Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 091
Chapter 91
Azhang’s fur was very dirty, and some of it was clumped together with blood. Ali hurriedly boiled hot water for him to scrub his body with, had him change into clean clothes then after the kang bed was heated up, he helped the other onto it.
Chen Qi helped him to deal with the wounds once more. Azhang had retrieved all the fur from his beast form. The places that had looked like they were missing patches of fur were actually missing patches of skin. Flesh and oozing blood could clearly be seen within. Fortunately, they were not fatal wounds. After applying medicine and treating them, in accordance with a female’s recovery ability, it was estimated that he’d be up and kicking off the bed within a few days.
After the wounds were treated, Ka Luo brought out the cooked meat porridge, which Ali easily accepted. Azhang also had a wound on his wrist, which had just been wrapped up. Ali didn’t want him to move around and hurt himself, so he took a wooden spoon and fed it to him, one spoonful at a time.
Azhang had been hungrier even longer than Aze had been. He practically hadn’t eaten since he’d left the Lion-Wolf Tribe. Later, he could not bear it anymore and ate a few mouthful of snow, so his throat was frostbitten because of it and it was uncomfortable to speak. Although everyone wanted to know how he’d escaped, it was also clear that Azhang needed to rest right now. After being hungry for so long, Chen Qi did not suggest for Azhang to eat a large amount of food so suddenly. So he asked Ali to feed him two bowls of the easy-to-digest porridge and then let Azhang get some rest.
Azhang was already exhausted, and fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as he laid down on the bed.
Looking at Azhang’s face that had lost a lot of weight and was full of tiredness, Ali’s heart ached. Ever since he came of age, this person had always been extremely powerful in his eyes. He’d always stand in front of him, who could not transform into his beast form, and there had never been a time when he saw him in such a sorry state.
Perhaps there were times where he’d cast a sorry figure before, however he’d have hidden it well so he wouldn’t find out.
Ali sighed, and reached out his hand to gently smooth the tightly knit brows of the sleeping person. Suddenly, a picture flashed in his mind. It was of a snowy night a long, long time ago. A hyena-drake suddenly pounced on a child who looked only seven or eight years old. At that time, he had been entangled in combat with another hyena-drake, but he did not hesitate to hold the child in his arms. Then, there was a sharp pain in his right leg. When he looked down, he had found that the hyena-drake had bitten off a large piece of his flesh.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
At that time, he was in so much pain that he didn’t have the consciousness to notice who he had saved. But at that moment, the child’s terrified expression suddenly became clear to him.
Ali smiled gently, the corners of his lips turning upwards, and the movements of his hand shifted from the other’s eyebrows to the exact but hardened and matured face. “It was you.”
Azhang’s return also allowed everyone else’s tensed hearts to finally relax. From that night on, the long-lost snowstorm began to appear on the plains again. If the snowstorm had come a day earlier, whether Azhang could’ve come back safely could only have been answered with a big question mark.
“Aze, how much longer before winter ends?” After washing, Chen Qi took a clean towel to wipe Aze’s still-dripping hair and asked. Aze’s hair, which had been washed with figs, still had a faint scent and smelled very nice.
Aze thought for a moment, “Maybe two or three more months.” Chen Qi taught them the concept of four weeks equalling one month, which was much simpler than counting the number of Moonless Days remaining each time. Unfortunately, the beast people still could not fully grasp the concept and they always had to think about it before they could convert the time.
“Still that long, huh.” It has been more than six months since the winter began, and there were still two or three months before the end of winter. The winter here was really too long. Chen Qi was starting to miss the global-warmed Earth a little. In the city where he once lived, with all things considered, winter was only actually about a month. In December, you could still see streets full of thinly-dressed pedestrians.
“The duration is not fixed each year.” Aze added, “But every year, it will start to snow at the end of winter and it will continue to fall for about a month. When the snow stops, summer will come.”
