My new neighbor was a yoga coach with a perfect figure who only accepted one-on-one teaching.
My husband first enrolled our son in the class, and then, the coach said there was a discount promotion, so he also enrolled.
Although it was a class for strengthening their bodies, the looks on their faces got worse day by day, especially my husband. He looked as if he had been drained.
I tried to stop them from going to the class, but they cursed at me as if they were possessed.
"You old hag, mind your own business! It's because she is more beautiful than you that you won't let me go. We have been married for so long, can't you even trust me?"
"Mom, I finally have a hobby. Can you please stop being nosy?"
After a while, I found out that I had a terminal illness and needed money for treatment, but I discovered that all our savings were gone.
I questioned my husband and found out that the money was spent on the class.
"What kind of class costs over five hundred thousand? Are you crazy?"
I wanted to go to the the female neighbor to get some answers.
My husband and son obstructed and pushed me, causing me to fall down the stairs.
When I opened my eyes again, I went back to the day when the neighbor moved in.
***
The neighbor girl walked past my family, holding a small cardboard box. Her figure was outlined by yoga clothes.
My husband couldn't take his eyes off her. We agreed to go downstairs for a walk, but he suddenly changed his mind.
"Is she the neighbor upstairs? It's dangerous for her to be alone. Should I help her move in?"
Dangerous in broad daylight? Besides, the girl hired profesJenniferl movers. I knew my husband's dirty thoughts.
My son chimed in, "Mom, you can go for the walk by yourself. I can get exercised in either way. I'll go with Dad and we'll go home after we finish it."
In my previous life, I got angry with my husband and he argued loudly with me downstairs. My son also joined in and blamed me for being petty.
The neighbor girl noticed that my family was not harmonious, probably because of this, and set had designs on them.
She immediately came to mediate the disputes in my family, and her method was to give us three pairs of yoga pants.
The one for my husband had the same color as that of what she was wearing.
In my previous life, I didn't pay attention to her. I thought of her as a implicated good neighbor.
But now, I notice that when she passed by, there was a subtle connection between her eyes and my husband's.
So, before my husband spoke, I said, "Taking a walk is boring. Let's help the new neighbor together."
My husband immediately went to talk to the lady, and she agreed shyly.
I finally had the opportunity to go to her place and saw what magic she had that could make my husband and son infatuated.
Because there were movers, we only carried some small things before everything was moved into her place.
The woman invited us to have tea.
She tiptoed and raised her buttocks to get the tea set on top of the cabinet and made a sexy sound.
My husband and son blushed, swallowed saliva, and felt embarrassed to look at her.
She just took the tea set yet was short of breath as if tired. "Handsome guys and beautiful lady, do you live downstairs? We will be neighbors in the future. It's nice to meet you all."
A pink business card was handed to my husband.
Her name was Jennifer Ramsey, a profesJenniferl yoga private trainer.
"If you are interested, you can come and try my class."
She spoke with heavy breathing and winked at my husband. No wonder she had such an exotic aura. I really admired her.
My husband immediately took the bait. "Yoga is good, I have wanted to..."
He paused momentarily, glanced at my face, and changed his words. "I want to enroll my son in a hobby class. We're close."
Jennifer immediately giggled, and her well-proportioned body trembled, "Then, it depends on whether the boy is interested in my class."
My husband and son picked up their tea at the same time, disguising their embarrassment.
Especially my husband. He adjusted his sitting posture nervously, afraid of making a fool of himself.
I looked at the tea in front of me, and the dark yellow water looked greener.
Jennifer asked me, "Why don't you drink water?"
I sneered, "Sorry, I don't drink green tea."
2The room instantly fell silent.
My husband glared at me and quickly found an excuse. "My wife doesn't understand tea. This is black tea, not green tea."
I laughed.
My husband didn't even recognize green tea and yet he talked about tea.
In this life, I didn't intend to let myself be wronged. I got up and left.
Neither my husband nor my son followed me.
I heard my husband say behind me, "Don't care about her. She's going through menopause. An aging woman like her can't be compared to a young woman like you. Jennifer, how much do you charge for your classes?"
In my previous life, since they knew Jennifer, my son and husband wore yoga pants every day, whether at home or going out.
I felt disgusted and asked them to restrain themselves.
My husband Eric said, "You don't understand modern aesthetics at all. The pants are lightweight, thin, and beautiful. They are much better than the ugly clothes you bought for me."
Well, beauty was in the eye of the beholder.
At the end of the month, when I transferred the maintenance to my parents-in-law, I found that 40,000 dollars was missing from the bank card.
I asked Eric what happened.
He said, "Don't clothes cost money? Yoga pants cost 2,000 dollars each. I bought ten of them for both our son and myself."
