Chapter 3

The dorm manager and a technician from the housing department arrived shortly after.

When the door to Room 503 swung open, the blast of heat sent everyone taking a collective step back.

It was 2:00 pm, and it was 100 degrees outside. The dorm windows were wide open, letting a relentless wave of scorching air pour into the room. Worse yet, the floor was drenched, covered in puddles of water.

The combination of intense heat and standing water turned the entire room into a massive sauna—stifling, humid, and completely suffocating.

The dorm manager's face turned sour. "Where did all this water come from? Did a pipe burst?"

Katie peeked out from behind Zoe, looking completely innocent. "Ma'am, that's natural water I brought up from the campus lake. I read online that splashing water on the floor cools things down through evaporation. It's the eco-friendly cooling wisdom of the ancients. Plus, natural water carries spiritual energy."

The technician stared at the lake water, which was giving off a fishy odor, and fought to keep his temper. "Miss, the ancients lived in well-ventilated courtyards. You live in a closed-off dorm building!

"Throwing stagnant water around in this heat just sends the humidity through the roof. Anyone staying in here is bound to get heatstroke!"

Katie pouted. "Sir, you shouldn't let modern science blind you. The wisdom of the ancients is never wrong."

Someone in the crowd gasped.

Yet, seeing her look so utterly righteous, others began whispering, "I mean, it's ridiculous… but she really was just trying to cool the place down. She's not the brightest, but her heart's in the right place. At least she meant well."

Just then, our fourth roommate, Rachel Lane, walked in from the balcony. A ring of angry red heat rash had already flared up around her neck, and she looked completely drained by the heat.

She glanced at the ruined insulin on the floor, then at the sweating Katie, and let out a long sigh. "Miley, Jane, let's just drop it. Katie just got here from a really remote area, so she probably doesn't know any better.

"She's just trying to help us get back to nature. She meant well. She was just sweating bullets over there, writing eco-friendly quotes. Let's just take a step back and consider it a good deed. We can bear with it, and it'll all pass."

There it was again. She meant well.

In my last life, that exact, casual phrase had shielded her from all the fatal damage she caused.

Katie's eyes immediately welled with tears as she looked at Rachel with profound gratitude. "Rachel, thank you for understanding. I just want to save everyone from the misery of material greed."

I locked my eyes onto Rachel. "She cut the AC cord, destroyed Miley's life-saving medicine, and tried to trap me—a heart patient—in a hundred-degree sauna. And you call that meaning well?"

Flinching under my gaze, Rachel shifted uncomfortably. Her voice dropped as she replied, "Well, she's already in this state. Do you really have to drive her into a corner?"

Before I could even speak, Katie suddenly lunged forward. She pulled a filthy cloth pouch from her pocket and carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a crumpled stack of pocket change.

"Miley, Jane, I know you both come from privilege. This is 30 dollars I saved up from collecting recycling. I'll compensate you. Go buy some popsicles to cool down. Just please stop holding a grudge against me."

She held out the money with both hands, tears streaming down her face. Combined with her faded clothes, she looked like a tragic victim out of an old period drama.

The tide in the hallway turned in an instant.

"Oh, come on. She's already offering the money she got from recycling. Is this really that big of a deal?"

"It's just a little heat. College students these days are way too high-maintenance."

"Live and let live."

Miley stared at the 30 dollars, shaking with pure rage. Tears welled in her eyes, but the suffocating weight of the crowd's judgment kept her from finding her voice.

Zoe sharply snapped at the crowd, telling them to clear the doorway, before turning to Katie. "Katie, destroying school property and ruining a classmate's expensive medication isn't something 30 dollars can fix. Come to my office."

Katie clutched the money to her chest like a martyr carrying her cross. She looked back over her shoulder with every step as she followed Zoe away.

Before she left, the look she gave me was filled with pity and a strange, unsettling fervor.