Richard Bolton is forty-three years old, prematurely balding in his prime. Because he lost his hair early, he could only resort to the clever strategy of “local support for the central government”—meticulously combing and arranging the hair at the back of his head to cover his shiny forehead, then fixing it in place with copious amounts of hair gel.

　　From a distance, he could barely pass for having a full head of hair, but up close, it looked like he was wearing a bizarre hat, exuding an indescribable sense of absurdity.

　　Richard Bolton works at the district notary office. After twenty years, he’s still just an ordinary notary. In his lifetime, he’s handled countless notarizations, and once considered his greatest success to be offsetting his half-inheritance of his father’s old, dilapidated house against a 100,000 yuan house payment. You should know, at the time, that shabby little house was only worth about 20,000 yuan on the market, so half the inheritance was worth just 10,000.

　　Richard Bolton didn’t think he was shortchanging his nephew. His older brother and sister-in-law died in a car accident, and the new house still had a mortgage. Even though it had just been renovated and no one had moved in yet, it was considered unlucky. He only bought it out of family loyalty.

　　Although he got a bargain on the price, at least he solved David Bolton’s urgent problem. He personally took care of all the debts left by his brother, and while he didn’t spend much money, he certainly put in a lot of effort.

　　He admits he hasn’t taken good enough care of his nephew, but with a domineering wife at home, he couldn’t possibly ruin his own relatively comfortable and happy family life for the sake of a foolish, muddle-headed nephew.

　　Richard Bolton is completely henpecked. Ever since the little house where David Bolton lived was designated for demolition and relocation, his home life has been anything but peaceful. His wife scolded him for being short-sighted, saying he was like a naked woman sitting on a rock—losing the big for the sake of the small. She berated him for giving up half the inheritance just to pocket an extra 90,000 yuan at the time, which now seems like such an unwise move. But this spendthrift woman forgot that she was the one who encouraged him to do it in the first place.

　　Today, Richard Bolton came to pick up his nephew because he wanted to have a good talk with this silly boy, to see where he’d put the house deed and the notary certificate, and to coax him into doing another notarization—ideally transferring the little house into his own name, so he could qualify to buy property.

　　Rebuilding on the original site, a house within the Third Ring Road at 4,100 yuan per square meter—everyone knows that’s like a pie falling from the sky.

　　Richard Bolton hadn’t expected David Bolton to openly contradict his teacher. Ever since the car accident, this nephew had become a closed book, so timid that you couldn’t get a word out of him even with three sticks. He was meek and submissive with everyone, a coward to the core. If you told him his grades were bad, he’d believe it, but talking back to a teacher? Even if you gave him a hundred times the courage, he wouldn’t dare.

　　At the academic affairs office, Richard Bolton was berated by both the director and the PE teacher for over half an hour. His explanation, from start to finish, was always the same: this child is an orphan, suffered a brain injury in a car accident, and is mentally abnormal. In short, the kid has a problem with his brain, so don’t treat him like a normal person.

　　Throughout the entire denunciation, Andrew Sullivan insisted that David Bolton’s mind was perfectly fine, even suggesting he was playing dumb and pretending to be a fool to take advantage.

　　However, after a righteous tirade, Andrew Sullivan calmed down. He realized that, including the director, everyone saw David Bolton as someone with impaired intelligence after his injury. If he insisted on pursuing the matter, he’d only make himself a laughingstock. In the end, the resolution was for David Bolton to write a deep self-reflection, read it aloud at the class meeting, and apologize to Andrew Sullivan.

　　Richard Bolton agreed to everything. He thought the school was making a mountain out of a molehill—everyone knew David Bolton had mental issues, so why bother making such a fuss over a student with intellectual problems? In fact, many people thought the same, even the director, but he couldn’t afford to offend Andrew Sullivan, not just because Andrew Sullivan was a model among young teachers, but also because of his family background.

　　Andrew Sullivan comes from a well-off family. The only BMW 530 at Beichen High School is his. While the car isn’t exactly a luxury vehicle, it stands out among the modest, upright teaching staff.

　　It’s said that Andrew Sullivan’s father is a well-known local building materials merchant, with wide social connections, and is an old friend of the principal. The fact that Andrew Sullivan, a self-funded student from the local teachers’ college’s PE department, could enter Beichen No. 1 High School and receive special attention is not unrelated to his background.

　　David Bolton was standing in front of this BMW. Though the heavens are lofty and high above, they keep information about the mortal world strictly sealed off. As a low-level immortal, he had no chance to learn much about the human world. David Bolton was very curious about cars, and his curiosity quickly turned into fondness. Beautiful cars and beautiful women are temptations few men can resist.

　　David Bolton hoped that one day he could have a car of his own. The dream was rich, but reality was harsh—he only had 170 yuan in his pocket, not even enough for a single BMW maintenance. The young man wanted to pluck a horsehair as a souvenir, but after circling the car three times, he couldn’t find one. The exhaust pipe? A bit too thick.

　　A heavy cough sounded behind him. David Bolton looked up to see his uncle Richard Bolton walking toward him with a sullen face. David Bolton gazed at this so-called uncle, a relative whose IQ and EQ were only average, his expression and eyes equally indifferent.

　　To outsiders, David Bolton’s indifferent gaze looked dull and lifeless. Richard Bolton clearly had no idea about the dramatic changes that had happened to his nephew in the past two days. He sighed and said, “You, you… can’t you show a little ambition? You’ve completely disgraced the Zhang family.”