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Chill Out! My Eco-Warrior Ex Tried to Kill Me

NovelMaster Completed

Romance Fantasy 现实主义-Realistic魔幻-Magic

My boyfriend was a hardcore eco-warrior. On the very first day we moved in together, in the middle of a brutal 100-degree heatwave, he locked the air conditioner remote in a drawer. "We’re supposed to sweat in the summer anyway. Just bear with it. Think of it as your contribution to saving the planet." When I tried to find the key, he stood on a chair and cut the AC’s power cord with scissors. "Can't you see Mother Nature is running a fever? How could I have such a selfish girlfriend!" In my past life, I actually believed he was just passionate about the environment. I thought compromising a little was no big deal. In the end, I went into cardiogenic shock from the heat. While I was dying, he held his side-chick on a livestream, crying to the camera, claiming my health was ruined because I was "working the streets." When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the first day of our cohabitation. He was just shoving the AC remote into the drawer, looking at me with that smug, self-righteous expression. "Elena, a little heat won’t kill you. I’m doing this for your own good. Trust me." I broke up with him on the spot and went straight to the leasing office to cancel my lease. He could save the planet all he wanted. I was busy saving my own life. 1 Mrs. Gable, the leasing agent, was busy showing a house to a new client. She frowned and turned around when she heard me. "Elena? You just moved in today and you already want to terminate the lease? Both of your names are on the contract. If only you are applying, I can't approve this." I slammed my medical records onto her desk. "Mrs. Gable, I have a history of severe myocardial ischemia. Extreme heat can easily trigger cardiogenic shock. Right now, my boyfriend, Caleb, refuses to let me turn on the AC. He won't even let me use a fan." The office fell dead silent. The young assistant, Toby, who was sorting files nearby, wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and looked up in absolute disbelief. "It’s 100 degrees out there today. He won’t let you turn on the AC?" Mrs. Gable’s brow furrowed. Her tone softened, but her stance remained professional. "Miss Elena, it’s normal for couples to have disagreements. Maybe you should talk it out first? Breaking a lease is a very tedious process, and you might not get your security deposit back." Suddenly, a soft, pitiful voice echoed from the doorway. "Mrs. Gable, this isn’t a disagreement. She just hasn’t seen the light yet." Caleb stood by the door, clutching the AC remote tightly in his hand. His forehead was drenched in sweat, and his expression was filled with the stubborn conviction of a cult leader. "Mrs. Gable, her indulgence in luxury is wrong. I can't just stand by and watch her destroy herself." Toby’s hand froze halfway through wiping his sweat. Mrs. Gable looked at the remote in Caleb's hand, utterly baffled. "Why are you holding the remote to a rental property?" Caleb immediately pressed the remote to his chest, guarding it like a sacred relic. "This machine is a monster! The cold air it blows out is literally suffocating our planet!" "I don't want her to regret her contribution to global warming in the future." His voice dropped, dripping with tragic martyrdom. "I know you all think I’m weird. But I just want us to live a healthier, simpler life." A few neighbors from the building had gathered outside the leasing office door. Someone whispered, "I mean, it’s a bit extreme, but his heart is in the right place. He's her boyfriend. He wouldn't actually hurt her." Others turned their gaze toward me, their eyes shifting to judgment. The familiar, suffocating pressure returned to my chest. It was exactly like this in my past life. As long as Caleb started preaching his grand narrative of saving the world, everyone would automatically play along and feel sorry for him. When I said my heart was failing, they said I was dramatic. When I said he cut the fan cords, they said natural wind was healthier anyway. When I said he turned our apartment into an oven, they said he just cared too much about the earth. In the end, when I was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a ventilator, unable to speak, people on the Nextdoor app were still debating whether I lacked social responsibility. This time, I didn't bother explaining. I looked directly at Mrs. Gable. "Mrs. Gable, I don't care about his religion." "But he and I are broken up. I paid half the money, and I have the right to make my own decisions. I am terminating my lease. It has nothing to do with him." Caleb stiffened. He looked up, sweat dripping down his temples. "Elena, are you really that greedy for superficial comfort?" "I have a heart condition," I said flatly. He looked devastated by my "corruption." He took half a step back, his eyes filled with deep disappointment. "But children in developing countries don't