Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 069
Chapter 69
“It should be able to be eaten.” Aze sounded a bit uncertain. After all, few would hunt for champsosauruses. The Sanchen River was in the middle of the Loya Forest and was far away from here. “It’s just that, I have never eaten it before, so I don’t know if it tastes any good.”
Hearing that champsosaurus meat was edible, Chen Qi waved his hand, “Then let’s take it back with us. So it won’t count as a wasted trip.”
Aze nodded. This champsosaurus was too thin, and the fur and internal organs could not be eaten, so it would be too wasteful to bring it back whole. Aze first removed the head and internal organs, and then skinned the creature, leaving only a thin layer of meat and the rest being bones. There were already several large boxes of hydrochoerus dragon and antelope-dragon bones at home, so Chen Qi had no interest in this thin champsosaurus’ bones and he just carefully sliced up the meat. On the contrary, the meat on the long tail was tough and strong, and the meat from the tail was more than the meat from the rest of its body.
Looking at the backpack full of packed up champsosaurus meat, Chen Qi was very satisfied, “Aze, what about these unwanted things?” It was unreasonable to just leave them there.
Aze picked up the head of the champsosaurus and threw it into the huge hole in the ice that the creature had knocked open. The water splashed and then the surface suddenly surged. An impressive swarm of fish rushed and scrambled over to eat the champsosaurus. “Just throw them all into the river. The fish will wipe them out.”
Chen Qi stared at the sizable and densely packed swarm of fish and his scalp felt a little numb, especially with their wide open mouths. Their sharp teeth seemed to gleam coldly in the sun. He swallowed, then stopped Aze from tossing the next thing in and suggested, “Let’s grab two of them and see if we can eat them.”
Aze looked at the fish churning about in the water. How were they supposed to be caught? They couldn’t go into the water to catch them, right? Aze couldn’t swim, and of course he wouldn’t let Chen Qi go into the water. The water in the Chishui River right now could freeze someone to death.
Chen Qi didn’t explain much. He found a suitable branch from the pile of branches that Aze had brought over. He broke it into four pieces as he had when he’d made the torch. Then he sharpened a broken part to make a simple harpoon. Chen Qi made two and handed one to Aze. Then he went by the hole in the ice to test the firmness of the ice. After all, the cracks were so obvious now that the champsosaurus had smashed through it.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Aze followed Chen Qi closely to prevent any other accidents from happening. Chen Qi checked it and confirmed that the surface at the entrance of the hole in the ice was firm enough to bear the weight of the both of them. Then, he motioned for Aze to throw the rest of the champsosaurus’ fur and internal organs in.
As soon as those things entered the water, the fish with sharp teeth began to show their heads. Chen Qi carefully selected a target. The fish were accustomed to the beastmen feeding them, so they were not afraid of the beastmen approaching. After selecting his target, Chen Qi took a deep breath, lifted the harpoon high and plunged it into the water hard. Very good. He missed.
Aze observed Chen Qi’s movements and imitated Chen Qi’s actions. After confirming the target he wanted to stab, Aze thrust the harpoon into the water. The harpoon was almost completely submerged, and a tinge of blood spread out underwater. Aze pulled up the harpoon and saw a big fish, flapping about, on it.
Chen Qi: “…” Well fine, he was just an ordinary person, and it was only natural to miss on his first time trying to stab a fish with a harpoon.
Aside from the array of long, sharp teeth in its mouth, the fish looked a bit like a crucian carp. Chen Qi decided to pretend it was a crucian carp for the time being. Aze lowered the fish off the harpoon, and the crucian carp bounced a few times with such a strong force it almost managed to jump into the water. Chen Qi hurriedly used the rope he had prepared for fishing and passed it through the carp’s gills, tying it tightly.
“Aze, grab two more before they finish eating the champsosaurus.” Chen Qi happily tossed the tied up crucian carp aside and told Aze. Then he, too, picked up the harpoon again, planning to try again.
