Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 145
by Little PandaLightning
Liu Yinxi understood Nan Huaixu’s intention.
Just like in competitive matches — if both duelists refused to make a move for too long, the referee would penalize them.
Though 《Survivor》 had no such rule, if both teams of guests were equally strong, a prolonged stalemate between them would be disadvantageous for both sides. In such situations, taking aggressive measures within the permitted rules was the most effective approach.
But Liu Yinxi believed this was a survival competition — a test of survival skills, of who could last longer in the wilderness — not a contest of who could knock whom down through artificial means.
Liu Yinxi smiled apologetically at Nan Huaixu. “Teacher Nan, I really want to win, but I don’t want to win through underhanded tactics. If word got out, it’d seem like I wasn’t skilled enough to win on my own.”
Nan Huaixu looked at her for a moment, then smiled. “I suspected as much — you wouldn’t agree.”
“Mm…” Liu Yinxi ducked her head and scratched her ear.
Nan Huaixu added, “It’s fine. Maybe Yu Yan’s condition will worsen, or Huang Heshan will run into some difficulty, and we’ll win.”
“?” Liu Yinxi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Teacher Nan, how could you think like that?”
Nan Huaixu tilted her head up, letting the cool breeze brush her cheeks. “Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t very well undermine our own morale and boost theirs.”
“Yes, yes, yes, Teacher Nan is right.”
Liu Yinxi sat on the first floor of the shelter, hands propped behind her, lazily watching the distant mountain mist.
The weather in this tropical mountain forest was unpredictable — raw strength and hunting skills alone wouldn’t guarantee a comfortable life out here.
And there was plenty more to see.
“Liu Yinxi, what do you think we should do next?”
“Rain will increase from here on. While the sun is strong these next two days, let’s fully charge the Robot Dog and the mini fridge, and charge the backup batteries too.”
“Okay.”
“The shelter’s ladder isn’t very convenient, the first floor is too open, and the ground drainage isn’t great. I plan to modify them while I’m recovering.”
“Modifying the shelter is your way of recovering?”
“Mm — no need to go far. Staying home is recovering.”
“Tell me what needs doing. We’ll do it together.”
Sure, together.
First was replacing the staircase to the second floor.
Previously, for convenience, they’d used a single log with foothold notches carved into it — not very stable going up and down.
Liu Yinxi cut a bundle of bamboo poles and built a bamboo ladder, which was much more stable. And since bamboo was lightweight, it could be taken up before sleeping each night.
The second task was adding two removable bamboo walls to the first floor, plus woven vine-grass roll-up blinds on the other two sides.
In good weather, the first floor stayed open for ventilation. If strong winds or rainy weather hit, the bamboo walls and vine blinds could be lowered to block wind and rain.
The third task was more labor-intensive.
To prevent flooding from consecutive heavy rains, beyond the drainage ditches, the shelter’s floor needed a layer of highly permeable material.
Beneath the abandoned wooden cabin was a layer of fine gravel, aged and mixed with soil. A simple sifting, and the gravel could be hauled over, mixed with sterilizing plant ash, and spread across the shelter’s floor.
Liu Yinxi had been meaning to make these changes for a while, but had been too busy. Now that she had a chance to rest, it was the perfect time to upgrade the shelter.
Busy with shelter work, she had less time for foraging. Combined with the heavy depletion of stored supplies recently, she reverted to eating like she had at the start of the competition — gnawing on banana plant cores and filling up on fruit. Of course, Nan Huaixu made sure her meals weren’t lacking — small fish or lizards, always something to supplement her nutrition.
Liu Yinxi squatted under the shade shelter, holding her food container, drinking fish soup.
She gazed at the flat terrain of the small field, then at the stream about a hundred meters away and the pool beyond it, deep in thought.
There was open ground beside the field. Why hadn’t Fei Tuoma’s mother built the wooden cabin by the field, choosing instead to build it across the stream, on the land that jutted into the pool?
For the view?
Liu Yinxi pondered for a while but couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it was personal preference — separating the living area from the farming area was more interesting.
This ground was slightly higher than the surrounding area, and with the ramp and drainage ditches between the shelter and the field, ordinary rainfall would be no problem.
“I gathered some bracken ferns. Let’s have these for dinner.” Nan Huaixu walked over carrying a full bag of wild vegetables, standing behind Liu Yinxi.
“What are you looking at?” Nan Huaixu asked.
Liu Yinxi smiled. “Nothing in particular.”
It was still early before mealtime, and most of the chores were done. Nan Huaixu sat down, gazing at the lake and forest. “It’s so beautiful.”
Far from the noise of the world, with beautiful scenery and clean air — setting aside the heat, mosquitoes, and wild beasts, it was a wonderful place to live.
Nan Huaixu asked her, “Your hometown must be beautiful too, right?”
Liu Yinxi was honest. “Very beautiful, but not quite as much as here. But I love it — it’s where I was born and grew up.”
“When will you go back for a visit?”
Liu Yinxi’s real thought was that she probably never would go back. She answered Nan Huaixu, “Mm, once I find a job and have stable income, I’ll go back.”
“Do you still have friends, classmates, and people like that back home?”
“No. Even if I did, we’ve lost touch. Teacher Nan, do you?”
“I’m born and raised in Hongdu. The people I knew growing up were all from the same social circle.”
“Ah, I see.” In other words, either wealthy or noble.
Nan Huaixu lifted the bag of bracken and turned to look. “The fish pond is running low on water. I’ll go check.”