even have electricity, and they are fighting to survive every day!" I flipped my medical record open, pointing at the doctor’s warning to avoid high temperatures and emotional stress. "Well, I’m trying to survive too." The office went completely silent. Mrs. Gable looked down at my medical files, her brow furrowing deeper. She looked conflicted. "A lease termination requires a property inspection and approval from headquarters. According to the contract, both parties must sign to terminate. Honestly, by the time the process is done, you won't have much of your deposit left." Caleb immediately stepped forward. "Mrs. Gable, there's no need for all that trouble." "I will use my love to guide Elena. I’ll show her the joy of sweating and detoxing. Nature will heal her heart." I glared at him. "I don't need nature to heal me, and I don't need your guidance. We are over! If you don't sign the papers, I will sue you!" 2 Hearing that I wanted to sue him, Caleb's face darkened. "This is between us, Elena. Is there really a need to drag strangers into our private business?" A neighbor at the door chimed in, trying to play peacemaker. "Why don't you guys go back and talk? What's so big that a couple can't resolve it?" "Yeah, breaking a lease right after moving in? You'll lose the deposit. Save your money." "Exactly. Just compromise. No need to go as far as a breakup." Mrs. Gable looked at me. It wasn't a look of taking sides; she was just dreading the paperwork. The legal process is always slow, but moral kidnapping is instant. Caleb knew this all too well. He clutched the remote, raising his voice just enough so everyone in the hallway could hear him. "Elena, I just want you to be less materialistic. I’m doing this for you." "The glaciers are melting. Polar bears don't even have ice to stand on." "If we can't even handle a little heat, how much longer does Earth have?" In my past life, this was the exact moment I backed down. I had thought he was just extremely set in his ways, and that if we talked it out, he would stop being so paranoid. So, I went back to the apartment with him. That night, he locked the remote, cut the fan, and told me to "listen to the beautiful summer cicadas." I was suffocated in that oven until 4:00 AM. My heart was pounding, and I could barely breathe. When I crawled to grab my emergency medication, he threw it away, crying that pharmaceutical drugs were "chemical toxins" that would ruin my body's natural balance. I ended up kneeling on the floor, gasping for air, clutching the edge of the bed as my vision went black, until I finally lost consciousness. In this life, I took out my phone and tapped record. "Mrs. Gable, I will pay the termination fee. My only request is to expedite the process." "Also, before the termination is approved, I need maintenance to fix the apartment. The AC and fans are broken, and I cannot live in those conditions." The office went quiet again. Caleb stopped talking. He looked at me as if I were an unrepentant sinner beyond redemption. Mrs. Gable hesitated for a few seconds, then picked up the phone to call maintenance. "Hi, I need someone to check Building 3, Apartment 302. Right now." "A tenant is reporting that the AC and fans are completely non-functional." The person on the other end said something. Mrs. Gable’s voice turned cold and serious. "No, I’m not joking. The tenant has a severe heart condition and cannot be in the heat. Go check it immediately. If something happens, the leasing company will be liable." Caleb suddenly rushed in front of me. "Why do you have to make such a big scene?" His voice was quiet, but it dripped with self-righteous resentment. "We could have endured this together. Why do you always have to be the one who gives up?" Outside the door, several neighbors had already pulled out their phones, filming us. I stepped back. "Get away from me. We are broken up, and your sweat stinks. It’s making me sick." Caleb’s face turned pale, his voice trembling. "This is the scent of nature! How could you insult me like that?" With a grim expression, he turned and stormed back toward the apartment. Mrs. Gable sighed, grabbing the master keys from her desk. "Come on. Let’s go to 302." When we arrived at the apartment, the door was half-open. From inside, I could hear my mother, Susan, sobbing hysterically. Mrs. Gable pushed the door open. A blast of suffocating, sweltering heat hit us, mixed with a strange, sour, rotting smell. Caleb was standing under the AC unit, holding a pair of heavy-duty scissors. On the floor lay the severed power cord of the air conditioner, cut cleanly in half. He stood tall, looking like a proud martyr. "Since you wouldn't listen to reason, I had to take drastic measures. As your boyfriend, I can't let you keep making mistakes." My mother was slumped on the floor, clutching a small, unplugged portable medical cooler in her arms. Inside the cooler were several vials of insulin—already warm and ruined by the extreme heat. My mother was shaking with rage, pointing a trembling