I immediately got angry, "I don't even spend 2,000 dollars on clothes in a year. Your parents' maintenance and our son's monthly tuition fees both need money! Do you know how long it takes for us to save 40,000 dollars? Six months!"
I knew very well that no yoga pants would be worth 2,000 dollars.
I wanted to go to Jennifer for a refund, but Eric said that all the pants had been worn.
"Don't make a fuss. We are neighbors. We've already bought them, and it's not like we can't wear them. I can just earn more money in the future and make up for it."
He begged me humbly, washed my feet, and massaged me to appease me.
I'd already learned my lesson with 40,000 dollars.
Little did I know, he paid another 20,000 dollars for private lessons for our son!
By the time I realized it, my son was firmly on his side.
"Aren't my hobbies more important than money? Mom, do you really love me?"
I needed to finish all the chores and 1,000 Uber orders to earn 20,000 dollars.
In my previous life, I reluctantly agreed, only to see them become even more excessive.
I worked hard and sacrifice for this family, so I couldn't just watch them squander my money.
After leaving Jennifer's place, I immediately found all the passbooks and bank cards.
I now only wanted to protect myself, not this family.
According to the memory of my previous life, I already had a malignant tumor in my stomach and needed to go to the hospital for treatment immediately.
I took a taxi to the hospital, arranged all the examinations, and set the date for the surgery on the spot.
I came home late at midnight, and there was only my son at home.
He stayed up, eating fried chicken and playing games.
I asked him, "Where did your dad go?"
He pointed upstairs and continued watching cartoons.
My husband was still at Jennifer's place.
I frowned and asked, "Has he been staying upstairs all the time?"
My son impatiently replied, "You're asking it only now? You left in a fit of anger for no reason, didn't cook for us, and came home late at night. If it were me, I wouldn't want to come home, either."
I had the examination report in my hand.
As long as my son turned his head and looked at me instead of the cartoon, he would know that I was sick.
I casually put the medical record on the bedside and went upstairs to find Eric.
Just as I approached Jennifer's door, I heard heavy breathing from inside the apartment.
I knocked on the door and the inside instantly became quiet.
The peeping hole was covered by shadows.
30 seconds later later, Eric opened the door.
I saw Jennifer kneeling on the ground, her clothes not very neat. She was covered in sweat as she was tying up her messy hair.
Eric also smelled of sweat and his eyes were a bit unfocused.
Before I could speak, he scolded, "You ingrate, you still know to come back, don't you? Why don't you let our son starve to death?"
They never called me or sent a message to ask where I was.
He left our son downstairs and stayed alone with our neighbor, but shamelessly blamed me for being an ingrate.
The goody-two-shoes behind him said softly, "Don't blame your husband. He cares about his family. He stayed here to test the effectiveness of my classes all for your son."
She then asked in a sweet voice, "How do you think of my classes?"
My husband coughed twice and his tone became gentle. "Not bad. I will come tomorrow to sign up and pay."
Then, he stared at me and said, "Alright, stop embarrassing yourself! Jennifer will laugh at you. Go back home!"
In my previous life, after he signed up our son for classes, he always went upstairs, claiming to supervise our son's yoga practice.
I worked as an Uber driver, which was more tiring than his job, and I didn't earn less money than him.
But he still saw me as a full-time housewife, and he didn't take care of any chores when he came back.
I was busy all the time, and although I felt physically uncomfortable, I didn't have time to go to the hospital for a check-up but relied on painkillers.
The tumor in my body was already serious.
I once felt so much pain that I knelt and hugged my knees, squeezing my stomach with force. I was unable to say a word.
My husband looked at me coldly, then turned and went upstairs without looking back.
In this life, he was still treating me the same way.
Jennifer looked at me playfully, waiting for me to be dragged away by my husband.
I grabbed Eric's arm and slapped him hard with the other hand.
"Do you have the right to decide how the money is spent?"
3My husband didn't expect that I would slap him.
Jennifer exclaimed, making my husband feel even more embarrassed.
He glared at me and raised his hand. "You are going too far! Have you forgotten who is the bread winner?"
Men had better physical fitness than women.
But their crotches were always their weaknesses.
Before his slap fell, I raised my knee.
My husband covered his crotch and slowly knelt.
I grabbed his hair and said, "You can go home and have the final say there. But from today on, I have the final say on my life."
I knocked my husband down, kicked him again, and glared at Jennifer.
Jennifer was so scared that she couldn't speak.
I went downstairs, satisfied.
My son continued playing games and saw me coming back alone. He mocked, "Didn't you get him back? Mom, you went too far and didn't protect my dad's dignity in front of Jennifer. Men do care about their dignity."
