Stepmom Alpha’s Guide to Raising Kids - Chapter 2

The live broadcast crew set up their cameras outside the luxurious mansion. By the time Qi Zi had just entered, the child had already been carried out by the family tutor.

Held in the tutor’s arms, the little one looked unusually pale, the faint flush from earlier completely drained from her face.

“Put me down, put me down! You bad woman, let me go now!”

A three-year-old girl’s strength was no match for an adult’s.

“Let me go! Stepmom is bullying Mother…”

The family tutor was a middle-aged woman in her forties, wearing glasses, her sallow face barely touched by makeup. When she wasn’t smiling, her expression turned harsh, resembling the image of every strict, mean-spirited teacher found in schools.

“Discipline shapes character. Your mother wouldn’t like a child who curses.”

The little one’s voice immediately quieted.

Stepmom hadn’t hit her today, but she had bitten Mother. So, mean!

I want Mother, waaah QuQ

Ningning was a well-behaved child. Once picked up, she obediently fell silent, though tears still clung to the corners of her eyes, glistening like freshly picked purple grapes.

The cameras captured this scene perfectly.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

Lu Luozhu was being forced forward, her lips pressed against the soft nape of Qi Zi’s neck.

She could feel the swollen scent gland beneath, overflowing with an intoxicatingly sweet pheromone.

So… how exactly was she supposed to mark someone?

Due to her poor health, Lu Luozhu had been conditioned to take things slowly, never panicking to avoid straining her heart.

Yet in the mere twenty minutes since transmigrating, she had been shocked over and over again.

Qi Zi mistook Lu Luozhu’s hesitation for refusal.

“Lu Luozhu.”

Qi Zi’s icy voice grated against her ear. “I heard your credit card debt has reached 240,000.”

Disgust flashed in the omega’s beautiful eyes—disgust at the overwhelming heat coursing through her body, and disgust at Lu Luozhu, whose gaze held nothing but greed for money.

Shallow, dull, all looks and no substance. Drinking, gambling, even bullying a child.

After marriage, Lu Luozhu hadn’t restrained herself—if anything, she’d grown bolder.

She was a woman who didn’t know the meaning of “knowing her place.”

Unaware of Qi Zi’s thoughts, Lu Luozhu asked, “How do I mark you? Just bite down?”

The pressure on the back of her head increased, forcing Lu Luozhu’s lips against Qi Zi’s vulnerable gland.

The omega tensed, bracing for the expected sting.

But half a minute passed—lips and tongue brushed and licked at her neck, over and over.

The cat-like teeth grazed the gland lightly, never sinking in.

As if savoring a lollipop.

Outside, the noise from the production crew grew louder, while Qi Zi’s legs grew weaker.

Her pheromones had always been problematic—had been since childhood. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have grown up in an orphanage, never adopted.

Her sudden heats came without warning, her craving for pheromones three times stronger than a normal omega’s.

If Qi Zi’s body could tolerate suppressants, she would never have sought someone to mark her.

In her experience, being marked was always painful. Lu Luozhu would never learn to be gentle with her.

Lu Luozhu would only bite down fiercely, mechanically offering a mere hint of pheromones, then making all sorts of demands when she was at her most vulnerable.

What an absolute scumbag.

Qi Zi trembled all over, cursing under her breath in a whisper.

Something was off—terribly off. The usual icy composure on Qi Zi’s face crumbled completely. “Mark me properly!” she snapped.

This had to be revenge.

Lu Luozhu, who had no idea how to properly bite a neck: “…Hold on, let me figure it out.”

The pheromones of the omega and alpha blended endlessly. The bitter, citrusy scent of bergamot wafted from Lu Luozhu, soothing even the most frayed nerves just by its aroma.

After fumbling for about five minutes, Qi Zi’s body had gone completely limp. Only then did Lu Luozhu finally sink her sharp teeth into the gland on Qi Zi’s neck, instinctively injecting alpha pheromones.

The pitiful gland on the back of her neck was left red and swollen. Without needing Lu Luozhu to do anything, Qi Zi immediately tore off a gland patch and pressed it over the mark.

