I can rewind time to prevent death

The boy who seemed to be the leader of this little group spoke up again, "Drop the Handkerchief, we'll play 5 times, and the loser of each round must answer three questions from the others. Whoever finds the one who runs away first wins."

"Okay," the other children agreed in unison.

Only Yan Junze raised his hand, "Who goes first?"

"Of course, it's the leader!" the boy beside him, half a head taller, said excitedly.

The gloomy leading boy did not speak, but cracked a smile.

A ragged grey handkerchief was clenched in his hand. He then stood up and began to jog around the outside of the circle where everyone was seated, following a clockwise direction.

The other children immediately began singing a rhyme.

"Drop the Handkerchief, quietly drop it behind a friend, don't tell him, catch him quickly, catch him quickly..."

As the song began, Junze also murmured along softly. He knew that the one who dropped the handkerchief had to secretly place it behind one of the children before the song ended.

It could not be dropped between two people, nor too far away; it had to be right behind someone.

Those sitting in the circle could not alert others; they could not constantly look back or continuously feel for the handkerchief with their hands.

So, they had to keep an eye on the hands of the child with the handkerchief; as long as it was still in his hands, there was no need to look back.

If they noticed the handkerchief was suddenly gone, then they had to be aware that it might have been thrown behind them.

The boy with the handkerchief ran very fast; before the song was even finished, he had already made two laps around the group.

By the time the song reached "don't tell him," he had already run past Junze's back for the third time.

Then, Junze glanced at his hands; the handkerchief was gone.

The few who had just been passed by instinctively turned back to check behind them.

Junze also turned to look behind him, and there was nothing there.

However, the boy sitting to his left with only one arm had snatched the grey handkerchief that had been thrown behind him and stood up to chase the boy with the handkerchief who had already run half a lap.

The other boy was already a fast runner; this one-armed boy, gripping the handkerchief, had deformed legs that nearly dragged on the ground as he walked, completely unable to give chase.

Soon, the leader had completed a full lap and claimed the one-armed boy's spot, plopping down in his place.

Turning his head, he gave Junze, who sat beside him, a chilling smile.

The one-armed boy, holding the handkerchief, returned to the middle of the circle and stood still, silently staring at the leader, as if accepting his loss without any arguments.

"Are you Ning or Dogie?" the leader asked.

"Dogie," the boy with the disabled legs answered.

Hearing their exchange, Junze suddenly realized that these kids couldn't fully recognize each other at the moment.

No wonder, or else they would know who had run off.

Looking more closely, among those present, the girl's strangeness was obvious, followed by the leader; the most talkative one was the boy with half a head, sitting to his own right. The rest of the people had no obvious characteristics from before and did not speak.

"What's your name?" Junze couldn't help but ask the boy with half a head, quietly.

The boy turned his head and looked at him seriously, "You can't ask my name; I didn't lose."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Oh," Junze feigned understanding, nodded, and stopped talking.

At this moment, the leader continued questioning the boy named Dogie with the misshapen legs.

"Did you see Ning and Long take my stuff?"

"Long?" Junze's eyes brightened slightly, musing to himself, "Is he talking about Ye Zhennan's son Zhu Zhanglong?"

From Lin Dong's words earlier in the morning, he knew that Long got along well with these kids, and now he was hearing about Long from them.

Based on the timeline, the period around the fire's occurrence was exactly the time when Long had drowned in the Rock Reservoir.

Could it be that these events happened simultaneously? And among them, the one who fled was Long, who for some unknown reason, fell into the reservoir and drowned after he escaped.

Yan Junze suddenly remembered that the punishment from the mission seemed to be a hint, the punishment for this task was: In Dire Straits.

If he didn't complete this task, would he be punished with either fire or water, either burned to death or drowned?

"I saw it," the boy called Dogie answered the Kid King's question at this moment.

"Where have you hidden the stuff?" the Kid King asked.

"I don't know," Dogie shook his head.

"Is Ning among us?" the Kid King asked again.

"I have answered all three of my questions," Dogie reminded, and then he said no more.

The Kid King did not ask any further questions.

The game continued.

This time, it was Dogie's turn to Drop the Handkerchief, but he moved slowly. He hadn't walked half the circle from the beginning to the end of the chant.

As expected, the handkerchief was dropped behind the last person, the only girl present.

The girl reached behind and grabbed the handkerchief in one go, immediately standing up.

She knew it would be all too easy to catch up to Dogie, she could grab him in just a few steps.

As she was about to take off, Dogie suddenly sprawled on the ground, using his hands and feet to dash forward with incredible speed. His burnt and deformed legs acted like power boosters at that moment, crawling half the circle in a blink of an eye.

Even as the little girl ran swiftly, she still couldn't catch up to the crawling speed of Dogie, and soon Dogie had taken her place.

"Does that count as foul play?" Yan Junze couldn't help asking the half-head beside him.

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"If the boss didn't say so, then it's not," the half-head replied.

"You ask."

At this time, the little girl walked to the center of the circle and stood there. If it wasn't for a butterfly clip embedded in her hair, one couldn't tell from her voice whether she was a boy or a girl.

Truth be told, with this pile of bodies lying there, without any prominent and effective features, it would be impossible to distinguish who was who with the naked eye.

"Rou, do you like Long or me more?" Dogie asked.

"Long."

"You still like Long even though he steals?" Dogie pressed on.

Girl Rou shook her head: "Long didn't steal."

"Is he… still among us?" Dogie asked.

"I don't know."

All three questions had been asked.

Yan Junze suddenly felt that this was a lot of information.

Firstly, it was possible that Long and Ning took something belonging to the Kid King together, but the girl Rou firmly believed Long didn't take anything; thus, it might have been Ning who took it by himself.

Now, both the Kid King and Dogie had posed questions, but the content of their questions revolved around Ning and Long, specifically whether they were among the dead bodies or not.

That is to say, whether these two were present was what the children most wanted to know.

And Yan Junze's purpose for coming here was also simple, to find out who had escaped from among them.

So far, it seems more likely that it was Long who had escaped, and moreover, it was very possible that it was during that time that Long fell into the reservoir and drowned.

"No, that can't be right!"

Yan Junze was startled and shook his head; he suddenly thought of a key issue.