Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 101

Rice-Washing Water? Firewater, and a Bamboo Bow and Arrows

Liu Yinxi looked straight at Nan Huaixu and repeated, her voice deliberate and heavy, “This is rice-washing water.”

It clearly was not.

            

But Liu Yinxi insisted on emphasizing it.

Nan Huaixu furrowed her brows. Glimpsing the robot dog tilted back to film them out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly understood. Her gaze turned complex as she nodded.

Liu Yinxi retrieved a plastic bag from her backpack, wrapped the plastic bottle of liquor, and put it inside. “I brought this bottle of rice-washing water out with me a couple of days ago, thinking I’d use it to wash my hands along the way. Then I suddenly wanted to see how it would turn out after fermenting, so I just went ahead and buried it here.”

            

Nan Huaixu didn’t expose her lie, looking thoughtful. “Mm-hmm.”

Liu Yinxi hoisted her pack and continued walking toward the shelter. “It’s been sealed for a bit too long, so I’ll test it out myself first. Once I figure out the right dilution, I’ll let you use it, Teacher Nan.”

“Alright.” Nan Huaixu offered a cooperative smile.

            

The corners of Liu Yinxi’s mouth curled upward as she naturally steered the conversation elsewhere. “Teacher Nan, what are we having for dinner tonight?”

Nan Huaixu replied, “Let’s finish the bamboo shoots first.”

“You got it! I’ll slice and blanch them.”

            

“I really want some meat.”

“We still have fish in the bucket.”

“Meat other than fish.”

            

“Then I’ll boil all the river shrimp for you…”

The sun sank below the horizon.

A quiet darkness gradually enveloped the boundless, primeval rainforest.

            

On the second floor of the treehouse, speckles of moonlight filtered through the gaps in the timber and leaves.

Liu Yinxi lay inside the mosquito net. Below, the soft creak of someone climbing the ladder echoed. A moment later, the mosquito net swayed gently as Nan Huaixu slipped inside and lay down beside her.

“Whew…” Nan Huaixu let out a breath and gave a small yawn.

            

Liu Yinxi couldn’t help but follow suit with one of her own.

Just as they were about to say goodnight, Nan Huaixu asked in a soft whisper, “That bottle you dug up—was it the firewater¹ Yuan Fang buried?”

Liu Yinxi turned her head, her eyes bright in the dim light. “Yeah.”

            

At night, the drones stopped filming, and the robot dog parked downstairs couldn’t capture anything inside the treehouse. Their quiet whispers wouldn’t be picked up by any microphones either, so they didn’t need to filter themselves.

The light in Nan Huaixu’s eyes brightened a bit. “When did she tell you?”

Liu Yinxi told her the truth. “Just before she left.”

            

Nan Huaixu arched an eyebrow. “During that final hug?”

“Mmh…” Liu Yinxi grunted softly in affirmation. She felt the atmosphere turning slightly strange.

After a brief silence, Nan Huaixu rolled over and pulled the makeshift rain-poncho blanket higher over herself. “She was really looking out for you.”

            

Liu Yinxi lay flat, staring up at the ceiling, one arm bent under her head as a pillow. “I was surprised too. If she just wanted to leave it, she could have kept the liquor in her own shelter, but she chose to bury it by the rocky shoal instead. It means she had a plan. She must have felt her elimination coming long before it happened.”

“Why do you think Yuan Fang chose to secretly leave the liquor for you?”

“Probably because I went to check on her when she was unconscious.”

            

Otherwise, Liu Yinxi couldn’t think of any other reason.

Nan Huaixu agreed, “That makes sense. She was about to be eliminated anyway, so there was no point in taking the liquor back with her. Leaving it behind secretly was an easy way to do you a favor.”

She felt that Yuan Fang’s cleverness always lay in these unorthodox workarounds—constantly finding loopholes to bypass the game rules and evade the cameras.

            

Liu Yinxi turned her head. “Wow, Teacher Nan, you’re thinking so deeply about this.”

Nan Huaixu closed her eyes. “Not at all, it’s just a wild guess. Lose at sunrise, win at sunset²—missing out on the treasure chest but getting a bottle of good liquor instead is still a win.”

Liu Yinxi gave it some thought. “But we already got the iodine disinfectant and hydrogen peroxide when we called for outside assistance last time, so this liquor isn’t quite as crucial as it would have been before.”

