Winter is too cold. Although the new house decided to make do with the hall first, Chen Qi didn't want to miss anything. The wooden door of the hall, the cabinet of the room, pillows, bright red happy characters and so on, all imaginable things should be worked out first. He wanted Aze to have a wedding with deep memory.
Apart from the parties, Ka Luo was the happiest. He took Ake to Chen Qi's house early every day to report for duty. Thanks to him, things needed to be prepared for the wedding were completed much faster.
Ali is trimming leather shoes nearby. The sole is made of wood and the upper is made of brown hide. After all, the Beastmen have no experience in making shoes, and the shoes made by Ali, no matter how good his craftsmanship is, are still awkward to wear and will grind their feet. Chen Qi didn't say so, anyway, it was only half a day to wear things, and then wrapped in thick socks, but Ali was obviously interested in this kind of leather shoes. He stayed in Chen Qi's house these days and studied little by little against the drawings drawn by Chen Qi. Needless to say, he really made him study something. The modified leather shoes were all in good shape, and the appearance was comparable to what Chen Qi knew. As long as the comfort of shoes was well done, Chen Qi believed that Ali could open the first shoe store in the Beastmen world.
The wedding is scheduled for January 1, three days later. There is no date here. After all, there is no date yet. The reason for choosing January 1 is that Chen Qi thinks that this day is the beginning of a week and also symbolizes the beginning of his new life with Aze. These days it has been clear and cloudless, with no snow or clouds. Even if the sun shines on me and there is no temperature, Chen Qi is in a good mood.
On the contrary, Ali's performance today was very strange. He forgot to put salt in the dishes he made for lunch and even burned them. This is a mistake that Ali, who is fast becoming a chef, cannot possibly make. Moreover, Ali occasionally lost his mind and sometimes looked at Chen Qi with an awkward expression. Chen Qi looked at such a Ali in the mind a little drums.
Chen Qi finally couldn't help saying, "Ali, do you have anything to say to me?"
"ah, no, nothing." Ali stammered and shook his head to deny, hurriedly staggered eyes did not dare to look at Chen Qi.
Chen Qi choked and choked. Ali's reaction didn't look like nothing at all, but he was embarrassed to continue asking if the other party didn't say so.
Before Aze came back in the evening, Ali gather around Chen Qi and asked hesitantly, "Chen Qi, can I stay with you tonight?"
"why?" Chen Qi stopped cutting red cloth and asked curiously. Aze brought back the most dyed fruits in red. Chen Qi changed the previous set for several Beastmen to practice calligraphy. This winter Ka Luo will also help weave some cloth. Although the woven cloth is not as good as Ali's, it can be used to make some small objects. What Chen Qi is doing now is to cut out some Chinese characters with red cloth and plan to stick them on wooden doors and windows. He also asked Aze to write two couplets. There is no way. Aze's calligraphy is much better than Chen Qi's.
"Nothing, forget it." Ali collapsed his shoulder and packed up his leather shoes.
"Ali, if you encounter any problem that cannot be solved, you can tell me. Although I have no ability, I can still give you some advice." Chen Qi felt a headache when he looked at Ali's expression of hesitancy all day. Since he came to this world, Ali has helped him a lot. Chen Qi has always wanted to find a chance to repay him, but every time he will only trouble Ali more. Half of the things needed for this wedding come from Ali.
"Chen Qi, I know you know a lot, I just want to ask you, ask you . . ." Ali said here and paused, Chen Qi patiently waiting for each other to go on. For a long time, Ali looked up as if he had finally made up his mind. although his eyes were still a little wavering, his tone was firm. "Chen Qi, do you think the two females can be together?"
Chen Qi was stunned. Looking at Ali's clenched fist unconsciously, he guessed somewhat. He sat down beside Ali and smiled. "Did Azhang tell you anything?"
"How do you know?" Ali exclaimed.
