Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 050
Chapter 50
When Aze returned, from a distance, he noticed the encirclement, of about half a meter high of snow, around the house. After walking past the perimeter enclosed by the wall, he did not see Chen Qi, but he oddly heard voices from behind the house. Aze put the huge hydrochoerus dragon’s carcass on the ground and headed to the back of the house where he saw Chen Qi and Ka Luo squatting on the ground pulling at something.
Aze was about to ask out loud when Chen Qi stood up and turned around. His muddy hands were carefully holding a thick brown and yellow colored rhizome. Chen Qi saw Aze and hurriedly handed the roots in his hands to Aze. With beautiful black eyes that were astonishingly bright, he asked expectantly, “Aze, can you help me see if there is any problem with this thing?”
Whenever Chen Qi asked this way, the implication was that he was asking if it could be eaten. Aze took the small rhizome and looked it over, up and down, then put it under his nose for a whiff, before he handed it back to Chen Qi. He replied, “It should be no problem if you want to eat this.”
“Chen Qi, is this really the ginseng you mentioned?” Ka Luo asked. Today, after shoveling the snow in the yard onto the wall, Chen Qi had noticed the withered and yellowed weeds in the yard and planned to clean them up. Surprisingly, he found a plant that still had some green on it behind the house. At first, he just planned to dig it out to see what it was. Unexpectedly, as soon as he dug out the rhizome, he shouted excitedly that it was ginseng.
In fact, Chen Qi was not 100% sure that this was ginseng. After all, he had not personally dug up a wild freshly unearthed ginseng before. However, in this world that lacked medical treatments and medicine, a plant that unusually resembled ginseng was enough to let Chen Qi be happy for a long time.
Chen Qi carefully took the ginseng back into the house. He cleaned the dirt off it then cut a clean piece of fabric to wrap the ginseng and set it on top of the newly-made cabinet in his room.
After putting the ginseng away, it just occurred to Chen Qi that he seemed to have seen Aze return from hunting hydrochoerus dragons. Chen Qi hurried out of the room. Ka Luo was helping Aze to unload his backpack, which was bulging with all kinds of ingredients Chen Qi could cook with. Chen Qi noticed that Aze had returned alone and asked curiously, “Aze, why are you the only one back?”
“Uncle Azhang and the rest are taking the hydrochoerus dragons back to the tribe first. Then later he will come over with Ake to pick up Uncle Ali and Ka Luo.” Aze answered Chen Qi’s question while taking out the rice berries from his backpack. The rice berries were too large in size, so only a few could be brought back in a single backpack. So Aze also collected a lot of smaller things like chili peppers and wild ginger, and utilized as much of the space in the backpack as possible.
After sewing the last stitch, Ali tore off the root thread with his teeth then stood up with a smile. “Is the hydrochoerus dragon you hunted back this year still the largest? Chen Qi, let’s go have a look.” Aze had hunted a hydrochoerus dragon for Ali last year, which turned out to be the largest prey in the tribe. Every time Ali talked about the hydrochoerus dragon, Azhang glared at Aze with a fire in his eyes, as if he wanted to fight him at any moment.
Speaking of his prey, Aze couldn’t help shift his gaze over to Chen Qi. He’d never cared too much about the size of the prey before. But this time he’d deliberately chosen the largest male hydrochoerus dragon, obviously because he wanted to show off in front of his newly-declared mate.
Earlier, Chen Qi was completely engrossed in the newly discovered ginseng. It was only now that he thought of the hydrochoerus dragon. He was extremely curious about this creature that he had never seen before. Following Ali out of the house, he saw, not too far away on the ground, was a huge… pig?
Chen Qi stepped forward to give it a closer look. He saw that the so-called hydrochoerus dragon looked very much like a domestic pig. Its furred skin was a pretty pink, its four limbs were very short, and it had to be at least two meters tall even though it was lying on the ground. Its long, pointed tusks were their weapons to look for various roots and vegetation for food in the winter.
Chen Qi’s eyes shone brightly. Although Aze had hunted warthogs before, the quality of the meat from a warthog, a wild boar, was relatively tough. It was naturally quite different from the taste of domestic pigs that Chen Qi was accustomed to eating. Seeing this fat and strong creature that resembled a pig, Chen Qi was itching to make a big table of delicious food with it.
