He and It Chapter 38: A God’s Marriage (9)

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Chapter 38: A God’s Marriage (9)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

At that moment, the pot of soup made a boiling bubbling sound, the lid trembled, and the air was steaming with the rich aroma of grains that reminded people of the grand sunshine, the blue sky, and golden waves of harvest wheat that shone like silk.

Yun Chi put down his bowl and rejoiced, “It’s ready so soon!”

He hummed, withdrew a few pieces of firewood to reduce the fire, and then took two long spoons as clamps, and falteringly picked up the lid of the pot. The snow-white, hot steam puffed up his nose, instantly blurring his vision.

Yun Chi’s smile couldn’t stop spilling out as he poked the golden wheat grains with his spoon. The rice cooked in Zaoshen’s soup pot seemed to really hide a bite of noon daylight, which could illuminate the misty time of day at dusk.

He held the spoon, cherished a little soft rice, blew it cool and put it into his mouth. The soft, sticky texture and the sweetness of the earth. Swallowing a mouthful was enough to make one’s nose slightly tingle.

“It’s delicious,” Yun Chi said in amazement. He refilled the spoon, gave Sa’gya a scoop and held it out. The sea otter opened its mouth, took the spoon, and awkwardly scraped down the wheat rice with his fangs.

He was silent for a moment, and echoed Yun Chi’s comment, “It’s delicious.”

Yun Chi placed their used spoons in separate bowls and directed Sa’gya to set the pot that held the rice aside to cool first while he replaced it with a new clay pot, in which he intended to boil the snow water.

During the preparation, Sa’gya nimbly opened the sea urchins and set them aside. Yun Chi observed the ease with which he handled the sea urchin, and really wondered how he could squeeze the sharp and hard shell of the sea urchin like a peanut when it was soft to the touch.

Yun Chi immediately turned off the heat, poured in about a third of the cold snow water, and dipped the grouse eggs into the pot.

Sa’gya asked, bewildered, “What’s this for?”

“It’s called hot spring eggs. It’s very simple, but don’t disturb me, it’s hard to control the heat of the hot spring eggs, I have to time it.”

Sa’gya didn’t understand what he was doing, but as he watched Yun Chi hopping happily around the kitchen like a tiny white bird, he couldn’t help but be happy too.

Yun Chi counted to a little over six minutes, then hastily lifted the lid and moved the eggs into the spare cold water and soaked them.

“It’s time to add rice!” Yun Chi announced joyfully.

He picked up a silver bowl and gave Sa’gya a generous portion of wheat rice, laid a layer of shredded seaweed on top, then pulled out the fatty sea urchin yolks and piled them on top with gusto, leaving only a circular space in the middle. Then he pulled out three puffed eggs and cracked them open one by one. The semi-solidified, soft white and tender hot spring eggs slid into the middle of the gap in turn, like an irregular moon in a strong sunset.

He kept moving. He sprinkled an even layer of fine salt and shredded seaweed, then carefully handed the large, heavy bowl to Sa’gya.

“There you go, sea urchin and egg over rice! Try it. It’s relatively easy to make this way. I shouldn’t be rusty in my craft, right?”

Sa’gya was already dumbfounded as he held the bowl. As he looked at his hand and then at Yun Chi, he felt speechless. Only after half a day did he whisper, “I’ll wait for you to eat together.”

Yun Chi did as he was told, but the amount of rice and eggs he gave himself was not as much as Sa’gya.

He held the bowl and sat next to Sa’gya, then jokingly said, “Remember to chew twenty times. Chewing slowly helps the food digest, so it won’t be a burden on your stomach!”

“Hmm.” Sa’gya nodded his head speculatively.

Yun Chi took the spoon and carefully chose an angle to make sure that the egg, rice, sea urchin and seaweed would all be taken in one go after digging down.

The aroma of the covered rice was like a treasure box that suddenly collapsed because of too much gold and silver in its belly, and dominated the air nearby in a massive and glorious way, making the teeth sore as they salivated hard.

Yun Chi opened his mouth, put this heavenly treasure between his teeth, and then slowly closed his mouth.

The egg mixture with fine salt was smooth, the yolk was rich and creamy, and the hot wheat rice was full of a deep and long sweetness…One bite was so fresh that it burned the heart, and it was so delicious that it made people fidget.

Yun Chi did not have time to swallow. It was like there was a fog in front of his eyes. He couldn’t clearly see the dark red charcoal fire near him, nor could he see the slanting sunlight burning in the distance. His nose was so sore that he blinked his eyes subconsciously, which caused tears to rush out of his eyes and wet his cheeks.

He dug in one more spoonful, opened his mouth to the maximum, and filled it viciously. The tears became more and more violent, as if he were fighting with someone. However, he refused to make a sound, just sniffled his nose vigorously.

After a life-changing experience on the ice sea, far from home, far from his family, far from everything he knew, even though Sa’gya took care of him, Yun Chi was still surrounded by an indescribable feeling of wandering. He was a broken kite, unable to find a place where he could land.

Now, the familiar hot food was like a piece of land to anchor on. It fell heavily into his stomach, and left Yun Chi with mixed feelings and tears.

Sa’gya slowly ate the bowl of rice. He ate it carefully, as if he wanted to remember the feeling of biting into each grain of rice.

