Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 095
Chapter 95
Chen Qi only explained the shape of the brick to Ali then had him take a few of the older females to study it. Now, many things in the tribe were not yet finished, and Chen Qi did not have time to follow up on everything.
A thin, young female stood outside the courtyard, looking in. Chen Qi was using a bone hoe to handle his own few plots of land. There was a lot of rubble in the ground. It took him a long time to pick them out. Then he paved a gravel road with them, leading from the door to the outside of the courtyard.
“Azhu, what are you looking at, standing there?” Ajing, who had just returned from wandering outside with the little wolf cub, saw someone sneaking around the courtyard and asked curiously.
The young female was obviously taken aback and turned around in a panic. Seeing that it was Ajing and he just thought to leave when Ajing grabbed his wrist. The little wolf cub also bit at the other’s hide shoes in a similar manner. Probably because shoes didn’t taste very good, the little wolf cub let go of it in disgust as soon as he bit into it, and hid behind Ajing, looking pitiful.
Hearing the movements at the door, Chen Qi set down his work and walked out, “Ajing, who are you talking to?”
“I saw Azhu here, but he did not dare to go in.” With a serious face, Ajing explained to Chen Qi who just came out.
Chen Qi discovered that the thin man, Azhu, was very quiet. Actually, it was more accurate to say that the older females and the children brought back from the tribe were all very quiet. Over the past month, they were all immersed in the work assigned to them, and Chen Qi had hardly spoken to them. Sometimes they would do something incorrectly, and they would only nod or shake their heads after receiving advice. Fortunately, their ability to comprehend instructions was good, so there weren’t any big problems.
Chen Qi bent down and smiled as he looked directly into the little female’s eyes. “Are you here to see me?” It was only him and Aze, as well as Ajing who lived in this house. The beastmen wouldn’t come over looking for Aze at all, so it was only possible that he was here to find himself.
Azhu did not dare to look directly at Chen Qi. He lowered his head and tried to free his hand from Ajing’s grasp, but he did not know how this child was so strong that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break free.
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 Azhu was only a head and a half taller than Ajing, in fact he was already 15 years old. It was just that his father was seriously injured when giving birth to him in a small bamboo forest during the winter, and even though he was wrapped in thick animal skins, he had been freezing for almost three days before he was discovered. This probably affected his body so his growth was slower than his peers.
“Chen Qi, I found sweet potato seedlings today. See if I got them right.” Ajing offloaded the backpack behind him and took out a few plants with soil from it.
Because of his young age, Chen Qi naturally wouldn’t let him do things like help build houses. He didn’t want to be the only one with nothing to do. So, every day, after finishing the homework Chen Qi assigned him, he took the little wolf cub to look nearby for plants Chen Qi needed. At first, he found a lot of weeds that Chen Qi had no clue what they were. Later, Chen Qi carefully drew some of the plant seedlings he recognized onto fabric in detail, and had Ajing look for them according to the drawings. Now, some plants such as perilla, potatoes and the like, had already been planted in the courtyard. These plants grew slowly, and he was afraid they would still need to wait a long while before they could be harvested.
The sweet potato seedlings were still easy for him to identify, Chen Qi recognized them just by looking. He patted Ajing’s little head with praise, “You did good today too. Now you can go and plant these sweet potato seedlings in the field. Do you remember how to plant them?”
Ajing nodded. Everytime he brought back seedlings, Chen Qi would ask him to help plant them, so naturally, he remembered.
Ajing carried his backpack into the yard, and Chen Qi shifted his gaze to Azhu. Azhu was still wearing a fur shirt, and his lower body was in a fur skirt. He was dressed exactly the same as when he first saw Aze. Currently, the temperature was estimated to be close to over 30 degrees, Chen Qi had already changed into the more breathable T-shirt. At the moment, he could not help feeling hot just looking at Azhu’s attire.
Chen Qi stepped forward, took the other’s hand and pulled him into the house without explanation. Naturally, there would not be a fire pit burning in the house on a hot day. There was a tall fig tree that blocked the sun, and all the windows were open; Chen Qi’s house had a hard to achieve coolness.
“I recall that Ali had previously given everyone a set of cloth clothes. Why aren’t you wearing it?” Chen Qi went back to the room and found a set of clothes that hadn’t been worn before. The bottoms were shorts. Although the T-shirt was a bit on the big side, it was still barely wearable.
Azhu was a little at a loss, and didn’t know where to put his hands and feet. When he heard Chen Qi’s question, he quickly shook his head and explained in a quiet voice, “I’m afraid I’ll tear them.”
Chen Qi looked at him with amusement. “Clothes are worn to be broken. If they tear, just mend them again. What are you worried about? Quickly change out of what you’re wearing. Even if you don’t feel hot, I feel hot just by looking at it.”
In a daze, Azhu held the clothes in his arms and did not move. Chen Qi looked at the other’s hesitant expression and asked curiously, “What’s the matter? Are you not used to wearing cloth clothes?”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“No, no.” Azhu hurriedly shook his head again. Finally, as if he had made up his mind, he took out a few shriveled plant seedlings from his pocket. “I saw you looking for this thing that day. I dug it back for you when I found it.”