Chen Qi had just tidied up the newly enclosed yard. Aze didn’t want to dirty the clean yard, so he moved the hydrochoerus dragon to the trench beyond the wall at the back of the house to process it. For convenience, Chen Qi had left a gap to serve as an exit in the back wall. Fortunately, the wall was only half a meter high. Otherwise, considering the size of the hydrochoerus dragon, it couldn’t have made it through the gap.
Chen Qi started a fire next to the trench and took out several pottery plates to melt the snow in. Nowadays, he did not need to worry about having enough water, so he asked Aze to leave all of the internal organs, even the large intestines. He brought over some salt, then cleaned the washed large intestines once more with salt.
When Azhang and Ake arrived, Chen Qi had brought out several large boxes from the storage room and filled them with the processed hydrochoerus dragon meat. Right now, the plains were like a big, natural refrigerator. Chen Qi did not need to cure the hydrochoerus dragon meat with salt. He just had to keep it frozen outside and go out to grab some whenever he needed it.
It was getting late, and others worried that it would snow again at night. So, they simply greeted Chen Qi, packed up and went back to the tribe. Today, Ali had already managed to make the few clothes Chen Qi requested, two cloth shirts and two fur coats. The furs that he’d used were of the plush and warm type, and Chen Qi had asked Ali to make them a bit on the larger side, so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable if they wore more layers of clothes underneath .
“Aze, come and try on these new clothes.” Chen Qi said to Aze as he shook out the clothes. The shirt he had tried to make before was not as good as the one made by Ali, so Chen Qi planned to keep it for himself.
The hide clothes Aze was wearing were in the style made by Ali previously, with the additional piece of fur wrapped around his arms for the sleeves. Aze hesitated when he was undressing. At the moment, he was partially transformed into his beast form so he had fur on all parts of his body except his head. He didn’t know why he didn’t want Chen Qi to see himself in his beast form.
“What’s the matter?” Chen Qi was puzzled seeing Aze’s hand on his belt but not moving. Aze should already be mostly covered in fur. It can’t be that he’s shy for fear of exposure.
Aze looked over at Chen Qi, his eyes flickered briefly, but in the end, he did not withdraw his fur. He took off his crude hide clothes and changed into the two pieces of clothing Chen Qi handed over. The cloth shirt was worn on the inside and the coat was put on the outside. Although the color of the clothes were different, the style was of the same modern look Chen Qi had worn before. Chen Qi stared dazedly at Aze in those clothes and felt as if he had returned to the civilized world.
Seeing Chen Qi’s stunned look, Aze asked nervously, “Does it not look good on me?” Or is it because the fur-covered beast form is unsightly? He had heard that some males didn’t like the appearance of females after they had transformed into the beast form. Of course, Aze did not dare to ask the latter sentence.
Chen Qi recovered his senses, smiled and shook his head. “No, it looks very good on you.” Perhaps I should try to design a suit. Aze would look very handsome in it.
Seeing that Chen Qi appeared the same as always towards him, Aze breathed a soft sigh of relief.
After resting the rest of the day, Aze continued to hunt hydrochoerus dragons with the tribespeople. Since Chen Qi discovered Ali’s tailor talent, he urged the other man to continue to make other things. From pants, cloaks, hoods and hats to socks and shawls. Every imaginable piece that could be worn on a part of the body was drawn out with charcoal, while he explained and guided Ali to make them. At the end, Chen Qi even offered his shoes to Ali to use for reference to make fur boots.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Thanks to Chen Qi, by the time Aze returned from the final hunt, the beastmen whom Chen Qi was familiar with had all gotten rid of their fur skirts and started wearing modern clothes. Although they took some getting used to at first, the clothes made by Ali were relatively loose, which did not affect their usual activities. After several days of wearing it, they all felt that this type of clothing was very convenient to wear. At least it was not necessary to use ropes to tie animal skins as sleeves every morning, and the new clothes were also warmer.
There were 40 to 50 wooden boxes neatly stacked outside Chen Qi’s house, many of which were actually newly made. Using Chen Qi’s appetite as the gauge, this bunch of things could easily last several years.
