The Beginning
Chapter 40: The Twenty-third Time Cycle (II)

This time round, everyone was very careful, including Li Shiqing.

When she sat behind the driver, he didn't even realise that there was an extra person in the empty seat behind him.

As soon as the car crossed the intersection where the tanker was, Boy took the lead.

This time he was more experienced, having borrowed the kitten's jacket from the masked man's bag in advance, and put it over her head as he walked past her.

"What for!"

The older woman, who had been staring out of the window, had her vision obscured by the jacket that suddenly fell from the sky and was subconsciously about to reach for her plastic bag, but the fit older man grabbed her hands and lifted her out of her seat.

Boy took the opportunity to pull the knife out of her pocket and, together with the uncle, pinned her down on the floor of the car.

"And then what? What next?"

The masked man knew that there was a bomb in the pressure cooker, and fearfully dragged the plastic bag out of his seat, not daring to hold it, and crouched there with a panicked look on his face.

The passengers were already confused as to what was happening in the car, and no one took the initiative to ask.

"Young man, even if this man is armed with a knife, you can't hold him down like that ......"

After taking a closer look, Uncle Key probably thought Boy didn't look like a bad guy and couldn't help but start his "verbal" skills again, "If they've really committed something, you guys sort it out yourselves and let us get out of the car first, okay?"

After a few cycles, Boy is most annoyed by this Key Uncle, who can't do anything to help but talks the most. When things go wrong, he shouts at the others to go, but he runs away faster than anyone else, wishing he had two more legs.

Seeing him rambling on, Boy frowned and said sternly, "Don't nag, it's none of your business!"

He was just about to say something else when he saw Boy, who had just scolded him, glance over threateningly.

That glance was full of impatience and carried an imperative ruthlessness, not to mention the fact that he was holding a knife that he had retrieved from the older woman's body.

Uncle Key froze in fear and choked back the words he was about to say.

He talks so much and hasn't gotten into trouble after all these years just because he knows what people are not to be messed with and what people can be messed with. Now he doesn't dare to speak up again and meekly shrinks back into his seat.

It happened particularly quickly and the driver only had time to look back.

In a quick glance, all that could be seen was a young man and a strong man holding his wife down, and it was impossible to speculate on what exactly was going on.

Already having an uneasy feeling in his heart, he looked away and then withdrew his gaze, pretending not to know anything and continuing to drive.

But Boy's next words shattered the last of his luck.

" Wang Xingde, we have your wife under control and we have the pressure cooker, now pull over and pull over and have a chance to reform."

Boy did not remove the jacket covering the older woman's face and simply shouted at the driver in front of the car.

"The police will not allow your plan to succeed, so turn yourself in before it gets too big!"

When he heard the passenger who had restrained his wife not only call out his name, but also reveal their biggest secret, Wang Xingde's mind buzzed and his heart beat like a drum, almost losing control of the steering wheel.

"How did you replace out?"

The older woman who was pinned to the ground with her jacket over her face could not see what was happening, but understood that the matter was exposed, when the voice came eerily from beneath the jacket.

"We haven't revealed this to anyone."

Boy didn't answer her at all, just stared nervously at Li Shiqing in the front row.

What he can do, he has done, and the rest is up to Li Shiqing to play.

The same question was also on the mind of driver Wang Xingde.

"How do they know that?"

"Could it be that we were targeted a long time ago?"

"What's this chap's origin? Is the car full of plainclothes cops?"

Although still driving on instinct, his mind was in turmoil as the sudden bizarre turn of events in the car made him feel that something was wrong everywhere, and the more he thought about it, the more he thought about it.

"Even if there are police in the car, they can't do anything with us ......"

The sudden change of events made it impossible for him to think clearly, not to mention that he was not originally a thoughtful person, "They are in my car now, everything is still my call."

"All I have to do is get on the bridge by 13:45 and it's all over." He thought, "Right, I just have to drive up to the bridge first and lock the doors, they can't get away if they want to."

"The bombs are going to go off in a few minutes. The bridge is full of cars, they can't stop us ......"

Boy's straightforward approach to explaining his intentions still irritated Wang Xingde's already tense nerves.

To avoid any more 'loose ends', Wang Xingde stepped up the throttle and put the bus into full gear, heading straight for the bridge.

"Ouch!"

The sudden acceleration of the bus caused a number of passengers to stagger and scream in panic.

"Why don't you drive slower!"

The masked man in charge of the pressure cooker was even more frightened, when the car suddenly accelerated, he panicked and pressed the plastic bag, holding it tightly to the ground, for fear that the pressure cooker suddenly blew up with the bumps.

The rampant bus quickly swept across the approach bridge, into the flow of traffic across the river to the bridge, see the speed of the bus driving over so fast, the original point on the bridge in order to wait for the bridge vehicles have to both sides to avoid, by the speeding bus first on the bridge.

When the bus reached the bridge, Wang Xingde's mind was set and he looked back in the direction where his wife had been subdued.

"What's going on?"

Wang Xingde is stunned.

"Why is she sitting here?"

