Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 111
by Little PandaWho?
【Hahahahaha!】
【Xixi’s reaction is so fast (doge face)】
【She’s finally learned to form a united front with Teacher Nan.】
【Trade? Trade what? We’re in the middle of a fierce competition, not even a single drop of mushroom soup for them (snort)】
【Ummm, after all, Luo Ling is Nan Huaixu’s niece. She asked her own aunt first, so it’s a bit inappropriate for Liu Yinxi to speak up first and reply.】
【What’s wrong with being in the same group? Luo is Nan’s niece, sure, but aren’t those mushrooms shared supplies between Liu Yinxi and Nan? Doesn’t she have half the decision-making power?】
【Didn’t Luo say mushrooms were disgusting before? How can she stomach it now? (confused)】
【You guys really know nothing about how delicious wild mushrooms are (drooling)】
【She’s probably starving, plus the mushroom soup really does smell amazing.】
【I just can’t stand them. I hate eating mushrooms, they taste like rubber and plastic. If even a tiny shiitake mushroom is added to a hot pot broth, I’ll throw up (barf)】
【Even if they trade for the mushroom soup, Xue Yunshao and her partner don’t have anything good to offer anyway (shrug)】
【Exactly, they only have a few pieces of thick meat jerky left.】
【Watching up to this point, I’ve noticed Nan Huaixu is very cold toward her niece, Luo Ling. You could even describe it as disgust. Why is that?】
【Heh, born into a wealthy family, it’d be strange if she liked the daughter of a sister she’s in competition with.】
【Setting everything else aside, just looking at Luo Ling’s performance in the competition, I wouldn’t like her either. Remember the vending machine incident? Luo Ling kept speaking ill of Liu in front of Nan. Is a person’s worth really hers to judge?】
【Anyway, I see Manman and Xixi getting along, their dynamic is so harmonious.】
【There aren’t any poisonous mushrooms in the batch Manman is boiling, right? I’m so worried QAQ Are we sure Liu Yinxi didn’t misidentify them?】
【As someone from a major mushroom-consuming province, let me answer you: they’re all correct. Rest easy (pats shoulder)】
【I want to eat it too!】
【Luo Ling has such thick skin. How does she have the nerve to double back and ask for soup? Those mushroom corpses still have her size-37 shoe prints on them.】
【Size 37? Sister, how did you manage to get so specific?】
【Yunshao, hurry up and take Luo away. Nan Huaixu is practically throwing them out (sweat)】
【I’m guilty. When Manman first said ‘you go,’ I thought she was telling Liu Yinxi to leave (embarrassed)】
【How! Is! That! Even! Possible!】
【Teacher Nan would throw anyone out, but she’d never throw Xixi out~】
Nan Huaixu’s blunt “Leave” had already left Luo Ling deeply embarrassed, but Liu Yinxi chiming in to parrot the exact same phrase was the final straw that shattered her composure.
Tears welled in Luo Ling’s eyes. She could never have imagined that her beloved Little Aunt, instead of standing up for her, would side with an outsider—who also happened to be her own ex-girlfriend.
Luo Ling sniffed, quickly pulling her emotions back together. “Sorry for interrupting you both. I was just really hungry, and the aroma of the soup was so fragrant that it drew me over. Aunt, I understand what you’re trying to do. I’ll keep in mind that this is a competition.”
Nan Huaixu watched the heat of the mushroom soup, having no time for idle chatter. “Mm.”
The soup was already done, but there was no harm in letting wild mushrooms simmer a bit longer. Besides, Liu Yinxi preferred to wait until their uninvited guests departed before enjoying the delicious soup.
Otherwise, with Luo Ling and her A Yun here, Liu Yinxi’s meal wouldn’t taste nearly as delicious.
—Interrupting other people’s meal for two is extremely bad manners.
Take note, everyone.
“Aunt, we’ll be heading out then,” Luo Ling said.
Liu Yinxi was about to take a quick taste of the soup. She had just dipped her wooden spoon into the mess tin when Luo Ling spoke up again.
Luo Ling had bid them farewell, yet she made no move to leave. Instead, she caringly expressed her concern for Nan Huaixu: “Aunt, these mushrooms are wild after all. There’s no telling if they’re poisonous, or if they’ve been misidentified. You must cook them a while longer, and be careful not to upset your stomach.”
Then, casting a pointed glance at Liu Yinxi, who was sitting beside Nan Huaixu, her tone shifted. “Some people used to bring sprouted potatoes home, showing a complete lack of basic common sense. If you’re unfortunate enough to get along with someone like that, you have to pay extra attention to every little thing to feel at ease.”
