How to Make My Villainous Omega Stepsister Turn Over a New Leaf - Chapter 1

Summer.

This damned summer.

The room was only six square meters. Its yellowed walls were covered in stains, and the paint was peeling from the single wooden bed. Even with the window open, the entire space was filled with a faint musty smell that never seemed to disappear.

She had heard that the north was very dry. She would move north someday.

The short-haired girl, dressed in a cool tank top and shorts, sprawled across the bamboo mat with all four limbs, clinging tightly to the last trace of coolness it retained. Her bangs were slightly damp. Listening to the noisy, ear-piercing chirping of cicadas outside the window, she felt so hot that her head was spinning. She weakly waved a fan back and forth.

The fan had been casually folded from the cover of a completed workbook. Which subject she used depended entirely on her mood.

Originally, she had wanted to lie directly on the floor. However, another small bed had been forcibly crammed into her already tiny room, leaving her without even enough space to stretch out like a starfish.

Her family was dirt poor. Air-conditioning was an unimaginable luxury, and Zhang Lan had moved their only old electric fan into her own room.

She usually kept her door and windows tightly shut, guarded and cautious, as though allowing Ye Chengji—a worthless burden—to steal even the slightest bit of cool air would mean she had suffered a loss.

Just then, Ye Chengji suddenly heard footsteps stop outside their front door.

Come to think of it, today was the day her stepfather was moving in with his entire family.

Ye Chengji let out a world-weary sigh.

The heavens would rain if they wished, and mothers would remarry if they wished.

There was nothing a twelve-year-old sixth grader like her could do to change it.

Half of her already tiny room was destined to be taken over.

Sure enough, before long, heavy knocking sounded against the door, as though whoever was outside intended to knock the entire door panel down.

Zhang Lan finally deigned to open her bedroom door. A rapid series of footsteps followed. As she passed Ye Chengji’s room, she kicked the door hard and told her to hurry out and greet them.

Ye Chengji snorted and slowly climbed off her beloved bamboo mat.

The lock clicked open.

“Ah Lan, I really don’t know how I can ever thank you…”

The middle-aged man was named Zhu Zhengjun. Apparently, he had gambled away his house. Zhang Lan, who had only known him for a short time, could not bear to see him in such difficulty and had hurriedly offered to let him live in her home.

Even now, Ye Chengji still could not figure out whether Zhang Lan was shrewd or simply stupid.

Faced with Zhu Zhengjun’s gratitude, Zhang Lan once again put on her affected, coquettish act.

“Oh, come on. We’re going to be a family from now on, so why are you still saying things like that? Hurry inside. From now on, this will be your home too.”

Zhu Zhengjun appeared deeply moved.

Zhang Lan grabbed Ye Chengji and pushed her forward.

“This is my daughter, Ye Chengji. She’s terribly naughty and mischievous. You can just call her Chengzi.”

Then she looked toward the girl standing behind the man and asked gently, “Your daughter is so adorable. How old is she? What’s her name?”

Ye Chengji thought that perhaps Zhang Lan simply enjoyed the person she became whenever she played this particular role.

Although Zhu Zhengjun was smiling when he looked at her, his gaze was like that of someone examining an object. It made Ye Chengji extremely uncomfortable, so she glared fiercely back at him.

As she was about to withdraw her gaze, she looked downward and finally noticed that there was another thin, short little girl behind the man.

The child was so small that she was almost entirely hidden behind him. No one would have noticed her without looking carefully.

The child obediently stood behind her father, wearing old clothes that were obviously too large for her. She was tiny and thin, as though malnourished, and her hair was messy. However, unlike the sallow complexions common among children in this county town, her skin was fair and translucent, like freshly steamed white rice. Under the sunlight, she almost seemed to glow.

Her eyes were round, like the beautiful glass marbles Ye Chengji saw the children downstairs knocking against one another every day.

Yet when the child raised her eyes, her pupils looked dark and deep. They no longer resembled marbles but instead looked like the expensive black-purple grapes pictured in books—the kind that always made Ye Chengji salivate whenever she saw that page.

Perhaps the child was shy around strangers. Not only did she fail to answer, she did not even look at them.

That was until the man slapped the back of her head and cursed impatiently, “When someone asks you something, answer them. Don’t stand there like a mute and make everyone hate you.”

Then, as though shoving aside some bothersome object blocking his path, he pushed the child forward with considerable force.

The child stumbled twice before barely managing to steady herself. She timidly looked up at Ye Chengji, immediately lowered her gaze again, and whispered, “…Nine years old. Zhu Letao.”

The moment she heard that name, Ye Chengji’s eyes widened.

Zhang Lan linked her arm through the man’s and coquettishly told him not to make things difficult for the child. She looked completely immersed in the sweetness of love, like a gentle, kindhearted, virtuous wife and mother.

And so, the two single-parent families merged into one. On the surface, they appeared to be a fairly harmonious family.

But Ye Chengji, who had lived with Zhang Lan for more than five years, knew perfectly well that it was merely an illusion.

