"Mayor Harris's words, think about them..." the man said again. Then they heard someone push the door open and leave; no one else came in, and the door was closed from the outside.

Hearing this person mention "Mayor Harris" again, Adam Bolton thought to himself: Who is this Mayor Harris? He only knew one mayor with the surname Tang, Henry Harris, but Henry Harris was falsely accused of bribery and imprisoned in 1994. In 1999, he was acquitted and released, but his mental state was very poor at that time. After several years of recuperation, he was never able to return to a leadership position. Now he's just an old man. So who else is a mayor with the surname Tang?

Thinking of Henry Harris, he couldn't help but recall his father's ups and downs over the past decade, following Henry Harris's turbulent fate.

After graduating from graduate school in the early 1980s, his father returned to work at Haizhou Normal College. Later, the president of Haizhou Normal College, Henry Harris, was transferred to the city to serve as deputy mayor, and his father followed him to the city, working as deputy director of the second office of the municipal government secretariat. He stayed in the city for five or six years. Henry Harris became executive deputy mayor, and his father gradually climbed to the position of deputy secretary-general of the municipal government. In 1994, Henry Harris was investigated for alleged bribery while overseeing the restructuring of Xinfeng Group. The province sent an inspection team to investigate. While Henry Harris was under isolated investigation, he had someone pass a message to his father, telling him to lay low for a while. His father took the opportunity of helping his great-uncle with funeral arrangements to leave Haizhou. Not long after, the provincial inspection team obtained key evidence of Henry Harris's bribery. Strangely, at that time, rumors spread that it was his father who had provided the clues that allowed the inspection team to find Henry Harris's weakness.

After Henry Harris was imprisoned, his father was dismissed from public office and returned to teach at Haizhou University. By then, Haizhou Normal College had merged with several other institutions to become Haizhou University.

In 1999, the Haizhou municipal party secretary, William Grant, was arrested for bribery, and the court finally acquitted Henry Harris. Only then did people realize that Henry Harris's imprisonment for bribery in 1994 was a frame-up by William Grant. As for why the party secretary would frame a deputy mayor of lower rank, the court's verdict was vague, leaving much room for speculation. Some said William Grant and Henry Harris were fighting over a woman named Yvonne Clark; others said Henry Harris had long held evidence of William Grant's bribery and wanted to use it to bring him down, but William Grant struck first. As for the real truth, it seemed no conclusion was ever reached. But after Henry Harris was released, his mental state was poor, and he couldn't remember having sent anyone to pass a message to his father back then. When people recalled the events and rumors of those years, the fact that his father left Haizhou while Henry Harris was under investigation made them suspect not only betrayal, but also possible collusion with William Grant to frame Henry Harris.

The court never gave his father a clear explanation, and his father had no place at Haizhou University. With the help of former colleagues, he was transferred to Haizhou Chess Academy as a gatekeeper, muddling through life. His father's lifelong cleverness was ruined by the messenger, and he never recovered. The bitterness weighed on his heart, and before he was even fifty, his hair had turned completely white.

With his father's rise and fall, the family's fate was also turbulent. After his father left the city, his mother was quickly transferred out of the municipal petition office as well. The company she was sent to was not doing well, and she was laid off in 1998. The family was once in dire financial straits, until Adam Bolton graduated from university and became a department manager, then a branch manager at Haizhou Longyu Group, and only then did the family's financial situation improve.

What day is it today? Adam Bolton remembered that he had his car accident on April 28, 2008. On the way out of the residential complex to the bus stop, he was hit and thrown by a car that suddenly appeared. He lost consciousness in midair and felt like he was in a coma for a long time—three or four days, maybe even past the May Day holiday.

Although the severe headache wouldn't go away, Adam Bolton thought, as long as I'm alive, it's good enough. In a daze, he drifted off to sleep again...

"The fever hasn't gone down yet..." A cold hand pressed against his forehead. Adam Bolton opened his eyes and saw a face both familiar and strange. Familiar, because he'd seen this face for thirty years; strange, because this face couldn't possibly be so young—it looked like it did more than ten years ago, when his father, Chris Bolton, was still deputy secretary-general of the city government, and his mother, Julia Evans, though just an ordinary staff member at the municipal petition office, looked much younger than other women her age, even if there were crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.

Adam Bolton looked again in confusion. Even though the wrinkles on her forehead had disappeared, the lines at the corners of her eyes had faded, and her skin had regained a youthful elasticity, the person in front of him was undoubtedly his mother, Julia Evans. But... why had his mother become younger?

...Looking at his mother, who seemed more than ten years younger, Adam Bolton suddenly remembered that summer fourteen years ago, when he was lying at home with a high fever, and even in a stupor, his head hurt so much it felt like it would split open.

I must be dreaming!

Adam Bolton closed his eyes, letting the sharp pain stabbing into the back of his head swallow his consciousness. Even if he woke up with a broken arm or leg, it would still be better than never waking up at all.

He didn't know how long he was unconscious again. When Adam Bolton woke up once more, he saw his mother sitting by the bed, her face full of concern. His left arm was wrapped with a silicone tube for an IV drip. The severe headache had eased somewhat. He stretched his arms and legs—feeling weak and powerless, but there was no sense of any broken limbs...

Still dreaming, just reliving the scene from fourteen years ago...