Chapter 2

My eyes widened in shock!

How was that possible!

In my past life, I'd removed all the appliances. There was no way to use electricity!

This life, though I hadn't gone through all that, the appliances in the house were just a fridge, washing machine, and lights. These couldn't possibly use 237 kWh in one hour!

The electrician shook his head and left, his tone full of helplessness.

"Miss, I don't know about this. Why don't you contact the power company again?"

I collapsed on the floor in despair.

In my past life, I'd already searched through all the relevant departments.

Power company, housing bureau, even the fire department and police.

But in the end, nothing was found.

Bang bang bang!

Someone suddenly pounded on the door.

I opened it. It was my brother.

He looked at the fully furnished house, his eyes full of resentment and anger.

"Hazel, congratulations. You finally beat me once."

"While my mortgage isn't even paid off yet, you convinced Mom and Dad to buy you a house in full. You must feel pretty smug, huh?"

I forced a bitter smile.

I didn't feel smug at all. On the contrary, I felt miserable.

Since childhood, though our parents said they'd be fair to both of us, the bigger apples always went to my brother.

This time, for once I got better treatment than him, but it turned out like this.

Bang!

I slammed the door with all my strength, shutting him out.

Looking at the electric bill still jumping rapidly on my phone, anger, resentment, grievance, confusion... all my emotions surged up. I grabbed a hammer.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Like a madwoman, I smashed all the interior decoration to pieces!

The electrician said it was my own usage. Fine, I'd smash everything—all the fixtures and furnishings—I refused to believe I couldn't find where the electricity was being used!

Shards flew everywhere, piercing my skin with searing pain.

But I felt nothing. I just kept swinging the hammer.

Tiles, closets, bed... everything I could see was smashed to pieces!

This should solve the problem.

But when I opened my phone with trembling hands, my pupils shrank!

It clearly showed 2,500 kWh used!

"How is this possible!"

My eyes were bloodshot, staring deadly at every corner of the house.

The house was a complete mess, everything shattered to fragments.

But the electric bill kept jumping rapidly.

"No, this is impossible!"

I refused to accept it. I hired some demolition workers to tear down the walls.

Now there was nothing left in the house, yet the bill kept rising.

Could all the secrets be hidden in the walls?

Several workers demolished for an entire day.

Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom... all the interior partitions were torn down, leaving it empty with only four bare load-bearing walls!

I stood in the ruins and opened my phone with shaking hands.

Surely the electricity couldn't keep running now.

But after logging onto the website, a chill shot straight to the top of my head!

The electric bill was still rising at high speed!