Chen Qi was a little curious. “Summer would come so suddenly? Is it just like the arrival of a Moonless Day?” Otherwise, it’d be hard to imagine how it would directly enter summer right after the snow stopped.
Aze nodded, “Summer’s arrival will not be like winter’s where there is the period for the first snow before it arrives. Snow on the plains will disappear when summer comes, and the weather will get hotter.”
“The snow will disappear? Is it a sudden melting? Will the snow-filled plains be directly flooded?” With that, Chen Qi looked anxiously at the tall ice wall outside the door, his heart beating drums. The ice wouldn’t melt down in an instant, would it? It takes a lot of time to melt with fire. At this thought, he felt more at ease.
Aze smiled with amusement and shook his head. “There has never been flooding in the plains.”
With peace of mind, Chen Qi sped up his actions. After helping Aze dry his hair, Chen Qi carried the sleeping Ajing to the innermost part of the heated kang bed. With this small third wheel around, he could not make out with Aze whenever he wanted. Chen Qi pinched the other’s increasingly fleshy little face with a little resentment. When summer arrives, he must clean up a room for him and throw him into it as soon as possible.
The snowstorm that lasted all night showed no sign of stopping at all. At noon, the few of them cleaned up the snow in the yard while the snowfall was slightly lighter. It was not so easy to clean up the snow while it was snowing. After clearing out snow on one side of the yard, the other side was covered with a layer of white again.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Chen Qi found some fabrics and hides that were no longer in use and spread them out over the yard, managing to cover more than half of the yard. In this way, when snow needed to be cleared each day, the covers on the ground just needed to be rolled up, then the large bags of snow could be directly taken to the wall to be disposed of, thus saving time and energy for clearing and removing the snow.
The remaining snow was piled directly next to the wall, which made the yard’s inner walls thicker.
Azhang’s wound did not heal as quickly as expected. It took nearly a week for the broken patches of skin to slowly heal over. The itchy feeling when the new skin was growing always made him unable to resist reaching out and scratching at it. Ali was worried that he would really claw himself up, so he now stared at the other’s movements every day, and would get up immediately, even when sleeping, whenever he heard any movement.
“You were also saved by the giant wolf-god?” Chen Qi was slightly surprised after hearing Azhang’s brief explanation about his adventure. Why would the giant golf-god save them?
Azhang nodded, “The giant wolf-god usually wouldn’t leave the general vicinity of the source of the Sanchen River. I’m afraid the large-scale appearance of dragons on the plains lately may be related to its appearance.”
Chen Qi looked at the little wolf cub in Ajing’s arms. “Does that giant wolf-god have anything to do with this little guy?”
When Chen Qi’s words fell, several gazes looked in the direction of the little wolf cub. The little wolf cub tilted its head slightly, looking here and there with its round eyes. Then it lowered its head and laid back down, planning to go back to sleep comfortably. It had been chasing the wooden ball for a long time just now, so it was very tired.
Aze shook his head. “It shouldn’t be related. I couldn’t smell anything similar to the little wolf cub on that adult giant wolf-god.”
Females have a very sensitive sense of smell. They could distinguish most dangers by smell, and could also tell the relationships between the people around them by their scents.
The little wolf cub had lived with them for more than half a year, so Aze had long been familiar with the little wolf cub’s scent. If the giant wolf-god and the little wolf cub were related by blood, he should’ve been able to smell something similar to the little wolf cub’s. After all, the giant wolf-god had been at the foot of the acacia tree at that time and very close to him.
Chen Qi reached out a hand and clicked the little wolf cub’s forehead. The little wolf cub thought Chen Qi was going to play with it, and immediately regained its energy and got up again. It blinked its big eyes and made awoo awoo sounds, as if it wanted to jump into Chen Qi’s arms.
