Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 50
by Little PandaInstalling the Fence, Setting the Fish Traps, and Hanging the Wind Chime
Look at this person. As soon as she heard they were making fish traps and hunting snares, she wouldn’t even eat her food properly, acting as if she were rushing to reincarnate1.
Nan Huaixu smiled at Liu Yinxi’s hurried back. She finished the wild vegetables and dried fish in her bowl, deftly rinsed the dishes with clean water, and sat down beside Liu Yinxi to help process the wood.
Wooden boards, sticks, and vines lay in separate piles on the sandy ground. Liu Yinxi used her knife to whittle the sticks, crafting the spiked spears needed for the traps. Then, she used the fire to roast and soften the vines, making them more pliable and easier to weave.
Nan Huaixu sharpened one end of the wooden boards and drove them into the dirt at one-meter intervals, following the defensive perimeter Liu Yinxi had marked out to install the fence. Once the pointed boards were in place, she secured them with vines and horizontally placed sticks, inserting sharp wooden spikes into the vine knots.
With the preparations complete, Liu Yinxi shouldered her tools and set off to place the traps. She also brought along the small ground cage she had previously used to catch lizards. Counting the materials currently on hand, she could set up four traps in total: two large ones and two small ones.
Large, thick-skinned, and ferocious beasts like babirusas were definitely out of the question, but there was still hope for catching smaller prey like wild rabbits and red muntjacs.
To attract prey, Liu Yinxi baited the traps not only with fish skins, innards, wild fruits, and cassava peels, but also with round stones soaked in the first batch of crude brine from their salt-boiling. Natural salt was extremely difficult to come by; even artificial pastures provided salt lick blocks for livestock, so naturally, these wild beasts loved them too.
Liu Yinxi observed the tracks of animal activity across the riverbank and the grassy meadow. She placed two traps in the woods, one in the bushes, and one in the grass of the riverbank’s depression.
The final trap was very small. Liu Yinxi used a stick to stuff fish innards into the ground cage. The stones were too large and would take up too much space, so she simply left them out.
Crouching in the grass, she dug a shallow pit, buried the ground cage inside, and covered it with leaves and grass. Just a few meters behind her, the river waters flowed steadily, casting an occasional damp, cold breeze against her back.
Liu Yinxi patted the leaves, producing a soft rustle. Another chilly gust hit her back. She whipped her head around; the flowing water glinted beautifully with rippling, shimmering light.
Liu Yinxi frowned. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching her. The river teemed with wildlife, so it wouldn’t be surprising if an animal in the woods or the water was keeping a wary eye on her.
This kind of ‘beast-like intuition’ was common among experienced explorers. At its core, it was a comprehensive awareness of environmental details honed over years of accumulation, resulting in an incredibly sharp reflex.
Dog 6 stood on a slightly higher patch of the riverbank, its front legs crouched low as it panned its head toward the river surface.
【Mother Heaven!】
【That thing just now, in the water! I saw a shadow!】
【Something swam past!】
【Mamma mia, I’ve got goosebumps all over QvQ】
【Xixi, please be careful!】
【It’s probably just a big fish passing by in the water (thinking)】
【I don’t think it looks like one…】
【It’s most likely a giant catfish. Those things are everywhere in Jinzhou’s waters—a regular catch for wild anglers (shrugs)】
【Please rest assured, everyone. The production team has safety measures in place. There are no large predatory beasts in the competition area.】
Having buried all the traps, Liu Yinxi walked back toward the treehouse, pondering how she still needed to bolster the shelter’s defenses.
Wild beasts feared fire and loud noises. Even carnivorous predators were highly cautious and wouldn’t recklessly approach unfamiliar things. Especially in a nature park like this, which had regular patrols and indigenous tribes living nearby, the animals all knew about the overwhelmingly dominant existence of the terrifying upright apes2. As long as an advance warning was given and their territory wasn’t violated, animals would generally stay away on their own.
Liu Yinxi planned to keep the campfire in the fire hole burning at all times. As long as there was constant firelight, most animals wouldn’t dare approach.
Next was creating noise.
Wild beasts had highly sensitive hearing and were particularly sen.sitive to strange noises distinct from natural sounds like wind and flowing water. Therefore, Liu Yinxi figured she could make a small object that produced sound and place it by the treehouse. That way, whether they left the treehouse or went to sleep at night, the noise would drive the beasts away.
The sunlight gradually faded.
