Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 149
by Little PandaThe Black-Eared Kite and the Wild Hare
Nan Huaixu’s direct, burning gaze made Liu Yinxi’s heart race.
Liu Yinxi gave the bamboo chopsticks a slight turn, her left hand supporting the snake meat beneath, and said to her, “It’s convenient. Otherwise… you do it yourself?”
Nan Huaixu certainly wasn’t going to do it herself.
She wanted Liu Yinxi to do it.
Nan Huaixu tilted her head up slightly, parted her lips, and with smiling eyes signaled Liu Yinxi to feed her.
Liu Yinxi smiled, blew on the meat once more, and carefully fed it into Nan Huaixu’s mouth.
Nan Huaixu chewed slowly, savoring it carefully, and couldn’t help furrowing her brow.
Liu Yinxi asked a little nervously, “How is it? Is it good?”
Nan Huaixu chewed a few more bites, turned to look at her, relaxed her brow, and smiled. “Not bad. The seasoning is complex, the meat is tender and springy—on par with lizard meat.”
Liu Yinxi’s suspended heart settled at once. “I saw you frown and thought it tasted bad. You scared me to death.”
She walked over to the fire pit to shift the food container. Nan Huaixu stepped down onto the wooden floor and followed her to sit in the middle of the first floor.
“If I said it tasted bad, would that scare you?” Nan Huaixu asked.
“Of course.” Liu Yinxi brought out banana leaf plates and bamboo chopsticks and tubes to dish out the food. “A diner’s approval is the greatest encouragement for a cook.”
Nan Huaixu’s gaze followed her. “I’m a diner?”
“I cook, you eat. The one who cooks is the cook, the one who eats is the diner.”
Nan Huaixu nodded in understanding. “I have quite a few identities. I’m the Captain, I’m a Jiejie, and I’m a diner.”
She asked, “Tell me, do I have any other identities? What else do you see me as?”
Liu Yinxi’s hand paused mid-ladle. After a moment’s thought, she smiled and filled a bamboo tube with hot soup for Nan Huaixu. “In short, you’re the leader.”
Nan Huaixu said, “You don’t work under me. Once we’re out of this rainforest, I won’t be your Captain anymore.”
Liu Yinxi said, “A leader is someone whose word goes. Even outside the rainforest, I’d still like to listen to you.”
“Is that so?”
“Mm. You’re so smart, so capable, and you help me so generously. I’ll be grateful to you for the rest of my life.”
Nan Huaixu looked down at her food, broke off a crisp piece of banana heart, and shared it with Liu Yinxi. “It’s only right, my lifesaving benefactor.”
“Hahahaha.” Liu Yinxi took it and bit off a large piece. “This one’s sweet.”
【Benefactor, sweet.】
【Tsk-tsk (doge)】
【Well fed. Liu Yinxi, feed her another bite.】
【Why not try feeding mouth-to-mouth?】
【Is this appropriate?】
【Uh, that’s not great…】
【This atmosphere drifting with a strange sweet-and-sour vibe—I can’t read it anymore.】
【With Liu Yinxi’s skills, she could make a decent living as a cook outside too.】
【It’s a good thing Manman can stomach python meat. It’s been crawled over by bugs—just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.】
【Probably has parasites, right? Sparganum1—they say it can survive five minutes in 100°C water.】
【My God, really?! (panic)】
【Xixi cleaned it thoroughly when processing the snake. It was boiled in water for over half an hour before stir-frying, and then stewed for another two hours.】
【Can that stuff really taste good? The locals all eat it.】
【Manman’s eating wild ones, you know.】
【You don’t think locals on Jinzhou Island would eat farmed ones, do you? (laughing and crying) They only catch them because they’re overpopulated.】
【Our Manman did it for Xixi—she ate rats, she ate snakes~】
【I could never eat rat meat for a girlfriend, I’m sorry! Too disgusting ToT】
【Manman should just eat Xixi too ^w^】
【Tell me more ←v←】
Stars shimmered in the lake water.
From the reeds came the occasional low call of water birds.
The two drank soup and ate their meal to the accompaniment of insect song and frog croaks, occasionally raising an arm to point at the stars above.
