Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 066
Chapter 66
Aze wearing the black suit really gave off an inexplicable feeling of abstinence. Even though he’d already seen it once yesterday, Chen Qi’s throat still felt a little tight and he swallowed unconsciously. The workmanship of the suit was slightly rough and the texture wasn’t very good. The buttons were even made out of wood. In order to match the suit, Chen Qi had painted the buttons multiple times with black dye-fruit liquid.
“You look really good today.” Chen Qi praised Aze while helping him adjust his collar.
Aze’s ears were slightly red, and he stiffened awkwardly as he let Chen Qi fiddle with it. “You look very good too.”
Chen Qi smiled, gliding his fingers from the bottom up before finally stopping at Aze’s face. He gently rubbed at the corner of his lips. “I think your lip color is a little off.”
Aze was a little nervous. “What should I do then?”
Chen Qi leaned over and lightly bit at his pretty thin lips, then gave them a little lick. Seeing the originally white lips now tinged with a brilliant red, he released him with satisfaction Only then did he let go of him with a look of satisfaction, “Now, that’s more like it.”
Aze blushed from the tips of his ears down to his face and then to his neck, and he quickly looked away from Chen Qi, not daring to look at him again.
Chen Qi smiled. “They should have waited for a long time. Let’s go out.”
Aze nodded slightly, “Okay.” Chen Qi took Aze’s hand, interweaved their fingers together, clasping them tightly, then opened the newly-made door, that had the ‘Xi*’ character pasted on it and went out.
*喜 xǐ 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.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, the few people in the living room all turned their heads towards them in unison. At some point, Ajing and the little wolf cub had arrived. The little wolf pup called out excitedly upon seeing Aze and stumbled over to rush to him. Fortunately, Ajing reacted quickly and picked it back up.
“Brother, Chen Qi, you both look so good.” Ka Luo had not been present when they tried on the clothes yesterday. Seeing the two of them, who looked completely new at the moment, he couldn’t help but be stunned for half a day before he recovered and remembered to praise them.
Ake, who was standing beside him, nodded in agreement. Even the little wolf cub barked twice as if to express its sentiment as well.
Aze’s face had returned to normal not long after he left the room. He just pursed his thin lips into a smile when he heard his brother’s compliment.
Half of the prepared food was placed on wooden shelves by the fire, while the other half was set upon the low table that was used as the dining table, filling the whole table. Even the bread that was baked last had been brought out at some point, bringing a milky fragrance with it.
Chen Qi took Aze’s hand and walked slowly to the front of the crowd. Chen Qi had further polished the previously made bone rings and put them in a wooden box last night.
Chen Qi did not intend to make the wedding process too complicated. He planned to follow the beastmen’s ceremonial process for becoming mates first, before going through with the wedding process he was familiar with.
After receiving the hint from Chen Qi that they could start, Azhang came over and took out three round stones from his bosom. One had the silhouette of a giant wolf on it, and the other had a soaring dragon. It was the stone from when Chen Qi had first arrived here and had Azhang record information on to. The last one was a little bigger than the others, but it was pure white and had no pattern.
Azhang handed two stones with silhouettes to the two men and asked loudly, “Chen Qi, Aze, do you confirm that you want to be mates before the Beast God?”
“Yes.” Chen Qi and Aze looked at each other and replied in unison.
Azhang placed the slightly larger pure white stone in the middle and motioned for the two men to place a drop of their blood onto the stone. Aze elongated a fingernail, took Chen Qi’s hand and gently made a scratch across his palm. Then he quickly scratched his own hand. The two hands that were clasped together began to ooze bright red blood, and the mixed blood slid along their fingers and dripped onto the stone. Then, a miraculous thing occurred. Like a sponge, the stone suddenly absorbed the blood and the silhouettes on the two stones, to the left and right, began to move slowly. Soon they moved onto the larger stone. The dragon and the wolf were close together and gazed at each other affectionately.
This was the beastmen’s contract for forming mates. After the ceremony, Azhang put away the two stones with the silhouettes. These kinds of stones for recording information could only be kept by the chief.
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 beastmen’s contract process was very simple. After it was concluded, Azhang withdrew. The next step was the long-awaited process that Chen Qi had prepared for a long time for. From his pocket, Chen Qi took out the wooden box that contained the bone rings. The wooden box was coated with a layer of red dye-fruit liquid and golden roses in full bloom were painted on it. “Where I come from, the ceremony is the exchange of rings, but before that, we exchange vows.”
Chen Qi opened the wooden box and the two bone rings laid quietly within. One inscribed with the ‘Qi’ character, and the other with ‘Ze’. The other beastmen looked on at the two in silence. “There is neither the concept of poverty nor wealth here, and the cycle of life, aging, illness and death is a notion that is very remote from you as well. The usual lines of vows probably aren’t very suitable for the two of us. Later, as I thought about it more, I remembered the vow that I thought for a moment and recalled a set of marriage vows from a game I once played, so I’ll just borrow them here.”
Chen Qi looked into Aze’s eyes, Aze bowed his head slightly, and his figure was reflected in those beautiful pupils. “Aze, now I take the sun and moon for my vow, take heaven and earth as my life’s mirror, take mountains and rivers as my proof, and take the beast god as my witness. I ask you to be my only mate in this life. And in this life, I will never leave or abandon you. I will be with you, forever and ever. Are you willing?”