“You won’t be going hunting anymore starting tomorrow?”
“En.” Aze placed the last wooden box full of hydrochoerus dragon meat atop one of the others and replied, “A snowstorm should be starting up tomorrow, so it is no longer suitable to go out.”
It has not been more than half a month since winter started, and two Moonless Days have passed. Chen Qi was recording each Moonless Day since his arrival here. Now the second “Zheng”* character had been written on the stone slab used for recording.
*The Zheng character = 正 is the Chinese tally mark.
Sure enough, in the middle of the night, falling snowflakes began to get caught in a fierce squall, and were accompanied by a terrible howling from the wind, causing Chen Qi to have a fitful night of sleep.
It snowed for a whole week in one fell swoop. The snow outside the door had almost piled up to the waist, but neither of them could go out to clean it up. For the whole week, they could only hide in the house and work on enriching their collection of furniture.
Chen Qi found that the gum fruit was actually very waterproof, so he made a big bathtub following the same method for making the wooden boxes. He built a simple and short stove in the bathroom and placed a large stone slab on it, then set the bathtub onto the slab. Just like this, he no longer needed to worry about the water getting too cold when he was taking a bath. As long as he lit a fire on the simple stove, the temperature of the water in the bathtub could be maintained.
Once the big bathtub was finished, in the midst of this heavy snowstorm, Chen Qi took the most comfortable bath he’d had since coming to this world.
The wood bow he was making also had its shape set. This time, he’d left it to set for a long time, so the arc of the wood bow was very well-formed. Also, the re-made wooden arrows used arrowheads refined from bones and stuck to the tip of the arrow with glue made from melted gum fruit mixed with plant ash. After the gum fruit had dried, the fletching was added to the end of each arrow. Needless to say, this bow and arrow set quite resembled familiar models he’d seen before and Chen Qi was very satisfied. It was a pity that the wind and snow outside made it unsuitable to go and try out the bow.
Chen Qi also redid the original wood bow that Aze managed to bring back. The bow’s arc had been set once before and the result was not very good. Chen Qi had too much time at home during this winter period so he was not in a hurry. He’d just pick it up when he was free and slowly and patiently refine the wood bow again.
A week’s time was neither long nor short. Every day, besides making things, the two of them fiddled with all kinds of food crafts. Chen Qi boiled out several large pottery dishes full of oil from several of the hydrochoerus dragons Aze had brought back. So now, Chen Qi didn’t need to conserve his oil usage. Additionally, it’s cold outside and he didn’t need to worry that the oil would deteriorate.
Such leisurely and comfortable days had Chen Qi thinking that this was the retirement life he’d gotten in exchange for his countless times of working overtime late into the night. Chen Qi even imagined that he and Aze had become an old couple. En, an old couple, who have only held hands and… that have never even kissed one another. Chen Qi picked at the frost on the wall in front of him, and his gaze moved across Aze’s pretty lips not far away, wondering when he would get the chance to taste it.
The blizzard had stopped this morning. The snow in the yard was so thick that it affected movement and they wouldn’t be able to get out through the door if the snow solidified. So the two men got appropriately dressed for the weather and proceeded to work on the ice wall.
However, the snowfall that they thought had stopped began to fall again in the afternoon, so the work of clearing the snow in the yard had to stop again. Chen Qi boiled a bowl of ginger tea and let Aze drink half of it before drinking the rest of it himself to dispel the cold.
“Aze, will it keep snowing like this all winter?” The temperature continued to drop and it was already quite depressing. If it continued to snow all the time, then even if he didn’t want to, he’d have to stay indoors and wait out the rest of the winter.
Aze shook his head. “This snowfall should not last long.”
However, the snow continued falling until late at night. The weather got colder and colder. Chen Qi had moved his sleeping place over onto the fire keng in the living room. Lately, the little wolf cub only opened its eyes to eat. Aze built a small nest for it with a piece of hide on the fire keng and it would just sleep continuously. Chen Qi seriously wondered whether this creature, the giant wolf-god, had the habit of hibernating.
