The Beginning - Chapter 58: The Undeliverable Delivery (XV)

Bitterly, of course, you know nothing.

How could you possibly know what was going to happen to that Xiao Heyun this afternoon when you were just a poor, ordinary person stuck on the same day, not some kind of prophet?

You only just found out from the police officer that the bus he was on exploded.

Thinking of the bus-tanker collision you saw during your first time loop, you take a breath and suddenly understand why the delivery doesn’t arrive every afternoon.

How can you deliver to a dead man if that Xiao Heyun is on a bus that will eventually crash?

For a moment, your heart is grey.

You’re just a veteran, not some special forces soldier, and things like defusing bombs are out of your league, and you have no idea what’s really going on.

If you have to deliver this delivery to stop the time loop, then you may not have any hope of stopping the time loop at all.

Mr. Zhang, of course, did not believe in “prophecy”, but he thought that there was some necessary connection between you stopping Xiao Heyun from leaving the house and you sending the police to Qin Rourou’s house to save the children, and he even went to question the air conditioner who had been caught to try to find a connection between you.

But no matter how hard Mr. Zhang tried, he could not find any suspicion or motive for your involvement, let alone any connection between them.

He asked you repeatedly and found out that you really didn’t know anything, so he had to go home without any success. He was carrying the burden of investigating the bombing and could not stay with you for too long, so he had to let the others continue to ask you questions while he went to deal with matters relating to the bombing.

You broke a door and were already subject to a public order order, but with the Xiao Heyun incident, you were locked up for a day and a night and spent the hardest night in the police station since the time loop.

Waking up again, you wipe your face dishevelled and stand in front of the sink mirror, taking a good look at yourself.

You have very short hair, big eyebrows and a square face. Although you have been out of active service for a while, your skin is still the same wheat colour you had in the army.

When you wake up in the morning, you should see a face in the mirror that is full of energy.

But now, there is weariness written in your eyes.

When time was just cycling, you had no expectations in mind and you didn’t know much about everything, so you were able to keep your initial thoughts and deliver day after day, and even find it interesting.

There are so many things you want to do with the girl you’re attached to, and all of them require you to have a “tomorrow”.

So you can’t choose to take the risk.

You pondered whether you could stop the bombing if you called the police directly, but you wondered whether you could gain the police’s trust and whether you would be arrested as an accomplice or a suspect for it.

You considered whether you should get on the 45 bus and try to stop the bombing, but after a day in the Public Security Bureau, you didn’t know who was carrying the bomb or how many criminals were on board, so there was no way to stop it.

What’s more, you can’t bet that you’ll be “resurrected” the day after you die, what if you die in the process of stopping the bombing and you’re really dead and there’s no tomorrow?

You start to feel anxious, confused and in a war of words. Your moral sense and your reason are pulling against each other, one side telling you that you should try to save the people in the car, the other side telling you that you should choose to save your life.

With such a burden in your heart, you can be described as “lost in thought” when you go out and almost get hit by a car when you buy breakfast and cross the road to give it to an old man.

“Didn’t sleep well last night, lad?”

The old man who has received the breakfast takes a few glances at you and sees the key at a glance.

“Something on your mind?”

You nod your head with a bitter smile.

“It’s good to be young, there are so many things to think about. Unlike me, I’m just waiting for the day when I’ll get my legs under me and go to heaven early to live a good life.”

He sighed as he nibbled on his pancakes.

“There are so many things you should have done when you were young that you didn’t do, and when you get older, you just regret it. But what’s the use of regrets, time doesn’t come back once it’s gone ……”

“What if time, once gone, will return?”

You murmur.

“God doesn’t just give people such good things, otherwise everyone would have the chance to fix their mistakes and the world would be a mess.” The old man bristled, “For example, when I didn’t work properly back then, I lost my job and replaced it with a hard-working person. If time was turned back and I didn’t quit my job, it would have been the turn of the hardworking person who took my place to be without a job, and he might have been changed for life. Wouldn’t you say that’s true?”

You are stunned to think that a down-and-out old man who has wandered for half his life could say something like that.

“Who hasn’t wanted to go back in time? Everyone wants to. Even if I don’t fall down in this pit, I will fall down in the next one, and I can’t hide from it, and it’s useless to start all over again. God has calculated everything, the road is your own, what kind of life you live is your own choice, so don’t be a fool!”

As he spoke, he wiped tears from his eyes.

You are silent for a while, not knowing how to respond.

“Forget it, I’m not very good in the head, I talk upside down, don’t listen to me, what I say is all nonsense!” The old man raised his head, “A good man like you must be blessed by heaven, not like me.”

You leave the old man and call the aid station from around the corner where he can’t see you.

On the way to the business point, you keep thinking about what the old man said, especially the theory that “if everyone could fix their own mistakes, the world would be a mess”.

You don’t know where in the world changing the fate of the elderly, Qin Rourou and the little children would mess up, but you know that your conscience would be “messed up” if you didn’t save them.

You arrived at the business point, took over the work scheduled for the day and then delivered the courier as fast as you could.

After your morning delivery, you don’t choose to go back, but knock on Qin Rourou’s door.