"Azhang looks at you differently from others." Chen Qi smiled and replied, "Since he knew his own orientation, he has never made any mistakes in distinguishing the same kind." What about you? What do you think of Azhang, regardless of his status as a female?"
"I . . ." Ali bowed his head and gave a wry smile, "Azhang he is a powerful female, hunting ability is also very good, tribal people moved after so many years he will also take good care of the tribe. But I grew up watching him. I have always regarded him as my younger brother, and I don't know why he came up with such thoughts."
"Did you watch him grow up?" Chen Qi was surprised that Azhang could look much more mature than Ali from the outside.
Ali smiled. "Beastmen rarely change their appearance before they enter old age, so you may not see it from the appearance alone. Don't look at me like this, actually I am 80 years old this year, which is 25 years older than Azhang."
Speaking of which, there was a flash of nostalgia in Ali's eyes. "I thought when I first met him, he was still a little boy, a little smaller than Ajing. I didn't expect that so many years passed in a blink of an eye, and unconsciously, he had been supporting the dilapidated tribe for so many years."
Chen Qi looked at him encouragingly and motioned the other party to continue talking. Chen Qi knew that Ali needed someone to talk to.
"Azhang said yesterday that I had saved his life, but I have already forgotten it." Speaking of which, Ali's expression is a bit passive and seems to have fallen into a long memory.
"Do you know that before the hyenas attack three years ago, there was actually one attack a long time ago. The scale of that attack was not as large as that of three years ago, but the tribe also paid a heavy price." Ali reached out and touched his injured leg. "This leg was injured in that attack."
"Azhang said that I had saved him in that attack, but the scene was very chaotic at that time. I don't even remember who I saved at that time. At that time, I was engaged to a male son and had planned to become a partner." Ali's eyes darkened. "I was in a coma for some time after my leg was injured. I didn't know that the male was with someone else until I woke up."
Chen Qi patted Ali's hand comfortingly.
"I'm fine, it was decades ago." Ali smiled. "Azhang said that he was very envious of seeing you and Aze keep busy these days for the wedding ceremony. He said that even Aze, who is not pregnant, has bravely grasped happiness and he should be able to do the same. However, he and I are both females. How can he, how can he . . ."
It's a little funny to see how Ali couldn't find the adjective Chen Qi for half a day. In fact, Ali isn't uninteresting to Azhang, but he hasn't crossed the threshold in his heart.
In this world, even though there are many more females than males, we have never heard of any precedent of females and males together. Beasts advocate monogamy. Unless the original mate loses the ability to hunt, they will only have another female to support their families. If two strong females and a male are together at the same time, it is not a good thing to talk about here. It just proves that you have no ability to raise your own home by yourself. In this world of strength, this is more intolerable than anything for females.
Looking at Ali, who was at a loss and at a loss, Chen Qi felt as if he had seen himself once. When he found that he was only interested in men, he was also at a loss, suffering and perplexed. The mood that tortured him until now seems to be wrapped in a layer of blood.
"I met you in my hometown." Chen Qi did not know much about comforting people. He considered his own situation and said, "I knew long ago that I like men. If you can understand, I like men just like me."
Ali opened his mouth in surprise, Chen Qi interrupted his question, "I was very painful at that time, why am I different from other people? I didn't dare to tell anyone. I couldn't help but go home and talk to my family. As a result, my father, Ah Fu, beat the door with a stick." Speaking of which, the tip of Chen Qi's nose was a little sore. The scene of that day seemed to reappear in front of his eyes. Even though the strength of his father's stick fell on him was not great, the wound in his heart was bleeding profusely. Later, he moved to another job for several years and never set foot in that home until he came here. If Chen Qi had any nostalgia for that world, he probably did not get the understanding of his family. Fortunately, he still had a younger brother and a younger sister with his parents. Even if he was gone, it should not be so-called.