            

Nan Huaixu said, “Perhaps if we get hit by continuous heavy rain and a sudden drop in temperature, it’ll help warm us up.”

Liu Yinxi instantly frowned. “Please, let’s not have heavy rains at a critical moment like this. The mountain paths are already hard to navigate, and we still have to migrate to the waterfall’s upper reaches.”

Nan Huaixu raised her hand, pointing three fingers upward. “Dear Mother Heaven, I beg to retract my reckless words just now. Please grant us continuous clear days.”

            

She patted the rain poncho covering Liu Yinxi. “Goodnight.”

Liu Yinxi let out a massive yawn, her voice heavy with sleep. “Goodnight, Teacher Nan.”

Outside, the wind rustled gently through the leaves.

            

The wind chime swayed slightly, and the diffused moonlight lulled them into a deep sleep.

A night without dreams.

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Bracelet date: June 4.

            

The golden rays of dawn filtered into the lush tropical rainforest.

The murmuring river sparkled, reflecting the shadows of those walking past.

Clack!

            

A pile of shaved bamboo sheets dropped to the ground, bouncing and scattering in all directions.

Liu Yinxi rolled up her sleeves and sat by the water, using rough palm bark to sand down the burrs on the bamboo nodes.

She took a long, suitable strip of bamboo and bent it into a crescent shape, drilling holes at both ends of the crescent to thread vines through, securing its form.

            

A bundle of thin bamboo skewers soaked in a bucket by her feet, ready to be fashioned into arrows.

Not far away, Nan Huaixu sat in the shade of a tree. She fished a mass of soaked, softened banana stalk out of a small bucket, gently rubbing away the unnecessary decayed pulp, then twisted and rolled the fibers inside the stalk, slowly drawing out fine threads one by one.

“Sigh…” Nan Huaixu suddenly sighed.

            

Liu Yinxi turned around. “What’s wrong, Teacher Nan?”

With her left hand pinching the banana fiber, Nan Huaixu used her right to draw it out, only for a clean break to snap the middle. “It broke again.”

Liu Yinxi hurriedly reassured her, “It’s fine. This is our first try, we just have to take it slow.”

            

Nan Huaixu tossed the broken fiber aside and began drawing a new one. “If it snaps this easily, how are we going to make decent thread? It feels like weaving clothes with this would be impossible.”

Liu Yinxi pondered. “One or two threads are indeed a bit too delicate on their own, but they’ll become resilient once we ply them together. It’s just that extracting the fibers by hand is too inefficient. Maybe we need a spindle.”

“A spindle?” Nan Huaixu had only ever seen them in videos of textile mills on TV. “Can we make one?”

            

Liu Yinxi nodded. “The principle is very simple. We can use a thin bamboo stick to make a primitive single-pronged insert spindle. We wrap one end of the fiber around the top of the shaft, hold the shaft and spin it rapidly, then slowly feed the fibers with the other hand. That way, we can extract the banana fibers quickly and efficiently.”

As she spoke, she selected a thin bamboo stick of suitable length and thickness from her pile, sharpening one end. Then she returned to the shelter to find a small piece of soft wood. She carved a hole in the center, threaded the thin bamboo stick through it, and spun it a few times to find the sweet spot before wedging it tight. Just like that, a simple, single-pronged insert spindle was complete.

Liu Yinxi gave Nan Huaixu a quick demonstration of how to operate it before handing the spindle over. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

            

Nan Huaixu was a quick study. Rolling the bamboo shaft rapidly with her left hand, the fiber wound around the tip spun at high speed, wrapping itself neatly and evenly around the spindle shaft. It was far easier, quicker, and more labor-efficient than twisting the threads by hand.

She looked at Liu Yinxi in wonder. “I didn’t expect such a simple little contraption to be this useful.”

Liu Yinxi gave a goofy grin. “This is the an—”

            

Nan Huaixu beat her to the punch. “I know, you’re going to say, ‘This is the wisdom of the ancients.'”

“Hahaha, exactly. Back in my hometown, the elders in our village used to make these spindles to wind tussah silk³.” Liu Yinxi brushed the loose fiber dust from her hands. “I’ll get back to bending the bamboo strips, then.”

Thanks to their combined efforts throughout the day, the materials for the bow limbs and bowstring were finally ready.

