Substitute Alpha Gets Confessed to by Her Ex’s Aunt on a Survival Variety Show – Chapter 60
by Little PandaWashing Clothes
Under the blazing sun, Nan Huaixu didn’t know whether the water in the tropical rainforest was cool or not, but Liu Yinxi’s heart wanting to help her wash her underwear was definitely warm.
Liu Yinxi’s hand reached toward the small basin Nan Huaixu was holding, suspended in midair, her face showing sincere concern. “Teacher Nan, we’ve been teammates for a month now, always helping each other. Please don’t stand on ceremony with me.”
Nan Huaixu lowered her gaze, deliberately putting on an embarrassed expression. “Thatโฆ after I differentiated, even my mother never helped me wash my underwearโฆ”
She understood that in the current rough wilderness environment, Liu Yinxi’s single-celled personality1 might easily overlook boundaries in daily details. After all, they were both women; apart from pheromone changes after differentiation during puberty, everything else was the same.
Liu Yinxi realized her mistake with delayed embarrassment. “Oh right, that was presumptuous of me. I’m sorry, Teacher Nan. Um, I’ll heat some water and mix it to make warm water for you to wash. Wait a moment.”
Liu Yinxi’s thinking was indeed simple: Nan Huaixu had been frightened by the river, so she should take good care of her these past few days and ensure her safety; Nan Huaixu had menstrual cramps, so she should give her high-protein food to replenish energy, not let her get tired, not let her touch cold water โ hence her offer to help wash clothes.
Liu Yinxi had grown up listening to her mother’s teachings: be warm and friendly, love helping others, care for every friend around her. She had always practiced this, from school to the geographic photography company, to the expedition team. She helped her teammates as much as she could and received their sincerity in return.
During her student days, before differentiation, everyone was a girl. Some lived in dormitories together, went to the bathroom together after class. After differentiation, even though there were pheromone differences physiologically, psychologically they maintained a sense of identification for some time. This sense of identification would gradually disappear under the influence of mature x-glands2 and social conditioning.
After Liu Yinxi entered the Forest Police Academy, she was either in class training or out in the field exploring. After graduation, she joined a geographic photography company and an expedition team, living days completely removed from other people. The team was full of carefree types too โ omegas, betas, alphas, they had them all. Apart from avoiding each other during physiological periods, there was no difference other times. They were all human โ work when it was time to work, no special treatment for anyone.
Before transmigrating into the book, the ten-year-old team Liu Yinxi led had members with bonds forged through life and death. People often made mistakes and got punished โ one person washing the whole team’s clothes was a common occurrence.
But things were different now.
Liu Yinxi reflected deeply. She couldn’t subconsciously apply her old habits to the present. To her, the current survival life was the same as leading teams in the past. But to Nan Huaixu, this was just a one- or two-month variety show, a brief rough outdoor experience in her life, and โ OA distinction.
ใOh no, even my mom I wouldn’t want washing my underwear, too awkward x.xใ
ใHow to put itโฆ Liu is sometimes touching, sometimes embarrassingly low EQ.ใ
ใProbably related to family upbringing. Liu is from a rural background, mom doesn’t love her, dad doesn’t care, nobody taught her, lacks social training and intimate relationship cultivation.ใ
ใWhat did rural people do to you?ใ
ใThe internet can’t control people’s morals, I advise some people to watch their words.ใ
ใYou guys make watching a variety show so exhausting? Xixi saw Manman was uncomfortable, not convenient to touch cold water, that’s why she offered to help wash clothes. She just didn’t think of anything else at first. Manman said it wasn’t convenient and she immediately realized, then apologized.ใ
ใUnderwear just sitting in the basin, didn’t expect it or pretended not to expect it? Don’t tell me she wanted to take advantage of Manman (heh heh)ใ
ใSpeechless. Nan Huaixu clearly knew Xixi was in her susceptible period and still called her in while bathing. I haven’t even said Nan Huaixu was taking advantage of Xixi.ใ
ใManman would care about taking advantage of Liu?! That’s the biggest joke! If our goddess Manman had even half a thought about Liu, I’ll livestream kowtowing and calling everyone here my mom. My ID is @IsThisFate’sPunishmentOnMe, I swear here, screenshot as proof!ใ
ใWhy are they fighting again? Wanting to quietly watch a variety show is so hard, I’m blocking the danmu3, bye bye!ใ
ใHow do you get through your period in the wilderness?ใ
ใThe production team distributed sanitary pads 0v0ใ
ใWhat about toilet paper? Will blood attract dangerous carnivores?ใ
ใFind ways to use wilderness resources to make substitutes. Suggest watching earlier episodes of ใSurvivorใ. Also, the competition area has no carnivorous beasts, the production team already had one incident, they won’t be careless again, definitely strengthened screening.ใ
ใSigh, watching this show I finally know what real wilderness camping is. Those fancy camping posts on my social media are all staged photos =_=ใ
Liu Yinxi carried the warm water to the river shoal, also bringing along the hand-protecting moisturizing cream.
