He watched helplessly as Little Grace was overwhelmed with grief, and once again Brian Sullivan was powerless: Little Grace, along with every friend and relative he knew, all regarded him as a stranger.

If every person is a world unto themselves, then from the moment of that fateful collision, he was destined to live in the world of Mark Brooks's secretary Brian Sullivan, and could never return to the world of Ethan Foster.

Chapter Two: Who Is It That You Cannot Let Go

There are too many things in this world that are hard to let go of. If he were to die in that moment of falling from a great height, the one thing Brian Sullivan would find hardest to let go of would surely be his younger sister Little Lily, who would be left all alone from then on...

After depositing the urn at the cemetery, the funeral crowd soon came back out.

Seeing from a distance once again Little Lily's bloodless, almost translucent face, her eyes red and swollen from crying, Brian Sullivan's heart was stabbed with pain once more.

A longtime friend and also a colleague at the city steel mill, Eric Bennett, drove the truck temporarily borrowed from the factory, taking Little Lily and the other mourners back to Meixi Town.

Brian Sullivan couldn't let go, but had no excuse to approach, so he could only drive far behind the truck, following them to Meixi Town.

Meixi Town is under the jurisdiction of Xiapu County, Donghua City, but geographically it is right next to the city proper.

Between Meixi Town and Donghua City lies the wide Meixi River, with a concrete bridge built in the late 1960s connecting it to the city.

Brian Sullivan only followed as far as the old house at the east end of Meixi Town, parking his car under the shade of a tree by the roadside.

At this point, what else could he do but watch from afar?

By the time he returned to Meixi, it was almost dark. Friends and relatives gradually left, and Eric Bennett also drove back to the city with a few colleagues.

Brian Sullivan sat in his car, watching as everyone else left, but his cousin's wife stayed behind to keep Little Lily company. Only then did he feel a little more at ease. He lowered the seat and lay down in the car without undressing, still unwilling to leave.

For the past three days, his mind had been in turmoil and he was physically and mentally exhausted. Brian Sullivan didn't even know when he fell asleep...

After the possession, Brian Sullivan still retained most of the original owner's memory fragments.

To Brian Sullivan, these memory fragments were unfamiliar—they belonged to the previous Brian Sullivan.

Even though he could play these memories in his mind like a movie, the sense of unfamiliarity could not be dispelled. It was like watching a film, watching someone else's life—he was only the audience. It was precisely this sense of estrangement that made Brian Sullivan absolutely certain that the previous Brian Sullivan no longer existed.

In his sleep, Brian Sullivan heard his phone ring, but thought it was just a sound in his dream.

In 1993, even a pager could attract attention in Donghua City, let alone a mobile phone.

The phone kept beeping, but Brian Sullivan just hugged his arms tighter, trying to get more comfortable, subconsciously thinking the phone had nothing to do with him—after about five or six seconds, Brian Sullivan suddenly woke up, remembering that when he left the hospital and went to the city government to get the car, he had indeed tossed both a phone and his wallet onto the dashboard...

Brian Sullivan sat up with a start, slapped his forehead, and silently warned himself: What are you thinking? From now on, you can only live as Brian Sullivan!

Brian Sullivan squinted at the sun, surprised to find he had slept until eight or nine o'clock. The old house had already been locked from the outside, and he had no idea where Little Lily had gone so early.

Brian Sullivan leaned over to pick up the phone, hesitated a bit, but still answered the call.

The voice on the other end was both familiar and unfamiliar to Brian Sullivan.

Familiar because of the previous memories, unfamiliar because Brian Sullivan knew very well that he was living under someone else's identity.

"Secretary Sullivan, where are you? Besides the cars for the mayors, the city government only has three cars available. You took the 927 out and didn't come back all night. Did you ever think about what would happen if someone urgently needed a car at the government office today? If your injury is fine, hurry up and drive back to the city."

The voice was low, hoarse, and thick. In Brian Sullivan's mind flashed the image of a round face with a big, fleshy nose—this was the voice of the city government's secretary-general, John Reed.

Though over forty, John Reed was actually quite fair-skinned, but he had a few white pockmarks on his face, so everyone called him Freckle Reed behind his back.

He couldn't very well say that he had left the hospital and slept in his car outside Meixi Town all night; Brian Sullivan's voice was awkward as he dodged the question: "I know, I'll come back right away."

Freckle Reed didn't say anything more and hung up.

Brian Sullivan didn't take Freckle Reed's half-hearted questioning to heart.

Officialdom is often made up of different circles. If you don't belong to this circle, you belong to that one, and each circle usually has only one boss.

Freckle Reed was one of Mayor David Carter's people, while Brian Sullivan was the secretary to the municipal party committee member and deputy mayor Mark Brooks.

Although Brian Sullivan's rank was a notch below Freckle Reed's, they belonged to different circles, followed different bosses, and usually kept out of each other's way.

Still not knowing where Little Lily had gone so early, Brian Sullivan could only drive back to the city first.

As soon as Brian Sullivan drove into the city government compound, he saw Freckle Reed standing on the steps in front of the government building, waiting for him.

Assuming Freckle Reed was just looking for an excuse to lecture him, Brian Sullivan cursed inwardly, but still parked the car, rolled down the window, and asked, "Secretary-General Reed, are you really standing here just to wait for me?"