Chapter One: "Seeing" the Image

August was scorching hot. By six in the morning, the sun was already diligently at work.

Inside her rented room, Lin Xiaoyan opened her eyes, drenched in sweat.

"Ow..."

Lin Xiaoyan clutched her left eye. "Why does it hurt so much? I even washed it with saline last night..."

Enduring the pain, she got up and walked over to the mirror. Lowering her hand, she saw that her left eye was blood-red, as if it were hemorrhaging.

"Oh no, this is bad. Am I going to go blind?"

Terrified, Lin Xiaoyan closed her right eye. Through her left eye, she could see nothing but a blurry, reddish haze.

"I'm ruined, I'm ruined!" Panicking, she quickly packed her things, preparing to head to the hospital.

She was filled with regret. She shouldn't have taken that shortcut home yesterday afternoon just because she was afraid of the heat.

Look at her now. Having just graduated, she had planned to find a job here, make some money for a few years, and then head back home.

But now, before she could even secure a proper job, her part-time gig barely covered her rent and living expenses. And now, with her eye acting up, she couldn't help but worry about how much a hospital visit would cost...

With a worried frown, Lin Xiaoyan packed her things, grabbed her ID and phone, and headed out.

As soon as she stepped outside, she began to hesitate. *Maybe I should just bear it? What if it gets better tomorrow?*

She touched her eye. "Ow... no, I'd better go to the hospital." The pain was just too intense.

On the way, she messaged her manager to ask for time off. Unsure of what the hospital visit would entail, she requested a half-day first.

It was seven-thirty in the morning. Because of the summer break, the streets weren't clogged with students heading to school, but they were filled with the frantic rush of commuters jostling for space.

Clutching her phone tightly, she was squeezed onto the bus by the surging crowd.

"Sorry, let me through, sorry... sorry..." Just as Lin Xiaoyan managed to steady herself, a young man walked over from the front of the bus.

"Sorry, I'm getting off at the next stop, sorry, excuse me..." The man kept apologizing as he pushed his way toward the back.

As he squeezed past Lin Xiaoyan, his body brushed against hers. The man immediately apologized.

Lin Xiaoyan didn't say anything. She was momentarily dazed.

For at the exact moment he brushed against her, a sudden image flashed before her eyes.

In the scene, this man was stepping off the bus at the next stop when he was suddenly struck by someone speeding on an electric scooter.

The impact knocked him under the bus. The driver, unaware of what had happened outside, set the vehicle in motion and drove off.

The final frame froze on the man being run over by the bus's wheels as onlookers rushed forward...

*Screech...* "Linhai Road. Passengers alighting please..."

The bus arrived at the stop. Lin Xiaoyan snapped out of her daze and instinctively looked toward the rear exit.

There, she saw the young man step off first...

"Ah, watch out!"

*Bang!*

*Screech...* "Passengers, please hold on. Next stop..."

The bus started moving again, but the people outside began screaming in terror.

"Stop the bus! Stop!"

"Driver, stop! Someone fell under the bus!"

By now, the passengers inside had also noticed the accident outside and began shouting at the top of their lungs.

A second later, Lin Xiaoyan clearly felt the wheels run over something. The entire bus shuddered.

"Ah!!! Someone's been run over!!! Help!!!" the people outside shrieked.

The driver slammed on the brakes. And then...

Lin Xiaoyan stood frozen, watching the scene unfold outside. It was... exactly the same as what she had just "seen"...

Because of the accident, the bus could not continue. Lin Xiaoyan and the other passengers got off, planning to transfer to another bus.

Lin Xiaoyan sat blankly at the bus stop, staring at the pool of blood on the asphalt as a sanitation worker arrived to wash it away...

*It must have been a coincidence...* Lin Xiaoyan kept thinking, her entire body cold and shivering uncontrollably.

She looked around. It was broad daylight, and the sun was shining with all its might.

*With the sun this bright, ghosts shouldn't dare to come out... right?* she comforted herself, trying her best to forget the scene.

She must have watched too many movies lately. Nothing had actually happened; it was just a figment of her imagination that happened to coincide with reality...

"Yes! That's right. That was it..." Lin Xiaoyan desperately comforted herself. She didn't dare to think she had some kind of superpower. That was too terrifying. She was just an ordinary graduate, a member of the working class!

Afterward, she boarded the next bus in a daze. She furtively watched the people around her, but no matter who accidentally bumped into her next, she didn't see any more visions.

Lin Xiaoyan finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed it really had just been an illusion!

When she arrived at the hospital, Lin Xiaoyan covered her eye and found the nurse's station. After asking where the ophthalmology department was, she headed straight there.

She couldn't help it; her eye was hurting more and more. All her thoughts were consumed by it, and she was terrified of going blind.

"Hello, Doctor," Lin Xiaoyan said apprehensively as she sat down.

"What's wrong?" The doctor attending to her was young and quite handsome.

Lin Xiaoyan felt a bit self-conscious. "Yesterday afternoon, I was passing by a construction site, and a gust of wind blew some lime dust from the ground into my eye."

At this, she once again regretted taking that shortcut home.

"I washed it with saline last night, and it didn't hurt then. But when I woke up this morning, it was incredibly painful and red, as if it were bleeding..."

"Open your eye and let me take a look," the doctor said gently.

Lin Xiaoyan lowered her hand and forced her left eye open with difficulty, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

The doctor took out a penlight to examine it, gently pulling her eyelid open.

At that moment, Lin Xiaoyan froze once more...

Because she "saw" another vision.

In the scene, the doctor examining her was slashed in the arm with a knife by a violent patient...

"It's alright, relax. Don't be nervous. Your eye is fine. The lime dust probably corroded your cornea a bit, and the saline didn't wash it out completely..."

Lin Xiaoyan glanced at the name tag on the doctor's coat. His name was Yang Lin.

Dr. Yang thought she was just overly anxious about her eye, causing her body to stiffen and her face to show fear, so he gently reassured her.

The girl looked like a college student, still very young.

"Lie down on the bed over there. I'll flush it for you, and then I'll prescribe two types of eye drops. Use them morning and night, and take these anti-inflammatory pills..."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Dr. Yang." Lin Xiaoyan's body was still somewhat stiff. Her mind was in a whirl, completely bewildered by the situation.

After writing the prescription, Yang Lin began to flush her eye. His movements were very gentle, not hurting her at all.

As the doctor flushed her eye, Lin Xiaoyan was locked in a fierce internal struggle. Should she warn him that he was going to be slashed in the arm by a violent patient?