Nan Huaixu sat on the small wooden stool, sprinkled some lime powder4 into the small basin, stirred it into the warm water, scrubbed the clothes, then rinsed them twice and hung them behind the screen to dry.
The sun was strong today; the clothes would dry quickly.
Liu Yinxi squatted on a large rock in the middle of the river, dipping the plastic water bucket into the water, twisting her neck to look at the grass below the treehouse.
Nan Huaixu called to her, “What are you looking at?”
Liu Yinxi raised one hand and drew a circle in the air toward the space beneath several closely growing trees. “I want to build two toilet sheds there.”
“Toilets?” Nan Huaixu looked toward that patch of grass under the trees. “Is it necessary to build a special shed?”
Liu Yinxi’s gaze didn’t move. She tilted her head closer to her and spoke more quietly. “Teacher Nan, think about it โ when it rains, isn’t it inconvenient? And if we build a shed to bury it, we can better mask the scent of blood.”
Nan Huaixu caught the key point in her words. “Yes, safety first.”
“After I finish washing clothes, we go chop trees?”
“I’ll handle chopping trees and building the shed. Teacher Nan, there’s a more important task I need to ask you to do.”
“What task?”
“Collect moss. It needs to look nice, be soft and tender, not the old kind.”
Nan Huaixu rested her chin on her hand. The first thing she thought of was the moss soup they’d eaten to fill their stomachs at the old shelter. “Even tender moss tastes just okay, not as good as ferns. Let’s collect ferns instead.”
Liu Yinxi said, “This time we’re collecting moss not to eat, but to use as toilet paper.”
“Can’t we use tender banana leaves? Moss grows in damp, shady places. I always feel it’s not clean.”
“Moss is softer and more absorbent. Banana leaves work for regular times, but during your period you need to stay dry. I’ll clean the moss after collecting it, don’t worry.”
“Mmโฆ okay, I understand.” Nan Huaixu agreed.
So that was it.
Nan Huaixu glanced at Liu Yinxi, who was bending her head to draw water, and the corner of her mouth lifted slightly.
She felt that if she wanted anything, Liu Yinxi could collect materials from the rainforest and make it.
After bringing the water back, Liu Yinxi specifically strung up a clothesline using tree vines behind the screen on the first floor of the treehouse.
Nan Huaixu walked behind the screen to hang clothes while Liu Yinxi rummaged through tools at the storage rack, putting them into her backpack.
Liu Yinxi estimated that building two sheds would take a day, so there wouldn’t be time to check traps and fish traps. She’d wait until the day after tomorrow. Going further out then would work well โ they could come back and bathe.
Nan Huaixu came over and sat down. “When the clothes are dry and I’m dressed, we’ll set off.”
Liu Yinxi heard the wind chimes ring twice from upstairs and chatted casually. “Teacher Nan, do you hand-wash clothes at home?”
