Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The moment I heard that voice, my hand jerked, and my phone clattered to the floor.

Enduring a tearing pain in my abdomen, I collapsed, gasping for air. I summoned every ounce of strength to retrieve the phone.

The caller ID clearly displayed one word: “Daughter.”

“Dad? What’s wrong! Did you fall?”

Her anxious voice came through the speaker.

I pressed the phone against my ear, struggling to steady my breathing.

“…Shihan… Is that you, Shihan?”

“It’s me, of course it’s me. Dad, what are you doing?”

This time, I heard it clearly and beyond a shadow of a doubt-the voice I had yearned for during the last fifteen years.

Tears poured out uncontrollably, and my body shook violently.

“Dad, are you crying? What on earth is happening?”

I covered my mouth, forcing myself to calm down, and whispered to her, “It’s nothing… Dad just misses you so much.”

“Oh, Dad, we’ve only been apart for a little while. Didn’t you drive me to the mall just this afternoon?”

Afternoon? Driving her to the mall?

I remembered.

New Year’s Eve, fifteen years ago.

The afternoon of February 2, 2011.

I had dropped her off at the largest shopping mall in City A, telling her to come home early for dinner.

I thought she was going shopping with her college classmates.

But she was actually working a winter break job, helping out in the kitchen of a fast-food restaurant.

She was too sensible for her own good. She was always worried about me, a divorced single father who had worked multiple jobs to raise her.

Our family was so strapped for cash that every New Year’s Eve, we couldn’t even put together a proper spread of food.

She wanted to treat me to a New Year’s Eve dinner at a restaurant.

I never expected that would be the last time I saw her.

That night, I couldn’t get a hold of her. After calling all her friends and classmates, I finally called the police.

At around two in the morning, the City A Criminal Investigation Unit found her body in a park one stop away from the mall.

When I ran over, several investigators held me back tightly, telling me not to look.

“Let go! That’s my daughter!”

I broke free from them and stumbled forward a few steps.

But the scene before me turned my legs to jelly, and I fell to my knees.

Shihan was lying face down by a sink, naked, her hands tied behind her back.

Her back was covered in scars-dense, black spots where someone had burned her with cigarette butts.

Her legs were twisted open, and several discarded cigarette filters had been shoved into her private parts.

A powerful will to survive had caused her to grit her teeth until the end.

Even in her final moment, she hadn’t closed her eyes.

My thoughts snapped back to the present.

Shihan’s concerned voice came from the other end of the line: “Dad, are you feeling unwell? Take a rest first. I’ll be back as soon as I finish up here.”

I clutched my agonizing stomach and leaned against the wall, gasping as I asked her, “Shihan… did you just say you’re at the park?”

“Yes, Dad, I have something to take care of here. I’ll be done very soon…”

“Tell me first-what year is it, and what time is it?”

“Dad, have you been drinking? It’s New Year’s Eve, 2011. Let me check the time… it’s three minutes until seven in the evening.”

2011. New Year’s Eve. Seven o’clock!

My heart thudded violently.

“Could it be…!”

Fifteen years ago.

Captain Liang, the lead investigator on the case, found me outside the autopsy center.

“Chen Shihan’s autopsy report is out.

“Her time of death was roughly between 8:30 PM and 9:00 PM on New Year’s Eve.

“The fatal injury was a blunt force trauma to the head.

“Based on the wounds on her body and the DNA results, she suffered violent sexual assault at the hands of three different individuals before she died… and even after.

“We reviewed all the surveillance footage near the park. We can see Chen Shihan arriving at the park entrance at 6:50 PM. After that, she disappeared from the cameras.

“It was during those two short hours that she suffered such inhumane torture.”

So, right now.

The person on the other end of the line was Shihan from fifteen years ago, before the incident happened.

Could it be that as I was dying, Heaven gave me a chance to save my daughter?

This wasn’t a hallucination.

I suddenly became sharp and alert.

If this was real…

Then there was still time to change everything!