Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 29
by Little PandaSea Salt-Grilled Lizard and Kudzu Root
Liu Yinxi had expected this.
Let them laugh.
She could at least add a splash of color to this dull and tasteless wilderness life.
Nan Huaixu hadn’t been able to stifle her laugh, but she hadn’t meant to mock Liu Yinxi. She quickly called her over to rest in the shade of a tree.
Nan Huaixu had gone to the seaside that morning to boil salt and discovered that Liu Yinxi had forgotten her ointment in Nan Huaixu’s bag yesterday.
She opened the bag to find the medicine and asked Liu Yinxi, “How did this happen? A poisonous insect bite?”
They had been in the competition for over half a month, and Liu Yinxi had never cared about scraped palms or blisters. But this time, with her face marred, she was completely listless. She looked miserable.
Just as Liu Yinxi was about to speak, Yuan Fang tossed aside the stick she was using to stir the salt and came over to join the fun. “Quick, tell us how you managed to get it so red and swollen.”
Liu Yinxi lifted her eyelids and switched on her Bullshit Mode.1 “You definitely won’t believe me if I tell you.”
Nan Huaixu’s eyes widened with curiosity and earnestness, while Yuan Fang wore an expression that said, “I’m listening to you spin your yarn.”
Liu Yinxi turned her cheek toward Yuan Fang, as if she’d feel less guilty bullshitting to her.
“There are elves in this rainforest. I met a bee elf. She had big, wavy blonde hair and her whole body gave off a honey-scented pheromone…”
Yuan Fang cut her off, raising a finger with an arched eyebrow. “And she was a beautiful omega who kissed the corner of your mouth, leaving behind a fiery stinger.”
Beside them, Nan Huaixu lowered her gaze, subconsciously glancing at the slightly messy strands of hair that had fallen over her own shoulder. She took off the hair tie Liu Yinxi had woven for her and retied her long hair.
Yuan Fang’s fingertips tapped her chin, the corners of her eyes lifting with a flirtatious charm. “Flirting comes at a price, especially for an alpha like you who’d be drooling even after you’re healed.”
Liu Yinxi felt like Yuan Fang was insulting her. With a swollen lip, she retorted, “Boss Yuan, you seem to be enjoying my misfortune a little too much. Are you still open for business or not?”
“Aiya~ Of course, of course.” Yuan Fang pointed at her swollen mouth and laughed. “I have to tease you a couple of times while you can’t talk properly. I won’t get such a good opportunity again.”
“Well, you know now, so you don’t have an opportunity anymore.”
Liu Yinxi shot her a look. She knew this unscrupulous merchant was up to no good.
Nan Huaixu disliked bickering; she found it meaningless. She handed the ointment to Liu Yinxi and asked, based on her own understanding, “A poisonous bee stung you?”
Liu Yinxi took the medicine and grunted listlessly. She set her wristband to touch-proof mode and used its small, reflective surface to examine the wound.
Seeing it was inconvenient for her to apply the medicine alone, Nan Huaixu said softly, “Let me help you.”
“It’s fine. I can handle a small welt like this myself. It’ll go down in a couple of days.”
“You can’t see it clearly like that. The side of your face is a little swollen, too.”
“Mm… it’s okay.” Liu Yinxi raised her wrist, adjusting the screen’s position to see her face. Hiss. This small hanging bee2 really packed a punch. It must have injected its entire supply of venom.
Liu Yinxi put down the ointment and got up, walking toward the banana leaves where the salt was drying.
Nan Huaixu stood up to follow her. “What do you need?”
“To mix some salt water to rinse the wound,” Liu Yinxi answered, her hands not stopping.
Nan Huaixu immediately took a plastic water bottle from her bag, which was filled with drinking water.
She walked to Liu Yinxi’s side and pinched a bit of salt, sprinkling it into the bottle. “Let me. You’re injured. Just sit still for a while.”
