He knew that he was a complete “stranger” with no ties, and showing too much concern or intimacy toward Little Lily and Grace Brooks would only backfire, causing unnecessary resentment and rejection.

However, at this moment, he couldn’t let go of his concern for his younger sister: it was truly hard to imagine how Little Lily could withstand the blow of his “unexpected death.”

The bus returning to Meixi Town would pass by Taowu Road. In the past, whenever he went to the city steel plant, he would always take this route, so he was very familiar with it. At this point, even being able to catch one more glimpse of Little Lily would put his mind at ease.

He didn’t know whether John Reed had already reported this matter to Mark Brooks.

Brian Sullivan knew that if this really reached Mark Brooks, even if Mark Brooks tried to protect him, at the very least he would publicly scold him to show that he wouldn’t tolerate such behavior; he might even have to take a disciplinary punishment, go to the city steel plant to apologize to Big Mouth Harris, and try to mitigate the impact.

Brian Sullivan thought to himself, rather than rushing to the city and passively waiting to be reprimanded, it would be better to just wait for Mark Brooks to call and scold him over the phone...

Ultimately, Brian Sullivan was not mentally prepared to step into someone else’s life and world.

The previous Brian Sullivan—his consciousness had vanished at the moment of the fatal accident, but most of his memory fragments remained.

These memory fragments, like stored video footage, could be recalled and played in his mind at any time, but after all, they belonged to the previous Brian Sullivan.

It was as if Brian Sullivan was watching a movie; no matter how vivid the images, he knew clearly in his heart that what was recorded was someone else’s life, someone else’s world.

Even though he could use a new identity to enter another person’s life and world, this sense of unfamiliarity and alienation was not something that could be dispelled in just three or four days.

After being in Donghua for more than half a year, Brian Sullivan hadn’t interacted much with John Reed, so he didn’t appear too awkward in front of John Reed.

Even so, his behavior today still left John Reed both surprised and suspicious, ultimately leading her to draw the wrong conclusions. But how was he supposed to face Mark Brooks, who knew him much better and was more familiar with him?

Others only knew that before coming to Donghua, Brian Sullivan had worked at the Provincial College of Economics for over a year, and that his reputation there wasn’t great. Later, he followed Mark Brooks to Donghua to work as an administrative secretary in the city government.

However, after occupying this body, the previous Brian Sullivan’s complicated background and past experiences left him utterly shocked.

It was almost impossible for outsiders to connect Brian Sullivan with the Song family, one of the country’s most prominent political dynasties.

Although the Song family patriarch, Emily Walker, no longer held a national leadership position, he was still alive and influential. He had married twice, fathering four sons and three daughters—a total of seven children—all of whom held important positions in central ministries or large state-owned enterprises.

The Song family’s protégés and former subordinates were spread throughout both central and local governments.

There were probably fewer than twenty such political dynasties in the entire country.

Brian Sullivan was the only son of the Song family patriarch’s third son, Robert Walker, and took his mother’s surname, Shen.

When he was young, his parents separated due to emotional estrangement, and since he always lived with his mother, there was little connection to the Song family in his personal records.

Although most of the Song family’s second generation were relatively well-behaved, by the third generation, influenced by the spirit of reform and opening up, many couldn’t resist temptation and became corrupt and degenerate, with a mix of good and bad among them—Brian Sullivan being the most notorious.

In Brian Sullivan’s view, the previous Brian Sullivan was nothing more than a parasite feeding off a political dynasty; his indulgence and depravity were unimaginable to someone raised with strict discipline.

Although the previous Brian Sullivan’s behavior of playing with female students at the Provincial College of Economics was already considered disgraceful, compared to what he did in Yanjing and while studying abroad, his actions at the college could almost be called decent...

While studying overseas, Brian Sullivan once, after drinking, even tried to make advances toward his stepmother’s daughter.

This incident so enraged his father, Robert Walker, that he completely lost hope in him. After summoning him back to China, he banished him to Huaihai Province to let him fend for himself.

It was his biological aunt who, worried he would cause more trouble, secretly asked her old classmate Mark Brooks, who worked in Huaihai Province, to look after him...

Mark Brooks had been the secretary to the Song family patriarch when he headed the National Planning Commission. Although the patriarch retired early, he always looked after Mark Brooks, whose career thus progressed smoothly.

Mark Brooks rose step by step from an ordinary cadre at the National Planning Commission, to deputy director of the Huaihai Provincial Planning Commission, and then to a member of the Donghua Municipal Standing Committee and vice mayor—all directly related to the Song family’s influence behind the scenes.

Brian Sullivan was called the Song family’s abandoned son, but no matter how abandoned, he was still a member of the Song family.

Although Brian Sullivan’s behavior was a constant headache, Mark Brooks still took care of him. Even after taking up a post in Donghua, he brought along Brian Sullivan, who was as notorious as a rat crossing the street at the Provincial College of Economics, not giving him a chance to cause any major trouble.

In fact, Brian Sullivan did have some connection to Donghua.

His mother, Linda Sullivan, who died of illness when he was twelve, was the granddaughter of Peter Sullivan, a pre-liberation Donghua city national capitalist.

On the eve of liberation, Peter Foster fled abroad with his family, leaving only his second daughter and son-in-law, along with their daughter Linda Sullivan, to remain overseas.