"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."

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!"