Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 174
by Little PandaHongdu Lovers
Who’s Being So Wonderful?
The home Nan Huaixu had arranged for Liu Yinxi sat within a seaside garden estate — a celebrated landmark in Hongdu’s eastern suburbs.
Elegant landscaping split the grounds in two: one half a lively scenic zone, the other a tranquil villa park. Many of Hongdu’s notables held property here — politicians, tycoons, and stars among them.
Liu Yinxi sat in the car, lush greenery scrolling past the window. The walls, crowned with antique-style glazed tiles, rippled in waves — from inside the car, it looked like a surging tide.
The villa district really was all about refinement — even the walls had flair.
The villa park was further divided into several zones, each with its own design style, and each with an independent residents’ members’ center containing a mall, hospital, school, amusement park, club, and other facilities.
Liu Yinxi guessed the zone Nan Huaixu lived in would be modern minimalist — the landscaping and art installations all clean lines and understated color.
Very much Nan Huaixu’s style.
Ahead, the lane circled a great roundabout wrapped in greenery, and at its center gaped an enormous pit.
Liu Yinxi was puzzling over how one was supposed to drive into a pit when Xiao Zhu, in the passenger seat, turned around. “Yinxi, we’re at the mall.”
Arrived where?
Liu Yinxi peered out, baffled. The car rounded the roundabout past the greenbelt, and the view opened wide — the pit was a sunken plaza, four or five stories deep at a glance, its circular walls crawling with green vines. Two artificial waterfalls tumbled down in stepped tiers, and every floor the water passed held a little flowing-water park. Looking down from the top, she could see a few children with little buckets playing by the stream.
All the shops were hidden in the gardens; birdsong and insect chirps rose among the greenery. Two white-haired elders strolled leisurely along, operating exoskeleton assistive devices, and a few young people waited with their dogs outside a dessert shop for pet-friendly cream.
Liu Yinxi’s eyes went wide. The plaza was like a city embedded in a forest!
Man-made scenery could never rival nature itself, but a mall woven together with streams and woods already beat a concrete city choked with exhaust fumes by miles.
She had never imagined a living environment this modern, this convenient, and this close to nature.
She’d seen the eco-city promotions long ago, but in her old life she’d been busy leading expeditions and rarely returned to the big cities; when she did, she’d had neither the time nor the occasion to tour the eco-developments of the new districts. Today she had finally seen one for herself.
The transmigrated world’s technology was on par with the real world, so the world she’d come from surely had eco-malls this beautiful too.
Seeing her absorbed, Xiao Zhu said happily, “Yinxi, do you like it here?”
Liu Yinxi turned, eyes bright. “I do. It’s beautiful.”
Xiao Zhu brightened even further. “Wonderful. President Nan can rest easy.”
Liu Yinxi blinked. “How so?”
Xiao Zhu sighed and explained. “You love nature, and President Nan was afraid she couldn’t keep you here, so she specifically picked the residence with the best ecology — and moved in to live with you.”
Liu Yinxi was startled. “She doesn’t usually live here?”
Xiao Zhu paused, then lowered her voice. “I’ll tell you a secret, but don’t tell President Nan I said anything.”
Liu Yinxi nodded.
Xiao Zhu raised the back of her hand to her mouth. “This place is far from the company, so President Nan hardly ever came except to escape the dog days1. The house was bought years ago, but she only had the villa butler get it ready last week. Everything inside is new.”
“Far from the company? Then how does she get to work?”
“President Nan doesn’t punch a clock — don’t you worry about that. Besides, she’s about to take leave anyway.”
“She did say she’d take leave, but the new company’s launch phase is critical. Emergencies are bound to come up that need her running back to the office. She didn’t have to do this for me— …I see…”
By the end, Liu Yinxi’s voice had trailed off weaker and weaker, as if a stone had settled on her chest, heavy and stifling.
Suddenly she felt she was the last person entitled to say such a thing.
