Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 059
Chapter 59
“The sky was black and the earth was yellow, the universe was vast and a dark whole. The sun rises and sets and the moon is regularly round, stars spread high above without a toll. Cold and heat come and go, fall harvest and storing for winter people know**…” Aze’s voice was deep and mellow. Although he read a little haltingly, his voice was very pleasant, so everything he said was enjoyable to hear.
*Translation of first few phrases from the Thousand Character Classics taken from this source: https://m.kekenet.com/kouyi/201409/326767.shtml
This snowstorm lasted a whole week. Aside from the mornings when the wind and snow stopped for a while and they needed to clear up the snow on the roof, everyone stayed in the house and studied the rest of the time.
The room was filled with gum tree leaves that had words written on them. The two characters for “desk” were written on the gum tree leaf at the edge of the table, and the one by a chair had the word “chair” on it. Chen Qi had marked all the objects in the room with gum tree leaves that had their names on them. In this way, as long as they glanced over to the leaves, they would be able to know the word that corresponded to each object. This was the method Chen Qi used to memorize English words.
Aze learned the mermaid story Chen Qi wrote down within a week. Although the others weren’t as fast, they could already understand most of it. Now Chen Qi would write some ancient prose he remembered, and let them try to read it. Their purpose was not to show them how good those classic compositions were, but to let them recognize the characters. When they encountered characters they didn’t know, he let them list them down and slowly practice them, then later explain those characters to them.
Although Chen Qi only remembered the beginning of the Thousand Characters Classic, the text, which contained a thousand unique characters, was a very good material to teach literacy. It was much better than Chen Qi’s story outline that had three to four hundred words, of which roughly two thirds of them were repeated characters. Unfortunately, Chen Qi couldn’t remember what followed ‘fall harvest and storing for winter people know’. There was nothing that could be done about it. Chen Qi could only teach the beginning of that text, and then pull up other literary works from his memory and write those down. Fortunately, the exam-oriented education had forced him to memorize many ancient poems. Perhaps because that hellish studying model was just too profound, even though Chen Qi had not touched ancient prose for over ten years, he could still record several Tang and Song dynasty poems from memory.
“Brother, Chen Qi. Come and eat.” Ka Luo set down the dishes onto the piece of animal skin that served as a tablecloth by the fire. Eating food by the fire would be warmer, so the table that was originally to be a dining table could only serve as a desk.
“Coming.” Chen Qi replied, and simply tidied up the things on the table before he went over.
Breakfast in the morning was as before; meat congee and fried meat patties. Even though it was winter, Chen Qi worried that if he ate too much fried food, he would suffer from excessive internal heat. Thus he had banned Ka Luo from making all fried dishes at every meal. Though the dishes still mostly involved frying, he was only allowed to fry the food a little.
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 dinner, we will move to our new house, and Ajing will also move to live with me.” Ali said, as he handed Chen Qi a bowl of meat congee.
“Why? Ajing lives comfortably here. Here we have the fire keng, which is very warm.” Chen Qi frowned. He thought Ajing would stay at his house all the time.
Azhang and Ake had gone to clear the snow off the roofs earlier in the morning, after the snowstorm had stopped. They found that the gum fruits used for the houses had completely dried and they were all right even after such a heavy snowstorm. So the few of them planned to move into their homes.
“We have an identical fire keng over there too, which you had guided us to make.” Azhang said with a smile. In this short period of time, he had learned a lot from Chen Qi. Now Azhang was very glad that he’d made the decision to move here.
“Ajing still doesn’t have to move with you. He also still has to take care of Little Wolf.”
Aze felt that Chen Qi had been in a strange mood since he heard that Azhang and the others were moving back to their homes that morning. “Don’t worry. Their home is right next door.”
Chen Qi looked at Aze, pursed his lips, and didn’t say anything more.
The food was frozen outside the house and there was not much to move. A fire had been lit in the new house since morning. Ka Luo laid on the fire keng that had been heated until it was warm and toasty, and rolled over it a few times . Although Chen Qi’s home also had this fire keng, it had always been used by Ajing. Ka Luo was extremely excited at the thought of sleeping on the bed on the fire keng tonight.
Chen Qi set down a pile of animal skins in the corner of the room. Looking at Ka Luo still rolling around on his bed, he could not help but ask, “Ka Luo, will you still be coming over for dinner tonight?”
Ka Luo raised his head, a puzzled look in his eyes, “No, I can cook it myself.” Besides, Chen Qi still wouldn’t let himself cook his favorite fries. Ka Luo planned to cook his fill of them tonight.
Chen Qi made a non-committal sound of reply and went back out to see if Azhang and the others needed help with anything.
Azhang’s household had less stuff than Ka Luo’s. When Chen Qi passed by, they were already all done. Ali had set up a large pottery dish over a fire in the yard and was melting clean snow.
While everyone else was busy, Chen Qi pulled Ajing aside, crouched down and asked softly, “Ajing, do you want to continue living in my house?”
Ajing blinked and shook his head. “I’ll stay here for a few days. I’ll take care of Little Wolf. Don’t worry.” This morning, Ali and Ka Luo had pulled him over to a side and asked him, all hush hush, to move to live with them. Now, Chen Qi was asking if he wanted to stay. Clearly, the three houses were right next to each other. Ajing did not understand. As close as they were, wasn’t it the same whose house he lived in?
“Don’t you still have characters you haven’t finished practicing? Besides, I still have many stories to tell. How about I tell you a new story tonight?” Chen Qi continued trying to persuade him.
