My Life Traded for a Few Cents

My mom is a woman who takes frugality very, very seriously. When I suffer from a high fever, she feeds me moldy chicken noodle soup. In fact, I can only wear my older sister's hand-me-downs since I was a little girl. After working hard for so long, I finally qualify for the final interview of a top-500 company. I keep telling my mom repeatedly to not cause any trouble for me. Alas, my monitor winks out when I've reached the most critical point of my interview. At the same time, the router has lost access to the internet. I rush out of my room hurriedly, only to see my mom flipping off the main switch in the darkness. "Why did you leave the lights on at night? Imagine how much money you'll have to pay! I've already calculated everything for you. If we turn off the lights, we get to save a few pennies per night!" Thanks to those pennies, I end up losing my job that can guarantee an annual salary of a million dollars. Later on, my older sister, Andrea Fletcher, is diagnosed with a kidney disease. In order to latch onto Andrea's rich husband, Kirk Herrera, my mom forces me to work overtime at a shady factory just to gather enough money for Andrea's medical bills. Even when I'm about to die, my older brother, Anthony Fletcher, and my dad keep blaming me. "You can't even get hired at a proper factory! You really are useless, Alice! Your mom went through all those frugal nonsense just to raise you for nothing!" When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I'm about to attend the online interview. I just chuckle coldly as I look at Andrea, who has just found out about her kidney disease and is waiting for me to earn enough money for her kidney transplant. Then, I toss her expensive, specialized medication into the trash can. "What use is there for you to take the medicine, Andrea? What a waste! Mom already stated many times that being frugal is the way of life! "You should drink more water instead. Once your rich husband finds out how good you are at saving money, he'll definitely compliment us for knowing how to balance our finances!" Chapter 1 The laptop screen went black at once. I abruptly leaped up from my chair as my heart pounded in my chest. I would never forget the sound of the circuit breaker being pulled. It was this exact crisp sound in my past life that ruined the million-dollar salary offer I'd worked so hard for 26 years of my life. I pushed the room door open and ran into the living room. In the pitch darkness, I saw Mom standing in front of the electrical box, illuminated by the streetlamp outside the window, a smug smile plastered on her face. She was even doing some calculations with her fingers. When she heard me coming out of my room, she turned around and scolded me in a low voice. "What do you think you're doing, turning the electricity back on in the middle of the night, Alice Fletcher? The light just won't stop flickering on and off the whole time. It's a complete waste of electricity! Don't you know how much money we'll save just by turning off the electricity for the entire house the whole night?" I looked at her scrooge-like face and was immediately reminded of my younger self in my past life. When I was seven years old, I had once suffered from a 104-degree fever, but Mom wanted to skimp on the 100 dollars it would have cost to bring me to a clinic so that she could save the money for lottery tickets. Instead, she forced me to eat two-day-old chicken noodle soup that had already gone bad. I'd nearly become mentally impaired after that fever and had to spend two weeks bedridden. I never wore a new piece of clothing in my teenage years either, wearing only hand-me-downs from my sister, Andrea Fletcher. Even if the jeans or shorts were already ripped or worn out, Mom would just haphazardly sew on a mismatching fabric piece to "mend" it, and I was thoroughly teased and humiliated in school for it. I forced down the metallic taste rising in my throat and marched up to Mom, shoving her out of the way. Then, I flipped the power switch back on. Mom froze. Then, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Alice Fletcher! How could you be so wasteful? Why the hell did you switch it back on!" I ignored her and pressed my back against the electrical box. Then, I took out my phone and turned on my personal hotspot. I'd bought the biggest and fastest data plan I could find, and soon, my laptop connected to it automatically. I only had ten more seconds to submit my interview questionnaire. I hurriedly clicked on the submit button, watching as the progress bar finally reached 100%. "Your answers were successfully submitted." I felt as though all of the energy had been sucked out of me when I finally