Noticing his gaze, Li Shiqing met his gaze and, as usual, gave him an affectionate smile.

Wang Xingde suddenly withdrew his gaze as if he had been stabbed by something.

" Wang Xingde, where are we?"

Unable to see what was happening, the man who had subdued himself remained silent except for one shout, which made the older woman sulk and scream first.

"We've reached the bridge!"

Wang Xingde replied in a panicked voice, "Don't worry!"

But as he drove on, he began to sense that something was wrong.

Driving over the section just above the bridge, the traffic on the bridge slowly became sparse, not at all the usual traffic, and when you drove a little further, the whole bridge became empty.

Wang Xingde, the main road linking the two busiest areas of the city, has made many round trips on this route to adapt to the complex road conditions, but has never seen such a cold bridge on any of these days.

Unhindered by traffic and having previously increased its speed, the speeding bus arrived at the scene of her daughter's accident earlier than Wang Xingde had expected.

Squeak-

With the sound of tyres scraping violently against the ground, the driver mechanically raised his hand and brought the car to a halt on the open bridge.

The car-free, unoccupied bridge looks like some kind of carefully arranged set, making it impossible to replace any sense of reality.

"What's going on?"

Most of the passengers on the bus were local residents and were familiar with the bridge. They looked out of the bus window in disbelief, looking as if they were sleepwalking and whispering to themselves.

"Why isn't there a single car?"

Even without anyone explaining, they could sense that something big was about to happen.

The unrest was contagious and spread throughout the carriage, with some passengers standing up and sitting down in a daze, like small frightened animals that don't know where to hide.

Some of the grumpier ones simply shout at Xiao Heyun.

"What the hell are you guys doing! The driver is opening the door!"

"You hold her down, don't ever let her be able to move!"

In the midst of the commotion, Boy let go of the older woman, went straight for the nearest safety hammer, pulled it out and started banging on the car window.

" Wang Xingde, what's happening!"

The sound of a safety hammer striking the glass sounded at first, and the older woman being held down squirmed as if she had been electrocuted, shouting hoarsely, "Why did the car stop!"

Wang Xingde did not answer his wife.

Instinctively he realised that something had slipped in a direction he couldn't imagine and subconsciously touched his hand to the gears.

" Uncle Wang, give it up."

A petite figure suddenly appeared at the driver's side and clutched his wrist with her hand, trying to stop him from starting the bus again.

"Don't you stop me!"

Wang Xingde's expression is complicated, but he does not hesitate to reach out and push the girl out of the way.

"Uncle Wang, Wang Mengmeng would not want you to do this!"

Li Shiqing gritted her teeth and yanked on the steering wheel with her other hand, screaming, "If even you guys die, no one will really care about what happened to her back then anymore!"

At the sound of her daughter's name, Wang Xingde's hand on Li Shiqing's shoulder shivered as she stared at the girl in disbelief.

While Li Shiqing and Wang Xingde were at a standstill, police cars waiting on the other side of the bridge came as fast as they could and surrounded the car in a pincer movement.

Two officers got out of the lead car, and as soon as they got out, they ran wildly, straight to the smashed window and reached up.

"Where's the stuff? Where's the pressure cooker with the bomb in it? Hand the stuff down to us to deal with!"

Officer Zhang let out a shout, "Be careful what you put in!"

" Wang Xingde! Wang Xingde!"

"A few more people to help, I can't hold her down any longer!!!"

The robust uncle's whole body looked like it had been fished out of the water. The older woman kept struggling and he kept pushing along with her, and now even his muscles were twitching, both on the verge of failing to hold on.

"She and the driver put a bomb in the car!"

With his shout, Wang Xingde knew that the matter had been completely exposed and that the police had even set up charges on the bridge and in the car, so he didn't care what Li Shiqing was saying and pushed him out with all his strength!

"Ah!"

Li Shiqing falls head first onto the windscreen.

The bus starts up again and Wang Xingde grips the steering wheel, waiting for the car to start and immediately accelerates out.

It was only then that the passengers rushed forward as if it had dawned on them, and together they helped the sturdy uncle to hold the woman down with a firm grip.

Boy, who was holding the pressure cooker, held his breath as he heard his companion's screams and forced himself to resist the urge to look back, poking himself out with all his strength and handing the plastic bag containing the pressure cooker to Officer Wang, who was waiting under the car window.

The car jerked forward.

"Look out!"

When Boy almost fell off the train with the bomb, the masked man who was helping him almost fell out of his skin and pulled him back as quickly as he could.

The plastic bag in Boy's hand was wobbling, just short of Officer Zhang, who was meeting him at the bottom.

Li Shiqing, who had been pushed to the ground, scrambled to his feet and, with a grit of his teeth, jumped straight over and hugged the driver.

" Uncle Wang, I know you are aggrieved, I know it! We'll help you, we'll all help you, please don't do this!"

Li Shiqing couldn't tell whether she was scared or just too nervous, so she rushed out all the words she had thought of, completely disorganised, and her tears came out in a messy way.

