Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 061
Chapter 61
Chen Qi took the two dyed, red fabrics to hang to dry in his room. In order to prevent the dye-fruit liquid from staining the floor, he had also laid down a layer of dried cattail leaves under it. Aze had collected these cattail leaves before winter, and they were not damaged even after being left for so long. They had just lost moisture and became extremely dry. They would easily be broken with a little bit of extra force.
After moving snow all day today, Chen Qi was definitely tired out. After hanging the fabrics to dry, he quickly washed up and climbed onto the fire keng. The fire keng was so warm. As soon as Chen Qi got into bed, he let out a comfortable sigh, “I really want to hibernate under the blankets all winter.” Chen Qi said, greatly moved.
Aze tucked him in the quilt and smiled, “You can just stay under the covers, and I can support you.”
Chen Qi looked at him and grinned. He reached out a cold hand of his and slid it into Aze’s bed, touching the other’s waist. Aze’s body immediately stiffened and his face felt hot, as if he was about to burn.
Chen Qi fumbled around under the covers a little. He had a hard time finding Aze’s broad palm. When he finally found it, he felt the rough calluses on it and felt a little distressed. “Aze, I really do want to be with you.”
Feeling the gentle caresses of Chen Qi’s fingers, Aze responded with a soft “En.”
Aze had been on the fire keng earlier than Chen Qi, so his hands were much warmer. Chen Qi interweaved their fingers together and clasped them tightly. The comfortable warmth inadvertently made him yawn and he soon fell asleep.
As he listened to Chen Qi’s steady breathing, the heat on Aze’s face slowly cooled down. He turned his head and stared at the other’s sleeping face. Then he leaned over and dropped a small kiss on the corner of Chen Qi’s lips. He smiled and whispered, “Good night.”
The next morning, Azhang and Aze went to the forest to chop trees. The thick and heavy snow around them did not affect the females’ speed. Soon, the two of them disappeared into the vast expanse of white.
The wall expansion they had worked on yesterday was not yet completely frozen, so Chen Qi did not intend to continue increasing its height now. The yard was very large. Chen Qi consulted with the others and decided to expand the wall by another meter or so into the yard.
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 pup, Ajing took it back to its nest and told it not to run around. Who knew if it actually understood, but the little wolf cub simply remained in the nest, wagged its tail and gave him a little howl.
Although Ajing was young, he was still much stronger than Chen Qi. The barrels were big and his arms were too short to hold one, so he carried a pottery dish to help bring over melted snow. Yesterday, Aze had cleared a path from the house to the wall. Apart from being a little muddy from getting trampled, Ajing walked with ease with the dish filled with water. If it weren’t for fear of the water getting spilled, he could’ve directly run over.
Seeing Ajing so determined to help, Chen Qi had no choice but to concede and just reminded him to stop and rest when he was tired.
Azhang and Aze didn’t return until evening time. They each brought back over a dozen trees that were about seven or eight meters in length. From the distance, it looked like two large bundles of firewood were moving fast towards them, without a hint of a figure carrying them.
“How was it? Was there anything unusual in the forest?” Chen Qi poured a bowl of sweet ginger soup for both of them. The sweet ginger soup would help dispel the cold. The beastmen couldn’t stand the strong taste of ginger, so Chen Qi always had to add a little sugar to the ginger soup whenever he made it. Chen Qi had processed all the laiche fruits into sugar, so now there was no shortage of sugar.
“There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.” Azhang shook his head and took the large gulp of the sweet ginger soup, the warm liquid pouring into his throat, instantly warming his cold body.
“Then it may not have been a problem in the forest that caused the locust dragons to come into the plains.” Chen Qi rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and stated after some consideration.
“If you are concerned about it, I can follow the locust dragon swarm to see where they are headed.” Aze set down his emptied pottery bowl.
“No.” Chen Qi shook his head. “The locust dragons did not take the initiative to attack us. It would not be good to rashly follow them in case they discovered you. And we also don’t know how far or long they would travel.”