Liu Yinxi watched her silently for two seconds. When Nan Huaixu noticed her gaze and turned, Liu Yinxi quickly looked away as if nothing had happened. “Oh, okay. Thanks, Captain.”
Nan Huaixu finished adding the salt, screwed the cap on, and shook the bottle to dissolve the sea salt completely.
Listening to the sound of the water sloshing in the bottle, Liu Yinxi felt that Nan Huaixu was a little different than before, but she couldn’t put her finger on how.
Once she had the salt water, Liu Yinxi first lowered her head to rinse the wound. Then she found a soft wad of coconut coir, singed it with fire, soaked it in the salt water, and tilted her head back to apply it as a wet compress to the corner of her mouth.
She leaned against a coconut tree, panting. She didn’t know if it was exhaustion, heatstroke, or the neurotoxin in the bee venom spreading, but her head felt dizzy.
The smoke and steam from the stone stove were suffocating. Liu Yinxi yawned, pillowed her head on her backpack, and moved to a cooler spot to enjoy the sea breeze.
In a daze, Liu Yinxi thought she heard Nan Huaixu ask, “Should I apply the medicine after the salt water compress?”
The compress soothed the burning pain of the venom, and the gusts of sea breeze made Liu Yinxi increasingly drowsy. She mumbled, “Apply some aloe vera to calm it down first, then the Yuteng Ointment.”
“Okay…”
Yuan Fang poured out the newly boiled, concentrated salt water. When she turned her head, Liu Yinxi was already asleep.
“That fast?” Yuan Fang exclaimed.
Nan Huaixu quietly sat down beside Liu Yinxi. She reached out and felt the coconut coir on her mouth; the salt water had already dried. Nan Huaixu removed it, then used her knife to shave off the surface of a piece of aloe, squeezing the juice onto the swollen welt.
“Her sleep quality is amazing. I call her the Liu Sleep God. But she doesn’t know I gave her that nickname yet.”
“Is Liu’er suffering from kidney deficiency?”3
Nan Huaixu paused, blinked thoughtfully, and looked back at Yuan Fang. “Poor sleep is a sign of kidney deficiency.”
Yuan Fang was puzzled. “Is that so? Did I remember it wrong?”
Nan Huaixu nodded. She gently spread a layer of aloe juice, blew on it, and once the juice had soaked into the red welt, she used her ring finger to scoop up a bit of the pale green ointment, rubbing it in circles on the corner of Liu Yinxi’s mouth and her cheek.
Boiling salt was boring, so Yuan Fang chatted idly with Nan Huaixu.
She was a very casual person and could talk about any topic, no matter how risqué.
Yuan Fang continued with the previous topic. “Liu’er’s future wife is going to have a boring life.”
Nan Huaixu returned to the stone stove and added seawater to a meal box. She almost never responded to Yuan Fang’s lewd. talk.
Yuan Fang said, “She falls asleep the moment she gets in bed. What kind of sex life is that?”
“…” Nan Huaixu added firewood to the stove.
Live-stream Room:
【Even without talking about her sleep, Liu doesn’t look like much (disgusted)】
【In a way, that’s a good thing. At least Liu won’t harass Manman.】
【What kind of person would like Liu (laughing-crying emoji)】
【Manman is so gentle, she was so light when she was applying the medicine for Liu 0w0】
【Isn’t it just a little bee? Why is she acting half-dead from one sting? Liu is such trash (scorn)】
【You’re so tough, why don’t you go get stung and let everyone see how small your welt is.】
【Off-topic, but wild small hanging bee honey is super delicious!】
【What exactly is a small hanging bee? Where can I buy its honey? (drooling)】
【@AllXuanInMyMouth, it’s a colloquial name for small bees in the Nan’ou region. It doesn’t mean a tiny bee; “small bee” is short for the small honey bee genus.】
When Liu Yinxi woke up, the coconut trees were swaying, the waves were dancing, and a refreshing breeze was blowing in from the vast sea.