"If your daughter really had any grievances, wouldn't you let the people who got her killed be pleased with yourselves by dying like this now? Those who laugh at you won't feel guilty because you're dead, they'll just be happier!"

She shivered, even hiccuping as she spoke because she was so nervous, "The internet isn't full of bad people, I know what happened to Wang Mengmeng, I'll go back and post for you, I'll tell everyone your grievances, I'll mobilize the netizens to replace people who knew back then! There are so many people sitting in this thread, someone will know what happened back then!"

"Please, don't give up! The police will help you too, don't kill yourself!"

"How do you know that?"

Hearing what she was saying, Wang Xingde looked down at the girl in his arms, so shocked that he forgot to move for a moment.

"I know, I know all about it! I know you've come to see your daughter today! Your daughter is right here watching you!"

Li Shiqing felt so bad about herself that all she did was bawl and babble.

"She's the one who told me to stop you! She was the one who didn't want you to meet her like that! She didn't want any more people to die like her!"

"She's here Uncle, she's right here!"

Why did she have to be the one to enter the time loop?

Why did it happen to enter the cycle of time on this day?

Is it really not because of Wang Mengmeng's spirit in heaven?

Gradually, the older woman with her coat over her face struggled more and more slowly and slowly stopped struggling violently.

"Lad, let go!"

When the car didn't start up again, Officer Zhang gave the immediate order.

Boy let go of his hand and the pressure cooker was steadily caught by Officer Zhang and Officer Jiang who were ready underneath.

With the pressure cooker in his hands, Officer Zhang ran for all he was worth across the empty bridge with Officer Jiang running behind him, his eyes fixed on the pressure cooker in his arms.

"Forty-four points up!"

Eyes scanning the screen of his phone, Xiao Heyun stuck his head out of the window and hissed at their backs with red eyes.

"Throw it!!!"

"Ho-ah!"

Officer Zhang suddenly grabbed the carrying handle of the plastic bag, made a huge arc with his right hand and, with a wild shout, threw the pressure cooker off the bridge.

Boom--!

The pressure cooker received a violent jolt and burst open violently just as it fell off the bridge!

With an earth-shattering bang, the fiery wave of air lifted the two nearest officers out of the way, and fragments of the explosives even splattered onto the bridge pillars like hail, sending out a muffled clanging sound.

The men in the other police cars had long been instructed to stay away, and as soon as the pressure cooker was dislodged, they immediately fell to the ground in a prone position, subconsciously covering their ears, and even so, some still cried out in pain from time to time from the splinters.

Officer Zhang, lying on the ground, looks up at the sky, two slow trails of blood coming out of his ears, but with a contented smile on his face.

"Bet on it. ......"

He thought happily, his heart snapping with relief.

Letting consciousness fall into a darkness.

" Mr. Zhang!"

"Open the door now!"

"Quickly, quickly, call for the nearest ambulance and get a doctor over here!"

When the sound of the aftermath of the explosion had passed, the passengers on the bus looked at each other in shock.

"She, why isn't she moving ......"

The first to come to his senses was the hunky older man who was the helper.

When he realised that the older woman he was holding down was not moving, the stocky older man panicked and peeled back the jacket covering her face.

"Don't, don't be bored to death, are you?"

The older woman, who had been struggling violently before, fell to the floor on her back unconscious, her face suffocating.

I don't know if the situation was too chaotic, but whoever pressed the jacket that was blocking her mouth and nose suffocated her.

"We didn't do it, you asked us to help!"

"It was her leg I just squeezed!"

When they heard that someone might have died, a crowd of passengers gathered around them dispersed.

"Stop the car and open the door, you're surrounded!"

The policeman barked orders from outside the car door.

Seeing that the momentum was gone, the driver, Wang Xingde, slowly released his grip on the steering wheel, his eyes blurred with tears.

In his already hazy vision, the sobbing girl in front of him, her face strangely reunited with her daughter's.

He lifted his fingers, faintly traced the contours of his daughter's face and called out to Li Shiqing.

" Mengmeng ......"

Li Shiqing's ears were full of the buzzing sound of the explosion and she wiped her face blankly with snot and tears, not even hearing what the driver was saying.

" Mengmeng, you blame it on dad ......"

A bitter smile spread across the driver's mouth and he mumbled, "It's dad who's a wimp and not capable. Your mother said that if we did that, the police would look into what happened back then and would give you justice ......"

"But since you don't want us to do it, we won't do it and mummy and daddy will turn themselves in."

He pressed the device that opened the door.

The front and rear doors open together with the sound of the air valve being released.

The officers leapt into action.

Instead, he just looked at his "daughter".

"...... Don't you cry, you won't be pretty if you do. ......"

The author has something to say: There will be no more reincarnations, the time cycle will end when the driver "lets go".

Shhhh, no apparitions, no demons given to becoming spirits after the founding of the country, and no spirits or ghosts can appear in a socialist society ......

There are a few more chapters in this story, which will explain some of the ambiguities and the lives of Boy and the little girl after the events are over.

But the book doesn't end there, there's another unit!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival in advance, so I'll spare you all the anxiety of the festival and write more happy things tomorrow!