Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 065
Chapter 65
A period of three days couldn’t be considered long nor short. On Moonless Day before the wedding, Aze still had some preparations to work on, such as trying on clothes and pasting couplets. At this time, Chen Qi became very fussy. If the ‘Xi*’ character he stuck on was even a little bit crooked, he would have to redo it. And when trying on clothes, Aze’s hairstyle didn’t match his attire, so he even gave Aze a haircut with the dragon-horn knife.
*喜 xǐ Happiness.
Because Azhang had left all the food he had stored to the tribespeople before they departed, he did not have enough stocked up for him and Ali to sustain through the winter. So today, he could only take the opportunity while the weather was fine to go hunt in the forest on his own.
Usually, when Azhang and Aze went to the forest, they had a distinct division of labor. Azhang was in charge of hunting prey while Aze was responsible for finding all kinds of edible plants as well as for chopping firewood. Now, the yard already had a pile of firewood that resembled a small mountain. Since it was not clear whether Chen Qi would need to use the firewood elsewhere, all the firewood Aze had cut were neatly piled up in the same place and would be split up for use as needed.
Because it was a Moonless Day, when Azhang was heading out early that morning, Ali had reminded him that he must return early. Azhang naturally agreed. However, that day, even when the sky had turned completely dark, neither hide nor hair of Azhang could be seen.
“Why don’t I go look for him?” Aze suggested, seeing Ali pacing anxiously in front of the door.
“No, let’s wait and see.” Ali refused. Even though he knew that Aze was very strong, it was not a wise move to enter the forest on a Moonless Day in winter.
Fortunately, Azhang came back not long afterwards. Unexpectedly, his return today was a rare sight of him without any prey. Instead, he brought back over a dozen logs for firewood. It wasn’t just the constantly worrying Ali, even Chen Qi noticed that something was off with this scene of Azhang returning.
Ali rushed up to help unload the firewood from Azhang’s shoulders and went back into the house to pour him a bowl of warm sweet ginger soup. Azhang accepted the offered bowl but did not rush to drink it. Instead, he looked at the people around him and finally, with his eyes set on Ali, said with a heavy expression, “The hydrochoerus dragons at the periphery of the forest have disappeared.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Besides Chen Qi, the expressions on all of the beastmen sank when they heard the news. This is not the first time the hydrochoerus dragons have disappeared, as it was an inevitable event every year. But what worried everyone was that the hydrochoerus dragons had disappeared much earlier this year.
The reason why they were described to have “disappeared” rather than “left” was because their departure was unlike when the hydrochoerus dragons first arrived at the forest periphery in the early winter. They all disappear practically overnight, without any footprints or traces, as if they had never appeared in the Loya Forest.
However, in previous years, the hydrochoerus dragons would disappear in the middle of summer. This time, only half of the winter had passed and the hydrochoerus dragons have already disappeared. It was important to recall that the animals on the Dora Plains would not migrate back next year, so there would be no prey for roughly a year. How would the beastmen survive the summer? And if the hydrochoerus dragons don’t appear again in the next winter, how would they survive the cold winter days?
“The hydrochoerus dragons disappeared, what about other creatures?” Chen Qi, who had practically popped out of thin air into this world, obviously didn’t feel the same worries as the beast people .
“Only the hydrochoerus dragons disappeared.” Azhang replied, “The other dragons are still there, but hydrochoerus dragons are the only huge creatures that could be hunted with a single person. Unless a few people cooperate to hunt the other dragons, the success rate is not high and the likelihood of casualties is higher.”
Chen Qi was surprised, and turned to ask Aze, “Didn’t you manage to hunt two antelope-dragons last time?”
Aze shook his head. “The antelope-dragons are too fast, the beast people can’t catch up to them. It takes luck to hunt the antelope-dragons.”
“And I’m afraid…”. Azhang paused, a full face of worry. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to enter the forest anymore this winter. When I came back, I saw several locust dragons gathered together and even found traces of stegosauruses outside the forest.”
The stegosauruses’ range of activities was usually only in the center of the forest. It was already abnormal enough for the solitary locust dragons to gather together. Now, even the stegosauruses were cropping up. Everyone was silent.
Aze looked at Chen Qi, pondered for a moment, then said to Azhang, “Uncle Azhang, let’s stop going to the forest this winter. We have stored enough food this year. In addition to what we have managed to hunt so far this winter, it is enough for the few of us to get through the winter.”
Azhang looked at Aze with a somewhat complicated look, then turned to look at Chen Qi. He found that Chen Qi did not object to Aze’s decision to share their food. He was about to say something when Ali grabbed his arm. “Then it’s decided. Matters about the food will have to wait until after winter is over.”
Chen Qi thought for a moment and proposed, “Since we no longer need to go out to the forest, we can seal the front and rear doors of the wall and we’ll only set up a long enough wooden ladder inside, so that it will be safer, even if dragons pass by.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Considering the females’ jumping abilities, the height of the wall was not an obstacle. Seeing that everyone had already made the decision, Azhang no longer needed to contest with himself to try to oppose it. Immediately, the oil lamps were lit, and throughout the night, they moved the snow outside and sealed the front and back wooden doors of the wall, and buried sharpened stakes around the perimeter.
The wedding preparations had already been made. After the wall was finished, everyone temporarily forgot the problems from the forest and looked forward to the never-seen-before wedding ceremony.
Looking at the span of white ice wall that surrounded them, Chen Qi was very glad that they had made the yard large enough from the get go. Otherwise, if it had been enclosed a little tighter, it would have been akin to a prison. However, Chen Qi was a homebody who can stay full-time indoors, so he was not worried about any discomfort. He had only gone out a few times since he came to this world, and now, was content to continue living like this.
