Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 28
by Little PandaDamn, Who Kissed You That Hard?
Liu Yinxi approached the tangled buttress roots, with Nan Huaixu standing about a metre away.
She used a wooden stick to poke away the dead branches and fallen leaves covering the trap, revealing the prey hidden inside.
It was a dark brown lizard with orange-yellow spots. From head to tail, it was a little longer than a forearm. It wasn’t huge by rainforest standards, but it was enough for the two of them for one meal.
The lizard had greedily eaten the Red Junglefowl’s entrails, its belly now round and full. Trapped inside the vine-woven ground cage,1 it struggled in vain to squeeze its way out.
Liu Yinxi looked down at her prey. Little lizard, since you ate my bait, you can repay me with your tender, juicy roasted meat~
She stepped into the pile of leaves, crouched down, and said to the person behind her, “Nan-jiejie, help me get the vine rope from my bag.”
Yesterday, Liu Yinxi had carried Nan Huaixu’s bag, and Nan Huaixu had used Liu Yinxi’s in the coconut grove, so they were both familiar with each other’s packs.
Nan Huaixu knew which section of Liu Yinxi’s bag held which item. She expertly retrieved the vine rope from a cloth pouch in an inner pocket and handed it to Liu Yinxi.
“You hold it,” Liu Yinxi said, not taking it.
“Alright.” Nan Huaixu squatted down beside her, her gaze locked on the lizard hiding in the depths of the trap.
Liu Yinxi placed her left hand on the outer layer of the cage. With her right hand, she gestured toward the lizard through a gap in the weaving. “In a moment, I’ll open the cage. The lizard will run out, and I’ll hold it down. You…”
Liu Yinxi paused for a moment, as if choosing her words. “Have you ever tied up a hairy crab?”2
As she expected, Nan Huaixu shook her head.
Nan Huaixu had long since admitted she was clueless about cooking. She was the type of person who could boil sweet dumplings until one side was hard and the other had burst its filling, let alone perform complex preparations on a live animal. Her only experience came from a crash course in camping and outdoor cooking before the competition, which involved simply washing any ingredient, peeling it, and then either boiling it in water or roasting it over a fire.
During the competition, Liu Yinxi had been responsible for most of their meals. Nan Huaixu’s tasks were relatively simple, which saved her a lot of trouble.
Liu Yinxi thought for a moment, then tried a different angle. “Nan-jiejie, do you remember when you played the spy heroine in 《Jing Yun》 and tied up a traitor?”
She was talking about the movie poster the original Liu Yinxi had used as her phone wallpaper when she first transmigrated.
It was because of that wallpaper that Liu Yinxi had mistaken Nan Huaixu for Ying Luoling, leading to a series of awkward encounters…
Nan Huaixu had trained for half a year for that film. The director had been demanding about every detail in the scenes, including professional techniques for interro.gation, tor.ture, and bon.dage.
She answered confidently, “Of course I remember.”
Liu Yinxi said, “When I pin the lizard down, you just tie it up with the vine rope like you were tying up that traitor.”
Nan Huaixu looked at the lizard’s four clawed feet and thought, Humans have arms and legs, lizards have four claws. Tying them up should be pretty similar. It’s smaller, so it’ll be even less effort.
“Leave it to me.”
A few birds hopped excitedly on the surrounding tree branches, their calls cheerful, as if they were here to watch a show.
Liu Yinxi’s fingers tightened on the outer cage. She counted down, “Three, two, grab!”
The moment the outer cage was lifted, the lizard’s powerful hind legs launched it out like a spring. Just as it was about to dart into the undergrowth, Liu Yinxi precisely seized the lizard by the throat of its destiny.
A little roasted lizard, handled.3
The instant Liu Yinxi’s hand touched the lizard’s coarse skin, Nan Huaixu suddenly realized an important question. “Is it poisonous?”
Many lizards in the Southeast Asian rainforest were venomous, especially the notorious monitor lizards, which could take down a large water buffalo with a single bite.
Liu Yinxi’s eyes curved into a smile. “It’s not. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare catch a lizard I didn’t recognize.”
“That’s true.” Nan Huaixu was growing more and more confident in her teammate’s judgment.
After half a month together, not only had Liu Yinxi not held Nan Huaixu back, but on the contrary, her survival skills were plain for all to see.
Since the competition began, Liu Yinxi had never made a mistake. She had chosen the site for their shelter, found a stream for fresh water, made medicinal soups and insect repellent, predicted the rain and reinforced the shelter, rendered sea salt, and set traps to catch lizards… Every step she took hit the most crucial point.
One coincidence was luck. Two were a miracle. Three, four… every single time? That wasn’t a coincidence. That was skill.
The facts proved that it was Liu Yinxi who was making their little days of survival4 better and better.
Nan Huaixu attributed this to Liu Yinxi’s childhood growing up in a mountain village in Nan’ou.
The rainforest in Nan’ou shared many similarities with this natural environment, so Liu Yinxi had experience gained from the villagers in her youth.
That was why Nan Huaixu had gradually become willing to listen to Liu Yinxi’s opinions and trust her judgment.
