Chapter 24: CH 24

“It’s done!” Ka Luo excitedly lifted his handmade backpack over his head.

Ali was very happy too. He had never thought the animal pelts could be made into something like this.

Chen Qi smiled, then stood up and stretched himself out. It was quite tiring to sit on the hard ground for such a long time. Looking at the sky, there was still some time before evening, so he suggested, “Let’s take our backpacks and look around nearby to see if we can find other food, such as potatoes. We can also check whether the traps have caught anything.”

“Chen Qi, I want to eat meat and potato stew.” Ka Luo licked his lips, wearing a gluttonous expression. Ake would be back from hunting a warthog at noon. He must also want Chen Qi to make meat and potato stew again. Potatoes were much tastier than those weeds and flowers.

Ali hadn’t had it before, but after the delicious lunch at noon, a dish that had Ka Luo constantly thinking about could certainly not be much worse, he couldn’t help but look forward to it.

Chen Qi thought for a moment, “If we find some potatoes soon, we can make it tonight.”

“Chen Qi, why don’t you teach me how to make it?” Then he could make it for Ake every day. Ake’s appetite had decreased a lot recently, but he could eat a lot here with Chen Qi’s cooking.

“Okay.”

Aze put on Chen Qi’s hide backpack as a demonstration for the other two, and the four headed to the first place where a trap had been set.

In the morning, their party had walked straight towards the banyan tree. Now, they were looking for food amidst the grass. Naturally, their speed was much slower but the area they covered was significantly wider.

After the first snow, most of the weeds in the Dora Plains were withered and yellow. Whenever they saw a little green plant, Ka Luo and the others would ask Chen Qi to come over to see if they could eat it. After running over several times yet yielding no results, Chen Qi’s small body was very tired. He didn’t know how many times he’d inwardly decided to add improving his physical fitness into his schedule as soon as possible. Chen Qi gasped for breath for a while before telling the few serious people who were immersed in the grass, “Follow me. When I find something edible, just remember its shape and look for others that look like that.”

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 familiar with the appearance of several kinds of food eaten in the recent days, so he didn’t need to be ordered to follow behind by Chen Qi like the other two. At the moment, Aze was digging the root of a plant with one hand, and soon he pulled out three fist-sized ovals from the soil. Aze frowned slightly. He remembered Chen Qi said that it was called sweet potato, but the color was different from the ones he and Chen Qi had eaten before. “Chen Qi, I dug something that resembles a sweet potato.”  Aze shouted loudly to Chen Qi in the distance.

Chen Qi hurriedly rushed over and squatted on the ground to carefully look at it.

Aze explained, “Although their colors are wrong, there is nothing wrong with them.”

Chen Qi excitedly picked up the three sweet potatoes. “Aze, you are too amazing. These are also sweet potatoes.” These were quite different from the orange-red ones found before since these were slightly purplish.

Chen Qi put the sweet potatoes into Aze’s backpack, picked up the yellow, withered potato vine on the ground, handed it to Ka Luo and Ali and told them, “The two of you should look for those that look like this potato vine.”

The two glanced at each other, then took the potato vine with them to look within the grass nearby. After Chen Qi and the two separated, Aze naturally did not dare to stay too far away from Chen Qi. He followed at a distance that he could quickly get to Chen Qi while searching the area and keeping a mindful watch for any surrounding movements.

However, there was not much that Chen Qi recognized as edible in these plains. By the time they reached the first spot where a trap was set, they’d only harvested those few sweet potatoes Aze had found. The trap was empty. Obviously, no animals passed by and touched the device during this period of time.

Ka Luo was a little disappointed and wondered if this kind of thing could really catch those cunning rabbits. Then, when walking to the fifth device, Aze heard a noise from the grass in the distance. His speed was relatively faster so he was the first to reach the trap’s position and looked, surprised, at the fat rabbit trying its hardest to break free from the rope it was caught in.

Ka Luo was the second to arrive. When he saw that a rabbit was really caught in the trap, he excitedly waved to Chen Qi, who was behind him, “Chen Qi, Chen Qi, it really caught one! It’s a rabbit!”

Chen Qi walked over and was a little surprised himself. After several previous failures, he thought there would be no harvest today. He stepped forward to untie the rabbit from the rope, passed it to Ka Luo, and re-set the trap.

As soon as he got up, he saw Ka Luo holding the rabbit by the ears, trying to stuff it into the backpack. Chen Qi hurried to stop. “This rabbit is alive. If you just put it into the backpack like this, it will escape.”

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

“Then, what should I do?” Ka Luo stopped. Did he mean he’d have to keep carrying it like this?

Chen Qi broke off a few tough weeds nearby and tied up the rabbit’s limbs. He made sure they would hold before letting Ka Luo put it into the backpack. Then Chen Qi taught him how to tie the cord to close the opening of the backpack.

“This backpack is really convenient.” Ka Luo smiled and praised, “Let’s continue to see if any of the rest have caught something.”

