Henry Foster casually picked up the briefcase beside him, opened it, and took out a thick stack of manuscripts. It was a handwritten draft, the neat and slightly flamboyant running script unmistakably in Henry Foster’s own hand.

Because of his lack of seniority, Henry Foster was not yet Mason Parker’s full-time secretary, just an ordinary staff member in the Second Secretary Section. But ever since he joined the prefectural committee office, all of Mason Parker’s speeches and articles had been transcribed by Henry Foster himself. His colleagues jokingly called him Secretary Qiu’s “second secretary.”

Of course, Henry Foster was not taking out Mason Parker’s manuscript at this moment to admire his own calligraphy.

Henry Foster’s eyes were fixed intently on the title of the article, his brows involuntarily furrowing deeply.

If he remembered correctly, this article was the direct trigger for Mason Parker’s dismissal and forced idleness. It was also the “culprit” that caused his father William Foster and the entire Fan family to plummet from their peak into the abyss.

Chapter 2: Where to Go from Here

“Continue to Liberate Our Thinking, Accelerate the Pace of Reform.”

These twelve characters, written in a style reminiscent of a leader’s calligraphy—bold and flowing—were penned by Mason Parker himself.

Judging by the title alone, it was proper and unremarkable.

The theme and main content of the article were all conceived by Mason Parker. He drafted an outline and then handed it over to the writers in the Second Secretary Section for polishing. The three colleagues in the section, including Henry Foster, spent a whole week to complete it. After Mason Parker personally reviewed and approved it, Henry Foster transcribed the final version.

The full text was nearly four thousand words.

At the time, not only Henry Foster and the other young secretaries, but even Mason Parker himself was quite satisfied with the article. It systematically expounded Mason Parker’s views on the current liberation of thought and reform and opening up.

According to later accounts, Mason Parker was a “radical,” the staunchest reformer.

Mason Parker was upright, broad-minded, and well-read—a university graduate from the early 1960s, highly capable. Before serving as the Organization Minister of the Yanhua Prefectural Committee, he worked in the provincial government office, with a solid theoretical foundation, and was highly valued by Governor Ethan Ray. Ethan Ray was regarded as the standard-bearer of the “radical faction” in Qingshan Province.

In the mid-1980s, it was a time when two different schools of thought clashed most fiercely.

Mason Parker often published theoretical articles in party newspapers and journals, expounding his governance ideas and philosophies. Privately, he was called the “theoretical master” of the Qingshan Province “radical faction,” and the “literary brain” of Ethan Ray. Many even believed that some of Mason Parker’s theories actually reflected Ethan Ray’s intentions and thinking.

At just twenty, Henry Foster had only been working for two or three months and ordinarily would not have been qualified to participate in such “major affairs.” But Mason Parker deliberately mentored him, including him in the main secretary team. This time, he even specifically had him take the article to the provincial capital to negotiate face-to-face with the editor-in-chief of the provincial newspaper—a clear sign of support.

As a member of the prefectural committee office’s secretary team, if he could win the favor of the provincial newspaper’s responsible officials, it would be greatly beneficial to Henry Foster’s future career.

More than twenty years ago, when he first received this assignment, Henry Foster could no longer recall what he felt. But now, seeing this article again, seeing the work he had personally transcribed, Henry Foster broke out in a cold sweat.

In another parallel world, that sudden storm was still fresh in Henry Foster’s memory. Ethan Ray was transferred, Mason Parker lost his position, and William Foster was left without support, reassigned as deputy director of the Yanhua District Sanitation Department, managing cleaning workers until retirement.

And Henry Foster’s own fate also took a complete 180-degree turn.

Back then, Secretary Fan had been full of ambition, hoping to make his mark in politics, benefit his hometown, and leave his name in history.

But in politics, the winds and clouds shift unpredictably—how could ordinary people ever see it clearly?

At the time, which grassroots cadre could have imagined that a storm was brewing at the top, and that soon, a fierce struggle would erupt, with a certain high-level leader stepping down, triggering a far-reaching upheaval?

Mason Parker’s article became the main target of criticism, with opponents claiming that Mason Parker was a typical “economics first” advocate. As a party official, he was accused of completely neglecting party-building work, lacking principles and bottom lines, and embodying dangerous bourgeois liberalization.

That incident led to a major reshuffle in Qingshan Province’s political scene. The Ethan Ray faction was almost “wiped out,” never to recover.

Mason Parker himself died heroically three years later while saving someone.

Time flies. More than twenty years later, except for the cadres who had once worked closely with him, it seemed no one remembered him anymore.

And now, history was still moving along its original track. The article that had once been singled out for praise by Ethan Ray and read aloud at a provincial government executive meeting was quietly lying in Henry Foster’s hands, not yet set in type in the “Qingshan Daily.”

Ten or so pages of manuscript paper felt as heavy as a thousand pounds in Henry Foster’s hands.

But I have come back.

I should do something!

This voice suddenly shouted in Henry Foster’s heart.