Seduced By My Omega Stepsister - Chapter 14

The Small Goal

The “Mediterranean” (balding) class teacher held a private meeting with Fu Zhou in his office.

Fu Zhou’s face was pale, yet the tips of her ears and the back of her neck flushed with a feverish red; she looked brooding and sickly. Wearing her blue and white school uniform jacket, she kept her eyes lowered due to her physical discomfort. Her long, thick lashes cast small shadows over her eyelids.

She looked remarkably well-behaved.

“Fu Zhou…” The teacher ignored her listless state. On his desk lay the test papers from a recent pop quiz. Beneath a stack of perfect scores sat Fu Zhou’s paper, a fifty.

“Your grades… looking at the whole school, they’re mediocre. But you know this is the Strength Foundation Class. We are currently in Section A, the top class in the school.”

“You don’t want your poor grades to drag down the class average by a huge margin, do you?”

Fu Zhou kept her eyes down and remained silent.

She didn’t need him to say it, she knew someone must have complained to the “Mediterranean” about the average score, claiming she was a dead weight. There were only a handful of people in class who disliked her, and the only one with a personality bad enough to actually snitch was Zhang Jiahao.

“I won’t demand too much of you, considering your foundation. The midterm is next month. I hope you can reach a total score of 550. That shouldn’t be hard, right?”

The average for Strength Foundation Class A was 690 and that was after being dragged down by Fu Zhou. Without her, it was even higher. Last time, Fu Zhou’s total score barely scraped past 500. Raising it by 50 points in a month sounded like a pipe dream.

But the teacher gave her no room for rebuttal.

“Students are already expressing their dissatisfaction. If you don’t reach this score, I’ll have to report your situation to the school leadership again.”

“Fu Zhou, I’m not making things difficult for you. It’s true you’re an Alpha, but most of your classmates are Betas. If you aren’t excellent yet remain in this class for so long, people will naturally feel resentful. At a time like this, you should show some spirit and prove yourself.”

Fu Zhou slumped over her desk.

She felt waves of heat radiating from her body. After lying there for a moment, she sat back up, spread out her books, and began today’s homework.

In the last weekly exam, Chu Xiyu was a top performer in Class B, while Fu Zhou remained the perennial last place student. Even if it was just for the sake of her pride, she was a top-tier Alpha, she couldn’t let herself be kicked out of Class A. It was too embarrassing.

She skipped lunch. Dinner was brought back from the cafeteria by Zhou Heyu and Zhang Meng.

Zhou Heyu’s gaze lingered on Fu Zhou’s pale face for a few moments before she reached out to touch her forehead. Her fingers practically bounced back.

“Fu Zhou, your forehead is burning! Go ask for leave and get to a hospital, or your brain is going to fry.”

Zhou Heyu was usually flippant, but she was a worrier at heart. She had been observing Fu Zhou all day. Normally, Fu Zhou would ask for leave at the slightest discomfort, so her lack of movement today had actually warded off suspicion.

“Not going. That Mediterranean old man is annoying as hell.” Thinking back to the office conversation, Fu Zhou had zero interest in asking for leave. “Only two hours until school lets out. Don’t worry, if I still feel bad tonight, I definitely won’t come tomorrow.”

This was typical Fu Zhou behavior. Back in tenth grade, she’d even take leave just because she couldn’t wake up in the morning. She only stopped those “wicked” habits after she started commuting to school with Chu Xiyu.

“Fine, use your own judgment. Don’t push it.” Zhou Heyu set some warm water on Fu Zhou’s desk before heading back to her seat.

The last two periods were self-study. Fu Zhou sat there in a daze, groggily finishing a few math problems.

Chu Xiyu didn’t stay late for extra tutoring today. The moment Fu Zhou stepped into the car, she caught the faint scent of roses in the air. It felt as though her aching body found some relief. Her mind wasn’t clear; as soon as she entered, she leaned into Chu Xiyu.

Chu Xiyu’s hand, which had intended to push her away, paused upon feeling the scorching body temperature. She finally compromised, resting her hand on Fu Zhou’s waist.

“Uncle Zhang, go to the nearest AO Medical Service Point.”

Fu Zhou had a fever, and it was high. Chu Xiyu hadn’t seen her all day, and the girl had been listless since the morning.

“Chu Xiyu, I don’t want to go to the hospital.” Hearing her words, the muddled Fu Zhou instinctively began to protest, squirming in her arms.

Chu Xiyu steadied the wriggling girl. “We’re not going to a hospital. We’re going to a service point.”

“Will there be needles?” Fu Zhou’s eyes were bright, clouded with a hazy mist from the heat.

“No,” Chu Xiyu replied firmly and without hesitation.

Ten minutes later, Fu Zhou stared at the purple needle in her vein and the precision equipment hanging near her head. As the medicinal fluid entered her bloodstream through the device, her sluggish brain slowly began to register reality. She turned her head toward the girl sitting beside her reading a book.

“Didn’t you say… no needles?” She blinked her dark eyes.