“The night is so bright. Tomorrow should be good weather too.”
“Most likely.”
“Where are we going tomorrow?”
“Finding the route to Zhida Meadow.”
“To catch rabbits?”
“That’s one of the goals, but not the main one.”
“What is, then?”
“The next airdrop.”
“You always seem to predict the airdrop locations correctly. Your logical reasoning is impressive—I really admire that about you.”
“Ah… so-so, just lucky, hehe.”
“Then can you predict my love fortune?” Nan Huaixu asked suddenly.
“Huh?” Liu Yinxi shifted her gaze from the stars to Nan Huaixu’s face. “I don’t tell fortunes.”
The original book hadn’t written about Nan Huaixu’s character’s love interest, either.
Good thing it hadn’t.
Liu Yinxi scratched her temple and said softly, eyes lowered, “But you’ll definitely be happy.”
Nan Huaixu drew up her knees, wrapped her arms around her shins, and tilted her head to rest against her knees, the points of light in her eyes flickering faintly. “So certain? Will you guarantee it?”
Liu Yinxi thought, I said I’d protect you.
So she curved her eyes into a smile, patted her chest, and said, “Guaranteed.”
Nan Huaixu smiled, turned her head, and hid the smile in the night.
It sounded almost like she was calling her baby2.
The last time Liu Yinxi explored the route to Zhida Meadow, she was interrupted halfway by the forest fire, and the system forced her to mount a rescue.
Liu Yinxi had only passed through the forest to the northeast corner of the lake. According to the original book’s description, she still needed to continue east.
The journey was long. She and Nan Huaixu had set out before dawn, and it was already afternoon by the time they skirted the lake. They might have to sleep outdoors tonight.
Passing near the fire site, Liu Yinxi pointed it out to Nan Huaixu—a patch of bare, scorched earth amidst the endless dense green, strikingly obvious from the high ground.
Nan Huaixu gazed at the scorched wasteland and sighed deeply. “Seeing it now makes it even more terrifying in retrospect.”
She gripped Liu Yinxi’s arm. “Promise me, you won’t take risks like that anymore, okay? Everyone has to be responsible for their own life. If you go and get yourself hurt first, what will your loved one do?”
Setting aside the system’s mandatory tasks, Liu Yinxi truly hadn’t thought that far ahead.
But now she had to.
She had personally promised to protect Nan Huaixu from now on—which meant she had to keep herself alive for Nan Huaixu’s sake.
“I…” Liu Yinxi asked hesitantly, “will I be able to have a loved one in the future?”
Nan Huaixu gave a light laugh, then immediately frowned, looking at her seriously. “What nonsense. Of course you can.”
Liu Yinxi smiled. “Alright, I’ll take Teacher Nan’s good word for it.”
Nan Huaixu gripped her trekking pole, walked past her, and murmured under her breath, “I’ve always meant what I say.”
Liu Yinxi caught up with her. “What?”
Nan Huaixu turned back with a radiant smile. “I said, what I say always comes true.”
Eastward from the lake, the slope rose upward, the elevation climbing higher and higher, as tall forests gradually gave way to low shrubs and meadow grass.
From the open ground they looked up at towering peaks against blue sky and white clouds. Black-eared kites circled on spread wings, their long cries echoing through the air.
Liu Yinxi observed the black-eared kites’ movements in the sky and walked toward where they were diving.
By now the day was getting late. Nan Huaixu called after her, “Aren’t we going to find a place to camp? Those are raptors—be careful, they might swoop at you.”
Liu Yinxi’s eyes glinted slyly. “It’s exactly because it’s getting dark that rabbits will be active. Black-eared kites eat rabbits. I’m following them to see if I can scavenge any leftovers.”
Nan Huaixu laughed helplessly. “There aren’t that many leftovers for you to scavenge. You’ve scavenged a deer, scavenged a snake, gotten addicted to scavenging, and now you want to wait by the hawk for rabbits3, you opportunist.”
“I’m just looking.” Liu Yinxi had already picked out a suitable campsite and pointed it out. “Teacher Nan, you go set up a campfire over there and rest. I’ll gather supplies and come find you in a bit.”
