Chapter 12

Chen Qi’s face was full of black lines. Of course, he wasn’t planning to have children. In this world without women, who was he supposed to look for to bear a child? Look for Aze? Grinding his teeth in frustration, he explained, “I want to wear it myself.” Although the animal skins had been tanned, it was obvious that the tanning technology was not mature enough. There wasn’t a cloth lining, and every pore on the skin would be clamoring about the roughness of the fur garment.

Ali did not care who was wearing the cloth he weaved. His lips curled up slightly and he replied realistically, “You will need to prepare your own yarns, and each piece of cloth must be exchanged for an adult antelope’s worth of meat.”

The “yarns” were actually cocoons of silk spat out by caterpillar-dragons. They were generally prepared for the young for winter. However, dragons lived in the Loya Forest. Even if the caterpillar-dragons were harmless dragons, their silk was not so easy to obtain.

Chen Qi frowned slightly. He could not get these things now. It seems that the issue of clothing can only be put aside for the time being. But Aze overrode his thoughts and said, “I’ll have meat and cocoons ready tomorrow. Please use these skins here to help Chen Qi make several sets of fur clothes. I’ll also go hunting tomorrow for remuneration.”

“En.” Ali stood up and staggered with a limp over to a pottery dish, where he retrieved a tree vine and returned to take Chen Qi’s measurements by breaking the tree vines at certain lengths. He asked casually, “Have you found a house yet? There should be many empty houses over by Rock Mountain.”

“Chen Qi plans to build a house next to my house.” Aze’s smile formed wrinkles between his eyes and eyebrows.

“Oh?” This was beyond Ali’s expectation. He couldn’t help looking at Chen Qi a few more times. Chen Qi wore hide garments over his whole body. Ali turned and walked to the corner where some hides were piled up. He took out a piece of cloth, which was not too big, only about 1.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, and handed it to Chen Qi. “Take this back and use it first. I’ll help you with the rest when Aze finds the cocoons.”

Chen Qi didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he suddenly felt that the female’s current expression was even gentler than before.

“Thank you.” Chen Qi took the cloth. Although the cloth looked slightly rough, it felt surprisingly soft, just like silk, and his heart was even more joyful. It seemed that the world was not as bad as he’d imagined.

The three men chatted a little longer. It was mostly Ali asking Chen Qi if he really wanted to live in this tribe, for which he received a positive reply. He also told Aze to help Chen Qi build a strong house and to come to him if there was anything he needed. After a long talk, the two of them went back home. Everyone was very busy in the month before winter, and there was not much time to waste on greetings.

When the two left the tribe, Chen Qi sincerely said to Aze, “Thank you.” In various ways, the beastman had really helped him out a lot and he owed him too much. However, Chen Qi, who carried this heavy debt to the other man, wasn’t burdened by it. He was still in a period of adapting to the new world. It would be better to repay Aze slowly when things were more stable in the future. He didn’t have the luxury to be melodramatic now.

“Don’t mention it. Do you still want to find foods that were buried under the ground? There is still some time before dark, and we can search for them all the way back.” It was obvious that Aze was in a good mood at the moment.

The tribe was still some distance away from Aze’s place, and Chen Qi’s interest in finding food was still high, so he happily accepted Aze’s proposal. The two were extremely happy to find some familiar plants along the way. As they walked, Chen Qi also found a small bamboo grove, where the bamboo grew very tall and thick. Unfortunately, bamboo shoots were not found at this time of year. What delighted Chen Qi most was the discovery of a potato plant growing near the small bamboo grove. They actually managed to dig out about five potatoes, each around the size of a fist.

Although they searched until the sun went down, the two men’s harvest along the way remained just these potatoes. Aze planned to send Chen Qi home and then head back out to hunt. This time of year, there was no shortage of prey on the Dora Plains. However, before they’d reached home, the two encountered a fat rabbit that suddenly popped out in front of them. The rabbit had actually crashed into Chen Qi’s leg, so Aze wasn’t going to let it go this time. With a swift movement, he bent over, reached out, and caught it in his hand. Before Chen Qi could even react, Aze had already given the rabbit the twist of death.

Chen Qi glanced at the potatoes in his arms and then at the rabbit in Aze’s. “Let’s have a rabbit stew with potatoes tonight.”

“Okay.”

Of course, Chen Qi didn’t end up cooking the rabbit stew with potatoes that night. Aze returned from his hunt with a warthog, so they ended up using a large piece of pork to make some meat and potato stew instead. Although the only seasonings they could use were salt, wild ginger, and a handful of perilla leaves, it was surprisingly delicious. Chen Qi also used a large piece of pork fat to fry up some lard and asked Aze to slice a warthog leg into strips which he used to make a large dish full of fried pork slices. After changing to a different kind of food that wasn’t just meat grilled with salt, Chen Qi ate very well. The two men practically finished off half of the wart-pork along with the five fist-sized potatoes.