Today’s work was just about wrapped up, and they had eaten and drank their fill. Chen Qi, who was preparing to head back to bed to tease the little wolf cub, found Aze standing at the door, with a corner of the thick hide door curtain lifted up and wearing a solemn expression as he looked outside.
“Aze, what’s the matter?” Chen Qi stopped climbing into bed and asked.
Aze turned to look at him, with a worried frown. “I seem to have heard the sound of the tribe’s warning signal.”
The warning signal of the Rock-Mountain Tribe was the wolf’s howl. If it were any other usual day, Aze would not use such a vague statement. However, there was interference from the sound of snow and wind, plus the sound couldn’t easily travel so far out, so he wasn’t sure if he’d heard it wrong.
Chen Qi walked over to him. It was dark outside the house, and only the small messes of snow and wind could be seen through the lifted curtain. It was impossible to check on the tribe’s situation on such a night. He squeezed Aze’s hand and comforted him, “Don’t worry too much. It’s probably just the wind. Let’s go to the tribe tomorrow morning to check on the situation.”
Aze nodded. Right now, they could only do it like that. Just as he was about to go back in with Chen Qi, Aze’s ears suddenly started twitching and he threw out a sentence, “Don’t come out.” before rushing out beyond the wall.
Before long, Chen Qi saw Aze returning, holding something in his arms, followed by a pale-faced Ka Luo. Chen Qi rushed up and took off his cloak to wrap it around Ka Luo. Ka Luo’s body was very cold. Chen Qi asked anxiously, “What happened? Why are you here? Where’s Ake?”
Ka Luo’s lips moved a few times and his eyes reddened. Aze explained in his stead, “Hyena-drakes came. Ake sent Ka Luo here and headed back to the tribe to help there. Chen Qi, please help and see if this child can be saved.”
It was only then that Chen Qi discovered what Aze was holding in his arms was a child about seven or eight years old, whose face looked drained of blood. Chen Qi was startled and spoke hurriedly, “It’s too cold out here. Let’s go inside to talk.”
After entering the house, Aze carefully placed the child on the hide blanket spread by the fire. Chen Qi discovered that the child was tightly wrapped in Ake’s fur cloak and when the cloak was uncovered, it was all covered in blood.
“His stomach was slashed by the hyena-drake. In order to prevent his blood from dripping on the way here, Ake could only wrap him in his cloak.” Ka Luo said, his voice trembling.
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 carefully opened the fur cloak on the child. He saw a long incision across his fur, just under his navel, and it was still bleeding.” Chen Qi gasped, “Isn’t this child a young female? Why is the wound still bleeding after so long?” In his previous injuries, Aze’s wounds would stop bleeding automatically very shortly after, and it was hardly because the herb he found had miraculous hemostatic effects.
“The claws and teeth of the hyena-drakes have a toxin that prevents the wounds they make from healing, causing the prey to bleed to death.” This was also the reason why many beast people will die when they encounter the hyena-drakes. More than half of them probably died because they were injured by the hyena-drakes in the battle, and could not stop the wound from bleeding. A few days after the battle ends, they inevitably perish from a weakened body due to excessive blood loss.
Chen Qi understood then. He looked at the face of the child that was becoming increasingly pale. He was afraid the child would not make it if he couldn’t stop the bleeding. This was not the time for further questioning. Chen Qi recalled the first aid knowledge he’d seen on TV or in books before and began to toss out orders, “Ka Luo, boil two pots of clean water. There is still half a plate of hot water over there. Set it over the fire until it boils. Aze, mash up the thistle and willow leaves you previously gathered.”
Willow leaves have analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. When Aze made trips to the forest, Chen Qi had asked him to bring home a large handful of them for later use. He didn’t expect to use some so soon.
The two men who were assigned tasks moved quickly. Chen Qi went back to his room and dug up the fine bone needle. Before winter arrived, Aze had hunted many antelopes. Chen Qi had washed, dried and preserved several of their intestines but had not thought out what he would use them for. At this time, Chen Qi chose the thinnest string of intestine as well as the ginseng he’d found by chance and brought them out.
Chen Qi set the bone needle into the plate half-filled with hot water that had already begun to boil. He cut a piece of clean cloth and placed it in the boiling water then fished it up to wipe up the area around the child’s wound, which had dried blood caked in the fur. The cloth was quickly stained red. Chen Qi washed the cloth several times before the vicinity of the wound was cleaned up.