“Who is it?”

Without having received a call in advance from the courier, Qin Rourou is wary of you, a stranger, and asks you through the door why you are here.

Your heart sinks and you suddenly feel that even if you die like this, it’s not really a bad thing.

What you feared most when you started the time loop, has happened anyway.

“My name is Song Bodao, I am twenty-three years old, I joined the army at the age of eighteen, I have been serving in the army, I just came to this city earlier this year and now I am a courier ……”

Qin Rourou knows nothing about you, you lean against the closed door frame, your eyes downcast as you describe your origins.

“Your name is Qin Rourou, a native of the city of S. You graduated from xx University and are now a screenwriter by profession. Your biggest hobby is watching movies, you have thousands of movies saved in your computer, your favourite movie is The Shawshank Redemption and your favourite director is Christopher Nolan. At home you have a cat called Pi Pi, which was given to you by a college friend when he left the city after graduation ……”

The door slams open and the familiar figure appears in front of you, wrapped in a warm woolen shawl and staring at you with wide eyes.

You stand up straight for a moment, leaning against the doorframe, and seeing the fear written in her eyes, you can only squeeze out a still gentle smile and a soft voice to reassure her.

“Don’t you be scared, I’m not some weirdo, you told me all this ……”

You sigh.

“But it’s you from other timelines.”

Once again, the girl shows you her amazing tolerance by not shutting the door immediately and calling the police, nor does she look at you as if you were a madman or a stalker.

“What are you talking about? Can you say it more clearly?”

She purses her lips, and with a little wonder, a little curiosity, she pursues you.

So you stood in front of her house and told the story of what had happened between you and her in short and concise terms, and the little incident she had told you about her crush.

You didn’t say anything about the past between you and her that you kept coming back to.

You didn’t mention how you went from shopping for your clothes with you to carrying her bags, or the gourmet meals and roadside stalls, or the amusement park where the moon was just right tonight, or the training centre with a big future ahead of it.

You hold down the deer that has been pounding inside you and bow your head slightly, not wanting her to see more of what’s in your eyes.

If you’re not destined for tomorrow, why bother people?

You tell the weird story of what happened to you as if you were a friend visiting another friend.

After hearing what you said, her face reddened and she took a step backwards.

“All right, I believe it 80%, come in first and talk.”

Probably thinking it too strange to stand at the door and listen to a stranger tell such a story, she lets you in once more.

Once again, you worry about her kindness and enthusiasm.

Could she have escaped her destiny without you in the rest of the timeline?

You think about it and are suddenly relieved.

If you had “disappeared” in any other timeline, the other cat litter couriers might not have called at that time of the afternoon, let alone brought it upstairs, and she might have avoided a disaster.

In the end, she will open the door easily, but only because of your promise.

It’s all providential.

You close your eyes and smile bitterly.

“If what you say is true, then is coming to me today the same as before?”

Qin Rourou brings a glass of hot milk and hands it to you.

“Do you want me to have dinner with you today, or do you want to go out with you”

“Neither.”

You take the mug and hold it in your hand.

Lifting your head, you look earnestly into her eyes, as if trying to hold it in mind.

“I came because I was hoping to get your help.”

“Huh?”

Qin Rourou is a bit confused.

“Do you know how to ride an electric bike? Do you have a driving licence?”

You suddenly ask.

“Hmm? Will, will, have a driving licence too.”

Qin Rourou is still in a state of confusion.

“That’s fine.”

You sigh with relief and start to explain.

“The thing is, I have a very important thing to do at two o’clock this afternoon that may delay my delivery. Apart from that, there is another thing that someone has to stop this afternoon ……”

You said something about the little kid who fell down the stairs.

“I’m just one person, I can’t be in the east and in the west all at once, it’s a bit embarrassing to say, but ……”

You hold your mug and ask blushingly, “Could you please deliver a delivery for me this afternoon and save the little kid in the process?”

Qin Rourou is dumbfounded by your request.

“Delivering, delivering a courier?”

Qin Rourou scratched his face, “Yes, but I’ve never delivered before, so I probably don’t have much experience, so I probably won’t deliver well, so maybe I’ll hold you back ……”

“It’s okay, I’ll deliver as many as I can, and I’ll leave you with my work badge and work phone. It will time cycle every day anyway, if I don’t deliver well today, I’ll just deliver again tomorrow.”

You look at her with a particularly sincere expression, “And that kid, you don’t want to catch it yourself, I broke my hands the first time I did it, you’re so skinny you might get smashed even worse. Just go upstairs early and tell the family it’s not safe for him to play on the ledge, I’ll let you know roughly when.”

“Huh? Yeah, okay, well I’ll go change and get the delivery with you.”

She entered the bedroom with a bewildered look on her face.

You breathe a sigh of relief when you see that she agrees.

In the process of getting along with her, you find that she is an extremely action-oriented person, often her body is already in action before her mind can react, this is especially obvious when you get along with her, for example, you are still talking about going to the amusement park, the next moment she has already bought the tickets ……

So all you have to do is tell her what you want and get her agreement, and she will follow it immediately.

And your aim is not to get her to deliver, but just to get her out of the house.