“Fine, come over early then.”
Liu Yinxi and Nan Huaixu split up.
Scavenging under raptors’ talons was just talk—what she really wanted was to watch where the rabbits fled for their burrows during their escape, so she could go catch them.
The black-eared kites were astonishingly fast. Liu Yinxi watched a wild rabbit sprinting desperately under its pursuer, but it still couldn’t escape the raptor’s talons.
Not far away, a smaller black-eared kite—likely a juvenile—had botched its hunt. It had gotten a claw on a rabbit but let the prey slip away. It was probably a young kite learning from its parent bird, its technique still unpolished.
“Little black kite, keep practicing.” Liu Yinxi cheered the young kite on.
Whether the little kite understood or not, she went off to chase the injured rabbit.
Scavenging didn’t necessarily mean picking up a whole rabbit directly. An injured one or one flushed out of its burrow counted too.
The wild rabbit’s hind leg had been gouged with a deep wound, leaving a trail of blood across the grass. Liu Yinxi tracked the blood trail to a burrow behind a rock.
She found the other burrow entrances nearby and stuffed each one with burning dry grass. The sparks were blown out, and thick smoke poured straight into the burrows.
Liu Yinxi readied her bow and arrow, fixed her gaze on the several burrow entrances, aimed at the slightest rustle, and fired the moment a wild rabbit bolted out.
Before long, several wild rabbits dashed out of the burrows. Liu Yinxi loosed two arrows in quick succession. She had just lined up a particularly plump rabbit when suddenly a bamboo arrow shot from the opposite thicket—that arrow struck with fierce force, skewering the poor rabbit clean through.
Liu Yinxi collected her two catches and stood beside the large rabbit, looking gloomy. “I’d say you’re way too sneaky. You take advantage of me every time. I’m the one who smoked out the rabbit burrows. If I hadn’t found their hiding spot, you wouldn’t have hit anything at all.”
The bushes parted to either side, and a tall, straight figure stepped out. Without a word, she picked up the rabbit and walked off.
Liu Yinxi, indignant, followed her. “Huang Heshan, even if you’re not going to give me a thank-you gift, you could at least say ‘thanks.'”
Huang Heshan shot her a glance, her voice as devoid of emotion as the read-aloud feature of a certain green novel app4: “Thanks.”
“Fine, consider today’s catch my gift to you. Did you know that camellia chicken you gave me last time could lay eggs? This rabbit counts as repayment for the favor of those eggs.”
Huang Heshan stopped in her tracks and finally showed some expression—a complex mix of suspicion and a hint of regret. “You have eggs?”
Liu Yinxi played the victim. “Ate one, and then the chicken got bitten to death by some animal. Lost a whole chicken for one egg. What a loss.”
Huang Heshan said nothing and quickened her pace to shake off this noisy creature.
After ten minutes of walking, Huang Heshan whipped around, pointing her sheathed blade at Liu Yinxi, her expression cold and severe. “Get lost.”
Liu Yinxi stepped back. “If you want to talk, just talk. Don’t make these dangerous moves.”
She looked around. “How come I don’t see Xiao Yu-jie? Haven’t seen her in a long time. I really miss her. Is her health okay—”
A burst of force came at her. Liu Yinxi dodged swiftly, barely avoiding Huang Heshan’s fist.
“Don’t you have other omegas to concern yourself with?”
Footnotes
- Sparganum is the migratory larval stage of the tapeworm Spirometra, commonly found in snakes and frogs. Human infection, called sparganosis, can occur from consuming undercooked meat.
- In Chinese, the word bao (to guarantee or protect) is a homophone of bao (treasure or darling), a common term of endearment.
- A parody of the Chinese idiom shou zhu dai tu ('waiting by a stump for a hare'), which mocks someone who relies on chance rather than effort. Here 'stump' is replaced with 'hawk.'
- Refers to Jinjiang Literature City (jjwxc.net), a popular Chinese web fiction platform with a green-themed interface. Its built-in text-to-speech reader is widely known for its flat, robotic delivery.
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