Liu Yinxi tapped her spoon against the mess tin with a loud clank. She smiled and asked Luo Ling, “Maybe the person who bought those potatoes was deliberately trying to poison you to death?”
Luo Ling’s eyes instantly filled with panic. She took two steps back and bumped into Xue Yunshao’s shoulder, and Xue Yunshao quickly steadied her.
Luo Ling composed herself and said to Liu Yinxi, “I was reminding Aunt about food safety, which was also a reminder for you. Why are you verbally attacking me out of nowhere? Liu Yinxi, I really understand you less and less.”
Xue Yunshao frowned, speaking up for Luo Ling. “That’s right, Liu Yinxi. We are indeed competitors now, but Lingling spoke out of goodwill. It’s wrong of you to scare her like that.”
Liu Yinxi scooped some of the fragrant mushroom soup into a bamboo cup and walked over to Luo Ling and Xue Yunshao holding it. “Oh, both jiejie are absolutely right! You are spot on. Thank you so much for your concern! To show my gratitude, let me give you a serving of ‘kind-intentions-warning-it-might-be-poisonous’ mushroom soup. Please, drink up.”
Liu Yinxi smiled sweetly.
“…” Luo Ling stared at the soup in the bamboo cup for two seconds, her expression complex. Her lips parted, but in the end, she didn’t drink.
Seeing that Luo Ling had no intention of drinking, Xue Yunshao directly declined on her behalf. “Thank you for your kindness, but since you weren’t willing to share with us in the first place, we won’t go out of our way to ask for it.”
Liu Yinxi blew on the mushroom soup, took a sip, her eyes narrowing from the delicious fragrance. “Wow, so savory.”
She took several more gulps and smiled at the two of them. “Look, you wanted to drink it, so I gave it to you, yet you refuse to drink it.”
Xue Yunshao smiled with no emotion in her eyes and bid Nan Huaixu farewell. “Goodbye, Teacher Nan.”
Then she nodded to Liu Yinxi, took Luo Ling’s wrist, and turned around.
Nan Huaixu said to the two of them, “Competitors should act like competitors. It’s best to be like Huang Heshan—no extra communication.”
Liu Yinxi: “Exactly, exactly.”
She hurriedly scooped some soup for Teacher Nan.
Today’s bamboo pith1 was cooked so deliciously fresh! She kept one for herself to sample the taste, and gave all the rest to Teacher Nan.
Hearing Nan Huaixu’s words, Xue Yunshao suddenly turned back. “By the way, Teacher Nan, Liu Yinxi—last time I ran into Yu Yan, she asked me to ask you if I saw you. Did you two snatch the treasure chest Yuan Fang left behind?”
Nan Huaixu was slightly startled.
She cast a questioning gaze toward Liu Yinxi.
Liu Yinxi instantly read the question in her eyes.
The treasure chest Yuan Fang left behind was the “Travel” Treasure Chest suspended at the top of the small hill outside the bamboo forest. After Yuan Fang withdrew, the production team issued an announcement permitting the other guests to snatch it. Liu Yinxi and Nan Huaixu rushed to the cliffside at the very first moment, but someone had already beaten them to it.
Yu Yan and Huang Heshan didn’t get the “Travel” Treasure Chest?
And it wasn’t in the hands of Xue Yunshao and Luo Ling.
Then who took that treasure chest?
This was very bizarre.
Liu Yinxi murmured as if to herself, “Besides us, who else is there?”
Although Nan Huaixu was very puzzled by Liu Yinxi’s answer, she remained silent.
Xue Yunshao thought Liu Yinxi’s words meant she was admitting it. “Right, that’s what I said to Yu Yan at the time—who else could it be but you? She and Huang-jie didn’t get it, and we are even less likely to, so it could only be you two.”
Liu Yinxi didn’t say anything more. She slowly stirred the mushroom soup, her brow slightly furrowed as she fell into deep thought.
Could the rope have snapped? Did the chest fall?
Or was it a prank by the production team, making all the guests think that other groups had snatched the supplies to increase the tension?
In any case, a three-way loss was better than a single winner, so this outcome wasn’t bad either.
She might as well let the other four competitors believe that she and Nan Huaixu had gotten the extra supplies, applying a little bit of pressure on her dear opponents.
The uninvited guests finally left.
Nan Huaixu wrapped a banana leaf around the bamboo cup containing the mushroom soup and asked Liu Yinxi, “Do you think the ‘Travel’ Treasure Chest accidentally fell off, or was it a lie by the production team, or did it happen to be taken by someone completely unrelated to the competition?”
