Chapter 4

I drew a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm.

In my past life, though I was trapped at Barret Gilbert's side, I studied every kind of knowledge I could, desperate to be worthy of him.

I remembered it clearly. It was this very year that the province issued a strict, top-secret directive on cracking down against the sabotage of national production and construction and the illegal resale of key materials.

And the investigation task force put in charge of the case had secretly arrived in our county that very day.

Cora Pruitt's father, Clarence Pruitt, was one of the main targets that task force was quietly watching.

I lifted my head and looked at the officer across from me.

"Comrade, I want to see your station chief."

"I want to file a signed report against Clarence Pruitt, head of the county machinery plant's supply section. He's been colluding inside and out, stealing and reselling the plant's key industrial materials for a long time."

The officer froze, certain I'd lost my mind.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Section Chief Pruitt's been a model worker at the plant year after year. You think you can just report a man like that?"

"I'm not just reporting him. I have proof." I fixed my eyes on him.

In my past life, Clarence Pruitt was caught three years later on exactly this charge: colluding with black-market operators, smuggling the plant's most critical imported precision bearings and specialty steel out to be sold off at a high price, nearly crippling an entire key national production line.

And that ledger that could never see daylight was hidden in the lining of a camphorwood chest Cora had brought with her when she came down to the countryside.

Barret had once let the secret slip to me, showing off the Pruitt family's dirty fortune and their web of power and money.

Half an hour later, the station chief rushed in.

He looked at me, his eyes wary and uncertain.

"Gayle Fox, do you know what happens to people who file false reports and make false accusations?"

"I'm willing to bear all legal responsibility." I said it word by word.

"In the lining of Cora's camphorwood chest, there's a black ledger. It records every detail of Clarence Pruitt's thefts and a full list of his underground buyers."

"Go and check it now. One look and you'll know."

The station chief's face shifted again and again. Given that this involved major state assets, he finally gritted his teeth and dialed a classified line.

Three hours later, everything had turned.

Clarence Pruitt's reselling operation was raided outright by the task force, and he was taken away for questioning that same night.

When they came for Cora at the youth-placement housing, she was still shrieking that her family had connections, that she knew all kinds of people.

And Barret was detained on a charge of false accusation.

When they walked him past me in handcuffs, his whole body was shaking.

"Gayle... save me, I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong!"

He dropped to his knees, sobbing, and grabbed at the leg of my pants.

"Cora forced me into all of it, she made me do it!"

I kicked him off.

"Barret Gilbert, take all that devotion of yours to prison and think it over in there."

I got my innocence back, cleared my parents' name, and reclaimed my frontier placement in the west without trouble.

The day I left, I didn't even glance back at the village that had raised me.

The wind and sand out west were harsh, but the air was free.

Drawing on the memories of my past life and my own relentless work, I put down roots at the western research base.

Three years later.

Washington, D.C., outside the key national laboratory.

Barret Gilbert stood in the wind in an old suit washed pale, his face worn and hollow.

Beside him stood Cora, just as gaunt and haggard.

After Clarence Pruitt's downfall, Cora lost everything she'd leaned on, and Barret was expelled from college over his record.

The two of them had scraped by out in the world, swallowing every kind of contempt.

This time Barret had gotten his hands on some half-finished mechanical patent from somewhere, hoping to sell it to a major laboratory for one big payout that would turn his life around.

"Barret, do you really think this mysterious Engineer Fox will take an interest in our thing?" Cora was trembling.

"They will! Once Engineer Fox nods, we're back on top!" A feverish light burned in Barret's eyes.

The office door opened and the assistant said coldly, "Engineer Fox will see you now."

Barret excitedly straightened his clothes and pulled Cora inside.

And as they lifted their fawning faces, ready to greet the research heavyweight who could change their fate,

both their expressions froze on the spot.

Behind the wide desk, in my white coat, I unhurriedly took off my gold-rimmed glasses.

"Long time no see, you two."

Barret's pupils shot wide, his lips trembling as if he'd been frozen three days in a bitter wind.

"Gayle Fox? How can it be you!"