Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 140

You Can Smell That From So Far Away?

Liu Yinxi added, “Besides, I’m several years older than you. How can you say I’m not much older?”

Fei Tuoma retorted stubbornly, “This is the forest, so we should follow the rules of the forest! I’m already a warrior!”

            

“Huh? What does that have to do with you being under eighteen?”

“In the forest, being a warrior means independence! It means being able to protect yourself and your tribe!”

Nan Huaixu chuckled softly off to the side.

            

These two are just children.

Let them be; if they want to bicker, let them bicker.

As twilight deepened, Fei Tuoma prepared to head home before total darkness set in.

            

As they saw her off, Nan Huaixu warned her to be careful on the way and asked a few caring questions about her and her mother’s current situation.

Nan Huaixu asked, “You live alone, but does your Mami live alone too?”

Fei Tuoma shook her head. “A few years ago, Aunt asked Mami to come back and help. Mami moved to the edge of the tribe, and over time, the villagers grew less hostile toward her, so she stayed. Mami asked me to move back too, but I refused. In the tribe, they call me the Evil Spirit Doll because of this eye.” Saying that, she pointed to her blue left eye.

            

Nan Huaixu encouraged her, “Your eye is very beautiful.” Knowing that there was still someone in the forest who could help Fei Tuoma, care for her, and love her, Nan Huaixu felt relieved.

Fei Tuoma called her dogs to say goodbye to Nan Huaixu and Liu Yinxi. Barring any unexpected turns, they likely wouldn’t see each other again after this.

The Little Black Dog clung reluctantly to Nan Huaixu’s leg, whimpering softly. Fei Tuoma scooped her up and raised her paw to wave goodbye to them.

            

“Nan, in your country’s language, how do you say goodbye?” Fei Tuoma asked.

Nan Huaixu thought for a moment before telling her, “Zhenzhong¹—take care of yourself.”

Fei Tuoma repeated the word twice under her breath, then solemnly said to the two visitors from outside the forest, “Nan, Liu… zhenzhong.”

            

They watched her until her figure vanished into the dense, twilight-shaded forest.

Nan Huaixu turned to head back to the shelter, while Liu Yinxi remained gazing in the direction Fei Tuoma had vanished.

Nan Huaixu patted the back of her shoulder and said with a smile, “Even though you put on an expression like you didn’t want to play with her, you were still worried about her in your heart.”

            

Liu Yinxi cleared her throat softly and returned to the shelter to tidy up the cooking utensils. “She’s still young. Even if she knows the rainforest well, it’s still dangerous after dark.”

Nan Huaixu said, “I didn’t expect you to be so stubborn about admitting how you feel.”

Liu Yinxi said, sounding almost self-deprecating, “Well, my reputation has always been bad anyway.”

            

Liu Yinxi simply felt that Fei Tuoma was generous, didn’t tally up gains and losses, and was fundamentally a good-hearted, pure child.

It was just that Fei Tuoma was too young and liked to show off in front of people. In that regard, Liu Yinxi wouldn’t gently indulge her the way Nan Huaixu did.

Or perhaps because she was an Alpha herself, she saw right through those little tactics used to draw an Omega’s attention. Yet Nan Huaixu was always happy to chat with Fei Tuoma, which left Liu Yinxi feeling a bit glum.

            

Liu Yinxi shook her head and sighed. An adult just finds a brat’s childish behavior amusing, that was all.

It wasn’t like she, Liu Yinxi, could actually be petty.

Who would get upset just because Teacher Nan spent time chatting with a kid instead of her?

            

“You know, for us actors, no matter how famous we are or how many fans we have, there will always be plenty of abuse,” Nan Huaixu said in a gentle voice as she came over to help Liu Yinxi wash the meal tins.

Liu Yinxi quickly picked up the bowls—this wasn’t work Nan Huaixu needed to do. “The more famous you are, the more buzz there is. If there are people who like you, there will be people who hate you.”

Nan Huaixu nodded. “That’s true. But when it comes to reputation, if it’s just people echoing rumors, can it really be trusted a hundred percent? There are rumors online claiming I’m transgender. Do you believe that?”

