Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 26
by Little PandaSetting Simple Traps, Boiling Salt on the Beach
Nan Huaixu’s breath brushed past the side of Liu Yinxi’s neck. Liu Yinxi felt her hair sweep across the hollow of her throat and move slowly down her chest.
Liu Yinxi was torn. Should I ask what she’s doing? Or just keep sleeping? In any case, Nan Huaixu would never hurt her.
“No need to pretend you’re asleep. I saw you blink just now.”
Nan Huaixu’s voice thoroughly roused Liu Yinxi’s drowsy brain. She opened her eyes, flustered, her voice hoarse. “Hm?”
Nan Huaixu leaned over to look down at her. The elegant lines of her face were like a meticulously carved jade statue, and her full, red lips, like water-beaded cherries, parted slightly. “Have you noticed a bad smell on you?”
The livestream chat erupted.
【Hahahahahahahaha—】
【Sisters, I’m laughing my way to a fortune [laughing-crying emoji]】
【They’ve been surviving in a primeval rainforest for over two weeks with no soap for washing hands or bathing, and they can’t change into clean clothes. I can’t even imagine the smell [sweating emoji]】
【Sob sob sob, as long as Manman would get that close to me, I’d die happy even if she called me a stinky dog QAQ】
【Why does my goddess get to reward you?】
A bad smell?
Liu Yinxi’s eyelid twitched. She propped herself up. “Huh???”
Nan Huaixu’s beautiful brows furrowed. She retreated to the edge of the bed and said, each word distinct, “Liu Yinxi, what is that stench on you? It doesn’t smell normal.”
Liu Yinxi buried her face in her clothes and sniffed, catching a faint, fishy reek with a hint of sour decay.
Nan Huaixu turned her head toward the outside, breathing in the fresh air. “I noticed it on the way back. There was this faint, foul odor wafting over from your direction. At first, I thought it was just some smell from the rainforest, but it’s gotten stronger since we returned. I just confirmed it. The smell is coming from you.”
Liu Yinxi shot up with a carp jump.1 “Ah! I almost forgot!”
Nan Huaixu walked out of the shelter and sat by the campfire, watching as Liu Yinxi took off her backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out a plastic bag filled with some viscous substance.
“Ugh!” A pungent, fishy odor assaulted her. Nan Huaixu felt a wave of visceral nausea, covering her mouth and nose as she scrambled to get away.
“Liu Yinxi, what kind of biochemical weapon did you bring back?”
Liu Yinxi carried the plastic bag outside the shelter, stuffed it into a dry coconut shell, and rummaged through a storage box behind their shelter for materials. “These are the guts from the chicken that we didn’t use. I thought it’d be a waste to throw them away, so I brought them back.”
The thought of bloody, fatty animal entrails made Nan Huaixu’s throat turn sour. She kept her distance. “I understand not wanting to be wasteful, but we don’t have cooking wine, or scallions, ginger, or garlic. How are we supposed to eat this? If we just grill it or boil it… I probably won’t be able to stomach it.”
Besides, the chicken guts had been sealed in a hot backpack for half a day and had already started to go sour.
Liu Yinxi gathered a handful of thin sticks and some vines, then turned around and said, “We’re not eating this. I’m going to use it as bait to make a couple of traps for prey.”
Hearing the word “prey,” Nan Huaixu’s interest was piqued. “How do you make the traps? Where will you set them?”
“There are many kinds of traps, designed according to the terrain and environment, but ten thousand changes, not leaving the principle.2 It’s all about ‘balance’—using leverage and gravity, for example. I’ll set the traps about a kilometer east of where we dug up the cassava. I noticed signs of small animal activity there.”
Liu Yinxi packed the materials into her bag and put a lid on the coconut shell to seal in the stench.
Her drowsiness had completely vanished. She decided to forgo her nap and set the traps before dark.
When she was a child, Nan Huaixu had seen older kids in the park try to catch sparrows with bamboo winnowing baskets and hemp rope. They would prop up the basket with a small stick, sprinkle millet underneath, and hide behind something. When a sparrow went under the basket to eat, they would pull the rope to make the basket fall and trap it. But usually, they weren’t fast enough for the sparrows, and it always ended in failure.
She was curious. Could a simple, handmade trap really catch anything?
“Will it work?” Nan Huaixu asked.
Liu Yinxi filled a plastic bottle with water to drink on the way. “These chicken guts are so rank, some animal is bound to come for them. Look at the bucket I buried on the beach—just putting a few bugs in it was enough to catch sand crabs. Of course it’ll work.”
Nan Huaixu was intrigued. “I’ll go with you. I want to watch you make the traps.”
Liu Yinxi glanced at her. “You’re not bothered by the smell anymore?”
Nan Huaixu just stared at her without a word.
