Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 094
Chapter 94
“I’ll never build ice walls again!” Looking at the messed up living room, this was Chen Qi’s first thought at the moment.
Fortunately, the doors of other rooms were closed, and the water did not shove the doors open. The water that seeped through the cracks of the doors wasn’t enough to flood the whole room. The storage rooms had wooden shelves, and things like salt and cured meat were placed on the wooden shelves or packed in wooden boxes, so they were not wet.
The front room of the Ali’s house, which was previously half-collapsed by hyena-drakes, was now full-collapsed after being hit by the water this time. Azhang actually smiled and joked that this had spared them the effort to tear it down. Ali grumpily rolled his eyes at him, saying nothing, but had him clean up all the rubble scattered around the house on his own.
Ake had closed the door before leaving with Ka Luo on his back. He also barricaded the wooden door with wood planks, so the water did not break open the wooden door, and their loss was the least. It would be fine with a simple mop up of the water that had seeped into the room.
Chen Qi asked Aze to set up a few clothes hangers outside in the yard, and sighed while taking the soaked hides out to dry. He had been considering whether to build an ice cellar or not, to store some ice in the winter for the hot summer. However, judging by the speed at which even the several meters tall ice wall would melt in an instant, it seemed that it would be very unrealistic to build an ice cellar here. If he wanted to have ice in summer, he’d have to think of a different way.
There were also two large boxes of raw meat from winter. Chen Qi was worried that the meat would go bad quickly without the ice. While the temperature change was not yet so obvious, he first took half of it to be cured, and the other half would be directly made into various cooked foods, intended to be used as dry food for the road when picking up tribespeople. The several of them worked hard until evening to finish processing the piles of food.
Because the fire kang had been soaked in water, Chen Qi tidied up the slate beds, that hadn’t been used for more than half a year, in his and Aze’s rooms, then threw Ajing and the little wolf cub to sleep in Aze’s room on their own, while he took Aze back into his own room. The two finally had the chance to be alone at night.
“Sorry.” After working the whole day, Aze’s head drooped low. If he would’ve closed the door carefully as Ake had when he got them out in the morning, then the water wouldn’t have rushed into the room and soaked all the things piled up in the room and damaged them.
Chen Qi brushed aside a wisp of bangs on Aze’s forehead with amusement. “You didn’t expect the wall to melt suddenly, right? It was already great that you were able to take us out immediately. Why should you apologize?”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
With that, he sighed helplessly. “Really, you shouldn’t be so quick to blame yourself as soon as something happens. It’s been a busy day today, so go to bed early. Tomorrow, Azhang and Ake will go to the Lion-Wolf Tribe to pick up the tribespeople.” Chen Qi said ruefully, “I really didn’t expect summer to come so unexpectedly. But it’s still good, at least there won’t be any more dangers on the plains.”
Dragons did not appear in the plains in summer. Even the hyena-drakes returned to the forest center. Only some herbivorous dragons lingered on the outskirts of the forest, who were also a source of food for the beastmen throughout the summer.
The next morning, Azhang and Ake set out with their hide backpacks full of food on their backs. After tidying up the house, Chen Qi was finally free to check the situation in the yard.
Previously, Chen Qi had piled up the charcoal ash collected over the whole winter in one pile behind the house. He originally planned to use the ash to improve the quality of soil when they opened up plots of land during the summer. However, the charcoal ash was washed away by the water and scattered over the nearby grassland, leaving only a small, thin pile. With some heartache, Chen Qi used a bone shovel to painstakingly gather the charcoal ash he could get together into the small pile. Currently, the farming land was not ready yet, they could only be piled like this for the time being.
Before the tribespeople arrived, Chen Qi circled the approximate area for the tribe. The wild grass on the plains probably grew very fast due to the warming temperatures. Chen Qi stuck a few wooden sticks into the soil to mark the approximate ranges of several areas. Originally, he also considered diverting the water from the Chishui River to build a moat. However, after the last champsosaurus incident, he directly rejected that plan. He only hoped that he could try to drill out a well or two nearby, at least they wouldn’t have to run so far to fetch water each time.
The yard shared by the three families during winter were naturally unusable now. Chen Qi only encircled the area needed by his and Aze’s original house. He asked Aze to move some stone slabs back from the tribe and re-enclosed a small courtyard space, then built a wall only about half a meter high. Chen Qi dug up the gum fruit originally spread across the ground, then opened up several plots of land in the corner of the courtyard, sprinkled a thin layer of charcoal ash on it, and then turned over the charcoal ash into the ground. He hadn’t yet found anything that he wanted to plant, so for now he left it at this.
Ka Luo looked at the house separated by the wall and murmured discontentedly, “Why did you separate our two houses? In the future, I’d have to make a big detour to get to you.”
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 explained to him, “I plan to grow some things in the yard. If there is no wall, it would be bad if some animals or children come in and step on them.”
The beastmen don’t have the concept of planting. He was afraid that children would not be the only ones prone to this. Even if adults came to his home, they would directly step on the ground to pass by. With the walls blocking them, they would only be able to tread according to the path deliberately set out, which would save a lot of hassle.
