer them."

"And, most importantly, he had the hesitation of wanting to let you off."

Boy looked at his companion and said gently.

"Like you said, he let you off ...... Not only would he do that if you insisted on getting off, he had offered to let you off at the next stop."

"...... Li Shiqing, maybe he doesn't want you to die."

Hearing her own words, there was some bewilderment in her eyes, some disbelief, and more than anything else, sadness.

After so many rounds of cruel torture, Li Shiqing's eyes still managed to show a look of innocent wonder.

Xiao Heyun doesn't want to upset her.

He finds Li Shiqing's 'softness' invaluable, both in the past and in the present.

"Didn't the police say so? Uncle's daughter was a student at the University of W. She went to the same school as you and often took the same route. That glimmer of compassion he had for you might have been because you bore some resemblance to his daughter, or maybe it was simply because you knew him well and people will be more likely to go soft when faced with someone they know ......"

Boy lamented, "Anyway, it's probably not a coincidence that you would enter the time loop."

"There is something in the underworld that is perhaps unique to you, and that is why the Lord has given you this 'luck'."

After so many trials and tribulations, even Xiao Heyun feels that he has hardened his heart after so many incidents. In the past, he would never have been able to do something like putting a knife to someone's neck, even if that person was a criminal.

But now, he felt he could even kill the older woman without hesitation if he had to.

But Li Shiqing is different, perhaps because men and women are different and think differently, and even at this point in her life, Li Shiqing still maintains her boundaries and is not willing to "go out on a limb".

Even in such a case, she would have preferred the police to "try" the two men.

This "gamble" was not so much a bet that they would hit a weak spot in the driver's heart, but rather a way for him to love and care for his fellow man.

Perhaps every woman wants the story to end perfectly and without regrets, with everyone happy, so he wanted to give it a try too.

"So, you give it a try ......"

Boy patted her hand.

Since it started with you ......

"Come and try and end this tragedy."

Please also end by you.

"

Wang Xingde has been driving this road for 30 months and is so familiar with it that he can see the road ahead in his mind's eye.

He was a former big-rig driver, and driving is an instinct that is ingrained in his muscle memory.

He has spent most of his life on the road, and sometimes he even feels that he can't do anything but drive, and has even fallen into mid-life anxiety about it.

Ironically, it was because of this "confidence" that he was able to easily eliminate those who did not drive as well as he did and was accepted into the bus company.

When he was first accepted, he was angry.

He did not go into hiding to seek "revenge".

The name " Wang Xingde" should be quickly associated with the accident that happened to her daughter six months ago, and when the name is seen, there will be at least some people, who will question this in some way.

On those nights when he tossed and turned in remorse, he imagined time and again how he would "fight back" in the face of "questioning", and he even thought of every accusation he would make about his daughter's death, waiting for the moment when the "revenge action" would be revealed. He even thought of every accusation he would make about his daughter's death, waiting for the moment when his "revenge" would be revealed.

Wang Xingde can't wait to see the faces of these people go from high and mighty to panic-stricken.

However, until he had completed all his pre-service training and received his bus driving licence, no one found out that he was the father of "Wang Mengmeng".

The name " Wang Mengmeng", like the story of the mermaid princess becoming a bubble that disappears into the sea, just disappears into everyone's memory with the sunlight piercing the mist the next morning.

No one even remembers the name "Wang Mengmeng", let alone "Wang Xingde", who only appeared on the paper accident certificate.

Yes, at first he didn't think his wife's "revenge" would work at all, or even that the "plan" was bullshit.

In his imagination, he didn't need to show anything else, as soon as the executives in charge of his admission saw his name, all his wife's plans would be "aborted".

The only reason he promised his wife to come to W and do this and that with her was because her mental state was so bad at that time that he even found her trying to walk up the road to her death several times, for which he simply quit his job and stayed with her every day.

He had no skills, he just wanted to make her happy, even if it didn't seem "normal" to others.

He had already lost his daughter and did not want to lose his wife again.

When he first took over the route, the teacher who took him drove him to familiarise him with the route, telling him what parts of the road were bad and how long it took between each stop, as the route was the "netherworld" that killed her daughter, and he often wandered off, to the teacher's dismay.

At last, once, as the car drove by the spot where his daughter had died, he couldn't help but ask the question within.

