Sleep was shallow, and in the early morning he would fall into some chaotic, mottled dreams, only to be startled awake by the sunlight shining on his face. Adam Bolton stared at the plain ceiling for a while, unable to recall the dream he had just experienced.

In front of the mirror, Adam Bolton straightened his lake-blue striped tie, picked up his briefcase, changed his shoes, and stood quietly behind the door for a while. He heard a click from outside—the sound of the door across the hall opening. Adam Bolton quickly opened his own door. A beautiful woman in a red short trench coat was locking her door with her back to Adam Bolton. Hearing the sound, she turned around and gave a sweet smile, saying, “Once again, I’m leaving at the same time as Mr. Bolton.”

“Oh, really?” Adam Bolton glanced at his watch. “I always leave at this time. It just means Miss Bennett is also a punctual person.”

“Am I?” The woman’s gorgeous face showed a puzzled expression. “I thought I was running late today, rushed out in a hurry, didn’t even dare to comb my hair, just tied it up casually—it’s a mess.” She lifted a lock of hair, looking a bit shy.

“Want me to be honest?” Adam Bolton raised his eyelids a little, gazing into the woman’s beautiful eyes. “It looks a bit messy, but there’s a clear sense of layering. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I was about to compliment your hairstyle. It really suits your face shape…”

“Really?” The woman blushed even more, and walked into the elevator with Adam Bolton. Adam Bolton began to pray that the elevator would suddenly lose power at this moment, squinting his eyes and daydreaming for a while, but the elevator doors suddenly opened—what a disappointment.

“Ha, Miss Bennett,” a slick-looking young man poked his head out of a lake-blue BMW and waved at the woman. “Let me drive you to the office.”

The woman waved at Adam Bolton and quickly slipped into the BMW. At this moment, Adam Bolton was quite annoyed that he hadn’t smashed a hole in that BMW with a hammer last night. He started thinking about changing his strategy, got into his Jetta, started the car, and drove to the office. Adam Bolton was the manager of a branch of Longyu Group, and work started at nine in the morning. He was still in the car, listening to the morning news on the radio—nothing special. As he approached the Hongjiang intersection, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, but the voice on the other end was familiar. Adam Bolton couldn’t immediately recall who it was.

“Still remember me?”

“How could I not? I’m just surprised you still remember me,” Adam Bolton replied casually.

“It’s only been one night. Do you think I have amnesia? Have you sobered up yet?”

It turned out to be Emily Bolton, the girl who was with Sophie Carter. Thinking of her long, enchanting eyes, Adam Bolton almost whistled. He chuckled, “I really have to thank you. When I woke up at four in the morning and found myself in my own bed, I knew I owed you one. How about dinner tonight?”

“Why thank me? If you’re going to treat me to dinner, you have to give me a reason.”

Adam Bolton chuckled, already plotting how to spend at Shengshi to bankrupt Brian Foster, but he didn’t slack off in his reply: “If it weren’t for you, those two scoundrels Brian Foster and Sophie Carter would have left me on the street. Don’t you think I should thank you properly…” Adam Bolton glanced up and saw the traffic light just turn green at the intersection. He turned the steering wheel with one hand, and suddenly there was a screech of brakes. Before Adam Bolton could react, a violent impact flung him and the car far away…

“Damn God…” Adam Bolton didn’t even have time to complain before the sensation of death hung over his consciousness like a giant black hole, sucking in Adam Bolton’s wretched soul completely…

Chapter 1: Past and Present Lives

When he regained consciousness, Adam Bolton tried hard to recall the memory of the car accident, but found that it was like fragments left behind after time and space had twisted—there was no tangible sense of reality to the memory.

Only then did Adam Bolton slowly wake up. His eyes were covered by a layer of gray haze, and the pale yellow ceiling was mottled—not like a hospital ward. This color was very familiar. Before his family moved out of the municipal government compound, the ceiling at home was this color. Back then, his father was the deputy secretary-general of the city government, his mother was an ordinary staff member at the city petition office, and he himself was still a good student…

There were people nearby speaking in low voices.

“Mayor Harris means for you to go away for a while…” That was all that was said, then silence. He couldn’t tell how many people were standing nearby.

The content and tone of that sentence gave Adam Bolton a strong sense of familiarity: someone, somewhere, at some time, had said the same thing in the same tone.

He didn’t feel any pain in his body, but there was a splitting pain at the back of his head, as if someone had pried it open with force. The pain was intense, and he didn’t have the strength to turn his head to see who was standing beside him. This kind of headache was also familiar to Adam Bolton. He remembered having a high fever during the summer after graduating from middle school, and his head hurt just like this, as if someone had driven a wooden wedge into the back of his skull.

That was back in 1994, when Henry Harris, then the executive vice mayor of Haizhou, was falsely accused and imprisoned. As someone promoted by Henry Harris, his father was heavily implicated. The whole family was in a panic, and no one had the mind to take him to the hospital.

It was this familiar headache that made Adam Bolton suspect he was having another high fever, not a car accident.