Liu Yinxi snapped to attention. “We’ll go together. The coconut shell is sealed tight. I’ll carry the bag and stay far away from you. I guarantee you won’t smell a thing.”
“Mm,” Nan Huaixu replied easily, picking up a digging tool made from a rock tied to a stick. “I’ll dig up some cassava on the way.”
They rested under the extended canopy for about ten minutes, then set off to place the traps.
They were familiar with the path to the stream by now. After more than ten days in the rainforest, Nan Huaixu’s hiking ability had improved, and they reached their destination half an hour faster than before.
Liu Yinxi found the spot where she had first noticed animal tracks while searching for the stream. Using the buttress roots of a tree and some sloping terrain, she designed two simple traps from a combination of vines, wooden pegs, and stones. She used two small sticks to pick out the chicken guts and place them in the deepest part of the traps.
To reduce the animals’ wariness, Liu Yinxi deliberately scattered fallen leaves around the traps and loosened the soil, helping the man-made contraptions blend into the natural environment so they wouldn’t look so out of place.
Hopefully, these two traps will catch some plump prey!
The next morning, the stars in the sky had not yet completely faded.
Liu Yinxi was shaken awake from her sleep.
“Liu Yinxi.”
“Liu Yinxi…”
Pinpricks of pre-dawn light pierced the darkness before her. Liu Yinxi blearily opened her eyes to see the omega’s exquisite features facing her. She mumbled in her sleep, “So rice…”3
Nan Huaixu paused, then asked in a low voice, “What did you say?”
Liu Yinxi rolled over. “Let me sleep a little longer. We’re not fighting for an airdrop today…”
Nan Huaixu pushed her arm. “Get up. Let’s go see if the traps caught anything.”
Liu Yinxi squinted at the world outside the shelter. “The moon hasn’t even set yet, jiejie. Trapping prey isn’t that fast. It won’t be too late to check tomorrow. I have to go to the beach to boil salt at seven. Let me sleep for another hour.”
Nan Huaixu was about to say more, but when she heard her mention boiling salt, she didn’t insist. “Then sleep a little longer. I’ll go check the traps, just in case we caught something. If the bait’s been eaten but there’s no prey, I’ll add more.”
“Mhm,” Liu Yinxi yawned widely, spreading her arms and lying in the middle of the bed. “Don’t go too far. Be careful by yourself.”
Nan Huaixu tied her shoelaces by the fire. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Hooo…”
Nan Huaixu looked back at the sleeping alpha. “Hey, I’ll bring you some water at noon.”
“Hooo…”
A smile touched Nan Huaixu’s lips. She climbed onto the bed and tickled Liu Yinxi’s nose with a blade of grass. “I said, I’ll bring you water at noon.”
Liu Yinxi sniffed. “Achoo—Mhm, mhm!”
By the time Liu Yinxi was woken by her alarm, the sky was bright, and Nan Huaixu was already gone.
“Aaaah—” Liu Yinxi stretched, spotting the breakfast Nan Huaixu had left for her on the airdrop crate: a roasted cassava root, a piece of leftover grilled chicken breast from yesterday, and a bowl of Pandan Leaf Soup.
What a feast. Nan Huaixu is so good to me.
Liu Yinxi ate the cassava with the soup, then wrapped the chicken in a banana leaf, tucked it into her bag, and saved it for when she got hungry from working.
At 6:53 in the morning, Liu Yinxi arrived at the beach. By the stone stove in the coconut grove, Yuan Fang, sporting a head of vibrant red hair, greeted her.
“Hey! Morning, Liu’er!”
“Hahaha.” Yuan Fang walked over and patted her shoulder. “Eaten yet?”
“Yep, had a great meal. You?”
“Me too. I’m so sick of eating fruit every day. How about we trade breakfasts next time?”
Liu Yinxi turned her back with a cold snort. “I’m sick of your fruit too. No way I’m trading.”
“Dead Liu’er.” Yuan Fang gave her shoe a light kick.
Liu Yinxi dodged with a dramatic sway of her hips, then went into the grove to carry out the fuel she’d tied to a tree. She told Yuan Fang to grab the meal boxes, and they started the fire to get to work.
The flames crackled to life. Four meal boxes were set on the stone stove, two of them filled with seawater that began to form tiny bubbles as the temperature rose.
Liu Yinxi and Yuan Fang sat in a spot sheltered from the wind, each using two sticks to stir the seawater. Once a box had boiled dry, leaving behind brine with precipitated impurities, they would pour it into another clean meal box to refine it into coarse salt.
Working with two people was indeed less tiring than working alone. Stirring the seawater was a tedious, repetitive task that required no thought, and the time passed quickly as they chatted and laughed.
