031 – Betwixted Translations

Clothes made of fabric were actually not conducive to the activities of the beast people. The caterpillar-dragon spat out threads that were not even half as tough as the root threads, so when hunting, the females were likely to get them torn since they were more active. The only advantage was the texture. It was light, thin and soft, which was comparable to the fur of a snow bear.

Ka Luo didn’t want to learn how to make clothes for himself, but felt that this kind of fabric clothing could be worn without using vines or animal skins as belts, which would be more convenient for children to wear. He wanted to learn to make some for his future child, so even if the child was a little more active during winter, he wouldn’t need to worry of the clothes getting kicked away and the child getting chilled.

Seeing that Ali had arrived as well, Aze picked up several prey that he’d caught last night and stuffed them into his backpack along with two large pottery jars; one was added to the backpack he’d carry on his back, the other was held in his hand. Then he headed for the Chishui River to fetch water and process the preys. That morning, he and Chen Qi hadn’t eaten breakfast since there was no water. They would only have enough energy to work after they have eaten.

Ake and Azhang, who had already eaten, planned to return to the tribe to start moving the stone slabs over. Before they left, Chen Qi handed the two men two thick ropes and taught them how to tie things up, so that they could move a little more at a time and save a lot of time by reducing the number of trips they’d have to make.

Both of them learned very quickly, practically learning it after seeing it once. After the two men left, Chen Qi took Ali and Ka Luo to see if any of the traps set up along the route towards the banyan tree had caught any prey. The traps had not been checked for two to three days, so he also hoped that if they did catch something, that the creature had not starved to death.

Ali and Ka Luo both carried backpacks they’d made. The animal skins used for these backpacks were not the same two that were made when Chen Qi taught them before. It seemed that they had made brand new ones after they’d returned to the tribe. The last time they’d gone to the banyan tree, they had not caught many prey, so the few of them were going to head towards the gum tree after they checked on the traps. After all, building a house would require a lot of gum fruits and the ones they’d collected before would definitely not be enough.

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 was worried that he would encounter skunks on the way, so he paid extra attention to the smell in the air all the way. Fortunately, he didn’t detect any bad odors along the way. To their party’s surprise, although there were only about 20 traps along this route, they’d actually harvested nearly 10 prey, of which five turned out to be colorful pheasants, two snow geese, and the remaining three were some nearly dead fat hares.

Chen Qi looked at the pheasants and snow geese in his hands. “Are the animals here usually so easy to catch?” It should be known that birds were very alert creatures. How could such simple devices catch them? Moreover, they had not been stolen away by other predators despite a few days passing. Was it because Aze’s lesson to the vultures and the cheetah had caused too much noise and the predators around them dared not approach this place?

Ali thought for a moment and replied with uncertainty, “I heard Azhang say that many animals have crossed the Chishui River from the other side recently. Perhaps they triggered the traps when they passed by here.” It was actually thanks to the toughness of the roots they’d weaved into ropes that these pheasants and snow geese, which were twice the size of the hares, did not break free. Why couldn’t he harvest this much from the traps set near the tribe? Was it because the animals would detour when they got too close to the tribe? It seemed that he should try to set some traps further out.

The three men set the traps back up again. Since there was a large number of prey this time, they went back to the house to drop them off before heading back out for the gum fruit. When Aze returned from fetching water, he roasted a rabbit, then told Chen Qi to finish eating before getting back to work. Chen Qi simply rinsed his mouth with some water then finished his breakfast of roasted rabbit meat with a side of apple.

Everyone collected gum fruits and moved over the stone slabs for the whole morning. At noon, for lunch, Chen Qi roasted the fennec foxes together with the several rabbits caught yesterday and this morning. Today, no one went hunting, so everyone did not eat much. After eating hastily, they proceeded with the house construction.

Aze and crew had moved all the stone slabs picked out by Chen Qi in the past two days, one by one, all piled on the ground. Aze and Ake took their backpacks to dig up more silt from the riverside. Meanwhile, Chen Qi explained the house construction concept to Azhang and Ali, who were the main force for the building. Ka Luo occasionally had to go back and forth to the house to check on the melting gum fruits, though most of the time he stood curiously beside Chen Qi and listened to what he was saying.

“More than three meters tall?” Azhang frowned. “That’s too tall. The snow is very thick in the winter, so tall houses will easily collapse under the snow.”

“It won’t. The installed stegosaurus bone pillars were made to support it.” Chen Qi explained. “Let’s try it according to my idea first. If it really does collapse in the winter, we can still move back to Aze’s house.”

Azhang thought for a moment and nodded, “That should work. This is the first time I’ve heard of your method of building a house. Maybe it really can survive the winter.”

The foundation of the house was already dug when the stegosaurus bone pillars were installed. In order to strengthen it, Chen Qi also dug a trench of more than a half meter deep and planned to place the stone slabs in the trench then seal the surrounding gaps with the gum fruit-silt mixture. Seeing that there were so many stone slabs, he felt that there was definitely enough to build the outer wall to be two layers thick. He still didn’t know exactly how cold it would get during winter, but thicker walls would help keep the house warmer.

