Although she was still in critical condition, she was still alive. There was also a rich second-generation heir who was foolish and had too much money, so he kept throwing money at the hospital, insisting that the doctors must save her.

It's because he still owes her money.

After a week of hospitalization and observation, Shi Guang, who "hit" someone with his car, has been discharged.

His home is not in this third-tier city. He came to this city for a trip. However, unlike Lin Momo, he was driving an SUV on a road trip.

Police learned from the dashcam footage that the main party responsible for the accident was not him, but the woman lying in the hospital bed, whose life was hanging by a thread, so they decided not to prosecute Shi Guang.

However, considering that he was indeed driving too fast at the time and should bear some responsibility for the accident, it was argued that he should pay part of the victim's medical expenses.

The police made this decision out of desperation. They did not expect that a traffic accident would lead to a major human trafficking case. The perpetrator had died on the spot, and the escaped traffickers were still at large.

The girl who deliberately crashed the car was also a victim.

They've handled plenty of human trafficking cases, but victims this resolute are quite rare.

To be honest, it was the first time they had ever seen it before.

The girl's phone was run over by a car, and the memory card has not yet been found. The only way to find her family is through her ID card information.

To their dismay, the search yielded disappointing results: the girl's last remaining relative, her grandmother, had passed away a little over a month earlier.

The young woman remained unconscious, with extremely weak vital signs, and could die at any moment, yet the hospital kept urging her to pay the fees.

Without hesitation, Shi Guang immediately offered to cover all treatment costs.

To the police's surprise, this was the first time they had encountered such an easy-going party. Usually, in such situations, the party would claim to be the true victim and refuse to pay any compensation, and might even seek compensation from the party primarily responsible.

However, upon seeing that the young man was decked out in designer brands from head to toe, and that flashy SUV he was driving after the accident—even the mid-range model cost over a million—it became clear: well, he had run into a rich and foolish guy who didn't care about a pittance at all, and perhaps also out of sympathy for the girl.

When they learned that Shi Guang was a recently retired soldier, they could better understand his unusual behavior.

Logically, once the case is closed, time can move on to the next destination and continue exploring.

However, he showed no intention of setting off.

Every day, he either went to the police station to ask if the human traffickers had been caught, or he came to the hospital to visit Lin Momo, who was unconscious.

He would sit by her bedside for most of the day, which caused the nurses in the hospital to gossip about it behind his back.

"You said these two don't know each other. This guy got dragged into this mess. Could it be that he holds a grudge against this girl and is holding back, wanting to see her die?"

"How could that be? If they wanted to see her die, why would they be willing to pay for this girl's medical treatment? That's no small sum; not everyone can afford it."

"So what's the point of him coming to the hospital every day?"

"Yeah, it couldn't be because he's attracted to the girl's looks, could it?"

"Pshaw! That girl is nowhere near as pretty as Li Ping, the most beautiful girl in our hospital. But look, Li Ping has been hanging around her these past few days, but she hasn't even glanced at her."

"So what do you think that guy was after?"

"You want to know?" The young nurse smiled sweetly, deliberately keeping him in suspense. "Then you should just ask him. How am I supposed to know?"

The other nurses covered their mouths and laughed.

As for why, time itself cannot explain it.

Perhaps he felt that this girl's life was too tragic. It is not easy to survive alone in this world, and she even encountered human traffickers and was almost sold to a remote area.

Or perhaps, he admired the girl's fierce spirit of preferring death to dishonor.

In this materialistic age, girls like this are as rare as pandas and deserve to be treated with gentleness.

On this day, just as the caregiver finished wiping Lin Momo's body, time once again appeared in the ward.

Sitting by the hospital bed, he habitually greeted the sleeping woman, "Lin Momo, I've come to see you. You've been sleeping for so long, it's time to wake up..."

Suddenly, he noticed a black string sticking out from the patient's neck.

Out of curiosity, I reached out and gently tugged at the string.

Before long, a small jade gourd was revealed. The jade was of very ordinary quality, light grass-colored, and the entire gourd was covered with cracks, like a high-quality porcelain piece that was deliberately fired to resemble ice cracks.

When you gently lift it up to look at it with your fingertips, time itself doesn't dare to exert any force, for fear of crushing this little thing to pieces.

He had also heard the saying that jade could ward off disasters for its owner, but he didn't quite believe it.

Seeing the gourd in this state, and considering that the girl is still unconscious, she is quite lucky compared to the human trafficker who died on the spot at the accident scene.

At that moment, he inexplicably began to believe this claim.

After leaving, Shi Guang went straight to the jade counter in the mall. Comparing it with the photos on her phone, she bought a jade gourd that was exactly the same as Lin Momo's, but the price was quite touching.

The next day, the valuable jade gourd, made of superior jade and crafted with excellent workmanship, was placed around Lin Momo's neck, while the jade gourd that had been replaced was wrapped around her wrist by Time.

At the bedside, time caressed the warm, smooth jade, and fervently prayed: "I hope this jade gourd can also bring you good luck, so that you can wake up soon. You will no longer be alone in this world. I will be your friend, okay?"

In another time and space.

One dark night, Lin Momo, who was fast asleep, suddenly felt a soft whisper in her ear. When she opened her eyes, she found that everything around her was quiet except for the chirping of autumn insects outside the window.

She found it quite strange, thinking that she might have been dreaming.

He tried to fall back asleep, but couldn't stay awake, so he went into the small courtyard to check on the growth of the vegetable seedlings he had secretly transplanted during the day.

When Lin Momo came out of the space, it was already dawn. Thinking that she still had to collect firewood today, she got up.

He completely forgot about the strange thing that happened when he woke up in the middle of the night.

*

At this moment, Lin Momo, who had a bountiful harvest, carried a soaking wet basket on her back and walked quickly home along the dirt road of the village, leaving a trail of water behind her. Anyone who didn't know better would think that her basket of pine cones was fished out of the river.

She felt somewhat nervous as she pushed open the gate to her yard.