2:
Belinda and Alden traded a look, both of them caught off guard.
They clearly hadn't expected it. Stubborn as I always was, forever contradicting them, and here I was suddenly so agreeable.
She rolled her eyes soon enough.
"You're not planning to say one thing to our faces and do another behind our backs, are you?"
"The second we're home, you switch off the AC to cook us alive, and the moment we leave, you crank it right back up and live it up. That's the plan, isn't it?"
"Going green has to come from the heart, not just the mouth!"
Alden decided I was putting on an act too.
"Mom, I don't mean to lecture you, but this two-faced streak of yours really needs to change."
"Us not letting you run the AC is for your own good, when you get down to it. You're not young anymore. If you catch some AC bug, you're the one who suffers."
I smiled to myself.
I couldn't really blame them for thinking that way. They knew I couldn't stand the heat. Even in the dead of winter I slept under a single thin blanket, and in summer I couldn't live without the AC. I'd even gone and bought a new unit installed just for that.
But what would they know.
When your heart goes cold, the body has a hard time warming up too.
Seeing them like this, though, I understood something. In my last life, my miserable death had nothing to do with anything I did.
No matter what I did, they'd always find some new angle to pick at.
But this rebirth wasn't about fighting with them. It was about showing you all what real going green looks like, about letting you lift the stone only to drop it on your own feet.
So I calmed down and put on a gentle smile.
"I know I've had a bad temper. I often didn't listen to you, especially when it came to being eco-friendly."
"But a person can grow in a single instant. I'm a mother myself, and of course I want my children and grandchildren to have a good life."
"So I swear it right here. From now on, I'll go green, I promise."
3:
Belinda and Alden let out a scoff, ready to argue back.
But I didn't give them the chance to open their mouths. I ran around the apartment, gathered up every remote in the place, packed them together, and handed them to Belinda.
"Take all the remotes with you today. I won't be needing them anyway."
Belinda and Alden left, baffled.
The moment they were gone, I hurried back to the bedroom, picked up my phone, and called the scrap dealer.
"Hi, I've got some appliances here that need hauling off."
After I hung up, I went back to the living room and glanced at the security camera mounted on the wall.
I knew.
Belinda was surely watching my every move through that camera right now.
That was exactly what she'd done in my last life. And just before she left, she'd made a point of glancing at the camera, as if to tell me she'd be watching to see whether I turned the AC on.
But I bore the sweat soaking through me and held out without turning it on. Instead I reached up, gave the camera a pat, and yanked it loose.
Then I picked up my phone and sent Belinda a message.
[Belinda, this camera wastes electricity. It's not eco-friendly, so I unplugged it.]
[Don't worry, I didn't unplug it so I could run the AC. You've got the AC app on your phone anyway. Check it if you don't believe me.]
Her status bar showed she was typing.
A good while passed.
Finally, playing it like she was terribly busy, she replied with a single "1."
Not long after that message came through, the scrap dealer showed up too, a few workers in tow.
"Ma'am, what kind of scrap are you selling that needs this many hands?"
I pointed around the apartment.
"Everything that runs on electricity. I'm selling all of it."
"Good or bad, all of it at scrap price. My only condition is that you have to strip it all out before noon. Can you do that?"