“Liu’er, if I put that face of yours in my livestream, you’d absolutely gaga random kill the sales charts.”5
“I’m not working for you. You’re not sincere enough.”
“What, you don’t want to be a streamer? What do you want to do? Tell me, I’ll arrange it for you at my company.”
“Nothing to say, not saying.”
Yuan Fang laughed, her eyes sultry. “What, don’t want to join the company? You want to be my wifey instead?”
Liu Yinxi asked seriously, “How much money does your wife make a month?”
“I’ll tell you the truth, my salary at the company is only one yuan a month.”
Liu Yinxi shot her a disdainful look. “Tch.”
Yuan Fang stirred the water in the meal box with her stick. “Don’t be a non-believer. My entire net worth is tied up in the business.”
“So if you make one yuan a month, what are your wife and kids going to eat? Snow slush?”6
“Hahaha, well, can’t we dig for clams by the sea? We’ve been living like primitive people for days now, you’re still afraid of going hungry?”
Liu Yinxi pointed at Yuan Fang. “Scum woman!”7
Yuan Fang wiggled her eyebrows, slinging an arm over Liu Yinxi’s left shoulder and leaning close to her ear. “Aiya~ an alpha doesn’t have to be pretty, but they have to be interesting. Don’t you want to know what the pheromones of a top-tier omega like me smell like?”
Liu Yinxi’s face was dead serious. “Isn’t it clam-flavored?”
“Hahahaha—” Yuan Fang leaned against her, roaring with laughter. “And you’re snow-slush-flavored, is that it?”
The midday sun hung high in the sky.
Waves crashed against the shore, and a hazy mist of water vapor rose from the golden sand.
Nan Huaixu walked to the seaside carrying a bucket of fresh water, hearing the two women’s cheerful laughter from a distance.
“Liu’er, you’re hilarious! Hahaha—”
“Oh, wait, you’re milk-flavored, because you’re Wahaha’s new product, Yuan-haha.”8
“Hahahaha! Why are you so funny? Let me check if you’re a snow-slush alpha!”
“This one doesn’t want to, you scum woman…”
Nan Huaixu stood among the coconut trees, quietly watching their playful backs. She didn’t understand what “milk-haha” was, nor did she get what a “snow-slush alpha” was.
The only thing she understood was that her partner and the omega from the opposing team were having the time of their lives boiling salt.
Nan Huaixu walked over and placed the plastic bucket full of fresh water in front of Liu Yinxi.
Liu Yinxi stood up happily. “Nan-jiejie, you’re here! We caught some fish and shrimp this morning while foraging. You should eat with us for lunch.”
Yuan Fang said excitedly, “Hello, Teacher Nan! I’ll grill some fish for you! We’ll use the salt we just boiled this morning. The flavor will be amazing.”
Nan Huaixu gave Yuan Fang a slight smile. “Thank you.” Then her smile vanished as she turned to Liu Yinxi. “No need.”
A wave crashed ashore.
As the water receded from the sand, the flames in the stone stove flickered in the breeze.
Yuan Fang waved and called out, “Bye, Teacher Nan, be careful on your way back!”
Liu Yinxi watched Nan Huaixu’s departing figure, unable to put her finger on what felt strange—Nan Huaixu was a person who paid great attention to etiquette. Since they had met, she had never once left without saying goodbye.
Footnotes
- A ‘carp jump’ (lǐyú dǎ tǐng) is a martial arts move, but is colloquially used to describe sitting up suddenly and energetically from a prone position.
- The chengyu ‘wàn biàn bùlí qí zōng’ (万变不离其宗) means that while methods and appearances may vary, the fundamental principle remains the same.
- Original: ‘hǎo mǐ ó’ (好米哦). ‘Hǎo mǐ’, literally ‘good rice’, is internet slang and a pun on ‘hǎo měi’ (好美), which means ‘so beautiful’.
- Liu Yinxi is saying ‘Good morning, Boss Yuan’ (Yuán lǎobǎn) with a playful, exaggerated accent.
- ‘Gāgā luàn shā’ (嘎嘎乱杀) is modern internet slang meaning to completely dominate or ‘slay’ in a particular field. ‘Gāgā’ is an intensifier from Northeastern Chinese dialect.
- ‘Xuě cházǐ’ (雪碴子) is a term from Northeastern Chinese dialect for snow slush or ice chips.
- Original: ‘zhā nǚ’ (渣女), literally ‘scum woman’. It is slang for a woman who is a ‘player’—unfaithful, manipulative, or who toys with others’ emotions.
- Wahaha (wáhāhā – 娃哈哈) is a very famous Chinese beverage brand. Liu Yinxi is making a pun on Yuan Fang’s name (袁, Yuán) and the brand name, calling her ‘Yuan-haha’.
Jealous?