Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 070
Chapter 70
Aze, who had worked hard all night last night, was still asleep, while Chen Qi was refreshed early in the morning. When he woke up, he had wanted to steal a kiss from Aze, but he was afraid of waking him, so he gently got up instead.
Just now, he seemed to hear the cry of the little wolf cub coming from outside the house. The little wolf cub had now settled down with Ajing in Ali’s house. Although Chen Qi’s house was big, there was only one kang bed. Since the wedding, the original ideas of taking Ajing back had not appeared for a long while. After all, if there was a small light bulb* around the house, how would he do shameful things with Aze? Naturally, in this period, the young married female was more important. As for Ajing, ahem, they’ll have him come back when summer comes.
*小灯泡 xiǎo dēngpào literally small light bulb, figuratively third wheel
Chen Qi worried that the little wolf pup had snuck out while Ajing was sleeping. Since there was a wall around the perimeter, he wasn’t afraid that the little wolf cub would get lost. However, it was freezing cold outside. The little wolf cub was still so young. He was afraid something might happen to it if it went out in this cold. Having had those pessimistic thoughts, Chen Qi put on his clothes and planned to go out to check.
“Shh, don’t make any noise.” As soon as he opened the wooden door, he saw Ajing standing in front of it, holding the little wolf cub, with his hand extended out to cover the little wolf pup’s mouth, so as not to let it make too much noise and disturb the people inside the house. The little wolf cub thought Ajing was playing with it, so it became even more excited. Its little tail wagged so fast, its shadow couldn’t be seen. It let out an awoo and stretched out its tiny, pink tongue to lick Ajing’s palm.
“What are you doing here?” It was still dark out, and the oil lamps in front of the houses were only lit on Moonless Days or when the moon was blocked by clouds. Seeing Ajing’s face that was pale from the cold, he couldn’t imagine how long he had been standing outside the door.
Once Chen Qi opened the door, Ajing’s eyes lit up. When he heard the question, he quickly blocked the front of the little wolf cub, raised his head and said. “We want to eat fish.”
“……”
“A whole night has already passed and I don’t feel uncomfortable anywhere. So I can eat fish again.” Ajing continued his explanation, “And Little Wolf said he wanted to have some too.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Hearing Ajing say his name, Little Wolf let out a very timely awoo, as if he were responding to Ajing’s words. Chen Qi’s head was full of black lines. Could the beastmen also have the ability to understand animal speech? How come he hadn’t known this before?
After getting along for a period of time, Ajing had progressed from his initial restraint when they first met, to now, where he would occasionally request things from Chen Qi. Although Chen Qi was very happy about that, it was not necessary to wait outside the door so early in the morning. He pulled Ajing into the house, half of him feeling heartache, and the other half wanting to rebuke the child. The house was warm and cozy, Ajing couldn’t help but sneeze as soon as he got in.
Chen Qi gave Ajing a few sentences of scolding then hurriedly filled up half a bowl of crucian carp soup for him. The soup was made last night. It would have some fishiness to it when it was cold, so Chen Qi had kept it warm by the fire. At this time, he just seasoned it with a little salt and they could drink it directly.
There were a lot of wild ginger slices in the fish soup. Chen Qi scooped out several of them to Ajing. “These wild ginger slices must be eaten. Don’t secretly throw them away, otherwise there will be no fish for you.”
Ajing frowned tightly. Even though the bowl of milky soup looked delicious, its appeal to him had just dropped several notches.
“Don’t give Little Wolf any fish soup.” Chen Qi warned and went to wash up.
The fish meat that was boiled in the fish soup had become tasteless. Chen Qi tasted it. All the essence of the fish had probably been boiled into the soup. The remaining heap of fish meat in the soup was a different level of unpalatableness, and was even worse than plain boiled meat.
Chen Qi sighed. Naturally, it was impossible to just discard such a large amount of meat like this. If they could be dipped in a little sauce, they could still be eaten. However, to eat it like this directly, the bland taste would likely deter a second bite. Chen Qi was 100% sure that if he let the beastmen eat this kind of fish meat, they would never want to eat fish again.
Chen Qi worried that the fish bones would have fallen into the soup, so he found another pottery dish and carefully poured the fish soup into it. Since the fish had been stewed for so long, it broke apart as soon as it was touched. Chen Qi filled a large dishful of fish meat and carefully removed all the bones.
A rice berry was already left to warm by the fire yesterday. Chen Qi mixed the semi-dry rice berry into the processed fish meat and seasoned it with salt to taste. Then he kneaded it all together and made them into round balls. Finally, he fried them in hot oil and fished them out when they turned golden brown.
One large bowl of fish and rice berry mix resulted in two large bowls of fried fish balls. Chen Qi also boiled some sliced meat porridge. The meat slices were made of hydrochoerus dragon meat and were cut thinly. As soon as the porridge was cooked, the meat slices were added in and boiled again. Then, it was seasoned with salt, ginger and scallions and the sliced meat porridge was ready to be eaten.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Although Chen Qi tried to soften the sounds from cooking, but the frying noises still woke Aze up. Chen Qi leaned up to kiss Aze’s forehead and said dotingly, “Go wash up first. Breakfast will be ready soon.”
Last night’s activities ran late into the night, so Aze was not quite fully awake yet and his expression still looked a bit dazed. Chen Qi couldn’t help but steal another kiss. He saw Aze’s ears start to turn red, then he nudged him towards the bathroom and went to set out all the prepared things onto the table.
When Ajing smelled the fragrant aroma of the fish balls, he almost couldn’t bear to resist. Seeing that Chen Qi was almost done with everything, he automatically sat down by the table. He even arranged the tableware and chopsticks, then eagerly watched the food on the table. However, Chen Qi and Aze had not come out yet and he could only refrain from moving his chopsticks in advance.
