Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 161

The Fifth Elimination

Evening was approaching. Dark clouds blocked out the sun.

The white isolation curtain that had been rigged up swayed in the wind. Behind it, the silhouettes of medical staff bustled about.

            

“Commander Yu, a word, please.” The omega in the white coat walked aside with Yu Jing and whispered to her, “Miss Yanyan… is suspected to have a threatened miscarriage.”

A thunderbolt shattered the heart of a mother who loved her child.

Yanyan had undergone a full physical examination before leaving home. All her health indicators had been perfectly fine. How could she end up so injured after just two or three months in this competition?!

            

This was a primeval rainforest. Guests from different groups rarely even met. The only person who could have caused Yanyan such suffering was the teammate she spent every single day with!

That bastard even slept beside innocent Yanyan every night!

Yu Jing’s brow furrowed sharply. Her face contorted with the fury of a wrathful guardian deity as she strode toward Huang Heshan, raised her hand, and delivered a vicious slap.

            

Smack!!

Huang Heshan was caught completely off guard by the ear-shattering slap from this battle-hardened veteran general. The sheer brute force of it made her stumble two steps sideways.

She did not know what had happened, nor did she know who this middle-aged alpha was. But judging from her use of Yanyan’s nickname and the intensity of her concern for Yu Yan, this had to be Yu Yan’s adoptive mother.

            

Huang Heshan pressed a hand against her burning left cheek and took several seconds to recover. Then she slowly raised her head. Beyond a flicker of shock, her eyes held mostly heartache and remorse.

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I didn’t take good care of Yu Yan,” Huang Heshan said, her voice hoarse with apology.

Yu Jing pointed straight at Huang Heshan’s nose, veins bulging. “What kind of thing are you!”

            

Huang Heshan felt her left cheek growing more swollen under her palm, a faint throb setting in. But that pain was nothing compared to the agonizing twist in her chest when she thought of Yu Yan. Ignoring Yu Jing’s attempts to block her, she pressed toward the isolation curtain. “How is she? What exactly is wrong with her?”

The more Yu Jing heard, the angrier she became. The hatred in her eyes deepened. She clenched her fists, her arms rigid, looking as though the slightest loss of control would drive her to punch Huang Heshan.

The omega in the white coat beside her hurriedly pressed down on her arm. “Miss Yanyan needs to be evacuated immediately.”

            

Huang Heshan’s heart instantly seized. She asked the omega anxiously, “What’s wrong with Yu Yan? Why did she suddenly get so sick?”

Yu Jing forcefully shoved Huang Heshan aside, barely containing her fury. “Out of the way!”

A doctor from the isolation zone came over to report. “Emergency measures have been completed. We need to transfer the patient immediately.”

            

Yu Jing locked her dark brows and waved her hand. “Hurry!”

The medical staff hastily brought out the stretcher and gathered the on-site medical equipment.

Seeing them about to take Yu Yan away, Huang Heshan was frantic. She ran over to ask the doctors and nurses, but everyone kept their mouths shut.

            

Huang Heshan quickly realized where the core problem lay. She turned back to ask Yu Jing. “Aunt, please tell me about Yu Yan’s condition. It’s very important to me. I’m so worried about her.”

Yu Jing had no desire to humor her. But Huang Heshan kept following her, all the way to the helicopter parked on the lake shore.

Before boarding, Yu Jing shoved Huang Heshan away in disgust and rebuked her sternly. “Worried? What good is your worry? Yu Yan does not need your concern. Let me tell you this: you will never see her again!”

            

It was like a blow to the head. Huang Heshan’s hands and feet turned ice-cold, a bone-deep chill spreading through her entire body as if she had been plunged into freezing water.

Her worry and frustration transformed into blazing fury. She suddenly erupted in a roar. “Why! I’m her teammate! We’ve relied on each other to get this far. She’s sick — what right do you have to keep her condition from me? Yu Yan is an independent adult. What right do you have to stop her from seeing me!”

Yu Jing roared back in a rage. “Because I am her mother!”

            

Yu Jing’s bellow was like a sonic blast, its sheer dominance rattling Huang Heshan’s ears.

The earlier slap still left Huang Heshan with intermittent ringing in her ears. Combined with this shout, her head swam, and both her cheek and ears ached from the vibration.

But what stopped Huang Heshan in her tracks was not Yu Jing’s overwhelming presence. It was those five words: I am her mother.

            

Huang Heshan did not have a mother.

She knew all too well what a child without a mother lived like, how they grew up, and what happened to them when they fell sick or got hurt.

