"We’re getting divorced! Your capitalist parents have already been sent down to the countryside for reform. Evelyn Shaw, do you really think you’re still some rich young miss from before? Pack your things right now, take that child with the unknown father, and get out!"

Inside a bedroom in a three-story Western-style house in Hangshi, a young man and woman stood arm in arm by the bed, looking coldly at the pale-faced Evelyn Shaw lying there.

Evelyn gritted her teeth and forced her weak body upright. Her eyes were red. She lifted a thin, bloodless finger and pointed at the man in front of her, grief and fury all over her face. "Raymond Mercer! Back then, you were the one kneeling in my family’s courtyard, crying and begging my parents to let you marry into the Shaw family! Now that my family’s fallen, not only do you refuse to help, you even want to drive my daughter and me out. Where’s your conscience?"

She was so worked up that the moment she finished speaking, she broke into a fit of coughing.

Raymond’s face darkened. He pulled a divorce agreement from his pocket and slammed it hard in front of Evelyn. "You were the one fooling around outside and getting yourself pregnant with nowhere to go. I took you in because I pitied you! But all these years, you’ve been cold as ice to me. You wouldn’t even let me touch you. You never once treated me like your husband!"

He was so angry his face had twisted, a nasty look rising in his eyes.

Evelyn’s chest heaved. She hurried to defend herself. "We made it clear from the start. We signed it and pressed our fingerprints. We were only going to be a couple in name and stay out of each other’s private business!"

"Well, I’ve changed my mind!" Raymond snapped. "I’m a man. Why should I keep swallowing this kind of humiliation?"

Seeing that he was truly enraged, the woman beside him quickly tugged at his sleeve and spoke in a soft, timid voice. "Brother Qing, don’t be angry. I’m scared."

The second he heard her voice, more than half of Raymond’s anger died down. He turned and soothed her gently. But when he looked back at Evelyn, his eyes were full of nothing but disgust and impatience. "Evelyn Shaw, if you know what’s good for you, sign it now. Otherwise one day you’ll die in this bed and rot there, and nobody will care."

After saying that, he put an arm around the woman with the coy figure and strode out of the room.

Evelyn stared at their backs as they left. She was furious, but even more hopeless. She had always been weak from birth and sick most of the year. Her body simply could not take a blow like this. Her vision went black, and she fainted straight onto the bed.

The moment she passed out, little Chloe hurried in. She carried a cup of water in one hand and braced herself on the bedside with the other, struggling to lift her short little legs up onto the bed. By the time she finally climbed up, more than half the water had already spilled. The little girl scratched her head in frustration, then quickly fed the rest to Evelyn bit by bit. Only after making sure her mother had swallowed it all did she finally let out a breath.

An hour earlier, Chloe Shaw had regained all her memories. She had transmigrated into a novel set in the 1970s and become the daughter of Evelyn Shaw, a fallen capitalist family’s young lady. Evelyn was beautiful and well-educated, but she had been born sickly. Her body had always been frail, and she spent most of her life ill.

Six years ago, she had been set up and ended up pregnant, without ever finding out who the child’s father was. Her grandfather and grandmother feared she was too weak to survive an abortion, so they had her keep the baby. To protect her reputation, they decided to bring in a live-in husband. Raymond Mercer was the man they found back then. He said his mother was dying and only begged them to save her life. He was willing to work like an ox or a horse for their family.

For six years, he had acted the part well enough. Who would’ve guessed that just days ago, Grandpa and Grandma would get caught up in trouble? On top of that, their family had always been in business, which made their status sensitive. They were sent off to the northwest to plant trees. Her mother couldn’t bear the blow and fell sick. Not only did he refuse to care, he openly brought another woman into the house. And now he even wanted a divorce and to throw the two of them out.