Ka Luo didn’t say much either. Anyway, his house was just next door. When Ake came back, the house would be torn down and rebuilt anyway. He would just build a wall too. Then Chen Qi would have to take big detours to come to his house too.
There was still another reason why Chen Qi built the wall, which was to make the new tribe look tidier. Picturing each family having a small single-family house with a small courtyard, it was almost like returning to modern society. Not only was he doing this for his own home, he planned to have the other people in the tribe do the same.
A main road led directly from Chen Qi’s house to the main gate of the city wall. The school was next to Chen Qi’s house and just opposite Ka Luo’s. The school covered a large area. Even though they only planned for two or three rooms to be built at first, the space for the sports field needed to be reserved. Now that summer was here, Chen Qi wanted to put athletic events back on the agenda again.
Azhang and the others came back a week later. There were about thirty people who returned together, including a few unfamiliar faces that Chen Qi had never seen before. He heard from Aze that they were people who had previously moved to the Lion-Wolf Tribe.
The male from the Lion-Wolf Tribe that Ale had wanted to obtain was still not yet obtained. He was dispirited the whole journey over.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Azhang made a few introductions for several people and considering the circumstances, it could be considered that they were now acquainted. Ka Luo, Ali and the rest moved to Chen Qi’s house. Aze’s old house had been cleared out. Along with the two rooms in Ka Luo’s house and Ali’s house, it was not a problem to accommodate thirty people. Meanwhile Ahxu and the few females that Chen Qi was already acquainted with would live in the living room of Chen Qi’s house.
Because Chen Qi had taken the others with him to complete the planning of the homes a few days ago, now, as long as they decided on a place to live, they could directly move the materials back and start construction.
Aside from a few blood relatives who wanted to live together, everyone else built their own homes. Naturally, the houses they built were not as large as Chen Qi’s, but they were all built with the three rooms, one living room according to Chen Qi’s standards. The so-called three rooms were actually just two rooms. The living room in the center with two rooms facing each other, and with one of the rooms separated with a wall to make up the storage room and the bathroom.
Chen Qi dug several large pits beside the ditch where the sewage was piled into before. According to the previous method, the household sewage of each family in the tribe would be discharged into these large pits, in order to prevent the beastmen from dumping everywhere and making the tribe unbearably dirty. It could also be used as compost to improve the land for farming in the future. Moreover, this place was arranged by Chen Qi to be outside the city, and also a fair distance away from the tribe. So there was no need to worry that the smell would waft into the tribe.
The busy construction works lasted for more than a month. The wild grass on the plains had grown knee-high and the tall acacia trees around had regrown their leaves, becoming verdant and lush.
Most of the people in the tribe already started to move into their new homes. Ka Luo and Azhang built big houses, like Chen Qi’s, with a large living room and four rooms. The three houses were exactly the same in shape and size, which looked quite spectacular from a distance.
During this period of time, he had been busy getting the houses ready. Naturally, the roads and city walls in the tribe had not yet been built, but Chen Qi was still a little stunned seeing all the gray and white slate houses.
“Chen Qi, we have really dug out water.” Ka Luo’s excited voice pulled back Chen Qi’s thoughts. Chen Qi hurriedly went over. It was a place within the boundary of the school, where the wild grass grew more lush than in other places, and the soil was a little wetter than elsewhere. Chen Qi thought to just give it a try. Unexpectedly, they struck water after only digging less than two meters.
With this well, at least there would be no need to go all the way to the Chishui River to fetch water.
In the past few days, the primary source of food for the tribe was to catch a few fish in the river while fetching water. Now almost everyone in the tribe used fish for food. Ali often went to everyone’s homes to teach them some simple-to-make food.
More than a month after summer started, Azhang finally decided to temporarily set aside the construction work for a day, intending to organize a few females to hunt in the forest.
Because of the disappearance of hydrochoerus dragons, the only large herbivorous dragons that could still be hunted in the forest were the antelope-dragons and the horned dragons. There was also a kind of dragon that looked like a mix of a hare and a wild boar, called the hare-dragon. They were as fast as hares and were good at digging holes. To catch one of them was certainly not an easy thing to do.
During this period of time, Azhang would teach a few females how to use the bow and arrows whenever he was free. Hare-dragons were very timid. Once frightened or blocked, they would actually freeze in place. The bow and arrows may not be lethal enough to be able to kill them in a single shot, however, they were still useful to scare this timid creature. Although hare-dragons were not as large as dragons that were two or three meters tall when moving, they were still as big as an ordinary wild boar. As long as they could catch a few, it would be enough for the people in the tribe to eat on for a good while.
Aze did not follow Azhang and the others to hunt, but helped Chen Qi build a kiln next to the school. It was for Ali to try to bake clay bricks. If they were to build a city wall, it was obviously not enough to use stone slabs. There was already a shortage of large stone slabs on the plains, and the city wall would need to be built to be at least six or seven meters tall to stop the huge dragons. Such a large project’s construction naturally needed to be replaced with a different material. The first thing Chen Qi thought of was bricks.
The beastmen already had the technology to fire pottery. It would be a simple matter to make bricks.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Tribe-building is a go!
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.
Officially starting tribe-building \( ö )/