"I know the Mercer family has wronged you. I've been trying all this time to make it up to you. But do you really have to divorce me right now?"

"There's only a few hundred left in the house, and you've taken every bit of it. What about Leo? He's your own son. He's burning up with a high fever. Are you trying to leave him to die?"

The man's voice echoed through the shabby little room. The man who had once stood straight and proud now looked worn down and low, even his voice carrying a pleading note that made the heart tighten. Who would have thought that this man in front of her had once been the commander of the Blood Wolf assault unit, so imposing back then, yet now reduced to this?

Evelyn Ashford felt like her head was stuffed with cotton. The words in her ears jabbed at her like needles, making the pain pound harder and harder. She could only force herself to open her eyes. The moment she did, she froze, staring blankly at the man before her.

Adrian Mercer!

Her husband—no, that wasn't right, her ex-husband! Hadn't they already divorced long ago?

And back then things had turned so ugly between them. They'd fought so hard, said they'd never see each other again as long as they lived. The divorce had been such a disgraceful mess that it became a joke for everyone else to talk about. So why was he standing here in front of her again?

And the way he looked now was exactly the same as when he had just come down to the countryside. What on earth was going on?

Evelyn's mind was in complete chaos. Her head throbbed so badly that she held it for quite a while before it finally hit her—she had been reborn.

And not just reborn, but sent back to the very moment when she had been making a scene about divorcing Adrian, ready to abandon her husband and child and run.

Evelyn lifted her head and looked at Adrian. The man who had once been so tough and unbending now had heavy dark circles under his eyes, stubble all over his jaw, and exhaustion written across his whole face. Even his eyes were red. In her last life, all she could think about was leaving the Mercer family. She never noticed that this man had already been ground down by the weight of life until all his old sharpness was gone.

Adrian had originally been one of those military sons from the compound. His father had been a famous commander in a military district, a man with real power and standing. As for her, she was just the daughter of the Red Flag Brigade leader from the countryside. Their backgrounds were worlds apart. They should never have crossed paths at all. But fate had a way of playing tricks.

That time Evelyn had gone to town to buy things, she ran into a thief on the way back. Adrian, who happened to be in the countryside on official business, saw it and stepped in, catching the thief and saving her money.

To Adrian, it had only been a small matter, no more than lending a hand. He was a soldier. If he saw someone stealing, how could he possibly ignore it? But Evelyn took one look at his fine features and started having ideas. She insisted that since he had saved her, she had no way to repay such a life-saving favor except by marrying him.

Evelyn was pretty, bright-eyed and lovely, even more striking than many girls in the city. But Adrian felt they had only met by chance and had no such feelings for her. Besides, he had only done what he ought to do. As a soldier, protecting the people's property was part of his duty. Why would he need any repayment for that?

But Evelyn simply would not let it go. She insisted on marrying Adrian to repay him.

Adrian naturally refused. So Evelyn ran to his unit and made a scene. She cried, threatened to kill herself, and said that if Adrian wouldn't marry her, she'd jump into the river. To force the marriage, she even claimed that when Adrian saved her, he had touched her body, so how was she supposed to marry anyone else after that? She said he had to take responsibility.

In those days, a woman's reputation was more important than anything. Evelyn spread that story everywhere, saying she would marry no one but Adrian. If he refused, she would cry, make a scene, and threaten death again and again.

Adrian could hardly defend himself. He had clearly done a good deed, yet somehow it had cost him his own marriage. In the end, with no other choice and afraid the matter would blow up and bring trouble to his family, he could only grit his teeth and agree to marry Evelyn. Luckily, though Evelyn was stubborn, her family were decent people who lived properly, and that was the only reason the Mercer family finally nodded and agreed to the match.

Evelyn had insisted on marrying Adrian for two reasons. First, she liked his face. Second, she valued his family's good circumstances. She came from the countryside, and because she was pretty, she had always wanted to marry into the city and live a better life. Now that she had come across someone like Adrian, with such a good background, there was no way she would let him go. So she set her heart on marrying him no matter what. It didn't matter how others called her unreasonable or shameless. She never took any of it to heart.

When Evelyn Ashford had first married into the Mercer family, she’d been a little delicate and fussy, sure, but she knew full well the Mercers were no ordinary household. So she behaved herself, did what a daughter-in-law ought to do, and even gave the family their first grandson.

