Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 18
by Little PandaYour Omega Partner Must Have It Tough, Huh?
Liu Yinxi held the small wooden stick and added a smiley face to the little house Nan Huaixu had drawn.
A smile hung on her own face as she said to Nan Huaixu, “Nan-jiejie, thank you for telling me all this, for teaching me to be self-reliant. Actually, I don’t have as much of a love brain1 as I used to.”
Nan Huaixu seemed a little surprised. “Oh?”
Liu Yinxi continued, “My ex doesn’t want me anymore. But it wasn’t me who was clinging to her, unable to leave. It was that I found out she was cheating, so I dumped her.”
Nan Huaixu lifted her gaze, unconcealed astonishment in her eyes.
The sound of the rain, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, was recorded into the γSurvivor 5γ livestream along with the various noises of the rainforest.
γLiu Yinxi, do you hear what you’re saying?γ
γDoes Liu not know that Nan Huaixu is her ex-girlfriend’s aunt?γ
γI can’t watch this anymore [Awkward]γ
γPoor Manman QAQ Don’t listen, it’ll dirty your ears.γ
γJudging by Manman’s surprised expression, she didn’t know her niece was cheating, did she?γ
γWhat cheating? Are you saying our Yunshao is the homewrecker? If there’s no hard proof, it’ll be treated as a rumor. Watch your mouth!γ
γHere’s the logic: First, Luoling has no reason to tell Nan Huaixu about her relationships. Second, Luoling lives with her mother’s family, the Luos, so her relationship with the Nan family is relatively distant. Finally, Nan Huaixu doesn’t really have much daily contact with her family. Have you ever seen her mention her niece? She’s the type who never even posts photos of her New Year’s Eve dinner. If not for old fans who saw an early home interview, no one would even know she has a niece. In that case, how would she know about her private affairs?γ
Raindrops pattered against the roof of the shelter.
Nan Huaixu’s brow furrowed slightly, and her voice deepened a little as she spoke to Liu Yinxi. “You dumped her. You were the one who initiated the breakup?”
Liu Yinxi felt that she had successfully established the original host’s character arc of growth through setbacks, so she no longer needed to deliberately feign weakness. She answered Nan Huaixu firmly, “Yeah. I saw my ex putting an earring on another woman with my own two eyes. She was pressed right up against the woman’s back. That was in February. She said she was on a business trip to Hong Kong, but I saw her having dinner with that woman in Shen City. I called her on the spot and asked where she was, and she lied, saying she was in a meeting in Hong Kong.”
Nan Huaixu was silent.
Liu Yinxi raised her hand, mimicking the action of taking a photo with a phone, and recounted the story vividly. “So I took a picture of them and sent it to her, telling her we were breaking up. The photo is on my phone. I can show you after the competition is over. Nan-jiejie, what I’m saying is true. I’m definitely not lying.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Nan Huaixu said. “I never said you were lying.”
The wind scattered the ashes on the ground. Liu Yinxi gathered them back together and spoke, basing her story on the original host’s background. “When I used to stream, a lot of people would call me stupid, call me a primary school chicken.2 It’s true I’m not as educated as them. When I was in middle school, my dad told me that lots of big bosses never finished school but still made a fortune. And my mom, she thought it was fine as long as I could get a job once I became an adult. I get it. They both have new families, new kids. They weren’t well-off to begin with, so who would want to spend extra money on raising me? It was my fault for being dumb when I was little, for not knowing how to plan for my own future.”
“That’s why my ex also thought I was dumb, that my love for her was a burden. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I do now. She was only with me because I looked a little similar to someone else. Since she couldn’t have that person, she settled for me. A relationship like that is fake.”
“I understand all the reasoning, but Nan-jiejie, I’m still so angry. If she didn’t like me and didn’t want to be with me, she could have just broken up with me, right? Why did she have to hide being with someone else and still lie to me?”
Nan Huaixu was silent for a moment, a cool light flashing through her pupils. She parted her lips. “I don’t know what other people think. But in the decade-plus since I’ve entered society, I’ve seen some people who like to play the good guy. They’re accustomed to covering up conflicts, letting the other person be the one to express dissatisfaction and have an emotional outburst. That way, from an outsider’s perspective, their rational, gentle selves are the reasonable victims, while the party that exposes the conflict and fights for their needs is the one who’s emotionally unstable and unreasonable.”
Liu Yinxi met her gaze, her quiet expression proving she was lost in thought.
Nan Huaixu put down the small stick and twisted open a plastic bottle to take a small sip of water. “I’m not here to judge what kind of person your ex-girlfriend is. I have no right to judge anyone, nor do I know her. I’m just telling you that this type of person exists in society. Sometimes, the help and kindness you receive don’t necessarily come from good people, and the hurt and blows you suffer don’t necessarily come from bad people. But one thing is certain: if the ‘love’ you feel is constantly causing you pain, and you feel confused by it, then it definitely isn’t pure. A life uplifted by true love will surely shine, and everyone will see its light.”
Nan Huaixu handed her a water bottle. Liu Yinxi took a drink and gave her a sweet, silly smile. “Nan-jiejie, I love listening to you talk! After hearing your words, I’ve beenβ¦ hΓΊguΓ ndΗng!”
