How to Make My Villainous Omega Stepsister Turn Over a New Leaf - Chapter 5

The next day was Sunday.

Dawn had only just begun to break. A pale strip of white stretched across the horizon, and undried dew still clung to the old locust tree at the entrance of the alley.

Ye Chengji was already out of the house.

She wore a simple black hoodie with the sleeves rolled up to her forearms, exposing her slender wrists. In one hand, she carried an old woven plastic sack.

The children who followed her around had already gathered at their usual spot by the alley entrance. Every one of them had come fully equipped, with woven sacks on their backs and iron hooks in their hands. They had been chattering noisily, but the moment they saw Ye Chengji, they immediately fell silent and stood neatly in place.

This was their regular gathering, rain or shine—collecting rubbish and exchanging it for money. However little they earned, it was still something.

To Ye Chengji, it was a basic guarantee of survival.

She had taken in these bullied little kids, fought back against their tormentors, and provided them with a safe refuge.

This was what she received in return.

There was no helping it. When you were born into a family like hers, finding a way to take care of yourself was far more reliable than praying that your mother would someday learn how to spell the word “responsibility.”

Ye Chengji stood beside the mottled wall, looking gloomier than usual. An inescapable trace of irritation was knotted between her brows.

She already looked fierce by nature, and her habitual scowl was normally enough to intimidate everyone.

Now, the oppressive air surrounding her made the children tremble, each secretly wondering who had angered their boss.

Perhaps the experience of reversing time before bed the previous night was still circling endlessly through her mind.

After Ye Chengji finally fell asleep, all she dreamed about was the brat’s cold and stubborn face. She even dreamed that the brat had grown into an adult and, with that same expressionless yet dazzlingly beautiful face, held out a hand to demand money from her for candy.

Shameless.

Ye Chengji could not understand why she had to suffer the torment of time reversal whenever Zhu Letao did something bad.

Even more incomprehensible was the fact that she felt no affection whatsoever for this troublesome stepsister, yet their fates had somehow been forcibly bound together, making it impossible for her to leave Zhu Letao alone.

It felt like going to the convenience store and having Boss Hong force an enormous bag of raisin bread she hated into her hands, while giving her no opportunity to refuse.

At the thought, the pressure surrounding Ye Chengji grew even heavier.

“Boss, is that new kid at your house obedient? Do you need us to help teach her a proper lesson? Don’t worry. She won’t have a chance to tell anyone.”

Someone had noticed that Ye Chengji’s gaze kept unconsciously drifting into the distance, as though she were thinking about something extremely troublesome and difficult.

That person bravely stepped forward and became the first to speak.

Ye Chengji glanced toward the voice and, sure enough, saw two perfectly neat pigtails, completely unlike the bird’s nests atop the heads of the other children after they had run around wildly.

This was Zhou Yuqi, the only daughter of the owner of Xiao Zhou Internet Café.

She was the same age as Ye Chengji and received plenty of pocket money. Although she was small, her mind worked quickly, and she was well informed.

Previously, another group of children had targeted and bullied her because of her generous allowance. Ye Chengji had happened to rescue her, and from that moment on, Zhou Yuqi became her utterly loyal strategist.

She had been the first person to tell Ye Chengji that Zhang Lan planned to move someone into their home.

By the time Zhang Lan remembered to tell Ye Chengji that another child would be sharing her room—after already moving a bed inside—Ye Chengji had long since heard about it from Zhou Yuqi.

Zhou Yuqi was also the one from whom Ye Chengji had heard about that thing in computers called a “bug.”

The only problem was that after spending so much time with Ye Chengji, the little girl had somehow developed the air of a bandit.

The instant she opened her mouth, people instinctively felt the urge to call the police.

How wonderful.

Ever since she had started following Ye Chengji, no one dared bully her anymore.

Ye Chengji felt very gratified.

What an excellent and considerate little follower.

With a single glance, she had keenly detected her boss’s troubles and proposed a practical solution.

Ordinarily, Ye Chengji might have agreed.

This time, however, the situation was complicated.

During the time loops, she had realized that Zhu Letao was far too stubborn. No matter how brutally the other person attacked, she would fight desperately to drag them down with her.

Simply beating her therefore could not eliminate the wicked ideas in her mind. It might even make her worse.

Ye Chengji could not help sighing as she shook her head heavily.

“It’s fine. You don’t need to bother with that brat.”

Zhou Yuqi looked at her boss’s unimproved expression and nodded thoughtfully.

“Okay, Boss.”

Ye Chengji could not resist reaching out to stroke her little follower’s pigtails.

They felt wonderful.

“Boss, are we dividing the areas the same way as usual today?”

A skinny follower beside them saw that Ye Chengji had not yet given the order to leave and cautiously asked, her tone tentative.

She could sense that today’s boss was quieter and more unapproachable than usual.

Ye Chengji returned to her senses and pulled back her wandering thoughts. Her voice still carried an unquestionable force.

“Yes. You and Xiao Qi take the two alleys to the east. Make sure to collect all the clean plastic bottles and cardboard, and don’t overlook the corners by the walls. Ayuan and Xiaobai can take the western alley. There are more rubbish bins there, so search carefully. I’ll take the back street.”

The back street ran beside an old processing factory, where they occasionally found discarded iron and copper.

Those materials were extremely heavy inside the woven sacks. The other children struggled to carry them, but Ye Chengji was strong enough to lift them with ease.

Her assignments were clear and orderly, no different from usual.

Ye Chengji’s gaze swept across the ground while her fingers rubbed together with increasing frequency.

She repeatedly considered what she should do the next time Zhu Letao committed a bad deed.

How could she completely prevent time from reversing?

And how could she finally free herself from this troublesome stepsister?

After an entire morning, the group of children brought several sacks of rubbish to the recycling station to sell.