After the incident earlier, several of the fish had retracted back deeper into the water, but there were still many who could not resist the temptation of food and insisted on eating. The food disappeared quickly at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. Chen Qi stopped hesitating and thrust the fork down. The harpoon poked the hard scale of the crucian carp, leaving a scratch on it. The crucian carp felt the pain and quickly sank into the depths of the water. Chen Qi’s second attempt still ended in failure.
However, Chen Qi was not angry, and instead his mood surged even higher. Of course, even after the fish had wiped out the pieces of champsosaurus and dove away in the water, he still failed to catch a fish.
Meanwhile, Aze was successful with the harpoon two more times. On the last try, he didn’t choose a good target and he thrust at a fish with extremely hard scales. The simple harpoon directly broke apart and he had to give up.
Chen Qi, who had caught three crucians measuring about one meter long and weighing 50 kilograms, was already very happy. He tied them with ropes. The fish was too heavy to be carried by Aze. Chen Qi did not want the ice cave to be frozen so quickly, so he stuffed the branches into the ice cave. Although he could not completely cover the cave, it was enough to come back 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.
After handling the site, the two went home.
The house always kept two dishes of hot water warming. When he got home, Chen Qi planned to first clean and process the fish. Although the others all thought that fish could not be eaten, they were intrigued by Chen Qi’s excited appearance. One by one, they came over to see how Chen Qi would prepare it. Only Ake, who couldn’t get out of bed, and Ka Luo, who had to take care of the baby, couldn’t come.
Now, the temperature was too cold, so Chen Qi naturally couldn’t use cold water to clean the fish. He first prepared a dish of warm water, then took a crucian carp and washed it in the water. Then he used the dragon-horn knife to remove the scales from the fish, cut open its belly and remove all its internal organs, placing them into a pottery dish. The fish had eaten the internal organs of the champsosaurus. Chen Qi didn’t know if there would be any problems with that, so erring on the side of caution, he naturally had to throw it all away. Of course, he wouldn’t just throw it directly into the Chishui River like before. He planned to use these internal organs as bait and have Aze continue to fork a few more fish back. And in the meantime, he’d practice his own harpooning technique as well.
Chen Qi cleaned the fish gills, removed the fins, and then brought out the largest pottery dish, intending to stew the big crucian carp directly into a large pot of soup.
Chen Qi added a little animal oil to the pottery dish. After all, the crucian carp was so big that Chen Qi added a little salt to the oil to prevent the carp from sticking to the pan. Then, he put the cleaned crucian carp in and fried it until both sides were golden brown. Then he added water until the whole carp was completely submerged. There was no cooking wine here. Chen Qi could only slice a few more pieces of wild ginger and add them into the stew, hoping that some of the fishiness would be removed.
After the preliminary steps were completed, all that was left was to let it simmer. There were still two more crucian carps. Seeing Azhang’s eagerness to deal with the fish, Chen Qi asked him and Aze to clean the remaining two carps according to his previous methods.
Chen Qi opened up one of the strange-smelling rice berries that had been gathered during the winter and set it by the fire to dry out the liquid. After the carps had been cleaned by the two females, Chen Qi cut up thick slices of fish meat to fill a large bowl, briefly seasoned it with salt and minced ginger, and then opened up a sweet rice berry to cook a bowl of fish porridge for Ake.
Chen Qi washed a few leftover pieces of cabbage and cut them into shreds together with a few wild onions for later use. After the rice berry was boiled, he put the fish filets in and stirred it a little with a spoon. When it came to a boil again, the cabbage was added in. When the dish was almost ready, he added a little more salt and then scooped out a pottery bowlful.
“Is there no problem if the fish is cooked this way?” Ali couldn’t help but ask when he smelled the sweet aroma of the rice porridge. But inwardly he was still a little nervous. After all, no one had ever eaten fish before, and there were several examples of people starving to death because they’d secretly eaten it.
“I’ll teach you how to pick out the fishbones in them.” Chen Qi smiled and took out another pottery bowl. He clamped the fish filets with chopsticks and first checked whether any fishbones had dropped into the porridge before starting to pick out the fishbones in the filets.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Although this crucian carp was more than 50 kg big, its bones were very small, and they could get caught in the throat if eaten carelessly. Moreover, the fishbones were not hard, but they did have a certain toughness to them and were not easy to break. Chen Qi used the chopsticks to pick out a fishbone and showed it to everyone. “As long as these fishbones are removed, the fish can be eaten.”
