Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 38
by Little PandaRefining Coconut Oil
The stone stove for boiling salt was located north of the coconut grove, right on its edge. In contrast, the southern area Nan Huaixu had pointed to was dense with coconut palms, a place where one could indeed find more coconuts.
Liu Yinxi had originally planned to walk Nan Huaixu to the stone stove before going to gather coconuts herself. It would have been a chance to say hello to Yuan Fang, whom she hadn’t seen in days. She missed their little verbal spars.
But the Captain had given her orders, and Liu Yinxi was also eager to collect the coconuts and get back to refining the oil. So she said goodbye to Nan Huaixu, and they went their separate ways.
The moment Nan Huaixu turned away, the smile vanished from her face. Her expression grew even colder when she saw Yuan Fang’s enthusiastic greeting.
“Morning, Teacher Nan. All by yourself again today? What’s Liu’er been busy with lately?”
“Busy working.”
Nan Huaixu took out two lunch boxes and placed them on the stone stove. “We have almost enough sea salt stored up. We won’t be coming back after the next airdrop.”
The smile in Yuan Fang’s eyes froze. Her lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing, simply filling the lunch boxes with seawater to begin boiling.
【Hey, why did Boss Yuan stop smiling?】
【Her flirtatious little heart got chopped off by Teacher Nan.】
【Good on Nan Huaixu. You have to cut off Yuan’s routes to scheming against Liu, otherwise Liu will get tempted and do something stupid that’ll cost them everything.】
【xswl1 Nan didn’t even let Liu see Yuan and just sent her off to pick coconuts (crying-laughing emoji)】
【What’s even funnier is that Liu Yinxi still has no idea she’s being targeted by a top-tier omega (dog head2)】
【srds3, I feel bad for Boss Yuan. The alphas in the other three teams are all fighting to survive, but Lu is almost useless. Yuan Fang is doing everything herself. Her teammate is unreliable, so she has to go all out on her own QAQ】
【Wait, what’s Yuan’s teammate’s name again? She has such a weak presence, I have no impression of her (sweating emoji)】
【Her surname is Lu, an auditor. I don’t remember much about her either.】
【I feel like Lu is just like me, lying flat4. She gives off this dead vibe of just barely hanging on. I don’t get why she joined a survival competition.】
【I admit Yuan is carrying her team all by herself and it’s exhausting, but no matter how hard it is, she shouldn’t be resorting to crooked ideas and trying to leech off guests from other teams.】
【You wouldn’t feel sorry for Yuan Fang if you knew the reputation of the Yuan family in Songbai Province (smirking emoji)】
【Search: 2022 Songbai xx bri.bery case. The Xinyuan Agriculture and Forestry Group was involved, and someone dug up that the hidden beneficiary behind it was the Yuan family, but that analysis post was deleted long ago.】
A sea breeze rustled through the wide leaves of the coconut palms overhead.
Liu Yinxi stuffed four coconuts into her bag and put another three in a plastic bag. Estimating that was enough, she headed back to the shelter.
When they had parted ways, Nan Huaixu had told her to go straight back after she’d gathered enough coconuts, that she didn’t need to go find her. She also told her to get more rest and not to tire herself out.
Nan Huaixu is so considerate, Liu Yinxi thought, a warm feeling spreading through her chest.
Sunlight filtered through the canopy, illuminating the clearing next to their shelter.
Liu Yinxi cleaned the smooth surface of a large rock with water and banana leaves, using it as a workbench. She cracked open the coconuts, scraped out the flesh, and placed it on her new counter to be chopped.
With a series of sharp chak-chak-chak sounds, the coconuts were reduced to a pile of milky-white shreds. Liu Yinxi packed them into a clean plastic bucket.
There were two main traditional methods for refining coconut oil.
One was to boil the coconut flesh in water. After a certain amount of time, the oil would slowly float to the surface, where it could be skimmed off and left to settle.
The other method was to extract the coconut milk from the flesh, seal it in a suitable container, and let it sit for one to two days. The milk would ferment naturally, and the oil would likewise float to the surface. The oil could then be skimmed off and gently heated to remove any excess water.
Coconut flesh could be up to one-third oil, so the yield was relatively high. Furthermore, the oil was very stable and didn’t spoil easily. As long as it was stored properly, it could last for a year at room temperature.