finger at Caleb. "Are you insane?! You unplugged my cooler! That's my insulin!" Caleb looked at the ruined medicine with a look of patronizing pity. "Mrs. Miller, you’re my future mother-in-law, so I'm telling you this for your own good. These chemical drugs are expensive and terrible for the environment. You're just adding to the earth's carbon footprint." My mother’s face went pale. "I have diabetes! This is life-saving medicine!" Caleb sighed and shook his head. "That's because you rely too much on modern medicine. The human body has its own natural self-healing capabilities." "Heal my ass!" My mother scrambled to her feet, grabbed a heavy textbook from the table, and hurled it at Caleb’s head. Caleb flinched, quickly dodging behind the crowd of neighbors who had followed us up. "Susan, how can you be so violent? Modern toxins have completely corrupted your mind!" 3 The building maintenance manager and an electrician arrived shortly after. The moment the door to 302 opened, the heat wave forced them to take a step back. It was 2:00 PM. The temperature outside was a scorching 100 degrees. The windows of the apartment were wide open, letting the blistering hot air pour into the rooms. Worse, the living room floor was covered in standing water. The combination of extreme heat and stagnant water turned the apartment into a giant sauna. It was humid, suffocating, and impossible to breathe. The maintenance manager’s face darkened. "Where did all this water come from? Did a pipe burst?" Caleb peeked out from behind Mrs. Gable, looking entirely innocent. "No, sir. I brought that water up from the community lake." "I read about it online. It’s an ancient cooling method. It’s completely natural and healthy." The electrician looked at the murky, foul-smelling lake water on the floor and squeezed his eyes shut. "Kid, ancient climates were different, and this is a sealed modern apartment building!" "Throwing stagnant water on the floor in this heat will only skyrocket the humidity. Anyone staying in here will get heatstroke in minutes!" Caleb pouted. "You shouldn't blindly trust modern science. Our ancestors lived this way for thousands of years. It works." Some neighbors in the hallway gasped, but others, seeing his dedicated, earnest look, began to whisper. "I mean, it’s dumb... but he really was just trying to cool the place down." "He’s not very bright, but his intentions are good." "Yeah, he’s just trying to help." Just then, my mother, Susan, stood up, clutching her ruined insulin cooler. Her neck was covered in a bright red heat rash, and she looked exhausted from the heat. But seeing the neighbors defend Caleb, her expression shifted. Desperate to maintain a polite facade, she forced a forced, understanding smile. "Alright, alright, let’s all calm down," she said, waving her hand and sighing. "I know Caleb is stubborn, but he’s not a bad kid. He did this for us. Elena, don't be so harsh. You need to communicate with Caleb more." Here it was again. "Good intentions." She had done the exact same thing in my past life. I had begged her to back me up, but she turned around and told me Caleb had a point, telling me to reflect on my own attitude. Even after I died, to maintain the illusion of a harmonious family, she signed a liability waiver for Caleb. To her, maintaining a polite facade was always more important than my life. Caleb’s eyes lit up. He looked at my mother with fake gratitude. "Susan, thank you for being reasonable. I’m Elena’s boyfriend. Why would I ever want to hurt her? She’s just too spoiled to listen to advice." I stared at my mother. "He cut the AC cords, destroyed your insulin, and locked a heart patient in a 100-degree oven. And you call that 'good intentions'?" My mother flinched under my gaze, looking away guiltily. But in front of the neighbors, she refused to lose face. Her voice grew louder and defensive: "Well, he already did it! What do you want to do, drive him to suicide? This is family business. Why do you have to embarrass us in front of everyone?" Before I could speak, Caleb suddenly stepped forward. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dirty, crumpled cloth pouch. Inside was a stack of messy dollar bills and coins. "Susan, Elena, we are family. That's why I care so much. Here is thirty dollars I made from recycling aluminum cans. It’s all I have. Please take it and stop fighting." He held out the crumpled bills with trembling hands. His eyes watered, and with his faded, worn-out t-shirt, he looked like a helpless victim of my bullying. The crowd's sympathy shifted instantly. "Oh, look at that. He’s giving them his recycling money. Is she really going to keep nagging him?" "It’s just a little heat. Kids these days are so fragile." "Let it go. Don't be so dramatic." My mother looked at the thirty dollars, her face turning red with embarrassment. Tears welled in her eyes, but she was so silenced by the neighbors' judgment that she couldn't say a word. Mrs. Gable looked at the disaster on the floor and raised her voice. "Alright, everyone, disperse. There’s nothing to see here." She turned to Caleb. "Caleb, you cut the wires and flooded the apartment. The repair costs won't be cheap. Come to my office. We need to sort this out." Caleb clutched his thirty dollars and followed Mrs. Gable out. Before he left, he threw a look back at me. It was a look of pity, mixed with a bizarre, fanatical pride. 