The focus of her question wasn’t why Liu Yinxi lied to Xue Yunshao, but rather the whereabouts of the treasure chest.
Liu Yinxi pondered for a moment and shook her head. “I can’t figure it out.”
Nan Huaixu thought about it and said, “The most likely scenario is that the rope slipped. In any case, since nobody got the extra treasure chest, it’s a good thing for us.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think we could find the fallen treasure chest if we went below the small hill?”
“It’s hard to say. I think wasting a huge amount of energy for a slim chance of supplies isn’t worth it, Teacher Nan.”
“Mm-hmm.”
They chatted as they ate, and before they knew it, the soup was all gone.
Nan Huaixu used her bamboo chopsticks to fish out the mushrooms at the bottom of the mess tin. “So much bamboo pith. Did you give it all to me?”
Liu Yinxi had half a mushroom in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed it before saying, “Mmhmm, because you like to eat it.”
Nan Huaixu shared some back with her. “I’m only so-so with mushrooms, but bamboo pith is my favorite. But how did you know? I’ve never mentioned that I like it, have I?”
“When we were gathering mushrooms, you brought up bamboo pith on your own. I think when someone actively mentions something, it usually means they are interested in it.”
“So that’s why.”
Liu Yinxi’s eyes curved. “Great! I’ve guessed another of Teacher Nan’s favorites.”
Nan Huaixu’s lips curved. “What else did you guess right?”
“Tomato beef brisket rice.”
“Mm, indeed.”
Their lunch was delightfully taken care of just like that.
After they finished eating, they gathered some more mushrooms, intending to bring them back to the campsite, dry them, and grind them into seasoning.
The afternoon sun was scorching, so they could only hike through the lush jungle, gathering leaves, fruits, and vines. Liu Yinxi caught a small lizard with her bare hands to serve as the meat for their evening roast.
As dusk approached, the two returned fully laden.
Liu Yinxi took off her backpack and woven vine basket, crawled into the shelter to lie down for a few seconds, then stood up with a kip-up2. She collected the dried clothes and sorted the gathered supplies.
Nan Huaixu picked up the lizard by its tail, staring it down, then turned to look at Liu Yinxi. “Teach me how to prep the lizard.”
Liu Yinxi set down the bundle of vine rope she had just wound up. “Teacher Nan, killing a living thing is a very difficult task. Are you mentally prepared?”
Nan Huaixu looked at the lizard, then looked at her, and nodded. “Mm.”
Liu Yinxi pinched the lizard’s neck and took it from Nan Huaixu’s hand. Holding the knife, she gestured over the lizard’s body and said to Nan Huaixu, “First, give it a quick, painless end like this. Then, slice downward vertically to split open its belly, and take out the organs to put in a bottle for trap bait. After that, cut off the limbs and tail, skin it, and chop it into pieces.”
She didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but she actually detected a trace of terror in the lizard’s tiny eyes, as if it were screaming: Don’t teach how to dissect me right in front of my face!
Nan Huaixu was actually someone who cared deeply for small animals, but unfortunately, she was currently participating in a survival competition, so this poor little lizard was just delicious roasted meat in her eyes.
Nan Huaixu took a deep breath, dealt a fatal blow to the lizard with her knife, and prepped the lizard under Liu Yinxi’s guidance.
This was her first time processing live animal ingredients.
Nan Huaixu looked at the chopped pieces of lizard meat. “Look, is it cut okay?”
Liu Yinxi flashed her a thumbs-up. “Beautiful.”
Nan Huaixu couldn’t help but smile. “Now that I’ve learned this, I can show off a bit when Chinese New Year comes.”
“Huh? Teacher Nan, you aren’t planning to perform a lizard dissection for the whole family on New Year’s Eve, are you?”
Nan Huaixu: “…”
Normally, people would think of cooking for their family to show off their knife skills, right?
…What a unique alpha.
So special, completely different from other alphas.
Nan Huaixu’s lips curved. “Yes. I’ll even perform bringing a wife home to my mother for New Year’s.”
Liu Yinxi’s mouth opened even wider in surprise. “Ah?!”
Wait, no!
Who?!
Footnotes
- Dictyophora indusiata, commonly known as bamboo pith or bamboo fungus (zhúsūn), is a prized edible mushroom historically used in Chinese haute cuisine.
- Literally 'a carp thrashing its tail' (lǐyú dǎtǐng), this refers to a kip-up, a martial arts or gymnastic maneuver where a person springs from a flat, supine position to their feet in one swift motion.
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