Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 063

by Miiya · May 17, 2022

Chapter 63

“Would you be my mate? To be with me, the two of us, for the rest of our lives?”

Every word from Chen Qi was like a heavy hammer slamming into Aze’s fragile heart, one by one.

Aze no longer pretended to sleep. He opened his eyes slightly and saw Chen Qi’s serious yet slightly nervous expression. He looked at the man quietly, his mind blank.

Chen Qi saw that Aze was finally willing to open his eyes to look at him, and he felt slightly relieved. He reached under the covers and fumbled over to Aze’s warm palm, holding it firmly. Chen Qi’s palm was slightly cold from nervousness and even trembled a little. But he still waited patiently for Aze’s reply.

This was probably the first time in Chen Qi’s nearly 30 years of life that he felt that time could move so agonizingly slow. Every thud of his heart was infinitely magnified. In this short period of time, all kinds of pessimistic thoughts ran through his mind. For example, if Aze refused, could they still get along with each other as he did now? Would Aze move back to his original house? Wasn’t it too hasty to propose to the other man so rashly? Sure enough, if he had picked a nice and sunny day, his success rate would have been higher, right? Chen Qi’s train of thoughts even started to recall the various experiences his colleagues had told him about.

An unknown duration of time passed and Chen Qi’s thoughts had gone off in several circles and returned. Aze was still silently looking at him, though the waves in his eyes gave away that he wasn’t as calm as he appeared on the surface. Chen Qi hesitated for a moment before deciding to break the silence first. “Aze, are you willing?”

Aze lips moved, “The two of us, for the rest of our lives? You will only have me as your mate for your whole life?” After these past few days of chaotic and complicated moods, Aze found himself unable to tolerate the existence of others in Chen Qi’s eyes. But he did not have a pregnancy pattern. Would Chen Qi really be willing to be with only him for his whole life? Even if he was willing to do so now, what about in the future? At the thought of this possibility, Aze felt a strong pain in his heart.

Chen Qi smiled and reached out a hand to stroke Aze’s forehead, brushing away the black hair that covered his eyes. “In my native place, if someone marries their mate but thinks about being with others, they would be disdained by everyone. I have lived in such an environment for nearly 30 years, and the concept of monogamy has been carved into my blood and bones. Even if one day one of us falls in love with someone else, I would still properly resolve the relationship between us. I am a timid person. I can’t do anything too outrageous and I just want to follow the compass and go with the set square*. I can’t guarantee anything that will happen in the future, but one thing I can guarantee is that, while we are in a relationship, I will only have you as my mate.”

*循规蹈矩 xún guī dǎo jǔ to follow the compass and go with the set square (idiom); to follow the rules inflexibly; to act according to convention

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 knew Aze could not yet overcome the hurdle brought about by the lack of a pregnancy pattern. He understood the other’s worries, and had enough patience and time to accompany him until he finally realized that he really didn’t mind this matter. This proposal of his was not something decided in a moment of hotheadedness. He and Aze had not known each other for a long time. In fact, taking everything into account, they hadn’t known each other for more than half a year. However, he knew clearly in his heart that Aze was the only one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. After understanding that, Chen Qi did not want to waste a minute nor a second more. He only wanted to have a good relationship with this man and live together well, so that there would be no chance for Aze to be abducted from under his nose.

Especially considering the situation he’d been in when Azhang and the others moved away, it made Chen Qi more determined to be mates with Aze. He could not tolerate the thought of Aze not being by his side one day. As long as he thought of this possibility, Chen Qi felt a deep emptiness in his heart, as if someone had dug a gaping hole and he desperately needed to fill it up.

Hearing Chen Qi’s earnest and serious promise, the corners of Aze’s eyes turned red. Chen Qi, who knew of the danger, yet still wanted to stay in the wilderness with him. Chen Qi, who knew that he didn’t have any pregnancy patterns, yet still confessed to him. Chen Qi, who promised to be with him for the rest of their lives. Each and every one of these was initiated by Chen Qi. How good and capable he must have been that the Beast God let him meet Chen Qi.

Chen Qi took out a piece of cloth from his pocket and carefully opened it. There was a pair of bone rings within it. “There is a custom in our hometown that, when two people want to become mates, they exchange rings. I have been carving these rings for a very long time. There is a kind of rose engraved on it, but unfortunately I couldn’t really remember what it looked like, so the engraving did not come out looking too good. But I always remember that this flower had a special meaning in the flower language. Hold hands and grow old together.”

Chen Qi put the cloth with the bone rings in front of Aze so that Aze could clearly see what was inside, “Meaning, I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

Aze looked at the bone rings before him. The bone rings were polished very smoothly, and there was a flower bud engraved on the surface. Aze sat up and reached out his hand to gently stroke the slightly rough lines on them. It was a flower that he had never heard of before. “What color is this flower?”

“Pink.” Roses came in many colors and each color represented something different in the flower language. But only the meaning of the pink rose was firmly stuck in his mind.

Aze silently wrote down the color of this flower in his heart, and he was about to say something when he discovered that there were two small characters in the inner band of the rings. One was engraved with a ‘Ze’ character and the other had a ‘Qi’ character.

Chen Qi saw that Aze found the two characters and his face turned a little red. Embarrassed, he touched his nose a little awkwardly. The two characters were carved a little crookedly and were very ugly. They could almost be considered as ruining the rings. At first, it was just his small wish to carry the other’s name in his hand that made him determined to carve the characters into the rings. “The ‘Qi’ character is engraved on the ring that fits your ring finger, and the one with the ‘Ze’ character is mine.”

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 isn’t the one with the ‘Ze’ character mine?” Although, he also quite liked the ring with Chen Qi’s name on it.

