But now, the servants are openly envious, jealous, and resentful, while the elders and peers deliberately keep their distance, and then there was today’s farce.

Of course, he would never hate the old master who revealed he was an adopted child. To take in a child with no kin and raise him as if he were a true grandson—this was already a tremendous act of kindness.

However, the one who stabbed his mother in the back was a different story! That’s why he needed Lauren Smith to light a fire.

As night deepened, Lauren Smith as usual made her bed on the floor by the bedside. Hearing that the even breathing she used to hear from the bed was absent, she knew Chad Sullivan was also still awake. She forgot that this Ninth Young Master rarely spoke to maids, and suddenly asked, “Ninth Young Master, how did you know that David Brooks today wasn’t your uncle?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lauren Smith regretted it. This wasn’t a good question, much less one she should be asking. But to her surprise, Chad Sullivan actually answered.

Chad Sullivan didn’t turn over, but his eyes looked at the ink-painted curtain of wormwood and grass: “Grandfather said, when he brought me back, I weighed at most four or five jin, probably only a few months old, couldn’t even speak—how could I know what my name was before? That David Brooks didn’t even think about this, just barged in and started calling me Xingge’er, and expected me to believe him?”

He still didn’t mention that terrifying escape from the fire.

Lauren Smith couldn’t help but be amused by Chad Sullivan: “You must have misheard. How could anyone in the world be called Xingge’er?”

“Why not? The books say that far, far to the west, there was once a vast lake that later dried up into a desert, called Lop Nur. In that desert, there’s a small oasis, the only place with a spring, and later a sentry post was built there, called Xingge’er. Legend has it that these three characters, in another language, mean strength and masculinity…”

Chad Sullivan couldn’t help but tell a story from another world, his tone dreamy, as if sleep-talking.

Xingge’er was the sentry post he visited in his previous life, after his father’s death, fulfilling his father’s last wish to see the place where he had served as a soldier.

He didn’t mention the nuclear explosion, didn’t mention honor, didn’t mention perseverance, nor the legend of seven soldiers trekking over eight thousand li on foot, cut off from water and food, on the brink of death, only to discover two springs—one salty, one sweet.

But thinking of how he once traveled across endless yellow sands to reach that sentry post, and heard a young soldier sing “The Warrior and the Spring,” even though he had completely forgotten the lyrics, he couldn’t help but hum the melody softly.

Listening to this strange tune she’d never heard before, gazing at the light streaming in from the window, Lauren Smith felt her eyelids grow heavy. As sleepiness crept in, she couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation.

Could it be that the Ninth Young Master was homesick? Could his home really be that place called Lop Nur, Xingge’er? But the Ninth Young Master was brought into the mansion by the old master when he was so little, he didn’t even remember his own name…

After humming that little-known song, Chad Sullivan on the bed felt his eyes sting, and couldn’t help but murmur to himself: “Before my bed, the bright moonlight, I suspect it is frost on the ground. I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, and lower it to think of my hometown.”

A single “Quiet Night Thoughts” expresses all the longing for home. Compared to those wanderers who still have a day to return, he had long since lost any place to go back to.

Three years in Hemu Pavilion, reading widely, with no sign of a way home, there was no need for him to long for his homeland anymore—it was time to consider himself one of the people here.

Not to mention being successful, the old master was already advanced in years; he had to repay that kindness of being raised, didn’t he?

Lauren Smith mulled over those twenty-odd short words, and in that moment, she felt as if she understood why the Ninth Young Master had shown her leniency.

In this vast Yue residence, they were both outsiders. Hadn’t she, too, forgotten her own home, forgotten her own parents?

Chapter Four: Ruined Books

Early in the morning, after a fairly good night’s sleep, Chad Sullivan dragged himself out of bed and stretched lazily.

Though he was used to the early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine of this entertainment-starved era, habit didn’t mean fondness. No matter how early he slept, getting up at this hour still left him groggy.

When he caught sight of Lauren Smith, who was helping him dress, her eyes swollen and red—clearly she’d cried more than once last night—he sighed in a world-weary manner.

He didn’t offer any words of comfort. Not until he’d washed up, finished breakfast, and was about to head out did he suddenly instruct, “Lauren Smith, today you take me to Hemu Pavilion.”

Lauren Smith was the head maid in charge of all the affairs inside and outside Qingfen Hall. Normally, it was two junior maids who escorted Chad Sullivan out, but after what happened last night, since Chad Sullivan had given the order, she naturally agreed at once. Still, she couldn’t help but carefully press a wet, soft cloth to her eyes, though the swelling was hard to hide.

Hemu Pavilion was just east of Qingfen Hall, separated by a single door. Chad Sullivan had lived here ever since he was brought back to the Yue residence, actually closer to the old master than the real Yue family members.

Every day, Old Master Sullivan had to get up before dawn to rush off to court, so in the Yue residence, the morning and evening greetings were impossible to do in the morning.

Unconventional as he was, Old Master Sullivan had long ago waved away the morning greeting, so only at dusk or even late at night, when he returned, would the children and grandchildren gather at Hemu Pavilion. That’s why, in the mornings, it was usually only Chad Sullivan who would head over there.

But this time, just as he and Lauren Smith passed through the east-west moon gate, they saw a group of people entering from the south gate.