Seduced By My Omega Stepsister - Chapter 18

Pheromones.

Help… with what?

Fu Zhou’s brain felt like a piece of machinery that hadn’t been used in a long time, grinding out creaking noises as it operated sluggishly.

She walked down the steps dizzily, only then noticing the mess downstairs.

Fu Zhou lowered her eyes, her gaze following the water stains beneath her feet until they reached Chu Xiyu.

In front of the young girl’s legs lay a shattered glass, surrounded by spilled transparent liquid, messy and damp.

Suppressing the faint throbbing in her heart, Fu Zhou knelt. She carefully cleared away the surrounding glass shards, unaware that her own palm had been cut and blood was dripping from it.

It wasn’t until her fingertips were grasped by a warm palm that she looked up, finally meeting those light-colored eyes.

In the fading night, a mist of water rippled within Chu Xiyu’s pale irises, layers overlapping and eventually blending as they were blown apart.

Are Omegas always this captivating?

Fu Zhou thought to herself as her hands wrapped behind Chu Xiyu’s calves, her other hand resting on her waist, gently lifting her up.

As she passed the living room, she grabbed a tube of ointment for bruises from the fridge.

She was still somewhat lucid.

Chu Xiyu’s room was equipped with warm lighting, yet Fu Zhou chose to turn on the harsh white fluorescent light. As the piercing glare fell, her round, puppy-like eyes squinted slightly from the sting.

She didn’t look at Chu Xiyu’s expression. The white light dissipated the surrounding ambiguous atmosphere. She gently cradled Chu Xiyu’s foot, clearly seeing the slight swelling on that jade-white ankle.

“Why didn’t you bring a light downstairs?” Fu Zhou scooped out a large dollop of ointment, her movements gentle, asking as if in casual passing.

Chu Xiyu’s foot recoiled slightly, but she ultimately restrained herself, her fingers gripping the bedsheets, her voice trembling faintly.

“I forgot.” Fu Zhou looked up after applying the medicine, seeing the redness at the tips of Chu Xiyu’s ears and the moisture in her eyes.

In an instant, as if stung, she turned her head away.

So, she had been overthinking.

She was the only one who couldn’t sleep, she was the only one with improper thoughts. Chu Xiyu was simply thirsty, went downstairs for water, and accidentally took a fall.

It wasn’t… because she was thinking about what happened tonight.

Watching the lifeless “puppy” perk up only to wilt again, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Chu Xiyu’s lips.

“Then why is Xiao Zhou up so late? Are you thirsty too?”

She wasn’t thirsty at all.

She was simply overthinking and couldn’t sleep. But she couldn’t tell Chu Xiyu that.

“I can’t sleep.” Even if she couldn’t say too much, she didn’t want to brush it off as being thirsty. She wanted Chu Xiyu to know she was suffering from insomnia.

She didn’t know what she was expecting, nor who she was throwing a tantrum at.

Clearly, she and Chu Xiyu weren’t that well-acquainted. Clearly, Chu Xiyu owed her nothing, except for that one bite taken in a moment of passion.

Fu Zhou understood the logic, yet she insisted on casting herself as the Alpha who had been “loved and abandoned.”

Well, from a biased perspective, it could be considered a relationship of sorts.

Thus, when Chu Xiyu’s gentle gaze slanted down like moonlight, Fu Zhou no longer felt like she was merely spying on the moon.

Before her stiffened back could relax, she was rendered helpless by the girl’s next words.

“Do you want to sleep with me?” Her already unsettled heart became a chaotic mess in an instant. Fu Zhou’s puppy eyes widened as she looked over in disbelief.

“Can my pheromones… soothe you?” She spoke softly, but it landed in Fu Zhou’s heart like a heavy hammer blow.

Her throat bobbed slightly, and she finally found her voice before Chu Xiyu could look away.

“Yes.”

“I want to be with you.”

She was so jubilant.

It felt as though springs of water were slowly pouring into her heart, filling it, making it warm and comfortable. Only the accelerating mechanical beat of her heart and the upward curve of her eyes betrayed the fact that she was nowhere near as calm as she appeared while holding her breath.

Chu Xiyu turned over as if she had fallen asleep, her thick lashes casting shadows over her eyelids.

Her features were on the cooler side, when asleep, she lacked the aggressiveness she had at school and the gentle lightness she wore when returning home.

Fu Zhou couldn’t help but look toward the edge of the bed, at the sliver of moonlight peeking through the curtains.

She was like Chu Xiyu, at certain times, some found her gentle, some found her cold, and others found her obedient.

She let out a small sigh. Just as she was about to roll a bit closer, she was pulled into an embrace by a pair of hands, followed by the contact of warm, soft skin.

The person beside her breathed shallowly, her voice thick with drowsiness.

She held Fu Zhou, her hot breath hitting the tip of Fu Zhou’s ear.

“Xiao Zhou, sleep well.”

Fu Zhou had insomnia again.

This time, the dark circles were exceptionally obvious. When she woke up in the morning, she stared at herself in the mirror in a daze.

Lacking spirit, looking disheveled, but with a face so well-structured that it simply added a touch of melancholy to her obvious pallor.

When they left the house together, Chu Xiyu handed her a bottle of hot milk, her concerned gaze falling on Fu Zhou’s eyes.

“Did you sleep too late last night? Your complexion looks terrible.”

Fu Zhou nodded, then shook her head, her explanation becoming increasingly convoluted.

“In the latter half of the night… I slept very well.”

