That taxi driver had kindly driven me, and he had absolutely nothing to do with this mess. If the man in black had killed him, I would have carried that guilt for the rest of my life.

So, at the critical moment, I stood up from the back seat, grabbed the steering wheel, and wrenched it sideways.

Simultaneously, the gunshot from the front rang out.

With a sharp crack, the entire taxi sank down; their tire must have been blown.

Because we were traveling so fast, losing balance meant the car immediately tilted sideways and then flipped completely.

Fortunately, the sides of the highway were rice paddies, and it was the season for flooding them. Our car crashed into the field, only kicking up a cloud of muddy slurry and wastewater. The body of the car itself was largely undamaged.

However, both the driver and I had struck our heads, bleeding profusely.

We struggled out of the vehicle, both looking like mud statues.

And that black SUV? It had already sped off into the distance, vanishing without a trace.

I let out a sigh and asked the driver, "Are you alright?"

The driver shook his head and replied, "I’m fine... but wow, that was intense!"

I was momentarily speechless and told him, "We can only flag down a car on the road to get back now. Looks like we have to let them go this time."

The driver stopped me, saying, "Wait! Don't underestimate us cabbies. I already managed to jot down that car's license plate number."

"Oh?" I asked, puzzled. "So what? We aren't the police."

The driver just smiled without saying anything, squatted down, pulled out the taxi's walkie-talkie, and announced, "Attention, brothers. Help me track down a vehicle. Plate number is Jing JX998H. That car just hit me and fled the scene."

After saying that, the driver grinned at me and added, "There you go. I guarantee I can help you find that car before this afternoon is over."

I gave him a thumbs-up and said, "Impressive! I really troubled you today. How about this, let me give you some money to fix the car."

The driver waved his hand dismissively. "No need. I was just serving the people and cleaning up the community."

Although he said that, looking at the taxi stuck in the muddy field, I couldn't help but sigh.

Next, the master called the traffic police and asked them to send a tow truck to haul the car away.

He simply reported that he had a minor scrape with an unlicensed black SUV, which caused the rollover.

Half an hour later, the tow truck took the taxi away, and conveniently, they drove us to the hospital as well.

After examinations at the hospital, it turned out we only had superficial injuries and didn't need to be admitted. So, the driver and I went our separate ways.

When we parted, the driver and I exchanged numbers. It was then I learned his name was Xiao Feiyang, and he was actually younger than me, only twenty-three.

When I finally got home, it was already five in the afternoon. My cousin was already back from school and doing her homework in the living room.

Seeing the bandage wrapped around my head, she panicked, jumping up quickly and asking, "Brother! How did you get hurt? What happened?"

To stop her from worrying, I told her I had bumped my head playing basketball with classmates and that it was nothing serious.

My cousin, her eyes still brimming with tears, retrieved the first-aid kit from the closet and started re-bandaging my head for me.

While wrapping it, she pouted slightly and said, "Brother, where did you get this bandage? Those doctors were so careless! Look, you still have so many scrapes here, and they didn't even put any medicinal wine on them."

Seeing how much she cared, my heart warmed, and I smiled gently. "It's fine, this little scratch will heal in half an hour."

My cousin wiped her eyes and retorted, "How is that possible? Are you treating me like a child?"

I was just about to laugh that she was still a child, but then my cousin suddenly gasped, "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" I quickly asked.

My cousin looked at the cotton swab in her hand and said, "I don't know what’s happening, but these scrapes on your forehead, when I wipe them with this swab, they just vanish. Not even a scar is left."

I paused, realizing what must have happened: the Time Lapse had occurred again. My injuries were regressing to the state they were in before I was hurt.

So, I teased her, "See? You didn't believe me. It hasn't even been half an hour."

But the moment I finished that sentence, I sensed something was deeply wrong.

Thinking it over carefully, I was astonished, because I realized my cousin could actually perceive the existence of the Time Lapse!

For an ordinary person, when a Time Lapse occurs, the segment of time that is erased is not recorded. For example, my cousin's genuine reaction should have been a momentary blank stare, followed by a complete forgetting that I was ever injured. Not watching the wounds suddenly disappear before her eyes, as I did.

If she could truly see that, it meant she must have shared a similar experience to ours—perhaps by going down into the underground cavern.

But that was impossible, because I had just cleared up my cousin's identity earlier; she and that girl in white were definitely two different people.

However, thinking back carefully, the first time I met the girl in white in the cavern, she told me I could consider her Nie Qilan, or say she wasn't. I had never understood what that meant until now; perhaps there really was some hidden connection.

It was possible that my cousin and the girl in white shared some intricate, complex link.

But there was another possibility: perhaps the cousin from before was the real cousin, and the girl in front of me now was someone else entirely...

With that thought, I suddenly grabbed my cousin's arm and demanded, "Who are you!"

My cousin jumped, looking confused. "Brother, what's wrong with you? Did you hit your head and aren't thinking clearly? I'm Lanlan."

Looking at Lanlan’s slightly wronged eyes, and recalling how genuinely concerned she was just moments ago, I realized it wasn't something someone without a blood connection would do. Guilt washed over me, and I quickly released her arm, saying, "N-nothing... I’m fine..."

My cousin rubbed her wrist, which smarted from where I grabbed her, and pouted, "Do you want to go back to the hospital? If your head is injured inside, it’s serious. I really don't want a foolish brother."

I forced a smile and replied, "Ow, it’s really fine. I was just joking with you, because you teased me last time when you were using my computer."

My cousin stuck out her tongue, put the medicine away, and announced, "I'm ignoring you now. I’m going upstairs to do my homework. You're an adult, and you still hold grudges!"

With that, my cousin headed upstairs.

I sat in the main hall and thought things over carefully for a while.

I had been extremely impulsive just then, wanting to tell my cousin about the Time Lapse and ask her exactly what was going on, why she could see the specific manifestation of it.

But on second thought, if my cousin was fine, knowing these things would only be a tremendous burden for her.

In the end, I kept silent.

It was a form of avoidance. Because if everyone around you was compromised, being alive became too exhausting. For those who were good to me, I preferred to believe their sincerity was real. Otherwise, sometimes I truly saw no hope at all.

Perhaps it was this very nature that allowed me to survive relatively intact. Given what I would experience later, many people certainly couldn't have endured it and would have gone mad long ago.

And time proved that my faith in [REDACTED], in my cousin, and in Da Xiong, was correct.

Back upstairs, my cousin was doing her homework at my computer desk.

I coughed lightly, pulled up a chair next to her, and said, "Let me see..."

My cousin glared at me, moved her arm away, and let me look at her work.

I only glanced at a few problems before frowning and scoffing, "Seriously, Lanlan, I heard you rank in the top three in your class. Look at this problem, and this one—they’re both wrong. Come on, let me teach you..."

"No!" My cousin pouted, standing to the side, clearly sulking.

I sighed, walked over, and pinched her soft cheek. "Okay, okay, I was wrong just now. I'm sorry. I’ll treat you to chicken wings tomorrow."

"Really?" My cousin instantly brightened up.

I confirmed it, and only then did she happily sit back down.

However, just as I was about to start explaining the homework, my phone rang.

I glanced at it; it was the taxi driver, Xiao Feiyang. As soon as I answered, he said to me, "Brother Chuan, we found that car!"