Chapter 1 – An accident and the ability to turn back time

Chapter 1 – An Accident and the Ability to Turn Back Time

Hiss...

Pain seared through Dong Xuebing's body like a thousand knives stabbing into his flesh. Every breath was agony, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, sharp and unforgiving. He couldn't move—couldn't even wiggle his fingers. Darkness swallowed him whole, a suffocating void that seemed to stretch on forever.

Am I dying? The thought echoed in his mind, a mix of fear and disbelief. He summoned all his strength to open his eyes, but they refused to cooperate, only parting enough to see a sliver of the world. Through the blur, he made out the hulking shape of an overloaded dump truck, its tires still spinning.

Beside him lay an old man, frail and still, his life seemingly extinguished. Qu Yunxuan, the woman Dong Xuebing had admired from afar for so long, was sprawled in a pool of blood, her once vibrant features now eerily still. The crowd around them was a flurry of motion—people shouting, gesturing—but their voices were drowned out by the ringing in Dong Xuebing's ears.

The old man was dead. Qu Yunxuan was dead. And he... he was barely hanging on.

Regret twisted his heart into knots. If only he had reacted sooner, if only he had seen the truck coming, if only he had run faster... None of this would have happened. The weight of his failures pressed down on him, heavier than the truck that had shattered their lives.

His eyelids drooped, the world fading to black. Dong Xuebing could no longer bear to look at the twisted bodies of those he couldn't save. He let the darkness take him, welcoming the end.

Kaboom!

A deafening clap of thunder exploded in his ears, so loud it seemed to shake the very fabric of reality. Dong Xuebing jolted, as though yanked out of the abyss by an unseen force. His senses returned all at once—sound, sight, touch—and with them, the realization that he was no longer lying on the cold asphalt. He was standing.

Confusion overwhelmed him. He looked around, his heart pounding in his chest. The bustling streets of Beijing surrounded him, cars and taxis whizzing by as if nothing had happened. The air was cool, the streetlights casting a familiar glow over the scene. But how...?

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

The voice was soft, kind. Dong Xuebing turned toward it, his breath catching in his throat. Qu Yunxuan was there, standing at the pedestrian crossing just as before. The old man was beside her, his hand resting on a wooden cane. Both were alive, smiling, completely unaware of the fate that had just been snatched away.

"Xiao Bing, you're back? Were you out with your friends?" Qu Yunxuan's eyes twinkled as she spoke, the same warmth in her voice that had always drawn him to her .