The child was unconscious, and naturally could not withdraw the fur on his own. Chen Qi carefully shaved off the fur around the wound with the dragon-horn knife..
After shaving the fur, Chen Qi used chopsticks to take the bone needle out of the boiling water and held it near the fire to dry before tying the intestine to the bone needle. Chen Qi planned to suture the child’s wound.
Although Chen Qi did not study medicine, he knew that a wound as big as this would not stop bleeding without suturing. He was very glad that the child was in a coma now. If the child had been awake and crying because he couldn’t stand the pain, Chen Qi wouldn’t have been able to stitch him up without any form of anesthesia.
Stitching was a delicate task. Ka Luo and Aze couldn’t help and could only nervously sit by and watch Chen Qi work.
Chen Qi was worried that the intestine thread would not dissolve well in the child, so all he did was suture the epidermis, which would allow it to be removed easily later. Aze had already prepared the pastes made from mashed willow leaves and thistles and set them aside on standby. He looked anxiously at Chen Qi who was focused on his task.
The child was quiet and did not struggle except for a pained groan when the bone needle first pierced his skin. Chen Qi was a little stiff and overcautious at first. After a few stitches, he let go of his reservations, and his movements quickened.
After the wound was sutured, Chen Qi used the cloth to clean up the residual blood that had oozed out. Then he applied a layer of willow leaves paste to the wound, followed by a layer of thistle paste before finally binding the wound with the bandages. The bandages were the same shirt-torn bandages Aze had used before. Chen Qi changed the child into a cloth shirt, then wrapped him in a clean fur coat and carefully carried him over to the fire keng.
Chen Qi cut a small piece of ginseng and put it into the child’s mouth, pressed under his tongue. Then he cut a few more pieces and put them into a pottery bowl. He went outside and picked out a piece of hydrochoerus dragon rib meat. He asked Aze to chop it into appropriate-sized chunks and added them into the pottery bowl already filled with ginseng. Then he filled it with water, covered it with another pottery bowl to serve as a lid and let it simmer to a boil.
Chen Qi breathed a long sigh of relief after everything was finished. Seeing the blood stains all over the ground by the fire, Chen Qi belatedly recognized that it was human blood and his stomach turned. He quickly ran to the door and threw up. Chen Qi’s face was full of black lines. He’d never thought that he’d react this way at the sight of blood. Fortunately, this symptom didn’t present itself when he was treating the child’s wound earlier.
“Chen Qi, are you alright?” Aze, who had been paying close attention to Chen Qi’s movements, chased after him. Seeing Chen Qi squatting on the ground and throwing up, he hurriedly reached out to stroke the other’s back comfortingly.
Chen Qi raised his head weakly, and it was not clear if his face was pale from the cold or from the long night’s ordeal. “Not alright. It may take a kiss from you before I’m alright.”
Chen Qi tossed that out jokingly to ease the mood and was about to tell Aze he was fine. But apparently Aze didn’t notice his playful harassment and before Chen Qi could react, he leaned over and lightly kissed Chen Qi’s lips. He even anxiously asked, “Are you alright now?”
Chen Qi was stunned. He’d imagined that his first kiss, that should have occurred under a romantic atmosphere with spring blossoms, rather than just after he’d thrown up and casually flirted with him in jest. Chen Qi said with some difficulty, “I just vomited.”
Aze paused. He seemed to just then realize what he had just done.
The current situation was not suitable for the two of them to discuss matters of love and affection. After taking a moment to recover, Chen Qi went back into the house with Aze. Ka Luo had already rolled up the blood-stained hides and blankets to the side and was using a wet rag to clean up the blood on the ground. He needed to keep himself busy so as not to think about what was happening in the tribe.
There weren’t that many hyena-drakes attacking the tribe, only two. And one of the hyena-drakes was also already injured. With the fighting capabilities of the females in the tribe, they should be able to cope with the two hyena-drakes.
Chen Qi had Aze to cook some ginger soup, while he took two figs and a pottery dish full of hot water and headed to the bathroom. He couldn’t stand the heavy scent of blood on his body and needed to clean himself.