Chen Qi picked out a small piece of fish meat that he’d cleanly removed all the fishbones from and put it into his mouth. The fish was sweet and soft, and it didn’t taste fishy. Aze nervously watched Chen Qi’s reaction, fearing that he would show a painful expression in the next moment. “Chen Qi, are you alright?”
“Why wouldn’t I be alright?” Chen Qi rolled his eyes. He was quite amused at the way these beast people were so nervous about eating a fish, as if they were facing an enemy. He took a fish filet to Aze’s lips and coaxed, “Give it a try.”
Aze did not hesitate to eat the piece offered to him. The fish was soft and there was really nothing wrong with it aside from tasting a bit unique. This time it was Ali’s turn to don the nervous expression. Seeing Aze swallow the fish, he couldn’t help asking, “Aze, how are you? Are you okay?”
Aze shook his head. “I’m fine. It really is edible.” And it actually tasted okay too.
Chen Qi briefly explained to them the cases of those who starved to death because fishbones were caught in their throats. Then he mixed the fishbone-less filets into the rice porridge and took out the bowls and chopsticks. He distributed a small bowlful to each of them and let them try it to see if they could get used to it.
Chen Qi didn’t put much fish into the porridge. The other fishes were frozen outside the house. Aside from the large, full bowl for Ake, everyone else could only have a small taste. Ake unexpectedly did not feel any resistance to eating fish. Since Chen Qi said this fish porridge could be safely eaten, he ate the large bowl of fish porridge under Ka Luo’s worried eyes. After eating, Ake naturally went back to sleep. Currently, Ake was really only awake for the three meals each day.
Chen Qi cut up a few plates full of hydrochoerus dragon meat and a plate of crucian carp. Today, he’d asked Aze to find a flat stone slab to set by the fire and was going to teach these few people how to grill meat.
The hot stone slab was greased with oil. Then, Chen Qi put a piece of hydrochoerus dragon meat on it. There were no sauces here, so Chen Qi had seasoned the meat with salt in advance. Now, it could just be grilled on the stone slab and directly eaten. It was very simple. Chen Qi only had to demonstrate it once and everyone could already do it.
“Chen Qi, are you planning to finish this large plate of fish filets on your own?” After he finished teaching them, Azhang watched Chen Qi busily start grilling fish filets for himself. His heart was sour. The fish filets Chen Qi was grilling smelled so good. Since he could already eat fish, why was Chen Qi eating all of it on his own? After all, he was still the tribe chief.
“You are all eating fish for the first time, I’m afraid you might not be used to it. Tomorrow, if there are no adverse reactions and you can still accept eating fish, you can eat it again.” Chen Qi happily stuffed the fishbone-less filets into his mouth. The grilled fish had a stronger, more fragrant, taste that Chen Qi had not had for a long time.
Ali put some grilled hydrochoerus dragon meat into Azhang’s bowl and comforted him, “Just bear with it for now. After all, it is our first time eating fish, so it is good to be careful.”
At Ali’s words, Chen Qi grinned widely at Azhang. He also clamped some grilled hydrochoerus dragon meat slices into Aze’s bowl. Chen Qi was not sure whether they were allergic to fish, so he didn’t let them eat too much at one time. Even Ake’s fish porridge for Ake only had a few pieces of fish. However, he hadn’t had fish for a long time, and now a big fish was right in front of him, so he would have to be forgiven for not refraining himself.
After finishing off these few slices, I’ll stop tempting them with it. Chen Qi thought, as he continued to chew the fish filets in his mouth.
“…” Seeing Chen Qi’s face full of satisfaction, the villain in Azhang’s heart had already gone to squat in the corner and draw circles on the ground. Fine, he would endure it for one night.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Thanks for reading and happy Canada Day and 4th of July holidays to those that celebrate.
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.
😭😭 this is too funny
Thanks for translation