The only container Liu Yinxi had that was suitable for long-term boiling was her aluminum lunch box, which was currently being used for salt. Besides, boiling all this coconut flesh to extract the oil would be too exhausting. After careful consideration, she decided to use the fermentation method.
She washed her hands with a bit of plant ash, then used a wooden stick to pound the shredded coconut and squeeze out the milk. Some pieces were difficult to press, so she just squeezed them by hand.
She worked from eleven in the morning until past three in the afternoon, not even stopping for lunch. Finally, Liu Yinxi had collected half a bucket of coconut milk.
She built a simple, low wooden rack in the shade behind the shelter. She placed the bucket of coconut milk on it, suspended off the ground in a cool, ventilated spot perfect for storage. She then sealed the bucket’s opening with a banana leaf, securing it with a vine cord. The natural pores in the leaf would allow for ventilation.
Liu Yinxi glanced at her bracelet, noting the time. She would check on the oil separation in twenty-four hours. Once the coconut oil was ready, she would prepare the herbal infusions for the handmade soap and moisturizing cream.
With the coconut milk stored away, Liu Yinxi cleaned up the coconut debris on the ground, taking the opportunity to sweep the area under the shelter and around the campsite.
She took out some of the insect-repelling herbs to dry in the sun, hanging them upside down around the shelter and replacing the foul-smelling fish poison vine they had used before.
Liu Yinxi folded her arms, looking at the tidy shelter with a satisfied nod. A living environment had to be clean and beautiful to be comfortable.
She sat down by the campfire and used a palm-leaf broom to sweep away the ring of black ash around the stone stove. She adjusted the height of the grill rack, pushing its supports deeper into the earth to make it more stable.
She drank some water and rested for a moment, then her gaze drifted to the roof of the shelter. The edges of some of the palm and banana leaves had dried out.
Liu Yinxi pushed herself up from her knees, removed the withered leaves, and took a stroll around the area. She cut a bundle of fresh leaves and returned, carefully laying them on the roof.
Barring any surprises, this would be the last time she replaced the roof on this little triangular shelter.
When would be the next time they built a roof for a shelter?
Where would they make their home?
Liu Yinxi tilted her head back, staring blankly at the overlapping leaves. The blue sky peeked through the tiny gaps between the branches.
A life without the internet, without phones or computers. Just the sky, the earth, and the company of plants and animals.
Liu Yinxi lay down inside the shelter, resting her head on her backpack.
Taking advantage of the rare, pleasant leisure time, Liu Yinxi opened the Book Transmigration Reading System to read.
Study hard and improve every day.
「Good afternoon, user liuyinxi (sun emoji)」
「Table of contents loaded successfully.」
「Current reading progress: 21%. Volume One: The Seashore, Chapter Thirty-Four: A Midnight Meeting.」
「…Huang Heshan lay down beside her. Ying Luoling smelled the unfamiliar scent and turned her back in resistance, her hands folded over her chest, not knowing what to do… How she missed the scent of Xue Yunshao’s pheromones, which had always brought her warmth and a sense of security…」
Liu Yinxi impatiently swiped through the pages.
「…Ying Luoling couldn’t help but recall an evening study session in her third year of middle school. The night wind howled, and the streetlights on the way back to the dorm were broken. Xue Yunshao had taken her hand in the dark shadow of the school building, taking off her own scarf and wrapping it around her…」
Swipe, swipe, swipe.
「…Xue Yunshao’s nose gently brushed against her hair as she whispered that she smelled like a little jasmine flower. Ying Luoling shyly lowered her head, hiding her face in the fluffy scarf, and told Xue Yunshao that her pheromones took after her mommy’s side of the family—the Nan family were all floral-scented…」
Swi—huh?
Liu Yinxi’s eyes stopped. She placed a reading mark on the sentence: “the Nan family were all floral-scented.”
She specifically chose a Paraíba blue6 tag, Nan Huaixu’s favorite color, to mark all text related to her.
Floral-scented.
Liu Yinxi rested a hand behind her head, thinking back on the little details of their life during the competition. Was the faint, clean floral scent she sometimes caught Nan Huaixu’s pheromones?
The scent was subtle, a little cool, a little sweet, like a single rock sugar cube dissolved in a large porcelain bowl of cool water.
What kind of flower could it be?
Liu Yinxi searched the floral scent library of her two lifetimes combined but couldn’t find a single fragrance that matched.
In any case, it smelled very, very, very good.
