Chapter Four: Breaking the Loop

1. The Weight of Fate

The moment Lin Ge grasped Qiu Qian's hand, a strange sensation washed over him—like the universe itself was holding its breath.

The city around them was unchanged. The river still whispered its eternal song, the streetlights still flickered against the cold evening sky. But inside him, something had shifted.

He had spent his whole life believing time was linear. That yesterday would always stay in the past, and tomorrow could only move forward.

But now, as he looked into Qiu Qian's eyes—eyes filled with sorrow, with hope, with a story he could barely comprehend—he knew the truth.

Time was not linear.

It was a circle.

And he had been walking this path for far longer than he could remember.

His grip on her hand tightened. "Tell me everything."

Qiu Qian hesitated. For the first time since he had met her, she looked truly afraid.

"Lin Ge… if I tell you, there's no going back."

"I don't want to go back." His voice was steady. "I want to break this. Whatever this is, whatever's keeping us trapped—I want out."

She let out a slow breath, as if she had been waiting lifetimes to hear those words.

"Then listen carefully," she said. "Because we don't have much time."

---

2. A Past That Repeats

"I don't know how it started," Qiu Qian began, her fingers laced tightly with his. "But as far back as I can remember, we have always met. And we have always lost each other."

She paused, her eyes flickering with a pain he didn't yet fully understand.

"The first time I started remembering was about five loops ago. I thought I was going insane—dreams that felt too real, déjà vu that never faded, memories of a life I hadn't lived yet. But then I saw you, and I knew. You were the only constant. The only thing that never changed."

Lin Ge swallowed hard.

"What happens to me?"

Qiu Qian looked away.

"You always die."

His breath hitched.

"Sometimes it's a car accident. Sometimes it's an illness. Sometimes it's something so small, so random, I can't even predict it. But it always happens. And once you're gone…" She inhaled sharply. "Time resets. And I wake up at the beginning, knowing it's all going to happen again."

The world seemed to blur around him.

He had died before. Over and over.

And she had remembered all of it.

The weight of it all pressed down on him. "And you never told me before?"

"I did," she whispered. "In some loops, I told you everything. In others, I tried to change the smallest things, hoping it would be enough. But it never was."

Her voice wavered.

"No matter what I do, I always lose you."

Lin Ge stared at her, his heart pounding against his ribs.

"Then this time," he said, voice firm, "we do something different."

---

3. A Different Choice

Qiu Qian let out a hollow laugh. "You don't think I've tried?"

"Not like this." Lin Ge squeezed her hand. "Not together."

She blinked, and for a moment, she looked so tired.

"How do you fight something you can't even see?" she murmured. "How do you win against fate?"

Lin Ge thought of the journal. Of the photograph from twenty years ago. Of the way her presence had always felt like a memory instead of a moment.

And then, suddenly, he knew.

"We don't fight fate," he said. "We rewrite it."

Qiu Qian looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

"You said time resets every time I die, right?"

She nodded, hesitant.

"Then what if this time, we don't let it?"

She frowned. "How—"

"We need to break the cycle before it resets," Lin Ge said. "Find whatever's causing the loop and stop it before it can restart."

For the first time, hope flickered in Qiu Qian's eyes.

"Do you really think that's possible?"

Lin Ge exhaled. "I don't know. But I know we have to try."

Qiu Qian nodded slowly. And then, gripping his hand tighter, she whispered:

"Then we have to move fast. Because it's already starting."

---

4. The First Sign

The air around them changed.

It was subtle at first—a shift in the wind, a tremor in the ground. But Lin Ge felt it in his bones.

Something was wrong.

Qiu Qian gasped, stumbling backward. "No… not yet. It's too soon."

"What's happening?" Lin Ge reached for her, steadying her as she clutched her chest, as if something inside her was unraveling.

"The loop—it's pulling me back." Her voice was tight with pain. "It's never been this fast before."

Lin Ge's stomach twisted. "What do we do?"

Qiu Qian's fingers curled into his shirt. "We need to find the source."

Lin Ge hesitated. "Do you have any idea what it is?"

She swallowed. "One. But it's dangerous."

Lin Ge steadied himself. "Tell me."

Qiu Qian exhaled. "The place where it all began. The place where time first broke."

Lin Ge's pulse quickened. "Where?"

Qiu Qian met his gaze, her eyes filled with something unreadable.

"The train station," she said. "That's where you died the first time."

Lin Ge felt his blood run cold.

He didn't remember.

But he was about to find out.

---

5. The Final Attempt

The train station was nearly empty when they arrived.

Lin Ge had expected something wrong—some cosmic sign that this was the heart of the cycle. But it looked normal. Ordinary.

Except for one thing.

Qiu Qian was shaking.

"This is it," she whispered. "I can feel it."

Lin Ge scanned the platform. "What happens here?"

She swallowed hard. "You… you were waiting for me. We were supposed to meet here. But you—"

She stopped, her breath catching.

Lin Ge reached for her. "Tell me."

Her fingers curled around his wrist, her grip ice cold.

"There was an accident. A train derailed. You—" Her voice broke. "You died saving me."

Silence stretched between them.

Lin Ge's mind spun.

So that was it. The first loop. The first death. The first reset.

And they had never been able to stop it.

Until now.

Qiu Qian's eyes filled with fear. "Lin Ge, if we stay here—"

"No." He pulled her close. "This time, we stay. We change it."

Qiu Qian shuddered. "But what if—"

"No 'what ifs.' We break the cycle."

And as the distant sound of a train rumbled toward them, Lin Ge whispered:

"No more goodbyes."