How to Make My Villainous Omega Stepsister Turn Over a New Leaf - Chapter 6

It took Ye Chengji quite a bit of explaining to convince Zhu Letao that she did not eat people.

Although she had no idea whether her image in the brat’s mind had returned to that of a human being, after much persuasion, she finally managed to take the ravenous child out for noodles.

It happened to be dinnertime, and by the time they reached the noodle shop, there were already several customers inside.

The shop had air-conditioning. Compared with the scorching heat outside, where even the wind felt warm, and the stifling furnace-like heat at home, this place was practically heaven.

The instant they stepped inside, it was as though they had entered an entirely different, cool and refreshing world.

Ye Chengji let out a long breath of relief. Holding the brat’s slightly damp, sweaty hand, she found a table beside the wall and sat down.

She pointed toward the yellowed menu beneath the transparent plastic tablecloth and asked Zhu Letao what she wanted to eat.

Zhu Letao stared at the menu for a long time with her large, dark eyes.

Yet even after Ye Chengji had ordered her own food, gone to wash her hands, and returned, Zhu Letao still had not said anything.

She remained in the same position, her head lowered as she stared intently at the menu.

At first, Ye Chengji watched her with amusement. Zhu Letao sat so motionlessly that she resembled a little wooden figurine.

But even when Ye Chengji’s bowl of pork-rib noodles arrived, the brat still did not speak.

Ye Chengji finally ran out of patience.

However, she still remembered what the book had said and silently repeated, Be patient.

Then she tried to make her voice sound gentler.

“What’s wrong, Taozi? You still haven’t decided?”

The brat finally raised her head.

Instead of looking at Ye Chengji, however, she stared at the steaming, fragrant bowl of pork-rib noodles in front of her. She pointed toward it and whispered, “I want that. The same thing as you.”

A possibility finally occurred to Ye Chengji.

She raised one eyebrow high, surprise and amusement appearing on her naturally fierce, unapproachable face.

“Wait. Don’t tell me…you can’t read?”

“…”

Zhu Letao fell into a suspicious silence.

Under Ye Chengji’s undisguised stare, the two hands she had placed on the table slowly curled inward.

She was already in third grade, yet she could not even recognize the words on a menu?

Even Ye Chengji, who regularly skipped class, had already learned many characters by that age and could even read comic books.

Who would have thought that the villain had been illiterate as a child?

“All right, then. But mine is a large serving. Can you finish it?”

Ye Chengji teasingly poked her slightly rounded belly without the slightest restraint.

Before she could say anything else, the brat silently lowered her head and bit her wrist.

“Ow, that hurts! You ungrateful little Taozi. I’m treating you to noodles, and you still bite me.”

Ye Chengji was not angry despite being bitten.

“…Because you laughed at me. And my name isn’t Little Taozi.”

Zhu Letao shifted her gaze away and pursed her lips slightly. It was unclear whether she was angrier about the former or the latter.

After speaking, she stopped looking at Ye Chengji altogether. Instead, she stared fixedly through the half-open kitchen door behind the counter at the cook preparing noodles, appearing completely focused and impossible to disturb.

“All right. My mistake.”

Ye Chengji lowered her head to examine the deep teeth marks left on her wrist. Strangely, a faint sense of gratification arose within her.

Compared with the bites she had received during the time loops, this one had not drawn blood.

Nor had it triggered another reversal.

That meant the brat had not bitten hard and had harbored no malicious intent.

It was already considerable progress.

She had heard that puppies showed affection toward their owners by gently biting them.

At that thought, the small amount of anger that had just risen inside her dispersed like a wisp of white smoke pulled apart by the wind.

Perhaps because she had gone hungry when she was younger, Zhu Letao’s eyes always lit up whenever she saw food. She also ate as though she had been starving for days.

Sure enough, the brat ultimately failed to finish the large bowl of pork-rib noodles.

However, she refused to let Ye Chengji eat what remained.

In the end, Ye Chengji had no choice but to spend another ten cents on a bag and take the leftover noodles home.