Chen Qi took the seedlings in hand. These were dandelion seedlings. Some time ago, Chen Qi planned to see if there were any edible wild vegetables around. In the end, after looking all over, he only found a few dandelions nearby that were not even as tall as his bare feet. He remembered that he and Azhu hadn’t exchanged more than a few words. How did the other party even know that he was looking for dandelions?
“The… the fries you made were delicious, this is a thank you gift.” Azhu’s face turned red, and he seemed a little annoyed that he could only send out such a thank you gift. He should’ve collected some delicious wild fruits for the other party, but the wild fruits on the plains would take about a month more to mature, and he couldn’t enter the forest with his current strength, so he could only look for these weeds.
Chen Qi was dazed. Fries? Wasn’t that what they made on the first day of the tribe’s return, when they fried up the remaining potatoes for the celebration of their return? He didn’t expect the child to think about it for this long.
“Thank you.” Chen Qi looked into the other’s eyes and thanked them sincerely.
Seeing that Chen Qi liked it, Azhu’s eyes brightened a little. He nodded and ran away with his newly acquired clothes. Chen Qi’s heart ached a little seeing that thin back.
Most of them who had stayed with the Lion-Wolf Tribe did not have the ability to hunt. Naturally, they could not eat three meals a day in winter like they did. Being able to guarantee a single meal a day was already considered to be good. Only the females who were responsible for guarding were allowed to eat their fill. After all, in the event of danger, if they were hungry and had no way to exert strength, they could only wait for death together.
The beastmen were simple-minded folk. Their thoughts didn’t have too many twists and turns, but the environment in this world was too harsh and unfriendly to them, and they had to do their best in order to survive in this world. At this moment, Chen Qi sincerely felt that he wanted to do something for these beastmen. At the least, he hoped that they would not go hungry.
He looked down at the few shriveled dandelions in his hand. Dandelions were very tenacious living things, and they could grow well with just a little soil and sunlight.
Chen Qi took the dandelions out into the yard. Ajing was moaning and groaning as he came back with a half filled bucket of water, and was watering the newly planted young seedlings.
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 planted the dandelion seedlings in another newly opened field, thought for a while, then said to Ajing, “Ajing, tomorrow, call over all the young beastmen in the tribe to the house. Let them learn with you.”
Ajing nodded, “Okay.”
The clay bricks were fired well and were hard enough. Each brick was as long as an arm and as wide as a palm. Aze had dug a full day’s worth of river mud, which was enough for them to fire for a long time.
Ali taught several females how to fire bricks then left the matter to them. Recently, he followed Chen Qi to learn how to plant. Chen Qi was originally just a dabbler when it came to planting. He asked Ali to record the results of each plot. Now Ali had learned quite a few words, and recording them every day gave him even more insight and experience that the seedlings planted in his yard were growing even better than Chen Qi’s. Sometimes Chen Qi also asked Ali to come over to his house to help take care of the seedlings there.
“SMACK.” In the silent night, a loud slap suddenly rang out inside the house. Chen Qi looked at the pool of blood in his hand and frowned. “Aze, didn’t you say that all living creatures on the plains migrated away?” Why are these annoying bugs still here?
“…” Aze silently looked at the crushed dragon-ant in Chen Qi’s hand. It resembled a mosquito, small in size and liked to suck the blood of all animals. After a winter’s hibernation, the dragon-ants had long been hungry. In the past, when he was the only one living here, these dragon-ants would never come here to look for food. It was estimated that because there were more people here now that they smelled the blood and started to come out of the forest.
“Maybe it’s because we are too close to the forest.” With a beastman’s speed, they could run back and forth to the forest in a day, and dragon-ants were even faster. This distance could really attract the opposing side.
Aze took out a few ghost needle flowers that had been stored for a whole winter and had completely turned into dried flowers, then gathered some turpentine and firewood, went to the yard, and lit the firewood at intervals. The smell of the ghost needle flowers could drive away all insects, including dragon insects.
After the faint fragrance permeated the air, those annoying buzzing sounds really disappeared. Chen Qi leaned over and looked in surprise.” Aze, if this kind of ghost needle flower was directly planted in the surroundings, would they also be able to repel insects?
Aze nodded.
Chen Qi slapped his hand. “Tomorrow we will go to the ghost needle tree. I will plant this kind of flower all around the house. No, I will plant this kind of flower all around the tribe.”
The ghost needle flower looked a bit like the peony. It had a long flowering period and bloomed almost all summer. It could be used as a plant to beautify the tribe.
Chen Qi did what he said he would do. The next day he brought Aze and dug up all the ghost needle trees that could be found nearby. Unfortunately, there were only a dozen or so trees. He built another small flower bed around the outside of the wall and planted all the ghost needle trees. It seemed that this kind of tree did not have a very high survival rate after being dug out and replanted. The next day, almost half of them had died.
There was no other way to do it. Aze could only go out to gather some ghost needle flowers every day and occasionally dig up a tree or two to be replanted, which would be great if it survived. If it didn’t, it still wasn’t a huge loss and it was fine to just dig up some more next time.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Ya know… the names of these dragons are a crapshoot for me, since I don’t read ahead to know if there’s more to them later on in the story. If anyone has better suggestions, I’m all ears!
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.
Thank you for the update~
Thanks for the update!!!!