Maybe it was their lucky day, they harvested two more rabbits from the remaining dozen or so traps. Chen Qi gave one to Ali and the other to Aze. Since Aze’s backpack already contained something, Chen Qi let Aze carry the rabbit in his hand.

It was only when the sun was about to set that the few of them started to head back to the house. In the end, no potatoes were found. Even though they had caught rabbits, Ka Luo was a little bit dispirited. There would be no meat and potato stew to eat today.

The only food they found were the three sweet potatoes and a handful of wild ginger, though to Chen Qi’s delight, he found more than a dozen thistles. With this many, he could help Aze reapply medicine and change bandages tonight. Unfortunately, he did not find any other familiar herbs, not even the fleaworts that used to be as messily abundant on the streets as the thistles could be found.

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“The next time we find potatoes, I’ll show you how to make the meat and potato stew.” Chen Qi tried to comfort Ka Luo.

“En.” Ka Luo replied sadly.

When they reached the house, Ake was already waiting at the door, with a bulging backpack by his feet. Ka Luo saw this and rushed over happily. “Ake, what did you find?”

Ake habitually rubbed Ka Luo’s head, crouched down, held up the backpack and opened it to show Ka Luo the contents. “I found a laiche tree today.”

“There are also red berries and grapes.” Ka Luo said pleasantly surprised.

Ake handed the backpack directly to Chen Qi. “The ones in here are for you. I wouldn’t have been able to bring back nearly as much if it weren’t for this backpack,.”

“So much?” Chen Qi tried to refuse.

“Just accept it. Since Ake has given it to you, it means that he must already have a lot more in his home. You have taught me and Ka Luo so much today, this is what we should do.” Ali knew these people quite well and explained to Chen Qi with a smile. He decided to bring a few more finished pieces of cloth for Chen Qi tomorrow.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

Ka Luo nodded.

Azhang also came at this time. He greeted everyone then asked Ali, “Are you ready to go back to the tribe now?”

“We ran into a small group of warthogs crossing the river today and managed to hunt a lot of prey.” Ake interjected.

Ali naturally knew that things were busier in the tribe during this period and nodded, “Then let’s head back for the day. Chen Qi, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Chen Qi just learned that Azhang had brought Ali over here, carrying him on his back.

They hadn’t found any potatoes, so Ka Luo didn’t have any particular desire to stay. After all, the distance from the tribe was still a little far. It was safer to travel with more people at night, so he went back with Ali and the others as well.

Chen Qi and Aze brought all the golden lilies that were basking during the day back to the house. Only then did he remember that there was also the warthog Ake had hunted back at noon.

“What should we do?” Chen Qi looked at the warthog lying on the ground and dumbfoundedly asked Aze.

“Since Ake brought it here, it is for us, so we can just leave it.”

Chen Qi paused. “I mean do we just leave it lying here like this?” How should he deal with this warthog? Chen Qi, who had never even killed a chicken, swallowed saliva silently and hesitated.

“Actually, my hands are fine.”

Chen Qi rolled his eyes. “Forget it. Let’s do it tomorrow. Today we’ll eat rabbit meat.” While he wasn’t confident of being able to handle large animals, he felt he could still try handling smaller animals like the rabbit.

So that evening’s dinner was roast rabbit. Chen Qi cut off a large piece of mutton he’d marinated at noon and fried it with the last of the dandelions. Chen Qi wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it but he felt that Aze’s appetite was smaller than usual. “Did I not make it to your liking? Why aren’t you eating much?” Chen Qi asked doubtfully. Aze only ate half of the roasted rabbit and a few pieces of mutton.

“No. Since I didn’t go hunting today, I ate less.”

“Will you need less food when you don’t go out to hunt?”

“En.” Aze nodded.

Chen Qi had a sudden realization. Initially, he was worried that, considering Aze’s appetite, no matter how much food he stored for the winter, there would not be enough. It turned out that as long as they did not exert energy by going hunting, the relative demand for food would decrease accordingly. So when hunting was not possible in the winter, the beast people could still survive through it on the stored food.

Chen Qi packed the leftover food into a pottery dish and cleaned up. Next, he put a pottery dish of water on the fire to heat up, then dug out a few thistles from his backpack and mashed them up. He found more of them today, so Chen Qi did not need to conserve them. “Come here, let me reapply the medicine.”

Aze sat down in front of Chen Qi. Chen Qi gently removed the cloth strips from his arm and wiped off the herbs that had become a little discolored. He was surprised to find that the wound had already begun to close. Was this wild herb, named the thistle, that effective or was the beastmen’s self-healing ability that strong?

Seeing Chen Qi’s surprise, Aze’s mouth turned slightly upward. “Females have very good self-healing abilities. The wound will be healed tomorrow.”

This was not simply ‘very good’. It can already be considered going against the heavens! Just yesterday, he could see the bone through the wound! Chen Qi griped internally and silently applied the newly mashed herbs over the wound and bandaged the arm again with cloth strips.

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