Refused to Buy the Refrigerator After Rebirth

I bought a refrigerator out of kindness for a sick student so she could store her medication.

Half a month later, her medication became ineffective.

She collapsed in the classroom and was left permanently disabled.

Her parents cried at the school gates: This heartless teacher ruined our daughter!

I was forced to care for her for ten years. Then her parents demanded I marry her and support her for life.

My girlfriend couldn't handle the pressure and broke up with me.

On my way to her wedding, I died of a heart attack.

When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn ten years earlier.

Standing before me was Lily Mitchell, looking pitiful. "Mr. Reed, my medication needs refrigeration, but there's no fridge in the classroom..."

I said, "You should ask the facilities department about that."

I had been reborn.

Reborn to the moment when Lily Mitchell first said she needed a refrigerator to store her medication.

Behind her stood three roommates, all my students.

Four pairs of eyes stared at me expectantly.

I was twenty-four years old, with a master's degree in philosophy. My advisor had recommended me for this position as a teaching assistant at this community college to gain experience.

In my previous life, I'd been full of enthusiasm.

When I learned a student had diabetes and needed a fridge to store insulin, I'd proactively bought her a small refrigerator.

Half a month later, she suddenly collapsed during class break.

At the hospital, I discovered she didn't have diabetes at all, and what she'd been refrigerating wasn't insulin. She had osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as brittle bone disease. It was incurable and required lifelong medication.

The investigation revealed her medication had become ineffective. The refrigerator plug had come loose and stopped cooling.

Her parents sued the school for neglecting students.

The school deflected responsibility, saying the fridge wasn't theirs---I had bought it, so I should be responsible.

Public opinion crushed me. My family was cyberbullied and couldn't live in peace. I had no choice but to compromise and take responsibility for caring for her.

That responsibility lasted ten years.

But her family still wasn't satisfied. They wanted me to marry her and support her parents too.

I had a girlfriend I loved deeply. She'd waited for me for ten years.

Knowing I'd never be free, I cruelly forced her to leave.

She went home for matchmaking dates.

The day before her wedding, Lily had an episode. I cared for her all night.

The next day, driving to the hotel, I had a heart attack on the road.

My life-saving medication was right beside me, but I didn't use it. I didn't call 911 either. My heart was strangely calm. I only felt sorry for my girlfriend---today was supposed to be her happy day.

Now I'd been reborn.

Facing these four expectant faces, my heart filled with hatred and disgust.

"Is Lily Mitchell the applicant? If you need a refrigerator, you can download a form first, explain your condition and the medication's requirements, then fill it out and submit it to facilities. They'll apply to the school for procurement."

Her roommate Emma Carter was a warm-hearted girl. She frowned. "That sounds complicated. Won't it take forever? Lily has diabetes and needs insulin injections before every meal. Right, Lily?"

That's right. Lily had never explicitly said what disease she had.

The diabetes story had spread after everyone saw her injecting herself. She'd never denied or clarified it.

Just like she'd never asked me to buy a refrigerator. Everything had been decided by her roommates and me.

In my previous life, her parents had hung banners at the school gates and made the news.

My whole family was cyberbullied. My parents were teachers about to retire honorably, but because of me, they had to take early retirement.

No salary, and they had to support me financially.

They got sick but didn't tell me. Within a few years, they both passed away.

I could imagine that even after my death, I'd still be reviled.

In my previous life, these girls had posted online and testified, cementing the story that I'd tried to impress Lily and voluntarily bought the fridge.

In this life, I'd watch carefully to see who would die.

"That's the procedure. If you have questions, ask another teacher."

I picked up my teaching materials and left lightly.

Before I'd gone far, I heard Lily say pitifully, "What's wrong with Mr. Reed today? He's so cold."

Emma consoled her. "He's dodging responsibility. Can't make any decisions himself. Don't worry, I'll handle this."

I was just a teaching assistant. I'd only been interning for two months. Besides teaching, I had to do all kinds of odd jobs, and I didn't even have an office.

I opened the resignation page but couldn't bring myself to click submit.

First, my advisor had fought for this job for me. It was meant to help me gain experience---a kind gesture I didn't want to waste.

Second, I'd tried to resign in my previous life too, but the school had rejected it. According to the contract, even if I submitted my resignation, I'd have to stay for another month.

A month was enough time for many things to happen.

So I could only find a way to get fired.

Just then, my uncle sent a message in the family group chat. "Mom's not feeling well. Got her checked today---her blood pressure was 200. The doctor wants her hospitalized."

I'd chosen to intern at this school because it was close to home, only a hundred kilometers away.

I was about to say I'd come back today.

My cousin, a doctor, replied, "I'll head back soon. Lincoln, someone gave me two boxes of lychees. I'll drop them off for you."