The reading girl’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. She lifted her light-colored “peach blossom” eyes, which remained cold and indifferent.

“Fine. Then die of a fever in the middle of the night.”

She sounded angry.

But in the blink of an eye, that “gunpowder” scent vanished, making it feel like Fu Zhou’s hallucination. However, Fu Zhou believed that no hallucination came from nowhere. She leaned in closer to Chu Xiyu.

“Okay, okay. Thank you. With you here, I’m not afraid of needles anymore.” She didn’t sound like she was lying, but Chu Xiyu only looked down and gave a slight nod.

Seventeen and eighteen-year-olds spoke without weight; you couldn’t take them seriously. Especially not an Alpha who attracted butterflies wherever she went.

“I got sick easily when I was little. My family often left me to get IVs alone. Back then it was just gravity drips; sometimes I’d fall asleep, and when the bag finished, the blood would flow back up the tube. The whole line would be red.”

Fu Zhou leaned back in the service point chair, turning slightly to smile at the Omega reading beside her. She clearly saw Chu Xiyu’s fingers subconsciously tighten on the pages of her book.

“But it’s fine now. I rarely get sick these days.”

“Mhm.”

Chu Xiyu’s response was cold, but Fu Zhou was in a good mood.

The service point operated in shifts, 24 hours a day. The doctor who had set up the IV hung her white coat on the first hook, walked over to check Fu Zhou’s arm, then unwrapped a thermometer and told Fu Zhou to put it in her mouth.

“I’m getting off work, but another doctor is coming. I’ve briefed her on your case. These meds should finish in about half an hour. Then have her check your gland.”

“You’re close to differentiating, right? You must be extra careful with that.”

Fu Zhou nodded obediently. Chu Xiyu took one look at her and knew she wasn’t taking a word of it to heart.

The replacement doctor arrived quickly. As she walked in, her gaze locked onto Fu Zhou.

“You again? The one who came to get Omega suppressants last time?” She donned her white coat and approached.

Fu Zhou looked up in surprise. She was a bit “face-blind,” but a memory flickered, she had helped Chu Xiyu buy suppressants. Had it been at this same service point?

“This time you’re the sick one?” The doctor took the thermometer from Fu Zhou’s mouth. “37.2 Not bad. Finish the IV today and take some medicine home. If the fever doesn’t return tonight, you don’t need to come tomorrow.”

“Should she rest for a day?”

“She can.”

“I’m not resting!”

The two voices rang out simultaneously just as Chu Xiyu finished her question.

“Quite the motivated kid. Rest or not, it’s up to you and how you feel tomorrow.” The doctor smiled casually and went into the inner room to prepare equipment.

“Why don’t you want to rest?” Chu Xiyu’s finger was still on her book. Fu Zhou caught a glimpse and realized it was a book entirely in English, she couldn’t understand a single word.

The bright eyes before her dimmed slightly. A metaphorical question mark appeared over Chu Xiyu’s head. Had Fu Zhou remembered something depressing again? How could someone cycle through so many emotions in such a short time?

“My grades are bad. Some classmates complained to the teacher about me.”

Fu Zhou’s tone was muffled, but the atmosphere turned strangely heavy.

“Do you… really need someone to complain for the teacher to know your grades are bad?” Chu Xiyu’s calm voice was filled with genuine confusion.

Grade reports and test papers of all sizes were kept in the teacher’s drawer. Chu Xiyu spent a lot of time in the office and often saw Fu Zhou’s papers, covered in red X’s splayed out on the desk. Did her bad grades really require a whistleblower?

Fu Zhou was speechless.

“It’s that some classmates are unhappy with me, saying my bad grades are pulling down the average.” Fu Zhou’s voice was tinged with clear grievance. She didn’t dare say a word of rebuttal at school because she was dragging down the average, and it was normal for people to be upset. But Chu Xiyu was family, she could be unhappy in front of her.

“By that logic, if our class kicked out all the students with poor grades and only kept the top ones, wouldn’t we be the first ‘100% Tsinghua/Peking University’ class in school history?”

Chu Xiyu’s voice was crisp and cold, her logic sharp and clear. Fu Zhou’s eyes crinkled into a smile.

“Better not let Jiahao hear that, or he’ll definitely say it to the Mediterranean.”

Zhang Jiahao’s poor character was common knowledge. Fu Zhou didn’t doubt it for a second. If his physics grades weren’t so good that people needed to ask him for help, no one would talk to him.

“That said… I’ve decided to set a small goal for myself.”

“Mhm. Let’s hear it.”

“Top five in the whole school!”

Chu Xiyu’s eyes darkened as she looked at the shining Alpha before her and the spirited scent of green plum wine pheromones in the air. After a long silence, she let out a soft sigh.

“Mhm. I believe in you.”

Fu Zhou’s already bright eyes filled with such joy that they almost hurt Chu Xiyu to look at. In a corner unseen, the girl with the book let half of herself sink into the shadows.

If the grades others spent over a decade of late-night studying for could be so easily overtaken by Fu Zhou… then there was nothing Fu Zhou couldn’t have.