As for Adrian Mercer, it wasn’t like he’d ever been wildly in love with Evelyn. But after they married and had a child, and seeing as Evelyn hadn’t kicked up any real trouble, the two of them had lived together in a polite, steady sort of way. Life had been smooth enough. Then, not long after, the Mercer family ran into disaster. The whole family was sent down to the countryside for reform, and from that moment on, everything started to go off track.

Evelyn lowered her head and said nothing. The moment she thought of her past life, her brows drew tight. All the misery in her life had begun the day she divorced Adrian Mercer and left the Mercer family behind.

In her previous life, Evelyn simply couldn’t bear the fall from being a proper lady to living like a country woman. And right around then, another huge thing came out. After marrying into the Mercer family, she had accidentally discovered that she was actually the real daughter who’d been switched at birth.

Evelyn had not originally belonged to the Ashford family at all. She should have been a Harlow. Back then, the Ashfords and the Harlows had both had babies in the same hospital, and one careless nurse mixed the infants up. That was how she had gone from a rich young lady to a village girl. Later, through one twist of fate after another, she returned to the Ashford family. Her surname changed back from Harlow to Ashford, but by then she was already Adrian Mercer’s wife. So when the Mercer family was sent down to the countryside, she naturally had to go with them.

In that past life, Evelyn had never known hardship growing up. But once she got to the countryside, she had to work in the fields every single day. Worse still, the place they were sent to was Hongqi Brigade, the very village that had raised her for twenty years.

That should have made things easier, if anything. But Evelyn couldn’t stand the way people pointed behind her back. She always felt everyone was laughing at her. In less than a month, she’d had enough. Every day she shouted about divorcing Adrian Mercer and going back to the Ashford family to live in comfort. The whole Mercer family tried to talk sense into her, but it was no use. Evelyn had set her heart on leaving. She even wanted to take the last bit of money left in the house with her, not caring in the slightest about her son, who was burning with fever.

Now, whenever Evelyn thought of those things from her past life, regret hit her so hard it made her chest ache. It was all because she had been too selfish. Not only had she caused her son’s high fever to damage his throat so badly that he couldn’t speak, but the Mercer family had also spent every last penny trying to get him treated. They had run everywhere, begging doctors for help, and only after endless effort had they finally cured him.

Back then, Evelyn had thought divorcing Adrian Mercer meant escaping a life of suffering. Who would’ve guessed that was really the first step into a pit of fire? After the divorce, she returned to the Ashford family and went back to being a pampered young lady. Wanting to make up for everything, the Ashfords indulged her in whatever she wanted. Over time, she picked up all sorts of bad habits. Smoking, drinking, anything went. Then she was deceived by some street thug and got hooked on that ruinous stuff. In the end, she lost both money and herself. Worse than that, she dragged the whole Ashford family down with her. The entire household was destroyed because of her. As for Evelyn herself, she was tormented by that thug until she was hardly human anymore. Her end had been miserable beyond words.

Then there was the Mercer family. Adrian Mercer had put all his heart into clearing the family’s name. In the end, all his hard work paid off. He really did wash away the injustice hanging over the Mercers and brought the whole family back to the capital.

From then on, under Adrian Mercer’s lead, the Mercer family only grew stronger and stronger. He earned one merit after another and became the youngest Chief of General Staff. The Mercer family also rose to become one of the most prominent households in the capital.

The moment Evelyn thought of the wretched end she’d met in her last life, she couldn’t help but shiver. Was there something wrong with my head back then? How did I fail to see it? How could I insist on divorcing a man this good?

Everything from that past life was still painfully clear. Just remembering the torment when her addiction flared up made her scalp prickle, as if countless tiny insects were crawling over her body and gnawing at her skin.

Evelyn looked at the man in front of her, and her heart filled with regret. Her relationship with Adrian Mercer had never been especially deep, that was true. But after she married into the Mercer family, they had treated her more than well. If she hadn’t insisted on divorce back then, if she had stayed and endured those hard years with them, none of the mess that came later would ever have happened. And now, somehow, heaven had shown her mercy and let her live again.

It sounded almost absurd, being given a second life. Even Evelyn herself found it hard to believe. But wasn’t this, plain and simple, a chance for her to make things right?

At last, Evelyn came back to herself. She lifted her head and looked at Adrian Mercer, whose eyes were red-rimmed. In a steady, serious voice, she said, "Adrian Mercer, I’m not divorcing you. Let’s live properly from now on."