I picked up the stool next to me, smashed the computer screen, and felt relieved.
My son Daniel stood up, his face full of anger.
"Dad spent his salary on this. Who do you think you are to smash it?"
He roared at me, his mouth wide open.
I put two fingers into his throat.
He bent over and retched.
"Your father bought the computer for you, right? I bought you food with the money I earned at Uber. Can I cut off your flesh?"
Daniel squatted on the ground and retched a few times, muttering, "You're sick! You're the only troublemaker in our family! You're both women, but you can't compare to Jennifer at all!"
He angrily returned to the room and slammed the door shut.
When I heard the sound of the bedroom door banging, I became furious.
I earned money to raise him up! The down payment for the house was paid by my parents, so what right did he have to slam the door?
I went to the utility room fo tools, dismantled the door, and threw it into his room.
"Slam the door again!"
My son was so angry that he was panting heavily. "Wait! I'm going to tell my dad!"
He ran upstairs angrily.
Go ahead! They could have a good life together!
The doctor said, "Keep a relaxed mood before the surgery. Your tumor was discovered early, so the surgery can cure you."
The best way for me to feel relaxed now was to vent all the unhappiness in my nearly twenty-year marriage.
I never expected that three people would come down from upstairs.
Eric and Daniel came downstairs with Jennifer.
They looked at me at the door but didn't come in.
Eric deliberately spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Since I can't sleep tonight, let's go out and have a drink together. It's better than being alone."
I watched them leaving without any expression on my face.
Since they didn't want to come home, then, I wouldn't let them!
I called a locksmith to change the lock of the door, put on earplugs, and went to sleep contentedly.
4When I woke up, I had dozens of missed calls and messages on my phone.
My husband and son couldn't come home and bombarded me with anger.
I looked at my Twitter account and saw that my husband and son stayed at Jennifer's place for one night.
He posted a photo, showing him and our son sleeping on the floor, with Jennifer dressed in cool clothes in the background.
"The old hag at home went crazy, but luckily, we have a friend to take us in. Jennifer, a yoga instructor, is amazing. Everyone is welcome to experience her yoga lessons. Stay tuned for our progress!"
His last sentence caught my attention.
From the abusive messages, I found the payment information of the bank card.
Forty thousand dollars was transferred out at six o'clock in the morning!
It was before he texted me!
In other words, whether I locked them out or not, he would still spend the money on yoga classes.
In my previous life, after my husband paid twenty thousand dollars for our son, he bought himself twenty thousand dollars worth of classes in the following week.
He said to me, "I went to watch our son and started practicing. It feels unfair to take advantage of our neighbor, so I paid Jennifer."
My illness was getting worse, and because of his actions, I passed out while driving and almost had an accident.
A passerby took me to the hospital, then, I discovered that I had advanced-stage tumors.
The cost of the surgery was over three hundred thousand.
Originally, we had enough savings for that.
But when I got home, I couldn't find my bank card anywhere.
I asked Eric, but he said he didn't know.
So, I had to report the loss, and after a series of formalities, I got a new card, only to find that all the money in the card was gone.
The bank staff helped me check the records and found that Eric transferred all the money when I was getting a new card.
He even canceled the text message notification in advance, so I couldn't receive any messages.
I didn't plan to tell them about my advanced-stage tumor.
I was going to the hospital to confirm whether I could still be cured.
The examinations and hospitalization would cost several thousand dollars.
If the probability of success given by the doctor was too low, I would rather leave the money to them as my final contribution to this family.
But I didn't expect that Eric would transfer all the money behind my back.
I didn't know the truth until after I died.
Because he was tricked by Jennifer for all his money, he found someone to drink and complain.
"Do you know how miserable I am? My wife has a terminal illness! I saw her chat records with the doctor! To let her take the surgery, all my savings will be spent, and there is no guarantee that she will be cured!"
"I transferred the money with such a heavy psychological burden. I didn't expect that I still couldn't keep it. Jennifer's tea is too tempting! Private training? It's just a cover!"
Jennifer added something to the tea she served it to others, and the students liked it so much that they couldn't stop.
She classified her training courses.
The basic one cost 20,000 dollars, and one could imagine how expensive the intermediate and advanced ones were.
But the students were scrambling to come to her for tea and have fun with her.
This was how a lucrative business was started.
Jennifer changed places after someone took the bait, and my husband was the first victim in this area.
He was deceived and caused my death.
I came back from death, but the savings of 40,000 dollars was still gone, so I quickly went to the bank to transfer the remaining money.
The purpose of this life was that Eric could continue to be deceived, but my money couldn't be reduced by a penny.
I'd make him give what he had spent back to me!