Huang Heshan remembered how every time Yu Yan mentioned her adoptive mother, she smiled so happily.

            

Huang Heshan experienced such a twisted, contradictory emotion for the first time: amid the worry, the anxiety, and the frustration, a thread of envy emerged.

She stood rooted in place, eyes red, watching the medical staff load Yu Yan into the helicopter. Faced with Yu Yan’s illness, she was powerless. Faced with Yu Yan’s mother, she could not defy her.

She loathed this pale, impotent feeling with every fiber of her being.

            

She could do nothing.

The production team’s rescue crew all boarded the helicopter.

On the other side, two betas loaded medical equipment onto the camouflaged helicopter. Yu Jing and the omega in the white coat stood outside the cabin door, not yet boarded. Yu Jing’s expression was furious, as if she were arguing with the omega about something.

            

A moment later, Yu Jing sighed in frustration and boarded the aircraft first. The omega looked back in Huang Heshan’s direction, then walked toward her.

Huang Heshan blinked in surprise, then quickly ran to her. “Excuse me—”

The omega offered a faint smile. “I’m Commander Yu’s medic. I also watched Yu Yan grow up. I treat her like my own little sister.”

            

Huang Heshan listened intently. This person was now her only hope of learning about Yu Yan’s condition.

The omega lowered her brows, her expression turning serious. “Commander Yu, from the standpoint of a mother protecting her daughter, doesn’t want you to know about Yu Yan’s condition. I hope you can understand her feelings. But personally, from the standpoint of an omega and of Yu Yan, I believe you have the right to know.”

A thousand emotions surged through Huang Heshan. Her throat tightened. She had ten thousand words but could not utter a single one. She could only nod firmly.

            

The omega stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Yu Yan very likely has a threatened miscarriage. As for whether to… proceed with the outcome, we will wait until she wakes and see what she wants. But I suspect it will be very difficult to convince Commander Yu.”

Huang Heshan’s eyes widened sharply. She whipped her head around, staring dead at the helicopter Yu Yan had been loaded onto.

“I’m going with her.”

            

“I have one more thing to tell you. Hear it before you decide.”

“What is it?” Huang Heshan asked, but her gaze never left Yu Yan’s helicopter for even a moment.

The omega paused briefly, then took out her phone and showed her. “Yanyan was clenching her fist while unconscious. This is what I found when I opened her hand.”

            

On the screen was a photo of an open palm. Around the wrist was the braided cord bracelet Huang Heshan had woven.

In the center of the palm, a single character was written in blood.

Win.

            

Every crimson stroke was like a knife, piercing sharply into Huang Heshan’s eyes.

She could not imagine what agonizing pain Yu Yan must have been in to write this character on her palm.

Yu Yan had been in so much pain, so afraid, so helpless — yet she still refused to give up her faith in her.

            

— Heshan, I want to help you.

— Heshan, why didn’t you tell me the reason you came on this competition? I’ve already gone this far for you. What can’t you tell your own omega?

— Then let me tell you. Forget it after you’ve heard it. I wasn’t a bodyguard in the Crescent War Zone. I was a mercenary. On my final mission, I found the murderer who killed my teacher at the orphan camp. He had become a high-ranking official in the Crescent armed forces. I defied my organization’s orders and killed him. Now the organization has a bounty on my head. I fled back to China. They dare not act on domestic soil. They are willing to settle with me, but I have to pay five million for my life. I have three million in savings. I’m still short two million.

            

The competition prize money was three million.

— As long as you win, you can be free, right?

— What is freedom?

            

— It means… you can be with me forever.

Heshan.

I like you.

            

【Stream frozen?】

【The livestream has been frozen for half an hour. Is nobody fixing this?!】

【Where’s the admin? Hurry up and fix this broken stream!】

            

【Unbelievable, right at the crucial moment! The rescue team barely arrived and it froze. How is Yu Yan? Can she still compete?】

【Could it be electromagnetic interference? There’s been talk of magnetic storms lately.】

【Huh? I have no idea (scratches head)】

            

【So tragic, Huang-jie is pacing in circles with anxiety (crying)】

【Don’t even mention Huang-jie, I’m pacing in circles too. Is Yuyu okay? When will she wake up?】

【I suspect there was an accident. Yu Yan must be really sick. The livestream was deliberately frozen so we can’t see.】

            

【Ah?? No way! Yuyu, please be okay!】

【Is anyone in Mulang City? Go stake out the hospital.】

【Wishful thinking. Even if we knew which hospital Yu Yan went to, we couldn’t get any information. Patient records are strictly confidential.】

            

【Sigh, Huang should have called for outside help sooner. She must be sick with regret now.】

【Not surprising that a dumb alpha who only throws tantrums would do something this stupid.】

【@Huaxianxian, all you do is make snide remarks? No one will think you’re mute if you keep your mouth shut (eye-roll)】

            

Because Yu Jing demanded secrecy, from the moment the camouflaged helicopter flew to the lake area, the camera feeds for Huang Heshan and Yu Yan had been suspended. The official explanation was an accidental livestream freeze.

