Seduced By My Omega Stepsister - Chapter 15

Yet her eyes remained cold and sober.

Chu Xiyu hadn’t dreamed in a long time. The moment she entered that fog colored sky, she knew she was in a dream. She didn’t try to struggle, compromise was a skill she had mastered out of necessity for survival.

Fragmented memories drifted past her ears as she stared ahead with numbness. Two arguing shadows circled a young girl in the center like ghosts.

“Kindergarten costs over ten thousand a year. Where is that money coming from? Tell me! Is our daughter not going to school?”

“Is she my daughter alone? My brother is in trouble, what’s wrong with lending it to him? It’s not like he won’t pay it back. Go ask your mother for a bit more, wouldn’t that be enough?”

“Lend, lend, lend… married seven or eight years, we lent for the house, lent for the car, and now even for our daughter’s schooling… I’ve lost all face! Your brother said he’d pay us back, but has he returned a cent in all these months? Our family is struggling!”

A causeless sense of suffocation and gloom grew from the depths of Chu Xiyu’s heart, heavy enough to stop her breath. Her chest heaved slightly, it felt as though the pulse thumping under her pale arms ran with gray blood.

Suddenly, the scent of green plum wine wafted in through a rift in the gray sky, rapidly occupying the space. The distorted faces receded, and the first thing to vanish was the sound of their shouting.

The Awakening

Chu Xiyu’s eyelashes trembled. As light flooded her world, she opened her eyes to see a bright, vibrant face.

The youth’s eyes held a trace of sleepiness, but they were mostly filled with worry. She was carefully peeling off a suppressant patch, so focused that she hadn’t noticed Chu Xiyu had awakened. Just as Fu Zhou was about to touch her gland, Chu Xiyu caught her hand.

Surprise flashed in Fu Zhou’s eyes, followed by a burst of joy like fireworks, which she quickly retracted into a flickering, shy gaze as they locked eyes.

How can one person experience so many emotions in a few seconds? Chu Xiyu smiled faintly. Her lips were pale, and she shook her head at Fu Zhou. Perhaps because of the nightmare, her face appeared almost translucent, she looked like a fragile, clinging vine.

Inevitably, Fu Zhou caught a hint that Chu Xiyu needed her.

“I smelled your pheromones,” Fu Zhou said quickly, aware that an Alpha entering an Omega’s room at night was improper. “They were unstable and chaotic. I thought something happened, so I came to check.”

Chu Xiyu’s lips curved softly, her voice gentle as if comforting the person who had rushed to her side. “Thank you, Xiao Zhou. It’s not my heat. I just dreamed of some bad things, and my pheromones went out of control.”

Fu Zhou froze, her ears turning bright red. Not in heat, but her pheromones sought me out because of her fear? Is that what she means?

“Then… what did you dream about? If it’s okay to tell me?” Fu Zhou asked tentatively.

Chu Xiyu didn’t seem to mind. She shifted on the bed, leaving a space wide enough for another person, and looked at Fu Zhou with misty, vulnerable eyes.

“Xiao Zhou, can you stay with me for a while?”

The Shared Secret

Chu Xiyu turned off the light. Her voice, soft and slow, brushed against Fu Zhou’s burning ear.

“I dreamed of my childhood. My parents always fought over money, my schooling, and my gender.” Chu Xiyu spoke lightly, but Fu Zhou felt her body trembling.

Fu Zhou gathered her courage and pulled the Omega into her arms. “You’re an Omega… the rarest gender in the world. Why would they fight over that?”

“I didn’t know I was an Omega until the day I differentiated,” Chu Xiyu said with a trace of dread. “My family never did the genetic screening. When I got a fever during differentiation, I thought it was just a cold.”

In the silence that followed, the faint, immature scent of Alpha pheromones turned bitter, like green plum wine tainted with grief. Fu Zhou was hurting for her.

“Chu Xiyu,” the youth whispered, holding her tight. “Here, no one will ignore your feelings. You don’t have to suffer because of money or school or family fights. No one will just abandon you. I’m here. I’ll protect you.”

“Because I’m your ‘sister’?” Chu Xiyu asked.

After a moment of silence, Fu Zhou’s voice came back lower: “And because you are Chu Xiyu.”

As their pheromones blurred together in the dark, Chu Xiyu buried herself deeper into Fu Zhou’s embrace. Yet, her eyes were cold and sober. She felt a sharp jealousy, jealous that Fu Zhou, raised in love, still had the capacity to love others.

The Next Day: General Knowledge Class

The next morning, Fu Zhou was in high spirits, occasionally staring into space with a dazed, happy expression.

At lunch, their “Mediterranean” (balding) homeroom teacher entered the classroom to announce: “Classes are cancelled this afternoon. Everyone is going to the ABO General Knowledge Lecture. Especially the two Alphas… and especially Fu Zhou. I don’t want to see you anywhere except the lecture hall.”

While the rest of the class complained, Fu Zhou did something unexpected: she started looking for her lecture materials.

“Are you actually going?” her friend Zhou Heyu asked in shock.

Zhang Meng walked over with her materials. “Don’t bother looking, you won’t find them. You two can share mine.” She glanced at Zhou Heyu, then added meaningfully, “Fu Zhou is an Alpha, it’s good for her to hear this.”

More importantly, the lecture was for both the regular and the elite classes. Chu Xiyu would be there.