Chapter 1
Must Stay By Your Side
The gentleness that the world owes to you, I’ll return to you on its behalf.
—Fu Nanli
At 5:30pm, typhoon signal No.3 was raised as Typhoon Mina struck. Rain was pelting mercilessly against the windows of the quiet and dimly-lit house, making it difficult to see.
It took Wen Qiao an entire afternoon to finally realize that she seemed to have been reborn.
It felt like there were alarm bells going off in her head, pounding and making a great din.
-Must stay by Fu Nanli’s side
-Must stay by Fu Nanli’s side
-Or else you will die!!
-You really will die!!!
Wen Qiao rapped herself on her head. “I got it, got it already. How many times are you going to repeat it?”
The name Fu Nanli sounded a little familiar. A ray of white light flashed by in her head, and suddenly it all came back to her. In her previous lifetime, she seemed to have seen this name in the news. Two days before the submission of her college application, the sole heir of the Fu family, Fu Nanli, died in a car accident on his way to the airport.
Hmmm… Wen Qiao glanced at the calendar on the desk, and saw that the date 24th of June had been circled. If today was the 22nd… wasn’t that the day after tomorrow? Then—
That meant Fu Nanli was going to get into a car accident tonight!
With no time to think, she immediately grabbed her umbrella and dashed outside. On her way out, she almost crashed into her mother in the courtyard, who was entering the door at the same time.
Su Yun held her back. “Here’s a sandwich and some milk, it’s only one day past the expiration date. The supermarket boss allowed me to bring these back. You haven’t eaten your dinner, have you? You can eat this later.”
Caught in a hurry, Wen Qiao shook off her mother’s hand. “Mom, I have something urgent to attend to. I need to go out now.”
With that, she ran outside. Behind her, her mother’s voice grew increasingly softer. “Where are you going in this heavy rain?”
Wen Qiao casually flagged down a cab. After getting into the cab, she put down her umbrella and set it down beside her feet. She then flicked off the rainwater on her skirt as she said, “Sir, to the Dongpu Airport please.”
The cab driver turned on the meter and stepped on the accelerator, and the vehicle made its way through the torrential rain.
This cab driver was a chatty one. The minute he opened his mouth, he seemed unable to close it.
“Young lady, are you heading to the airport?”
“Mm.”
“Going to the airport at this hour? Are you catching a flight? Or are you sending someone off?”
“Sending someone off.”
“Have you heard of the captain of Dongchuan Airlines, Fu Nanli?”
Wen Qiao let out a chuckle. It seemed this Fu Nanli was a bigshot indeed.
“I heard he’s tall and handsome. Most importantly, he comes from a conglomerate family that owns mines, among other businesses. I heard his maternal grandfather used to be in the air force and that his dying wish was for him to be a pilot. That was why he chose to become a captain.”
The endless chatter only made her more nervous and Wen Qiao glanced at her watch anxiously. “Sir, can you please drive faster?”
The cab driver tapped on his mobile phone’s GPS by the side. “Since you’re in a hurry, we’ll go via the outer ring. There’s no traffic jam there. Don’t worry, rest assured I will take you to the airport in the shortest time possible.”
Wen Qiao closed her eyes, trying hard to recall the news of Fu Nanli’s accident in her previous lifetime. What time had it happened again? And where did it take place?
Even though it was only a trivial part of her life, she actually managed to recall those details.
At 7:30 pm in the outer ring, on the highway three kilometers away from the Bai An Exit, Fu Nanli’s car crashed into a concrete mixer, causing it to flip over and explode. He died tragically, without even a complete corpse.
When she glanced at her watch, she saw that it was already seven.
“Sir, can you get out of the outer ring by 7:30?”
“Hm, shouldn’t be a problem.”
Raindrops pelted against the car window as the cab moved through the roads. Inside, a soft and melodious Cantonese song was playing. Wen Qiao felt so anxious that she wished she could grow a pair of wings and fly there herself.
The traffic jam in the outer ring was too severe. Along with the horrendous weather, the cab driver didn’t dare to speed in case it caused an accident. By the time they got out of the outer ring, it was already 7:28pm.
“Sir, can you please go faster?”
“Young lady, I need to take note of our safety. We can’t go any faster.”
Bang!
Right before her eyes, a Bentley and a concrete mixer collided into one another. The headlights were so piercingly bright that she raised her hands to cover her eyes. The jarring sound of the brakes, along with the screeching of the car tyres and the sound of the car abruptly crashing to the ground meshed together in a cacophony of noise that seemed fast and slow at the same time.
Wen Qiao gazed at the world through the cracks between her fingers…