Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 051
Chapter 51
When Chen Qi and Aze returned home, the child called Ajing was already awake. Ka Luo quickly pulled Chen Qi over as soon as he saw him come in. “Chen Qi, hurry, come and take a look. He has been awake for a while now, but hasn’t been able to swallow the soup you’d asked me to feed him, and half of it has already been spilled.”
“. . . How did you feed him?”
“Isn’t his stomach injured? I didn’t dare to move him, so I just let him lie down and drink it.”
Chen Qi kept silent and did not reply.
Chen Qi went over to the fire keng. The child seemed to sense someone approaching. He lightly opened his eyes, glanced at Chen Qi and then slowly closed them again. Chen Qi knelt down beside him and asked softly, “Does the wound still hurt?”
The child didn’t respond to him. Chen Qi lifted the hide blanket and checked the child’s injury. The wound showed no signs of bleeding. He replaced the willow leaves and thistle pastes again and instructed Aze to cook some rice berries. Only then did he take the warm ginseng and rib meat soup from Ka Luo.
Chen Qi carefully lifted the child up a little bit. Perhaps the movement affected his wound, but the child groaned and his pale face grimaced. The child opened his eyes angrily and stared at Chen Qi.
Chen Qi gave him an ingratiating smile. Afraid it would hurt him some more, he dared not make any more movements and just held him. “Sorry, did it hurt?”
The child just looked at him silently. Ka Luo interjected, “You just woke up and you’re already staring someone down. I don’t know how you got injured by the hyena-drake, but you’ve only survived because Chen Qi managed to save you with great difficulty.” Ka Luo knew that although Ajing was young, he had a stubborn temper. Usually, whenever he encountered him, the child would treat him like air and ignore him. Several times, he’d even tossed back the food that he’d tried to give to him, angering Ka Luo half to death. But in the end, he didn’t have the heart to leave such a young child alone in the tribe.
The child kept looking at Chen Qi. The child had probably lived alone for a long time and had an uneven diet. His skin color was a bit sallow and he was very thin, but his eyes were both big and round, just like that little wolf cub Chen Qi had picked up. When he turned those eyes to look at him, he felt a pang in his heart from the adorableness.
Chen Qi couldn’t help rubbing the messy hair on the child’s forehead. With a wooden spoon, he scooped a spoonful of the ginseng and rib meat soup and brought it to the child’s mouth. He coaxed, “You were unconscious for a whole day and night. You’re probably hungry. Have some soup to cushion your stomach.”
The child was silent for a moment. He hadn’t eaten anything for a long time, even before he was injured. At this point, he was extremely hungry and exhausted. The child opened his mouth slowly and drank the soup from the spoon that was held close to his mouth. The soup tasted very light and a little sweet, but it was the best tasting soup he’d ever had.
Seeing the child finally drink some soup, Ka Luo was relieved and turned back towards the fire to help Ake prepare dinner.
After feeding the soup to the child, Chen Qi noticed the child’s eyes struggling to stay open. He gently laid him back down and covered him up with a soft fur blanket.
The little wolf cub had woken up at some unknown point and was lying down in his makeshift nest, looking at the strange child that suddenly appeared. Chen Qi worried that the little wolf cub would accidentally bump into the child’s wound. So, after feeding the little wolf cub the milk fruit, he moved its nest back into the original pottery dish and then moved the dish over by the fire. The little wolf cub seemed unconcerned about the move of its nest. After eating and drinking its fill, it closed its eyes and fell asleep.
The few of them had been worried all night and busy all day. After hastily eating dinner, Aze spread out several more animal skins and blankets by the fire, and they went to sleep beside the warmth. In the middle of the night, Chen Qi worried that the child would be hungry, so he got up to feed the other half a bowl of watered down rice paste.
Yesterday, after it stopped snowing, it didn’t start back up again. When Chen Qi woke up, Ka Luo had already prepared breakfast, and Ake and Aze were not in the room. Chen Qi got up and went to check the child’s condition. The wound had healed well, and he helped him reapply the medicine and replace the bandages. Chen Qi planned to boil another bowl of ginseng soup for the child to supplement his recovery.
Today’s sunshine was a bit dazzling, and it felt warm on the skin. Chen Qi went outside to fetch some bones and noticed Azhang bounding over from a distance, with Aze and Ake trailing behind him. Azhang saw Chen Qi and greeted him with a nod from afar. Then, he whispered something to Aze and turned to leave.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Aze came over and saw Chen Qi holding a pottery bowl and the dragon-horn knife. He asked, “Are you looking to fetch some bones to make Ajing some soup?”
Chen Qi nodded. Aze retrieved a small chunk of the rib meat he’d chopped yesterday, chopped them into smaller pieces, and filled a bowl full. Chen Qi asked with some confusion, “Why did Azhang come over here at this time? Aren’t there still a lot of things that he needs to take care of in the tribe?”
“Uncle Azhang plans to send the tribespeople to the Lion-Wolf Tribe. He’s going to the Lion-Wolf Tribe today to discuss that with their patriarch.” Aze paused for a moment before continuing, “He came here to ask me to take care of the tribe for the next few days.”
Chen Qi frowned. “Do you need to move to the tribe for a few days then?” There was still a seriously injured person in the house, so Chen Qi couldn’t leave. He felt a little saddened at the thought of being separated from Aze for a few days.
Aze shook his head. “No, it would be fine to just go over to help patrol during the day. At night, Ahxu and the others would take over guard duty.”
“Then, you have to be careful.”
“En. Don’t worry. Ake will stay here to protect you.”
