Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 064
Chapter 64
Winter was too cold. Although he’d decided to make do with the living room of their new house for the wedding room first, Chen Qi didn’t want to miss anything he should be preparing. The wooden door of the living room, the cabinets in the rooms, pillows, bright red ‘Xi’* characters and so on. Everything that he could think of must be carefully evaluated and worked out first. He wanted Aze to have a memorable wedding.
*喜xǐ Happiness. When placed twice in a single char it is still ‘Xi’ but is double happiness. Chinese is so interesting.
Aside from the parties involved, the next happiest person was Ka Luo. Early each morning, he would rush over to Chen Qi’s house to report for duty. Thanks to him, the preparations for the wedding were completed much faster.
-Nearby, Ali was finishing a pair of leather shoes. The sole was made out of wood and the upper part was made out of a brown piece of hide. After all, since the beastmen had no experience making shoes, and animal hide shoes made by Ali—no matter how good his craftsmanship was—were still awkward to wear and would grind roughly against their feet. Contrary to expectations, Chen Qi wasn’t bothered by them. Anyway, even if he had to wear it for a long time, he’d just have to throw on a thick pair of socks and he’d be fine. However, Ali was obviously very interested in this new kind of leather shoes. These days, he would stay in Chen Qi’s house to slowly study the shoe designs Chen Qi had drawn. It goes without saying that he really managed to figure some things out. The modified animal hide shoes looked very similar to what was drawn, and its appearance was comparable to what Chen Qi was familiar with. As long as the comfortableness of the shoes was done well, Chen Qi believed that Ali could open the first shoe store in the beastmen world.
The wedding was scheduled for three days later, which was the first day after the next Moonless Day. There was no such thing as picking auspicious dates here. After all, there was no concept of dates yet. The reason for choosing the first day after the Moonless Day was because Chen Qi felt that it could be considered the beginning of the week, which was also a suitable symbolization of the beginning of his new life with Aze. Recently, the skies had been clear, with neither snow nor clouds. Even though the sun shone on his body without any added temperature, Chen Qi was in a good mood.
On the contrary, it was Ali who was acting very strangely today. Not only did he forget to add salt in the dishes he’d made for lunch, he even burned them. Those mistakes should have been impossible to have been made by Ali, who was almost of master chef level. Moreover, Ali was occasionally lost in thought and, every now and then, he’d glance at Chen Qi with an odd expression that seemed like he was hesitating to say something. Seeing Ali like this, even Chen Qi felt a little nervous.
After the nth time of Ali turning away after looking at him, Chen Qi finally couldn’t help asking, “Ali, is there something you want to say to me?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.” Ali stammered, shaking his head to deny, and quickly turned his eyes away again, not daring to look at Chen Qi again.
Chen Qi felt choked. Ali’s reaction didn’t make it look like it was nothing at all, but he felt it was too awkward to continue asking about it if the other didn’t want to say it.
That evening, before Aze came back, Ali approached Chen Qi and asked hesitantly, “Chen Qi, can I stay at your place tonight?”
“Why?” Chen Qi stopped cutting the red fabric and asked curiously. Of the dye-fruits brought back by Aze, the majority were red. Chen Qi replenished the previous plate of dye for the beastmen to practice writing with. This winter, Ka Luo was also helping to weave some fabric. Although the results of his weaving were not as good as Ali’s, it could still be used to make some small objects. What Chen Qi was doing now was cutting out ‘Xi*’ characters of the red fabric, planning to stick them onto the doors and windows. He’d also asked Aze to write out two couplets. There was no alternative. Who asked Aze to have better calligraphy than Chen Qi?
*囍 xǐ. Double happiness.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“It’s nothing, forget it.” Ali’s shoulders lowered, defeatedly and he tidied up the leather shoes in his hands that he’d made.
