Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 34
by Little PandaTeacher Nan’s Brilliant Performance!
Liu Yinxi suppressed her excitement, afraid that Huang Heshan would see her eagerness and put her at a disadvantage in the trade.
She had to highlight the precious value of their honey.
Liu Yinxi and Nan Huaixu exchanged a look, deciding to let Nan Huaixu state their demands.
Nan Huaixu listed all the medicinal herbs Yu Yan had taught them about from the last airdrop, and then expanded the list with more detail. “The herbs I just mentioned—we want them sorted by ailment and bundled by category. In addition to that, we also want one medical consultation.”
Huang Heshan’s brow furrowed. After a moment of silence, she said, “I can’t help you with the consultation.”
Nan Huaixu put on a look of surprise. “Aren’t you the team leader? Yu Yan is your teammate. You’re a unit, aren’t you? Don’t you discuss major decisions like trading supplies together?”
“There’s no way Yu Yan would just ignore you, right?”
【A friendly little tip for the sisters in the Nan-Liu stream: Ever since that one dark and stormy night when Huang-jie shoved an approaching omega away and said, “Stay away from me,” Yu Yan hasn’t spoken to Huang-jie in a long time.】
【Oh, that’s a real shame. It’s just making a bad situation worse for the already-silent Huang-Yu stream.】
【You give me the silent treatment, I’ll give it right back to you. A lose-lose is better than a win-lose. If I’m not happy, nobody’s happy (evil smile)】
【Huang-jie says nothing. She just keeps picking wild flowers to trade for honey.】
“…”
“Day after tomorrow, eight in the morning. Meet here.”
Huang Heshan left them with that single sentence, then clutched the airdrop crate and quickly disappeared into the dense rainforest.
So the deal was made!
Liu Yinxi watched Huang Heshan’s retreating back, the corners of her mouth lifting in a happy smile. They had antihistamines, and they had herbs for all sorts of basic illnesses. The security of their survival had just been massively upgraded. Just thinking about it made the future seem full of hope.
Liu Yinxi turned to Nan Huaixu. “Let’s get you to take the Cetirizine first when we get back. I’ll make you some honey water.”
Her arm felt a little tight. She glanced down and saw Nan Huaixu’s slender arm linked through hers.
The omega was standing very close to her. The gentle breeze blew their stray hairs together, and their jackets made soft, rustling sounds where they touched.
For a moment, Liu Yinxi’s mind went inexplicably blank. She caught another whiff of a faint, cool floral scent, touched with a hint of sweetness. It was gentle, soft, and very comforting.
Suddenly, the weight on her arm vanished.
Liu Yinxi came back to her senses. Nan Huaixu had withdrawn her hand and turned away to sneeze. Her voice was thick with congestion when she spoke. “Mhm, let’s go back.”
“Uh… oh, right!”
As if her memory had skipped a beat, Liu Yinxi pulled herself from the daze of the lingering fragrance and hurried to catch up with Nan Huaixu.
“Teacher Nan, your performance just now was brilliant!”
The live-stream chat was filled with joy.
【Yay, Manman finally took her hand back! (sprinkles flowers) (spins)】
【Hooray, they have antihistamines! Get well soon, Manman! (anticipation)】
【Our Manman is so gentle and kind, even the heavens are looking out for her. She gets whatever she wishes for, all her dreams come true~ Catching the good luck!】
【Catching the good luck +1】
【Catching】
【Liu has finally been useful for something. The bee stings weren’t for nothing. With the little nurse’s herbs, their chances of survival will go way up.】
【What do you mean, finally useful? Xixi has always been the main survivalist, okay?! (speechless)】
【I became a fan of Liu after seeing her proactively prepare for the flying ants. Her vigilance is high, and her wilderness knowledge is solid. Out of the four teams, I love watching her survive the most. There’s always so much new content.】
【Right, right! I feel like the other teams are just ‘surviving’, but Xixi is different. She and Nan Huaixu are ‘living’ with intention.】
【Honestly, after watching her for a while, Liu is pretty easy on the eyes. In the current entertainment industry, she’d at least count as a rising starlet.】
【Liu Yinxi has always been gorgeous. A few years ago, she was a top-tier beauty streamer. It’s just that in this competition, she’s always next to Nan Huaixu, so her looks don’t stand out as much in comparison (eating melon)1】
【I suggest Liu go for a more natural, back-to-basics2 rustic style in the future. It’s clean and powerful, and honestly looks way better than when she used to imitate a certain figure skating star!】
The live-stream camera focused on the two of them walking away, their backs to the camera against the blue sky and sandy beach. They grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until the shot finally switched to an empty frame of the boundless, azure sea.