【Admin: Guest No. 1 Yu Yan has withdrawn from the competition due to illness. She is currently receiving treatment at Mulang City Hospital. Please rest assured and do not engage in malicious speculation.】

【Livestream freezing issue has been resolved. Please continue following the competition.】

            

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Bracelet date: July 10th.

A little past seven in the morning, Liu Yinxi sat on the first floor of the shelter, simmering fish soup.

The fish she and Nan Huaixu had netted together yesterday afternoon had fine, fatty flesh. The broth it yielded was beyond delicious.

            

Liu Yinxi ladled out a bamboo cup and took a sip. The savory aroma was intoxicating. She quickly ladled another cup to cool, boiled water, poached an egg, and dropped it into the soup. She turned and called out, “Teacher Nan, breakfast is ready!”

“Coming.”

Nan Huaixu hung the washed T-shirt on the drying vine rope, cleaned her hands, and walked into the shelter, humming a cheerful tune.

            

Liu Yinxi teased, “Someone’s in a good mood.”

Nan Huaixu nodded. “Mm~ Received Yu Yan’s elimination notice. We’re one step closer to victory.”

She sat down by the fire pit. The mess tin over the flames steamed vigorously. Liu Yinxi handed her a plate of shredded rabbit meat mixed with mashed sweet potato. “This is Teacher Nan’s.” She set another plate in front of herself. “This is mine. Alright, let’s eat.”

            

Nan Huaixu smiled, picked up the bamboo cup, and slowly sipped the soup. Sensing something inside, she fished around with her chopsticks and found a poached egg.

She looked at Liu Yinxi, who was tilting her head back, drinking her soup.

Nan Huaixu reached over, took Liu Yinxi’s bamboo cup, and probed it with a clean bamboo chopstick. “How come I get a poached egg and you don’t?”

            

Liu Yinxi smiled. “Because eggs are precious. If I eat one less, you get to eat one more.”

Nan Huaixu gave a soft little humph, used her chopsticks to split the poached egg in half, and gave one half to Liu Yinxi. “What’s mine is yours.”

We’re the number-one-ranked best friends, after all~

            

“Delicious!” Liu Yinxi ate her half of the poached egg, her eyes crinkling into a smile. She had never tasted such a fragrant poached egg in her life.

Nan Huaixu watched her enjoy the meal with such relish that her own eyes curved in amusement. Suddenly, she noticed something in the direction of the lake. A plume of black smoke rose from the distant shore.

Someone was burning a fire.

            

“Liu Yinxi, look behind us. Up in the sky.”

“Hm?” Liu Yinxi turned around. The column of black smoke rising steadily immediately caught her eye.

That direction and distance… it was Shuangxikou, where they had traded with Huang Heshan last time.

            

Liu Yinxi thought for a moment and said, “Teacher Nan, I want to go check it out. It might be Huang-jie looking for us.”

Nan Huaixu agreed. “Alright, let’s go together.”

This time heading to Shuangxikou, both of their steps were lighter than the last.

            

Perhaps because victory was closer.

Perhaps because they had just shared a poached egg.

They pushed through the forest and reached the lake shore. On the small islet between the two streams, a lone figure stood beside a bonfire.

            

Liu Yinxi spotted her and called out, “Huang Heshan!”

The figure on the islet turned around, lifted a bucket of water, and doused the bonfire. Then she walked toward them.

Nan Huaixu smiled. “Good morning. Are you looking for us?”

            

Huang Heshan did not reply. She reached out and handed Nan Huaixu a small object.

Nan Huaixu took it. It was the multivitamin tablets Huang Heshan had traded for yesterday.

“You can eat these too—” Nan Huaixu’s words cut off mid-sentence as she watched in astonishment while Huang Heshan cradled her compound bow in both hands and offered it to Liu Yinxi.

            

Liu Yinxi pushed the compound bow back, frowning. “Huang Heshan, what are you doing?”

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