"Even so, I have never regretted it. Now I have met Aze, and I think I came here to meet him. For me, I don't care if Aze has pregnant stripes or if he has children. Aze without pregnant stripes is just like those men in my hometown. I like him just because he is Aze." Chen Qi looked at Ali. "Maybe I can't give you any advice on this matter, but it's not your fault whether you like the female or the male. You just ask yourself, if Azhang were the male, would you like him? If the answer is yes, then why didn't you like it when he was a female? What do you like about Azhang or his status as a male?"
Ali looked back at Chen Qi in shock. He had never thought about this problem in detail. Does he like Azhang? He doesn't know. But doesn't he like Azhang? The answer is no. Azhang has been around him since he was a little boy. He watched him grow up little by little, watched him hunt back an adult stegosaurus with other females in his coming of age ceremony, watched him closely protect himself in front of him in the attack of the hyenas, watched him use various excuses to exchange a large amount of food for a small amount of cloth and pottery from his side, watched him stay in this already dilapidated tribe without hesitation . . . Too many, Ali discovered at this time that he had lived everywhere since he met Azhang.
Chen Qi also does not expect that a few words from himself will make Ali understand that he is only an onlooker in his feelings, but he hopes Ali can think about the matter carefully.
"like a person, age is not a problem, ability is not a problem, the most important thing is your heart, the most important thing is whether you want to be with him or not." Chen Qi said gently, this is also the belief that has supported him for so many years. He did not give in because he was different from others, nor did he give in because he was beaten by his father. His life is his own. He hopes that the people he really likes can participate in his later life.
He was really, really grateful for this trip and for meeting Aze in the white snow.
Thought of here, Chen Qi wanted to meet Aze so strongly for the first time, to hug him, to kiss him, to tell him over and over again that he liked him very much.
That night, Ali, whose head was still a paste, stayed at Chen Qi's house. When he came back, Azhang saw a little lonely smile and left. Until midnight, Ali quietly got up and went out of the door.
"What happened to Uncle Ali?"
Chen Qi held Aze tightly in his arms and smelled the familiar smell of the other party. "He's fine. He's just figured out some problems he hadn't thought about before."
CLWP Chapter 65
The three days are short or long. Aze needs to do some preparation work before the wedding, such as trying on clothes and pasting couplets. At that time, Chen Qi became very hairy. He had to paste the happy character again if it was slightly crooked. When trying on clothes, Aze's hairstyle didn't match his suit. He also cut Aze's hair with a sword-horn knife.
Because Azhang had left all the food he had stored to his people, the prey he hunted during this time was not enough for him and Ali to survive this winter, so today, taking advantage of the fine weather, he could only hunt in the forest by himself.
At ordinary times, Azhang and Aze go to the forest in a division of labor. Azhang is responsible for hunting, Aze is responsible for finding all kinds of plants that can be eaten and cutting down firewood. Now a hill-like pile of firewood has been piled up in the yard, because it is not clear whether Chen Qi needs to use the firewood elsewhere. The firewood Aze has cut down is all piled up in the same place, and will be split for use when needed.
Because there is no day in the month, Azhang told the other party that he must come back early today when he went out in the morning. Azhang naturally agreed to Azhang's words. But this day until it became completely dark, I haven't seen Azhang.
"Why don't I look for it?" Looking at Ali walking up and down in a hurry in front of the door, Aze suggested.
"No, wait and see." Ali refused, saying that even though he knew Aze was strong, it would not be wise to enter the forest on a moonless day in winter.
Fortunately, Azhang came back soon. Today, he was rarely seen bringing back his prey. Instead, he brought back more than a dozen sticks of firewood. Not only has Ali been worried about, even Chen Qi has discovered that there is something wrong with Azhang.
Ali rushed up to help unload the firewood from Azhang's shoulder and returned to the house to fill the other party with a bowl of warm ginger syrup. Azhang took the bowl but did not drink it in a hurry. instead, he looked around at all the people around him. finally, he turned his eyes on Ali and said with a heavy look, "the dolphin dragon outside the forest has disappeared."