In her dream, it had been a world of ice and snow. She was buried under several metres of packed snow, squeezing out her last breath, desperately trying to call out her mountaineering teammate’s name, but all her internal organs were shattered, tearing her apart from the inside…
Waking up felt more like the dream.
Liu Yinxi pushed herself up, frowning as she held her forehead. The corner of her mouth was still throbbing with sharp pains, but the burning sensation had subsided.
She felt a sticky layer of something on her mouth. Raising her wrist, she used her wristband’s screen to see her face and saw the medicine that had been applied to the welt.
This is…
Did Nan Huaixu apply it for me?
“You’re awake?”
Liu Yinxi turned. Nan Huaixu was extinguishing the fire in the stone stove and packing up the salt-boiling tools.
Yuan Fang was gone.
Liu Yinxi gazed at the drifting clouds over the sea. “Yeah. I had a really cool dream.”
She ruffled her messy hair and smiled at Nan Huaixu, her eyes curving. “Thank you for helping me with the medicine.”
Nan Huaixu glanced at her, then turned back and stomped on the vine knot binding the firewood to tighten it. “You’re my teammate. I’m responsible for our team. You’re welcome.”
Liu Yinxi looked up at the sea and sky. The gentle breeze blew through both her and Nan Huaixu’s hair.
“Whoa, Nan Huaixu, look. The clouds are so beautiful today.”
Gu~
Both of them looked down at Liu Yinxi’s stomach.
Liu Yinxi gave an embarrassed smile.
Nan Huaixu shouldered her backpack and held out a hand to pull her up.
“Let’s go. Time to go back and eat.”
A plastic bottle sat on an airdrop crate.
Inside was a layer of coarse white sea salt, two fingers deep—the result of their diligent salt-boiling over the past few days.
The lizard, which had been kept in the other airdrop crate, had been cleaned and skewered on a long wooden stick, propped up to roast over the campfire.
Nan Huaixu sat across from Liu Yinxi, watching the firelight dance on her focused face.
Her gaze fell to the corner of Liu Yinxi’s mouth. The swelling had gone down a little, and the area near her jaw wasn’t as red anymore.
But her lips were still round and puffy, like the crispy-skin sausages that cook into little octopuses in a hot pot.
The high temperature would aggravate the swollen bee sting. “I’ll roast it,” Nan Huaixu said. “You sit back a bit. Your wound will get uncomfortable if you’re too close to the fire.”
Liu Yinxi looked up. “This little welt is really no big deal.”
Nan Huaixu didn’t speak, just stared at her quietly.
Liu Yinxi knew this was Nan Huaixu’s silent command. She pressed her lips together and obediently complied. “Alright. Thank you for your concern, Captain.”
Liu Yinxi sat down inside the shelter and took three kudzu roots4 out of her backpack. They were covered in dirt and wrapped in a plastic bag.
Nan Huaixu mimicked the way Liu Yinxi roasted meat, turning the lizard in the flames.
She saw the long roots in Liu Yinxi’s hands and commented casually, “Digging up cassava again?”
“This is kudzu root.”
Nan Huaixu turned over, intrigued. “Kudzu root? The kind used in medicinal cuisine? The one that’s ground into a powder and mixed into a paste to eat?”
Liu Yinxi nodded, holding up a shorter root for her to see. “I found it with the cassava when I was first looking for the stream. I forgot about it later, but it suddenly came to mind today.”
Nan Huaixu controlled the heat with one hand, her attention drawn to Liu Yinxi. “How do you eat it?”
Liu Yinxi scraped the dirt and nodes off the kudzu root with her knife, keeping an eye on the fire for Nan Huaixu as she spoke. “You can wash it and boil it, or you can slice it, dry it, and steep it in water to drink.”
“We can dry some to make tea and boil the rest for a change of pace. I’ll wash them in a bit, and I’ll take them to the beach to dry tomorrow.”
Nan Huaixu was busy for the entire meal, turning the lizard and sprinkling it with sea salt and wild pepper.
