Prologue

Prologue

“I should get going.” William Carter stood in the cold night, took a breath of the chilly air, and wearily raised his wrist to glance at the Swiss Vacheron Constantin watch on his hand.

The January chill in Changzhou was biting. Several thick yellow catalpa trees shaded most of the small courtyard, and with the dense ornamental shrubs inside the finely crafted wooden fence, it was hard to see much of the courtyard from outside.

Even so, William Carter still carefully stood on the inside of the porch, avoiding exposure to outside view, even though it was already past two in the morning. Tomorrow morning, the district government still had a district mayor’s office meeting to study the implementation of the first year’s tasks of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and preparations for the year-end assessments. Although his body was exhausted, he still had to go back.

“For Min, why don’t you just stay here tonight? It’s so late, and you never take care of your health…” The woman standing in the shadow of the porch gently held William Carter’s arm, her long hair, usually tied up, now cascading down. The shrewd and capable image of a businesswoman had turned into a gentle and charming woman, making William Carter feel a surge of pride.

William Carter smiled. He understood what the woman meant. Age spares no one—over forty now, and after two rounds of passion through half the night, his body felt a bit weak. The woman had even gotten up to cook him a midnight snack. Leaving a woman alone in an empty house in the middle of the night was indeed not a good feeling.

But at this critical moment, he dared not make any mistakes. Next month, the district people’s congress would convene. He was the executive deputy district mayor and acting district mayor, and there were many strong contenders for the district mayor position. Although the city had already set the tone, any disturbance at this juncture could bring unpredictable consequences.

Although he was already divorced, he had not yet married Evelyn Clark, and Evelyn Clark herself was a controversial woman. If someone found out he had stayed overnight at her villa, it might cast a shadow over his path to becoming district mayor. At such a crucial time, caution was best.

“Forget it, Evelyn Clark, you know how sensitive things are right now. There’s plenty of time ahead for us.” William Carter affectionately tightened the robe of the woman standing before him. “Go inside and sleep. I’m leaving.”

“Okay, be careful on the road, drive slowly, don’t run red lights, and watch out when turning.” The woman straightened William Carter’s tie, hesitated, and said, “How about I drive you back?”

“No need, it’s just a few kilometers…” William Carter shook his head and smiled. “What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly so sentimental?”

“I can see you’re not in good spirits. Let me drive you. Leave your car here. Wait a moment.”

Without waiting for William Carter to respond, the woman ran back inside and soon came out in a rust-red trench coat. The automatic garage door slowly opened, revealing a black Mercedes S350 and a 2009 Land Rover Discovery parked inside.

With a dull roar of the engine, the black Mercedes slowly pulled out. William Carter sighed, unable to refuse the woman’s kindness, picked up his bag, and got into the passenger seat.

“Mrs. Bolton, close the door. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.” The woman rolled down the window and greeted the maid standing at the door, then drove off.

After agreeing, the middle-aged maid at the door watched the black Mercedes exit the automatic gate, then quickly took out a phone and dialed a number. “They’ve left, both of them together, in a black Mercedes.”

At a fork in the road two kilometers away, a black Land Cruiser was quietly parked under the shade of a tree, just out of sight of the traffic light’s surveillance camera.

The phone’s music rang. The man in the passenger seat had his trench coat collar covering half his face. He quickly picked up the phone and, after listening to the other end, raised his eyebrows slightly, his brow furrowing as if hesitating. But it was only for a moment—his face soon took on a grim resolve.

He tapped twice on the phone’s touchscreen, the call connected, and he spoke in a low, forceful voice, “Black Mercedes, license plate Chang A-30A88, two people, should be heading east on Menghe Road toward the east side of the city. Have your people take care of it before they reach Qishan Avenue. Make it clean.”

The black Mercedes exited the heavily guarded community. At the gatehouse, four security guards carefully checked the woman’s entry pass, took out a portable fingerprint scanner for her to press her hand, and only after passing did they lift the barrier and the stainless steel electric gate. The ground barriers slowly slid underground, and the Mercedes drove out.