Chapter 32: CH 32

When removing the innards of the pheasants, the few of them would first ask Chen Qi which of the viscera should be kept and which could be directly thrown away. After finishing that, Chen Qi asked Aze to cut one of the pheasants into pieces. The pheasant was very big. Chen Qi divided it into two pottery dishes, filled the pottery dishes with water, added a few pieces of chopped wild ginger and golden lilies, and left it to simmer slowly.

Chen Qi used his knife to slash a mark on the surface of the other pheasants, then smeared a light layer of salt all over them. He then wrapped each of them in cleaned cattail leaves and tied them tightly with root threads. Next, he asked Aze to dig a big pit next to the fire, which he then spread a thick layer of red hot charcoal at the bottom of the pit, followed by a layer of cattail leaves on top of the charcoal. Then he placed the four wrapped pheasants into the pit, sealed it up with a layer of soil, and made another fire on top of the dirt.

Aze had seen Chen Qi roast the sweet potatoes like this before. He still remembered the taste of those sweet potatoes and couldn’t help trying to peer into the soil under the fire. Of course, he couldn’t see anything but the red flames.

The others naturally had not seen this method of handling the food. Although they were very curious, they all waited patiently. After all, in a little while, they would find out what this was all about.

Chen Qi worried that everyone would be too hungry, so he roasted the two snow geese in the usual way.

The pheasants and snow geese did not have much fat, but between the lot of them, there was still enough to fill half a bowl. Chen Qi slowly heated the oil out of the fat and poured the oil to fill a pottery bowl. With the remaining oil, he fried up a large plate of chopped viscera. The beastmen could not help sniffing the tantalizing fragrance. Ka Luo and Ali sat beside Chen Qi this whole time, carefully committing each and every step Chen Qi was taking to memory and planned to try it themselves when they went home.

There weren’t many pottery bowls in the house, so Chen Qi still used the bamboo tubes as bowls. He filled a large bamboo tube for each person, then put the rest into pottery bowls for everyone to help themselves to more if they wanted. Chen Qi picked a piece of the chicken kidneys from one of the bowls and gave it a taste. Although the method was simpler, the taste was still pretty good.

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

Of the pheasant’s internal organs, Chen Qi could only accept the kidneys, though he did not particularly like them. After eating a few pieces, he set aside his chopsticks and planned to check on the coagulation of the chicken blood.

Aze saw that Chen Qi was not planning to eat any more of the fried entrails and silently brought Chen Qi’s bowl over to himself, causing the other beastmen to cast meaningful glances at him. Aze acted like he didn’t see anything and calmly gobbled up the food as if it were his own.

“Aze, we’ll be going to the Lion-Wolf Tribe in a few days. Do you still plan to go by yourself this year?” Azhang asked before stuffing a piece of chicken heart into his mouth and chewing it.

Aze’s hands paused. The Lion-Wolf Tribe was about three days away from here, so a round trip would take a minimum of six days. Leaving Chen Qi here alone for so long, Aze naturally would not be at ease. However, if he brought Chen Qi with him, he wouldn’t be able to bring as many animal skins to trade for goods. The Lion-Wolf Tribe’s gathering was only held once a year to trade needed materials from other tribes.

Chen Qi just returned with a pottery plate after checking on the chicken blood. Hearing Azhang’s inquiry, he asked in puzzlement, “Are you going to the Lion-Wolf Tribe for the gathering? How many tribes will be participating?”

Azhang thought for a moment and replied, “Any tribe that can travel back and forth to the Lion-Wolf Tribe within a month will come. We mainly exchange salt stones and flints with tribes closer to the inland. Their tribes are near a big lake and mostly feed off the creatures in the lake. Therefore, they lack animal skins and need to trade for them with tribes like ours that are closer to the forests.”

“Feed off the creatures in the lake? I thought you didn’t eat fish?” Chen Qi asked, baffled. He had seen all those fish swimming in front of Aze before and noticed that Aze had no intention to catch them at all. He’d asked him about it later and his reply was that they did not eat fish.

“The lake there is salty. There are creatures that look like leopards, lions, elephants and so on that live in the lake. Those creatures must go ashore every once in a while to bask in the sun. They rely on catching these creatures to survive, and they don’t eat other fish in the lake.” Ali added.

Chen Qi thought to himself. A salty lake? Could it be the sea? However, according to the information Chen Qi had on hand, it was not possible to find a boundless sea that was only half a month’s distance. It was necessary to know that the Dora Plains was very large, its vastness was practically equivalent to the area of the whole Earth.

“By the way, why don’t you eat fish?” Chen Qi always had this question in mind.

Ka Luo swallowed his mouthful of food and interjected, “I heard that one winter a long time ago, some tribes couldn’t find food, so they went to the lake to catch fish. As a result, the fish bones got stuck in their throats and they couldn’t eat anything else, causing many people to starve to death. Everyone said that it was the beast god who warned them against eating fish, so every tribe acquiesced not to eat it.” After his explanation, Ka Luo pouted and continued. “When I was young, I’d secretly caught one to eat. It was hard and tough. It tasted horrible.”

