Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 45
by Little PandaCatch More Fish, Stockpile Dried Meat
The water, infused with a vitamin tablet, was a pale orange.
The contestants from the other teams were watching them.
Nan Huaixu’s smile softened. She graciously took the water bottle from Liu Yinxi and said gently, “You’ve worked hard. You spent the whole day busy gathering supplies, yet you still came to the beach to pick me up and bring me water.”
Liu Yinxi blinked rapidly. She had thought Nan Huaixu would be upset that she had paid attention to the other team first and was just blaming herself. She never expected Nan Huaixu to take the initiative to care about her. Teacher Nan was truly too wonderful.
Liu Yinxi hurriedly unscrewed the cap for her. “Let me, let me. Our team relies entirely on Teacher Nan’s excellent command to keep our supplies steadily replenished.”
Nan Huaixu offered a faint smile, lifted the bottle, and took a small sip. The vitamin water was sweet and tart.
Yuan Fang asked, “Why is this water yellow?”
She turned toward Liu Yinxi. “Liu’er?”
Liu Yinxi opened her mouth. “Be—”
Nan Huaixu’s voice smoothly cut over hers. “You even added a vitamin tablet for me. How thoughtful.”
Yuan Fang understood now. It was the vitamin tablets Xue Yunshao had offered in exchange for salt; she needed salt more than vitamins, so she hadn’t traded.
Yuan Fang’s eyes filled with envy. “Liu’er is so considerate to Teacher Nan.”
Nan Huaixu, who rarely spoke to her, replied, “Xiao Lu is also very good to you. Teammates must help each other. You shouldn’t say things detrimental to team unity, like who gets along better with whom.”
Yuan Fang glanced at Lu Yiqi, who was sitting under a coconut tree watching the sea, and the corner of her mouth twitched. “Yeah, Teacher Nan is right.”
You guys sure are united.
Liu Yinxi peeked toward the stone stove. “Are you still boiling salt? I’ll come help.”
Nan Huaixu stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “No, I’m just about to pack up the mess tins. The evening low tide is coming soon; we’re going beachcombing.”
“Okay! Oh, right, I was just about to talk to you about beachcombing.”
“What about beachcombing?”
They walked over to the stone stove and bent down to clean up the brine and the aluminum mess tins.
Before Nan Huaixu could get an answer, she cast a questioning look. Liu Yinxi swept her eyes over their surroundings, and Nan Huaixu instantly understood. She quickly packed up the equipment and bid farewell to Yuan Fang and Lu Yiqi.
The reef cluster at dusk was the most favored spot for beachcombing.
Liu Yinxi placed her and Nan Huaixu’s backpacks under a coconut tree. Each carrying a small bucket, they waded into the intertidal zone to scoop up fish and gather shrimp.
The sea breeze blew with a whistling rush, and the ocean waves rhythmically crashed against the beach. The shimmering, rippling water reflected the silhouettes of the two busy figures.
Nan Huaixu raised a hand to brush back the hair the wind had whipped into a mess and walked over to Liu Yinxi’s side. “You can tell me now.”
Yuan Fang and Lu Yiqi had been present earlier, so it hadn’t been convenient for Liu Yinxi to speak. She must have made a major discovery over the past two days.
Sure enough, Liu Yinxi lowered her head and cupped her hands near Nan Huaixu’s ear. “I found the new shelter location. It’s right by a tributary of the great river. I designed a small treehouse, and I’ve already chopped a pile of firewood over there.”
The setting sun gradually withdrew its light, yet Nan Huaixu’s pupils radiated a brilliant gleam.
“You found it?!”
“Mhm! Found it.”
A wide smile broke across Nan Huaixu’s face. She lifted her chin and stepped closer to Liu Yinxi, her whole being practically glowing. “How is the new site? Is it pretty over there? You even designed a little treehouse? What does it look like? Will it be hard to build? What materials are we still missing?”
She was on the second day of her heat period. Her fever was slowly receding, and the inhibitor’s efficacy had masked most of her scent. However, with less than half a metre between them, the sweet, refreshing scent of omega pheromones drifted over Liu Yinxi’s cheeks with her every breath, faint but undeniable.
“Um…” Liu Yinxi liked this sweet scent, but maintaining her clarity and respect for Teacher Nan, she slowly took two steps back. “Teacher Nan, you just asked me so many questions at once. Which one should I answer first?”
Nan Huaixu’s expression turned serious. She mentally sorted through her questions and picked out the most vital one. “What materials are we lacking the most right now?”
Liu Yinxi gave her a thumbs-up. As expected of Teacher Nan—she could cut straight to the heart of the matter and manage the grand scheme at any given moment. She was as reliable as Mount Tai1 anchored in the sea of one’s heart.
