Adam Bolton preferred to believe that Yvonne Clark was a simple girl. Although her words carried a hint of flirtation, she probably saw him as just one of those boys who talked tough but were completely harmless to beautiful women. Maybe it was his own delicate and handsome face that made her let down her guard. He kept reminding himself that she was, after all, William Grant’s mistress and the key figure who had landed Henry Harris in prison. If it meant not implicating his father, Adam Bolton would rather not care about Henry Harris’s fate. As he gazed at the unusually smooth skin on Yvonne Clark’s neck, he felt a tinge of reluctance in his heart.

  “Sigh, you said you wanted to be my little brother, but I don’t even know your name yet?” As the car turned from Xiangshan Tunnel onto Yuanlin Road, Yvonne Clark looked at Adam Bolton through the rearview mirror. Although he was staring at her, his gaze was unfocused, as if lost in thought—he really didn’t seem like a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy. She asked, “What’s your name?”

  “Adam Bolton, the ‘恪’ from ‘upholding integrity.’ And you?”

  “You think you can find out the name of a great beauty like me with just that?”

  Yvonne Clark’s unexpected joke genuinely surprised Adam Bolton; he didn’t react for a moment and replied sideways, “What else do you want to know?”

  Suddenly, Adam Bolton realized that even though Yvonne Clark was William Grant’s mistress, maybe she had her own hardships, and perhaps she had framed Henry Harris because she was forced by William Grant’s power. Maybe that was why she was being so close to a stranger at this moment.

  For a moment, he seemed to see a faint trace of sorrow between Yvonne Clark’s brows. He thought about how, a few years later, Yvonne Clark would end her young life in prison, and a wave of melancholy welled up in Adam Bolton’s heart, making it hard to breathe.

  Once they left the shade of Xiangshan, the heat on the highway was oppressive, but as the car sped up, a gentle breeze blew in, making it especially pleasant. The wind played with Yvonne Clark’s long hair, and in that instant, Adam Bolton truly felt that Yvonne Clark was so enchanting, it was intoxicating. In that moment, Adam Bolton felt he should trust Yvonne Clark, so he told her everything about his life before the age of sixteen, including how his mother forced him to give up learning chess because of his introverted personality, how he had just recovered from a high fever, and how he ranked third in the Xicheng District in the high school entrance exam.

  Adam Bolton looked at Yvonne Clark through the rearview mirror. She pressed her lips together, focusing intently on the road ahead. A few strands of fine hair drifted onto her cheek, and Adam Bolton reached out to pick them up, his fingertips brushing her cold cheek.

  Yvonne Clark snapped back to reality, tilted her head, and pulled those strands of hair from between Adam Bolton’s fingers, her face flushing slightly. “Hey, what are you doing? Are you finished talking?”

  “Be my sister, okay?” Adam Bolton let out a soft sigh, feeling deep down that maybe the reason he had come back to 1994 was simply to save this stunning woman. “I’ve told you everything about myself, but you still haven’t told me your name.”

  “My name is Yvonne Clark, but I’m a bad woman—not fit to be your sister.”

  “Nowadays, bad women are the most lovable. Then I’ll just call you Sister Yvonne Clark, okay?” Adam Bolton felt a pang in his heart, but deliberately used a teasing tone and called out again, “Sister Yvonne Clark.”

  “Pfft, a dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory!” Yvonne Clark retorted playfully, but didn’t reject Adam Bolton’s way of addressing her.

  “Sister Yvonne Clark, I still don’t know anything about you.”

  Yvonne Clark bit her lip, thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with anything to say, and fell silent, just focusing on driving. Adam Bolton understood in his heart, thinking that even if Yvonne Clark wanted to find a stranger to share her helplessness, those things weren’t something you could just tell anyone.

  The car continued north along Yuanlin Road, then turned left onto Taoxi Road near Haizhou University, and entered Jingsheng Garden, south of the university’s affiliated high school. Jingsheng Garden was one of the earliest commercial residential complexes in Haizhou, with the best community environment at the time, and was once considered the city’s wealthy district. Before his father was dismissed from public office, his mother had always talked about buying a new apartment in Jingsheng Garden. Even after 2000, as more and more new developments appeared, people in Haizhou still spoke fondly of Jingsheng Garden.

  Yvonne Clark lived in an elevator apartment at the easternmost end of Jingsheng Garden, a one-bedroom, one-living-room layout, with no sign of anyone else living there. Yvonne Clark tossed her keys and the white envelope she’d brought from the car onto the corner cabinet behind the door, changed into a pair of leather slippers, and turned to Adam Bolton, who was peering into the living room. “I don’t have any slippers for boys here, so figure it out yourself. Either wear mine or go barefoot…”

  Adam Bolton glanced at Yvonne Clark’s calves beneath her dress. Her feet were small, fitting easily in his hand, and each toe peeking out of the slippers was crystal clear, as if carved from white jade. The slippers looked a bit big, but were quite fancy. Adam Bolton shook his head, didn’t stand on ceremony, bent down, took off his shoes and socks, and stepped barefoot onto the bamboo floor.

  “Sit for a bit, I’ll go change my clothes first…” Yvonne Clark handed him a drink and turned into the bedroom. Adam Bolton pressed his finger against the door frame, and the door was latched from the inside.