Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 072
Chapter 72
“Let’s go and have a look.” Chen Qi patted Aze on the shoulder and said anxiously. The temperature here was so low, falling into the ice water would kill a person.
Aze had rushed out before Chen Qi could finish speaking, only to see a fur-faced beastman, his body soaked and ten fingernails transformed into claws were firmly inserted into the ice and trying to climb up. Aze didn’t have time to put Chen Qi down and reached out to grab the man’s arm to pull him out.
Noticing that someone was trying to grab him, the beastman was about to struggle when he looked up and saw that it was Aze. Then he relaxed his strength and let the other man pull him out of the water. Without waiting to drop a word of thanks on Aze, the beastman quickly took off his dripping hide clothes as soon as he exited the water surface, then threw himself directly into snow and began to roll around incessantly.
Looking at the beastman rolling in the snow like a big cat, Chen Qi was puzzled. “What is he doing?”
The fur of the beastman was black, and it was extremely obvious in the snow. A large chunk of snow was rolled out from under him and the originally dry snowflakes carried moisture from the beastman’s fur.
“Drying his fur with snow.” Aze set Chen Qi down, “Wait here while I go get some branches.”
After a pause, Aze looked back at the black long-furred beastman rolling on the ground with a subtle expression and, before he left, said to Chen Qi, “That’s Ale.”
“…” What is Ale doing here at this time? Although he was puzzled, it was obvious that Aze, who had just left, and Ale, who was rolling around, could not answer Chen Qi’s question.
Aze soon returned with a large pile of dried branches. Although there was snow everywhere, some withered branches on the trees were still dry. Then, with the lighter, a fire was easily lit.
“Ale, come over and warm yourself up.” Aze called out to the beastman who was still wiping his body with snow.
Ale had stopped as soon as the fire started. When he heard Aze calling out to him, he quickly ran over. Aze had to pull him back a little. “Getting so close, are you trying to burn off all that fur?”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ale scratched the back of his head with a bit of embarrassment and moved away a little. He faced the fire for a few moments, then turned his back towards it for a little while, making sure to dry every bit of the fur on his body.
Chen Qi picked up the hide clothes that had been thrown aside, found a branch and stuck it in the snow. Then, he hung the hide clothes on the branch to dry off.
When his body was mostly all warmed up, Ale slowly retracted the fur on his face, revealing the young, childlike face that Chen Qi was familiar with. Ale couldn’t help sneezing, then rubbed his nose and said in a loud voice, “Thank you.”
Chen Qi handed the dried hide clothes back to the other party. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the Lion-Wolf Tribe? Why did you come back all this way on your own?”
Seeing the hide clothes Chen Qi was handing over, Ale just realized that he was not wearing any clothes. Although his whole body was covered with fur and nothing could be seen, his face still flushed a bright red. Though he heard Chen Qi’s question, Ale stopped his out-stretching hand for a moment and did not reply. Then, he quickly grabbed the clothes and ran behind an acacia tree a little farther away to put them on.
Chen Qi’s face was full of black lines. He had just been rolling all over the place in front of him for a long time. Was it really necessary to run so far away to put on some clothes now? Not to mention that the fluffy appearance was very similar to the large dog he often encountered in his community.
Only after Ale got dressed did he sit back down by the fire. While letting his own fur clothes dry, Aze had gathered up a small heap of snow near the hole in the ice and he inserted a thick trunk in it. The trunk was tall enough that they wouldn’t need to be worried about getting covered with snow. Aze made three of these snow heaps and then tied ropes to the tree trunks to encircle the area to serve as a warning.
The fish in the hole in the ice were attracted by Ale’s fall and they jumped in and out of the water excitedly. The fish here were accustomed to being fed by the beastmen. As soon as the beastmen approached, they knew they’d have something to eat. They probably had not considered that one day they would become food for the beastmen instead.
The fish here were carnivorous. They would eat the skin, entrails, meat and even bones of all animals thrown into the water, but they would not attack creatures that fell into the water unless they drowned. This was also the reason why the animals on the plains could safely cross the rivers when migrating.
Chen Qi took out the fish bones and internal organs from his backpack. Aze was already holding the harpoon, standing at the ready. This time the harpoon was made out of a gum tree and it was tough enough that there would be no fear of breaking even if they encountered fish with hard scales.
“What are you two doing here?” Ale, who had just returned after getting dressed, noticed their postures and his whole face was full of black question marks.
“Fishing.” Chen Qi briefly explained, and then sprinkled some bait into the water. As soon as the fish saw the food, they began to swarm up and crowd together. Aze focused on a target, and raised the harpoon. Then, with a forceful thrust – fast, accurate and ruthless, a big fish was firmly pierced by the fork.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Ale, come and help me.” Chen Qi was full of admiration for Aze’s achievements, and waved Ale over.