Whenever Zhang Lan was not blinded by romance, she was the textbook definition of a calculating egoist.

Besides, the target of her romantic obsession changed frequently. In less than a month, this mother of hers would be unable to endure the loneliness and would run out to make new “friends.”

But none of that was the main issue.

“Your name is Zhu Letao?!”

When Ye Chengji heard the exact same name as the villain from the story she had dreamed about the previous night, it took her a long time to react. After pinching her thigh hard to confirm that she was not dreaming, her voice unconsciously rose in shock.

Had that actually been a prophetic dream?

Her outburst drew a glance from the child, who had fallen silent again after stating her name and was now fiddling with the rabbit doll in her arms.

“Why are you suddenly shouting?” Zhang Lan frowned at her in disgust, her voice unconsciously turning shrill. Then, remembering that Zhu Zhengjun was still there, she hurriedly softened her tone. “All right, take your little sister into your room and play. I still have to help your dad unpack his luggage.”

She waved them both away as though driving off ducks, her intention to get rid of them unmistakable.

Ye Chengji stared at her speechlessly.

She had not even called the man Dad yet, but Zhang Lan had already decided to do it on her behalf.

Ye Chengji, who would become a mature middle school student the following year, considered herself no longer an immature child. Although Zhu Letao was a villain who committed many terrible deeds in her dream, she was currently only a child shorter than Ye Chengji herself.

She was nothing to fear.

“Come on. I’ll take you to our room.”

Zhu Letao raised her eyes and stared at her.

Ye Chengji did not want the childhood version of the villain to see through the chaotic thoughts in her mind. She also wanted to establish her authority from the very beginning, so she struggled to keep a stern expression, puffed out her chest, raised her head, and strode away.

The child glanced at the man beside her. Seeing that he showed no objection and was busy laughing and chatting with the woman, she obediently nodded and followed closely behind Ye Chengji into the room.

The villain in her childhood did not seem to enjoy speaking. Even after entering the room with Ye Chengji, she remained silent, merely lowering her head and fiddling with the old pink rabbit doll in her arms.

Ye Chengji was happy to enjoy the peace and quiet. As she observed Zhu Letao, she began recalling the strange dream she had experienced the night before.

In the dream, a voice had told her that the world she lived in was actually a novel.

Naturally, she had not believed it. It was only a dream, after all. She had simply found it interesting and continued watching.

The novel was titled Burning Star.

Its main character was Ji Lixing, the only daughter of the wealthy Ji family. Despite her privileged background, her dream was to enter the entertainment industry and become a famous celebrity. Ignoring her family’s objections, she ran away from home and entered a girl-group survival show.

On the program, the protagonist gained enormous popularity through the contrast between her cheerful, comedic personality and the fact that, in private, she worked harder than anyone else and improved at an astonishing speed.

Later, the public discovered that she was a genuine wealthy heiress who had run away from home to bravely pursue a career in entertainment. Starting as an unknown contestant with zero fans and a low ranking, she made a spectacular comeback and eventually debuted in first place as the group’s center.

The villain of the story was the former number one contestant whom the protagonist had displaced.

She was breathtakingly beautiful, gentle in temperament, and highly emotionally intelligent. She had trained for several years and was widely acknowledged as exceptionally talented. Even before the survival show, she had already accumulated many fans, and her company had spent a fortune promoting her. Everyone believed that first place would undoubtedly belong to her.

However, during the final round of voting, she fell from the number one position.

The villain came from a poor background. After graduating from high school, she did not attend university. Instead, she worked in a restaurant, where she was discovered by a talent scout.

After entering the entertainment industry, her extraordinary beauty brought her a great deal of trouble. A senior executive at her company wanted to keep her as his mistress. When she rejected him, he flew into a rage from humiliation and nearly had her completely blacklisted.

She had risked everything to participate in the survival show.

Another company had agreed to sign her and even pay off the penalty for breaking her current contract, but only if she debuted in first place.

She failed.

As a result, she could only remain at her current agency and continue suffering under its abuse.

She could not afford the contract termination fee.

After debuting, the villain stopped at nothing to destroy the protagonist’s reputation and steal everything she possessed.

However, every scheme, false accusation, and trap was repeatedly exposed and prevented by the people surrounding the protagonist. More and more people came to love the protagonist, while the villain’s reputation deteriorated rapidly, earning her widespread hatred.

Eventually, a set of revealing photographs the villain had been deceived into taking when she was younger was leaked online.

The pure and gentle image she had carefully constructed collapsed completely. Not only did she lose fans on a massive scale, but she also faced an astronomical penalty for breaching her contracts.

Her assets, reputation, and future—everything she had worked so hard to build—were utterly destroyed.

Driven into madness, the villain attempted to drag the protagonist into death with her. However, her plan was thwarted by the company president who was in love with the protagonist, and she was sent to prison.

After becoming an award-winning actress, the protagonist retired from the entertainment industry to inherit her family business. She also married the president who had pursued her all along.