4 As expected, by that evening, the drama had blown up on the neighborhood Nextdoor app. An anonymous post titled, *“Eco-Friendly Boy Tries to Save Energy, Gets Bullied and Extorted by Gold-Digging Girlfriend,”* was pinned to the top of the local feed. The post featured three photos. The first was of Caleb, drenched in sweat, writing eco-friendly slogans under the dim light of a single rechargeable bulb. The second showed his profile as he cried in the hallway, holding out his thirty dollars. The third was of me, arms crossed, looking cold and detached—the perfect image of a toxic, abusive girlfriend. The caption was highly manipulative: *“What is wrong with this world? This guy is sacrificing his own comfort in the heatwave to save our planet, but his spoiled girlfriend, who can’t live without AC, forced him to beg and pay her. He did everything for her own good! Do poor people with morals not deserve love?”* The comment section was a toxic swamp. *“That girl with her arms crossed looks like a total psycho. Her boyfriend is an angel.”* *“It’s just AC. I grew up in the 90s without AC and I’m fine. People today are brainwashed by consumerism.”* *“My heart breaks for this eco-king. I literally want to cry seeing him hold those crumpled bills.”* *“Expose her! We need to warn other guys about this spoiled brat!”* When my mother showed me her phone, she looked incredibly uncomfortable. "Elena, look... things have gotten out of hand. Why don't you just apologize to him? Post a statement on Nextdoor to clear things up, otherwise, it’s going to be so awkward when we bump into neighbors." Looking at the out-of-context photos, my chest tightened. My heart rate began to spike irregularly. In my past life, I was cyberbullied exactly like this. I had posted my medical records, the cut wires, and my mom’s ruined insulin. But nobody cared. They only cared about Caleb's sweaty, innocent face. They only believed what they wanted to believe—the tragic tale of a poor, eco-friendly saint. I took a deep breath and pushed the phone away. "We are broken up! He’s the one who posted those lies. Why should I apologize?" I was completely done with my mother. That night, instead of suffocating in that apartment or dealing with her, I packed a bag and checked into a nearby Motel 6. The girl at the front desk noticed how pale I was and asked if I needed help. I shook my head, took my key card, and went upstairs. The room was small, but the AC was blasting cool, crisp air. It was clean and dry—a million times better than that sauna of an apartment. I washed my face, lay down on the bed, and finally breathed normally. At 2:00 AM, just as I was drifting into a deep sleep, a sharp, suffocating chemical stench hit my nose. It smelled like cheap, burning incense mixed with heavy, toxic smoke, burning its way straight into my lungs. I woke up coughing violently. My heart rate instantly spiked to 120, and I couldn't get air into my lungs. I struggled to open my eyes. By the dim light coming from the hallway, I saw that my motel room door had been unlocked. Caleb was standing at the foot of my bed. He was holding a metal tray containing nearly a dozen burning, smoking coils of cheap, industrial incense. He walked closer, waving the thick smoke directly into my face. "Cough... what are you... doing!" I gasped, clutching my chest and trying to shrink back. Caleb looked down at me, his eyes filled with a terrifying, gentle madness. "Elena, I’m your boyfriend. Why would I lie to you? Your heart condition is all in your head. You're just anxious. I bought this natural aromatherapy incense for you. Just breathe it in. You'll see." The thick, chemical smoke rapidly filled the small, enclosed room. The suffocating 100-degree night, the toxic fumes, and the lack of oxygen combined into a deadly trap. My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an iron fist. "Get... get out..." I reached out, trying to knock the tray from his hands. Caleb grabbed my wrist. His grip was shockingly tight, his eyes wild with fanaticism. "Elena, why don't you trust me? I’m doing this for your own good! Why can't you just cooperate?" My vision began to go black. A tearing pain shot through my chest. In the final second before I lost consciousness, my fingers brushed against my phone on the nightstand. With the very last of my strength, I held down the side button to trigger the emergency SOS call. As the metal tray clattered to the floor, I collapsed onto the mattress. The last thing I heard was Caleb’s panicked, yet incredibly resentful scream. "Elena! You’d rather faint than believe me?! Do you even care about me at all?!"