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

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Ake tapped Ka Luo on the head with his chopsticks. He had personally watched this guy grow up, from childhood till now. Why didn’t he know that the other was so bold to secretly steal away to eat some fish? It should be known that although the Chishui River was close to the tribe, it was still a good distance away.

Ka Luo grinned cheekily and brought a piece of chicken kidney close to Ake’s mouth, appeasing his mate.

Chen Qi’s head was full of black lines. Hard and tough, he didn’t eat it with the fish scales, did he? With hunted prey, they always dealt with the animal skin first, so why wouldn’t they think to remove the fish scales first? Also, on the topic of fish bones, Chen Qi didn’t know what was different about the fish here compared to the fish he used to eat, but when he was a child, he’d experienced the pain of having a fish bone stuck in his throat. At that time, his mother had poured him a large bowl of vinegar to help him swallow the bones. He can still recall the sourness of the vinegar from that time. When he was older, he always felt that he was very fortunate that his mother was able to deal with the problem without needing to take him to the hospital.

Chen Qi did not continue on the topic of fish, but was more interested in the Lion-Wolf Tribe gathering. If the beastmen living by the salty lake brought food in addition to the salt stones, they might be able to trade for some seafood or the like. “Can I go to the gathering with you?”

Azhang hesitated a little, then looked at Aze and said, “At a female’s pace, it would take three days at the least to get to the Lion-Wolf Tribe, and winter will arrive just a few days after the gathering.” The implication was obvious.  With Chen Qi’s speed, he shouldn’t expect to go unless Aze carried him.

Chen Qi turned to look at Aze, who nodded. “Yes, we will go together then.” Aze then told Azhang, “I will go with the tribe this year.” Since Chen Qi would be coming, it would be safer to go with the tribe.

Azhang grumpily raised his eyebrows. Don’t think he didn’t notice the tangled look on his face when he first asked if he’d be joining them. But he had his own affairs to settle, and was in no position to care about Aze’s affairs. He picked up his empty bamboo tube and refilled it with food. While he was at it, he also picked some of what Ali liked to eat into the other’s bamboo tube. After a short period of practice, these few beastmen had already mastered using the chopsticks.

The coagulation effect of chicken blood was alright. Before Chen Qi started using it, he picked up the wooden spoon Aze had made and divided half of the stewed chicken soup into the pottery dish that was used to fry the viscera. Then, he washed a handful of golden lilies, added them into the soup, and left it to boil. When the soup began to boil, he cut the coagulated chicken blood into pieces with the dragon-horn knife and scooped it into the soup with the wooden spoon. When the color of the soup changed, he tossed in a little salt and let it cook for a few minutes before pouring some into a new bamboo tube for a taste. Although it was not as good as the chicken blood soup he usually ate at a restaurant, Chen Qi was still very satisfied to be able to make the familiar taste under such simple conditions.

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 that Ake had chopped and brought back before were already made into spare bamboo tubes for Chen Qi. At this time, Chen Qi took out the unused bamboo tubes and filled them with the chicken blood soup for each of them. He was not sure whether the beastmen could accept the taste of chicken blood, so he didn’t make too much. Just let them try it out first.

Everyone ate it very slowly. They usually drank meat broth, which tasted different from meat broth cooked with chicken blood. As always, Aze drank from the bamboo tube with chicken blood soup and Chen Qi couldn’t tell whether he liked it or not, so he asked in a low voice, “How does it taste? Is it acceptable?”

“Very good.” Aze licked his lips and added, “You can cook the rest of the chicken blood like this. They will like it.”

The others really did like it. Although the taste was a little strange initially, but after the first impression, they felt that it was really tasty and very delicious. There was a kind of freshness to it. In fact, after all, they were rather tired of eating the decades-unchanged barbeque.

Chen Qi was relieved and cooked more chicken blood soup. The two roasted snow geese were also about ready. Aze helped Chen Qi cut the roasted snow geese into pieces and neatly placed them on a cattail leaf so that they could eat them together with the chicken blood soup. For a moment, Chen Qi had the illusion that he was a master chef.

Aze saw that Chen Qi had been busy this whole time, and he handed him the warmed chicken blood soup. “You should eat some too. Don’t be hungry.”

Chen Qi accepted the bamboo tube, took a sip, and happily narrowed his eyes. He felt that the whole day’s accumulated fatigue had been swept away.

After the chicken blood soup and roasted snow geese were all wiped out, Ka Luo nestled beside Ake and began to stare in the direction of the buried pheasant. The fire had slowly extinguished, leaving only some red charcoal. “Chen Qi, why did you bury the pheasant? When can it be eaten?” Ka Luo looked at Chen Qi and asked, greedily.

“Making beggar’s chicken.” Chen Qi estimated the time. For the beggar’s chicken to come out with crispier skin, it was better to leave it longer. Although it could be eaten now, the flavor would not be as good. “Just a little while longer. It will taste better if it is left longer.”

“Aww.” Ka Luo responded with disappointment, his eyes still staring at the ground beneath the pile of hot charcoal.

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