Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 078

Chapter 78

Ajing had been staying in Chen Qi’s home for the last few days. Chen Qi finally couldn’t bear it and drove him back to the Ali family. What a joke. How could he share some intimacy with Aze when a light bulb as big as this was lit up here and even clinging to him in the same bed? He was still a newly married person who hadn’t finished his honeymoon yet. Although the honeymoon site was only this small one-third of an acre area, the things that should be done, Chen Qi didn’t want to reduce them at all.

Covered with a thick hide quilt, Chen Qi laid lazily on the heated kang bed, watching Aze as he stared at the chessboard with a serious expression. His mouth curved and he smiled like a treacherous old fox planning something. “How about it? Have you learned it? Do you want to play an official game with me next round?”

During the day, Aze was on guard duty, so Chen Qi could only teach him at night. He much enjoyed the one-on-one teachings when there was no one else around disturbing Chen Qi.

Since he fell ill, the house was often crowded. At night, there was even the little ghost named Ajing, who would squeeze in between the two. Chen Qi just felt a little cold and he  was forbidden to walk. He was also forced to abstain from sex. Chen Qi was so regretful that he wanted to beat up his past self from a few days ago. There was no need to mention how depressed he was.

Aze silently pondered what Chen Qi asked several times before he sat up straight and nodded, “En, I’ve learned it. Let’s play the next round.”

Chen Qi put the pieces back into the chess box. “It’s too boring to play it like this. How about we play something a bit more special?”

“How is it special?” Didn’t he just say that there were only a few simple ways to play Gobang?

Chen Qi nodded. “En, this kind of game can usually be divided into having a winner and a loser, aside from those who are of the same skill level. So let’s set up a little reward system. In short, the winner can ask the loser for a little favor.”

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 raised his eyebrows. “What favor do you want?” With his beginner level skills, no matter how simple the game of Gobang was, he could not win against Chen Qi in a short period of time. When he first came back, he saw Chen Qi defeat Ka Luo, who proceeded to puff up in frustration and threaten to stop playing with him. So this so-called favor was naturally in Chen Qi’s pocket. However, he was quite curious of what Chen Qi would like to ask from him, when he had already given him everything.

Chen Qi’s eyes roamed over Aze’s body. Seeing that, Aze’s hair stood on end subconsciously, he felt that it must not be a good thing. He could not help but gulp. But he only saw Chen Qi holding his cheeks and slowly saying, “If I win, you kiss me. If I lose, I kiss you. What do you think of these stakes? Aren’t they extremely fair?”

“. . . Was there a difference?”

“Of course. You taking the initiative, versus me taking the initiative. How can it be the same?

“……”

Chen Qi exchanged the chess boxes in front of them. His eyes were full of excitement and the curvature of the corner of his mouth could not be suppressed. “Alright, come on. Let’s play the next game. I’ll let you play as black first.”

Aze nodded dotingly, picked up a black piece and dropped it on the Tianyuan* position.

*天元tiānyuán – the name of the middle position on the board

Aze was much better at the game than Ka Luo, but a beginner was still a beginner after all, and Chen Qi didn’t hold back at all due to the stakes. Thus, Aze was defeated within 20 turns.

Chen Qi immediately pursed his lips, drew closer to Aze, and tapped on his own lips with his index finger. “Come, give me my prize.”

Although the two of them had already done more intimate things, he didn’t know why, but because this was deliberately requested by Chen Qi, Aze felt a little shy instead, and his ears were red as if they were ripe. After hesitating for a while, he leaned over and touched his lips onto Chen Qi’s, like the touch from the wings of a dragonfly – one touch before instantly parting.

Chen Qi exclaimed exaggeratedly, “Is that it? That’s not a prize at all. You have to at least kiss enough for ten breaths.”

On this point, Aze wouldn’t accommodate him. He coughed lightly and started putting away the pieces expressionlessly. “If you can beat me in the next round, then I’ll kiss enough for ten breaths.”