On the morning of an airdrop day, all other regular activities were paused by default.
Liu Yinxi didn’t go to boil salt, and Nan Huaixu didn’t go exploring the rainforest.
They planned to go foraging for ingredients on the beach during the evening tide. For the morning, they would stay at the shelter, take inventory of their supplies, and begin preparations for their move.
They had been in such a rush to get the airdrop that neither of them had eaten much.
Nan Huaixu boiled a pot of the small fish they had brought back from the beach and roasted two cassava roots. After they had eaten their fill, she took a Cetirizine tablet according to the instructions.
The morning sunlight was clear, pouring down from the “sky well” formed by the surrounding canopy. Dappled shadows and points of light danced across their shelter.
The fish soup bubbled in their meal boxes, and the orange-red campfire crackled softly in the stone stove.
Liu Yinxi wore a warm, stretchy short-sleeved shirt with her technical jacket tied around her waist. She had arranged the four airdrop crates in order from smallest to largest and was now sitting on a big rock, one foot propped on a slanted log, the other leg dangling elegantly as she counted their belongings on her fingers.
The smallest airdrop crate (originally held Cetirizine), now containing:
- 5 shell containers of herbal ointment
- 1 plastic bottle of dried long pepper spikes
- 1 plastic bottle of plant ash
- 1 plastic bottle of nail-filing shells
The airdrop crate the size of a food delivery container (originally held instant noodles), now containing:
- 1 packet of Braised Beef Noodles
- 1 packet of Shrimp and Fishcake Noodles
- 1 small half-bottle of coarse sea salt
- 1 foil packet of water purification tablets
- 2 glass jars of wild honey
The airdrop crate the size of a standard cardboard box (originally held raincoats), now containing:
- 2 outdoor raincoats
- 2 satellite phones
- 3 biodegradable bags
- 4 plastic bottles of drinking water
The air-holed airdrop crate they had snagged while Huang-jie and Xiao Yu were having a disagreement (originally held a Red Junglefowl), currently empty of live prey and now containing:
- 5 cassava roots
- 3 wild kudzu roots
- 2 green coconuts
- 3 banana piths
- 1 palm heart
- 1 plastic bag of fiddlehead ferns
- 1 plastic bag of pandan
After being opened, all the airdrop crates could have their external carrying handles activated from the inside, making them convenient for reuse as transport boxes.
The scavenged turnover crate, now containing:
- 2 small 1.5L buckets of fresh water
- 1 large 2.5L bucket of fresh water
- 1 homemade stone axe
- 1 homemade stone pickaxe
- 1 homemade slingshot
- 1 foraging bucket
- 3 clean plastic bags
- 4 bundles of vine rope
- 10 clean coconut shells
On the bed inside the shelter were their two backpacks, which held their emergency medical kits and other personal items.
The triangular shelter and the stone stove they had built couldn’t be taken with them. Everything else was what they could move.
The amount of food, like the cassava, would change depending on how many more days they stayed. They would only keep a basic supply of fresh water to lighten their load on the road; it would be easier to get water once they relocated near the Toa River.
Liu Yinxi looked up at the canopy’s sky well. Two birds flew past, stark against the blue sky and white clouds. Light filtered through the dense gaps in the leaves, forming golden shafts of the Tyndall effect3 in the jungle.
She took a deep breath of the forest air, feeling its sweet tranquility.
At moments like this, when she was immersed in nature, Liu Yinxi would begin to doubt her current situation.
Had she really been reborn?
Had she really transmigrated into this book?
Could this all be the final hallucination of her body, frozen beneath the thick snow, just before brain death?
After each wave of doubt, nothing around her would change, and only then could Liu Yinxi breathe a sigh of relief.
The longer she stayed in this book world, the more conflicted her feelings about the transmigration became.
On one hand, she had been given a new life, and she wanted to live it well in this world.
But the Book Transmigration Reading System was a complete unknown. It had only given her a reading interface, with no introduction to the system itself, and it gave her no tasks.