Since they couldn’t conclude a reason for the locust dragons suddenly appearing on the plains, they didn’t dwell on it any longer. The real threats in the winter were the hyena-drakes. It was better to build the wall for better defenses as soon as possible.
The few of them sharpened the freshly chopped trees into sharp stakes. It was already dark by the time all of them were made, so they planned to continue to work more on the outer wall layer tomorrow.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
That evening, Chen Qi went to check on the two fabrics he’d dyed yesterday. After drying for a day, the color was a little lighter, so Chen Qi mixed the dye-fruits and dyed them again.
The two red fabrics were hung up to dry again. Then, Chen Qi poured a black dye-fruit into another pottery dish. The black dye-fruit did not need to have its color adjusted. Chen Qi placed some prepared fabrics into the pottery dish to color them. This time the cloths were not as large as the ones that were dyed red, but there were a total of four pieces.
“Chen Qi, what are you dyeing so much cloth for?”
“To make clothes.” Chen Qi then took the freshly dyed fabrics to the room and hung them to dry. Previously, he had asked Aze to help make several wooden shelves, which, at the moment, were all covered up with the wet, dyed fabrics. Chen Qi looked at the results of his efforts with satisfaction. Under Aze’s curious gaze, he rinsed and washed up before drilling himself into the bed on the fire keng. Then, as usual, he found Aze’s warm hand to hold and went to sleep.
It was a wordless night.
The next day, they went to the outer side of the wall to continue burying pointed wooden stakes into it and raising its height. The weather today was not good, so Azhang and Aze didn’t head for the forest. Chen Qi asked Azhang to chop down a few bamboos from the small bamboo forest not far away. The bamboo was thick and sturdy. After they were cut and sharpened, they would also be buried into the wall, staggered amidst the pointed wooden stakes and hydrochoerus dragon bones, and join them in their role of defense.
When the wall was evenly raised, it began to snow again, though this time it was not a snowstorm. Chen Qi found that the temperature would drop several degrees as soon as it snowed. Now the wall was almost two meters tall. All that was left was to wait until everything slowly froze over, and then gradually raise its height again later.
As the weather wasn’t good and there was presently no more work to be done on the wall, the beastmen gathered at Chen Qi’s house to continue their studying. Yesterday, Chen Qi had poured two big pottery dishes of dye-fruit in order to dye the fabrics. Now, he placed the plate of black dye-fruit liquid on the desk, then generously took out a large pile of gum tree leaves and said to the others, “Everyone should try to write a journal from today on.”
“A journal?”
“Yes.” Chen Qi tapped on the pottery dish that was half filled with the dye-fruit liquid and continued, “Just write about what happened each day. This large plate of dye-fruit liquid should be enough for your writings.”
“Why did you open so many dye-fruits?” Ka Luo asked.
Chen Qi smiled and patted Ka Luo on the shoulder. “Now, this plate of dye-fruit liquid has been handed over to all of you. Once you have written your journal, you can show it to me. If I find any incorrect characters, you will have to rewrite the character one hundred times. There are still two big bags of gum tree leaves, and if you use up all this dye-fruit liquid, there is still another plate of red dye-fruit liquid over there.”
Ka Luo looked at Chen Qi incredulously. “You want us to write until we use up both of these big plates of dye-fruit liquid?” Previously, they had only used up less than half of a pottery dish when they practiced for a week straight.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Diligence makes up for deficiency.” Chen Qi shook his head at Ka Luo. “Look, your brother has already learned thousands of characters, while you are still learning the mermaid story. After using up these two plates of dye-fruit liquid, you will be able to catch up to your brother’s progress level.”
Ka Luo choked up. What Chen Qi was calling the Thousand Character Classic actually didn’t even have thirty characters, which, at Aze’s speed, could be learned in a day. Moreover, Chen Qi’s appearance clearly showed that he just wanted them to use up the two big pottery dishes of dye-fruit liquid. But why did he open so many dye-fruits to begin with?
