As the hands of the clock turned, the entire if-line’s time began to bizarrely jump.

This was not a simple acceleration of time, but more like a distortion.

At this moment, the night sky suddenly brightened.

The next second, time jumped from morning to afternoon, causing the sunset to drop straight towards the horizon.

"Puff!"

Simultaneously, with the time jumps, Alvira’s "curse of the ring finger’s retaliation," which was supposed to delay its activation, took effect instantly.

Her eyes suddenly became incredibly cloudy, seemingly transmitting waves of sharp pain.

But even so, she refused to let go.

"Aria... I saw... Aria didn’t hate my world line..."

"Ka ka ka..."

Although she lowered her head, she seemed to feel something.

At this moment, the erratically jumping if-line became very fragile.

The space rift that should have appeared at 4:44 pm the next day shattered bit by bit, making Alvira seem to feel the call from beyond the world line.

There, the sunlight was as abundant, her daughter hadn’t discovered her disgrace, circling around her every day...

"If you weren’t like this, how could Aria hate you?!"

Bai Yi gritted her teeth and made such a remark.

At this moment, she was still concerned about Yan Ye who was blown away, but turning her head, she also saw the time-space rift that broke open.

From it, one could vaguely see the real-world line gradually starting to boil.

As Alvira moved closer to the space rift, the reaction from the world line became extremely intense, on the verge of annihilation...

Would letting people from the if-line enter reality result in such an outcome?

"Yan Huan..."

Gazing at the breaking real-world line, Bai Yi’s eyes narrowed, and she immediately realized that if things continued this way, Yan Huan would be beyond saving.

"Alvira! Stop now!!"

Yet, for some reason, upon this realization, Bai Yi’s face, initially full of resignation and helplessness, suddenly turned resolute.

Her eyes reddened, her emotions so intense that they broke through the constraints of hypnosis, and she desperately grabbed hold of Alvira’s body.

"Let go!"

Alvira, suddenly grabbed, turned back in some astonishment.

For this was the first time she saw that good-for-nothing reveal such an expression.

Behind her, Bai Yi, with reddened eyes, held onto her tightly, biting her hand with such force that Alvira drew a sharp breath from the pain,

"You... you..."

"Ka ka ka!"

But at this moment, the pocket watch in Bai Yi’s hand continued to spin frantically as if in reaction.

Even if Alvira didn’t move, the ever-expanding space rift continued to generate suction, threatening to drag them both away.

"Aria..."

"Mm!"

Seeing the space rift get closer, Bai Yi suddenly realized something and quickly looked down at the pocket watch in her hand.

Since this mess resulted from her manipulating the clock hands, all she needed was to turn the clock hands in the opposite direction to activate time pause, calming the pocket watch down!

"Time... pause!"

Thinking this, Bai Yi hugged Alvira firmly with one arm while reaching to turn the pocket watch’s hands.

But this time...

The same feeling as during the car accident overwhelmed her again...

As soon as she touched the clock hands, a wave of pain due to her poor physical state surged up, stopping her from turning the watch.

Before, she couldn’t activate time pause because she had been running all night.

And now, with recent blood loss from slitting her wrist, she couldn’t activate time pause.

Before, she chose to await death, only to open her eyes to see Yan Huan dying in front of her in a car accident...

So now, if she chose to do nothing, she would watch once more...

"Aria..."

At this moment, Bai Yi’s slightly reddened Star Eyes suddenly lifted.

In the boiling world line before her, she immediately spotted the fracturing line from July 1st.

"Bang!"

In that instant, the nightmare-like scene of Yan Huan being hit by a car, his body mangled, surged to the forefront of her mind once again.

"!!"

In the next second, a single tear slid down from Bai Yi’s eyes.

But gritting her teeth, she once again mustered all her strength, pressing the pocket watch’s hands,

"This time, I will save Yan Huan!!!"

"Ka ka ka!!"

As she gave her all to push the unbelievably heavy hands, an unprecedented pain engulfed her soul.

But Bai Yi, teeth gritted, kept shouting, continuing to push the hands,

"Yan Huan!!!"

"Tick... tock!!"

The next instant, a terrifying, invisible wave burst forth.

The time-stop that seemed to freeze everything enveloped the frantically moving if-line, pushing back the hopeful Alvira and slamming shut the fissuring time crack.

The jumping time cooled once more, reverting to the starry night.

"Crash... crash..."

Time did not stop.

But everything returned to normal.

The beach was silent, save for the waves crashing upon the shore.

"..."

Alvira lay on the ground, seemingly losing consciousness entirely.

But...

In her hand, the previously dark phone lit up.

In it, a stern-eyed Winged Lion appeared abruptly.

Looking at the unconscious Alvira, it spoke coldly,

"Fool..."

The index finger didn’t vanish when Alvira crushed the phone; it waited all along.

It seemed it had anticipated Alvira’s failure.

It merely used Alvira’s madness to check the ring finger’s state, consuming its power...

And now, the moment arrived.

"I must kill... the host of the ring finger..."

At this moment, the index finger lifted its gaze, speaking softly.

In the next second, beside her, the previously unconscious Tong Yingying and Yuanlina rose with a ghostly purple haze in their eyes, brandishing knives once more.

"Ah... I..."

On the beach, Bai Yi, clutching the pocket watch, trembled.

Her head hung low, blood dripped from her nose.

But at this moment, her whole body felt injected with a thousand anesthetics, entirely beyond her control.

Even her consciousness...

No...

Gasping, Bai Yi looked at those approaching her, eyes filled with malice; even in desperation, it was to no avail.

She couldn’t even stand now.

"I... I haven’t saved you yet... Yan Huan... no... don’t..."

Before losing consciousness, Bai Yi, in despair, cried out in a sobbing tone.

As her voice faded, she closed her eyes, and her body uncontrollably fell backward.

But she did not hit the ground.

For behind her, a hand gently caught the unconscious girl.

"?"

Seeing this, the Winged Lion, controlling the two through the phone, slightly paused.

For appearing behind Bai Yi was...

A cold-faced, handsome young man.

"Yan... Yan Huan?!"

At the sound, that young man gently embraced the weakening girl in his arms.

Then, he lifted his eyes to look at the Winged Lion within the phone.