The private flight from Kensington City back to St. Lawrence took off during a gloomy afternoon beneath a sky full of ashen, gray clouds. The atmosphere inside the aircraft cabin maintained such a profound stillness that one could clearly hear the low, rhythmic hum of the engines as they sliced through the layers of clouds.

Julian Sterling was draped in a thin, ash-gray turtleneck sweater, his entire body sinking deeply into the plush leather armchair, his head resting completely against Ethan Caldwell’s broad shoulder.

After last night’s fierce intimacy, compounded by the absorption of an overwhelming amount of information this morning, Julian’s mind right now felt like a strip of silk pulled so taut it was on the verge of snapping. Despite that, he did not close his eyes for even a moment of sleep.

Julian Sterling’s gaze remained fixed blankly out the window pane, where the thick, turbulent clouds rolled past, mirroring the chaotic, tangled mess inside his head at this very moment.

A-01.

Project Eden.

Those phrases kept repeating over and over within Julian Sterling’s mind.

Initially, it had just been a matter of conveniently combining the information he had just remembered with some hastily fabricated lies to deceive people like Felix Tate. But now, Julian Sterling was beginning to seriously wonder whether his transmigration into this world was somehow connected to that damn experiment.

It was just a pity that his memories were still fragmented, making it impossible to unify them, and there were so many things he simply could not recall clearly. However, a bone-chilling sensation down his spine would always surface whenever Julian Sterling thought about that experimental project. Naturally, this feeling did not originate from Julian’s own soul, but rather from the deeply ingrained muscle memory of this physical body.

Ultimately, just how terrifying were the things that the original Julian Sterling from the book had endured, so much so that the brain itself had chosen to completely erase that portion of memory, where even a fleeting thought about it would trigger such a visceral physical reaction?

Due to his intense, stressful thoughts, the hand resting on Julian Sterling’s thigh unconsciously clenched into a tight fist. At that moment, a large, warm hand completely enveloped his own. Ethan Caldwell gently squeezed Julian’s fingers, which were reflexively curling up from tension, pulling Julian’s attention back to the present reality.

"What are you thinking about so deeply that your hands have turned this freezing cold?" The man’s voice was deep and low, carrying an undisguised ache of protective affection. Ethan lifted Julian’s hand, pressing it against his own cheek to transfer his warmth, his thumb tenderly caressing the pale, pristine back of Julian’s hand.

Julian Sterling no longer looked out the window, instead allowing himself to lean compliantly against the man’s broad shoulder. His gaze fell upon their two hands, intimately intertwined together.

"I am thinking about Harrison Thornton abruptly canceling our appointment." Julian Sterling found an excuse that sounded the most reasonable, even though, in truth, it was also one of the things causing him to fret: "Tell me, do you think someone stepped out to warn him, making him apprehensive, or did they launch an attack on some vulnerability of the Thornton family that forced him to halt his plans?"

Even though both scenarios meant that CORE was sending people to teach the Thornton family a lesson, it was obvious that each action carried a distinctly different meaning. If Harrison Thornton canceled the meeting because his family faced a crisis he could not handle in time, it meant he had not yet been fully roped into their side.

However, if he was directly warned by someone stepping out into the open... it meant that this person, in the future, might also become someone who would stand in opposition against Julian and Ethan.

"He is a sly old fox. It is not for nothing that the Thornton family has managed to develop to this level. This matter is indeed difficult to evaluate, but I do not consider him a good ally either."

Harrison Thornton was merely evaluated as someone they could temporarily cooperate with. If one looked at the broader picture in the impending war against CORE, a person like him was quite difficult to work with. Individuals who climbed their way up through unclean means, much like Harrison Thornton, were inherently deeply suspicious, and a highly suspicious man could never be a completely reliable partner.

Doubting everything and everyone, in the end, there was a high probability he would end up turning on and harming his own people.

Julian Sterling also understood this issue; he let out a sigh and did not mention it any further. Regarding this matter, they would just let the future unfold and deal with it as it came.

Truthfully, Julian Sterling abhorred this feeling. Everything was far too passive. Perhaps he needed to find some time to go meet with Lucas Hill for a bit; he did not even know how far their company had developed recently.

By the time the private jet touched down at the St. Lawrence airport, the sky had already tilted into the evening. The nighttime weather in St. Lawrence was somewhat dry and carried a more piercing, biting cold than Kensington City. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Julian Sterling had not worn a coat in the afternoon, so the moment he stepped outside, the freezing wind instantly blew him wide awake. Ethan Caldwell swiftly draped his own long wool overcoat over Julian’s shoulders, affectionately reprimanding him: "I told you beforehand to bring an extra coat, but you stubbornly refused."

In reality, his coat was right inside the suitcase, but opening it up was a bit troublesome, so Julian Sterling had not wanted to bother. The end result now was that he was completely swallowed up within Ethan Caldwell’s long overcoat, his entire body enveloped by the man’s distinct, comforting scent.

The two men held hands as they headed home. Helen Lloyd and Colin Grant had also been on the flight, but Ethan Caldwell had already dismissed them to go home and rest first. With so many incidents occurring recently, those two had endured no small amount of hardship as well.