Chapter 308: Man’s Determination Can Conquer Heaven
’The protagonist? Well, well, well. So you’re the one, you and your little crew, who’s going to cause all that trouble later on, is that it?’
Dennis Donovan’s eyes gleamed as he stared at the photograph from across the table. He wished he could burn the man’s image into his memory.
What was that saying? Hate lasts longer than love. Right now, he truly wanted to flay the man alive, tear him limb from limb, and put him back together again!
"What’s his story?"
"This is Mr. Tate. He’s a doctor. According to your previous prediction, he was supposed to be stabbed in the heart one morning by the family member of a disgruntled patient, which would have sent him into that other world."
Arabella Donovan could feel her heart begin to pound. "Did you stop it?"
"Yes, we subdued the family member before their knife could reach Dr. Tate. But that very evening, on his way home, Dr. Tate was stabbed in the abdomen by a mugger while trying to be a good Samaritan. Although he was rushed to the hospital in time and luckily saved, we aren’t sure if he..."
"He’s been there." The hope in Arabella Donovan’s heart finally died, replaced by a sense of melancholic certainty. It was just as she had expected.
’He’s the protagonist of the original book, after all. How could he be stopped so easily?’ As for Ron Cole’s mention of him being a "good Samaritan," Arabella Donovan was skeptical.
Strictly speaking, he wasn’t one of the people who harmed Dr. Donovan in the original book. In fact, he often acted as the peacemaker, mediating conflicts within the protagonist’s group. But looking at the entire story, Arabella knew he was the perfect example of someone outwardly warm but inwardly cold; he would never do anything that wasn’t to his own advantage.
For example, if only two people could survive in the world, he might choose to live on with the female lead he supposedly loved. But if only one could live, he would abandon his so-called "true love" without a second thought, even climbing over her dead body to get himself to the safest place.
A man like that would risk his own life to be a good Samaritan? Arabella thought it sounded ridiculous.
A flicker of understanding passed through Ron Cole’s eyes. The hard data had completely convinced him, leaving him with no room to doubt Arabella Donovan’s words.
"I thought so, too. That’s why I’ve had my men keep a close watch on these ’lucky survivors’—the ones who had an accident but were saved. This way, we’ll know immediately if there’s any new development."
"You did the right thing."
Hearing Arabella Donovan say that, Ron Cole couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes.
"This young woman is a reporter. According to your prediction, she was going to sneak into a high-end residential complex to get a scoop on a top celebrity’s sex scandal. She was supposed to climb a tall building to get firsthand photos and fall to her death. We caught her right after she infiltrated the complex and had her detained by the police for two days. But on the day she was released, she got into an argument with someone, accidentally lost her footing, and fell into the water."
"This man is a rich heir. According to the original course of events, he was supposed to get into a car crash while street racing on a mountain road, leaving him on the brink of death. Because we sealed off that mountain road in advance, he never went there. But not long after, he got an urgent call from home during a party with friends and still got into a car crash while driving home drunk."
"Then there’s this woman, a university professor. She was supposed to be seriously injured after being pushed down the stairs while trying to break up a fight between two students over a campus theft. Our people intervened in time, preventing the tragedy, and the theft was quickly solved. But shortly after, the thief’s relatives came to confront her. During the shoving match, she still ended up hitting her head and had to be hospitalized."
"And this one... and this one... and this one..."
Ron Cole mentioned several more people. It was clear that after the first few validated incidents, their interference was a factor in almost all the subsequent cases. Some were lucky; after a single intervention, it was as if their fate had been corrected. They overcame their ordeal and were reborn, not dragged into that terrifying other world to be trapped and die.
But for eight or nine out of ten people, after their intervention helped them avoid the initial disaster, they would soon encounter a similar calamity. Even with Ron Cole’s men watching them around the clock, it was impossible to guard against everything, and most of them still ended up in the cycle.
This was also within Arabella Donovan’s expectations. She’d had a feeling this would happen ever since Ron Cole mentioned how Dr. Tate was stabbed by a mugger shortly after escaping the knife of the disgruntled patient’s family member.
’This must be the self-correction of The Providence from that infinite flow world. All these chosen people must have been marked, some more deeply than others.’
’A shallow mark can be erased with a single intervention, but a deep one is impossible to deal with. Even if you save them once or twice, you can’t save them for a lifetime.’
Just like the members of the protagonist’s group. They were all on the intervention list, yet they all met with disaster for one reason or another.
’Why else would they be called the protagonist’s group, blessed by fortune? Aside from Terence Lewis, who’s already been dealt with, these people could probably be arrested by Mr. Cole’s team and thrown in jail, and they’d still manage to slip in the shower and end up in critical condition.’
Even Dennis Donovan, who was currently obsessed with this protagonist group, was left speechless by Arabella’s speculation. For a moment, he couldn’t decide if these so-called "chosen ones of destiny" were lucky or unlucky.
Being destined for disaster certainly made the protagonist’s group a bit more unfortunate than others. But compared to the poor souls who were trapped in that other world forever after their accidents, they were actually quite lucky.
"This young lady’s original fate was to die in a faulty elevator. She was supposed to miss a step on her way out and fall from a great height. Thanks to our intervention, she never got on that malfunctioning elevator. But the very next day, she was killed instantly when an object was thrown from a high-rise apartment and struck her on the head."
Ron Cole’s voice was full of guilt as he spoke of this, his words laced with regret and frustration.
They had tried so hard to protect these people, yet the final results were still unsatisfactory. ’Is it really impossible to change a predetermined fate?’
Arabella Donovan knew what he was thinking as soon as she heard him. "Mr. Cole, please don’t be disheartened. This isn’t your fault," she consoled him. "It’s precisely because this is so difficult that we must try even harder to change things. Through all of history, experience has taught us that human will can triumph over fate. Trying doesn’t guarantee a way out, but not trying guarantees there is no way out at all."
’It’s just like our family. If we truly believed in all that talk about destiny being set in stone, my parents, my four older siblings, and I would probably all be dead by now. We wouldn’t have the luxury of sitting here moping and figuring out how to save others.’
Dennis Donovan’s eyes flickered. ’Isn’t that the truth?’ If it weren’t for this little girl’s help, not only would he have lost his wife, but those jackals and tigers would have devoured him, an old man, leaving not even his bones behind.
If this was the ending heaven had arranged for him, then he would damn well defy heaven itself!