After breakfast, Aze headed for the tribe. Since it was not snowing anymore, Chen Qi and the others took the opportunity to clear up all the snow in the yard and pile them onto the wall. Ajing’s condition was also much better than yesterday. He was already able to eat large servings of rice paste during meals, though most of his time was still spent sleeping. At first, Chen Qi worried that the child would be inflicted with a fever from his injury. But apparently, the body of a beastman, even as young as this child, was much stronger than he imagined.
Azhang returned the next night. It was unknown how fast he must have been running, but when he arrived, he was panting heavily and it took him a long time to catch his breath. Then, after whispering something to Ake, he quickly left again. Chen Qi was confused. He felt that Azhang’s recent behavior this past couple of days was quite mysterious.
During dinner that evening, Ka Luo brought up something to Aze casually, as if it was an ordinary dinner conversation topic, “Brother, Ake and I have decided to move over to live with you.”
Aze’s chopsticks froze mid-air and without even needing to think about it, he refused, “No, you are going with Uncle Azhang and the others to the Lion-Wolf Tribe.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Tomorrow, we will build a house next door, just like yours.” Ka Luo placed a piece of fried pork into his mouth, ignoring Aze’s words. It was because he used to listen to Aze too much before that had allowed this brother of his to move out of the tribe.
Aze shifted his gaze to Ake. Ake shrugged his shoulders, easily implying that he’d only listen to Ka Luo on this matter. Ka Luo did not want to go. So naturally, he would not go either.
“Right now, the land is frozen stiff and it will be difficult to dig the foundation. Why don’t you move in and live here with us? There is a fire keng in the living room and the rooms are empty anyway.” Chen Qi interjected.
Ka Luo looked at Aze triumphantly and was about to happily agree.
Ake asked curiously, “Why don’t you sleep in the room?”
Chen Qi paused in the middle of getting more food and said with a little embarrassment, “The room is too cold. I hadn’t considered the need to have a fire in the rooms when we built it. Sorry, I didn’t think about that until just now.”
Ka Luo was a little disappointed. “Then, let’s just build another one next door.”
Aze looked at the three men who were conversing. “Your child will be born this winter. If you’re far away from the tribe and something happens, what are you going to do then?”
“What can happen with you and Chen Qi nearby?” Ka Luo muttered discontentedly.
“Have you considered that Ake won’t be able to get out of bed for three days after giving birth? During that period of time, if there isn’t an experienced female to help prevent the infant from falling sick, what then?” Aze continued solemnly, “You are about to be a father. Don’t you know how cold winter is? And your child is going to be born in deep winter. If it turns out to be a male child and he has any problems, where will you find an experienced female to help you? In such a wilderness, have you considered how you’ll be able to provide for your child?”
Ka Luo threw his bowl on the ground with a “bang” and the bowl cracked. “You are always so reasonable. You were like this when you insisted on moving out, leaving me alone in the tribe. Now, you’re like this again, trying to drive me away. You are my brother. Even though we don’t share the same dad, you will always be my brother. What’s wrong with wanting to live near my brother?” Ka Luo said with reddened eyes and stood up, walking to the door. He swung open the thick hide door curtain and went out of the house without looking back.
“In fact, he just wants to always be close by you like before.” Ake stood up. “Don’t always push him away. What happened to his dad has nothing to do with you. Ka Luo understands this matter better than you do.”
After Ake went out, Aze set down his bowl and chopsticks. Worried, Chen Qi went closer to him and reached out to hold Aze’s hand. He found that Aze’s hand was unusually cold.
“I’m fine.” Aze withdrew his hand and got up to clean up the dishes.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
After their quarrel, Aze and Ka Luo started a cold war. They were both unwilling to talk to the other even if the other was right in front of them. Early the next morning, Ka Luo sent Ake off to go back to the tribe to start bringing slates over. Unexpectedly, Azhang also had several females from the tribe come over to help. Ka Luo marked out an area of land outside the wall and Azhang had brought over four locust dragon eye carapaces from who knows where. Seeing that the group of them planned to directly start the construction, Chen Qi could not help but assist them with the planning. He knocked down one of the ice walls and told Ka Luo to build the house in the open space beside his. Ka Luo was naturally filled with joy at the suggestion, while Aze watched silently, neither helping nor stopping them.
Chen Qi looked at the cleared area. The cleared space was twice as large as his own. Looking at the beast people who were busy moving stone slabs, Chen Qi could not help but jokingly say, “With such a large plot of land, are you planning to build two houses?”
“Yep.” Ka Luo replied naturally. “Ake and I will have one. Uncle Azhang and Uncle Ali will have the other one. Exactly two houses.”
“……”
Was Ka Luo having problems expressing himself, or was it a problem with his own hearing? When did Azhang decide to join the fun? Were they planning to move the whole tribe over here by them?
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Anyone else smiling as they read to the end of this chapter? 🙂
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomNight73
Proofreader: Yume
Editor stepping into the realm of MTL translating, starting with CLWP. Support this translation with a Ko-fi. Three Ko-fis will add an extra chapter from the stockpile to the next weekly release.
Thanks for the update! The chapter ending really did make me smile😁 My gut feeling is telling me the whole tribe might really move to where CQ and Aze are. Also is that an adopted child I see? 👀
*zips lips* Maybe 🙂
Are had been treated so badly he thinks his “bad luck” will rub off onto his brother. And Ka Luo has been hurt in the process. How awful.
Thankfully we have Chen Qi there to help smooth things along.
TY for the chapter!
Nod nod. Things continue to get better and better with CQ around. Thank you for reading and for the comment 🙂