Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Business trip abroad, electricity bill overdue notice pops up. What the ACTUAL fuck?\u00a0<\/p>\n
This month\u2019s bill was SKY-HIGH, but my husband and I have both been out of town. The house should be completely EMPTY.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I pulled up the power company app to check daily usage-consumption every SINGLE day. And not just a little. The pattern looked exactly like someone was running the AC 24\/7.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I called my husband. \u201cHey, when can you get home?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His deep, magnetic voice came through the phone:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably not until next week. All this rain has our project running behind schedule. Missing me?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I miss you,\u201d I said sweetly, while my fingers were already booking the EARLIEST flight home tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My project had wrapped up ahead of schedule anyway. Perfect timing to surprise him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I decided not to mention I was coming home early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see what the HELL was going on in MY house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeing such an outrageous electric bill, I immediately opened our smart lock app, suspecting someone had broken into our house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But after checking the smart lock records, I found nothing suspicious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The door hadn\u2019t been opened by anyone in the past two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After mulling it over, I began to suspect that maybe a neighbor had illegally tapped into our electrical circuit, causing our bill to skyrocket.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But this was an affluent neighborhood-surely no one here would risk breaking the law over some electricity costs?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, I couldn\u2019t think of any other explanation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since my project was finished anyway, I caught the earliest flight home the next morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I arrived, Dorian was indeed nowhere to be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I checked our drawers-every valuable item was exactly where it should be. I could rule out burglary,\u00a0<\/p>\n
I opened his closet and saw that all his usual clothes were gone. He really was on that business trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After some deliberation, I went to the property management office to request an electrical inspection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy electricity bill is running incredibly high-the house has been empty for two weeks, but we still owe $300,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The security guard smiled and nodded at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSure thing, ma\u2019am. I\u2019ll bring an electrician up right now to take a look.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I accompanied the security guard and electrician upstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10:01\u00a0<\/p>\n
You Thought Cilantro Was Just a Flavor? It\u2019s Actually My FU, Cheater!\u00a0<\/p>\n
23.2%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we reached the electrical meter box, I immediately dismissed the possibility of neighbors illegally tapping our circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The meter box was locked tight!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyone wealthy enough to buy property here certainly wouldn\u2019t go through such elaborate schemes to steal a little electricity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found myself lost in thought again. If it wasn\u2019t an electrical issue, what else could be causing this?\u00a0<\/p>\n
After unlocking the box, the electrician inspected everything thoroughly before turning to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am, I\u2019ve checked everything over. Your electrical system looks perfectly fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I nodded and offered some excuse: \u201cGot it. We probably just forgot to turn off the air conditioning before we left.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The security guard smiled, revealing pristine white teeth and two small fangs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright, ma\u2019am. Just give me a call if you need anything else!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I nodded back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once home, I searched every corner of the house again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I genuinely found no trace of any intruders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was I losing my mind?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I collapsed onto the bed when suddenly the front door opened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shot upright, grabbed the vase from the windowsill, and hid behind the doorframe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was it whoever had been staying in my house?\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then I heard the familiar sound of rolling luggage wheels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I set down the vase and went to look-it was Dorian coming home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He seemed delighted to see me. \u201cHoney, you came home early too!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pulled me into his arms and nuzzled against me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I felt puzzled. \u201cDidn\u2019t you say the project was delayed?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dorian explained, \u201cThe rain in Chongqing just wouldn\u2019t stop. We were basically burning money sitting there doing nothing, so our boss told us to come home,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That made sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My husband primarily worked outdoor exhibitions-there was no way to set up anything outdoors in constant rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next moment, Dorian smiled and asked, \u201cSo honey, how come you came home early?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It would be a lie to say I\u2019d never suspected Dorian of cheating, but my investigation had turned up nothing concrete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides, we both had the State Grid app linked to our accounts-he\u2019d find out about the electric bill eventually anyway. I decided to be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither of us has been home, but the electric bill is ridiculously high.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
You Thought Cilantro Was Just a Flavor? It\u2019s Actually My FU, Cheater! by Mark Twain 30 Chapter 1\u00a0 Chapter 1\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cilantro-taste-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}