            

Pfft!

Neither the entertainment news Liu Yinxi had searched herself nor the memories inherited from the original host contained any trace of such a wild rumor about Nan Huaixu.

Liu Yinxi asked, “Transgender… as in an Alpha having surgery to become an Omega?”

            

Nan Huaixu said, “Some say Alpha, some say Beta, all because paparazzi caught photos of me at a sex gland specialist hospital. In reality, I was just accompanying my best friend to see her senior sister, who’s a sex gland surgeon.”

Liu Yinxi was dumbfounded. “That’s way too absurd! Wait, could anyone actually believe that?”

Nan Huaixu rubbed her forehead. “Yes, quite a few. People even dug up plenty of ‘evidence.'”

            

She paused, her expression turning serious. “Liu Yinxi, I brought this up to tell you that no matter what your reputation was in the past, or what disappointing things you might have done, none of it stops you from becoming a better person day by day.”

Liu Yinxi felt a surge of warmth and emotion, her eyes stinging with tears. “Teacher Nan, thank you.”

Nan Huaixu gently patted the top of Liu Yinxi’s head. “You’re welcome.”

            

Let us both become better versions of ourselves.

So that you can care about me even sooner.

Until you can no longer ignore the feelings that carry selfishness and possessiveness…

            

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Liu Yinxi dreamed that Nan Huaixu ran off with Fei Tuoma.

She was pacing in circles inside the shelter, frantic with anxiety.

She shouted at Nan Huaixu: Aren’t you competing with me anymore? Do you not want the traffic you worked so hard to build up from wilderness survival? Are you abandoning your new company?

            

Nan Huaixu curved her red lips into a smile and said to her, Liu Yinxi, I don’t want you anymore.

Her entire world collapsed.

Well, the world inside her dream did.

            

Liu Yinxi opened her eyes. The sky outside the window was faintly glowing as the sun hovered just below the horizon.

The world outside was perfectly fine; it hadn’t collapsed at all.

Liu Yinxi ran a hand through her messy long hair and realized the space beside her was empty. She rolled over and sat up, noticing that the small hatch door leading down to the ground floor was open and the ladder had been lowered.

            

A damp, chilly breeze blew in from the lake, sneaking through the gap in the hatch door and striking Liu Yinxi’s cheek. Shivering, she pulled up the zipper of her jacket and quickly climbed down the ladder.

“Nan Huaixu?”

Stepping down to the ground level, Liu Yinxi walked out from under the roof and searched around the field, but saw no sign of Nan Huaixu. Suddenly, the skin behind her ears began to burn faintly, followed by a sudden tightness in her chest that brought a brief wave of dizziness.

            

Huu… huu… Liu Yinxi’s breathing grew heavy. Supporting herself on her knees, she sat down on the ridge of the field, pulled out the prepared suppression pills from her pocket, tossed them into her mouth, and dry-swallowed them.

Just like last time, her cycle happened to fall a few days after Nan Huaixu’s.

Once the wave passed, Liu Yinxi stood up and walked around to the back of the shelter, heading toward the abandoned wooden cabin.

            

“Nan Huaixu!”

A voice answered from behind the cabin: “Liu Yinxi, I’m over here.”

It was Nan Huaixu’s voice.

            

Liu Yinxi breathed a sigh of relief.

There was a dry toilet in the backyard behind the abandoned wooden cabin. By utilizing a sloped ditch and diverted pool water, a mechanism could be triggered to flush waste into a compost pit.

When they moved here, they had cleaned out the dry toilet for their own use, saving them the trouble of building an extra latrine. Since it was located a good distance from the shelter, it conveniently solved their sanitation needs.

            

Liu Yinxi rubbed her nose as she walked over, stepping across weeds and gravel. Suddenly remembering something, she stopped several meters away from the wooden cabin.

From inside, Nan Huaixu asked her, “Liu Yinxi, did you take your medication?”

Liu Yinxi startled. Covering the back of her neck with both hands, her face flushed warm. “You can smell that from so far away? I just took it.”

