diff --git a/src/system/detail/src/vnodeQueryImpl.c b/src/system/detail/src/vnodeQueryImpl.c
index aa75758b413b471533457df31ab5998843140dd9..28837592c536ff18f4201d677d544839927f8bd5 100644
--- a/src/system/detail/src/vnodeQueryImpl.c
+++ b/src/system/detail/src/vnodeQueryImpl.c
@@ -4013,7 +4013,7 @@ bool normalizedFirstQueryRange(bool dataInDisk, bool dataInCache, STableQuerySup
       }
       
       // needs the data before the begin timestamp of query time window
-      if ((*key) != pQuery->skey) {
+      if (nextKey != pQuery->skey) {
         if (!pRuntimeEnv->hasTimeWindow) {
           pQuery->skey = nextKey;  // change the query skey
         }