How could this be? Ethan Taylor looked at the girl for help. So, she really was his godmother from more than ten years ago—the woman who had always protected and cared for him like a towering tree. Ethan Taylor wanted nothing more than to throw himself into her arms and have a good cry. Whenever he had suffered any grievance in the past, she was always the best person to confide in. Yet today was the most absurd thing he had ever experienced in his life. But Ethan Taylor knew he couldn’t do that now. She wasn’t yet the stunning, unflappable woman she would become more than a decade later. If he acted like that, he would only frighten her.

“Mr. Taylor, are you alright?” Emma Brooks paused when she saw Ethan Taylor’s gaze. Why did this young town secretary look just like a wronged child? That was so unlike him. She muttered to herself but was too embarrassed to say it out loud.

“Mr. Taylor, you need to stay strong. Your godson in heaven wouldn’t want to see you fall apart.”

Ethan Taylor was taken aback and glanced at the calendar. “January 7th.” January 1991. He had just been adopted by his foster father, and hadn’t he just suffered a serious illness? Later, his foster father often said he should celebrate two birthdays—January 6th, the day he was critically ill, should also be his birthday. It seemed that, in this world, he had died.

Ethan Taylor shook his head and said, “I’m fine, you go ahead.” His tone naturally carried a hint of respect. He had too much on his mind, and none of it was something his godmother could solve.

Emma Brooks smiled. “As long as you’re alright. Also, don’t take Mr. Harris’s words too much to heart. The William Thompson case wasn’t your fault.”

Ethan Taylor gave a bitter smile. The William Thompson case? His foster father’s eternal pain—was he going to experience it himself now?

Emma Brooks walked away in small, quick steps, her white jeans hugging her shapely hips, swaying gently as she walked, making it easy to imagine their softness. Ethan Taylor sighed. Who would have thought his godmother was already so stunningly attractive more than ten years ago? He shook his head—what was he thinking? How could he have such muddled thoughts at a time like this? No wonder his godmother always scolded him for lacking ambition and being hopelessly confused. Even the night he got into graduate school, she hadn’t stopped nagging him.

Ethan Taylor lay on the hospital bed, slowly sorting out his thoughts. More than ten years ago, his foster father had just graduated from the Party School and become deputy mayor and deputy Party secretary of Brooksville Town. His godmother was the town secretary, and he himself was an orphan from Brooksville. Because he had the exact same name as his foster father, he was adopted. At that time, his foster father was young and successful, full of ambition, a Party School graduate with high hopes from the family, sent to the grassroots level, becoming the youngest town mayor in Yorkshire County, even in York City. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. Not long after, he got caught up in the William Thompson case, and the family patriarch decided to ignore it, letting his foster father struggle on his own at the grassroots. But his foster father wasn’t cut out for that kind of fight and was soon beaten black and blue by the old political hands. In a fit of anger, he left politics, fell out with the disappointed patriarch, broke away from the family, and after marrying his godmother, the three of them lived a simple life.

Who would have thought that, in the eyes of others, his foster father was always a member of the The Taylor Family? In the 21st century, after the old generation of founding patriarchs passed away, China gradually lost its true “princelings,” and politics became more democratic. The old family structures either declined or transformed. After the The Taylor Family patriarch died, his foster father’s second uncle, Andrew Taylor, the representative figure of the The Taylor Family, was investigated for corruption. No one knew where things went wrong, but his foster father got implicated, supposedly for helping Andrew Taylor transfer huge sums of money. Even Ethan Taylor was implicated, as some of the funds ended up in accounts opened with his ID. In 2008, not long after Ethan Taylor had been accepted into graduate school, he was investigated by a special task force.

Ethan Taylor remembered that cold night, when he, his foster father, and godmother sat around the stove, drinking and talking. In the end, Ethan Taylor learned that his foster father and godmother had taken a large amount of sleeping pills.

Ethan Taylor still remembered his foster father’s resolute words: “We can’t just say it was all Second Uncle’s doing and that we didn’t know anything. That would be letting the old patriarch down. I was born a member of the The Taylor Family, and I’ll die as a ghost of the The Taylor Family! This is the only way I can repay the The Taylor Family!”

Ethan Taylor had no idea he would choose such a path of no return, nor could he have imagined his usually timid foster father would have such courage. But Ethan Taylor remembered his foster father’s impassioned expression that day, remembered him singing “A Man’s Ambition Lies Far and Wide” with heroic spirit, remembered his godmother’s gentle smile and soft words, urging him to live well in the future, remembered her beautiful yet sorrowful dance, and her final enchanting smile to him.

Thinking of those scenes, Ethan Taylor suddenly felt his blood boil again. Maybe, after his foster father and godmother passed, his cries to the heavens moved the gods and gave him a second chance at life? Or maybe everything in the past was just a dream, like Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly. Either way, since heaven has given him another chance, he was going to live his life to the fullest! He would make the name Ethan Taylor resound throughout China!

Chapter Two: The Case (Part One)

The next day, Ethan Taylor completed his discharge procedures early. By the time Emma Brooks came to pick him up, he had already packed his things. In fact, there wasn’t much to pack—just some toiletries stuffed into a black leather bag.