“I slept very well being with you,” she added.

Chu Xiyu froze for a moment, then a perfectly appropriate, gentle smile bloomed on her face.

“That’s good.”

“Then Xiao Zhou… whenever you can’t sleep, come find me anytime.”

Is this how sisters… are supposed to be?

Fu Zhou couldn’t figure it out.

She brought her phone to school, and during the gaps between classes, she quietly searched online.

“Interaction patterns between sisters.”

On the web, countless displays of intimate commentary unfolded before her.

With her ears burning, Fu Zhou closed the chat interface. Looking at it this way, it seemed that simply lying on the same bed and sleeping together wasn’t actually that intimate.

She stuffed her phone back into her pocket and irritably pulled up her hood, only to take it off again a few seconds later, locking eyes precisely with a pair of bewildered eyes.

Her two friends were currently standing nearby, looking at her as if she were a fool.

“What’s the deal? Did you make yourself angry playing on your phone?”

“Don’t know. Probably falling in love.”

“With who?”

“The phone.”

Zhou Heyu looked over, slightly speechless.

“Tell us something we don’t know.”

In the year plus that Fu Zhou had been at school, she’d had three phones confiscated, she was already a “person of interest” to the faculty.

They weren’t left wondering for long. During the final period, which happened to be PE, Zhou Heyu and Zhang Meng were packing their things when Fu Zhou let out a long, heavy sigh.

“I have a friend.”

The three of them sat face to face, solemn and upright.

“She seems to have someone she really likes. This person she likes cooks for her, accompanies her to get IV drips, and even invites her to sleep in the same bed.”

“Tell me, do you think the person she likes… likes her back?”

“Well, logically speaking, she definitely likes you.”

“Really?!” Fu Zhou’s eyes lit up as she leaned in.

Zhou Heyu’s phoenix-shaped eyes widened slightly: “You? Didn’t you say you had a friend?”

“That’s not important.”

“It’s very important.”

“You aren’t talking about…” Zhou Heyu glanced cryptically toward the door at the girl Fu Zhou had liked for months, before quickly looking back.

“It’s not her,” Fu Zhou shook her head. “I was pathetic, wasn’t I? She clearly didn’t like me, yet I kept forcing myself on her, begging her to care.”

Hearing this, Zhou Heyu froze for a moment, then let out a somewhat unnatural smile.

“I thought… it was her. Then who is it? Why didn’t you tell the two of us you were looking for someone?”

At school, there were truly many boys and girls who liked Fu Zhou, but Fu Zhou suffered from severe face-blindness. Unless there was a specific spark or reason, it was very hard for her to remember people.

Thus, when Fu Zhou first arrived in the class, everyone thought she was cold and unapproachable.

She had played by herself for an entire semester before meeting the duo of Zhou Heyu and Zhang Meng, eventually fighting and clawing her way into their circle.

Once she had close friends, she completely let loose. She could strike up a conversation with anyone in class except for those girls who turned red the moment they saw her.

However, Fu Zhou arrived and left class with her two friends, and they walked partway home together after school until they reached the school gates to get into their respective cars. Except for… Fu Zhou’s newly arrived sister.

Zhou Heyu had an epiphany.

The way she looked at Fu Zhou became strange.

“Fu Zhou, actually, for sisters, accompanying someone for an IV, sleeping together, and cooking… it doesn’t really count as much. If….and I mean if to her, this is just a responsibility she’s taking on from the perspective of an older sister?”

Fu Zhou froze.

She thought back to the online comments about “sisterly bonds.”

Zhang Meng remained silent. She looked into Fu Zhou’s quiet eyes and said nothing.

Zhou Heyu wasn’t wrong, but her perspective was limited by the fact that she was a Beta, she couldn’t smell the pheromones surrounding Fu Zhou pheromones that were intensely aggressive and possessive.

But she also hadn’t sensed a single shred of romantic affection from this “sister” toward Fu Zhou, beyond the mere presence of pheromones.

She didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

The silence lasted a long time, right up until the final class at 1:00 PM.

A restless atmosphere had been brewing since the morning. The old homeroom teacher stood on the podium, his eyes wide like copper bells as he scanned the room.

“Study hard, don’t get impatient. We aren’t delaying the break, and we’ll return on time. When the time comes, you’ll naturally be released.”

In the elite Class A, the only things that caused a stir besides Fu Zhou were the monthly breaks.

This monthly break coincided with National Day, totaling eight full days. After those eight days, there was a two days sports meet.

It would be perfect if there wasn’t a weekly exam involved.

Fu Zhou leaned over her desk copying Chinese homework. For the first time, the idea of going home for the break felt “bittersweet.”

How was she supposed to handle these secret emotions she had developed for her sister?

How annoying.

Maybe… I just won’t go home tonight.

Within seconds, she dismissed the thought.

Love or whatever could be dealt with later. Tonight, she could sleep right next to Chu Xiyu.

It seemed that whenever she thought of Chu Xiyu, the first thing that came to mind was that scent of roses.

Fu Zhou quietly packed her things in advance. The moment the bell rang, she bolted faster than the teacher. She dashed out, turned right, and unable to brake in time, skidded into Chu Xiyu’s classroom.

The teacher from the neighboring class, who was still giving instructions, looked at her calmly: “Student, don’t be so excited. If you’re looking for someone, wait until we finish class.”

Fu Zhou lowered her head and smiled sheepishly, taking the chance to scan the room.

Chu Xiyu wasn’t there.

And neither was the scent of roses.