Hiss!
The pain was blinding.
Am I going to die?
A faint metallic scent of blood filled his nose and mouth.
Johny Lee, whose vision had gone completely black, tried to twitch his fingers—no response.
He tried to twist his neck—still no response. Summoning every ounce of his remaining strength, he managed to crack his eyelids open.
Through a blur, he saw a massive truck, heavily overloaded with sand and gravel. Beside it, an old man in his seventies and a beautiful woman in her late twenties lay motionless in a pool of blood.
Crowds of passersby had gathered on both sides of the road.
Their mouths were moving, shouting frantically beside the bodies, but not a single sound reached Johny's ears.
The world was silent.
The old man was dead.
Maggi was dead.
And with injuries this severe... Johny knew he wouldn't survive either.
Looking at Maggi—his crush, his neighbor—seeing her beautiful face marred by blood, Johny's heart ached as if it were being pierced by a thousand needles.
Maggi was a particularly kind woman.
Just moments ago at the intersection, she had seen the old man struggling to walk and offered to help him cross the road. But even though the light was red for traffic, the truck driver—drunk or fatigued—had barreled straight through.
Seeing Maggi in danger from afar, Johny had sprinted over, desperate to pull her away.
But he hadn't been fast enough. Instead of saving her, he had lost his own life alongside them.
Regret.
He had never felt such bitter regret.
If only he had noticed the out-of-control truck a moment sooner... perhaps none of them would have died.
But now... it was too late for "if only."
Johny's eyelids grew heavier.
He couldn't bear to look at the broken bodies of Maggi and the old man any longer. Closing his eyes, he waited for the end.
BOOM!
A sound like thunder exploded in his mind—a roar that felt like it shattered his very soul!
The next moment, Johny's vision blurred, and he was violently pulled from the endless darkness.
Strength flooded back into his limbs.
His hearing and vision snapped back instantly.
Johny stood frozen, stunned.
He blinked, looking around in confusion.
He was standing perfectly fine, back at the traffic lights of the very same intersection.
Surrounding him was the endless stream of Beijing traffic—cars, trucks, and taxis speeding past one after another. Under the dim yellow streetlights of the evening, pedestrians hurried by, alive and well.
"Grandpa, let me help you across the road."
"No need, thank you, young lady. You go ahead."
"My home is just across the street, it's not out of the way.
Come, let me help you."
Johny whipped his head around, following the voices.
Maggi, wearing a gentle smile, was standing at the pedestrian crossing not far away.
She spotted Johny and her smile brightened.
"Johny, just got back?
Were you out hanging with classmates?"
Beside her was the old man—the one who had just died.
He glanced at Johny, then hunched over, looking sickly as he coughed into his hand.
"Ah... uh, just got back." Johny answered subconsciously, his eyes darting between them.
It took him a long time to process what he was seeing.
What is going on?
I'm not dead?
Maggi isn't dead?
The old man is alive?
Johny blankly stretched his hand into the air, clenching and unclenching his fist.
No blood.
No pain.
Was it a dream?
No car accident?
Just a hallucination?
The red light for pedestrians went out.
The green light appeared on the opposite side.
The crowd began to move across the crosswalk.
The old man was the slowest, shuffling forward with his cane.
Maggi carefully supported him, walking at his pace.
It was so familiar.
Too familiar!
Suddenly, the roar of a heavy engine reached his ears.
Johny instinctively looked to his left.
A large truck was barreling down the right-turn lane.
The bed was packed high with sand and gravel, bulging over the sides.
It wasn't moving incredibly fast—maybe forty or fifty miles per hour—but it rumbled toward the intersection with terrifying weight.
Johny rubbed his eyes hard.
Shock and horror filled his chest.
Isn't this the exact scene just before Maggi and the old man were hit?
How could this be? Had time gone backward?
In this critical moment, he couldn't afford to analyze the logic.
He yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Get out of the way!
There's a truck!"
The people nearby jumped, looking around in confusion.
"What truck?"
"Where?"
Maggi saw the truck and turned to Johny, looking puzzled.
"What are you shouting about?
The light is red for them."
The old man didn't take it seriously either. The truck was in the right-turn lane; surely it would slow down to turn.
But Johny knew the truth.
That truck was a reaper that wouldn't stop.
He bolted forward, shouting urgently, "Maggi! Move!
Get away from there!"
Maggi paused in her black high heels, looking amused.
"Johny, what's wrong with you today?
That truck won't—"
Before she could finish, the truck's massive grill breached the stop line without a hint of slowing down!
Whoosh!
Under the terrified gaze of the crowd, the truck ran the red light!
"Ah!"
"Run!"
"It's going to hit them!"
Screams erupted from all sides.
Maggi froze, completely stunned.
When reality finally hit her, she grabbed the old man's arm.