saw the words jump out at me on the screen. Meanwhile, Mom was still screaming her head off at me. "What the hell is the use of you turning on your laptop all the time? You don't even care about running up our electricity bill at all!" My phone suddenly buzzed just then, and Andrea's name appeared on the screen. I answered the call and put her on loudspeaker. Chapter 2 Andrea's weak yet self-righteous voice came from the other end of the phone. "Alice, I've been diagnosed with uremia, some sort of kidney disease. And I've already finished the special medicine the doctor prescribed. Hurry up and transfer 1,000 dollars to me. I need to collect my prescription from the hospital." When Mom heard that, she immediately chimed in and said, "Heard that? Your sister is sick! Hurry up and give her the money!" I looked at Mom's self-righteous face. The bit of living expenses covered by my college scholarship had all been taken away under the guise of "keeping it safe for my future". Yet, she'd gone and spent it all on the latest gaming laptop for my brother, Austin Fletcher, instead. I went up to the coffee table, where Andrea had placed several bottles of the expensive medication she'd bought beforehand. Then, I picked up the bottles, uncapped them, and poured them straight into the trash can right under Mom's eyes. Mom widened her eyes at once, screaming as she ran up to me. "Are you crazy? Those meds cost more than 1,000 dollars!" I kicked the trash can away and laughed at Andrea, who was still on the phone. "What's the point of taking the medication, Andrea? It's such a waste of money. Mom taught us from a young age that it's a virtue to be frugal instead of a spendthrift. "Don't you know that your kidney disease is just due to toxins in your body? You just need to drink more water and sweat a little more to flush it out of your system. That's all it takes to detox. "I bet that husband of yours would praise you as soon as he found out just how thrifty and frugal you are." Andrea hung up on the call in anger. Mom raised her hand to cuff me, but I shook her hand off. "Don't you think that the medication is just too expensive, Mom? It's just throwing money at the hospital. Didn't you say that the hospital was nothing but a scam? I'm just trying to save you money." Mom trembled with anger, pointing a finger at me, but she couldn't manage to say another word. I'd used her own words against her, after all, and there was nothing she could say to retort. I just turned on my heels and locked my room door behind me. My plan to escape this family had already begun. … The next day, I had to undergo the ultimate stress test from the company's job interview. This was the final hurdle to securing my million-dollar job there, and I knew my family would never let me have a moment’s peace. Just as I expected, there was a loud banging on the door early in the morning, with Dad yelling incessantly outside. "Get out here right now, Alice Fletcher! How dare you not pay for Andrea's treatment when she's sick! You've gone overboard this time!" I just put on the noise-cancelling headphones I'd saved up half a year of my tuition fees to buy, just to keep their voices out of my head and stop them from disturbing me. The sunlight outside my window reminded me of my first love in college, whom Mom had personally ruined. A guy had a crush on me, and he scrimped on eating instant noodles for a month just to save up enough to buy me a floral dress. That was the first time in 20 years that anyone had ever treated me like a woman. But after Mom found out about it, she thought that the guy was a good-for-nothing spendthrift. So she stormed into the college cafeteria one day and threw the dress in his face, humiliating him in front of everyone there and demanding that he return the dress. "Who the hell do you think you are, trying to get close to my daughter? Don't you know how to look at yourself in the mirror? Did you really think you deserved someone like her? "Don't you know how much minced meat I can buy with 100 dollars? Go return this dress and give me the money instead!" And so, my first love and my dignity were shattered into dust while she smugly counted the stack of money in her hand. I closed my eyes, suppressing the pain deep inside. The pounding on the door soon stopped. Then, the Wi-Fi went off. Austin cackled hysterically outside my door. "We'll see how you take the assessment without the internet! Get your ass out here right now and go make some money instead!" I chuckled coldly. I had already purchased two more massive data plans yesterday as backup. So I turned on my phone's hotspot, and the exam continued as smoothly as ever. Several foreign executives were looking at me