Chen Qi handed a bowl of sliced meat porridge to Ajing. Seeing Ajing’s obedient sitting posture, Chen Qi could not help but rub on the other’s small head. “Go ahead and eat first. You don’t need to wait for us.”
Ajing gave a big nod, picked up the chopsticks and took a bite out of a fish ball. The fish ball was fried to be nice and crispy on the outside, while the inside remained the original texture. The fish meat was seasoned with salt and eaten together with the skin, making it feel half crispy and half soft, which was quite different from the fried meatballs he’d had before.
Assured that Ajing was happily eating, Chen Qi also set out a little bit of fish for the little wolf cub. Naturally, fried food was not suitable for the cub. He took a little of the boiled fish and washed it with water to remove the oil on the surface, then fed it to the little wolf cub. The pup approached to sniff at it, then raised its head and looked up at Chen Qi. Tentatively sticking its tongue out, it gave it a few licks and then bit at it with its little teeth. Although the fish was not as sweet as the milk fruit, this was its first time eating meat. Although the taste was a little lighter, it was very happy.
“Isn’t it too soon to start feeding it meat already?” asked Aze, who had just come out of the bathroom and eyed this scene with worry. After all, the current staple food for the little wolf cub was still the milk fruit. Once it started to eat meat, he was afraid that it’d only eat meat in the future.
“Its milk teeth have almost grown in, so eating a little fish won’t be a problem.” In fact, Chen Qi thought that if the little wolf cub started eating meat, he would be able to keep the milk fruit for himself. He always worried that the pup would not have enough food for the winter, so he did not dare to touch the milk fruits. The little wolf cub was still considered a wild animal, and was unlike the beastmen who could transition to eating rice berries instead of meat.
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 feeding the little wolf cub, Chen Qi sat down at the table. Suddenly, Azhang’s loud voice rang out from outside the door. “Chen Qi, we want to eat fish.” The wooden door opened as soon as Azhang’s call came, and he was momentarily stunned at the sight of the three people sitting at the table.
Chen Qi couldn’t fathom how these beastmen, who were initially so resistant towards eating fish, were suddenly obsessed with it. Daylight had barely broken, and they already started running over here, one by one.
Azhang noticed Ajing seated at the table eating the fish balls with relish and his handsome face collapsed directly. He immediately walked over and gave him a knuckle sandwich, and stated with a hint of complaint in his voice, “Little rabbit, I didn’t catch a hint of your figure earlier this morning. It turns out, you already ran over here to eat.” As he said that, he grabbed a fish ball that Ajing had just picked up and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed twice, then said with surprise, “Chen Qi, this fish is really delicious.”
Ajing glared at Azhang, picked up the untouched bowl of fish balls on the table and scooted closer towards Aze.
Ali looked at the amount of food on the table. With the addition of himself and Azhang, it was naturally not enough. He smiled, “Chen Qi, do you want to make some more breakfast? I can help.”
“I’ll help too, and make some food for Ka Luo and Ake.” Aze stood up. He originally thought that it was still dark out and he’d prepare food for the others a little later. However, he didn’t expect that everyone was so eager because of the fish.
Chen Qi was helpless. “Then let’s make some more.”
Azhang rolled up his sleeves and also planned to join. Only Ajing was left to have a great time eating the fried fish balls. He was still young, so even if he wanted to help, Chen Qi wouldn’t agree to it. So, he’ll just eat at ease.
In fact, the beastmen were not eager about the fish because of how delicious they were, but because the once ‘tradition passed down for thousands of years’ was now broken. So, whether it was because there was now an additional food source, or due to their childhood obsessions where they’d secretly run off to the Chishui River to fish only to be chased around the tribe by both their dad and their father finally being sated, these beastmen were full of expectations on how to deal with the fish.
In the end, the beastmen still had a certain fear of a situation where the fish bone would get caught in their throat, so they were very careful about removing all the fish bones when mashing the fish meat.
“It’s a pity there are no eggs, otherwise I could try to make some fish tofu for you.” Chen Qi said, feeling slightly regretful as he kneaded the boiled carp meat into the semi-dried rice berries.
“Eggs?” Azhang stopped his actions, then grabbed a piece of hide to wipe his hands. “Wait for a moment.” As soon as he said that, he was out the door.
“……” This far into winter, is it possible for him to turn up some eggs?
Unexpectedly, Azhang really did bring back two fist-sized eggs. “These are iguanodon eggs. See if you can use them.”
These two eggs were found during the first hunt of the season. There were about ten eggs in the nest then. Considering Ake was going to give birth in winter, he had given all the eggs to Ake. But since Ake had been eating the menu specially prepared for him by Chen Qi these days, the eggs went uneaten. Thus, Azhang retrieved two of them now.
Chen Qi took an egg and broke it open into a pottery bowl. The color of the egg yolk was very beautiful. He handed over the task of frying fish balls to Ali, then instructed Azhang to get a large piece of fish from outside and pound it into minced meat for later use. He also opened two more rice berries and set them to dry by the fire in preparation for making the fish tofu.
Aze stir-fried a plate of hydrochoerus dragon liver. For Ake, he prepared some fish porridge, for which he had carefully picked out the fish bones from the fish filets. Then he filled two large bamboo tubes with milky crucian carp soup and wrapped them in animal skins. He glanced at the three people who were busying about, then called for Ajing to go deliver food next door with him.
The fragrance of fried food spread in the house, tickling their noses and their appetite.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: There should be some warning that reading this may cause hunger….
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.
Maybe??
But even then i don’t even know how to cook them so i’ll just enjoy reading it
Very smart choice! When we read we can eat dog food without cooking!