Liu Yinxi walked up the slope. A ring of spiked wooden fences had already been installed around the perimeter of the outer campfire area. She picked up a loose wooden stick that served as a makeshift gate and stepped inside. Nan Huaixu was sitting by the fire hole weaving vines, a large, cylindrical fish trap lying by her feet.
Liu Yinxi quickly walked over, picked up the fish trap, and inspected it from all angles, grinning widely. “Wow, Teacher Nan, you finished weaving it already?”
Their division of labor had been for her to make the hunting tools while Nan Huaixu built the fence. She hadn’t expected Nan Huaixu to install the fence so quickly and even weave a large fish trap on top of that.
Nan Huaixu held up the half-woven small fish trap in her hands. “This one is almost done, too. I finished securing the fence and saw you hadn’t come back yet, so I grabbed some vines to weave a fish trap. We’re dividing the labor, but it’s not a rigid rule dictating exactly what each person must do. These are survival tools the whole team will use; covering for each other’s gaps saves time and improves efficiency.”
Liu Yinxi also picked up a vine, rubbed it, threaded it through a hole at the top of the large fish trap, and pulled it through to create a drag rope.
She sighed with feeling. “Teacher Nan, as a boss, you must be the best boss in the world. You consider the big picture, empathize with your subordinates, and you’re efficient and straightforward.”
She definitely didn’t engage in any of that empty corporate nonsense—like the toxic culture where no one was allowed to leave work before the boss did.
Nan Huaixu smiled but didn’t reply.
She had established a studio and was indeed a boss now, though she was still constantly exploring and learning the ropes.
Being praised as a good boss for the first time made her feel quite happy inside.
It seemed as though validation from Liu Yinxi carried a special kind of power.
For dinner, they ate crispy roasted dried fish, banana stem cores, and kudzu root honey water.
Their sole source of meat for the past two days had been the dried fish, and their current reserves would only last another two days. They urgently needed to secure a stable source of meat.
While it sounded like a pressing emergency, upon closer consideration, it wasn’t quite that terrifying.
In all the years since 《Survivor》 began, no contestant had ever managed to eat meat every single day. Even with this season’s landing zone by the sea, the majority of the contestants were still bouncing between starving and stuffing themselves. Going without meat and filling their stomachs with wild vegetables, fruits, and bugs was the norm; they’d be lucky just to have rat meat to eat.
Liu Yinxi drank down a bowl of honey water, wiped her lips clean, and picked up the completed large fish trap, which she had nested the smaller trap inside. Taking advantage of the lingering sunlight before it fully vanished, she set off to place the traps.
Nan Huaixu followed her to the concave bank where the water was wide and deep. She held a light for Liu Yinxi, watching as she loaded the fish trap with stones to weigh it down along with the bait. Gripping the drag rope in one hand, Liu Yinxi gently tossed the vine cage with the other, letting it slowly sink to the riverbed.
“Phew, everything’s finally set.” Liu Yinxi brushed the dirt from her hands and turned to smile at Nan Huaixu.
Nan Huaixu watched the ripples spreading across the water where the trap had been dropped. “I wonder if we’ll successfully catch any fish,” she murmured.
“Don’t worry, we’ll catch some. Besides, a round trip from here to the beach takes over three hours. At worst, we can just walk a little further and go beachcombing.”
“In that case, I’d rather hope our fish traps and hunting snares yield a bountiful harvest.”
Although a three-hour round trip was acceptable, the terrain along the Toa River was overly complex and incredibly difficult to traverse. Nan Huaixu truly did not want to push the upper limits of her fatigue.
Night fell over the earth. The calls of beasts and the chirping of insects in the dense jungle drifted near and far.
Liu Yinxi and Nan Huaixu sat on the second-floor activity platform of the treehouse, looking out at the calm river surface reflecting a sky full of starlight.
Liu Yinxi wedged her bracelet into a groove on the railing, using its small light to see. She threaded a very thin vine through pierced conch shells and seashells, looping in a few smooth pieces of sea glass as well—some blue, some green, and even two light purple ones. Paired with the pristine white shells, it looked remarkably beautiful.
Nan Huaixu helped her tie together a small wooden stick frame and held it up to her eyes. “What are you making this for?”
Liu Yinxi finished stringing a line of shells and glass, tied a knot to secure it, and used her knife to cut the excess vine before hanging it onto the small wooden frame. “It’ll be done in a second. You’ll know as soon as you see it.”
