With willow-green silk ribbons tying her double buns, she wore a ginger-yellow top embroidered with primroses along the edges, a duck-egg blue Xiang skirt, and over it all, a light green bijia vest. On her feet, a pair of embroidered shoes featured lifelike butterflies. Such fresh, tender colors, paired with her bright eyes and white teeth, her picturesque brows and features, made it impossible for them to look away.

When they saw her drape a cloak over Chad Sullivan, several people wished they were the one being attended to by Chad Sullivan.

She was a renowned beauty among the maids of the inner courtyard, originally named Logan Smith. Three years ago, when the old master personally chose her for Chad Sullivan, he insisted on changing her name, and now she was called Lauren Smith. Everyone knew it was because her original name clashed with the ninth young master's given name, and in private, many lamented that the old master was uneducated and had made a vulgar change.

It was just a pity that this maid’s foster mother was far too greedy. In a few days, a fresh flower would be planted in a pile of cow dung!

Chad Sullivan yawned and finally said lazily, “I’m bored, just taking a walk.”

“The back courtyard is so big, you could go anywhere—why come all the way to the second gate?” Lauren Smith chided gently. Seeing Chad Sullivan turn to head back, she hurried after him, her graceful steps slow and measured, the long silver bells tied at her skirt’s waist only occasionally chiming softly, making everyone outside utterly entranced.

But Chad Sullivan, walking ahead of her, did not look back.

Of course, he knew how popular his chief maid was both inside and outside the inner courtyard. He’d even overheard the younger maids chattering enviously, saying that Lauren Smith’s graceful walk was unmatched, and even many young ladies couldn’t compare. Unfortunately, in his current state, he couldn’t do anything about it, and as for the swaying skirt and faint bell sounds, he couldn’t really appreciate them.

Moreover, Lauren Smith was about to be married off, and there was something fishy about the whole affair.

As they walked, he suddenly felt as if someone was approaching from behind, and instinctively paused. Sure enough, the next moment, Lauren Smith leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Young master, I heard from my foster mother that someone’s been hanging around the back street these days, asking about you. There are too many gossipy people there—you’d better not go out the back gate anymore.”

Being young and unable to leave the house, Chad Sullivan had always wandered around the residence, often strolling by the back gate. Now, hearing Lauren Smith’s words, he responded absentmindedly, but his mind was racing.

He never thought he had some earth-shattering background, but he cared deeply about the woman who had risked her life to save him, even though he didn’t know if she was his mother or someone else. No matter what, she was his savior.

But now that the truth about his adoption had just come out, who knew what kind of person was asking about him on the back street!

So, after sitting idly in his room for a while, Chad Sullivan waited for a moment when Lauren Smith was gone, then quickly changed into his only inconspicuous outfit and slipped out again. Of course, he had no way to make himself invisible, so he ran into a few maids and servants along the way, but he acted as if no one else was there, and they mostly ignored him.

He made it smoothly to the back gate, where he saw a few children about his age playing shuttlecock and cat’s cradle in the narrow back street.

When he appeared, someone shouted, and everyone scattered like birds and beasts, even the adults with nothing much to do hurried away.

Knowing that, as an adopted son, he wasn’t well-liked, Chad Sullivan simply stepped over the threshold and out the back gate, looking around curiously like a little explorer.

He carefully scanned each doorway with his eyes, and finally noticed a shadow hiding at the entrance of a small courtyard. After glancing a few times, he withdrew his gaze, stretched lazily as if bored, muttered, “So dull, I’m going back,” and turned to re-enter the back gate.

He had barely taken a few steps inside when a low, suppressed voice called out behind him.

“Xin ge’er?”

Chapter Two: Don’t Talk to Strangers

Xin ge’er?

Chad Sullivan immediately thought of a familiar term.

Turning around, he saw the man standing outside the back gate, still some distance away. He looked the man up and down for a moment, raising his eyebrows suspiciously. “Who are you?”

But the middle-aged man became agitated and excited. Dressed in clothes that were neither new nor old, he stepped closer and asked urgently, “Xin ge’er, is it you?”

Realizing he’d just misheard, Chad Sullivan glanced at the man, his eyes sweeping over the black cloth shoes washed almost white, and calmly replied, “Speak plainly.”

The two servant women washing clothes by the well had been eavesdropping, and when they heard Chad Sullivan say “Speak plainly,” they nearly burst out laughing, almost tumbling off their stools.

The middle-aged man froze for a moment, then hurriedly put on a sorrowful face. He wiped his eyes as if brushing away tears, and stepped over the threshold into the Yue residence’s back gate. “Ninth young master, my surname is Ding, David Brooks, I am your biological uncle.”

Chad Sullivan narrowed his eyes. The old master had only mentioned in the study a few days ago that his birth mother might have the surname Ding, and now, like flies drawn to a scent, someone had already come swarming.

Was it ever this easy for outsiders to get in through the Yue family’s back gate?