She knew better than anyone why Nan Huaixu had gone to such lengths.
Nan Huaixu had joined a grueling, hardship-riddled survival show for the new company’s sake, all to earn publicity.
And now, out of love for her, Nan Huaixu was carving energy away from her most important career to please her.
What a silly Manman — someone who only knew how to shortchange herself.
She was the beloved Liu Yinxi had never dared dream she could be with. The dream had come true; how could Liu Yinxi possibly not stay?
If anyone should worry about not holding on, it was Liu Yinxi worrying about holding on to Nan Huaixu.
Reading the guilt in her silence, Xiao Zhu hastened to comfort her. “It’s wonderful that you both think of each other. But President Nan has done all this so you can enjoy it happily — that’s what puts her heart at ease. You mustn’t pour cold water on it.”
Liu Yinxi answered quietly, “Mm. I understand.”
The car had already parked in the underground garage. Xiao Zhu pushed the door open. “Come on, let’s go shop for ingredients. Yinxi, I’ll be your sous-chef.”
Liu Yinxi smiled. “Thank you.”
Nan Huaixu had texted earlier that she wasn’t sure when she’d be home tonight.
Whether or not she made it back for dinner, Liu Yinxi was going to lay out a proper feast.
To celebrate the first day of their new home together.
“What? Closed for renovations and upgrades?”
Xiao Zhu had called over a staff member, and the answer clearly disappointed her. “Why not earlier, why not later — why did it have to be today?”
Liu Yinxi came back from the baking section, screened off behind posters. “Xiao Zhu, if it’s closed today, so be it. We’ll just make the cake later.”
She’d planned to bake cupcakes after finishing dinner, but with the baking section sealed off, she couldn’t buy the ingredients.
Xiao Zhu was used to handling surprises like this. “Let me take you home first, then send me your list — I’ll go buy it at the residents’ mall in another zone.”
Liu Yinxi said, “It’s fine. You should get off early and rest too. I can make them tomorrow or the day after, or order delivery, or drive to another mall later myself.”
“Then shall I take you there now? It’d be a chance to show you the other zones of the villa park.”
“No need. I bought this many groceries and it’ll take time to put them all away. If anything comes up, I’ll contact you.”
Xiao Zhu deferred to her, arranged for the staff to deliver the selected goods home later, and then took Liu Yinxi to the villa.
It was a two-story detached house with a beautifully kept garden.
Inside were potted plants everywhere, nature-themed paintings and wildlife photography, and decorations of flora, fauna, and mineral specimens.
There was even a life-sized replica dinosaur skeleton standing in the great living room.
Liu Yinxi had once told Nan Huaixu that dinosaur models were what she’d loved most as a child — she’d collected a whole drawer full.
It was plain that Nan Huaixu was doing everything she could think of to fill this place with everything Liu Yinxi might love.
Filling up this — the first place she could call “home.”
Liu Yinxi saw Xiao Zhu off, then passed through a wall draped in ferns to the spacious, sunlit kitchen.
Looking up and out, she watched butterflies weave through the flowerbeds and turtledoves pace across the lawn, while from some distant house drifted the sound of a live band.
Liu Yinxi’s lips curved. She tied on her apron and stepped into the second way of living she’d known since coming to this world.
Life is one grand adventure.
And at Nan Huaixu’s side, there is splendor at every turn.
Lights came on across the city.
The moon climbed into the sky.
Liu Yinxi, wearing oven mitts, was lifting the soy-glazed roast pork chops from the oven when she heard a noise from the living room. She turned to look — Nan Huaixu hadn’t even stopped to change her shoes; she came sprinting over in her heels and threw her arms around Liu Yinxi’s neck.
“I’m home! Who’s this wonderful person, leaving the entryway light on for me and making me fragrant roast pork chops?” Someone was the picture of smugness.
“Welcome home, Manman.”