Nan Huaixu lowered her brows. “Last time you made the herbal soap, you also told me to ‘wait and see’.”
Liu Yinxi couldn’t help but speed up her hands. “This time is different. You’ll be able to see it in just a few minutes. Real-time.”
Nan Huaixu bent a finger and flicked a dangling shell. This person’s hands were quite deft; maybe throwing her into the new company’s props department would let her shine?
While her thoughts wandered, Liu Yinxi finished the final string of shells and tied it to the small wooden frame.
She lifted the frame by its vine loop. The few strings of shells and sea glass suspended from the wooden sticks swayed gently, the small pieces colliding with one another to produce a pleasant, light chiming sound.
Clink, clink.
Its purpose was indeed clear at a glance.
A delighted smile broke across Nan Huaixu’s face. “A shell wind chime.”
Liu Yinxi corrected, “A shell and sea glass wind chime.”
Normal shell wind chimes sold in stores included metal fittings to make the sound crisper, but since they didn’t have any metal, Liu Yinxi had used sea glass instead.
Liu Yinxi pinched a piece of green sea glass. Its smooth surface had been polished crystal clear by the seawater, and right now, it refracted dreamy patches of light under the glow of the lamp.
“This will look absolutely gorgeous under the sun. You’ll be able to see it tomorrow,” she said.
Nan Huaixu cupped her chin in both hands. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Liu Yinxi turned her head, her dark pupils reflecting Nan Huaixu’s exquisite face. “Where do you think we should hang it?”
Nan Huaixu looked around and pointed to the canopy frame above their heads. “How about here? It’ll catch the wind easily, and it won’t get in our way when we go up and down the stairs.”
Liu Yinxi hung the wind chime exactly where she suggested. The shells clinked against the sea glass, emitting a clear, ringing sound. The tone was gentle, chiming only a few times when the wind picked up, so it wouldn’t disturb anyone’s rest, yet it was more than enough to act as a deterrent to wild beasts with sharp hearing.
The two of them listened to the wind chime for a while before Nan Huaixu tilted her head back and let out a soft yawn, the corners of her eyes turning damp.
Liu Yinxi said to her, “Teacher Nan, you should rest.”
“Mhm, I’m so sleepy.” Nan Huaixu nodded.
She ducked into her own single-room partition and climbed onto the soft mattress.
“Are you not going to sleep yet?” Usually, Liu Yinxi fell asleep before she did.
Liu Yinxi stepped onto the wooden ladder and replied, “I haven’t washed up yet, and I still need to use the bathroom.”
“Oh, then I’ll sleep first.” Nan Huaixu retreated into the partition and lay down on her side on the mattress.
By the light of the moon, she examined the area. Her gaze landed on the banana leaf curtain blocking the other partition, and she frowned slightly. It was nailed completely solid with wooden pegs.
Sealed incredibly tight.
For the first time in her life, she felt a lack of confidence in the scent of her own pheromones.
Downstairs, the fire hole cast a warm, orange glow.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle. Liu Yinxi dipped some palm core into salt to brush her teeth, then held water in her mouth to rinse.
She poured out some clean water to wash her face, observing the surrounding woods as she pondered where it would be most suitable to build their latrine. It needed to be downwind of the treehouse and kept at a distance.
Failing to spot a satisfactory location, she decided to leave it for another day.
Liu Yinxi climbed up to the second floor, ducked into her partition, and lay down.
Not knowing if Nan Huaixu was asleep yet, she decided not to say goodnight. If she accidentally woke up a Teacher Nan who was right on the verge of falling asleep, that would be a terrible crime.
Goodnight, little fish traps.
Goodnight, little hunting snares.
Goodnight, my yet-to-be-met, fragrant roasted rabbit leg.
Liu Yinxi closed her eyes with a smile.
“Liu Yinxi.”
A dark silhouette suddenly poked its head through the partition’s entrance.
Liu Yinxi jolted upright. Nan Huaixu pointed at the divider and spoke in a soft, gentle whisper, “Let’s take down this partition in the middle.”
Footnotes
- A Chinese colloquialism (gǎn qù tóutāi), literally 'rushing to reincarnate.' It is used to describe someone who is in a frantic, desperate hurry, as if rushing to their next life.
- An internet slang term (kǒngbù zhílì yuán), literally 'terrifying upright ape.' It is used playfully by Chinese netizens to describe human beings from the perspective of wild animals, acknowledging humanity's absolute dominance at the top of the food chain.
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