Even the comments in the live stream about Liu Yinxi had started to change.
【Even though I can’t stand Liu, I’m not worried when it comes to food.】
【Does anyone recognize this spotted lizard? Aren’t the colorful ones usually poisonous?】
【Replying to the person above, this thing actually isn’t poisonous. It’s called a wax-skin lizard, and it’s delicious. Look at my IP (a city in a small Southeast Asian country). Over here, they’re sold as snacks in the market. But it’s not allowed in our country, haha!】
【It’s weird. You say Liu is a drama queen, but she hasn’t made any major mistakes. You say she isn’t, but sometimes her cutesy act pollutes my eyes.】
【It’s a survival competition. As long as they can eat their fill and get by, who cares? I can handle the mental pollution.】
【…I still think Manman is suffering by being grouped with Liu. If only Manman were with Huang, she’d get the best airdrop crates every time.】
【??? Compared to the cold-shouldering Huang-jie, I think Liu is a bit better. In this boring primeval rainforest, I’d die of boredom if no one talked.】
【+11111】
【I get it now. You fandom5 people only dare to attack Liu’s personality because you can’t find any fault with her survival skills, right?】
【All you say is ‘you fandom people,’ what makes you so high and mighty? Pass you the mic, you talk.6】
…
With one hand, Liu Yinxi gripped the lizard’s neck, and with the other, she held its two hind legs and tail. Nan Huaixu gave it a ‘five flowers big tie’7 with the vine rope, tying a solid knot on the lizard’s back and leaving a length of vine to carry it by.
They went to check the other trap. The bait was covered in ants and had been half-eaten. Liu Yinxi brushed the ants away with a branch, re-baited it, and made some improvements to the trap.
The lizard, having eaten its fill, was very strong and struggled constantly, making it inconvenient to carry through the rainforest.
Back at the shelter, Liu Yinxi used another piece of vine to tie the lizard’s mouth and limbs before locking it in the empty airdrop crate that had previously held the Red Junglefowl.
The smart lock had become inactive after being opened once, turning it into a regular latch-locked box. There were air holes on the side, so prey wouldn’t suffocate inside, and other animals wouldn’t be able to open the box even if they discovered the prey within. It was perfect for storing fresh supplies.
The sun climbed higher. Nan Huaixu checked the time on her wristband. It was almost eight in the morning; she was already a little late for boiling salt.
“I’m going to boil the salt. I brought water, so you don’t have to make an extra trip at noon. Be careful on the path in the rainforest. Bye-bye.” She said her goodbyes to Liu Yinxi, gathered her tools, and hurried off to the coconut grove.
Seeing Nan Huaixu’s genuine smile, Liu Yinxi felt a sense of relief.
Thank goodness she had an “instinctive sense” honed by years in nature; otherwise, she wouldn’t have noticed her teammate’s mood shift. Over time, a rift could have formed between them, leading to an accumulation of conflicts that would have been very detrimental to their teamwork.
But there was one thing Liu Yinxi couldn’t figure out.
It was Nan Huaixu who had first proposed that teammates should focus on communication and clearly express their needs. They had cooperated very well for the past half-month, discussing different viewpoints and raising any issues for discussion. So why didn’t Nan Huaixu just say she was unhappy this time and emphasize how important she felt the traps were?
Liu Yinxi bit into a piece of banana pith, chewing it as she walked to relieve her boredom, like it was chewing gum. She walked for several kilometres, thinking for a long time, but couldn’t reach a conclusion.
Sigh. Humans are emotional creatures. It’d be stranger if every single feeling could be clearly explained.
Liu Yinxi tried to console herself.
Sometimes you’re just in a bad mood, and there’s no particular reason why. No need to over-analyze it. For example, she herself got very irritable during her period, a result of pheromone changes.
Her attention was drawn to a fallen tree branch marking the edge of a thicket up ahead.
Liu Yinxi suddenly remembered that when she was first looking for the stream, she had seen not only wild cassava leaves but also wild kudzu.
There was a lot of cassava growing in that patch, more than enough to eat, and they hadn’t finished digging it all up, so she had forgotten about the kudzu.
Eating cassava every day was getting a little boring. It was the perfect time to dig up some kudzu root for a change of pace.
Kudzu root8 had more medicinal value than cassava. It was often made into therapeutic food products and was effective for quenching thirst, clearing heat, and relieving pain.
After being cleaned and soaked, it could be cooked and eaten, or it could be sliced and dried to be used in soups or teas.
In this hot and humid rainforest, wild kudzu was an excellent ingredient for relieving the summer heat.
She grabbed her tools and got to work.
Liu Yinxi took her self-made stone pickaxe from her bag and began to dig at the base of the wild kudzu.
The kudzu root was buried deep; the edible part was hidden far beneath the soil. As she dug deeper, Liu Yinxi slowed her movements to avoid damaging the precious ingredient.
After digging a pit in the ground, Liu Yinxi squatted down, carefully cleared away the mud, and used her knife to cut off the mature, edible rhizomes.