“Ali, if you encounter any problem that you can’t solve, you can tell me about it. Although I may not have many skills, maybe I can still give you a little advice.” Seeing Ali’s expression of constantly hesitating about saying something all day, Chen Qi felt his head ache. Since he came to this world, Ali had helped him a lot. Chen Qi had always wanted to find the chance to repay him, but each time, he just troubled Ali with more things instead. Even with all these wedding preparations, more than half of them were Ali’s handicrafts.
“Chen Qi, I know you know a lot, I just want to ask you… to ask you…” Ali paused after saying that much. Chen Qi patiently waited for the other to go on. After a long time, Ali raised his head as if he had finally made up his mind. Although his eyes still showed a little wavering, his tone was much firmer. “Chen Qi, do you think that two females can be together?”
Chen Qi was stunned for a while. Looking at Ali’s unconsciously clenched fist, he silently guessed what this was about. He sat down beside Ali and smiled. “Did Azhang say something to you?”
“How do you know?” Ali exclaimed.
“The way Azhang looks at you is different from the way he looks at others.” Chen Qi smiled and replied. Since he knew his own orientation, he has never made any mistakes in distinguishing his same kind. “What about you? Putting aside his identity as a female, what do you think of Azhang?”
“I…” Ali bowed his head and gave a wry smile, “Azhang… He is a strong female, with good hunting ability. He has taken good care of the tribe for so many years after the tribespeople moved out. But I watched him grow up, and I have always regarded him as a younger brother. I don’t know how he came up with these kinds of thoughts.”
“You watched him grow up?” Chen Qi was surprised. From the outside, Azhang looked much more mature than Ali.
Ali smiled. “Before they enter old age, beastmen rarely change their appearance, so you may not be able to tell from their appearance alone. Don’t judge based on how I look, but in fact, I am 80 years old this year, which is 25 years older than Azhang.”
Saying up to this much, a flash of nostalgia flared in Ali’s eyes. “I think, when I first met him, he was still a young little boy. Even a little younger than Ajing. I didn’t expect so many years to have passed in the blink of an eye and unknowingly, he has been supporting this dilapidated tribe for so many years.”
Chen Qi looked at him encouragingly and motioned the other to continue talking. Chen Qi knew that Ali needed someone to talk to.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Yesterday, Azhang said that I had saved his life before, but I have long forgotten about it.” At this point, Ali looked a bit embarrassed and seemed to be caught up in a memory from long ago.
“Did you know? Before the hyena-drake attack three years ago, there was actually another one, a long time ago. The scale of that attack was not as big as that of three years ago, but the tribe had paid a heavy price back then too.” Ali reached out and touched his injured leg. “This leg was injured in that attack.”
“Azhang said that it was during that attack that I had saved him. But the scene back then was very chaotic and I have no recollection of who I saved. At that time, I was engaged to a male and had arranged to be mates with him.” Ali’s eyes darkened. “I was in a coma for a while after my leg was injured. And when I woke up, I found out that the male had already become mates with someone else.”
Chen Qi patted Ali’s hand comfortingly.
“I’m fine. This was all decades ago.” Ali smiled. “Azhang said, seeing you and Aze busying about these past few days to prepare for the ceremony to become mates, he felt very envious. He said that even Aze, who did not have a pregnancy pattern, has bravely seized his happiness and that he should be able to do the same. However, he and I are both females. How can he, how can he…”
Seeing Ali struggle to find the right words for half a day, Chen Qi found it a little amusing. It seemed that in fact, it was not that Ali was uninterested in Azhang, but that he just hadn’t crossed that threshold in his heart.
In this world, even though there were many more females than males, there had never been a precedent for females getting together with other females. The beastmen advocated monogamy. Only if the original mate lost their ability to hunt, in order to support the family, only then would they consider getting together with another female. Regarding having two strong females and a male together at the same time… This was not something positive to speak about in this world. It just proved that they did not have the ability to support their own home by themselves. In this world where strength was the most important thing, this was more intolerable than anything for the females.
