Chapter 78

“I remember my palms sweating as the agent went through the contract with me,” Roxanne said.

She no longer had any reason to delay the inevitable when the agent was done explaining the contract.She made up an excuse about having to make a call and borrowed twenty thousand from loan sharks.

“It was an easy transaction but they didn’t hold back if you weren’t able to pay up…”

“But I couldn’t care less. I managed to get the money transferred.”

The agent smiled at her the same way the GUOLHJ store manager smiled at her friend!

The uneasiness and fear of having just borrowed from a loan shark were instantly replaced by a sense of dignity.

“It was a time you were admired if you could afford to live in a 5000 dollar apartment…”

She secretly ate instant noodles inside her upscale apartment that night.

Lilly asked curiously, “If your bestie is so rich, why didn’t you ask her to lend you money?”

Roxanne immediately shot it down. “No! The reason why she was friends with me was because she believed me to be pure and simple…”

She lied to her friend and claimed that her parents were seriously ill which was why she worked overtime. She would say things like “It doesn’t matter how hard I work as long as my parents are well”.

She couldn’t possibly go to her friend for money.

She would definitely be disappointed in her once she learned that she wanted to live in a luxury apartment. Their friendship would be over.

How else was she going to get designer clothing and bags?

Pablo thought about what Cheryl was like and finally understood why the vanity spirit insisted on clinging to the girl.

“So you’re vain and hypocritical.”

Roxanne continued, “I can’t return to working at the printing factory after getting that apartment. It isn’t in line with my status.”

It had to be a high-collar, decent job to be worthy of her and yet she had no education, skills, or experience. She couldn’t even apply for a decent white-collar job.

“There was a public institution recruiting temporary workers… They noticed how I was kind, pitiful, and sincere, so they recruited me.”

Pablo held back a laugh.

Kind, pitiful, and sincere? That’s all an act!

“It was a great position. Everyone would envy me for what I had.”

What was not so great was how her pay was only a thousand a month.

The reason why Roxanne was hired was entirely because the wages of temporary workers were low.

She had a decent job, and a decent home, and carried designer clothing and bags every day.

The pressure of paying back the loan sharks, however, grew heavier. A packet of instant noodles now had to be split between two meals but she now lived a life that was the envy of all!

It didn’t take long for all of it to no longer be enough to satisfy her vanity. She inadvertently claimed herself to be a daughter of a president of a big corporation and was working low-wage jobs to experience what working life was like.

That had people finding a photo of her and her best friend’s father.

That’s right. She pretended to be her friend…

“It was good to be rich. My identity was forged but no one ever bothered to investigate my claims.”

She realized how good it felt to take her best friend’s place!

Everyone flattered her!

She generously invited others to dinner.

She gave away the clothing she no longer wanted and went shopping with others…

She was living life as a rich woman.

Lilly cut in. “So, you’re saying you bragged so much, swelled up, and died?”

“…” What?

How does that even work?

“I always thought my friend gave me those things because she was kind to me…”

“But when I followed her example of giving away those things, I realized how superior I felt!”

Roxanne smiled coldly. “She must’ve had an ulterior motive for being so nice to me. Was she using me to feed into her ego?”

That made Lilly frown. “And how do you know that?”

There was a contemptuous look in Roxanne’s eyes. “When I give away unwanted branded clothes, all I feel is contempt when I see how thankful and surprised they are. Hah, those hicks only deserve to have the leftovers.”

“She must’ve thought the same thing when she gifted me all her old clothes. She’s such a rich person.

If she really cared, she should’ve just gotten me new ones.”

Both master and disciple were speechless.

Lilly was young but even she knew that sort of thinking was wrong.

Pablo asked, “So, you killed her?”

There were bones belonging to eighteen people buried under the playground but one was clearly older than the rest.

Roxanne’s eyes were tinged with craze. “I can become her if I kill her. I can replace her if she were dead…”

“Why is the world so unfair? Why does she get a silver spoon the moment she’s born while I have to take hand-me-downs?!”

“I should’ve been the rich one. I’m tired of being humiliated when the loan sharks come after me… I’m tired of having to come up with lie after lie to cover up an earlier lie…”

The loan sharks were more deranged than she could’ve ever imagined. They had come to her door and put a machete to her neck!

What was she supposed to do?

She was backed into a corner!

She had started with twenty thousand but ended up owing them one million…

She had to kill her best friend, take advantage of their momentary weakness to worm her way into their hearts, and replace her…

Only then would she be able to pay off the loan sharks and live a carefree life!

Lilly shook her head and sighed. “You’re too far gone!”

“What happened after that?” Pablo asked.

Roxanne seemed to be in a daze as she murmured, “After I killed her, I treated her parents as though they were my own. I tried to coax them out of their grief every day…”

“But they didn’t appreciate it at all. I tried so hard to please them but they never saw me as a daughter.”

“They even offered me to the loan sharks just because they found out that I killed her! How could they be so cruel?”

They could’ve called the cops instead.

Why did they choose to hand her off to the loan sharks?

They must’ve known that loan sharks never hesitate to kill!

Something dawned on Lilly. “Is that how you died? Why are you so big then?!”

Lilly shot her suspicious looks.

Ms. Sumo Wrestler was huge. She looked more like a balloon.

She was paper white too…

Roxanne’s eyes were red with rage. “They dragged me back to the printing factory, stuffed me into a machine to torture me over and over again… They held it up to my mouth over and over again…!”

They were laughing at her for being such a bragger.

So, they blew her up as though she were a balloon and ignored her pleas for mercy.

“They kept it up until my veins exploded.”

“They then bled me dry and used my blood as red ink for printed books.”

Her dead body was then treated as a rubber ball and inflated ten times larger than the original before finally bursting like a balloon.

Roxanne wailed in anguish. “How could they? I’m a victim too!”

“Even if I did something wrong, it was my best friend who first humiliated me with those old clothes and bags!”

“I regret killing her too! She’s dead. It’s not like she could ever come to life again. Why won’t they treat me like they treat her…:

“Do they even know what my life was like through the decade? I was made to relive my death over and over again but no one ever heard my screams!”