Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 159
Chapter 159
Looking at Chen Qi frowning as he carefully tended the wound, Aze felt a little guilty and apologized, “I’m sorry — I didn’t mean to hide the injury from you.”
The wound on his arm had not been serious. After leaving the Chishui River, Aze had chewed up some mud and dry grass and pressed it into the wound to prevent the hyena-drakes from tracking him by the smell of blood. Although that had stopped the bleeding for the moment, the hyena-drake scratches did not heal easily. After he returned, he had wanted to deal with the snow bear furs first, and then he and Chen Qi had sorted the pile of wild fruits, so he had forgotten that he was still injured.
Chen Qi had tied the bandage, then found a dry cloth to pad the edge of the bathtub so Aze’s injured arm would not touch the water. Only then did he lean over and kiss the other’s forehead. “I don’t blame you, but your way of treating the wound was too rough — weren’t you afraid it would get infected?” When he had cleaned the wound earlier, he had clearly seen the stuff that had been pressed onto it and a lot of mud.
“I’m sorry,” Aze apologized honestly.
Chen Qi took a fig, crushed it, and rubbed it into Aze’s black hair that had looked messy from neglect, wetting the hair with a little water from the tub as he massaged, and he had said, “Then tell me how you got this wound.”
Feeling Chen Qi’s fingers rubbing his scalp, Aze’s face had warmed. He had leaned back slightly to let Chen Qi work better, and then he had recounted, in detail, everything that had happened over the past few days.
“A small pack of hyena-drakes has been roaming near the Chishui River?” Chen Qi rinsed the foam from Aze’s hair with water and said, “That would be very dangerous for us — the hunting parties go to the Chishui River every day. If they suddenly ran into that pack, they could be harmed.”
“En, I already mentioned it to Uncle Azhang. He said he would come by later to ask me for the specifics.”
“If only we could eliminate that pack. If we merely drove them off, no one would know when they might return.”
Aze had looked up into Chen Qi’s eyes and asked, “Do you have a way to wipe them all out?”
Chen Qi had pressed the squirming head down, picked up the dry towel beside him, and wiped the drops of water from Aze’s hair, “I haven’t thought of a good method, but if we could lure the hyena-drakes into a trap like we did with the ironshell-drake today, we might be able to wipe them out.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Hyena-drakes aren’t as stupid as ironshell-drakes; they are very sensitive to danger. If they sense danger ahead, they wouldn’t necessarily rush into a trap.”
“If only we could make them fall into the trap whether they wanted to or not.”
Aze smiled, “We could discuss this with everyone later — maybe others could think of a solution.”
“En — many hands make light work,” Chen Qi had patted Aze’s shoulder. “Hurry and finish washing; I’ll go out and cook something for you.”
“Oh.”
Watching Aze blankly take the towel, Chen Qi had leaned in with amusement and whispered in his ear, “Do you want me to help wash you?”
Aze’s face flushed red, and he quickly shook his head — if Chen Qi washed him, who knew how long it would take, and it was still daytime.
Chen Qi kissed the corner of Aze’s lips, then reluctantly left the washroom to start preparing lunch, thinking that Aze had probably not even eaten breakfast, given how dusty he had looked when he returned.
Just after they finished lunch, Azhang came with his people. Because the matter concerned the hyena-drakes, the turnout was rather large, nearly filling half the living room.
Ka Luo had also come carrying Ayao; when Ayao saw so many people gathered, he started to make a fuss, so Chen Qi had to ask A Jing to take Ayao out to the yard to play so the discussion wouldn’t be disturbed.
Chen Qi brewed a pot of tea and poured everyone a cup, and Aze then recounted his encounter with the hyena-drakes in detail once more.
The pack of hyena-drakes he encountered wasn’t very large in number, but it would have been sufficient to inflict deadly harm on Qi Ze City’s hunting teams.
“Do you think we could try to lure that pack into the moat trap like we did today?” Azhang had asked Chen Qi after hearing Aze’s account.
Chen Qi paused, “There may be such a method, but hyena-drakes are far more formidable than ironshell-drakes. Using a female as bait is very dangerous, and this method might not succeed.”
“But besides that method, there was no other way to eliminate the whole pack, right? If one or two escaped, we would be on edge every time we went hunting, and we could be ambushed by hyena-drakes at any moment,” Ahxu interjected; he remembered Azhang telling him that last winter he had nearly been successfully ambushed by a pack of hyena-drakes.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“We can’t just hide in the city and stop hunting either. The tribe’s food stores are not yet sufficient right now.”
“But going into open battle with the hyena-drake pack would be too disadvantageous for us — our tribe doesn’t have enough females to surround and take down the pack directly.”
“Even if we tried to pick them off one by one, it would take a lot of effort, and we would probably suffer losses. Right now, Qi Ze City is most lacking in population — the loss of any one person would be significant.”