When Chen Qi came out after changing into clean clothes, the room was already practically all cleaned up. Ka Luo was sitting by the fire keng looking at the child, who was still unconscious, and there was no telling what he was thinking about. Seeing Chen Qi come out, Aze picked up the blood-stained skins and went to the bathroom to clean them up.
Chen Qi handed Ka Luo a bowl of ginger soup. “Don’t worry too much. The child will be fine. Ake will also be fine. You’ve had a tiring night, so drink some ginger soup to warm yourself.”
Ka Luo looked at Chen Qi with reddened eyes, took the ginger soup and took a sip. The warmth seeped into his throat and Ka Luo could not help choking into sobs. Chen Qi panicked. This was his first time seeing a grown man crying so miserably in front of himself. He didn’t know how to comfort the other so he ran into the bathroom and dragged Aze out.
Seeing Chen Qi’s panicked state, Aze thought that the child, whose wound had just stopped bleeding, had reopened his wound. When he came out, he found Ka Luo was sitting by the fire keng wiping away tears.
Ka Luo shed tears for a while and then began to tell the other two about what happened.
The people of the Rock-Mountain Tribe had all moved to the foot of the Rock Mountain, aside from Ka Luo’s household of two, who still lived in the original tribe center. The two hyena-drakes had snuck around the back of the mountain and ambushed them. There were no warning signs. If there were any warning signs, they might have been washed out by the several days worth of continuous blizzards, so they did not see a hint of the hyena-drakes approaching.
The only thing they could be thankful for was that the hyena-drakes were discovered as soon as they got close to the settlement. Aside from the injured Ajing, the child now lying on Chen Qi’s fire keng, the others were able to safely evacuate to the ancestral house. Ajing’s injury was so dire though, that Azhang asked Ake to bring him to Chen Qi to see if he could be saved. Which led to their present circumstances.
“You said one of the hyena-drakes was injured?” Chen Qi pondered for a moment and asked, “Was it its eyes and legs that were injured?”
“It was too dark at that time and I only saw it from a distance. It was Ake who had mentioned that one of the hyena-drakes was injured.”
“Aze, do you think it is the hyena-drake we came across back then on the plains?” Chen Qi turned to ask Aze.
Aze thought for a moment then shook his head. “Let’s wait until Ake arrives to discuss further. It’s pointless for us to speculate right now. You two must be tired after being busy all night. Let’s get some sleep first.”
Chen Qi nodded. After checking the child’s condition, he planned to take a rest by the fire on the newly laid blanket. Ka Luo was restlessly awake. Whenever there was any movement outside the door, he would run out to check it out in case it was Ake.
When dawn was about to break, Chen Qi, who’d fallen asleep for a little while, was awakened and hazily opened his eyes. He found Ka Luo looking at himself anxiously. “Chen Qi, Ake is injured. Hurry, get up and help take a look at him.”
Hearing that Ake was injured, Chen Qi’s sleepiness was instantly scared away. He got up at once, only to see Ake sitting calmly by the fire, looking completely unhurt.
Seeing Chen Qi’s puzzled look, Ake raised the sleeve on his left arm. He had withdrawn the fur on his arm and a palm-sized wound was visible, with blood still oozing from it. Although it looked very serious, it was only a scratch on the skin surface and was not very deep.
Aze had already mashed a handful of thistle and used a still-steaming and wet cloth to clean the blood around Ake’s wound. Only then did he apply the thistle paste and bandage it up.
Ka Luo still looked nervous. “Don’t you need to sew up this wound?”
“I’m fine, this injury is not serious.” Ake patted Ka Luo on the head to soothe the other’s panic. Then he started to update everyone about the current situation in the 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.
The two hyena-drake attackers must have been lone wanderers or had been driven out of the hyena-drake group. When they happened to pass by the Rock-Mountain Tribe and noticed that there were only a few beastmen, they decided to try their luck and see if they could score a delicious meal. After all, if they manage to have one beastmen meal, the hyena-drakes would be able to survive this winter without hunting anything else. That was a huge temptation for these lone hyena-drakes.