This area was near the stream, so the soil was quite damp. Puddles had formed under some of the roots, attracting swarms of mosquitoes and other insects that buzzed about everywhere.
Liu Yinxi wore the hood of her jacket and had applied herbal medicine to her face and hands. Every so often, she would stop digging to stretch and wave away the pesky insects buzzing around her.
She hacked at a particularly plump kudzu root a few times. It was almost loose enough to pull out when an insect buzzed back and forth by her ear, its vibrating wings constantly fanning her face.
Annoyed, Liu Yinxi swatted the insect away. “You’re the most annoying thing in the world.”
The irritating buzzing finally stopped, but Liu Yinxi felt a sharp, needle-like prick on the corner of her mouth. A fiery pain rapidly spread across the left side of her lips.
Liu Yinxi immediately wiped away whatever was on her mouth. Spreading her hand open, she saw the corpse of a black-and-yellow insect.
Just her luck.
She had been stung by a small hanging bee.
The good news was that small hanging bees were the weakest fighters among wild bees. They were small, and their venom was relatively mild.
The bad news was that even a sting from a small hanging bee would cause her face to swell for two days. Yesterday, she had been carrying Nan Huaixu’s bag. She hadn’t taken out the aloe and herbs, so they were all with Nan Huaixu.
Liu Yinxi rinsed the corner of her mouth with water. She switched her wristband to black-screen mode and used it as a mirror to inspect her face, picking out the bee’s stinger. Then, she quickened her pace, dug up two more kudzu roots, packed them in her bag, and hurried toward the beach to find Nan Huaixu and get the herbs.
It took Liu Yinxi nearly two hours to walk from the kudzu patch to the coconut grove where they boiled salt. Along the way, her breathing grew heavier, and she could clearly feel a discomfort in her head. The corner of her mouth grew hotter and hotter, and a searing pain that pulled at her nerves spread across that entire half of her face, down to her jaw.
As expected of a tropical rainforest bee. It’s much more venomous than the small hanging bees on the mainland. It must be a different species. Back home, a sting from one of these would just raise a bump at most, not cause widespread swelling and pain.
Liu Yinxi chewed on a couple of wild mint leaves to clear her head. Pushing aside the leaves blocking her path, she saw the pale yellow sand of the beach appear before her.
Wisps of smoke were rising from the coconut grove to the north.
Liu Yinxi jogged over and heard intermittent coughing. Two women were sitting by the stone stove, boiling seawater, their cheeks flushed red from the high-temperature steam.
“Achoo!” Nan Huaixu sneezed four or five times in a row. Unable to bear the smoke any longer, she moved to the side, coughing violently and patting her chest as she drank some water.
Yuan Fang heard the extra footsteps and looked up to see who had arrived.
As Liu Yinxi drew closer, one side of her mouth was a fiery, swollen red. Her cheek was slightly puffy, and her eyes were watery.
Yuan Fang stared, then leaned in for a closer look at her red lips, gloating, “Damn! Who kissed you? That’s ruthless. Even rougher than me.”
Liu Yinxi kicked her shoe. Because her mouth and face were swollen, she couldn’t open her mouth wide, and her voice came out like a bee’s buzz. “You like it? I’ll take you there. Let them kiss you unconscious.”
Nan Huaixu walked over, coughing. “What’s wrong?”
She saw Liu Yinxi’s lips, red and dripping, swollen like a pair of blooming sausages.9 She couldn’t stop her lips from twitching. “Pfft.”
The author has something to say:
This work is set in a fictional world and is purely a work of fiction. The descriptions of catching lizards, digging for wild kudzu, and treating bee stings are all fabricated and have no relation to reality. Please do not take them as fact!
Footnotes
- A type of funnel trap, wide at the entrance and narrow on the inside, making it easy for an animal to enter but difficult to exit.
- Chinese hairy crabs (dàzháxiè, 大闸蟹) are a seasonal delicacy. They are famously tied up with string before being steamed to keep their legs and claws from falling off during cooking.
- Original: nánie (拿捏). A popular slang term that means to have something perfectly under control or ‘in the bag’.
- Original: qiúshēng xiǎo rìzi (求生小日子). The term ‘xiǎo rìzi’ literally means ‘little days’ and evokes a sense of a small, cozy, and comfortable life.
- Original: fànquān (饭圈), literally ‘rice circle’. A term for the organized community of fans surrounding a celebrity, show, or hobby.
- Original: huàtǒng gěi nǐ nǐ lái jiǎng (话筒给你你来讲). A common online retort, sarcastically telling someone who is being critical to ‘take the microphone’ and prove they can do better.
- Original: wǔhuādàbǎng (五花大绑). An idiom that means to tie someone up securely, often with their arms behind their back.
- Kudzu root (gégēn, 葛根) is a starchy root used in both East Asian cuisine and traditional Chinese medicine. It’s often made into a powder to thicken soups or made into a tea, and is believed to have cooling properties.
- Blooming sausages (kāihuā cháng, 开花肠) are a type of sausage, often sold as street food, that is scored before being fried or grilled, causing it to split open and resemble a flower in bloom. It’s a vivid comparison for a severely swollen lip.
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