"Quick! Run!"
"Young lady, you run! Leave me!"
The old man tried to push Maggi away in a panic.
But it was too late.
The roaring beast was already upon them.
Four meters...
Three meters...
Despair washed over Maggi and the old man's faces.
Just as everyone thought the two were doomed, a shadow blurred past them. Johny, who had already started sprinting the moment he saw the truck, dove in behind them.
Using the momentum of his sprint, Johny hooked his arms around their waists—one on each side.
He didn't stop; he let out a guttural roar and used his forward velocity to swing them both sideways!
"Ah! It's over!"
"They're dead!"
Many turned their heads or closed their eyes, unable to watch.
Whoosh!
The menacing truck sped past, the wind of its passage almost grazing Johny's back.
The old man slid half a meter across the asphalt, his side scraping the ground. Maggi was thrown by Johny's swing, rolling over several times before coming to a stop.
But Johny took the hardest hit.
He slammed onto the road, gasping for breath as pain shot through his waist and legs.
Time seemed to freeze.
Then, cheers erupted on the street.
"They're not dead! None of them are dead!"
"That young man is amazing!"
Applause rippled through the crowd as passersby clapped for Johny.
Screech!
The culprit truck finally slammed on its brakes tens of meters away.
The window rolled down slightly, and a drunk driver peeked his head out.
After a few seconds of hesitation, the engine roared again, and the truck sped away in a cloud of dust.
"He ran!"
"Quick, get the plate number!"
"Call the police!"
The old man was helped up by a traffic assistant rushing from the other side. Seeing Johny lying motionless, the old man called out anxiously, "How is the young man?
Is he okay?"
Maggi scrambled up, clutching her bruised arm.
Ignoring the high heels she had lost, she ran barefoot to Johny's side.
She dropped to her knees and shook him.
"Johny! Johny! Talk to me!
Don't scare me, okay?
Wake up! Sob... Don't scare me!"
Tears flowed uncontrollably down her face. "It's my fault!
I didn't listen to you!
Wake up! If anything happens to you, how will I explain it to your mother?!"
Johny let out a long, shaky breath.
He turned his head with difficulty.
"I'm fine... just... fell hard..."
Maggi's body went rigid for a second, then she hugged him tightly, weeping tears of relief.
"You scared me to death!
You scared me to death!"
Johny, who had never had such close contact with his beautiful neighbor, suddenly felt his body stiffen awkwardly.
The old man hobbled over, his eyes red with emotion.
"It's good that you're okay! It's good!"
The three of them had only suffered scrapes and bruises—miraculously, there were no serious injuries.
As the light changed, Johny and the others helped each other limp to the service road on the opposite side.
As soon as they were safe, the old man grasped Johny's hand, his own trembling. "Thank you, Thank you.
We aren't related, yet you risked everything... What can I say?
You're young, you have a long road ahead. I've lived for almost eighty years, and I was just diagnosed with lung cancer.
I don't have many days left.
If you had died for an old man like me, the sin would be too great."
Judging by his accent and demeanor, the old man was likely a scholar—highly educated and refined.
Johny rubbed his sore arm, panting heavily. "You're welcome."
Maggi, eyes still red, reached out to adjust Johny's crooked collar.
Her lips moved as if to speak, but no words came out.
"My surname is Hu, you can call me Grandpa Hu.
Young lady, young man, what are your names?"
"I'm Johny Lee, She's Maggi."
Grandpa Hu nodded.
"Please, leave me your contact information. I'll come visit another day to thank you both properly."
Maggi wiped the dirt from Johny's face with her hand, her expression distressed.
"You don't need to thank me.
The fact that we are standing here is all thanks to Johny."
"Both should be thanked, both of you."
Unable to refuse Grandpa Hu's persistence, Johny finally patted his jeans pocket.
He took out a small paper note and wrote down his number on the white edge.
Soon, the traffic police arrived.
Maggi and the old man recounted the event.
But Johny's mind wasn't there at all.
It was filled with a haze of questions.
The three of them had clearly been killed.
So why had he suddenly returned to the scene just moments before?
If their deaths were an illusion, why was every detail exactly the same?
Maggi's words, the truck's path—everything was identical except for the final outcome.
Was this just a vivid hallucination?
But if it wasn't a delusion, how could he explain suddenly jumping back in time?
It defied all logic.
Do superpowers actually exist in this world?
Johny silently chanted in his heart:
Go back!
Go back!
Return!
Rewind!
BACK!
He tried several times.
Nothing happened.
He smiled helplessly.
Right... how could superpowers possibly be real?
Authors Note:-
Well I have changed the characters name so that it can be enjoyable to non Chinese authors and it is more refined in a western way , removing certain parts and stuff so others can also enjoy this wonderful story.
Thank you chang yu for the novel.