Chapter 1: Beginning the Time Cycle (Revised)

It was only on the third 'incident' that Li Shiqing really realised that something was wrong.

Either she was crazy, or something strange and unexplainable by science had happened to her.

Despite her innermost fears, she was quite sure she was not mad.

She was just an ordinary college girl, with two parents and a beautiful family, a cheerful personality, three or five close friends, no relationship blowback, no bullying or discrimination at school, and she felt that her future was bright and that there was no chance of her going crazy.

But if things continue to "go wrong" like this, there is no guarantee that she will not go mad.

--

When it first happened, Li Shiqing actually thought she was dreaming.

There was no way to blame her for thinking that, who told her that her destination was the bottom stop of this bus line. The total duration was close to an hour, and every time she got on the bus she fell asleep.

Anyway, when she arrived at the bottom station, the driver's uncle, who was already familiar with her, would call out to her.

It turned out that the driver didn't call her, but whose mobile phone rang to wake her up.

Li Shiqing is still a little miffed when she is woken up by the Canons and spins on repeat.

One or two o'clock in the afternoon is the time when people are most drowsy, so naturally they don't want to wake up somehow.

But unfortunately this bit of resentment did not last long before it was washed away by the sudden impact.

It all came so fast, like the kind of shock you experience with your eyes closed when riding a rollercoaster.

Li Shiqing had never been in a car accident since she was a child, so she didn't even realise she had been in one when her head was slammed against the back of the seat in front of her by the huge force of inertia.

A splitting headache combined with a strong feeling of vomiting made her unable to think and, accompanied by the screams of the passengers on the bus, she just passed out.

--

Probably because the first "accident" was so quick, when Li Shiqing "woke up again", it was only with the feeling of having just woken up from a nightmare, too dazed to believe it was real.

Li Shiqing pinched herself, it hurt, she was not dreaming.

Rubbed his head again.

It was fine, not swollen and not broken.

She looked out of the window and the car was well on its set route, just over the river crossing bridge and about to arrive at the terminal, everything was normal.

But as she was patting herself on the back and rejoicing that "it was a dream", the damn phone rang again!

Li Shiqing almost jumped like a frightened rabbit when the Canons' chorus suddenly started to play in the carriage.

She heard a passenger behind her kindly ask "what's wrong with the little girl", and felt a few strange glances directed at her with a touch of suspicion.

It would have been humiliating, but Li Shiqing couldn't care less.

Only one thought flashed repeatedly through her mind.

- "Is something going to happen? Is something really going to happen? Am I not dreaming?"

The ringing of the phone, which didn't last long from beginning to end, was like a symbol to her, pulling her into some nightmare all at once.

Then the nightmare really did strike once more.

The bus, which had been driving at an even speed, suddenly made a sharp turn and the passengers screamed, several of them not sitting still and being thrown out of their seats or hitting their heads on the front seats as she had just done in her "nightmare".

Li Shiqing, who was standing, was no exception, and in the moment of the sharp turn she fell backwards on her back, waving both hands unconsciously in front of her, trying to catch something.

As Li Shiqing was about to fall, it was as if she saw an arm reaching out to her, handing it to her with difficulty.

Her instincts made her want to pull at the hand and clutch it tightly, yet all she saw was her arm arcing feebly in mid-air ......

Then there was the sharp pain of the back of the head hitting the ground hard.

--

The third time she "woke up", Li Shiqing looked around in confusion.

The bus runs from River Road to Jiangbei District and there is a section of the river bridge in between, after which the bus terminates. There are several colleges along the route and when she got on the bus it was quite crowded, but when she woke up there were not many people on the bus and it was quite empty.

The view from the car window shows that the bridge has not yet been reached.

Because of the long journey with few stops, most people chose to do what she did, get on the bus, find a seat and fall asleep, with only a few people awake.

This bus is now as quiet as a school library.

But her "nightmares" tell her to wait until the phone rings, then these people will be woken up and ......

--The car will be in trouble.

Realising that something was going to happen to the car, Li Shiqing's forehead and the back of her head, which had been injured in the "nightmare", were suddenly in severe pain, probably as a result of some kind of stress reaction.

She clutched her head with a miserable cry.

"Are you all right?"

Boy the Glasses, sitting next door, asked worriedly.

The pain came and went like a tidal wave, and finally everything returned to normal, as if the pain had just been a dream.

Boy, who was sitting next to her, pushed up his glasses and seemed nervous, repeatedly checking to see what was wrong with the girl next to him and whether he needed to call an ambulance.

Ambulance?

That's right! Even though something will happen to this car, she can warn others!

Reminded by the glasses boy next door, Li Shiqing realises that there is a way out.

Without any hesitation at all, she immediately jumped up and yelled at the driver, "Uncle driver, I don't feel well, stop the car!"

She often takes this bus route and the driver of this line is a familiar face to her.

The driver was a very good-faced and nice person, and never lost his temper with anyone in the car. Usually when she got in the car, she would occasionally chat with the older man.

If she had a sudden illness, the uncle would have let her out of the car immediately to seek medical attention, right?

"Not here, there are no stops and it's easy to hit the back when you stop."

The driver looked back, probably because he saw that Li Shiqing could still stand up properly, and responded, "I'll drive faster to get to the next stop as soon as possible!"

"Stop the car, stop the car now!"

Li Shiqing, unable to explain any more, rushed to the door of the car in one breath and rapped hard on the door.

"What's a little girl doing yo!"

"Why are you so excited all of a sudden? Nuts, right?"

The people in the car were "whispering" in voices that could be heard.

As luck would have it, the driver hesitated when he heard the passengers' whining.

"You don't look too good right now ......"

"No stopping, let me get off alone, okay? Please, Uncle!"