Liu Yinxi still had her mitts on. Waving her wrists, she raised her arms around Nan Huaixu’s waist and tipped her chin toward the island counter. “There’s more than pork chops — sweet and sour ribs, basi apples, and sweet taro soup. And you’re eating your vegetables too; I made salad and pea soup.”
Nan Huaixu gazed at her tenderly for a moment, then let go of her neck with a beaming smile, bent to sniff the dishes on the table, and picked up a piece of sweet and sour rib with her chopsticks. “Delicious!”
Liu Yinxi smiled, deeply content, untied her apron, and sat down beside her. “Watching you eat my cooking makes me so happy.”
“Mm-hm.” Nan Huaixu lifted her chin proudly and picked up a piece of meat to feed to Liu Yinxi.
“Is the environment here to your liking?”
“Completely. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a mall and residences with green coverage like this.”
“And the rooms? Are the bedding and such suitable? There are several malls around here — you can drive yourself or take the park shuttle. After dinner, let’s go out for a walk.”
“Okay. Everything’s suitable.”
The master bedroom and the largest guest room had been made up, daily necessities laid out in each.
Liu Yinxi hadn’t had the nerve to ask which room she’d be sleeping in tonight…
Ahem.
Liu Yinxi ladled soup into a bowl and set it beside Nan Huaixu’s. “Manman, when I was shopping this afternoon I wanted to buy ingredients for cupcakes, but that mall’s baking section is closed for renovations. Let’s go browse another zone later and pick up some baking supplies, okay?”
Nan Huaixu took a sip of pea soup and smiled sweetly. “Sure.”
The chandelier’s lampshade bore a smiley-face pattern, and the shadow it threw on the wall was one enormous grin.
Liu Yinxi drove Nan Huaixu’s Chrysler out to the largest central mall in the villa district. Under Nan Huaixu’s guidance she looped around the park, listening all the way as Nan Huaixu pointed things out — where you could take in art exhibitions and drink coffee, where you could ride horses, row boats, and play golf, where the sports complex and the wellness lounge were…
The central mall didn’t startle Liu Yinxi the way the sunken plaza had, though the elevator reserved for private vehicles gave her a small surprise.
“No wonder this elevator is so big.”
“Mm-hm. It has to fit cars. We have one at home too.”
“Oh! I didn’t know.”
“In the garage — handy for car maintenance and moving bulky cargo. Downstairs there’s a garage, a wine cellar, and a utility room.”
Nan Huaixu hadn’t been here in a while and couldn’t quite remember the way.
She glanced at the mall’s electronic directory, caught Liu Yinxi’s hand just as she was about to turn left, and pointed right. “The baking section is that way.”
Liu Yinxi held her hand tight, eyes gentle. “I want to walk over from the housewares side, see if there’s anything worth buying.”
“Sure.”
“Well, if it isn’t the big star, finding time to go shopping. What a rarity.”
Suddenly a mocking voice sounded behind them.
Liu Yinxi’s brow furrowed as she turned — she wanted a good look at which pest was being so snide.
Not far off, by the elevator exit, stood a tall, striking woman in a flamboyant burgundy-red suit. Even in the dim corridor, her pigeon’s-blood2 necklace flashed with dazzling brilliance.
Nan Huaixu gave the woman a faint smile. “Compared to me, you actually having time for a mall — now that’s the real rarity, Jiejie.”
Liu Yinxi froze.
Nan Huaixu called her jiejie?
This woman was Nan Lingxuan?
The memories Liu Yinxi had inherited from the original host were all blurry images — she knew which people she’d known and what had happened, but couldn’t match faces to them.
If this was Manman’s own elder sister, Liu Yinxi felt she ought to greet Nan Lingxuan properly.
She should make an effort to get along well with Manman’s family.
Except for Luo Ling.
Liu Yinxi immediately smiled and greeted Nan Lingxuan. “President Ling, hello. I’m Liu Yinxi.”
Nan Lingxuan folded her arms and arched a brow. “You weren’t this standoffish when you were with Lingling. What, no more ‘Mami’ for me?”
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