            

By sunset, they eagerly threaded the bowstring into the bow limbs, securing it tightly. They wrapped soft palm fiber around the grip to act as a protective cushion, notched a feathered bamboo arrow, and tentatively drew the string back for a test shot.

Whoosh—

Their eyes darted along with the arrow as it sliced through the air, cleared the thicket, and embedded itself firmly into the bark of a nearby tree.

            

Nan Huaixu’s cheer broke the silence. “It worked!”

Liu Yinxi grinned from ear to ear. “Even though the draw weight is on the lighter side, it’s pretty great considering our current resources. Chicken legs and rabbit legs are finally within reach!”

Nan Huaixu walked over and stroked the bamboo bow in Liu Yinxi’s hand, her voice soft and gentle. “You’ll have to work hard. All our happiness is resting on your shoulders now.”

            

Liu Yinxi raised her arm, holding the bow horizontally. “Teacher Nan, do you think it can understand you when you talk to it like that?”

Nan Huaixu lifted her face and gave a brilliant, radiant smile. “Who knows? I’m just expressing my joy and anticipation.”

“In that case, I think our happiness rests more on me, since I’m the one doing the hunting.”

            

“Fair enough, let me rephrase.”

Nan Huaixu cleared her throat. Adopting a solemn expression, she gently but ceremoniously patted the crown of Liu Yinxi’s head. “Classmate Xiao Liu, you must work hard. My happiness is entirely in your hands.”

【Hahaha, Classmate Xiao Liu’s eyes went so wide when she got her head patted XD】

            

【She looks just like a puppy with airplane ears.】

【Awoooo (puppy)】

【Is Xixi blushing? (poking her cheek)】

            

【No little alpha can resist a gentle, beautiful big sister’s head pat (^u^)】

【We have a bow and arrows now! Our Manman and Xixi are finally going to eat well~】

【Xixi’s eating rabbit legs, Huang-jie’s eating chicken legs, Yunshao’s eating meat jerky, and me in front of my screen is eating a discounted group-buy takeout⁴… We all have bright, happy futures ahead of us (rose)】

            

【Sister, your comment is making me hungry…】

【If good looks could be eaten, none of these contestants would ever have to go hungry again.】

【@Beautiful_Amazon, well in that case, I’d starve to death (laugh-cry)】

            

【Will a bowstring made of banana fiber actually work? It feels so fragile, won’t it just snap?】

【It should be fine. In ancient times, people used tussah silk to make bowstrings.】

【Silk is incredibly resilient, though! This fiber is basically just hemp rope. How can you even compare it to silk?】

            

【Well, what else are they supposed to use? Obviously, tussah silk and animal sinew are better than banana fiber, but with their current setup, where on earth do you expect them to find that?】

【=_=】

【Time really flies… Xixi and Manman have been living in the rainforest for almost two months now.】

            

【At this rate, a hundred days is just around the corner.】

【Let’s go!!!】

【I hope they can make it to a hundred days too, but the two-month mark is a real hurdle. It’s only going to get harder from here on out. I looked up the weather forecast for Jinzhou Island, and it looks like heavy rain is coming soon (worried)】

            

【I believe Xixi can overcome any hardship!】

Liu Yinxi tested the bow and arrows a few more times. The basic functionality was fine, but she had to be careful not to draw it with too much force; otherwise, the bowstring still ran the risk of slipping off the limbs or snapping outright.

As dusk settled, the two of them packed up their tools and headed back to the treehouse.

            

Nan Huaixu washed the rice to cook, casting a glance at the grilled fish propped over the fire, her voice slightly drained. “I really hope this grilled fish phase ends soon.”

Liu Yinxi flipped the fish over. “We’re heading up the mountain tomorrow to stay at the waterfall campsite. The day after tomorrow is the ninth airdrop. Once we’re in that area, I’ll see if I can hunt something.”

Nan Huaixu leaned back against the storage rack. “When we pass by our traps tomorrow, it would be wonderful if we found a lizard inside.”

            

Liu Yinxi coaxed her, “There will be, there will be. Whatever Teacher Nan wants, she’ll get.”

Nan Huaixu’s eyes narrowed slightly. She gazed at her for a long moment, then parted her lips. “And you’ll give me whatever I want, won’t you?”

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