From the start, as Chen Qi said his vows, with each of his words, Aze’s eyes stung more and more, slowly turning red. Until Chen Qi asked if he was willing, he could still control his emotions, but his voice was still a little hoarse. He picked up the bone ring engraved with his own name and gently slid it onto Chen Qi’s ring finger. “En, I’m willing. In this life, I will never leave or abandon you. I will be with you, forever and ever.”
Chen Qi picked up the other ring and slid it onto Aze’s in return. Then he reached out his hands to loop around the other’s neck. Aze was taller than him. So, he needed to make the other man bend down a little to look directly at him. Chen Qi looked into his eyes, leaned up and gave him a long deep kiss.
It was not until the two separated and, seeing that Chen Qi was not taking any further actions, Ka Luo finally dared to ask, “Is this the ceremony then?”
Chen Qi nodded with a smile. As for the likes of those bridal chamber playful pranking customs, he directly forewent them. He’d be the only one to ‘play’ with his mate. Chen Qi pulled Aze along to sit at the table and said, “A lot of food was prepared today. For just this one day, you can let your appetites loose and eat your fill.”
Ka Luo cheered and couldn’t wait to start eating. Although they didn’t usually go hungry during ordinary days, there were usually only two or three kinds of dishes during mealtimes. It was rare to have a banquet of more than 20 kinds of dishes laid out like it was today. Although the size of each dish was not very large, the beauty of it was that there was a whole lot of variety. Azhang had already started to consider whether he should do a ceremony like this one when he and Ali became mates too. Even just seeing this fully packed table of food could already bring everyone incessant joy.
“Ake, let’s have a wedding too.” Ka Luo was busy stuffing food into his mouth while filling Ake’s bowl with food. Although he was so active, he didn’t forget to suggest this amidst the people around him. “I very much like the oath Chen Qi had said. Next time I’ll say it to you too. Ah that’s right, there’s also the bone rings, I’ll make one of those for you too. Chen Qi said it was something used to tie our other half to us.”
“Even if you don’t tie me to you, I will still never leave you.” Ake patted Ka Luo on the back, “Take your time to eat.”
“Chen Qi, I meant to ask you about this, but what is the purpose of the red cloths that were hung up here?” Azhang asked, pointing to the big red ‘Xi’ characters on both sides of the door.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“This character is usually only used at weddings. My guess is that they are probably to add to the festivity. Everyone in my native place would decorate like this when they get married.” In fact, Chen Qi didn’t understand it very well himself. He just followed suit with the norm.
After the few of them finished eating, they didn’t stay long. They just said their goodbyes to Chen Qi and left. Seeing the room that had suddenly become unusually quiet, Chen Qi felt a little helpless. “Are they giving us room to get along?”
Aze’s face blushed a deep red and he nodded. He was still wearing the suit that Ali had spent a lot of time and thought into making. He didn’t want to get it dirty, so he didn’t start tidying up.
Chen Qi closed the door and pulled down the curtains. Then he opened two milk fruits, heated them by the fire and poured them into two wine cups. The two cups were the ones that Ali had originally made ages ago, but they had been set aside and unused because of their small capacity. Chen Qi handed one of the cups to Aze. “Normally, the exchange of cups during the wedding is supposed to be done with wine, but now we will have to make do with the milk fruit juice.”
“Exchange of cups?”
Chen Qi blinked. “The last step of the bridal chamber rituals.”
Chen Qi had explained the bridal chambers rituals to him before, so Aze’s face turned even redder when he heard Chen Qi say this.
Chen Qi looped his arm over Aze’s and motioned for the other to follow along with his actions. After the successful exchange of cups, Chen Qi coughed and said, “Next, shall we go and rest?”
Aze turned his face away and did not dare to look at Chen Qi. “The things in the living room have not been tidied up.”
Chen Qi thought back to the state of the living room. Aside from a few empty pottery dishes, the scene wasn’t too messy. “Let’s tidy up in the morning.”
“It’s not even evening yet.”
Before, Chen Qi had worried that dinner would go on for a long time, so he had planned for the wedding to start early, as soon as they had gotten everything ready. He didn’t think that just after noon, the guests left after they finished eating. Chen Qi touched his nose. Needless to say, he was probably more nervous than Aze at the moment, but this was definitely not the time to be timid. Chen Qi silently encouraged himself and pulled Aze to the bedside.
After a day of being heated up, the heated kang bed was already warm. Aze let Chen Qi pull him over to sit on the edge of the bed. Chen Qi made the fire a little smaller and when he looked back, he saw Aze obediently sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. The empty place in his heart seemed to be filled up in an instant. If it was Aze, he wondered if his old man would have been willing to accept it.
Chen Qi pulled up Aze’s hand and kissed it gently. Looking at Aze’s blushing, handsome face, he couldn’t help kissing the man on his forehead. Aze quietly let Chen Qi kiss him. Chen Qi smiled and tapped at the corner of his lips. “Aze, I seem to be the only one taking the initiative. Is it that you do not like me?”
Aze immediately shook his head in horror. “No.” When he looked up, he saw that Chen Qi was looking at him with a smile on his face. Only then did he realize that the other was joking with him.
“Then kiss me and I will believe that you really like me.” Chen Qi leaned closer to his face.
The corners of Aze’s lips curled up slightly and a kiss fell on Chen Qi’s lips.
The nearby fire was glowing with mellow orange flames, which combined the two tightly embracing figures into one.
The spring night veil was warm.
The red quilt overturned.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Who all were disappointed, raise your hands…. (me) Darn ‘fade to black’…
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.
“The red quilt overturned.” About dman time!!!At least we know they got down and jiggy with each other despite the fade go black lol. The wedding was sweet, tho.
Right? Down with “fade to black”!