The bombing happened at 1.45pm, but the air-conditioner had just come to the door. You promised her that you would come to her rescue every time, but I’m afraid you’ll have to break your promise this time.

So, you hope she was in a safe place at that time and had no idea that this would happen to her.

You took her downstairs with you, who had changed, and told her that you had a heavy task and she was new, so it was best not to go back at noon. You called the master to tell him that you would not be going back for lunch, and then invited her out for lunch, during which you told her the process of delivering the courier.

After receiving a call from the master, she follows your courier van outside the office and you trouble her to wait for a while at the milk tea shop next to the office and go back to the business location.

You received the package that was sorted in the afternoon and drove the delivery truck to pick her up from the milk tea shop.

She was smart enough to quickly learn to drive your electric car, and you entrusted her with everything, telling her to be safe on the road and that it was okay to take it slow, and then took out the separate delivery for Xiao Heyun from the delivery.

“If things go well, I’ll meet you at this creamery at 5pm.”

You hold the delivery and say to the girl who makes your heart sing, “If things don’t work out and you don’t make it back, you drive to my delivery point and give it to my master, whose last name is Ding.”

“What are you …… going to do?”

Qin Rourou’s heart swells with unease and he suddenly takes you by the arm.

“Why would it not come back?”

“It’s not a big deal, it’s also a delivery, it’s just a bit further away.”

You shake the delivery box in your hand.

“Didn’t I guess I’d have to deliver all the couriers to end the time loop? This delivery is one of the most troublesome ones, I can’t deliver it every time, so I’m making a special trip this time.”

Qin Rourou frowned and loosened his grip in disbelief.

After all, no matter how strange it is, you are a stranger to her and she will not pursue it out of concern for an acquaintance or friend after you have explained it.

“Bye.”

Looking at her loosened hand, a sudden sadness rises up in your heart and you step forward instead and give her a gentle hug.

“I hope you’re having a good time.”

Happy every day.

She struggles a little less comfortably and you immediately release her and turn away.

You’ve said your goodbyes to her properly.

After separating from Qin Rourou, you take off your uniform, buy a mask and put it on, then find a newsagent you know, pay for the phone and call the police from a public phone.

This newsstand, which you found by accident some time ago, is owned by a very old man who not only sells newspapers and books, but actually keeps a landline, a device that has been phased out, to provide convenient services such as public telephones and fast charging of electric bicycles.

You told them about the bombing that was to take place at 1.45pm. The police took your information very seriously and repeatedly asked for details, but you didn’t know much about the bombing either and couldn’t tell them anything, so you hung up in a hurry.

The old man at the newsagent looks at you in alarm as you drop a dollar coin and leave in a hurry.

After this junction, you hail a taxi and head straight for the last stop before the 45 bus goes up to the bridge.

Due to the unique nature of the bombing, neither the police nor the media have disclosed much information, and you have not paid much attention to the news at every previous time loop, so you, now, do not know the exact license plate number of the car that was involved in the accident.

But you know the time of the accident.

1:45 explosion is in the centre of the bridge, two stops on either side of the bridge about twenty-five minutes, you count the time on the approach bridge, through the mobile phone map to calculate the results: – the last stop to the centre of the bridge bus takes about 15-18 minutes, you just squat here, at about 1:25 to reach this bus stop 45 bus, the 80% is the same bus that had the accident.

The 45 bus runs about 15 minutes and you are crouched on the platform, anxiously watching for every bus coming from River Road.

You have two plans.

The first plan is to get in the car as fast as you can as soon as it arrives and pull Xiao Heyun down. If he doesn’t want to get off, use violence to bring him down as well.

Officer Zhang has shown you a photograph of Xiao Heyun and his physical features are so distinctive that you will be able to recognise him.

When you get off the bus, you let him sign the delivery and get a scolding at most, or let him beat it out of him.

If there is not enough time, you are ready to implement the second plan and stay in the car to help.

From Officer Zhang, you learn that Xiao Heyun tried to stop the bombing, but he was too weak to do so, and you think that since you are at least in the army, you might be of some use to him if he has you on board.

Of course, first he had to sign for the delivery.

You wait nervously and fearfully for the bus to arrive, even the delivery box you are holding in your arms is bent at the edges in your nervousness.

It’s about 1.20 or so when an eligible bus heads in that direction. You look at the time and see that there’s unlikely to be a second 45 bus within that time frame, so you take a few quick steps in front of the bus stop with the delivery box in your arms.

You are ready to run on the bus as soon as it opens.

Yet this bus is so uncharacteristically fast that it doesn’t even stop at this stop, it just drives past you, not to mention opening the door.

You subconsciously chased after it, running wildly after the bus.

Vaguely, you see what appears to be two people standing by the back window, one man with something in his hand and his arm around a woman’s neck, in a position a bit like the hostage taking that often occurs in movies.

Could that be the outlaw?

The faster the car drove, it was already on the approach bridge, heading straight for the bridge and up, chasing behind you gradually stretched out, ate a stomach of car exhaust also failed to keep up with the car, tired and collapsed beside the bridge pier.

You look at the bus as it takes off, bewildered.