"Has there been an accident on this road, where a girl died because she got off early? Should I watch out for traffic on this bridge in the future?"

"Ah, maybe there is."

The teacher who took him replied in such a light-hearted manner, "What road has not had accidents and people have not died on it? Who cares so much, just don't let anything happen to you, and the passengers on the bus don't care about what happens on the road, they care about getting there on time, that's all that matters."

[Who could care less.]

This is the final conclusion to her daughter's short life.

He was always on the move, but that was to survive, and it didn't mean he didn't love his daughter.

For more than ten years, every time he went on a long trip, no matter how long the journey or how tight the time was, he asked her what kind of gift she wanted and brought it back to her before he left, just like the father in his daughter's fairy tale book.

The accommodation is humble, but because of the family, it's the best place in the world.

It was a dull trip, but with family waiting, every trip home was full of excitement.

His daughter, sweet and good-natured, who could talk piano and dance, whose eyes curved like the moon in the treetops when she smiled, soothed all his weariness whenever he thought of her smile.

He has been driving for over ten years without any major accidents, just because he always remembers that there are still people at home who are looking forward to his safe return, and others who have families who are looking forward to his safe return.

But the words of the "teacher" made him realise that not everyone cares about all this in this way.

"All men are sinners."

It was only at that moment that he began to feel that his wife's thoughts were right.

His anger was like a mountain fire suddenly ignited and just blazed through everything. His sanity, his fluke, his hesitation, and his love and family, all in layer after layer of understatement ......

Burned out.

During these thirty months, in the midst of the tedious day-to-day work, he has managed to become the "master" of the route, taking full control of it and of the car, allowing it to change to his liking.

He broke the monitor on the car twice in three days, locked the emergency switch on the door, he never took the initiative to report the repair, other colleagues are also used to the car's "sometimes good, sometimes bad", no one would expect this company year after year as a "standard" of excellent employees, will do No one would have expected such behaviour from this excellent employee, who has been named "standard bearer" every year.

It was as if God was behind them in their "revenge", and the process went very smoothly on the wife's side, with her position as a quality inspector at the chemical plant, the "substandard" raw materials came to her little by little, like ants.

Like two spiders in the shadows, they weave a web called "revenge".

Today is that day of closing the net.

Everything went very smoothly and the only thing he felt a little sorry for was that a girl he knew well got into the car.

He didn't expect her to get in the car.

At this time of year, when most students have gone home for the holidays, she should not have stayed in W. She should not have stayed at school, let alone travelled at this non-weekend time.

It was a girl who smiled like his daughter, with eyes like the curved moon, and was as innocent and sweet as his daughter, even going to the same school and studying the same subjects, and could never help but remind him of his own daughter.

Whenever there was an empty seat behind him when she got on the bus, she would sit there and talk to him about his family and ask him how he was doing.

Because of her, he had wondered more than once if his daughter had come to school in W. City back then, instead of continuing to drive a big truck, he had chosen to quit his job to accompany her to this city and work as a bus driver picking up and dropping off on her way to school, would her daughter not have died.

Would her daughter be like this girl, sitting in the seat behind him, chattering about what she had seen all day, pouting and begging him to go somewhere together after work.

He is not bold, drives carefully and would never let anything happen to anyone.

Every time he fell into his imagination, remorse and longing racked his heart. He hated the world, and more than that, he hated his cowardly and pathetic self.

Unfortunately, there is no turning back from the bow, and as good as that girl is, she is not her own daughter after all.

"Sorry ......"

Wang Xingde's eyes became wet with something as he watched the bridge appear ahead.

The family, at last, will be reunited.

Author's Note: This chapter was hard to write because of empathy, but after thinking about it, I wrote it from the driver's point of view.

I don't think what the driver did was right, nor do I intend to explain anything for the driver and his wife, including the two young people's choices, reliable or not, over and over again. I simply want to tell a story that has a cause and a consequence, a beginning and an end, a story of right and wrong, right and wrong, which readers will have to think about independently for themselves.

This story has come to an end, originally I only wanted to write this one story, but another inspiration popped up while I was writing this book, so there is a special story based on this worldview that follows, the two stories together make up this book, the tone of that one is more pleasant (cover your face), I hope I'm not in such a bad mood when I write it, haha.