Liu Yinxi asked, “Check if the fence connecting to the water channel is blocked.”
Nan Huaixu’s voice came from over there. “Yes, I’ll clear the water plants. Oh? A crab crawled in.”
Liu Yinxi laughed. “Hahaha, came rushing over to deliver itself — we’ll roast it up later.”
Nan Huaixu cleaned the water plants tangled around the fish fence and reinstalled the fence at the pond’s inlet.
Bubble and blub… The water that had been unable to flow into the pond due to the blockage now poured through freely. The water level rose, and the fish that had been lying sideways could finally right themselves, excitedly flapping their fins.
Nan Huaixu dusted off her hands in satisfaction, then suddenly noticed on a moss-covered stone by her feet a worm that looked like a small snake, roughly thirty or forty centimeters long. Its skin was like a slug’s, with several black stripes.
Its head was bizarre — like a hammerhead shark, with an elongated head shaped like a vacuum cleaner.
The creature wriggled forward, slipped into the grass, crawled onto an earthworm’s body, and seized the earthworm with its head, swallowing it bit by bit.
Revolting and terrifying.
Nan Huaixu’s features scrunched together as she hurried away. “Liu Yinxi, there’s a monster.”
Liu Yinxi rushed over. “What? What monster?”
Nan Huaixu naturally wrapped her arms around Liu Yinxi’s arm, pressing close against her side, fearfully pointing at the moss-covered soil. “That.”
Liu Yinxi gently patted Nan Huaixu’s hand on her arm, shielding her behind. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Let me look.”
Nan Huaixu secretly curled the corner of her lip. “Mm.”
Liu Yinxi stepped forward and leaned down slightly, making out two worms — one large, one small — crawling on the damp ground. She said, “This is a land planarian. We have them in my hometown too. The common name is 1, but it has absolutely nothing to do with snakes — it’s a type of flatworm. If you cut it in half, it might regenerate into two new individuals. It likes to prey on earthworms.”
She pointed to show Nan Huaixu. “This unlucky earthworm got eaten by it.”
Nan Huaixu asked worriedly, “It eats meat? Will it bite people?”
Liu Yinxi nodded. “It might, but generally it won’t.”
“Is it poisonous?”
“No. At worst it might spread some germs. Don’t worry — we’ve spread plant ash under the shelter, we keep a fire going, and we’ve smoked mosquito-repellent grass. These random crawling critters won’t easily get upstairs.”
The conversation ended.
Liu Yinxi looked down, her gaze falling on Nan Huaixu’s hand resting on her arm.
Nan Huaixu coughed softly and slowly released her. “As long as it doesn’t eat people…”
Liu Yinxi relaxed her arm and smiled. “A bug that small definitely couldn’t eat a person.”
The flatworms were nothing — what caught her attention were the many earthworms emerging from the mud.
Earthworms breathe through their skin and are extremely sensitive to environmental humidity. Because soil moisture increases before rain, earthworms crawl to the surface to obtain oxygen.
So many earthworms surfacing at once meant severe oxygen depletion underground.
Another heavy rainstorm coming…
Liu Yinxi looked up at the bright, sunny sky. The weather here was truly fickle — clear skies one second, downpour the next.
“Teacher Nan, bring a large crate to the first floor. Fill it with water and put the fish in it. Then put the lizards from the chicken coop into a ventilated crate and move them to the first floor too,” Liu Yinxi called loudly to Nan Huaixu, who was digging sweet potatoes in the field. Then she went behind the shade shelter, gathered all the drying clothes, slung on her pack, and headed toward the forest.
Nan Huaixu came running over with sweet potatoes in her arms. “Where are you going?”
Liu Yinxi clipped her knife to her belt and looked up. “Heavy rain’s coming. I’m going to gather firewood and banana leaves, and see if I can pick some wild vegetables and fruit on the way back. You get all the blinds down and prepare for rain.”
Nan Huaixu answered, “Okay.” She grabbed the hem of Liu Yinxi’s shirt. “Did you bring a raincoat?”
“I did. And diving socks too.”
“Alright, then hurry back. It’s getting late.”
“Okay.”
Having lived on this land for nearly half a month, Liu Yinxi was thoroughly familiar with the surroundings. She effortlessly gathered banana plant cores and banana leaves, filling her woven vine basket with firewood collected along the way.
Liu Yinxi picked a few wild fruits, then spotted a banana plant heavy with fruit. She used the ultralight trekking pole from the treasure chest to push aside the brush and pushed through the grass to pick the bananas.
She reached the banana tree, set down her pack and basket, and started climbing. Suddenly, a muffled rumble of thunder rolled from the horizon, as if a deity had cracked a whip across the earth, and the entire rainforest trembled.
Liu Yinxi quickly harvested the bananas, grabbed her pack and basket, and hurried back.
She’d noticed something flash earlier, but the sky was still bright and it hadn’t been obvious. She’d assumed it was the glint of water reflecting. But once the thunder rolled, she knew what that flash had been.
Liu Yinxi walked fast. The sky was already darkening. A bolt of lightning struck down — this time much clearer.
Moments later, rolling thunder followed. Rumble!
Liu Yinxi stopped abruptly, looking toward the shelter.
Another bolt of lightning, like a flying snake diving from the dark clouds, plunged into the forest on the high ground.
Liu Yinxi furrowed her brow.
She understood why the wooden cabin hadn’t been built beside the field on the high ground.
0 Comments