Are you kidding me? I just looked out and I've crossed Middle River Road and the next stop is on the river bridge.

Waiting for the next stop and losing your life!

"What's wrong with you, I said no parking now!"

The driver's voice was vaguely angry, "There are so many cars going by, what if you get into an accident? If you don't think about yourself, you have to think about your parents, right?"

It's because of her parents that she wants to get off the bus, uncle!

"We have to stop Uncle, something will happen to this car!!!"

Li Shiqing was so anxious that she cried out.

"What nonsense the little girl is talking about!"

The driver's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really, Uncle, this car ......"

Just as Li Shiqing could not contain her emotions and tears came to her eyes, the dreaded mobile phone rang once again.

To the Canons' polyphonic music, she saw her hands shaking like a sieve of flour, unable to grasp the handrail of the car door.

"Master driver, don't turn around, watch the car! Hey hey hey hey hey hey!"

She saw Boy, who was sitting next door earlier, wide-eyed and screaming desperately.

The familiar and unfamiliar scene is like a replay montage, and Li Shiqing closes her eyes in despair, feeling herself being thrown back into the air ......

After a rollercoaster of weightlessness, her forehead ached and she lost consciousness once more.

--

No one, no matter how thick-skinned, would consider it an "accident" to have the exact same "nightmare" three times in a row, especially when it's so horrible.

So when Li Shiqing woke up for the fourth time and realised that this might not be a dream, she made up her mind to get out of the car no matter what.

Li Shiqing noticed that every time she "woke up", she felt both physically and mentally weak, and she could clearly feel that her body was getting out of shape and that every "nightmare" was having an effect on her.

Apart from the previous headaches, this time when she had just come to her senses, her hands shook like a Parkinson's patient and it took her half a day to recover as normal.

Her violent shaking even woke up Boy with glasses, who was sleeping next door.

When Boy woke up, he looked at Li Shiqing with a shocked look, his right hand outstretched and retracted, probably because he wanted to hold her hand to stop her from shaking so much, but was afraid that it would be too rude to her.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't think you're acting so nice that I can't see that you have 'how did you get this disease at such a young age' written all over your sorry face, okay?"

Li Shiqing felt that she should be dead out of her mind and had the audacity to spit it out in her mind.

"Do you need help?"

Boy with glasses finally asks hesitantly.

The overwhelming fear seemed to stimulate Li Shiqing's adrenaline rush, which in turn calmed her down.

"No need."

Feeling the sensation gradually return to her arm, she rejected him quickly and stood up.

Time was short and she was in a hurry to get off the bus and had no time to climb into conversation with him.

"Uncle driver, I'm a bit under the weather, can I pull over?"

In order to prevent the driver from turning around too often and having an "accident", Li Shiqing simply walked up to him and lowered his voice to ask.

Recalling the details of her "accident", she felt that the reason she did not get off the bus was because of the way she communicated with the driver.

If she was hysterical and wanted to get out of the car like that, she was mentally ill and the driver, if he was a responsible person, would not have let her out of the car in that state.

So this time, Li Shiqing decided to play the role of a frail girl with a "sudden illness".

She often took this route and got to know the uncle well, and usually took the initiative to say hello and so on.

When Li Shiqing approached her and asked to stop, the driver slowed down, looked back at her with difficulty and said hesitantly, "Ah, this is a bad place to stop, we're about to go over the bridge."

Li Shiqing glanced out of the car window and immediately understood what he meant.

This is where the approach bridge is located and all the vehicles going onto it converge from all sides and are really prone to traffic accidents.

But he hesitated!

If you hesitate, you're in for a treat!

"Please uncle, I have a heart condition and my heart has been hurting since just now."

Li Shiqing covered her chest and approached him with a sobbing voice.

"Help me, can you take me to the hospital?"

The driver's uncle looked in the rear mirror of the car.

There was no need for a "disguise" at all, just think of how the car had been in trouble the last few times and her face in the rear mirror, white as a ghost.

"Master driver, stop the car, don't get into any trouble!"

The few passengers in the carriage who were still awake overheard the conversation between Li Shiqing and the driver and began to help.

"Look at the little girl's ugly face, yo! Hurry up and get someone off the bus and go to the hospital."

"It's really hard for me."

Li Shiqing squeezed out a few tears and looked at the driver with pity.

"Hey, well, I'm still dropping off guests here, so call a cab to the hospital yourself."

The driver's uncle's expression struggled for a few moments as the car continued to slow down and the steering wheel was flicked to lean to the right.

The afterglow sweeps across the view out of the window, with only a few slings faintly visible in the distance across the river bridge.

Great, finally stopped before going up to the bridge!

"Thank you, Uncle!"

Li Shiqing's hand, which was covering her chest, crumpled into a fist in excitement.

"Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam ......"

Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, however, the Canons' bell rang once more in the carriage.

Why?

She turned her head incredulously to find out where the ringing phone was coming from, only to see the car lurch forward so heavily that all the passengers "flew" out of their seats.

Li Shiqing's hands failed to grasp the railing beside the driver because she had to pretend to be "holding her heart in her hands", and with a huge inertia and a resigned cry in her heart, she lunged forward.

"Next time, I'll make sure I grab something first!"

The last image seen in consciousness was the cobweb-like windscreen in front of him.

Author's Note: Yes, it's the story of an unlucky girl stuck in a car, trying to figure out how to get down.

It is not too long and there are no spirits or scares, so even the faint-hearted can read it without fear. Because of the suspense, I have chosen the first person, so I hope you can accept it.

Revision 1.0:

Boy adds the attribute of "man with glasses".

The first reaction of the "I" was to "stop" rather than "get out of the car".

Modify the view out of the car window to presume the location of the accident.