Chapters (5)

第1章

My roommate was an extreme eco-warrior. During a brutal 104°F heatwave, she locked the AC remote in her drawer. "We are supposed to sweat in the summer anyway. Just bear with it. Think of it as your contribution to saving Mother Earth." That night, there wasn't a single breeze coming through the window. Our dorm room felt exactly like an active pizza oven. My head was spinning from the suffocating heat, and sweat was dripping off me in sheets. When I tried to find the key to the drawer, she climbed onto a chair and used scissors to snip the AC's power cord right in half. "Can't you see Mother Nature is throwing up a fever? You selfish brat, all you care about is producing greenhouse gases." In my past life, this was the exact night that kicked off a massive wave of cyberbullying against me at school. Everyone called me a spoiled, privileged princess who had zero empathy for the planet. They praised her as a hero with a noble mission. Ultimately, the extreme heat triggered my myocardial ischemia, sending me into cardiogenic shock. While I was dying, she cried on a TikTok Live, telling her followers that I only collapsed because I ate too much "processed industrial junk food" and had a weak body. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very first day of the semester. She was currently shoving the AC remote into her drawer. Her eyes were red as she looked at me and said, "Norah, being a little warm isn't going to kill you." Without a word, I grabbed my phone and my medical records, and walked straight to the housing office. "Mrs. Taylor, I need to apply for an emergency transfer to a single room."

第2章

If she wanted to play a martyr, she could do it alone. I actually valued my life. Mrs. Taylor, the housing coordinator, looked up from her desk. Her freshman registration list was only half-finished. "Norah? You just checked in today and you're already asking for a single room?" I placed my official medical documents on her desk. "Mrs. Taylor, I have a severe history of myocardial ischemia. Extreme heat can easily trigger a life-threatening cardiogenic shock for me." "Right now, my roommate, Sienna Vance, has locked up the AC remote and is refusing to let us use any electricity, including personal fans." The office went dead silent for a second. The student assistant sorting papers next to her stopped, wiped a thick bead of sweat from his forehead, and looked up in disbelief. "It's literally 104 degrees outside today. She's not letting you use the AC?" Mrs. Taylor frowned. "Norah, dorm conflicts should be resolved through communication first. The paperwork for a single room transfer takes time. It can't be approved today." Suddenly, a soft, pitiful, trembling voice came from the doorway. "Mrs. Taylor, this isn't a conflict. This is a spiritual journey." Sienna was standing by the door, clutching our dorm's AC remote tightly to her chest. She was wearing a faded, oversized linen dress. Her forehead was covered in sweat, and her eyes were so red she looked like she had just been terribly bullied. "Mrs. Taylor, she wants to drain the very blood of our planet." The assistant's hand froze halfway through wiping his forehead. Mrs. Taylor looked at the plastic remote in Sienna's hands. "Why do you have the AC remote?" Sienna immediately hugged the remote tighter, as if it were some sacred relic. "This machine is evil. Every breath of artificial cold air it spits out is a loan taken against the lifespan of our mountains and rivers." "Mother Nature is crying in pain." As she spoke, tears began to stream down her face. "I know everyone thinks I'm crazy. But I just want this world to stop being poisoned by modern industrial civilization." By now, a few other freshmen had gathered in the hallway, whispering. "I mean, she's a bit extreme, but her heart is in the right place, right?" someone muttered. Others started looking at me with judging eyes. That familiar, suffocating pressure tightened around my chest. It was exactly like my past life. The moment Sienna started crying and brought out her grand, dramatic speeches about saving the planet, everyone automatically assumed she was the victim. When I said my heart couldn't take the heat, they called me dramatic. When I said she unplugged the fans, they said natural air was healthier anyway. When I complained that she turned our room into a sauna, they said she was just deeply compassionate. Even when I was finally lying in an ICU bed, hooked up to a ventilator and unable to speak, people on the school forum were still debating if I "lacked social responsibility." This time, I didn't bother explaining myself to the crowd. I kept my eyes on Mrs. Taylor. "Mrs. Taylor, I'm not here to judge her beliefs." "I am simply requesting to not live with her." Sienna's sobbing paused for a fraction of a second. She looked up, her sweat and tears sticking her eyelashes together. "Norah, are you really that addicted to material comfort?" I replied flatly, "I have a heart condition." Looking deeply hurt by my "ignorance," she took a step back, her face full of disappointment. "But children in underdeveloped countries live without electricity every single day, and they survive. Why can't you?" I flipped my medical report open and pointed directly at the doctor's warning: Avoid extreme heat and high-stress situations. "Because I want to live." The office fell completely silent. Mrs. Taylor stared at my medical records. Her brow furrowed, and her expression turned incredibly serious. "A single room request requires us to verify vacancy, and it has to go through both the department head and housing logistics." Sienna immediately sniffled and took a step forward. "Mrs. Taylor, there's no need to make a big deal out of this." "I will do my best to guide Norah with love. I want to help her experience the joy of detoxing through natural sweat. Mother Nature will heal her heart." I looked at her. "I don't need Mother Nature to heal me." "And I don't need your guidance."