Looking at Ali, whose whole face looked lost and like he was at his wits’ end, Chen Qi felt as if he was seeing his past self. When he first realized that he was only interested in men, he was also lost and torturously perplexed. The thoughts and feelings that had tormented him back then, even until now, still appeared to be mired with a layer of pain when he recalled them.
“I have also encountered a situation like yours back where I am from.” Chen Qi did not know how to comfort others, so he thought about it and decided to speak about his own experience, “I knew a long time ago that I liked men. In other terms, so you can understand what I mean, I liked others that were males like the current me.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ali opened his mouth in surprise, but Chen Qi interrupted his question, “That period of time, I was in a lot of pain. Why was I different from other people? I didn’t dare to tell anyone. I couldn’t help but go home and talk to my family. As a result, my old man, as in, my father, beat me out the door with a stick.” Retelling the story to this point, the tip of Chen Qi’s nose was a little sour. The scene of that day seemed to reappear in front of his eyes. Even though the force from his father’s stick on him was not great, the wound in his heart had bled profusely. Later, he moved away and changed from job to job for several years, never setting foot in that home even until he came here. If Chen Qi had any regrets from that world, it was probably that he did not get the understanding of his family. Fortunately, he still had a younger brother and a younger sister to accompany his parents. Even if he was gone, his absence shouldn’t matter.
“Even so, I have never regretted it. Now I met Aze, and I think I was meant to come here just to meet him. For me, I don’t mind that Aze doesn’t have a pregnancy pattern or whether he would or would not be able to have children. Aze not having a pregnancy pattern is the same as those men from where I’m from. I like him just because he is Aze.” Chen Qi looked at Ali. “Maybe I can’t give you any advice on this matter, but it’s not your fault whether you like a female or a male. Just ask yourself, if Azhang were a male, would you like him? If the answer is yes, then why don’t you like him when he is a female? Is what you like Azhang himself, or the identity of a male?”
Ali looked back at Chen Qi in shock. He had never thought about it from that angle. Did he like Azhang? He didn’t know. But did he not like Azhang? This he can answer no. Azhang has been around him since he was a little boy. He watched him grow up little by little; Watched him hunt back an adult stegosaurus with the other females at the ceremony when he came of age; watched him fiercely protect him in the face of hyena-drake attacks; watched him use various excuses to trade large amounts of food for small amounts of cloth and pottery from his end; watched him stay in this already dilapidated tribe without hesitation… too much. There was just too much. It was just now that Ali discovered that since he met Azhang, Azhang existed everywhere in his life.
Chen Qi didn’t expect that just a few words from himself would make Ali understand. In that relationship, he was just a bystander. But he hoped that Ali could think clearly about this matter.
“When it comes to liking someone, age is not a problem, ability is not a problem, the most important thing is your heart, and whether you want to be with him or not.” Chen Qi said gently. This was also the belief that had supported him for so many years. He did not give in because he was different from others, nor did he give in because he was beaten by his father. His life was his own and he hoped that the person he really liked could be involved in his later life.
He was really, really grateful about crossing over, and for meeting Aze in the white field of snow.
At this point, Chen Qi, for the first time, had a strong urge to see Aze. To hug him, to kiss him, to tell him that he really liked him, over and over again.
That night, Ali, whose head was still full of mush, stayed at Chen Qi’s place. When Azhang came back and saw this, he gave a little lonely smile and left without a word. It wasn’t until the middle of the night that Ali quietly got up and went out the door.
“What happened to Uncle Ali?”
Chen Qi hugged Aze tightly in his arms and smelled the familiar scent of the other. “He’s fine. He’s just figured out some things he hadn’t thought about before.”
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Thanks for reading
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.
Thank you for all your hard work i really love this novel and i always had an inkling since a while ago that ali and azhang would have something together regardless of them being females.
Omg ALi and Azhang are the real gay ppl here