The Beginning

Chapter 24: The Eighteenth Cycle of Time

"From the only data available, it's impossible to tell whether we've stopped the time loop or just stopped time going backwards; if it's the first, that means we only have one chance to fix this ......"

Boy looked at the time with a heavy expression, "But it's 13:22 and I was in such bad shape earlier that I wasted too much time and we may not have enough time."

It is not enough, it is simply the same as waiting to die.

"If it's just that time has stopped going backwards, we have to think about why that's happening."

He was nervous, but forced himself to calm down and continue to deduce, "There are two possibilities for time to stop at this stop. The first is that we have succeeded in finding the explosives, and we have succeeded in finding the culprit, and the only way to think about it is that maybe because we have 'met' a certain condition, God doesn't feel the need to give us time to try again and again ......"

"The second possibility, maybe because the 'source' of things is at this stop." Boy shuddered, "Then we have to consider what happened at this stop. For example, the older woman with the pressure cooker got on at this stop ......"

Since the tragedy was caused by the bomb in the pressure cooker, there was no point in going back in time, and it made sense to think of it in this way.

Li Shiqing understood, but her mood became more flustered.

"We have to think the worst."

She suppressed the panic and uneasiness in her mind, "If we disregard the latter scenario, if we're really in the last sequential time loop this time, what would it take to stop this explosion now?"

"It may not be the first case, it's all the more reason why we can't deflate ourselves at this point, not to mention that the situation isn't too bad at the moment."

Boy glanced at the East River Road station he had missed and steeled himself to explain to her, "...... The explosion just now also gave us a lot of information."

"First of all, the explosive was a pressure cooker that's for sure, and the way I visually saw it start was by pulling the pressure limiting valve. So we should never let the older woman touch that pressure cooker during any of our operations."

Boy lowered his voice and whispered in Li Shiqing's ear. "This older woman is cold and wary, and won't even pay attention to your attempts to get attention, so there's no way to 'outsmart' her, you can only 'force' her."

"The good thing is that she's only a thin, middle-aged woman, so if we both go together there's a good chance we'll succeed in taking the pressure cooker."

"Are you sure it's going to work?"

It's not that Li Shiqing despises Boy, but Boy's 'force value' has been particularly worrying.

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The masked man the masked man can't fight, and the old grandfather the old grandfather can't grab.

The middle-aged woman looked thin and frail, as if the wind would blow her over, but could someone ruthless enough to hold a bomb and die with the people in the bus really be handled that easily?

"I was trying to 'confirm the situation' before that, and this is a different thing from actually fighting for my life."

Boy knew what Li Shiqing was worried about and rubbed the top of her head, saying in a very sure tone, "I know what's in that pot, and with your safety and my future at stake, it's definitely going to take all the courage and strength you can muster."

"Since you think it's okay, I'll go ahead and assume we can successfully grab the pressure cooker. So what do we do after we succeed in snatching the pressure cooker?"

Li Shiqing hit the nail on the head with the most practical question, "We can't keep carrying the pot around, can we? Even if we call the police now, it's definitely too late."

"Given the time constraints, here's my initial idea."

Boy took out his book and started writing again, starting his 'plan pass' again.

"Here, this junction, I've observed that many times before we've had crashes at around 13:29, and if the driver isn't distracted, this junction can usually be crossed without incident, so we can't strike near this point in time, once we cause the driver to be distracted, it's easy to hit the tanker again for no apparent reason... ..."

Boy draws a junction and marks it with the words "13.29".

"I suggest we time our move for after 13.30 and launch immediately after we successfully pass that junction."

"Yes."

Li Shiqing nods.

"After this junction, we'll be on the approach bridge, which won't be too fast, so we'll do it on the approach." Boy drew an 'X' on the approach bridge.

"The bus goes on the bridge to the right, when we grab the pressure cooker, we must never let the older woman touch the pressure limiting valve, when I restrain the older woman, you take off the safety hammer as fast as you can and crack the glass to the right, when the glass breaks, we will throw the pressure cooker off the bridge. With the river below the bridge, the damage from the explosion will be reduced."

"As for the safety hammer, I tried it before when I grabbed the safety hammer, the car's safety hammer is easy to take off, and with very little force you can crack the whole window, you don't need to keep your hand, the glass immediately throw the pot as soon as it breaks ......"

While Boy was talking about his plan, Li Shiqing was watching the clock. By the time the 27 minutes had passed, she had no time to discuss anything else with Boy and immediately got up, walked over to the driver and warned him about the motorbikes and tankers on the road.

As many times before, the driver took her advice and slowed down to avoid the junction, as Li Shiqing was still a 'familiar face' to him.

Seeing that he had successfully passed the junction, Li Shiqing did not immediately leave the driver's vicinity, but waited patiently until the car eased onto the approach bridge before turning back to look for his companion.

Seeing Boy stand up slightly and nod to her, she took a deep breath and walked with a firm gait in the direction of her aunt.