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 frame for the house was built no different from what the beast people usually did, which was to use the gum fruit-silt mixture to fix the stone slabs together and in place. However, when it came to the windows, Chen Qi was stumped. It was simple enough if he wanted to permanently set the windows, but Chen Qi wanted to make windows that could open up. Chen Qi used a root thread to measure the length and width of the locust dragon eye, then asked Azhang to reserve enough space for the window. He’d leave the spot for the window empty for now, until he figures out how to install the window like he wanted.

After the wall was built up to the height of two meters, there was another problem. The beastmen couldn’t place the stone slabs up higher. Chen Qi initially wanted to make a wooden table with some gum fruit, but it would take some time for the gum fruit to dry out. Later, it was unknown where Aze had gone and brought back a thick tree trunk of more than a meter’s height and nearly half a meter wide from. Azhang jumped directly onto the tree trunk, while Ali stood below him and handed Azhang the stone slabs and gum fruit-silt mixture.

The few of them were very busy and they all wanted to finish building the house as soon as possible. By the time the sun was almost setting, the house was basically completed aside from the roof and windows. With great satisfaction, Chen Qi looked at the house that resembled how he pictured it and was very happy, while Ka Luo excitedly circled the house several times.

After being busy the whole day, everyone was tired and hungry. The three females who were mainly doing the hard work felt more tired than they did after a full day of hunting. In order to reward everyone, Chen Qi moved the fire to the clearing outside the house and planned to make some new dishes.

Upon hearing about the new dishes, the beastmen suddenly stared at Chen Qi with bright, clear eyes, and all their tiredness flew away to who knows where. Chen Qi felt a bit of pressure from the expectations within those hungry eyes. After all, the ingredients here were really limited. It was impossible to make some kind of gourmet cuisine. He could only let this group of dirt-covered beastmen that have never had any delicacies try something they’d never eaten before.

In order not to dirty his new shirt during the day, Aze had put on a fur shirt over his T-shirt. Now, he took off the fur shirt and the grayish white T-shirt on his tall figure made him particularly conspicuous in the crowd, though the fur skirt covering his lower body made him look a little incongruous. Chen Qi couldn’t help the corners of his mouth curling upwards and decided to make a pair of pants for Aze soon. If he couldn’t make a nice pair of long pants, he’d at least try to make him some shorts.

Chen Qi brought out the five pheasants and three snow geese they’d caught this morning. The birds had not eaten for a day, and were a little weak and weary. Chen Qi half-filled a pottery dish with water, added a little salt to it, and stirred it with chopsticks to help it dissolve evenly. Then he had Aze seize the feet and wings of a pheasant to prevent it from struggling. He plucked a small tuft of feathers from the pheasant’s neck, and used the dragon-horn knife to poke a hole in the skin where the feathers were removed, then asked Aze to hold the pheasant upside down so that the pheasant’s blood would flow from the wound on its neck to the pottery dish.

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

Azhang and Ake were worried that there would not be enough water. Before it was completely dark, they packed four large pottery jars into their backpacks and went to fetch more water. Meanwhile, Ka Luo and Ali surrounded Chen Qi and watched what he was doing.

“Chen Qi, why are you mixing the pheasant’s blood like this?” Asked Ali.

Chen Qi blinked at him. “You’ll know in a moment.”

“Keeping us in suspense again.” Ka Luo groaned discontentedly.

Chen Qi smiled. In fact, he hadn’t yet decided what he was going to do with the chicken blood. First he was going to put the pottery dish with the processed pheasant blood aside and let the blood coagulate. He was also going to do this with the snow geese.

Chen Qi had already heated up a large pottery jar of water over the fire. At this time, he dipped the pheasants into the hot water, one by one, until the feathers were able to be easily plucked off. Then he’d hand it to the three people waiting nearby and one of the three would take it and pluck out all the feathers.

“I didn’t expect that the feathers of pheasants could be removed so easily after being plunged in hot water.” Ali exclaimed. It should be known that every time they caught these birds, it took a lot of effort just to handle their feathers. It was also because it was too troublesome that the beastmen did not like to hunt them for food. Moreover, most birds were more alert and they had wings, so they’d just fly away as soon as they’d pounce on them. It was not as easy as hunting other animals.

“You can try this when you catch pheasants in the future. Oh right, the feathers must be kept. If you don’t know what to do with them, I’ll teach you once I find a way to handle them.”

“What could such thin and small feathers be used for?” Ka Luo asked curiously, holding up a feather.

“I haven’t completely figured out how to use them yet. Maybe when there’s enough, they can be used to make quilts or clothes.”

Ali thought for a moment, “Then, the next time I get these feathers, I’ll give them to you first, and you can let us know when you’ve figured out what these things can be used for.”

“That’s fine. Tomorrow I’ll ask Ake to catch more pheasants so that we can get enough feathers sooner.” Ka Luo also wanted to know what this stuff could be used for earlier. He used to wastefully throw all of them away.