Chapter 2

I suddenly remembered. In my last life it was on this very day, right after the police left, that I was poisoned.

How had I been poisoned?

Could there be something in this bowl of braised pork?

I remembered it clearly. Back then I had taken the braised pork too, grudgingly.

And because I loathed Josephine James and her family, the moment I got home I'd thrown the meat into the toilet.

Yet I was still poisoned.

Could they have smeared the poison onto the bowl itself?

The thought made me take a step back.

Josephine James wept. "Girl, do you hate me that much? I'm begging you. Can't you forgive me?"

The officer frowned too, and lowered his voice to me. "Honestly, we can't be here every minute of the day."

"If things go this sour between you and them, it won't do you any good."

I knew what the officer said was true. But I would not walk the same road twice.

The bitter lesson of my last life had already taught me: these people were nothing but wolves that ate their own kind.

You think giving ground buys peace. All it does is make them push further.

So I looked the officer in the eye and said, "I do have the right to refuse their apology, don't I?"

He was taken aback for a moment, then slowly nodded.

I gave the phone in my hand a little shake. "I want them to pay for my phone, cover my medical bills, and swear they'll never steal from me again."

In that instant I saw Josephine James grinding her teeth with hatred.

But in front of the officer she apologized meekly, and she paid.

Once it was all settled, she looked like she still had something to say. I didn't listen to a word of it. I just shut the door and left her outside.

The moment the police were gone, the James family, who had been all humble and downcast, turned vicious again.

The three of them stood outside my door, pounding on it, cursing me at the top of their lungs.

Clive even said, "You'd better not set foot outside, or I'll stab you to death."

A chill ran through me as I listened.

And at the same time, my heart went cold.

The truth was, when I first moved in, Josephine James and I got along fine.

We were neighbors, after all, the kind you can't help running into, so I got to know her quickly, and when we crossed paths we'd exchange a few words.

Once we were familiar, Josephine James started dropping by my place all the time.

I thought she had no sense of boundaries, but I didn't take it to heart.

Bit by bit, though, she was always coming to borrow something.

Today it was vinegar, tomorrow salt, the day after a chair or a stool.

And she never once returned any of it. When I went to ask for it back, she'd always stall and make excuses.

After a while I noticed she was fishing, casually but pointedly, about whether I lived alone, whether I had any family, how much I kept in touch with them.

That was when my guard went up, and I stopped wanting much to do with her.

One weekend she said she'd cooked a whole spread and invited me over for a meal.

I couldn't get out of it, so I went. And who should be there besides her but an old, ugly man.

His eyes were strange, fixed on me the whole time.

At the table, Josephine James went on and on about the man's many fine qualities, hinting that I should date him.

Only later did I learn Josephine James had set me up as a match behind my back.

The old man had given her ten thousand dollars to broker it.

And if it worked out, he'd give her another fifty thousand.

When I found that out, my heart went cold.

I'd treated her as a neighbor, always courteous, giving money when money was needed and a hand when a hand was needed.

And she'd tried to sell me off.

After that I never set foot in Josephine James's home again.

Even when we passed on the street, all I gave her was a nod.

But Josephine James acted as if she couldn't feel it. One day she actually cornered me at the stairwell entrance, wanting to borrow a thousand dollars for medical treatment.

I refused her on the spot.

From that day on, every time she saw me it was nothing but sneers and jabs.

Her sons, Clive and Leonard, always eyed me with the same ugly look.

And after that, they started stealing my food deliveries, stealing my packages, and in the end they killed me.

A pint of rice makes a friend, a bushel of rice makes an enemy. Now I understood the saying in my bones.

Little by little, the cursing outside faded away.

I let out a breath.

It seemed the James family had worn themselves out and gone back inside.

But I knew they wouldn't let me off this easily.

I clenched my teeth and thought: this time, I'm striking first.

I opened the errand app and placed a food delivery order.

Then I got ready to open the door and go find rat poison.

I remembered the building management kept rat poison bait in the corner of every floor's stairwell. I meant to fetch some back.

But I never expected it. The second I stood up, everything went black, and a wave of dizziness swept over me.