seriously through the screen as they invigilated the assessment. Chapter 3 "Ms. Fletcher, kindly explain how you would control the costs and expenses at the company if it were facing extreme financial pressure?" I felt as though this question was tailor-made for me. After all, I'd worked at a shady sweat shop factory for six months in my past life, and I'd witnessed the harshest exploitation and the most inhuman way of cost-cutting ever. I spoke fluently and confidently as I transformed the exploitation methods I had witnessed at the factory into a compliant actuarial and business model instead. The executives nodded repeatedly, seemingly satisfied with my answer. The assessment was nearing its end. However, the fluorescent lights above me suddenly flickered before completely going off. Then, my laptop warned me that it was extremely low on battery and would turn off soon. As it turned out, Dad actually went into the hallway and smashed the electricity meter. He was so insistent on making me comply and submit to him that he didn't even care about his own dignity anymore. I looked at the remaining 1% battery on the laptop and hurriedly submitted my assessment with a click of the button. As soon as the page refreshed to show a successful submission, the laptop screen went dark and shut down completely. I then took off my headphones and opened my room door. Dad was standing right there, immediately landing a hard slap on my face. He hit me so hard that my head was slapped to the side, and the corner of my lips began bleeding. "Get dressed and come with me to report to Leroy's factory tomorrow! The pay is 1,000 dollars a month, food and lodging are provided, and the money will be sent directly to my account." Mom then shoved Andrea's hospital bill against my nose and said, "Don't you know that Andrea's hospital stay costs 2,000 dollars a day? I don't care how you do it. Sell your blood, or your plasma, or whatever, but you'd better spit out enough money to cover her costs no matter what! "You're her younger sister. It's your job and your duty to provide for her! You owe her everything!" I wiped off the blood from the corner of my lips and stared at the two people before me, claiming to be my parents. "Fine. I'll go if it means Andrea will get treated." Mom and Dad were stunned. They didn't think that I would agree to it so quickly or easily. Mom immediately smiled and praised me for it. "That's my good girl." That night, a black Audi rolled to a stop below our apartment, and Andrea's husband, Kirk Herrera, who'd always been the materialistic type, kicked her out and left her at the door with a dark, displeased look on his face. "Her treatment is a bottomless pit. I can't live like this anymore. I'm divorcing her." Then, Kirk floored the gas and left, just like that, while Andrea leaned against the walls in the hallway and cried her heart out. Mom felt incredibly sorry for her and hurriedly helped her into the apartment, calling Leroy immediately. Leroy Sutton was a shady labor broker. He specialized in sending the most desperate people to the most dangerous factories in the country. Early the next morning, I'd just returned home from repairing my phone when I suddenly caught sight of three big, burly, foul-smelling brokers in the living room. Leroy had a cigarette in his mouth as he gave me a scrutinizing look. "Her? She's so skinny. Can she even handle the high heat in the factories?" Mom immediately plastered a wide, fawning smile on her face and said, "Of course she can! She's been a very resourceful and hard worker all her life. She's very resilient!" The fear from my past life washed over me like a tidal wave just then. The so-called "high heat" in the factories had an operating temperature exceeding 160 degrees, with toxic chemical fumes constantly hanging in the air. I didn't want to spend five dollars a day on a dust mask, and I worked overtime at the factory without eating or drinking. Yet, three months down the line, I collapsed at the assembly line while coughing up blood from my lungs. The factory didn't want to take responsibility and abandoned me at the hospital. Mom rushed to the hospital afterward, but she didn't pay the medical bills. In fact, she chided me for delaying their monthly payment. "You stupid, worthless, good-for-nothing piece of trash! You should have just died in the factory so we'd still be able to collect some compensation from them!" Every single word she said cut straight into my heart. And now, she was shoving the exact same contract agreement in my face again in this life. "Hurry up and sign the contract! Leroy will be paying an advance of 10,000 dollars for you. That's just about enough for Andrea's dialysis!" Austin excitedly