Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 092
Chapter 92
Although Chen Qi was asked to name the tribe, Chen Qi did not have a clue about such a thing.
At night during bed time, he leaned against Aze’s body and inspected the boards full of lines by the light of the fire. “Aze, which kind of tribe name would be better? One that sounds nice? A domineering one? An elegant one?”
Seeing Chen Qi wear this troubled expression since he came back, Aze smiled lightly, “The tribe hasn’t even started to be built yet. Just take your time to think about it. It’s still a long way from the end of winter.”
“That’s easy to say, but I always feel like I won’t be able to think of a name in the end?”
“Then why don’t you rest your mind tonight and think about it more tomorrow?
Chen Qi put the wooden boards away and dropped a kiss onto Aze’s lips. “That’s right. Let’s leave such a difficult problem to tomorrow’s self.”
Ajing was not a stranger to such sights and stuffed the little wolf cub, who he’d had a hard time bathing and drying its fur, into his bed and fell asleep calmly.
This time, it snowed for an unusually long time. Azhang’s body recovered well and he started to take turns on guard duty along with Aze and the others. The snow showed no sign of stopping at all, aside from the first few days when the snowfall was accompanied with the makings of a snowstorm, the wind stopped and only the flake-like snow kept falling from the sky.
Since the last locust dragon swarm returned to the forest, no other dragons had come out of the forest. It was unknown whether the hyena-drakes that laid in ambush and attacked in the wilderness before had gone to hunt at other places or whether they had hunted enough prey to survive the winter and returned to the forest. The beastmen did not find any more traces of hyena-drakes in the wilderness.
The snowfields beyond the wall were quiet every day. Aside from the crackling of the fire in the pan beside them, there were not any other sounds.
Recently, when Chen Qi had nothing to do, he would start sorting out some teaching materials to teach literacy and other new knowledge. Now, the beastmen would gather at Chen Qi’s house as soon as they woke and washed up. They practically gathered together for all three meals each day. Between Ali, the best cook, and Ka Luo, the foodie, there was no longer a need for Chen Qi to handle any cooking.
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 bamboo slips, which Chen Qi had made previously only to be reluctant to use them after writing on two of them, were now all brought back out again as he started preparing the teaching materials to teach writing.
After sorting out some knowledge points that he thought could be taught to beginners, Chen Qi stretched his waist and looked at the falling snow outside the window. Chen Qi turned to ask Ali, who was carefully reviewing the few words that Ajing had just taught him, “Ali, the snow has been falling for more than half a month. Will it directly enter summer after it falls?”
Ali had to refocus his mind at those words and shook his head. “No, it’s still a long way from summer. It should be another two months or so before the last snow falls.” Of course, the last snowfall that Ali was referring to was the snow that would fall continuously for a full month.
Chen Qi was a little disappointed. He brought out several fabrics that he’d painted last night before Ali. These pieces of cloth previously had other things painted on them and Chen Qi used some brown dye-fruits to dye over the original painted patterns, then repainted the new designs on them after.
The designs on the fabric were several sets of men’s clothes suitable for the summer. They were all for simple, casual shirts and pants. In order to let the beast people understand them at a glance, Chen Qi also used dye-fruits to color or pattern the clothes according to their final product and wrote some words on the side. With the words Ali learned during the winter, he could just barely understand those characters.
“Ali, can you make some clothes like this?” Chen Qi cheerfully explained to Ali the clothing requirements.
Ali looked at it seriously and nodded. “I can try to make a set tomorrow.”
Chen Qi gave a wave of his hand. “These are clothes that can only be worn in summer. You can just make them slowly, without any worry. If the tribesmen who move here in the future can accept these kinds of clothes, you can teach a class on how to make clothes so that those who can’t hunt can learn from you, and then they can use clothes to exchange for food with others in the future.”
Azhang, who was also practicing calligraphy nearby, heard his words and looked over, “Chen Qi, can you elaborate on your plan to let the tribespeople learn how to make clothes?” He felt that Chen Qi did not simply want the people of the tribe to learn to make clothes, but had a deeper plan.
Chen Qi nodded with a smile, and began to talk to Azhang about his plans.
The beastmen didn’t have the concept of doing business, and the closest thing to it would only be the annual gathering, though that was just the act of bartering to be able to survive the winter smoothly.
Chen Qi wasn’t looking to change the way of life for the beastmen all at once, but according to his plans, the primitive lifestyle of the beast people was not suitable for him. If he wanted to change the current living conditions of the beast people, he must bring in concepts from his former world. Thus, in the case of meeting the needs of survival, the emergence of trading was essential.
What’s more, more than half of the tribesmen he knew would be moving in here were unable to hunt. Chen Qi did not want their existence to just increase the burden on the normal females. He wanted to let those people know that even if they couldn’t use beast forms, they could still support themselves on their own.
Azhang listened with great interest, and the more he listened, the brighter the eyes looking at Chen Qi became. He had the feeling of wishing for summer to arrive tomorrow. He wanted to build the tribe as soon as possible to see if what Chen Qi described could be realized.