The look of all the Beastmen except Chen Qi sank when he heard the news. The disappearance of the dolphin dragon is not the first occurrence, but an inevitable event every year, but what worries everyone is that the dolphin dragon disappeared too early this year.
The reason why it disappeared rather than left was that the dolphin dragon was different from when it first came to the periphery in the early winter. It disappeared almost overnight without any footprints or traces, just like it had never appeared in Loya forest.
However, in previous years, the dolphin and dragon will disappear in the middle of summer. This winter, the dolphin and dragon will disappear before the end of half of the winter. You know, animals on the Dora Plain will not migrate back next year. There will be no prey for a year. How will the beast and dragon spend the summer? If the dolphin dragon does not appear again in the coming winter, how will the winter survive?
"Did the dolphin dragon have no other animals?" Chen Qi, who came down from the air, obviously could not feel the worries of the beast people.
"The only thing missing is the dolphin dragon." Azhang replied, "Other dragons are still there, but dolphin dragons are huge ones that can be hunted by one person. Other dragons will not have a high success rate unless several people cooperate in hunting, and they will also suffer heavy casualties."
Chen Qi wondered if you turned to ask Aze, "Didn't you hunt two antelope last time?"
Aze shook his head. "The speed of the antelope is too fast for the beast people to catch up with. It takes luck to hunt the antelope."
"and I'm worried . . ." Azhang paused, a full face of sorrow. "even this winter, I can't get into the forest. when I came back, I saw several locust dragons gathering together and even saw the trail of stegosaurus outside the forest."
The scope of stegosaurus' activities is only in the center of the forest. It is abnormal enough for solitary locust dragons to gather together. Now they can even see the figure of stegosaurus. Everyone was silent.
Aze looked at Chen Qi, hesitated for a moment and said to Azhang, "Uncle Azhang, don't go to the forest this winter. We have stored enough food this year, and we have returned from hunting this winter, which is enough for several of us to finish the winter."
Azhang looked at Aze with a somewhat complicated look, then at Chen Qi. He found that Chen Qi did not respond to Aze's request to share the food. He was about to say what Ali grabbed his arm. "It's so decided. We'll look at the food after winter."
Chen Qi thought for a moment and proposed, "Since we no longer need to go out into the forest, we can seal the front and rear doors of the fence and only set up wooden ladders long enough inside, so that even if dragons pass by, it will be safer."
Everyone else nodded in agreement that the height of the fence was not an obstacle to the jumping ability of the females. Azhang saw that the people had already decided to stop being melodramatic and wanted to oppose it. He immediately lit the oil lamp, moved enough snow outside overnight, sealed the front and back wooden doors, and buried sharpened stakes in the periphery.
The preparations for the wedding had already been made. After the wall was finished, everyone temporarily forgot the threat of the forest and looked forward to the wedding ceremony they had never seen before.
Looking at the white ice wall surrounded by four thorough and solid walls, Chen Qi was very glad that he had surrounded the yard large enough. If it had been surrounded closer, it would not have made any difference to the prison. However, Chen Qi is a person who can live in a house, but he is not worried about any discomfort. He has come to this world only a few times, and now he just continues to live like this.
On the morning of the 1st of the 1st of the month, when it was still completely dark, Chen Qi got up. It was better to say that he had been too nervous to sleep all night since last night. See Chen Qi get up, Aze also silently climb up.
Chen Qi changed all the sheets on the heated kang bed into newly-made red quilts, and then began to prepare food.
The taste of the rice berries picked after winter is a bit like that of glutinous rice, but it will have a little astringency, which is quite different from the sweet rice aroma before winter. Although it is only the first attempt, Chen Qi opened several rice berries and put them by the fire with pottery before going to bed last night, and dried the water by the temperature of the fire. Although it is not completely dry at the moment, it is ready for use.
Chen Qi mixed the boiled sugar water into the rice berry and kneaded it. It was a hard work. He got it for a while and then let Aze take over. Chen Qize went to prepare the fried food.
Chen Qi was setting up what he needed when he heard Ka Luo shouting outside the door, "Chen Qi, are you up yet?"