Chen Qi blinked. “Deal.”

At the beginning of the second game, Aze placed the piece in the star position in the lower left corner. Chen Qi was slightly surprised. The star position was located in the corner. If they were playing Go, it was reasonable to place it there. But since they were playing Gobang, wasn’t that just allowing less of a retreat?

However, Chen Qi didn’t take it to heart. He just thought that Aze was a beginner and didn’t understand it very well. He reminded him that, for Gobang, it was best to play in the middle, so that there would be more maneuverability for both offense and defense. Aze just smiled and did not speak, signaling that Chen Qi should take his turn. This game lasted for more than 40 turns before Chen Qi won. This time, Aze didn’t touch and go again but indeed kissed enough for ten breaths. Just as the atmosphere was getting strong and Chen Qi tried to pry open the other’s lips, Aze pushed him away.

“That’s enough for ten breaths. If you can beat me in the next round, I’ll do it for 20 breaths.” Aze’s business-like appearance did not allow Chen Qi to refute.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

“. . .” Why did it seem that things were not developing the way he originally thought? Chen Qi felt a little flabbergasted.

The two played another ten games, each time the kissing time was doubled. Although Chen Qi would win every round, Aze would push him away just as the kiss was critical, telling him that time was up. How did the other man still have the mood to count the time bit by bit while kissing? Chen Qi couldn’t help worrying about his kissing skills. It couldn’t be helped. He didn’t have an object to practice with before. He could just now keep practicing with his only practice object in order to improve.

In each game, Aze’s chess skills were also improving at a speed visible to the naked eye. Initially, Chen Qi could easily win, but soon, it was no longer a situation where he could win if he didn’t treat the game seriously. In the 11th game, both players almost ran out of chess pieces before the outcome was finally decided. The result was completely beyond Chen Qi’s expectations, it was Aze who won.

Chen Qi did not hesitate any more. He pushed the chessboard away from between them, grabbed Aze by the collar, fell over onto the warm bed with him, and kissed him.

It was a wordless night.

Chen Qi’s convalescence lasted for another week. He was a little fed up with playing Gobang all the time though. By now, the wins and losses between him and Aze were about equal. Of course, he still didn’t have to blink to abuse Ka Luo.

“No take backs, no regrets.” A crisp child’s voice sounded in the warm room. After teaching them to play Gobang, Chen Qi heard these four words the most.

Ajing pushed the chessboard and pitter-pattered over to Chen Qi with his little feet. “Chen Qi, Ka Luo is too useless. You play with me.”

Chen Qi was weaving a rope out of root threads. After lying down for more than half a month, Chen Qi, who was finally allowed to get out of bed, almost cried with joy. However, he was still not allowed to leave the house. Everyone was afraid that he would face a gust of cold wind and fall ill again.

Recently, there was another snowstorm. The snowstorm lasted for almost a week. In the last snowstorm, Azhang had found hyena-drakes in the last snowstorm, so this time, he did not dare to be careless. In particular, two people took turns to stay at the watchtower every night.

Although Ali’s leg was injured, he was still a female. So he asked to also be part of the guard rotation. At first, Azhang disagreed. Who knew what Ali said to him, but the next day, Ali took some of his cocoons to work with him.

Chen Qi’s hands stopped and rubbed Ajing’s soft hair. Ajing had transformed his whole self into the beast form aside from his facial features. Chen Qi could not tell whether the fluffy hair on his head was his hair or his fur. “I’m still busy right now. Instead of chess, could you cook something for Little Wolf or practice your calligraphy?”

Since Chen Qi had fed it meat, the little wolf cub had slowly transitioned from having milk fruits for meals to eating milk fruits and meat. Don’t judge based on the fact that the little wolf cub’s size was only a little larger than that of an adult’s fist, it could almost eat its weight of meat, It was unknown how its stomach was able to pack all that.