That night, the two unreliable adults predictably did not return. No one knew where they had gone to play cards until morning.

Ye Chengji reheated the leftover noodles and gave them to the brat, who had been thinking about them all evening, as a late-night snack.

Unfortunately, the brat was extremely possessive. Even after she became full, she refused to share the remainder with Ye Chengji or throw it away. Instead, she forced herself to continue stuffing it into her stomach.

“I can eat all of it.”

Despite Ye Chengji’s attempts to stop her, the brat remained unbearably stubborn. She insisted on finishing everything before she would go to sleep, looking uselessly vigilant as though terrified Ye Chengji might sneak out in the middle of the night and steal the leftovers.

Ye Chengji eventually lost patience with trying to persuade her.

She simply left the brat to battle the remaining noodles alone while she returned to bed to write in her diary and count the money they had earned selling recyclables that day.

Not long afterward, she saw the gap in the doorway widen.

A tiny figure slowly slipped inside, climbed onto the bed, pulled the blanket over herself, and lay down.

A small, rounded lump appeared against the curtain.

“You’re full now, aren’t you? Did you brush your teeth? Children who go to sleep without brushing their teeth will get cavities.”

The brat did not answer, as though she had fallen deeply asleep the instant she climbed into bed.

Ye Chengji remembered that the book had said the initial focus should be on developing affection and that she should not pressure the child too much.

Therefore, she switched off the light and prepared to sleep.

In the middle of the night, however, she suddenly heard a faint rustling sound, like someone handling a plastic bag.

Ye Chengji opened her eyes.

Moonlight filtered through the curtain and cast the shadow of a tiny figure on the other side, secretly climbing out of bed and doing something unknown.

Realizing that something was wrong, Ye Chengji silently got up, walked around the curtain, and approached her.

She found Zhu Letao crouching on the floor, unwrapping pieces of candy and carefully stuffing milk candies into her mouth.

Opened wrappers covered the floor.

They shimmered quietly beneath the moonlight.

“What are you doing?”

Ye Chengji did not even ask whether she was still hungry. Judging by the brat’s obviously protruding belly, there was no possibility that hunger was the problem.

Children’s stomachs were already somewhat rounded because their bodies had not finished developing. After eating far too much, Zhu Letao now resembled a plump little stuffed chicken wing.

This time, instead of stubbornly refusing to speak, the brat mumbled around the milk candy in her mouth, “My stomach feels bad. Eating this kind of little white candy will make it better.”

Zhu Letao had seen people do it before.

Whenever someone felt unwell, they would take out small white pellets.

She had heard that they were very expensive.

Her severely limited common knowledge did not include the concept of medicine, so she could not understand what they were. She had simply assumed that the people were eating milk candies, which were equally expensive in her mind and looked similar.

But even after she had eaten so many of them, her stomach still hurt.

Zhu Letao thought perhaps she simply had not eaten enough.

“These can cure illnesses. Didn’t you know?”

It was her retaliation for Ye Chengji mocking her inability to read at the noodle shop.

The faint pride and boastfulness in the brat’s voice, along with the slight rise in her tone at the end, made it sound as though she were sharing an enormous secret with Ye Chengji.

She knew she felt unwell.

But she did not know that she was uncomfortable because she had overeaten, nor did she know that this situation required medicine.

She was already in third grade but could barely recognize any words. She could not even tell when she was hungry or full…

Despite having such an intelligent-looking face, she truly was a foolish child who lacked common sense in every possible area.

No.

Perhaps she was not stupid.

Perhaps no one had ever taught her anything while she was growing up.

Once Ye Chengji realized this, her irritation at being awakened disappeared.

She merely sighed, went into the living room, found digestive tablets in the medicine cabinet, and fed them to her. Then, imitating the way she used to massage her own stomach, she rubbed the confused child’s belly in slow circles.

Zhu Letao’s father was an adult even worse than Ye Chengji’s mother, Zhang Lan.

His behavior probably counted as child abuse, didn’t it?