She didn’t understand the system’s purpose. She didn’t know what it wanted her to do. She worried that just as it had suddenly transported her here, it might just as suddenly erase her from this world.
On the other hand, she wanted to find out if she could go back in some form…
Even if it was just to send a dream4 to her Mom and Mommy, to tell them not to be too sad, that she was doing well in another world.
Whenever she had free time, she would explore the Book Transmigration Reading System, trying to see if she could find any connection to her original world.
She thought about it a lot, but it was useless.
She had to focus on the here and now.
Liu Yinxi hopped off the large rock and, after finishing her fish soup, rinsed out her meal box.
This wonderful time couldn’t be wasted. She decided to go to the beach to boil salt. There wasn’t much time left before they moved, so she would make as much salt as she could.
“Liu Yinxi, have you finished the inventory?”
“All done. I’ve sorted everything into different boxes. There’s quite a lot of stuff. I estimate we’ll have to make two trips.”
“Alright, let me see…” Nan Huaixu turned her head and saw the boxes lined up neatly, the supplies inside each one arranged tidily. A look of satisfaction appeared in her eyes. “You’ve organized it quite well.”
Liu Yinxi sat on a rock by the stone stove, legs spread and hands propped between them, a goofy grin on her face. “Hehe, I saw you organize things a couple of times and thought it looked great. I’m learning from the Captain.”
Nan Huaixu closed each of the boxes, then walked to a shady spot in the clearing to stretch.
“What were you thinking about just now?” She interlaced her fingers, pushed her palms forward, raised them up, and stretched them back behind her shoulders.
Liu Yinxi was a little surprised. “Me?”
In her past world, and even after transmigrating, this was the first time someone had been interested in what she was thinking about when she zoned out.
Nan Huaixu nodded. “Were you thinking of home?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Your expression looked a bit like it.”
Liu Yinxi couldn’t answer her question directly.
She missed her two mothers. That counted as being homesick, she supposed.
Liu Yinxi placed the washed meal box upside down on a wooden rack to dry. “A little,” she said lightly. “But not that much.”
“I can’t go back anyway.”
“And I don’t have a new home yet, for now.” Liu Yinxi looked at her, her eyes curving into crescents. “Right now, wherever a campfire burns is my temporary home.”
Nan Huaixu’s tone was gentle. “That’s a good way to see it. Take it slow, build it up bit by bit. You’ll definitely achieve what you wish for.”
Liu Yinxi turned to gaze at the burning flames. The row of airdrop crates next to them was printed with the 《Survivor》 logo—a spark.
—A single spark can start a prairie fire.5
The spark, carrying the tenacious will of a survivor, would surely lead to a glorious victory.
Nan Huaixu lowered her gaze, silent for a moment, before her lips parted softly. “Liu Yinxi, if you’re willing… in the future, if you’re ever homesick, or if something is weighing on your heart, you can always talk to me about it. I may not be the ideal listener you have in mind, but the burdens of the heart need to be released. Talking is a very good way to do that. You’ll feel much lighter if you say it out loud.”
Her words were like fluttering flower petals, landing gently on Liu Yinxi’s heart.
“Thank you, Nan Huaixu. You’re the first person who’s ever cared about how I feel.”
Liu Yinxi looked into Nan Huaixu’s eyes. As their gazes met, it was as if a spring breeze had broken through the accumulated snow.
“You are my most ideal listener.”
Footnotes
- ‘Eating melon’ (chī guā) is internet slang for observing gossip or drama as a bystander, similar to ‘eating popcorn’.
- Original: fǎnpúguīzhēn (返璞归真). A chengyu, or four-character idiom, meaning to return to a state of natural simplicity.
- The Tyndall effect (dīngdá’ěr xiàoyìng) is a scientific phenomenon where light is scattered by particles in its path, making the beam of light itself visible, such as sunbeams through a forest canopy.
- ‘To send a dream’ (tuō ge mèng) is a cultural concept where a deceased person’s spirit is believed to be able to visit a living person in their dreams to pass on a message.
- Original: xīnghuǒliáoyuán (星火燎原). A chengyu, or four-character idiom, that literally means ‘a single spark can start a prairie fire’. It signifies that a small, seemingly insignificant thing can lead to a massive result.
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