“?” Nan Huaixu narrowed her eyes. “TΓhΓΊ guΓ ndΗng?”3
Liu Yinxi chuckled and played dumb. A fool has a fool’s luck, right? “Oh, oh, tΓhΓΊ guΓ ndΗng.”
Nan Huaixu picked up the small stick again and wrote in the ashes. “TΓ, hΓΊ. It refers to the clarified butter made from cow’s milk in ancient times. Pouring it over one’s head was originally a Buddhist idiom to describe enlightenment. Later, it came to mean receiving a great inspiration.”
Liu Yinxi studied it earnestly. “Mhm, I’ll remember that!”
Suddenly thinking of something, Nan Huaixu smoothed over the ashes. On one side, she wrote pΓ©ngbΓ¬shΔnghuΔ«, and on the other, hΓ¨lΓ¬jΔ«qΓΊn. She explained the meaning and usage of both terms to her, saying sternly, “Next time you run into Yuan Fang, don’t listen to any of the idioms she says. You don’t want her to lead you astray.”
Liu Yinxi nodded hastily. “If I don’t understand something, I’ll ask you first.”
The two played a game of “I draw, you guess” for a while. It was fun at first, but after a while, it slowly grew dull.
Liu Yinxi glanced at the rain outside. It was as if the sky had sprung a leak, with no telling when it would stop.
The atmosphere had finally become a little more lively, and Liu Yinxi didn’t want it to become dead silent again. She searched for a topic of conversation. “Nan-jiejie, why did you want to become an actress?”
“When I was little, my school put on a play. The teacher praised me for having a talent for it, so my mommy guided me in that direction. Then I just followed the steps: studied, got into film academy, took roles, filmed, took roles, filmedβ¦ and that’s how it’s been.”
“Oh! So, do you like being an actress?”
This time, Nan Huaixu didn’t answer directly as she had before. Instead, she paused, then asked back, “Why do you ask that?”
Liu Yinxi was confused. “What ‘why’? I just wanted to ask. There must be a reason for doing a job, right?”
The corners of Nan Huaixu’s mouth lifted into a somewhat intriguing smile. “Perhaps for other jobs. But have you ever met anyone who doesn’t like being an actor, who doesn’t like being a star?”
Liu Yinxi said, “But you just said the reason you became an actress was because your teacher and your mommy thought you had talent and guided you. You didn’t say you liked it yourself.”
Nan Huaixu lowered her eyes, gently tracing the grain of the wood on the small stick.
In the nearly twenty years since her debut, not a single person had ever questioned her passion for acting. The labels the entertainment industry had given her were professional, dedicated, diligentβsuch a Nan Huaixu had to be an actress who loved acting!
She was a star, after all.
A big star from a wealthy family, the center of everyone’s universe.
How could she not like acting? How could she not be happy? How could she not be joyful?
Nan Huaixu smoothed a stray strand of hair by her ear and smiled gracefully. “Whether it’s work or life, there are both bitter and sweet moments. My philosophy is that as long as I act my roles well and am responsible for every project, that’s good enough.”
Liu Yinxi applauded her enthusiastically. “Amazing! Jiejie, you said it so well!”
Nan Huaixu raised her hand to check the time. “It’s twelve o’clock. Time to cook.”
Liu Yinxi stood up to get the fish. “Yay, I’m hungry. What are we eating today?”
“I’ll roast the cassava. You can make the seafood soup. Add some of the instant noodle seasoning to it.”
“OKK!”
Liu Yinxi speared two fish from the utility crate with a wooden spear, scraped off their scales, removed their innards, and placed them in the mess tin. She added a handful of clams that had finished spitting out their sand to make the soup.
The flames burned in the stone stove, and the soup in the mess tin gradually came to a boil, letting off white steam.
Nan Huaixu rotated the skewered cassava on the wooden rack, smelling the fragrant aroma of the fish soup and listening to Liu Yinxi’s endless stream of new topicsβ¦ She gazed out at the vast, boundless greenery beyond the shelter and suddenly realized that this heavy rain no longer felt so lonely.
The rain finally stopped after two days.
Wristband date: April 16th.
After returning to the shelter from their morning foraging by the sea, both Liu Yinxi’s and Nan Huaixu’s shoes were caked in mud. Liu Yinxi lifted her leg to scrape the mud off the sole of her shoe on a large rock, then plucked two leaves to wipe the top.
Nan Huaixu set down a small bucket and opened the airdrop crate to store the newly collected coconuts and banana pith. She glanced at the plastic water bucket leaning against a wooden post; less than 300ml of water remained.
They hadn’t left the shelter for two or three days, and their stored food and fresh water were nearly depleted.
Nan Huaixu reminded her, “Liu Yinxi, we need to go to the stream to get water today.”
“Oh! I remember, Nan-jiejie.” Liu Yinxi took off her shoes and shook the sand out of her socks. After the rain, the jungle floor was muddy, and the bushes and grass were covered in standing water, soaking her shoes and socks.