Ye Chengji wondered whether the little villain had properly taken revenge against him after growing up.

The novel had never mentioned it, so she did not know.

The story contained no description of the people the villain had known while growing up or the environment in which she had lived.

It was as though this person had been born destined to become an evil villain, without either a past or a future.

No one cared about her past.

And no one wanted to see her future.

She was like a filthy puppy wandering along the roadside. No one knew whether it had been abandoned and forced onto the streets or had been born a stray.

It roamed aimlessly, desperately searching for food and living only for the sake of staying alive, never knowing whether the sun or death would arrive first the next day.

Ye Chengji felt an ache in her heart.

She was still too young to identify the source of that emotion.

But regardless of the reason, the result was that she became a little more patient with Zhu Letao.

Ye Chengji sighed again.

She was clearly still a child herself, yet the things she needed to consider were becoming more numerous and complicated.

“When you feel unwell, you have to tell me. If it’s serious, we’ll go to the hospital. If it isn’t serious, you take medicine. Medicine, not candy. Do you understand?”

Zhu Letao stared blankly at the blister pack of digestive tablets clutched in her hand, looking confused.

They were not candy?

“…But they’re sweet and sour. They taste good.”

Ye Chengji paused.

“Yes, digestive tablets taste like that, but they still aren’t candy.”

Then she asked the foolish brat, “Do you feel better now? You have to speak up when you’re uncomfortable.”

This person was rubbing her stomach.

Zhu Letao watched the hand slowly circling over her swollen belly.

While the motion felt comfortable, it also seemed rather strange.

It was as though no one had ever touched her this way before.

No one had ever spoken so patiently or said so many things to her either.

Her father usually ignored her. Sometimes, when he was drunk, he would speak to her more, but he would also hit her.

Being hit hurt.

So she still preferred it when her father ignored her.

Why was Ye Chengji treating her this way?

It was so strange.

Zhu Letao looked toward Ye Chengji’s serious expression, then quickly shifted her gaze away as though she had been burned. She lowered her eyes toward her own hands, confusion gradually appearing within them as her long, thick eyelashes drooped softly.

Did Ye Chengji gain something from treating her like this?

Like grapevines.

“Hey, I’m asking you a question. Did you fall asleep? If you’re asleep, I’m leaving.”

Ye Chengji had worked for quite a while without receiving any response. Feeling sleepy and tired, she stopped rubbing the child’s stomach and looked down at her.

Her gaze landed on Zhu Letao’s eyelashes, reminding her once again of those expensive grapes she had craved for a long time.

“Ye Chengji…when you do this, I think I feel a little better. Keep rubbing for a while longer,” Zhu Letao slowly said.

After pausing, she reluctantly added in the same slow voice, “Thank you.”

Ye Chengji had not expected the brat to suddenly call her by name.

Her sleepiness vanished instantly. The shock of hearing her full name from the brat was so great that even Zhu Letao voluntarily thanking her seemed less remarkable in comparison.

“Little Taozi, how can you call me directly by my name? You’re younger than me. You have to call me Sister, understand?”

Ye Chengji frowned as she recalled one of the book’s key points.

When dealing with a “bad” child, she had to establish her authority.

Zhu Letao frowned unhappily.

“No. You’re Ye Chengji.”

Then she stared stubbornly at her and emphasized, “I said thank you just now.”

She seemed to be waiting for something.

“Yes, I know.”

Unfortunately, Ye Chengji did not understand. She merely nodded to show that she had heard her.

She deserved that thank-you.

Zhu Letao did not receive the praise she had imagined and unhappily pressed her lips together.

Then, amid Ye Chengji’s grumbling and the comfortable sensation spreading throughout her body, she slowly closed her eyes.

That night, Zhu Letao had her first pleasant dream since moving into the house.

In her dream, she swam through a boundless ocean of candy, surrounded by countless Ye Chengjis who were all very skilled at rubbing her stomach.

One rubbed her belly.

Another fed her candy.

Another massaged her legs.

Another rubbed her shoulders…