Before, Chen Qi was afraid to feed it too much since he was worried that its body wouldn’t be able to handle it. As a result, he didn’t know where the little wolf cub learned to roll about and sell cuteness, it would bite on Chen Qi’s trouser legs tightly, refusing to let go and refusing to be held by anyone until he was able to take back the food that belonged to him. Chen Qi observed this several times and did not find any problems arising from eating so much, so he just let it go.

“What are you doing?” Ajing poked curiously at Chen Qi’s half-braided rope. The rope was thicker than what they usually used.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

Chen Qi smiled and left a cliffhanger on the topic, sending the child off to feed the wolf. The little wolf cub did not eat raw meat, so Ajing would have to be busy for a while.

Ka Luo snorted heavily, packed up the chess pieces and went home to take care of his child. Before going out, he also stared at Ajing, slowly withdrawing his childish, puffed up expressions.

Since he learned Gobang, he went home and played matches with Ake. Although he would lose every time, he believed that he would win if he practiced more. Losing to a seven-year-old child many times in a row not only failed to hurt his self-esteem, but instead, the more he lost, the more determined he became.

Did you think Chen Qi would quietly give up his plan to exercise after such an illness? Impossible. The illness only made him more aware of the differences between him and these beastmen. Only by making himself stronger could he become one who would not hold them back.

Of course, he wouldn’t rashly rush out for a run outside like last time. It was just too cold in the winter. Going for a run with his physical condition that hadn’t exercised in years would only result in him falling sick again.

But even if exercising outdoors was out of the question, there were also ways to exercise indoors.

Chen Qi’s exercise plan was very simple. First, let the body adapt slowly, starting with simple push-ups and jumping rope. The rope he was weaving now was to be used as a jump rope.

Jumping rope was actually an entertainment activity. He remembered that when he was a child, he was dragged next door by the older sister next door to jump rope with her. There were many ways to jump rope. Unfortunately, he did not remember all the different ways. However, he did remember one of the simplest ones, which was where two people held on to the two rope ends to swing the rope in the same direction, while letting one person jump in the middle until they got caught by the rope and stopped, and everyone would take turns to jump.

Chen Qi was currently weaving two ropes. One was of a length suitable for solo use, while the other was longer, which was suitable to be used for several people playing together.

Given how worried the beastmen had been about him, Chen Qi could only let them think that this jump rope was just another form of entertainment like Gobang was. If he were to directly tell them that this was a way to exercise, Chen Qi believed that, in the next second, Aze would send him to lie down in bed again.

After weaving the last rope and tying a strong knot, Chen Qi asked Ajing to call Ka Luo and the others over to come and play.

Ka Luo has just fed Ayao with some milk fruit, and Ali was weaving cloth by the fire. Now that he didn’t have to stare at Chen Qi all the time, he was able to move his main activity location to Ka Luo’s place every day. This way, he could not only continue to do his own work, but also help Ka Luo look after the little female by the way.

“Playing jump rope? What is that?” Ka Luo put the little female, who was already fast asleep after having his fill, back on the bed and let him sleep together, next to Ake.

Due to the constant rotation for the females on guard duty, in order for them to be alert when guarding, as long as they were not on duty, they would try to make up for as much sleep as possible.

“Chen Qi said it was something very fun.”

“Fun to jump rope?” Ali’s curiosity was also aroused. It had taken him half a day to learn to play Gobang, but he often couldn’t register when the next step should be to cut off the opponent’s paths. Therefore, he often lost. After a few games, he got bored with it and stopped playing. Unlike Ka Luo and the others, who’s hands would feel itchy if they didn’t play several games a day. So now hearing that there was something new to play, his focus was not on whether this thing was fun or not, but that somehow Chen Qi actually invented something new in just a few days.

Words from the Translation Crew

Miiya: Happy Reading. Next chapter is 2 parts.

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.

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Perr
October 22, 2022 6:46 pm

Thank you for the update~
Our MC and ML are so cute, very much enjoying the dog food here (¯﹃¯*)