Ale walked over, still full of questions. Chen Qi stuffed the large bag of fish viscera into his arms, then pointed to the fish that were fighting for food at the mouth of hole and instructed him, “When they finish eating, throw some more viscera in. But not too much at a time.” Then Chen Qi picked up the other gum tree harpoon and stood opposite Aze. He fixed his eyes firmly on those big fat fish with sharp teeth as he considered which one would give him a better chance for success.
For a moment, Ale stared blankly at the big bag of fish viscera in his arms. Then he looked at the two men who were already standing by the hole in the ice and performing fish forking activities. He could only suppress the questions in his heart and grabbed a handful of bait to throw into the water, causing another wave of fish scrambling to compete for some bites.
After the large bag of bait was consumed by the fish, they quickly sank into the water. Chen Qi looked at the big fish that was still flapping about on his harpoon, restrained his excitement and threw it off to the side. Then he cheered loudly and wanted to hurry up and show off to Aze, “Aze, Aze, look, I caught a fish.”
Seeing the excited Chen Qi, Aze smiled and went over to praise him. Then he helped Chen Qi take the fish off the harpoon and tied it up with a rope.
Aze caught a total of six large fish this time. One of them was completely black and slippery, with long whiskers on both sides of its mouth, looking a bit like catfish. The other was covered with hard scales, was brown all over, and had two huge pincers on its forelimbs. This was the largest fish that Aze had caught. It looked a bit like shrimp, but who has ever seen a giant shrimp that was nearly one and a half meters long?
The rest were the same crucian carp that they’d caught before. This kind of crucian carp was large in number, so the probability of catching them was also very high. It was with great difficulty that Chen Qi had also managed to catch this kind of fish.
“What are you catching so many fish for?” Ale finally asked the question.
“To eat them.” Chen Qi replied matter of factly. He hadn’t yet recovered from the excitement of catching a fish for the first time.
Aze tied up all the fish with ropes, and stuffed the smaller ones into the backpack for Chen Qi to carry. “You’ve come all this way, are you heading to the tribe or are you coming to look for Uncle Azhang?”
Hearing Aze’s question, Ale remembered his purpose for coming here. His eyes became red in an instant, as if he was about to cry in the next moment.
Chen Qi got a fright. He shared a glance with Aze and asked anxiously, “Did something happen in the Lion-Wolf Tribe?”
Ale shook his head and replied with a nasally tone in his voice, “There’s nothing wrong with the Lion-Wolf Tribe now.”
“Now?” Reading between the lines of Ale’s unspoken words, Chen Qi’s heart sank. That the other man would come all the way here this time was surely not for a reason as simple as being too bored to stay at home during the winter and wanting to drop by.
“Some time ago, the hyena-drakes attacked.”
“…” Shouldn’t this kind of thing be said as soon as they met? They even leisurely played the game of fish forking for half a day and were all ready to go home before stating this. Who sent this unreliable child to share the news?
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Do you have something to tell Uncle Azhang?” Aze’s face also sank.
Ale nodded.
“Wait a moment, we’ll head back right away.” Aze quickly handled the hole in the ice in the same manner as before, then asked Ale to help hold two of the fish, while he picked up the remaining fish, tidied up everything and carried Chen Qi on his back. The harpoon was left in place since it would still be needed next time.
Because he was young, Azhang did not allow Ajing to climb onto the wall. He could only continue to review his lessons after playing with the little wolf cub everyday. Yesterday, Chen Qi had taken the time to teach him the first few sentences from the Thousand Character Classic, so now he was writing while murmuring, “The sky was black and the earth was yellow, the universe is vast…”
Azhang estimated the time. Seeing that there was nothing that needed his help around the house, he picked up his designated sand table and squatted down on the wall. While reviewing the words he had learned, he paid attention to the movements around him. However, only he knew that he just couldn’t wait for Chen Qi and Aze to come back.
Suddenly, Azhang’s furry ears moved and he looked up in the direction that Chen Qi and Aze had left in. Sure enough, he saw two small black spots coming closer and closer. Azhang grabbed hold of a sharp wooden stake buried in the wall and flexibly climbed down the tall wall to meet the approaching figures.
With a smile, Azhang took the big fish in Aze’s hand and helped Chen Qi offload his backpack to carry it to himself. “Thank you for your hard work.”
Only then did he realize that Ale was following behind them and he could not help being a little stunned. “Why did you come here?”
When Ale saw Azhang, he couldn’t help the tip of his nose from feeling sore. Hearing Azhang’s question, he hurriedly replied, “Ahxu asked me to come to you. He asked me to warn you that a hyena-drake may be nearby. Before, when it was driven away from the Lion-Wolf Tribe, it seemed as if it was fleeing in this direction.”
Azhang’s smile instantly fell and his brows furrowed. “Let’s discuss the rest at home.”
Everyone nodded and used the wooden stakes to neatly climb over the tall ice wall to go home.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Thanks all 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.
Ah! These hyena-drakes >:(
I’m glad things don’t get too angsty so far! Thank you for reading and commenting.