Although Azhang led the females to kill one of the hyena-drakes, the other one managed to escape. Now the tribespeople were gathered in the ancestral home. Every beastman that was able was arranged to take turns doing guard duty, for fear that the hyena-drake that got away would rally other hyena-drakes over to continue attacking.
“Is anyone in the tribe injured?” Chen Qi asked.
Ake shook his head. “Everyone else is fine. Just me and this slight injury.” At that time, the hyena-drake’s tail had swept toward his stomach, so he had blocked it with his arm to protect the newly formed bun in his stomach, causing his injury.
Aze already had the meat broth cooked, and everyone simply ate a little of meat that was stewed in the broth, which had been boiled until it was practically tasteless. While Ake was over here, Aze planned to go over to the tribe to check out the situation over there. Chen Qi looked at the child named Ajing. Seeing that the patient probably wouldn’t wake up for a while, he wanted to go with him. Although he might not be able to help much, perhaps, since his knowledge was more advanced than the beastmen’s, he could at least offer some suggestions. After some consideration, Aze agreed.
Before they left the house, Chen Qi grabbed the newly-made wood bow and took it with him. On his last visit, Chen Qi had noticed that there were some intact houses in the center of the tribe though the other areas were not generally dilapidated either. This time, he saw many of the houses had collapsed and there were signs that fights had broken out all over the place. Also, most of the houses which were unoccupied had gotten buried under snow.
As soon as the two men approached the tribe, a beastman jumped down from a nearby barren acacia tree and stopped in front of them. Chen Qi saw that it was Ale.
Ale saw that it was the two of them and said, “Uncle Azhang has taken the tribespeople to his house. If you want to find him, don’t go to the ancestral house.” After saying this, Ale climbed back on to the acacia tree and continued his watch of the surroundings.
Aze and Chen Qi glanced at each other before turning towards the tribe center.
The houses that belonged to Azhang and Ali were not far apart. The tribe’s population was already rather small, and the females who were still able had been dispersed to guard the perimeter. So the two houses were just enough to scatter the rest of the people into without feeling too crowded.
As soon as they got close to their destination, they noticed dozens of wooden boxes next to Azhang’s house in the distance, which were much like the wooden boxes outside Chen Qi’s house that were used to store hydrochoerus dragon meat.
The two men entered the house. Azhang was not there, while Ali was roasting some meat. There were several old people and two teenaged-looking boys in the room. After a night of anxiety and fear, the few of them were too tired and just sat by the fire to close their eyes and rest. Ali was a little surprised to see Chen Qi and asked, “Why did the two of you come here?”
“We’re here to see what we can do to help.” Chen Qi walked over and started unloading his backpack, which contained some wild ginger and chili peppers as well as the hemostatic thistles and willow leaves. Chen Qi took out a piece of wild ginger and handed it to Ali. “The temperature is colder than it was a few days ago. A little ginger soup can help dispel the cold.”
Ali gratefully took it and poured some of the boiled broth into another pottery dish. The wild ginger was washed, chopped and added to be cooked with the broth for a while. Ali served a bowl of it to each person in the room.
Aze greeted Ali then went out to find Azhang. Now that something happened in the tribe, as a female, he should be able to help with something.
Aze found Azhang near the ancestral house.The corpse of the hyena-drake they’d killed had been disposed of into the Chishui River. At this time, Aze discovered that the reason for the tribe leaving the ancestral house was because the ancestral house had collapsed in half. Azhang and the female named Ahxu were tidying up the things in the ancestral house.
The two men were obviously a little surprised to see Aze, but they didn’t say much and just asked Aze to help out. There was only some firewood and food temporarily stored in the ancestral house for emergencies just like last night’s, and they were soon cleared up. Azhang also led the two men to find accommodation in the tribe center for the others and had them help to move their belongings from the foot of the Rock-Mountain to their new home.
After this round of attack from the hyena-drakes, everyone understood that it was not necessarily safer to have their back against the Rock-Mountain. It was still better to live closer together so everyone could take care of each other.
Chen Qi had seen the disheveled state of houses in the tribe. The defenses of such houses were not strong. Seeing that Azhang had settled the tribespeople, he suggested, “Do you want to try to build a wall?”