Oh, speaking of pheromones, there was something important she couldn’t forget.
Liu Yinxi sat up, pulling the backpack she’d been using as a pillow onto her lap. She opened an inner pocket and retrieved a small medicine box from the smallest compartment.
Drug Name: Alpha Susceptible Period Sedative and Inhibitor Tablets
Specification: 0.25g * 24 tablets
Directions: Take with warm water after a meal, one tablet twice daily.
Warning: This medication is only effective at suppressing the physiological reactions of a normal susceptible period. It is ineffective against the heat induced by binding with an omega’s pheromones. In case of emergency, please inject a high-concentration inhibitor.
Liu Yinxi opened the box. There were three blister packs, each with eight tablets.
Based on taking them for three days a month, six tablets a month, this supply would last for four months. More than enough for the duration of the competition.
The foil pack was perforated. Liu Yinxi tore off a small section along the lines and put six tablets in her pocket so she’d have them ready at all times, able to take one as soon as she felt anything to avoid any awkward situations.
Liu Yinxi zipped up her bag, put it back in its original spot, and lay down, resting her head on it to continue reading.
Swipe, swipe, swipe.
It was so difficult to pick out information useful for the competition or related to Nan Huaixu from the long, long passages of Ying Luoling’s romance.
As she read, she hummed a tune, not a single complete song, but a medley of the choruses of various viral hits from short-video platforms:
“If love forgets, and tears don’t want to fall…”7
“I’m finally willing to let you go, because loving you hurts my heart so, but you’ll never know…”
“Liking you is my secret, a depth like a hundred thousand metres under the sea—”
A cool breeze blew past.
Nan Huaixu stood there with her backpack on and a bucket of fish and shrimp in her hand, smiling. “Reminiscing about an ex, are we?”
“!”
“Teacher Nan, you’re back.”
Liu Yinxi shot out of the shelter and stood ramrod straight. “I’m not reminiscing, just singing randomly. They’re popular background songs from short videos…”
She raised her wrist to look at her bracelet. “It’s so early. It’s only five o’clock.”
Nan Huaixu set down the small bucket and took off her backpack. “The tide changed today.”
She had deliberately come back early to prevent Liu Yinxi from having to meet her at the beach at seven.
Who knew what kind of shameless things that unscrupulous woman Yuan Fang might do to Liu Yinxi to trick her out of their supplies.
Nan Huaixu turned around. Liu Yinxi was still standing there, smiling at her.
“How did the salt boiling go today?” Liu Yinxi asked, trying to make conversation.
“It went very well.”
Nan Huaixu sat down gracefully inside the shelter. She unscrewed her water bottle and took a few sips, then looked around. “You cleaned the shelter? It’s very neat. And you, did you get a good rest?”
“I’m great, too. I was just about to head to the beach to go foraging with you. I didn’t expect you back so early.” Liu Yinxi walked over to the small bucket and saw the fish and shrimp inside. “What a haul. Are we having grilled fish or boiled fish tonight?”
When she received no response, she turned to look.
Nan Huaixu had picked up a small object from the bedding. She held it up to the light, examining it closely. An Alpha Susceptible Period Inhibitor tablet.
She looked up, her eyes meeting Liu Yinxi’s teasing gaze.
Footnotes
- An acronym for the Chinese phrase 'xiào sǐ wǒ le' (笑死我了), meaning 'laughing my ass off' or 'dying of laughter.'
- A text-based emoji or tag used in Chinese internet slang to indicate that the preceding statement is a joke or sarcastic, similar to '/s' in English-speaking communities.
- An acronym for the Chinese phrase 'suīrán dànshì' (虽然但是), meaning 'although, but…'. It's used to preface a counterargument or an excuse, similar to 'I know, but…' or 'no offense, but…'
- To 'lie flat' (tǎng píng) is a popular Chinese internet slang term from the 2020s that describes a rejection of societal pressures to overwork and compete, opting instead for a simpler, more relaxed lifestyle.
- A slang phrase related to 'chī guā' (eating melon), which means to spectate on drama or gossip. 'Yǒu guā' is asking if there is any new drama to watch.
- Paraíba tourmaline is an extremely rare and valuable gemstone known for its vivid, neon-like blue and green colors.
- This is a medley of choruses from several popular, melancholic Chinese pop songs often used on short-video platforms like Douyin (Dǒuyīn, the Chinese version of TikTok).
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