She placed her shoes and socks by the bonfire to dry, then turned and said, “Jiejie, the ground is too wet right now, so it’ll be hard to walk. Let’s wait until the sun dries things out a bit around noon and go this afternoon. You should bring your shoes and socks over to dry too. Otherwise, the dampness inside can breed mold and give you athlete’s foot.”
“Alright, let’s leave at one in the afternoon then. I’ll clean up around the shelter. So many branches and leaves have fallen and gotten mixed in with the wet mud. It’s bothering me.”
“Nan-jiejie, are you a bit of a neat freak?”
“A little bit.”
“A little bitβHello! Welcome~ Scan the code here to order~”4
“⦔ Nan Huaixu was baffled. What did bubble tea have to do with anything?
Seeing that she didn’t get the nonsensical joke, Liu Yinxi tactfully shut her mouth.
After spending this time together, Liu Yinxi had figured it out. Nan Huaixu wasn’t very talkative and didn’t like to joke around, but if you asked her a question she could help with, or if the topic was something she was interested in, she would analyze it in great detail, and her “chatterbox” would open up.
As for the jokes and topics that didn’t interest Nan Huaixu, although she wouldn’t engage, she would remember them. A while later, she might suddenly bring it up and ask Liu Yinxi, “That XX you mentioned, is it⦔
Liu Yinxi found it strangely cute. It felt like the woman had a little notebook in her mind, jotting down everything she heard to ponder over silently.
βIt also seemed exhausting.
A person so tightly wound, so careful even about trivial little thingsβwhat kind of high-pressure environment must she have grown up in?
No wonder Nan Huaixu always liked to curl up when she slept, hiding her face in her arms. That defensive posture must be the only thing that could bring her a sense of security.
After eating lunch at noon, Liu Yinxi packed the plastic bottles and the plastic bucket into her backpack. Nan Huaixu also prepared a small bottle of plant ash to take to the stream to wash the oil from her hair.
The sun beating down on their heads was hot and scorching, but the ground beneath the vegetation was still damp, with many puddles. To avoid slipping and falling into a mud pit, they walked very slowly, taking forty minutes longer than usual to reach the stream.
Liu Yinxi walked to the Great Island Banyan she had previously marked with a stone cairn, planning to cross the stream to the other side to look for more long pepper husks and cut a few bundles of fish vine to use as insect repellent.
“Nan-jiejie, you can get water here. I’m going to the other side to cut some fish vine.”
“Go on. The moss on the rocks is slippery, so be careful.”
“Mhm!”
Holding onto a leaning tree root for support, Liu Yinxi stepped on stones to cross the stream. Only after seeing her safely reach the other side did Nan Huaixu relax and bend down to collect water.
The stream had risen quite a bit after the rain. The bucket sank into the water with a glug-glug sound. Nan Huaixu couldn’t help but smile at the clear water. The feeling of the current flowing through her fingers was so pleasant.
From the bushes on the opposite bank, the faint sound of human voices could be heard. It sounded like more than one person; they were talking.
Nan Huaixu looked up, set down the water bucket, and walked toward the voices, a worry in her heart: Don’t tell me we’ve run into Number 7.
“Liu Yinxi, haven’t I said it before? You said you wanted to break up, so we broke up. Now what are you doing, pestering me again?”
“I’m not. Who’s pestering you?”
“You’re not pestering me? Then what do you mean by coming to find me every few days?”
“A brain is a good thing. I suggest you grow one. The only reason anyone would come here is for the stream, for the fresh water.”
Nan Huaixu frowned as she listened. She remembered it crystal clear. Two months ago, her big niece had told her that because she hadn’t bought Liu Yinxi a bag, Liu Yinxi had thrown a huge tantrum and run away from home. Her niece couldn’t stand it anymore and had regretfully proposed a breakup, even blaming herself for not being able to take good care of Liu Yinxi and lead her onto the right path.
“Sigh, Liu Yinxi, I know you resent me. But in all honesty, was I bad to you these past three years? I understand you’ve gone from love to hate, but you can’t hurt your own body just to pester me. You won’t be able to handle a grueling survival competition like this. I’m sorry, I didn’t supervise your exercise before. Your omega partner must have it tough, huh?”
Nan Huaixu’s lips tightened into a thin line, her face as frosty as ice as she walked toward the two people talking.
Just as Liu Yinxi was about to speak, she heard the leaves rustle behind her. She turned her head, and Nan Huaixu, looking cold and stunning, took her hand.
Footnotes
- βLove brainβ is a modern Chinese slang term for a person who is hopelessly romantic and prioritizes their love life above all else, often to their own detriment.
- βPrimary school chickenβ is a slang term used to describe someone as being as immature or naive as a primary school student.
- A Buddhist chengyu that literally means βto anoint the head with ghee.β It describes a moment of sudden, profound enlightenment or realization. Liu Yinxiβs version was nonsensical.
- βA Little Bitβ (Yi Dian Dian) is a popular bubble tea chain in China. Liu Yinxi is making a pun on Nan Huaixuβs answer βA little bitβ and mimicking the greeting phrase used by store staff when customers scan a code to order.
0 Comments