Ali reacted the fastest and asked, “Is it the same kind of wall as that ice wall of yours?”
Chen Qi nodded, “As long as the wall is built a bit thicker, even if it is only an ice wall, it would be a good defense. When it is built up to a certain height, some sharpened wood or bamboo can be placed on top, so that even if the hyena-drakes attack again, they would be blocked for a while, so that others can have time to evacuate.”
Ali naturally agreed with this proposal, but Azhang was the current chief of the Rock-Mountain Tribe. He turned to Azhang and awaited his opinion.
Azhang looked at Chen Qi thoughtfully. He only said that he would consider the suggestion about the ice wall, but did not say that he would do it immediately.
The two of them stayed in the tribe until evening time before heading back home. Chen Qi laid on Aze’s shoulder. The knee-deep snow did not seem to have any effect on Aze.
“I will protect you.”
Hearing Aze’s unsolicited words, Chen Qi tilted his head, a little puzzled. In his present position on Aze’s back, he couldn’t see Aze’s expression. “Aze.” Chen Qi softly called out the name of the other man.
“En.” Aze replied.
“Are you afraid?”
Aze’s movements paused, but he didn’t answer.
Chen Qi leaned his chin on his shoulder and smiled gently. “We should be considered lovers now. Although I am not as strong as you, I am not as weak as you think. So you don’t need to be afraid.”
“En.”
“You’ve seen the power of the wood bow I made. Although it is not as powerful as you are, it is still useful in times of danger.”
“I won’t let you run into danger.” Aze interrupted him.
“Mmhmm, I know, I’m just being hypothetical.” Chen Qi used his head to rub against the back of Aze’s neck to soothe the other’s suddenly heated mood from his words. “There is also that wall. Don’t look down on it just because it is still very short. When I build it up to more than ten or twenty meters tall, even if hyena-drakes have strong jumping abilities, it wouldn’t be able to jump over it. At that time, we will make two heavy wooden doors and install them into the wall. Once the doors are closed, we will be safe inside.”
“Then when we get back, let’s build the ice wall some more.”.
Chen Qi smiled and reached out a hand to lightly pinch the man’s ear. Aze turned his head questioningly. Chen Qi took the opportunity to break the other’s negative train of thought. He looked directly into Aze’s eyes and said seriously, “Aze, what I mean is that, although I am not as powerful as you females, I can come up with ways to protect myself and keep myself safe. So you can have more confidence in me. You don’t need to worry about it alone, and you don’t need to be afraid on your own. We are mates. I want to be with you for a long time. I won’t let anything happen to me until I grow old with you. I don’t want to be kept under your wing the whole time. You can protect me and I can protect you. Mates should support each other, right?”
Aze looked at Chen Qi in shock. Chen Qi waited patiently for him to digest his words. A good while later, Aze set Chen Qi down, turned around and hugged him tightly. He buried his head into the nook of Chen Qi’s shoulder. “Chen Qi, why are you so good? I won’t be able to bear letting you go.” Even if you find a female with beautiful pregnancy patterns, I will not let go of you.
Chen Qi patted Aze’s back, feeling amused, “What do you mean ‘letting me go’? I don’t plan to let you go either. Since we agreed to be mates, naturally we should be together for life.”
“For life?”
“En.”
Aze didn’t say anything else. He just held on to Chen Qi, remaining motionless. Chen Qi seemed to feel some warm liquid fall on his shoulder and froze, just letting Aze hold him.
On the vast wilderness plains, apart from a few sparse bare and tall trees, there was only an endless spread of white. The afterglow of the setting sun merged their two shadows into one and projected them onto the snow field for a long time, which was extremely conspicuous in such an expanse of snow.
It was not until half of the sun was buried under the horizon that Aze picked up Chen Qi again and headed for home. Chen Qi glanced at Aze’s reddened eyes. His heart was soft and in shambles. He knew that he’d really fallen deep this time, and that towards Aze, the one who probably wouldn’t be able to let go was himself.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Instead of breaking it up into 3 parts, here’s the triple sized chapter, which included 2 ko-fi chapters. Thanks to all who have supported this translation!
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.
Aaagh I’m kicking my feet in the air reading this.
Thanks for translation