Chen Qi picked up the ‘Qi’ character ring and slowly slipped it onto the ring finger on Aze’s left hand. The embarrassment he’d felt previously was wiped away and he pursed his lip, smiling gently, “Because I want to wear your name on my finger.”

Aze felt pain in the rims of his eye and blinked, letting out moisture.

Chen Qi finished putting on the ring on Aze’s finger and then reached out his hand to him. “So, would you, Aze, be willing to be my mate? Allow me to accompany you for a lifetime? If you agree, please put that ring on my ring finger.”

Aze took a deep breath to settle his excessively stirred up state of mind. Then he picked up the bone ring engraved with his name, and, holding it as if it was the most important thing in the world, he slowly and carefully slipped it onto Chen Qi’s ring finger. “I am willing to be your mate, and I am willing to be with you, the two of us, for the rest of our lives.”

Chen Qi’s mouth turned up in a wide silly grin and could not help but lean over to gently peck at Aze’s beautiful lips. Originally, he was thinking of breaking away after one kiss but Aze unexpectedly embraced him and deepened the kiss.

When they separated, they were both panting a little. Seeing Aze’s face turn a shade of pink from his neck to his ears, Chen Qi’s throat turned coarse. He touched his nose and gave a light cough, “It’s late. Let’s get some rest.”

Aze moved his gaze away and nodded quickly in response. Just now he was too bold.

After their late night talk, Chen Qi no longer secretly prepared stuff without Aze’s knowledge. Early the next morning, he dug out the bird feathers that had been saved before, pulled off the soft fluffy parts, and then took out the two pieces of cloth that had been dyed red. These two pieces of fabric were specially woven by Ali and were two meters long.

Chen Qi took out a handful of gold colored cocoon yarn threads. Only one of the dye-fruits Aze had found was gold in color. He had used it all to dye the cocoon yarn threads and had managed to dye almost half of the cocoon yarn threads. Then he rolled the cocoon yarn threads into a suitable size. He took out some gum tree leaves that he had linked together previously, and carefully sewed them in the middle of the red fabric to form a large sized ‘Xi’* character.

*囍 xǐ. Double happiness. Commonly used for weddings

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 the gum tree leaves were fixed on, Chen Qi used the bone needle to sew along the edge of the ‘Xi’ character, stitch by stitch, until the ‘Xi’ character was formed, then he carefully removed the gum tree leaves.

There were not very many bird feathers. Chen Qi spread the feathers out until it was about the size of the quilt, and then sewed them together with thread. In order to ensure the same thickness of feathers throughout, the feathers were adjusted and repositioned from time to time.

This time, Chen Qi wasn’t using root threads to sew the quilt. Instead, he had dyed some cocoon yarn threads red and slowly weaved them, one by one, into sewing-suitable-sized strings. It had taken him a whole day to prepare them.

Chen Qi carefully placed the sewn-together feathers in the middle of the red fabric, then stitched the feathers into the cloth along the planned route. Finally, he stitched together the openings around the quilt, and a big red quilt was completed.

Don’t blame Chen Qi for being pretentious. In such a different world, Chen Qi hoped that his wedding would be able to have a little bit of the atmosphere from his previous world.

Aze had left the house early that morning, and only returned with an adult male antelope-dragon when it was dark. The antelope-dragon had already been processed. Only the flesh and bones were left. Chen Qi remembered that the last antelope-dragon that was brought back had mostly been discarded aside from plucking a little bit of its fur to make some writing brushes. It was reasonable to say that the beastmen were now able to accept the viscera, so there was no need to be wasteful.

Dinner was a full antelope-dragon feast. Aze directly made a fire in the yard and a whole antelope-dragon was skewered over the fire. Chen Qi’s head was full of black lines. Fortunately, an antelope-dragon was not as big as a hydrochoerus dragon. Otherwise, there would have been no difference between this and roasting a mountain.

“When confirming a mate, the females will invite all the tribespeople to eat their hunted prey. The size of the hunted prey should be large enough for all of them to share, which proves that the female is strong and more than capable of feeding their significant other.” The antelope-dragon was not yet fully-roasted and it still smelled of blood. Ake could not stand the smell and had walked to Chen Qi, who was further away from the fire.

Chen Qi understood. “Why did Aze throw away the hide and internal organs of the antelope-dragon? Is the viscera unpalatable?” Chen Qi asked about his earlier doubts.

“You don’t know?” Ake was slightly surprised and looked deeply at Chen Qi. “Dragon hides cannot be preserved for a long time. Keeping it would just be waiting for it to rot slowly. As for the internal organs, most of the dragons’ viscera are poisonous and cannot be eaten after they are hunted.”

“…” Chen Qi was silent for a moment, then said, “It seems that we ate the viscera of the hydrochoerus dragon last time.”

Ake smiled. “Hydrochoerus dragons are at the bottom of the dragon food chain. Everyone relies on them to eat their fill. If they were poisonous, I’m afraid that more than half of the dragon kinds would be extinct.”

The corners of Chen Qi’s mouth twitched. Is there still such a setting?

After the antelope-dragon was roasted, Aze sliced some meat from the tenderest part of it and offered it to Chen Qi, his eyes overflowing with tenderness. Ake smiled at this man who’d grown up with him and moved over to Ka Luo to get something to eat.

Chen Qi raised a piece of antelope-dragon meat to Aze’s lips and said, “Eat some too.”

Aze gently opened his mouth to bite down at the slice of meat. His mouth was full of the meat flavor that was tender and sweet.

Words from the Translation Crew

Miiya: They.. are.. ENGAGED! (SQUEEE)

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.