“Auntie, we’re here!”

Because they came so often, the middle-aged woman who ran the station was already familiar with them and cheerfully greeted the group.

While waiting for everything to be weighed, Ye Chengji habitually looked around.

Her eyes happened to fall upon several stacks of relatively new-looking books on the ground. They had been tied neatly together with plastic straps, and their pages appeared clean.

After weighing everything, the middle-aged woman stood and noticed Ye Chengji staring at the pile of books.

She said in surprise, “What’s this? You skip class all day, yet there’s actually a book you want to read?”

The teasing in her words outweighed any real mockery.

After hesitating, Ye Chengji nodded and pointed to one of the books in the middle.

“I want that one. Can you sell it to me? You can take the money out of what we just earned from the recyclables.”

The woman was busy calculating their payment. She casually glanced over without seeing exactly which book Ye Chengji wanted and noticed only that it belonged to a batch discarded by a bookstore that morning.

“Sure. I’ll just take the loose change.”

Once she finished calculating, she removed two coins from the payment and placed the remaining money into the hands of the child responsible for collecting it.

“Boss, where are we going next—”

Before Zhou Yuqi could finish, Ye Chengji, who had just been standing in front of them, had already become a tiny dot in the distance.

Carrying the book she had bought for twenty cents and the money left over after dividing everyone’s shares, Ye Chengji took off running toward home like a whirlwind.

“That’s all for today! Dismissed!”

Her voice gradually scattered in the wind.

When she arrived home, Zhang Lan and Zhu Zhengjun had already gone out to play cards.

Perhaps because they had only recently moved in together and still wanted to leave a good impression on each other, they had left five yuan on the table.

That was supposed to pay for Ye Chengji and Zhu Letao’s dinner.

Ye Chengji ignored the five yuan.

She secretly stuffed the book beneath the back of her tank top and walked into the bedroom while pretending her hands were empty.

Once she was safely behind the curtain, she quickly pulled it out and began studying a book titled Simple Secrets for Getting Along with “Bad” Children with a seriousness she had never displayed before.

“Communication is the bridge to understanding. Truly effective communication cannot remain superficial. It must be communication between hearts. To achieve such heartfelt communication, the key is to improve the parent-child relationship… The foundation of all communication is allowing the child to feel your love for them.”

Ye Chengji ignored the words “parent-child” and stared at the passage for a long time.

She felt as though she understood it, yet also as though she did not.

She was on the verge of a sudden realization, but the realization stubbornly refused to arrive.

She could only continue reading.

Damn it.

She had never studied this seriously even when looking at an exam paper.

After reading for a long time, the words began swimming before Ye Chengji’s eyes, but she still struggled to remain focused.

Now that she had confirmed the mechanism behind the time reversals was connected to Zhu Letao, she knew that whenever Zhu Letao did something bad, Ye Chengji would be forced to go back in time.

Only after she successfully eliminated Zhu Letao’s intention to commit that particular bad deed could time move forward again.

Even Ye Chengji, a sixth-grade elementary school student, understood that when a tree was infested with insects, removing only one of them was useless.

Stopping Zhu Letao once would be equally meaningless.

She had to prevent the brat from wanting to do bad things at the root.

“Therefore, one must trace the problem to its source and understand why the child is being disobedient…”

To avoid becoming trapped in endless time loops in the future, she had to straighten the brat out from the roots.

“Parents must establish their authority, constantly examine and reflect upon themselves, remain calm, and patiently guide the child…”

She read for the entire afternoon.

Ye Chengji thought she had become so hungry because she was thirstily absorbing knowledge.

Then she looked at the orange-shaped alarm clock on the desk and discovered that it was already past six.

No wonder she was hungry.

The setting sun was as red as blood, seeping through the transparent glass window and flooding the room with light.

Ye Chengji decisively closed the book and walked toward the brat’s bed.

She decided to test the book’s secrets one by one.

“Little bra—Little Taozi, I’m hungry. What about you?”

Ye Chengji swallowed the habitual word “brat.”

Remembering what the book had said about displaying friendliness and love, she forced a brilliant smile onto her face, reached out to stroke the brat’s soft hair, and waited for an answer.

It was rare for those two adults to remember to leave them dinner money.

Although it was not much, when combined with what Ye Chengji had earned from selling recyclables that day, it would be enough.

She planned to take Zhu Letao to a noodle shop for a good meal.

Unfortunately, Ye Chengji tried too hard, and the smile she squeezed out was slightly distorted.

The child curled up beneath the blanket stared at her.

Her body gave a quiet, almost imperceptible shudder.

Zhu Letao looked conflictedly at the cookie tin beneath her pillow for a long time.

At last, she reluctantly took out one cookie, quickly closed the lid, and shoved the tin back into place.

She looked deeply pained, yet restrained her instinct to take the cookie back and held it out toward Ye Chengji.

Her stingy appearance was exactly the same as the auntie at the recycling station.

Ye Chengji maintained the rigid smile on her lips as she thought this.

Still, the book had been right.

Children were clever and perceptive. As long as she took the initiative to show kindness, they would sense that kindness.

Look at this.

The rude brat who had previously refused even to say thank you was now willingly sharing a cookie with her.

Even though Ye Chengji had been the one who bought the cookies for her in the first place.

“Is that for me? Thank you.”

Ye Chengji accepted the cookie.

At almost the exact same time, Zhu Letao spoke in a faintly uneasy voice, seemingly making a clumsy attempt to please her.

“I can give you one cookie, so could you please not eat me?”

Ha.

The smile on Ye Chengji’s face abruptly collapsed.

The book was wrong.

Not all children were clever.

The one in front of her was an exceptionally rare stupid child.

Just how stupid did she have to be to think Ye Chengji would eat people merely because she was hungry?