The lizard came out with crispy skin and tender meat.
Following Liu Yinxi’s instructions, Nan Huaixu cut the meat from the lizard’s ribs. It came off in a strip with a gentle pull, just like shredded squid.
The grilled lizard meat was savory and juicy, with a texture somewhat like chicken but more resilient. Paired with the coarse sea salt, every chew released a salty, fresh flavor that delighted the taste buds.
“This is my first time eating lizard. It looks ugly, but it’s delicious,” Nan Huaixu said, giving the little lizard a high posthumous evaluation.
Liu Yinxi’s round lips opened and closed. “That’s because it was active. Its whole body is living meat.5 It’s like how people love to eat chicken legs and wings—that’s living meat, too.”
Nan Huaixu disagreed with her point. “Horses love to run, but their meat isn’t easy to cook well. Some meat is just naturally better suited to the human palate.”
Liu Yinxi said, “You’re talking about differences in meat quality between species. I’m talking about the effect of exercise on meat quality. Just think about which tastes better: a free-range chicken that’s been active its whole life, or a factory-farmed chicken that’s spent its life in a cage.”
Nan Huaixu fell silent. Liu Yinxi thought her tone had been too forceful and had upset her. She softened her voice, about to offer some comfort, when Nan Huaixu suddenly turned away and let out a huge sneeze.
“Achoo!”
Liu Yinxi shot to her feet.
That sneeze was like a clap of thunder.
Nan Huaixu had been sneezing far too often today.
“Nan Huaixu? Are you okay?”
They didn’t have any tissues. Liu Yinxi could only pull two tender banana leaves from their reserved stash and hand them to her.
Nan Huaixu took the soft leaves, her back still to Liu Yinxi as she shook her head.
“Do you have a cold?” Liu Yinxi asked nervously. “Besides sneezing, do you feel unwell anywhere else?”
Nan Huaixu’s voice was stuffy. “It’s not a cold. I have a bit of rhinitis. I don’t usually have symptoms, but the smoke from boiling salt these past two days has probably been too much.”
“Uh…” Liu Yinxi’s heart clenched, her chest flooded with guilt. “You’re not going anymore. I’ll do all the boiling from now on.”
Nan Huaixu turned around, her nose red. “You’re going to boil salt with that little blooming sausage6 on your face?”
Liu Yinxi’s eyes were dark and bright. “Where would I get a blooming sausage to eat?”
Nan Huaixu couldn’t help but smile. She extended a long, slender index finger and slowly raised it. Liu Yinxi lowered her eyes, watching as Nan Huaixu’s fingertip drew closer and closer to her feverish lips.
Footnotes
- ‘Hú kǎn móshì’ (胡侃模式) literally means ‘nonsense chat mode’. It’s a playful term for when someone starts making things up or telling a tall tale.
- The original term is xiǎo guà fēng (小挂蜂). As explained by the in-story live-stream comments, this is a colloquial name in the Nan’ou region for a type of small bee, likely a dwarf honey bee, and does not literally mean ‘small hanging bee’.
- In Traditional Chinese Medicine, ‘kidney deficiency’ (shènxū, 肾虚) is a diagnosis related to a lack of vital energy (‘qi’), with symptoms including fatigue and poor memory. Yuan Fang is jokingly suggesting Liu Yinxi’s deep sleep is a sign of this.
- Kudzu root (gégēn, 葛根) is the starchy, edible root of the kudzu vine. It is used in both East Asian cuisine and traditional medicine, and can be boiled, steamed, or ground into a powder.
- The original term is huó ròu (活肉). Literally ‘living meat’, it refers to the well-exercised, lean muscle on an animal, considered more flavorful and desirable than the meat from a sedentary animal.
- ‘Blooming sausage’ (kāihuā cháng, 开花肠) is a type of sausage that is scored before cooking, causing the ends to curl open and resemble a flower. Nan Huaixu is teasing Liu Yinxi about her swollen lip.
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