第3章

The single room wasn't approved on the spot. Mrs. Taylor said she had to call housing services to check for empty beds and submit a formal request to the dean. Hearing that the administration was getting involved, Sienna's tears fell even faster. "Please don't escalate this to the dean. They'll just think I'm causing trouble again." A student in the hallway chimed in, feeling sorry for her. "Mrs. Taylor, maybe they should just go back and talk it out?" "Yeah, the semester just started. Moving out on day one looks bad on their record." "Exactly. Just bear with it for a couple of days, communication is key." Mrs. Taylor looked at me. It wasn't a look of favoritism—it was sheer helplessness. The university administration moved like a turtle, but peer pressure and moral high grounds traveled at the speed of light. Sienna knew exactly how to play this. Clutching the remote, she kept her voice just soft enough to sound fragile, but loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear. "Norah, I just want you to let go of your greedy consumerism." "The glaciers are melting. Polar bears don't even have ice to stand on anymore." "If we can't even handle a little heat, how much longer does Earth have left?" In my past life, this was the exact moment I backed down. I had thought to myself that since it was only the first day of college, I shouldn't make enemies. So, I followed her back to the dorm. That night, she locked away the remote, unplugged the fans, and told us to "listen to the beautiful hum of the summer cicadas." I was trapped in that suffocating room until 4:00 AM. My heart was pounding like crazy, and my breathing sounded like a broken bellows. When I crawled to grab my emergency heart medication, she snatched it away, crying that "pharmaceuticals are toxic chemicals" that would ruin my "natural bodily magnetic field." I ended up on the floor, gasping for air, clawing at the bedpost as my vision went black, until I finally lost consciousness. In this life, I took out my phone, laid it on the desk, and hit record. "Mrs. Taylor, I'm happy to follow the official housing protocol." "But until my single room is approved, I will not be sleeping in that dorm. If the university cannot provide a temporary bed, I want a written statement from your office." "A statement confirming that I have submitted proof of a severe heart condition, and that my current assigned dorm has an active hazard where a student is forcibly cutting off electricity and refusing to allow cooling." The office went dead silent again. Sienna stopped crying. The way she looked at me now was no longer pitiful—she looked at me like I was an irredeemable sinner. Mrs. Taylor remained silent for a few seconds before picking up her desk phone and dialing the resident advisor line. "Hi, is this the RA for Hall B, Room 503? Please send someone up to check on that room immediately." "A student reported that their roommate is refusing to let them use the AC or fans." She listened to the person on the other end, her expression hardening. "Yes, I am serious. One of the residents has a severe heart condition and cannot be exposed to extreme heat." Sienna suddenly lunged toward me. "Why do you have to blow everything out of proportion?!" Her voice wasn't loud, but it was dripping with self-righteous anger. "We could have finished this beautiful spiritual journey together!" Outside the door, several students had already raised their phones, recording us. I took a giant step back. "Get away from me. The smell of your sweat is making me nauseous." Sienna bit her lip, tears instantly spilling over. "This is the scent of nature! How could you insult me like that?" Crying hysterically, she turned and ran out of the office, heading back to the dorm. Mrs. Taylor closed her eyes, grabbed her keys from the desk, and sighed. "Let's go. Room 503." When we arrived at Room 503, the door was slightly ajar. From inside, we could hear our other roommate, Chloe, sobbing hysterically. Mrs. Taylor pushed the door open. A wave of suffocating, sweltering heat hit us in the face, carrying a strange, sour, rotting stench. Sienna was standing right beneath the AC outlet, holding a pair of heavy-duty kitchen scissors. On the floor lay the severed end of the AC's thick white power cord. She held her head high, looking like a martyr standing before a firing squad. "Since a locked remote wasn't enough to stop your greed, I have permanently freed us from this path of sin." Chloe was sitting on the floor, crying, clutching a small, unplugged portable insulin fridge in her arms. Inside the plastic case, several expensive vials of imported insulin had already turned cloudy and ruined from the heat. Chloe was shaking with pure rage, pointing a finger at Sienna. "Are you insane?! You unplugged my mini-fridge! That was my entire semester's supply of insulin!" Sienna looked at the ruined medicine on the floor, her face filled with mock pity. "Chloe, such expensive medicine is a luxury of capitalism." "Elderly people in remote villages fight through illnesses using only their inner strength. Material goods do not bring true health. Why don't you try letting your own body fight the disease naturally?" Chloe's face drained of all color. "I have Type 1 Diabetes! I will literally die without insulin!" Sienna sighed, shaking her head. "That's only because you are too dependent on modern medicine. Mother Nature will give us—" "Screw your nature!" Chloe scrambled up from the floor, grabbed a heavy textbook from her desk, and hurled it straight at Sienna's head. Sienna shrieked, ducking quickly behind Mrs. Taylor. "Mrs. Taylor! She's attacking me! The synthetic toxins in her body have driven her mad!"