Liu Yinxi pointed toward the sea. “This is exactly what I wanted to discuss with you. Teacher Nan, what we lack the most right now is food—specifically, protein. When it’s time to move to the riverbank, we’ll need time to familiarize ourselves with the environment, so we won’t be able to secure enough food right away. The round trip to the beach is also very long, meaning we can’t come beachcombing every day. We can rely on cassava and banana plant cores for starch and fibre, but for meat, we can only depend on salting and curing a few extra sea fish.”
Nan Huaixu directly extracted the key points from her words. “I understand. We need to catch more fish and cure them into dried meat to stockpile protein for after we move.”
Communicating with her was always exceptionally effortless for Liu Yinxi. “Right.”
Nan Huaixu followed up with another question. “Then, once we are familiar with the riverbank environment, what will be our meat source? Is it convenient to catch river fish near the new shelter?”
Liu Yinxi answered with brimming confidence. “Very convenient. Just a few hundred metres away, there’s a great spot to set the fish traps. Plus, many animals come to the river to drink; we can make plenty of traps to hunt them.”
“Take me to see it next time.”
After saying this, Nan Huaixu excitedly turned around to go catch fish. Over twenty days of beachcombing experience had honed her skills to absolute perfection2.
She hopped about like an agile seabird, tiny ripples spreading out around her fair calves.
Liu Yinxi stood in place and watched Nan Huaixu for a while. The seawater washed over her ankles, the cool mist dispelling the heat and exhaustion.
At this very moment, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing the fruits of her hard work win her teammate’s joy.
Spending all these days trekking through the rainforest—wasn’t it all for this exact moment?
Nan Huaixu’s happiness was her greatest encouragement.
It was also the ultimate satisfaction of her desire for achievement.
Adhering to the principle of stockpiling dried meat, the two focused their beachcombing entirely on catching fish, ignoring the smaller shrimp, crabs, and shells.
Liu Yinxi scooped up six, while Nan Huaixu caught eight. They made it back to the shelter right before the sky turned completely dark.
Crackle, pop.
The magnesium rod sparked with orange-red embers, igniting the tinder in the stone stove and instantly blazing into a bright campfire.
Liu Yinxi sat on a stone lined with a grass mat and breathed a sigh of relief toward the warm flames.
So nice. She was back. Sleeping out in the open was cold and dangerous; this temporary little home was still the safest and coziest.
Nan Huaixu placed the two buckets full of fish a bit further from the fire, then sat opposite the campfire to rest.
She caught her breath and handed Liu Yinxi half of a piece of jackfruit.
They ate something sweet to replenish their stamina before starting on dinner and salting the fish.
“How did you sleep outside by yourself last night?” Nan Huaixu stretched out her legs, balling her hands into fists and gently pounding the muscles of her calves to relax them and prevent soreness.
Liu Yinxi paused slightly. The firelight bathed the curves of her profile in a soft, warm glow.
Her heart felt warm, too.
At the beach, Nan Huaixu had cared about the hardships of her excursion, and upon returning, she cared about how well she had slept.
How could there be such a kind-hearted girl in the world?
Like a little child airing her grievances to an elder, Liu Yinxi dropped all her defenses and acted spoiled. “Teacher Nan, let me tell you, I slept up in a tree last night. The suspended bed I built was super flimsy. I couldn’t even roll over while lying on it, and whenever the wind blew, it creaked and groaned. The leaves above my head were swaying everywhere.”
Nan Huaixu lowered her eyes and gave a single nod. “Mhm.”
The end of her hum was slightly drawn out.
“Even though I wore my raincoat, I was sleeping pretty high up, so it was freezing when the wind picked up. But I didn’t dare leave a fire burning at night—if it caught, I would’ve croaked3 right then and there. When I woke up this morning, my shoulders and lower back were aching so badly.”
“Mhm.”
“The next time I have to sleep outside, I think I’ll just build a triangular shelter. Sleeping in a tree is just never comfortable.”
Nan Huaixu’s expression was tender, and when she parted her lips, her words were soft and understanding. “Even if you build a triangular shelter, it still won’t compare to our shelter here. You shouldn’t go out alone anymore; it’s too dangerous at night. So what if the journey is far? We’ll split the work and take turns scouting the path. The competition has been going on for a month now. If the airdrop route changes, it’ll be an elimination match point. We have to choose the safest method and endure to the very end.”
She absolutely refused to mention that she had been so frightened in the middle of the night that she suffered from insomnia, which was when she decided to never let her teammate leave again.
“Liu Yinxi, do you still remember the four million you wanted to win?”
Liu Yinxi pursed her lips. Of course she remembered.