The beastmen’s cooking methods were very simple, always either roasting or boiling. This was Aze’s first time eating this kind of food, and he almost couldn’t stop. “Chen Qi, can we have more food like this again tomorrow?” Aze asked, wanting more.

Chen Qi sat by the fire rubbing his swollen stomach and laughed. “Of course, though maybe not the meat and potato stew. We used up all the potatoes tonight.”

“I’ll look for more when I’m out hunting tomorrow. I remember what the potato plants look like.” For the first time, Aze discovered that the roots of this buried plant could be stewed with meat. Not only did the meat become delicious, but the root itself was also so tasty.

Chen Qi’s eyes brightened. “Do you still remember what the sweet potatoes, perilla, and wild ginger look like?”

Aze nodded. “I remember them. I have a good memory.”

Chen Qi patted Aze on the shoulder and seriously stated, “You must dig them out and bring them back when you see them.” 

Aze smiled. “Okay.”

Tonight’s moon was much dimmer than last night’s. Tomorrow would probably already be the Moonless Day, and after three Moonless Days, it would be winter. Beastmen had the habit of going out at sunrise and going to rest at sunset. Chen Qi, who usually browsed web pages until midnight, did not have this habit. He looked at the remaining half of the wart-pork and the rabbit that they hadn’t had the time to roast even though it had already been cleaned and processed. He didn’t know whether the little salt he’d refined at noon would be enough to cure these things.

“Aze, cut this much of the wart-pork into strips.” Chen Qi gestured over the nearby pork to indicate the approximate size he wanted..

Aze looked at Chen Qi’s slightly protruding stomach and suggested, “We can’t eat any more of it. Let’s cook it tomorrow.” 

“I don’t want to eat it, I want to use salt to preserve it and save it to be eaten in the winter.”

“Using salt to preserve? Isn’t it supposed to be cooked and then dried in the sun?”

“Dry them in the sun? Will it be tasty like that?” Chen Qi’s mouth twitched. Is that the primitive version of jerky?

Aze shook his head. “It’s not tasty, but it can last for a long time. The first Moonless Day has not yet arrived. If we need to store food, we can cook it and leave it in the sun to dry. After three Moonless Days, when the weather starts to turn cold, we can store it directly. However, most of the animals on the Dora Plains will have migrated by then, and there will not be many left to be hunted. If we want to store more food, we must go into the Loya Forest.”

“That’s not a problem. Food that is preserved with salt can be stored for a long time, and it will definitely taste better than plain dried meat. Cut the meat according to my method first. We won’t need bones.”

“Okay.” Aze didn’t believe Chen Qi’s claim that using salt would make the food last longer, but even if Chen Qi wasted the food, he could still go hunt and bring back more. It was not yet the best time to store food, so there was still time for Chen Qi to mess around.

Chen Qi first boiled half a pottery dish of water, then found another clean pottery dish and set it aside for later use. After the water boiled, he used a long wooden stick to hold the cut up meat strips and put them in the boiling water to scald them. When the meat began to change color, he took it out, carefully smeared salt evenly on the surface of each strip, and placed the strips into the clean pottery dish.

Just like that, he filled the dish with a layer of meat strips, then spread salt over them again, and repeated his pattern until all the meat strips had been processed and the plate was heaping full. Chen Qi put the meat-filled dish by the door, which was far away from the fire and well-ventilated, then shook out his slightly sore arms, feeling satisfied with the results of his efforts. “Just wait until tomorrow to find a cool place to let it dry out.”

Aze looked at the sky and asked, “Then we’ll rest for today?”

“En.” Chen Qi was also a little tired after the busy day. Before going to bed, he set a large pot of bone soup over the fire to simmer. The warthog had a lot of bones. Chen Qi only chose a few segments of those bones, and had Aze break them into smaller pieces. After removing the blood foam from the water he’d used to treat the meat strips, he added a few pieces of wild ginger slices and left it to stew so that he would have bone soup as soon as he got up the next morning. Bone soup was much tastier than just the simple meat broth.

On this night Chen Qi had the most comfortable sleep he’d had since arriving in this world. The rumbling sound in his mind, that hadn’t stirred up for a long time, resurfaced, but this time the melody of the sound became a mysterious and beautiful beat. Chen Qi felt that he was finally about to blend into this world, and he also realized once again that he might never return to his original world. He would live as a creature of this world until the day when his bones were buried.

Aze reached out his hand to smooth out Chen Qi’s brow that was tightly furrowed even in his deep sleep. He could sense the faint loneliness that came from the sleeping man. Although he did not know what Chen Qi was seeing in his dream, he knew that he would protect the man in front of him well from now on. As long as he stayed by his side, Aze would protect him to the end.

Aze removed some firewood to turn down the fire a little bit. The lidless pot revealed bones tumbling in the water and emitted a tantalizing fragrance. He spread out the nearby hide and laid it on the ground. He thought to himself that he should be able to have a dream full of food tonight. It would be even better if Chen Qi was also in the dream.