On the morning of the 1st day after the Moonless Day, when it was still completely dark, Chen Qi got up. It was better to say that he had been so nervous since last night that he couldn’t sleep all night. Seeing Chen Qi get up, Aze also silently climbed out of bed.
Chen Qi replaced all the bedding on the fire keng with the newly-made red quilts, and then began to prepare the food.
The taste of the rice berries that were picked after winter was a bit similar to glutinous rice, but it did have a little astringency, which was quite different from the sweet rice fragrance it had when it had been picked before winter. Although it was his first time trying it, before going to bed last night, Chen Qi had opened several rice berries into a pottery dish and set it by the fire to heat it and evaporate the liquid. Although it was not completely dry at the moment, it could still be used.
First, Chen Qi mixed some boiled sugar syrup into the rice berry and kneaded it. This was a laborious task. After kneading it for a little while, he let Aze take over. Then Chen Qi went to prepare the fried food.
Chen Qi was setting out what he needed when he heard Ka Luo shouting from outside, “Chen Qi, are you guys up yet?”
Chen Qi wiped his hands and went to open the door. A heavy wooden door had been installed, and when it was opened, there was also a thick hide door-curtain beyond it. The temperature that morning was relatively low. Ka Luo was enduring the cold and stomping on the ground. As soon as he saw Chen Qi open the door, he couldn’t wait to run into the warm room.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“How come it’s just you today? Where’s Ake?”
Ka Luo warmed himself up by the fire. “Ake has been a little bit more lethargic these past couple of days. I let him sleep in a little longer. I saw the curtains of your window were open, so I wanted to come over early to see if there was anything you needed help with.”
The windows of Ka Luo’s and Chen Qi’s house faced each other and Chen Qi would draw open the curtains whenever he got up, so Ka Luo just had to look out his window to know if they were up. While the two were talking, Azhang and Ali arrived too. Since Ajing was younger and needed more sleep, he hadn’t woken up yet and Ali did not wake him to come over.
Azhang was sent by Chen Qi to work with Aze on the labor-intensive dough kneading task. Ali and Ka Luo were each responsible for the fried meatballs and fries, respectively. The prepared food was kept warm on a newly-made wooden shelf by the fire.
Chen Qi had ground the small handful of mung beans Ajing had brought by before. Chen Qi planned to make glutinous rice balls with the first piece of dough that Aze kneaded. The glutinous rice balls would be in two flavors; one batch would be in the original flavor, and the other would be made by mixing the dough with steamed sweet potato paste, which would then be used to wrap the filling of mung bean flour and crushed sugar, and rolled into small balls, before being set to steam in a pottery dish over water.
After the rest of the dough was kneaded, Chen Qi molded the dough into a suitable weight and formed into the shape of bread. At Chen Qi’s request, Aze found a piece of cloth to cover the dough and set it aside for the dough to ferment on its own for a while. After Ka Luo and the others had finished making all the fried food, Chen Qi took out the burning wood from the cooking stove, leaving only the red charcoal inside. Chen Qi made a few nicks on the surface of the dough with the dragon-horn knife, then placed it on a thick piece of wood. The piece of wood was only large enough to place three of the dough pieces at a time. Chen Qi put on leather gloves for protection, and placed the wood with dough into the cooking stove. Then, he sealed the mouth of the stove with wood boards.
This was Chen Qi’s first attempt to make bread, and he didn’t know how it would turn out. He didn’t know if the temperature would be high enough since he was using the stove as an oven, and he didn’t know if the dough would rise well without yeast, but he still wanted to try and make it.
When the sun came out, Ake arrived as well. His eyes looked half-opened, and he appeared as if he had not quite woken up yet. When he entered the door, he saw the three-story tall wooden shelf by the fire that was filled with freshly made food. He casually picked up a white glutinous rice ball and stuffed it into his mouth. “How come there’s so much food today? Will we be able to finish it all?”
“Even if we can’t finish it all, it still looks nice.” Chen Qi smiled. For this once-in-a-lifetime wedding, being extravagant was acceptable.
“This is tasty, but it’s very sweet.” Ake picked up another orange-yellow glutinous rice ball that was mixed with mashed sweet potatoes. “How come this one is even sweeter?”
“Chen Qi, something smells really good.” Ka Luo, who was squatting by the stove, beckoned at Chen Qi. Because this was the first time Chen Qi was making bread, and it was made by being inserted into the cooking stove, Ka Luo was super curious and squatted in front of the stove to watch as soon as he finished his tasks.
Chen Qi went over and removed the wood boards covering the stove opening, then put on the gloves to take out the bread-laden piece of wood. The sweet, familiar smell of bread wafted into his nostrils. Chen Qi could not help but use the dragon-horn knife to cut one of them up for everyone to have a taste. En, it was a bit crisp, a bit hard and a bit sweet. It was not exactly delicious, but it was also not unpalatable.
Chen Qi asked Aze to pick out some red-hot charcoal from the fire and put it into the cooking stove. He took out a few milk fruits, and coated the remaining dough with milk fruit liquid, and then put the new batch of dough in to bake.
After tasting the not-so-tasty taste of bread, Ka Luo lost interest in that kind of food and went back to the fire to make other foods that he thought were delicious. Recently, he had learned a lot of different methods to make food from Chen Qi. It was a rare opportunity to be able to eat all of them at one time, so Ka Luo naturally had to take action.
Meanwhile, Chen Qi took advantage of the fact that all of the tasks were almost done and pulled Aze into the room to change clothes.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: I enjoy reading about Ka Luo the foodie ^_^
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.
Same here coz i am a foodie myself. Well, more like i love eating more than cooking
I can’t imagine having to make food without modern things. How to watch the fire???