第4章

The hall RA and the campus maintenance worker arrived shortly after. The moment they stepped into 503, the oppressive heat forced them back a step. It was 2:00 PM. The temperature outside was a scorching 104°F. The dorm windows were wide open, letting the hot, heavy summer air rush inside. Worse, the dorm floor was completely soaked with puddles of water. The extreme heat combined with the standing water turned the room into a giant steam room. It was so humid and sticky that it was hard to breathe. The RA's face turned pale. "Why is there water all over the floor? Did a pipe burst?" Sienna peeked out from behind Mrs. Taylor, looking entirely innocent. "No, I brought that water from the campus lake." "I read online that splashing water on the floor cools down a room through evaporation. It's an ancient, eco-friendly cooling method. Plus, natural lake water carries spiritual energy." The maintenance worker stared at the smelly, murky lake water on the floor, trying his best not to scream. "Kid, ancient climates were different, and this is a closed dorm building!" "Throwing stagnant water on the floor in this heat will only skyrocket the humidity! Anyone staying in here is going to get heatstroke!" Sienna pouted. "Don't let modern science blind you. Traditional human wisdom is never wrong." Some students watching in the hallway gasped, while others looked at her determined face and began whispering. "I mean, it's dumb... but she really did it to try and cool them down." "She's just not very smart, but her heart is in the right place." "Yeah, she had good intentions." Just then, our fourth roommate, Ashley, walked in from the balcony. Her neck was already covered in a bright red heat rash, and she looked completely drained. She glanced at the ruined insulin on the floor, then at the sweating Sienna, and sighed. "Chloe, Norah, just drop it." "Sienna just moved here from a small, rural town. Maybe she doesn't know any better. She's just trying to help us connect with nature. She was literally sweating bullets earlier writing eco-friendly quotes by hand." "Let's just take a step back. Think of it as doing a good deed. We can survive a few hot days." Here it was again. Good intentions. In my past life, this simple phrase—good intentions—was the shield that excused all the deadly harm she caused. Sienna's eyes immediately filled with tears of gratitude as she looked at Ashley. "Ashley, thank you for understanding me. I just want to save everyone from the trap of consumerism." I stared coldly at Ashley. "She cut the AC cord, ruined Chloe's life-saving medicine, and tried to lock me—a heart patient—in a 104-degree steam room." "And you call that good intentions?" Ashley shrunk back under my gaze, her voice dropping. "Well... she's already crying. Do you have to push her to the edge?" Before I could reply, Sienna took a sudden step forward, pulled a dirty cloth pouch from her pocket, and carefully opened it. Inside was a small pile of crumpled, dirty bills and coins. "Chloe, Norah, I know you both come from privilege." "This is $30 I made from recycling soda cans. I'm paying you back. Go buy some organic popsicles to cool down, just please stop hating me." She held out the crumpled money with both hands, tears streaming down her face. With her faded dress and desperate posture, it looked exactly like I was some wealthy bully tormenting her. The whispers in the hallway shifted instantly. "Oh my god, she's offering her recycling money. Is she serious?" "It's just a little heat. College girls these days are so fragile." "They need to learn to forgive." Chloe stared at the thirty dollars, her body shaking with rage. Tears welled up in her eyes, but the heavy judgment from the crowd kept her from speaking a single word. Mrs. Taylor raised her voice, telling the crowd to disperse, before turning a cold look on Sienna. "Sienna Vance, destroying university property and ruining another student's expensive medication cannot be resolved with thirty dollars. Come to my office. Now." Sienna clutched the crumpled money to her chest like a martyr carrying her cross, looking back at me with a mix of pity and creepy fanaticism as she followed Mrs. Taylor out.