When the competition first started, she had said she wanted to win the grand prize of four million for the “100-Day Challenge.” Back then, Nan Huaixu hadn’t even wanted to entertain her, merely correcting her: Winning the competition only yields a three million prize.
She gave a soft hum of agreement.
Nan Huaixu bent her wrist, resting her elegant jaw against her slender fingers. “Four million. I take one, you take three.”
Liu Yinxi abruptly turned to look at her.
“You get three million, I get one million.” Nan Huaixu smiled warmly.
Times had changed.
People had changed, too.
Her smile and ambitious words had transferred over to her.
Liu Yinxi stared into the other woman’s eyes. After a brief moment, the corners of her lips curled up into a light chuckle. “Nan Huaixu, you believe in me that much?”
Nan Huaixu raised an eyebrow. “What? Aren’t you the most confident one here?”
Liu Yinxi lowered her head and rubbed the tip of her nose with the back of her hand. “Ahem. Damn right.”
Nan Huaixu turned her face away, gazing out at the vast expanse of the wild forest. “I believe in us.”
Yes, it was “us.”
Missing even one person wouldn’t do.
They were each other’s warmth.
And each other’s hope.
Dog 6 and Dog 4 snuggled together as the drones ascended straight up into the sky. The livestream switched to a two-second establishing shot, displaying the boundless, verdant rainforest.
【Uh, surviving for 100 days is nowhere near that easy. Manman, wake up…】
【Manman has been totally led astray by Liu (facepalm4)】
【Led astray how? (baffled)】
【Our Xixi and Manman have the skills for it! 100 days, four million grand prize! Charge!!!】
【A mere 100 days, in the bag! A mere four million, in the bag!】
【Little Liu’er’s plan to split the grand prize equally just turned into taking three-quarters of it. Pocketing an extra million, she’s smiling so hard she can’t even close her mouth.】
【Hahaha, Liu Yinxi should be glad she’s teamed up with Nan Huaixu. Being short a million or two really is nothing to the daughter of the Nan family.】
【To Nan Huaixu, a million wouldn’t even be enough to buy a single piece of haute couture (eating melons5)】
【Sigh, you can’t put it that way. Manman terminated her contract with the film company controlled by the Nan family. The new studio she established doesn’t have a single cent of Nan family investment. It feels like she’s breaking away from her family and is being suppressed in terms of funds and connections. The situation isn’t optimistic. Manman joined this competition just to pull in traffic (worried)】
【Oh my god! So that’s how it is! I was wondering why Manman would suddenly come suffer on 《Survivor》 QAQ】
【First, I’m a Huai fan. Second, I also like Xixi. Next, I’ve earnestly watched the livestream every day. Finally, I’m not being KY6, but just purely raising a personal question: Huang-jie’s hard skills are stronger than Xixi’s, and she also has Yu-yu who understands medicine. This alliance of two powerhouses is practically a bug7. Can Manman and Xixi really beat them?】
【Good point, I want to know too (resting chin on hands)】
【What’s there to be afraid of? Support Xixi! Huang Heshan is a love brain8, nothing to fear!】
【Hahahahaha sister, are you trying to make me die laughing! XD】
The night fell quiet.
The drifting clouds scattered, revealing a bright, flawless moon.
At exactly ten o’clock at night, their bracelets let out a beep-beep notification sound.
Tomorrow’s airdrop information updated:
April 30th, Fifth Airdrop
Time: 7:00 AM
Location: Toa River Estuary
(This airdrop location is far from the coast. Survivors, please prepare accordingly.)
Footnotes
- Mount Tai (Tàishān) is one of the Five Great Mountains of China, culturally symbolizing immense stability, weight, and unwavering reliability.
- An idiom literally meaning 'the stove fire is pure green' (lú huǒ chún qīng), originally referring to the ultimate stage of Daoist alchemy. It is used to describe a skill or technique that has been honed to absolute perfection.
- A playful internet slang term (gá le) used to mean 'died' or 'game over', intentionally misspelling the actual word for death to avoid censorship.
- An internet slang term (yǔn bēi), literally 'allow me to be sad.' It acts as an equivalent to a facepalm or crying-laughing emoji, used when a situation is hopelessly funny or tragic.
- An internet slang term (chī guā), literally 'eating melons.' It refers to a bystander eagerly watching drama unfold or gossiping, similar to grabbing popcorn.
- An internet slang term derived from the Japanese phrase 'kuuki yomenai' (KY), meaning someone who cannot read the room or kills the mood.
- Used as internet slang in Chinese to describe someone or something that is so incredibly strong or competent it feels like a 'glitch' in the system.
- An internet slang term (liàn'ài nǎo), literally 'love brain.' It describes someone who is hopelessly romantic to the point of prioritizing their love interest above all logic or reason.
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