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!"

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.