My cousin was in the city.

My eyes lit up. A plan formed in my mind.

I went back to my dorm and changed into designer clothes, making myself look ten times more handsome than usual---tall and long-legged.

My roommate saw me and said admiringly, "Who are you meeting? Don't tell me your girlfriend's coming."

I smiled but didn't answer.

In my previous life when I got into trouble, not a single person spoke up for me. My roommate was no exception. We were all interns and therefore competitors.

I dressed up handsomely and even carried a fifty-thousand-dollar bag with a huge logo that made my roommate's eyes widen and his mouth form an O-shape. "Lincoln, you're actually rich?"

Ignoring him, I fluttered toward the school gate like a butterfly. Passing students couldn't help but stare.

From afar, I spotted my cousin's luxury car.

I was exactly six feet tall. He was taller, wore glasses, and looked very gentlemanly.

He wore clothes similar to mine---actually, he'd bought the clothes I was wearing. The bag was also his hand-me-down.

A cousin supporting his younger relative who just started working is perfectly normal, right?

My cousin got out of the car and opened the trunk to move the lychees.

I threw myself onto his back, just like when I was a kid.

My cousin nearly fell into the trunk but caught himself, holding my legs. "You think you're still a kid? You're over a hundred and sixty pounds---you're crushing my old bones!"

He was a fitness enthusiast with muscles under his clothes. I couldn't hurt him.

Not only did I not get down, I climbed higher.

"Is Grandma's condition serious?"

My cousin said unhurriedly, "Don't listen to my dad. I went back last week and her blood pressure was fine. He just wants me to go home for a blind date."

I saw from the corner of my eye that many students were watching us, taking photos with their phones, pointing and whispering. Only then did I climb down from my cousin's back and hook my arm through his instead.

My cousin handed me the lychees.

He also straightened my hair. "How's work? Are your colleagues easy to get along with? Are the students obedient?"

I smiled. "Everything's fine. Don't worry."

My cousin drove away. I stood there watching for a long time before carrying the lychees back to the dorm.

Sure enough, as soon as I entered, I was met with my roommate's strange look.

"What's wrong?"

He laughed awkwardly. "Ah, lychees are already in season? I love lychees."

Usually, he loved taking advantage of small perks.

But I locked the lychees in my cabinet. "These are for me only. I can't give you any."

His expression grew even stranger. He pushed the tissue box on my desk over to his own.

Like he wanted to draw a clear line between us.

I opened the school forum and, as expected, many people had photographed my "intimate moments" with my cousin. I saved them all.

In the afternoon, while checking student attendance, I heard people muttering that I was gay and showing off my wealth.

I didn't explain. I let them gossip.

Then I saw the four girls---Lily and her roommates.

Emma rolled her eyes at me. "Mr. Reed, we went to facilities at noon. They said the school has no precedent for buying refrigerators for individual students. We'd need approval from school leadership. In the meantime, we could only put the medication in the cafeteria's freezer. But when we went to the cafeteria, they said it didn't meet hygiene standards. They refused! We wanted to buy a small fridge for the dorm, but the dorm supervisor won't allow it either."

I shrugged. "Then there's nothing I can do."

Lily said timidly, "Mr. Reed, could you keep a fridge in your office or dorm? A very small one."

I shook my head. "I don't have an office, and high-power appliances aren't allowed in the dorm."

Lily's eyes quickly filled with tears, ready to fall but not quite falling.

Emma felt terrible for her and quickly patted her chest. "I'll buy one and put it in the activity room with a lock. It'll be fine."

But Lily wasn't satisfied. She kept looking at me.

Honestly, she was very beautiful, soft and delicate, inspiring protective instincts. I'd helped her several times before.

God knows I'd only helped her as a teacher should, never imagining it would give her inappropriate ideas.

Emma said sarcastically, "Ha! Some teacher---dressing up like a peacock, not caring about students at all. You deserve this title? I'm going to file a complaint against you!"

I rolled my eyes too. "Ooh, I'm so scared! Go ahead. If you don't, you're a coward!"

All four girls were stunned.

I was an intern teacher who paid close attention to my performance evaluation. I was almost always accommodating to students' requests, known for my good temper.

Now I looked like a completely different person.

After they recovered, they all took out their phones to write complaints to the principal's email.

Not only wasn't I panicking, I mocked them. "A bunch of broke losers acting like entitled babies all day long, like the whole world should pamper you. What garbage. Don't you look in the mirror every day?"

Lily burst into tears.

The other two girls' eyes also reddened.

Only Emma looked at me like an angry bull, eyes bloodshot. "You just wait."

I crossed my arms. "I'm waiting. Who's afraid?"