Ajing frowned and was a little tangled. Chen Qi’s nightly bedtime stories were now his most anticipated thing for each day. But when he recalled the request Ali entrusted to him and considering it was only a few days, Ajing bit his lower lip and shook his head firmly.” I’ll stay at Azhang’s house for two days.” After a pause, he worried that Chen Qi would stop telling him stories and added, “I can go back to live with you in two days.”
Chen Qi sighed a little dejectedly, pinched Ajing’s little face and, while resenting the iron for not becoming steel*, said, “Fine. You make sure to take good care of the little wolf cub and then move back in two days.”
*恨铁不成钢 hèn tiě bù chéng gāng lit. to hate iron for not becoming steel; to feel resentful towards sb for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement (idiom)
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ajing hurriedly nodded.
Because people were moving houses and they were not studying anymore today, Aze and Azhang cleared up the snow around the houses, while Chen Qi stayed in Ali’s and taught the others to make some furniture.
The tables and chairs had to be left to dry after they were made. There weren’t very many things in the new house. After Ali finished the tables, he piled them in a corner. Chen Qi placed some pottery jars around them to prevent Ajing from accidentally bumping into them.
It got dark fast in the winter, and the wind started picking up again in the evening. Chen Qi could only say goodbye to Ali and head home. Ka Luo and Ake had gone home earlier after learning to make furniture in order to plan their own. When he passed by their house, the thick fur door-curtain was so tightly covered that he couldn’t even see a crack of light.
The yard was too big, the snow was only cleared from the areas around the house. Perhaps because it had been stepped on too many times, the snow on the ground was mixed with reddish brown soil and became dirty.
Chen Qi forwent the muddy path and stepped along the white snow next to it, his boots not sinking into the snow directly. A cold wind poured onto his neck. Chen Qi shivered and hurried his few steps home.
Upon opening the hide door curtain, he saw Aze by the fire making a bone soup. When he saw Chen Qi come in, Aze asked, “What would you like to eat tonight?”
“Anything is fine.” Chen Qi replied dispiritedly, seeing the empty house.
Aze chopped up a few potatoes to make a plate of meat and potato stew, set a few sweet potatoes to roast in the fire, then sliced some meat strips and stir-fried them with cabbage. Aze’s learning ability was very fast, and the dishes he made now tasted even better than those made by Chen Qi.
However, even though Aze’s food tasted good, Chen Qi didn’t seem to register what he was tasting. Aze gave him a large chopstick-full of meat and comforted him, “They are right next door and we will see them tomorrow.” Considering Chen Qi’s depressed mood started as soon as the others moved out, Aze didn’t have to guess to know that Chen Qi was feeling reluctant to let them move out.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“I’m fine, but I’m just a little not used to it.”
Since Ajing and the little wolf pup were not there, Chen Qi moved to sleep on the bed on the fire keng. After he had tidied things up, Aze spread out a fur blanket by the fire to sleep on. He looked up and saw Chen Qi tossing and turning on the fire keng, apparently showing no signs of falling asleep. Remembering what Azhang secretly told him in the morning, Aze gave himself a pep talk then tentatively asked Chen Qi, “Can I sleep with you tonight?”
Chen Qi stopped tumbling around and his eyes brightened. He quickly scooted over and patted the vacant space beside him and said, “Let’s sleep together.”
The tips of Aze’s ears turned reddish and he picked up his fur blanket and climbed onto the fire keng.
Though they said they were sleeping together, in fact they weren’t even in the same blanket. The fur blanket wasn’t large and was only enough to cover one person. Aze considered whether he should ask Uncle Ali to help sew a big blanket that could fit two people tomorrow.
“Do you think I’m strange?”
Aze, who was calming his heart, which was pounding wildly because he was lying on the same bed as Chen Qi, was stunned at that question. “No.”
“A grown person being so afraid of separation. Chen Qi chuckled, “I used to feel sad for a long time every time I graduated. Every time I left home, I would linger around, reluctant to leave. Working at the same place for seven or eight years even though the salary was not high. I mostly stayed because of the sentiment. Later, I gradually stopped making friends and didn’t go home because I was afraid of parting, and then I didn’t feel sad anymore. Saying all this, I suddenly feel like I was very unreasonable.”
Aze didn’t quite understand what Chen Qi was saying. He turned to look at the person lying beside him. Chen Qi quietly gazed at the ceiling and Aze couldn’t read the other’s emotions at the moment.
“But,” Chen Qi continued, “I wasn’t sad at all when I came here. I didn’t even feel reluctant to leave that familiar world. On the contrary, I felt relieved.”
Chen Qi turned his head, then put his hand into Aze’s hide quilt and held Aze’s slightly cold hand, smiling gently. “I’m very fortunate, for being able to meet you.”
Chen Qi’s beautiful eyes became extremely bright because they reflected the fire nearby. Aze looked at him directly and suddenly leaned over, gently kissing the other’s lips. He said earnestly, “Me too. Thank you for letting me meet you.”
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: My teeth are rotting 😀
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.
*stares at Chen Qi*
Well, well, will you look at that blockhead. And my poor baby Aze has to seduce his own gong, huh?
Hey Miiya, thank you for the hard work of translating the past 59 chapters. You’re doing great! I love this novel.
Thanks for the comment, dear!
Waaaa so cute aaah
Yes, this sentiment, i relate!
Isn’t this too sweet? I don’t have dental insurance anymore :/
Thanks for translation
I feel like chen qi is invalidating he’s feelings its perfectly normal to like lots of company and hate separation I wish he’d speak up about it and though im vexed the primitive people don’t understand his feelings i still get them