Rimless gold-framed glasses hung awkwardly on the bridge of her nose. Her fox-like eyes glistened with moisture, clumping her long lashes into tiny clusters.

She looked utterly pitiful.

Lu Luozhu had no intention of falling in love, nor did she believe Qi Zi could ever like her. At the end of the day, this was nothing more than a transaction.

A ding sounded—240,000 yuan had been transferred.

Lu Luozhu: “Thanks for your patronage?”

After recomposing herself, Qi Zi shot her a glare. “The production team is waiting. You know what to say.”

Lu Luozhu used 230,000 to pay off her credit card debt, then settled other outstanding payments with the remainder, leaving her with just 200 yuan in her pocket.

She hadn’t been this broke in a long time.

Under Qi Zi’s warning gaze, Lu Luozhu nodded obediently, practically spelling out “I want to be a freeloader” on her face.

Qi Zi eyed her suspiciously, finding none of the usual scheming or greed on Lu Luozhu’s face—nor any trace of disgust toward her pheromones. She frowned slightly.

Something was really off.

Just as infuriating as ever.

…

“Like mother, like daughter. Can Lu Luozhu and Qi Zi just divorce already? Don’t let Lu Luozhu keep corrupting the kid.”

“Kids don’t even know what ‘bad woman’ means—LLZ must’ve taught her that.”

“I’ve hated her ever since that survival show. She had zero talent but still debuted, treating the entertainment industry like her personal playground.”

“And those cringey idol dramas she acted in—ugh—”

“Someone like Lu Luozhu can’t even freeload properly. If she’s going to be a stepmom, at least raise the kid right and stop embarrassing Qi Zi in public. What a waste of that face.”

The barrage of comments mostly targeted Lu Luozhu, while some clueless onlookers watched the drama unfold.

The live camera panned from the garden into the lavish interior of the mansion, where Lu Luozhu and Qi Zi sat side by side on the living room sofa—close in proximity, yet without a single glance exchanged.

They looked like complete strangers.

Just as the hateful comments flared up again, Lu Luozhu’s slender fingers wrapped around Qi Zi’s wrist.

Qi Zi: “—!”

The pheromones in the room seemed to vanish. The steady stream of alpha pheromones radiating from Lu Luozhu left Qi Zi tense and restless, her already frosty expression turning even more unreadable.

Lu Luozhu leaned in, whispering just loud enough for the two of them to hear: “Did I bite too hard earlier?”

Qi Zi: “Shut up.”

Qi Zi tried to break free from Lu Luozhu’s grip. “Enough, let go of me.”

Lu Luozhu flashed an apologetic smile. “The live stream is still on. Please bear with it for a while, Teacher Qi.”

Teacher Qi…

Qi Zi: “.”

Lu Luozhu was strikingly beautiful—not in an aggressive way, but with a serene grace, like a babbling brook in the mountains or a white camellia in an autumn garden. So tranquil, so captivating that one couldn’t look away.

Qi Zi was momentarily dazed. After hurriedly saying a few words to the child in front of the live camera, she excused herself to work.

“Wait… Wasn’t I here to see the baby? How did I suddenly get struck by Lu Luozhu’s beauty?”

“Doesn’t Lu Luozhu dislike kids? Why did Ningning let her hold her?”

“Yeah, children are the best at sensing people’s emotions. Before this, Ningning never let Lu Luozhu hold her.”

“Am I the only one who thinks Ningning must be abused at home? My niece is also three, chubby and healthy, but Ningning looks so thin and small.”

A single stone stirred a thousand waves, sparking endless debates about how much a three-year-old should weigh.

Unaware of the online comments, Lu Luozhu still tasted the faint sweetness of pear blossoms in her mouth. Her slender fingers flexed slightly, as if still feeling the warmth of Qi Zi’s skin.

How to win back the favor of her patron? Lu Luozhu had no clue.

For now, she’d focus on raising the patron’s child well.

In the original novel, Ningning wasn’t Qi Zi’s biological child but was treated as if she were. Lu Luozhu had only read half of it and didn’t know who Ningning’s family was.