Emma looked like she was about to explode, pointing at me with her long manicured nail. "Fine. Just wait to get fired!"

I believed her.

These four girls were terrible at studying and terrible people. They were experts at spreading rumors and cyberbullying others.

That evening, complaints about me flooded the principal's inbox---dozens of them.

The contents were varied: homosexuality, flaunting wealth, unfit to be a teacher, cold violence toward students.

The next morning, the department chair called me in for a talk.

He sat behind his desk, the computer screen in front of him showing the forum posts.

In the photos, I was on my cousin's back, smiling quite sweetly.

He pointed at the screen. "Lincoln Reed, is this you?"

"Yes."

"Who is he?"

"A friend."

The department chair waited a moment, then rephrased his question. "Are you gay?"

"That's personal and unrelated to work."

The chair's expression darkened. "Lincoln, I'm asking you a question. Answer properly."

"I did answer. It's unrelated to work."

At that moment, the door opened.

The principal walked in.

My roommate followed behind, bowing and scraping like a eunuch, looking at me with gloating eyes. If I was removed, he could be promoted.

Sometimes, the world is just a damn circus, and in my previous life, I'd been destroyed by these people.

How tragic.

Let it all burn.

The principal looked down at me. "Lincoln Reed, I'll ask you one more time. Are you gay?"

"No comment."

"Then explain the photos."

"I have no obligation to explain."

The principal laughed---a cold laugh. "Who do you think you are? You haven't even finished your probation period and you dare take this attitude?"

I snorted coldly.

He stared at me. "I'll ask you one last time. Are you or are you not gay?"

"Are you discriminating against gay people?"

"Enough. Doesn't his roommate know whether he's gay or not? Don't corrupt the students."

He declared, "You're fired!"

Like some feudal emperor.

But his eyes betrayed his greed, staring directly at the huge logo on my bag.

I turned and walked out.

Minutes later, HR sent notice that my employment had been terminated.

According to the internship agreement, termination without cause should come with one month's compensation. But HR said there was nothing---they wouldn't even pay my wages.

One month's intern salary was only two thousand dollars. Whether they paid it or not shouldn't matter---but it did. Withholding a worker's wages deserves divine punishment. I'd make them beg me to take the money!

From this moment on, I was finally free.

Before leaving, I went to the activity room and dismantled and destroyed the water dispenser, water jugs, and power strips I'd bought, throwing them in the trash.

"Mr. Reed, if you remove the water dispenser, what will we use?" a student complained.

I stomped on a water jug, breaking it. "I bought this for myself. You've been freeloading off it for so long. What if some psycho poisons it and then blames me? Better to destroy it."

After throwing away the last jug, I turned around to see Lily standing a few steps away, biting her lip, looking at me tearfully.

Every hair on my body stood on end.

It was as if she wasn't a young girl in her prime, but a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

I instinctively stepped back.

It wasn't that I was weak---the trauma from my previous life was just too heavy. I couldn't adjust immediately.

She stepped closer, her eyes showing a hint of obsession and an indescribable ambiguity.

That wasn't how a student should look at a teacher.

Nor was it simply how a woman looks at a man.

It was how a spider looks at plump prey!

"Mr. Reed," she called me, soft and weak.

I felt nauseous and turned to run.

She shouted, "Don't leave!"

I stopped and turned to look at her, hatred burning in my heart like wildfire, making my bones ache.

I wanted to rush over and strangle her.

But I couldn't.

I'd finally been reborn. A bright future awaited me.

She'd already walked up to me. Tears fell one by one. Under the lights, she looked especially pitiful and touching.

"I'll go beg Emma to withdraw the complaint. Nothing will happen. Don't leave."

"If you stay, I'll do whatever you say."

She spoke lightly but enunciated each word heavily, as if making some incredible promise.

I remembered my previous life.

In the second year of caring for her, one night she'd pulled my hand and placed it on her body. "Mr. Reed, marry me. I'll be so good."

At the time, I'd thought it was gratitude, dependence, the desperate grasping at the only lifeline after being tormented by illness for too long.

Or perhaps she'd gone mad from prolonged sickness.

It turned out she'd harbored such unspeakable thoughts so early on.

But I'd been oblivious, falling into the trap she'd laid.

"Lily Mitchell," I couldn't out-act her, so I spoke plainly. "You disgust me!"

She froze, tears still on her face. Her expression shifted from innocent and pure to determined, then she smiled slightly. It made you wonder if she had mastered the art of switching personas.

"Mr. Reed, you'll come back."

"You will definitely come back."

I smiled too. "I will come back---to attend your funeral!"

I ignored her, went back to pack my things, and left without staying a second longer, taking a bus away from the hell that had trapped me for half my previous life.