第5章

As expected, by that evening, the incident exploded on the university's anonymous forum, Fizz. A post titled "Pure-hearted girl tries to save energy for the planet, gets bullied by wealthy roommates" was pinned right at the top. The post featured three photos. The first was Sienna, drenched in sweat, writing environmental quotes under a dim desk lamp. The second was a candid shot of her crying in the hallway, holding her crumpled thirty dollars. The third was of me, standing by with my arms crossed, looking cold and aloof—the perfect image of an arrogant, evil roommate. The caption was highly manipulative: "What is wrong with this world? Someone tries to protect the Earth through natural living, only to be forced to her knees to pay money by her spoiled roommates who can't live without AC. Do poor people with beliefs not deserve to go to college?" The comment section was a toxic wasteland. "The girl with her arms crossed looks like a total bitch." "It's just AC. I grew up without it and I'm fine. Kids today are brainwashed by capitalism." "I feel so bad for the eco-girl. Seeing her hold that money made me tear up." "Expose the spoiled roommates! Avoid them at all costs!" When Ashley showed me her phone, her expression was incredibly awkward. "Norah, look... things are getting out of hand. Why don't you and Chloe just forgive her? Post a public statement on Fizz, otherwise how are we going to face people in class?" Looking at the cropped, out-of-context photo, my chest tightened, and my heart rate began to spike erratically. In my past life, I was cyberbullied exactly like this. I had posted my medical reports, the cut AC cord, and Chloe's ruined insulin. But nobody cared. They only wanted to remember Sienna's sweating, innocent-looking face. They only wanted to believe in their perfect, impoverished saint. I took a deep breath and pushed the phone away. "She is the one lying online. Why should I be the one to apologize and forgive her?" Mrs. Taylor had set up a temporary bed for me in the RA's first-floor duty office. "Maintenance will fix the AC cord tomorrow. You sleep here tonight. There's a fan. Tomorrow morning, I'll push the dean for your single room." The office only had an old ceiling fan that squeaked loudly, blowing warm air around, but it was a million times better than the artificial lake sauna upstairs. At 2:00 AM, just as I was drifting off, a pungent, artificial floral scent hit my nose. It smelled like the cheapest, lowest-grade incense sticks from a dollar store, mixed with heavy, suffocating smoke. I began to cough violently. My heart rate instantly surged to 120 beats per minute, and my lungs screamed for oxygen. I struggled to open my eyes. Through the dim light from the hallway, I saw Sienna standing right by my bed. She was holding a metal tray with seven or eight cheap incense sticks burning at once, releasing thick clouds of blackish smoke. She was actively waving the smoke directly into my face. "What... what are you doing?!" I gasped, clutching my chest as I scrambled back. Sienna looked down at me with a terrifyingly gentle smile. "Norah, Ashley told me your heart was acting up. Your heart is beating fast because your mind is full of modern anxiety and greed." "This is meditation incense. Breathe it in. This raw, natural smoke will quiet your mind, and your heart condition will heal itself." The thick smoke rapidly filled the tiny, unventilated room. The 104-degree heat, combined with the toxic chemical fragrance and severe lack of oxygen, felt like a physical hand squeezing my heart. "Get... get out..." I reached out, trying to knock the tray from her hands. Sienna grabbed my wrist with shocking strength. Her eyes were wide and manic. "Norah, don't reject nature's gift! Breathe deep! Purge the industrial toxins from your body!" My vision began to blur, and a tearing pain ripped through my chest. A second before I completely lost consciousness, my fingers brushed against my phone on the pillow. With my very last bit of strength, I pressed the emergency SOS button. As the metal tray clattered loudly to the floor, I collapsed onto the bed. The last thing I heard was Sienna's horrified, self-righteous shriek. "Norah! Why would you rather faint than accept Mother Nature's blessing?!"