After Chen Qi gave his instructions, he ran off to one side to continue fiddling with stuff. Aze watched as Chen Qi made a few marks on a small bone with his dragon-horn knife in one moment, then picked up the ink brush to write something on some gum tree leaves in the next. He occasionally frowned, as if considering some difficult problem, and sometimes he also suddenly burst into a wide grin and laughed silently. Aze had asked Chen Qi what he was doing, but Chen Qi would just smile and not answer him at all. Being kept in the dark like this made Aze feel a little restless.
These kinds of days lasted for more than half a month, and after several snowfalls, the yard was cleared of snow and the wall was a lot higher. Now it was more than three meters tall. Chen Qi made many wooden ladders and placed them all along the inner sides of the wall, so they wouldn’t have to keep moving the ladder from one spot of the wall to another in order to climb it.
About a month later, the herd of locust dragons came back, easily knocking over all the trees blocking their way and leaving behind an unusually clear path. They looked much more excited than they did a month ago. Some young locust dragons occasionally strayed away from the team, and the locust dragon moms no longer held them back. At most, they’d roar at them loudly if they ventured out of the locust dragon group’s attack range. When they heard the yell, the young locust dragons would obediently return to the group.
The route taken by the locust dragons on their return trip was a little different from the way they’d traveled before, and it was much further away from Chen Qi and the beastmen’s homes, and even the young locust dragons wouldn’t reach them when they run off beyond the herd since they would be summoned back by the their moms. Until the locust dragon swarm completely passed through, Azhang followed them secretly and only returned home after watching all of them return to the forest.
Although encountering the locust dragon swarm scared the beastmen a lot this time, fortunately, they were more scared than hurt*. And even if the locust dragons ended up attacking, the solid ice wall that was more than three meters tall was enough to hold the dragons back a little and buy them enough time to evacuate.
*有惊无险 yǒu jīng wú xiǎn to be more scared than hurt (idiom); to get through a daunting experience without mishap
Aze found that Chen Qi began to frequent Ali’s place. After the black dyed fabrics had dried, they were directly given to Ali. On fair weathered days, Aze and Azhang would enter the forest to chop more wood. Before, when he returned home, he would’ve seen Chen Qi busying about at home and even cooking various delicious foods for him. But now, when he came home, he would find that the fire in the house had long gone cold and it would only be when Aze went over to Ali’s house that Chen Qi would scramble to pack up his things and go back home with him.
Seeing Chen Qi and Ali glued together every day, Aze’s heart felt more and more sour. Several times, he wanted to ask Uncle Ali what he and Chen Qi were doing, but he was afraid he would not be able to accept the answer he got. Each time, the words would circle in his mouth a few times before he silently swallowed them back into his stomach.
Aze’s time out of the house became shorter and shorter, and he came back earlier and earlier. Azhang looked a little helplessly as Aze hurried home each day.
Noticing that Aze seemed less inclined to go out lately, Chen Qi only thought that it was because the weather was getting colder and colder. Chen Qi now needed to put on three or four layers of thick fur coats before he’d go out. He’d wrap himself up like a zongzi* every day and wished to stay by the fire all the time.
*粽子 zòng zi Wrapped glutinous rice food. Basically wrapped really tightly.
When Aze did not go out, Chen Qi naturally did not go out to look for Ali. Watching Chen Qi wander about the house, the uneasiness in his heart finally subsided.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: At the point of translating this chapter and the one prior, I had difficulty determining how exactly they used the defense spikes. If anyone has read the raw and wants to offer corrections to my interpretation, the feedback is welcomed.
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.
I don’t read raws, so I’m not able to help you with that (even if I read them, I wouldn’t be of help anyway, since I don’t understand chinese even one bit). But just based on your translation, it sounds like an ice wall in which all kinds of sharp wooden sticks and bones are inserted, very much like the spikes of a hedgehog. I’ve heard about that method before. Those sticks are arranged horizontally or diagonally or both mixed up, as to prevent any intruder/attacker from being able to get over the wall. So I think your translation shouldn’t… Read more »
That’s fair 🙂 this translation business is not as straightforward as i thought it would be in the beginning. Much respect to all the translators out there! Thanks for reading and commenting, dear.