rubbed his hands together next to me and said, "Mom! Set aside 1,600 dollars for me! I want to get the latest iPhone!" Dad just sat on the couch, smoking his cigarette calmly without even sparing me a glance. "We've raised you for decades. This is a debt you have to pay because you owe us this much." Chapter 4 The three burly men then began cornering me. Mom ignored my resistance and grabbed my right hand, pressing my thumb onto the inkpad. The suffocating feeling of helplessness overwhelmed me again just then. Just as my thumb was about to be pressed onto the inkpad, my phone suddenly buzzed in my phone pocket with a personalized email notification sound. I immediately jerked my hand away and pulled the device out. The phone screen lit up, and I saw that it was a formal job offer letter from the top global company I'd just applied for. The offer letter stated that I would be starting with an annual million-dollar base salary, plus stock options. I kicked over the coffee table in front of me and raised the phone in my hand, screaming hysterically at Mom. "Look at this! Read it carefully! I just got a job offer with a million-dollar annual salary! Yet, you still want to sell me to a shady factory for a mere 10,000 dollars?" Tears fell uncontrollably from my eyes. All of the grievances I'd felt for the past 26 years of my life just surged forth. "When I had a fever when I was young, you insisted on saving the 100 dollars by feeding me moldy chicken noodle soup! You never bought me any new clothes for school! You even ruined my college relationship for a mere 100 dollars! "Why is your frugality only ever directed toward me?" I screamed and cried, hoping that this million-dollar offer would make Mom hesitate even just a little. Mom froze for a moment, a look of self-doubt appearing in her eyes for the first time. However, it only lasted for a fraction of a second. She spat on my shoes and yelled back at me, "Who the hell do you think you're trying to fool? A million dollars? That's nothing but a scam! "Nothing compares to the immediate 10,000-dollar payout that Leroy is giving out now! You must be out of your mind to think that you'd ever amount to anything, you worthless piece of shit! "You should even be thanking your lucky stars that you can still be of help to us by paying off Andrea's hospital bills!" A feeling of utter despair nearly suffocated me. My own mother didn't think that I amounted to anything more than a few cents, after all—not my life, and certainly not my dignity. Meanwhile, Dad and Austin lunged at me, grabbing me by my arms so that I couldn't move. Leroy brought up a coil of rope and began binding up my hands and feet. Just as he was about to loop the rope around my neck as well, I suddenly stopped crying. I just looked at Mom and began to laugh coldly. I managed to free one of my hands. Then, I pulled out my phone again and played a medical video that I'd prepared beforehand. A medical specialist was wearing a professional doctor's coat in the video as he explained how regular folks could technically save money on hospital treatments at home. I turned up the volume. "You love being frugal, don't you, Mom? Let me do some calculations for you. "Did you know that the high heat in the factories can make people produce up to three gallons of sweat in a day? And doctors say that sweating is as good as dialysis because it removes all the toxins in the body!" I then stared into Mom's eyes, watching as the angry look in her eyes slowly turned into one of confusion and curiosity. "In other words, working a day in the factories is equivalent to waiving the dialysis cost of 2,000 dollars a day! And you even get paid for it! "Don't you think it would make more sense for Andrea to go there instead? She'd be getting rid of all her toxins and still bring home a sizable pay for you! Tens of thousands of dollars! That's just a win-win situation for everyone!" Mom's eyes lit up visibly after hearing that. Her Scrooge-like mindset instinctively took over her reasoning as she mumbled, "Tens of thousands… of dollars…" Suddenly, she turned to look at Andrea, who was weakly lying on the couch. Andrea got such a fright that she hurriedly waved her hands in refusal. "I can't go there, Mom! I'll die there!" Mom just rushed up to her and slapped her hard. "Shut up! You don't even know how much it costs to keep you around! Don't you know that hospitals are all black holes that just suck the money out of you? "This is a free way to get your dialysis done! And you'd even get paid for it! How could you even think about giving up such an amazing opportunity!" Then, Mom turned to Leroy and said, "I'm not selling Alice anymore, Leroy. I'll sell Andrea to you instead!"