Looking at the little wolf cub acting like a puppy, Chen Qi couldn’t help laughing and said, “I thought you had a powerful thigh behind you. But seeing you like this, I’m afraid even if your real father came, it wouldn’t recognize you.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“However, it was not a good thing that the giant wolf-god to have appeared on the plains.” Azhang said with a solemn expression, “The giant wolf-god is known as the patron saint of the Sanchen River, which runs through the entire forest and is the source of life for the forest. Although there is more than one giant wolf-god, if all the giant wolf-gods leave the Sanchen River, the creatures in the forest will surely fall into chaos.”
“Why?”
“Because it proves that the Sanchen River is not drinkable.” Ali added.
“…” The river that runs through the entire forest being undrinkable, it would not be as simple as falling into chaos.
Aze patted Chen Qi’s head and reminded, “The forest will naturally deal with the matters of the forest. With our ability, we can’t control too much anyway. Didn’t you want to discuss with Uncle Azhang about the new tribe?”
Chen Qi remembered the purpose of his visit this time. He took out several wooden boards that he’d drawn out before and explained his plan to the few people in detail.
“What is a school?” Ka Luo didn’t understand this so-called learning place very well. Since they usually studied at Chen Qi’s house, does that mean Chen Qi’s house is also a school?
“This is a place intended to gather the tribes people to learn together. For example, you can cook a lot of delicious food. Then, set a time for the tribes people to go to school together and you can teach them how to do it. Otherwise, if someone comes to your home each time to learn from you, it would not only waste time, but you would have to repeat it over and over again. Also, the more people that gather at your house, it would be very much more inconvenient.” Chen Qi explained to Ka Luo.
“Is this so-called city wall something like the ice wall?” Ake asked.
Chen Qi nodded, “Our current yard is not that big, so it is ok to build a small wall around. However, if we want to build a new tribe, then, to prepare for future development, the area that the tribe needs to occupy will naturally be much larger. If there is a city wall, it will be just like how you built the tribe at the foot of the Rock Mountain before; So as to block attacks from wild animals. Even when the animals on the plains migrate back next year, there is no need to be afraid that they will break in at any time.”
The others asked several questions in succession, and Chen Qi gave them detailed answers, one by one. In fact, Chen Qi’s plan was very simple. At the moment, the Rock-Mountain Tribe only had about 30 people. With a main road as the dividing line, there was a residential area on one side, a functional area on the other. Currently, only this one school was planned in the functional area. After all, there were not that many people, and it was unrealistic to build everything at once.
However, the area to be used was not going to be small. It was necessary to reserve the living area of the people who need it now and also the area that may be needed by the people who may move in in the future. You couldn’t wait until there was not enough space in the future to decide to tear down the city wall and expand the area outward then.
After listening to Chen Qi’s plan, the few people felt that this kind of plan was much better than what they had originally been doing, that was, to just build a house somewhere that could be lived in. It was much better for everyone to live together. They did not expect Chen Qi to be so attentive to the tribe’s relocation.
Although Chen Qi had considered the plan and discussed with Aze on what other areas could be improved to better suit the tribe, Azhang, after all, had been acting as the tribe’s chief for several years, and he would also consider the tribe’s issues in a much more detailed and comprehensive way. Therefore, the few of them discussed the construction of the new tribe together. Chen Qi collected their opinions, one by one, and planned to readjust the original plan. This ended up giving Chen Qi the illusion that he had returned to work at a company where he had to alter the project plan.
Before Chen Qi left, Azhang said to him, “Our new tribe should no longer be called Rock-Mountain Tribe in the future. Chen Qi, if you have any ideas, please give the new tribe a name.”
“…” Chen Qi looked at Aze, then back to look at Azhang, “Will it be okay for me to name it?”
Ali smiled. “Of course. No matter what name you choose, we will not have any objections.”
Seeing Chen Qi look over, the others also quickly nodded in agreement. After all, Chen Qi had considered so many things for the new tribe already and it was just a name. It was only natural that it should be chosen by Chen Qi.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Sorry for the irregularity of updates! To make up for some of it, two more chapters to be posted by this Sunday.
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.