……
The crowd began to discuss in small groups.
Azhang hesitated for a moment, then turned to ask Chen Qi, “If we could lure the hyena-drakes here, do you have any way to make the hyena-drakes fall into the trap?” If there was a way to annihilate this group of hyena-drakes with the least loss to their own side, Azhang wouldn’t want to let his people confront the hyena-drakes head-on.
Chen Qi thought for a moment, “If the hyena-drakes stopped at the edge of the moat, perhaps they could be scared into falling in themselves.”
“Do you mean we just need to lure the hyena-drakes to the edge of the moat and prevent them from turning around and running away?”
“You could say that.” Chen Qi explained to everyone the idea that just came to his mind.
“I think we can give it a try.” Ale raised his hand to express his opinion.
Several others nodded as well. After all, it was too dangerous for them to have a small group of hyena-drakes being active nearby, and they had already successfully hunted ironshell-drakes twice. With care, hunting hyena-drakes should still be feasible.
Azhang did not make an immediate decision. “We can rehearse it first and see.”
Chen Qi nodded. He was not 100% sure that his idea would succeed. It would be safer to test it out first, and if the test failed, they could adopt another method to deal with the hyena-drakes.
After another discussion, the crowd dispersed.
“I want to join the task to lure the hyena-drakes.” Aze looked at Chen Qi and asked tentatively.
“Alright.”
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 was momentarily stunned. “I thought you would object.”
Chen Qi smiled. “You have your own ideas. Since you think you can take on the task of luring the hyena-drakes, then go ahead. I won’t stop you, but you should know that I am worried about you. Just don’t get eaten by the hyena-drakes.”
“Okay.”
“Just now I found a few plants that were already withered that were in the hide backpack. What are these?” Chen Qi took out a few slightly shriveled heatgrass from the backpack.
“This is the thank-you gift I got from Ai Li. Supposedly, boiling water with this grass can reduce fever.”
“That means it has fever-reducing properties?” Chen Qi’s eyes lit up as he examined the plants. Unfortunately, there were no seeds on them, so he did not know if they could survive if planted directly.
The roots of the wheatgrass were still wrapped in animal skin, with a small piece of damp soil attached.
Chen Qi thought for a moment and asked Aze to help make two small wooden cups on the spot. He poked several small holes in the bottoms for drainage and ventilation, then dug up some soil in the yard and planted two heatgrass plants. He placed them on the windowsill instead of the yard.
The rest of the heatgrass seemed to have almost dried up, so Chen Qi washed them clean and dried them in the sun, hoping that their dried effect would be similar to that of the fresh one.
After finishing, the busy day was coming to an end. Ajing had eaten and washed early in the morning, then hid with the little wolf cub in his room, making Chen Qi twitch at the corner of his eye. However, seeing that Ajing was being sensible, Chen Qi planned to make him his favorite french fries the next day.
When Chen Qi had almost finished packing and returned to his room, Aze was already fast asleep in bed. His usually furrowed brows had relaxed, his face was calm, and he was not awakened even as Chen Qi approached.
The next morning, Azhang came to get Chen Qi to help prepare the props for hunting the hyena-drakes, which involved preparing gunpowder. In the tribe, only Chen Qi and Azhang knew how to do it. Azhang did not plan to let the tribe members handle gunpowder yet, so Chen Qi had to prepare all the props himself.
The ironshell-drake carcasses outside the city had been piled on the wasteland previously used for planting by the beast people. Hyena-drakes were still wandering near the Chishui River, so the carcasses could only be dealt with after the hyena-drakes were handled.
Azhang had also dug a cellar in the school as a refuge. The entrance was in the sewing classroom, blocked by a wooden box with fig leaves inside to mask the smell. Even if the hyena-drakes rushed into the city, they would not find the beast people hiding underground.
The patrol had also been strengthened over the past two days. They extended the patrols to near the small bamboo forest but had not spotted any hyena-drakes yet. It was unclear whether the hyena-drakes were still by the Chishui River or had returned to the other side.
After preparations were nearly complete, Azhang sent the beast people tasked with luring the hyena-drakes toward the Chishui River.
Chen Qi handed Aze a wooden bow and a specially treated arrow, as well as his dragon-horn knife for self-defense. Although Aze’s claws were harder than the knife, it was always safer to have it for backup just in case.
The luring team consisted of only three people: Aze, Ale, and Ahxu. Azhang stayed in the tribe to command and organize affairs. After they left, the heavy gate of Qi Ze City slammed shut again. Chen Qi climbed the city wall and waited with the others for the luring team to successfully bring back the hyena-drakes.
The moat had been disguised again with dried weeds. Outside the city, everything was quiet, looking peaceful and serene.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Increasing chapters posted per week. Let’s go!
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomKnight73
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.