As for the villain who had committed every imaginable evil, her story ended with her taking her own life in prison.

While following the plot, Ye Chengji encountered many words and sentences that were too complicated for an elementary school student to understand. Whenever that happened, the mysterious voice would explain them to her.

It was like her language arts teacher at school, except far gentler than her actual teacher.

As for Ye Chengji herself, her name appeared only once in the entire novel.

She was mentioned during the villain’s recollection of her childhood. Supposedly, she had been a cold and indifferent stepsister who left their hometown to attend university after finishing high school. Afterward, she never contacted the villain again.

She was nothing more than a background character.

When Ye Chengji dreamed about this part, she had thought, I actually get into university when I grow up? I’m amazing!

The mysterious voice seemed to have wanted to say something else afterward, but Ye Chengji had already awakened.

The entire dream had been complete and logically consistent from beginning to end. It was also completely different from her usual dreams, which she could never remember after waking.

Every single word of the hundreds of thousands of words in the novel had been firmly imprinted in Ye Chengji’s mind.

After waking up, Ye Chengji had thought she might possess a talent for writing novels.

Sixth graders were at exactly the age when they loved indulging in fantasies. Ye Chengji could not help letting her imagination run wild.

Perhaps she had acquired a special ability that caused an entertaining novel to appear automatically in her mind whenever she slept. All she had to do was copy it down and publish it after waking, and it would become enormously popular.

It was only after meeting Zhu Letao just now that she realized she had no talent for writing novels.

Instead, just as the voice in her dream had said, she was living inside a book.

However, even if Zhu Letao was the villain, it did not seem to have anything to do with her.

After finishing her recollection, Ye Chengji suddenly calmed down.

After all, according to the plot, she had practically no interaction with either Zhu Letao or the protagonist.

She also knew that she would eventually enter university, which meant she would surely live a good life.

From now on, she and Zhu Letao could simply be strangers who happened to know each other’s names.

Ye Chengji cleared her throat.

The lonely-looking child raised her head to look at her.

Zhu Letao was extremely thin. She wore a T-shirt that was clearly too large for her, its collar slipping to one side and exposing her prominent collarbone. Her hair was not particularly long, and messy strands clung to the back of her neck.

At that moment, a thought flashed through Ye Chengji’s mind.

These two really don’t look related at all.

Even when described generously, Zhu Zhengjun’s appearance could only barely be called ordinary but proper. His complexion was the color of the dirt beside the roads in the county town, and his eyes held a trace of murky calculation.

Aside from his height and relatively sturdy build, he was so unremarkable that he would disappear completely in a crowd.

Yet Zhu Letao possessed a face that was almost excessively pristine, with skin so pale it seemed translucent.

When she tilted her head up to look at Ye Chengji, her pupils were as dark as the night sky on a rainy day—empty and boundless. Her lips were thin and pressed into a straight line.

Ye Chengji was momentarily stunned by the impact of that excessively beautiful face. Then she pointed toward the small bed against the wall.

“Well…you’ll sleep in that bed from now on.”

Zhu Letao said nothing. She merely stared at her.

It took Ye Chengji a very long time to understand the meaning behind that gaze.

It was neither shyness nor fear.

It was the assessing stare of an animal determining whether the person before it was an enemy or an ally, a threat or a resource waiting to be seized.

“Okay.”

Her voice was extremely quiet, as though forced from deep inside her throat.

Ye Chengji could not be bothered to continue talking. She pulled half a packet of biscuits from her schoolbag. They were leftovers from that morning, and she planned to finish them herself.

She had no intention of sharing her favorite biscuits with Zhu Letao. There were not even enough left for Ye Chengji herself.

Besides, she had already decided that she and Zhu Letao would be strangers who happened to live in the same room. There was no reason for her to offer warmth only to be met with coldness.

Zhu Letao’s gaze fell on the biscuits, then moved to Ye Chengji’s face.

She repeated this several times.

Her stare was so intense that Ye Chengji could not ignore it.

She looked a little pitiful.

Feeling irritated, Ye Chengji held out the nearly empty packet of biscuits and asked, “Do you want some?”

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhu Letao immediately reached out and took it.

Rather than taking it, it looked more like she had snatched it away.

She no longer seemed pitiful at all.

She looked like a ferocious little wolf.

She did not thank Ye Chengji.

Ye Chengji smiled.

As expected of a villain. She had no manners whatsoever.

Zhu Letao ate quickly, keeping her eyes fixed closely on Ye Chengji’s movements in case she suddenly regretted her decision and tried to snatch the biscuits back.

Despite eating rapidly, she also cherished every last bit. Whenever crumbs fell onto her lap, she immediately picked them up and placed them in her mouth.

Ye Chengji gave a cold snort.

No good deed went rewarded.

Even while eating, Zhu Letao continued clutching the rabbit doll with its split seams and half-missing eye, as though terrified Ye Chengji might steal it.

On the first day she met Zhu Letao, Ye Chengji decided that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with this future villain.