            

Nan Huaixu’s voice trailed off into a softer tone, though she could still be heard roughly: “For your scent to be this strong when it’s usually so faint, one might wonder what you’ve been up to.”

Liu Yinxi choked on her words. She pulled her hood up to cover her head and neck. “I came out looking for you the moment I woke up. What could I possibly have been doing?”

After saying that, Liu Yinxi felt that something was a bit off.

            

Saying such words in this setting was exceedingly delicate.

Almost like: My rut is starting, and the moment I woke up, I came looking for you.

Coincidentally, some viewers in the livestream thought the exact same thing.

            

【Did her rut hit so hard it woke her up, and she went straight to find Manman?】

【Tsk (smirk)】

【Lucky their cycles fall one after the other. Staggered like this, they can look after each other.】

            

【They both have meds, what’s there to look after?】

【Well, there’s her period too. Liu Yinxi doesn’t get cramps, but Manman does.】

【I can’t—this is so awkward! Do you two really have to chat with one inside the toilet and one outside?】

            

【Manman got her period. She went over with a pad.】

【Yep 0v0】

【Ah? Manman could smell it even from inside the toilet? Liu Yinxi really smells painfully sweet (sorry, please ignore me)】

            

【I’m a Beta, purely curious and not trying to harass anyone—to all the Omegas and Alphas out there, is the pheromone scent released during a combine period² really that strong?】

【It depends on individual physical condition and the environment. If someone is particularly potent in that area, hasn’t deliberately suppressed themselves during a combine period, and receives stimulation—plus if the surrounding air is clean and breezy—the scent will be exceptionally strong and travel a long distance.】

【Just imagine walking past a perfume shop in a mall. Don’t you smell it from far away?】

            

【Or like your next-door neighbor boiling river snail hotpot with stinky tofu (doge face)】

【@StinkyNationGourmetAssoc, leave it to you—one analogy and I totally get it (crying-laughing)】

【Hungry… (hesitating)】

            

【It’s a normal reaction during rut. Liu Yinxi is right at a passionate age; strong pheromones just show she’s in great health.】

【Sigh, I thought after sleeping together for two months, there’d be some romantic progress, but nothing happened. Is the CP I ship really never gonna get a happy ending?】

【…Don’t.】

            

【Same old advice: CP fans, please enjoy your ship in fan spaces and don’t project onto the contestants themselves.】

【But the vibe of liking someone really can’t be hidden u】

【??】

            

【Who likes who?】

“Liu Yinxi, my stomach hurts,” Nan Huaixu’s voice grew clearer as she drew closer to Liu Yinxi. “First day.”

Liu Yinxi instantly understood what she meant. “I’ll go boil hot water right away, make some sweet soup, and fill a hot water bottle. What do you want for breakfast? How about I fry a few eggs and make you some warm milk?”

            

Nan Huaixu stepped out of the wooden cabin and smiled gently at her under the morning sun. “Mhm.”

Seeing her gentle, soft appearance, the gloom left behind by Liu Yinxi’s nightmare vanished completely.

“Alright.” Liu Yinxi nodded and waited in place for a moment. But Nan Huaixu simply leaned against the cabin wall, smiling at her without taking a step forward.

            

Puzzled, Liu Yinxi asked, “Is there something else?”

Nan Huaixu glanced left and right, then looked back at her. “No.”

“Why aren’t you moving?”

            

Nan Huaixu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said softly, “You go ahead first. Your medication hasn’t kicked in yet.”

“Sorry…” Liu Yinxi covered one side of her neck and slowly turned around.

Suddenly, Liu Yinxi turned back and asked Nan Huaixu an out-of-the-blue question, “Nan Huaixu, you won’t run off halfway through, will you?”

            

“Run off?” Nan Huaixu tilted her head. “Why would I run off?”

Liu Yinxi choked, feeling like a student who had answered incorrectly at the blackboard. She quickly changed her tune, “I mean… Teacher Nan, you’ll stick with me to the very end, right?”

Nan Huaixu let out a radiant smile. “Mhm. Of course.”

            

I will stay with you, until the very end.

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The author has something to say:

Got conjunctivitis… it feels so awful, so awful, so awful QAQ

            

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