Chen Qi wiped his hands and went to open the door. The door had already been installed with a heavy wooden door. There was also a thick skin curtain outside the door. The temperature in the morning was relatively low. Ka Luo stamped his feet with cold. As soon as he saw Chen Qi open the door, he couldn't wait to run into the warm room.
"Why are you the only one today? Where's Ake?"
Ka Luo warmed up before the fire. "Ake has been having more lethargy these past two days. I'll let him sleep a little longer. I think the curtains of your window are open and I want to come early to see if there is anything I can do for you."
The windows of Ka Luo's house and Chen Qi's house are facing each other. Chen Qi will open the curtains whenever he gets up. Ka Luo will know if they have already got up by looking at them at home. While the two were talking, Azhang and Ali also came. As Azhang was young and slept for a long time, Ali did not call him to come.
Azhang was sent by Chen Qi to work with Aze on the hard-working dough kneading. Ali and Ka Luo were responsible for frying meatballs and French fries one by one. The prepared food was kept warm on a newly-made wooden shelf by the fire.
Chen Qi ground the small handful of mung beans brought by Ajing before, and Chen Qi, the first piece of dough kneaded by Ah Ze, planned to make glutinous rice balls first. Glutinous rice balls have two flavors, one is original flavor, the other is a dough made by mixing steamed sweet potato paste, which is wrapped with mung bean flour with sugar crumbs, rolled into small balls, and then steamed in a pottery dish over water.
After the other dough was kneaded, Chen Qi kneaded the dough into a suitable weight and kneaded it into the shape of bread. Aze found a piece of cloth to cover the dough and put it aside for the dough to ferment for a while. When Ka Luo finished all the fried food, Chen Qi took out the burning wood in the hearth, leaving only the red charcoal inside. Chen Qi scratched the dough with a sword-horn knife, then placed it on a thick piece of wood, the area of which can only be placed three at a time. Chen Qi put on leather gloves for protection, put the wood with dough into the hearth, and then sealed the hearth mouth with wood boards.
Chen Qi made bread for the first time, and he didn't know what the effect would be. He didn't know if the temperature was enough when using the stove as an oven, and he didn't know if the dough would grow well without yeast, but he still tried to make it.
When the sun came out, Ake also came. His eyes were still half narrowed, and he looked as if he had not waked up yet. Upon entering the door, he saw that the tall wooden shelf on the third floor by the fire was filled with freshly baked food. He picked up a white glutinous rice ball and stuffed it into the entrance. "How do you make so much food today? Can you finish it?"
"It looks good even if you can't finish it." Chen Qi smiled, life's only wedding, luxury once does not matter.
"This is delicious, but sweet." Ake picked up another orange-yellow glutinous rice ball mixed with mashed sweet potatoes. "How is this sweeter?"
"Chen Qi, I smell the fragrance." Ka Luo squatted on the hearth waved to Chen Qi. Because Chen Qi cooked the bread or put it in the hearth, Ka Luo was curious and squatted in front of the hearth to watch as soon as he finished his work.
Chen Qi went over to remove the wood board at the hearth, then put on gloves and took out the wood with bread. A sweet smell of familiar bread poured into the nasal cavity. Chen Qi could not help but cut a piece with a sword knife and gave it to the people to taste. Well, it was a bit crisp, a bit hard, a bit sweet, not delicious, but not bad.
Chen Qi asked Aze to pick out the red-hot charcoal from the fire and put it on the hearth, then take out a few milk fruits, coat the remaining dough with milk fruit liquid, and then continue to put it in for baking.
After tasting the bad taste of bread, Ka Luo lost interest in this kind of food and went back to the fire to make other food that he thought was delicious. During this period, he learned a lot of food practices with Chen Qi and rarely had the chance to eat all at once. Ka Luo naturally had to show himself.
While Chen Qi took advantage of the fact that his hands were almost full, he took Aze back to his room to change his clothes.
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