Nan Huaixu’s eyes showed puzzlement, as if she’d never considered someone would ask her such a question. “Almost never. Clothes get sorted, and there are dedicated washing machines, dryers, and disinfection cabinets.”
She thought for a moment and gave Liu Yinxi more detail. “I don’t let my assistant touch my personal clothes. Only on set and at hotels does my assistant help organize my things.”
Liu Yinxi said enviously, “Being rich is nice. Technology optimizes life.”
Nan Huaixu agreed about the convenience electronics brought. “When you earn money, get smart products for your home. They’ll update quickly and aren’t expensive.”
Liu Yinxi zipped up her bag. “Mm. Washing machine, robot vacuum, housekeeping robot โ I’ll get them all. Thinking back to when I was little, hand-washing clothes earned me fifty cents each time. I had to wash for days to save up enough pocket money to buy a T-Rex model at the corner store.”
Nan Huaixu raised her eyes, a hidden smile in them. “You like dinosaurs?”
Liu Yinxi’s voice grew more cheerful. “When I was in elementary school, I was crazy about animal models. There was a bucket at the school store entrance filled with colorful balls, three yuan each. You’d open one and get a random model inside โ tigers, lions, zebras, giraffes, and dinosaurs. I liked dinosaurs the most. I collected a whole drawer full.”
Nan Huaixu thought of Liu Yinxi’s family background and asked curiously, “Did your parents make you do chores to earn pocket money?”
Liu Yinxi touched her forehead. The original owner’s parents were busy with their respective new families, even kicking the tuition fees back and forth like a ball โ where would they find time to care about pocket money?
The idea of doing chores for pocket money was proposed by Liu Yinxi’s mother and implemented by Mommy.
Actually, Mommy’s pocket money came the same way, so doing household chores was something Liu Yinxi and Mommy would fight over doing.
After transmigrating, Liu Yinxi could still dream about competing with Mommy over taking out the garbage โ going out once meant earning fifty cents, such a bargain. You could even earn kickbacks by reporting people for slacking off!
Occasionally Grandma would come visit Liu Yinxi and slip her a huge sum of two hundred yuan. Mom wouldn’t interfere, just told her to keep it safe, told her this kind of heaven-sent good fortune only happened two or three times a year โ Liu Yinxi, cherish it!
Luck was also a survival skill.
Anyway, Nan Huaixu couldn’t go to the original owner’s hometown to investigate.
Liu Yinxi improvised, “No, it was my grandma.”
Nan Huaixu knew her childhood hadn’t been happy, so she didn’t press further. “Those animal models of yours โ do you still have them?”
Liu Yinxi paused for a moment.
In the real world, her mother had specially bought a display cabinet and kept her collection very well.
In this world inside the bookโฆ
Liu Yinxi sighed helplessly and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
All the sorrow in her eyes was seen by Nan Huaixu. Nan Huaixu looked around, took a handful of dry grass from the box, and wove a small object to place in Liu Yinxi’s palm.
Liu Yinxi: “Teacher Nan? What is this?”
Nan Huaixu poked the grass-woven toy. “A T-Rex.”
“Hm?” Liu Yinxi picked up the grass-woven dinosaur and examined it carefully. She’d thought it was a bird.
Nan Huaixu smiled slightly, her eyes gentle. “Doesn’t it look like one?”
Liu Yinxi smiled and held it up to her eyes. “It does.”
She wove a little dinosaur for her.
She was so nice.
Footnotes
- A Chinese metaphor (dฤn xรฌbฤo) comparing someone's thinking to a single-celled organism โ simple, straightforward, lacking complexity or hidden motives.
- In this Omegaverse setting, the x-gland (x xiร n) is the gland responsible for producing pheromones. Its maturation marks the full development of secondary gender characteristics.
- Danmu (ๅผนๅน) are live comments that scroll across the screen in real-time during video playback, popular on Chinese video platforms.
- Lime powder (shรญhuฤซ fฤn) is used here for its antibacterial and cleaning properties. In wilderness survival, it can help sanitize and break down organic matter.
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