The only person he had become somewhat familiar with over the past six months was that little girl named Lily Bennett. Her family was, at best, a distant branch of the Huang family, barely related at all. Back then, his own father and Lily’s father, Hannah Bennett, who ran a martial arts school, had been good friends. After his parents passed away, the Ye family had originally wanted to adopt him, but the Huang family had a more legitimate claim to guardianship.

Although he lived with the Huang family all these years, he actually spent more time playing at the Ye household. Even though Lily was a girl, whenever he was bullied or wronged, she would always stand up for him like a guardian angel. So even now, after being reborn, James Parker tried his best to follow the little girl’s arrangements and live the life of a child.

The feeling of going to school for the first time in his life was novel to him—no strict instructors, no bloody killings in every class, no constant threats to his life. Everything was unbelievably free. The only restriction was that whenever he zoned out in class, his deskmate Lily Bennett would give him a hard smack, demanding that he put his hands on the desk and sit up straight. She was the Young Pioneers’ squad leader at school and took her duty to supervise her classmates seriously.

He worked hard to imitate his old handwriting, and during exams, he tried to keep his scores hovering around the passing line. This wasn’t difficult for James Parker. The world of children was interesting—he liked to sit quietly on the side and watch. But it was also annoying, because kids always liked to play childish and exasperating games and activities. As a responsible squad leader, Lily Bennett would always drag him into every performance or after-class game. Every time the other kids had fun, James Parker was on the verge of a breakdown.

At home, he wasn’t a child the Huang family paid much attention to. Other than when the other kids wanted to bully someone for fun, the adults basically treated him like air. He never got to eat at the big table with everyone else at dinner; he could only eat in a side room or take his food back to his own room. Every month, Mr. White would give him pocket money, the same amount as the other kids, but it would always be snatched away by the others on the very night it was handed out.

For him now, being ignored was exactly the state he had always dreamed of. As for the money being taken, he would get it back that same night, and would also take their homework notebooks and burn them. The next day, the whole mansion would be in chaos. Of course, since these kids always had bad grades, missing homework was usually just seen by the adults as an excuse to avoid doing it, and they’d get a scolding. James Parker would just stand by and grin mischievously.

Every morning at three, he would get up and go to the outskirts of the city to train. This ten-year-old body was still too fragile—forget fighting, even holding a gun with a bit more recoil could dislocate his arm. After finishing a round of his old assassin training, he’d be back home and under the covers by about five-thirty. At six, Little Lily, dressed in sportswear, would come in through the back door and knock on his window. Lily didn’t like the other kids living with him, and since James Parker’s room was the last one on the first floor, it was actually more convenient to get dressed and jump out the window. Then the two of them would go jogging to the outskirts again.

At this time, Jianghai City didn’t have many leisure parks, so this grassy slope on the outskirts was popular with morning exercisers. James Parker would usually lie on the grass to rest, while Little Lily would practice her forms nearby, looking quite serious.

Lily had practiced martial arts with her father since she was little, and was most skilled in Wing Chun and Tai Chi. She had even won a regional championship in a martial arts competition with these two styles—though it was the kind of competition that focused on performance. On the way back after morning exercise, they would often run into an uncle selling steamed buns with his bicycle. Lily would spend a dime to buy two, and they’d munch on them all the way back to Lily’s family martial arts school.

Lily’s father, Hannah Bennett, despite his scholarly name, was actually a burly man with a full beard. In these times, only such a master could command respect when running a martial arts school. Ye’s mother, Grace Dawson, was a well-known trauma surgeon, and as beautiful and gentle as her name suggested. One specialized in fighting, the other in healing injuries—they complemented each other perfectly. Both were kind and warm people. In a sense, perhaps only this family could be considered James Parker’s real family in this world.

Time passed slowly, and the weather grew colder. As the New Year approached, Hongxing Primary School had already started winter break. Chinese New Year’s Eve was on February 3rd that year. James Parker and Lily finished their exams on January 23rd and went to school to get their report cards on the 27th. This time, James Parker scored seventy in Chinese and seventy-five in math, much higher than before. Little Lily was even happier than if she had gotten two perfect scores herself, believing it was her excellent leadership as squad leader that had finally enlightened the slowpoke. Hannah Bennett’s family was also very happy. Hannah Bennett thought James Parker had come to his senses after being injured, and joked that he should get shot a few more times. As a result, Grace Dawson scolded him all night, and he finally said he just wanted James Parker to come over and learn martial arts during the winter break.