The live production team filmed a few clips before leaving, and soon, the mansion returned to silence.

The tutor stood stiffly behind the child, her face stern. “Young miss, it’s time for your lesson.”

Perhaps due to her own frail health in the past, Lu Luozhu had met many people and could instantly discern their intentions. From this tutor’s expression, she sensed deep-seated dislike.

“Teacher Li, what kind of lessons does a three-year-old need?”

“Madam, the young miss has already started learning to recognize characters.”

At the sound of the tutor’s voice, Ningning instinctively shivered, followed by a soft growl from her stomach.

Though Lu Luozhu didn’t like children, she couldn’t bear to see such a well-behaved little one go hungry.

She watched as Teacher Li lifted Ningning like a chick, took a glass of milk from the nanny, and shoved it into the child’s hands.

Dew still clung to the glass—it was ice-cold milk.

Lu Luozhu frowned unconsciously.

What would her patron wife think if she saw this?

Having suffered from poor health, Lu Luozhu couldn’t handle cold drinks. She doubted a three-year-old’s stomach was any hardier.

From a distance, she saw Ningning obediently drink half the milk before stopping, tears welling in her eyes as she clutched a small piece of a Rubik’s cube. “Whimper…”

Only after the two left did silence return. “Auntie, does Ningning not have any other toys?”

The nanny, startled by the question, set down her tray. “Madam Qi bought a children’s drone and an AI smart dog last week…”

Shaking her head disapprovingly, the nanny added, “Teacher Li said children shouldn’t be exposed to electronic devices, so she put them away.”

Lu Luozhu asked a few more questions, but no one knew where the expensive toys had ended up.

She sat on the sofa for a while, scrolling through her phone to check the live stream reactions. As expected, the internet was full of people criticizing her for not properly caring for the child, skimping on meals, and teaching the kid to swear.

The hashtag #LuLuozhu Can’t Even Be a Proper Gold Digger # was trending on Weibo.

Lu Luozhu: “…”

Lu Luozhu got up from the sofa, shuffled her slippers, and kicked open the classroom door—just in time to see Teacher Li holding a ruler, about to strike the child’s back.

Ningning was quietly crying, her eyes filled with terror.

Mommy… Mama… 🥺

I got hit by the bad lady again 🥺

“You still can’t recite the poem after reading it three times. Your mommy and mama won’t like you.”

Lu Luozhu snatched the ruler and tossed it aside, then bent down to scoop up the child and walked out.

Teacher Li was startled, her face darkening. “I was hired by Qi Zi. Madam shouldn’t interfere with my teaching methods. Qi Zi won’t be pleased with your behavior.”

Lu Luozhu thought to herself, I only have two hundred yuan in my pocket. If Qi Zi gets mad, she can just dock that too.

“Does she know you hit children?”

Teacher Li frowned in displeasure. “Spare the rod, spoil the child. If Madam doesn’t understand, then don’t meddle.”

Lu Luozhu: “I may not know how to teach kids, but I know you’re full of sh1t.”

Teacher Li: “…”

Ningning looked up at her mother in surprise.

Huh… this feels… kinda nice?

Lu Luozhu carried the child outside and had the driver take them to Qi Zi’s studio.

Along the way, she bought the kid some proper hot food. The little one curled up in her arms like a kitten, neither crying nor fussing—as if just being near her was enough.

Too well-behaved.

Dressed in a flowing white nightgown, her long hair elegantly draped over one shoulder, Lu Luozhu sat in the studio’s waiting area with the child, radiantly beautiful.

“Please make an appointment for me. I’d like to see Teacher Qi.”

The child, now in a place that carried her mother’s scent, nuzzled affectionately against a cushion.

On her smartwatch, she whispered, “Mommy was nice to me today.”

But she didn’t forget—Mommy had bullied Mama and bitten her neck.

The assistant in front of them: “…”

Lu Luozhu held up the gland patch she’d bought for 150 yuan, smiling sweetly. “I was worried our Qi Zi might have gland inflammation, so I came to check on her. Please schedule a meeting for me. Thank you.”

Assistant: ??

Has the sun risen from the west today?

Scheming alpha.