At the same time, Boy also rushed to the front row in three or two steps, put his arms around the older woman, and with all his strength, lifted her up and dragged her out of the bus seat!

The older woman, who had been sitting upright, hadn't expected this turn of events and when she screamed and was pulled out of her seat by Boy, her first reaction was to try to reach her plastic bag.

Li Shiqing, however, didn't give her a chance to touch the plastic bag at all; she had long since dragged the other woman out of the pressure cooker the moment Boy yanked her out, carefully holding her out of reach of the older woman.

The previous time loops weren't useless, at least the "naked choke" and "throat lock" skills that Boy had learned in the interim were effective on the middle-aged woman, although they were useless on the masked man.

His right arm tightened around the older woman's neck from behind, squeezed with his left arm and used both his waist and leg strength to keep her in place in a death grip, making sure she couldn't struggle.

"Don't even touch the pressure cooker, there's a bomb in that pressure cooker!"

Boy saw someone trying to get up to stop it and let out a stern cry, "No one touches it or we all go down together!"

A few passengers who were about to step forward were really startled and stopped in their tracks with pale faces. The area around the pressure cooker instantly looked like a no-go area and everyone stayed away from it in fear.

Boy's shout stopped not only the passengers, but also the driver who was driving in front of him.

The driver was unaware of what was happening behind him, but then Boy shouted "there's a bomb in the pressure cooker", and probably out of fear, the driver's foot, which was controlling the brakes, involuntarily stepped on it, and the bus slowly began to slow down.

But when the driver slowed down, Li Shiqing, who had planned to knock on the window, became anxious.

If the car can't drive over the bridge, then the bomb can't be dropped into the water, and without the river to cushion the impact of the bomb, the result is likely to be another casualty.

"Uncle, you can't slow down, keep driving up the bridge!"

Li Shiqing shouted as she quickly took off her safety hammer and pounded it hard on the windows at several pressure points.

As Boy said, with each blow of the safety hammer, the glass surface of the window appeared to shatter like a snowflake and spread out like a spider's web, and soon the whole window was so cracked that it would all shatter with a single blow!

Just as Boy was beginning to look pleased and ready to wait for his companions to throw the pot as originally agreed, a sudden change occurred!

The older woman, who had been violently struggling under Boy's stranglehold, fished a fruit knife out of some pocket and stabbed Boy viciously in the waist with her backhand!

Boy didn't expect the older woman to carry a "murder weapon" with her, and the knife struck him firmly in the right side of his waist, causing him to flinch and letting go of his strength to trap her.

"You ...... it!"

Before he could react, the older woman had broken free of his shackles and twisted around to draw her knife and stab again!

Boy was not expecting this and was stabbed in several places, including his arm and thigh, and the woman, whether she was vicious or frightened, kept repeating the "stabbing" motion with her knife, moving so fast and hard that several bloody holes appeared on Boy's body in almost the blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, Boy's mind went blank, staring at the blood on his body as if the ability to think had drained out of the wounds along with the blood.

Seeing such a horrific "death" in the car, those who thought the "bomb" was a joke finally got scared, and all of a sudden the carriage was in chaos, not to mention going to stop it. People were trying to stay away from these "madmen" and crowded to the door of the car.

Some of them screamed, others shouted "murder", and several demanded that the driver stop and open the door immediately, despite the fact that there were cars in front and behind them on the whole bridge.

Li Shiqing was already stunned by the sudden turn of events.

"Leave me alone, pot ......"

Seeing his companion seemingly stunned, he shouted weakly, but his breath was so weak that no one could hear what he was saying except himself.

The grim-faced woman had pushed Boy, who was badly injured, out of the way and was heading straight for Li Shiqing with her knife.

Seeing the older woman covered in blood and coming at her as if she were a demon from hell, Li Shiqing subconsciously ran away, still clutching the safety hammer in her hand.

The safety hammer may have proved useful for knocking on the glass, but it made no sense at all to fend off the knife-wielding assailant, and she didn't even make it two steps before she was overtaken by the older woman who lunged at her like a madman.

"Ah!"

A sudden sharp pain in her back made Li Shiqing stiffen, and then her scalp felt a strong pull of some kind.

She was yanked by her ponytail and had to suck in a backwards breath forcing her head backwards, the short but sharp fruit knife already across her throat.

A face with a twisted expression appeared in front of her eyes.

"Help, help ......"

Li Shiqing was so frightened that she broke down, tears and snot flowing out of her eyes.

Someone please save her ......

The older woman's eyes were insensitive from start to finish, even with a knife to a young girl's neck, the expression was similar to that of an ordinary housewife preparing to kill and bleed a chicken before cooking.

Wait, kill the chicken and bleed it out?

Li Shiqing The thought just came to her mind, and the fear in her heart finally reached its peak at this moment ......

There was a chill in her throat and she lost consciousness completely.