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 kind of thing has to be done step by step.” Chen Qi didn’t explain too deeply to Azhang, but rather he just talked about what the tribe could do at present. After all, food had to be eaten one mouthful at a time. You couldn’t expect to make a big fat man out of just one meal.
Azhang nodded with understanding. He has been the chief of the tribe for so many years. Although he did not manage so many people, there were still many things to do. Even though he still did not fully understand what Chen Qi was saying, he still understood that things needed to be done slowly, step by step.
“Chen Qi.” Azhang hesitated for a moment but still put forward his thoughts. “Do you want to be the new chief of the tribe?”
Chen Qi looked at him in astonishment. Hadn’t he rejected this question already earlier on? “You’ve been doing things well all along, why are you proposing for me to take over again?”
Azhang scratched the back of his head. “Isn’t it because you know more about the rebuilding of the tribe? You are the one who thinks up everything, and I can’t help you much. It seems it’s not quite appropriate to just carry the title of chief in name.”
Chen Qi straightened up his back and looked around at all the people who were all looking at him. “As I said before, I am not suitable to be the chief. Maybe I can help make the plans during the early stages of the tribe’s construction, but the chief needs to continue to manage the tribe after the tribe is established. He needs to be responsible for all the people in the tribe, and also needs to be able to communicate with the chiefs of other tribes.”
Chen Qi looked directly at Azhang. “I can’t do those things. I can help so we can build this tribe better together, but there are still many things about the tribe that I don’t understand. Would they be willing to settle in this kind of wilderness without anything just by listening to my one-sided remarks? Would they be willing to try to eat fish that they previously dared not touch? Would they be willing to take off the fur clothing they have always worn and replace it with clothes that only young children would wear? No, if it was just me telling them to, they probably wouldn’t. It is you that the tribes people know and trust. Only you can let them come to the new tribe, accept the things in the new tribe, and be willing to learn some knowledge that they may not be able to see effective results of for the time being. Therefore, only you can be the chief of the tribe.”
“I already told you that Chen Qi would not accept.” After hearing Chen Qi’s long speech, Ali poked at Azhang, who still had not returned completely to his senses.
Azhang sighed, “Since you don’t want to be the chief, then just let me know if you have anything you need in the future.” Although Azhang still thought that Chen Qi was the most suitable candidate to be the tribe chief, Chen Qi did not want to be it and he would not force him to, so long as Chen Qi would continue to build the tribe.
After listening to Chen Qi’s plans these days, Azhang was full of confidence to bring the Rock-Mountain Tribe out of its previous predicament. He did not want his own tribe to have to stay in another tribe for the winter next year. That would only prove his incompetence as the chief as well as the females of the tribe.
“Of course.” Chen Qi smiled. With the backing of the chief who fully supports him, he can go all out and carry out his plans freely. Even if there was no way to catch up to the progress of civilization in his own world, he would be satisfied if they could catch up to about the same level as the Tang and Song dynasties.
Chen Qi looked at Aze, who was sitting next to him, and said to Azhang, “Didn’t you give me the rights to name the tribe earlier? Then I will be selfish and take over naming it.” Before, he did not have any good ideas about the name for the tribe, but now, he’s thought of some good ones.
Azhang nodded, “No matter what name you choose, I will agree.”
“Chen Qi, did you think of any name already?” Ka Luo asked.
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 smiled mysteriously at him, but did not reply.
Azhang would come over to Chen Qi’s house on time every day to discuss some details of the new tribe’s construction. Sometimes Ake would come over to give some suggestions too. However, Ake seemed to have little interest in the plans for the new tribe.
The next day, Ali made a set of clothes from the sketches drawn by Chen Qi. Chen Qi taught him how to dye the clothes with dye-fruits, and how to draw some simple patterns on them. Although they looked a little nondescript to the beastmen, in Chen Qi’s view, they were simple and fashionable.
Seeing Ka Luo eye the dyed shirts hanging aside to dry with distaste, Chen Qi felt that it was necessary for him to cultivate aesthetics for the beast people. Otherwise, his own aesthetics would be distorted by them in the future and there will be no corner for him to cry in.
Chen Qi thought that the snow would stop falling in the next few days at most. But it turned out that it continued to snow for almost two weeks and there was still no signs of it stopping. The height of the wall had been increased by half a meter from the snow in the yard.
“Why hasn’t the snow stopped yet?” This was Chen Qi’s most repeated set of words during this period of time. Because of the snow, Chen Qi’s original jogging and archery activities had to be stopped. Now he could only do push-ups and jump rope at home every day. Chen Qi felt that the two abdominal muscles that he had worked so hard to build were about to disappear, which made him worry.
“I’m afraid the snow will fall until summer comes.” Aze looked at the heavy snow falling outside the window and said softly.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Wonder if anyone kept track how many chapters winter was… 😀
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.