Such an offering, full of love and pity, tears and thoughts, was a taste he had never tasted before. It was bitter and sweet. Bitter enough to stop him in his tracks towards extinction, sweet enough to make his eyes sour and remind him of many past times…When those times hadn’t yet turned into wounds. They overlapped in his heart.

“…Why are you crying?” As Sa’gya held the bowl, the cold water droplets fell on his fur and did not roll off unstaining like seawater, but slowly seeped in.

“Because the food…It’s the smell of being alive…” Yun Chi dripped tears, and tried his best to suppress a trembling coda. “To chew enough for twenty times…Before you can swallow it…”

Neither he nor Sa’gya spoke. The evening sun was about to burn out outside the window. It highlighted the sky that was gradually rendering to deep blue, with the infinite ocean still rippling and glowing farther in the distance. They sat close together, leaning on each other on the kitchen floor, as they wept silently with each other, cherished every bite, and finished a bowl of hot sea urchin and egg over rice.

“Can I have another bowl?” Sa’gya asked softly as he licked the silver bowl clean.

Yun Chi lifted his arm and wiped his face haphazardly. “No problem, but there are no more hot spring eggs.”

“I’ll dig again tomorrow,” Sa’gya said. “I just…It’s been a long time since I’ve had such good food.”

Finally, Sa’gya ate the pot of wheat and rice clean. He finished cleaning up the kitchen with Yun Chi, then went back outside and polished the pots and bowls with snow water.

That day, they lay together on that big wooden bed, Sa’gya holding Yun Chi over his heart, and the teenager slowly sank into the big sea otter’s fluffy, plump fur, all warm and fuzzy.

He did not hear the heartbeat belonging to the sea otter, but heard the deep and gentle echo of the waves and tides, that echoed incessantly in Sa’gya’s chest.

Yun Chi thus slept soundly.

.

The next day, the clear light outside the window was strong. Yun Chi slept drowsily. Subconsciously he touched his side, but didn’t feel the warm fur of the big sea otter, but a strange movement came from the small kitchen.

“Sa’gya…?” He opened one eye with great effort. He had to say that Vesta’s cooking utensils were really powerful. Originally Yun Chi’s bones still had some hidden pains, but once yesterday’s meal went down, as a result, his entire body was alive and well, like a new life.

“Sa’gya?” He got out of bed, felt for his clothes and put them on, then walked towards the location of the sound. “Are you in the kitchen?”

He looked around and saw that it was indeed the white sea otter, pounding away at the half-human sized jar of wheat grains. When he saw Yun Chi enter, he furrowed his round eyebrows and gave him a pitiful expression.

Yun Chi asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

“I want to try the method of the God of Agriculture and see if I can plant these.” Sa’gya’s hairy palm rubbed the golden grains. “But they’ve been dormant in the temple for too long, and I can’t get any quality results without the exclusive priesthood to urge them with divine power…”

Yun Chi was not lost, but a bit pleased. Since he’d come here, Sa’gya’s demeanor had been very passive. Often Yun Chi raised an idea, and he then indulgently allowed it then helped Yun Chi implement it. This was the first time that he actively wanted to do something.

“There’s still some stock left in the temple. We can save it and…” As the only one in the family who could cook, Yun Chi calculated the allotment. “How much longer before the island approaches land?”

“Sixty sunrise lengths,” Sa’gya said sullenly.

“Two months…” Yun Chi took over for Sa’gya. “It’s okay. Two months is quick. We can eat differently!”

For breakfast, Yun Chi set up a soup pot and cooked up a pot of thick, sticky and sweet wheat porridge, thickly simmered with rice oil and sprinkled with chopped seaweed on top. He used the residual heat from the soup pot and the remnants of the congee, to scald and soften three air-dried cuttlefish, two for Sa’gya and one for Yun Chi.

“Mmmmm,” Sa’gya buried his round face into the bowl. It was as round as the white moon, while his ears fluttered, almost writhing with food, while his throat purred, “Mmmm!”

Yun Chi chewed the salty-sweet squid feet and saw that there was rare good weather that day. Even though the falling snow was large and small, and rarely stopped, yet the sun had come out. A sun as flat and round as an egg yolk poured daylight on the land of Kaleva.

After breakfast, Yun Chi meticulously tidied up the food he had brought back yesterday, put on his shoes with gusto, and headed to the pine forest behind them with Sa’gya to raid the winter grouses’ eggs.

“You see, they usually leave their eggs under the trees,” Sa’gya said in a low voice, whispering quietly to Yun Chi. “Once, I accidentally stepped on two of them as I passed a tree and helped them recover. Later, both of those eggs hatched successfully.”

Yun Chi looked back and forth and saw that there was indeed a slightly raised snowpack under a tree not far away, only it was not very obvious. Pointing there, he asked in a low voice, “Is that place?”

“Yes,” Sa’gya nodded. “But not many eggs are laid there. It looks like only one clutch.”

He led Yun Chi around a little further, then bent over in the snow and pointed ahead to a large, leafy pine tree with snow so thick that it looked like the undercarriage of the tree was a cut above the others.

“That’s where the extra eggs are.” Sa’gya exhaled a cloud of white vapor. “I’ll show you.”

With that, the white sea otter leaned and lay down in the thick snow. He covered his black nose and fleshy pads, then closed his eyes, so that he actually looked no different from a mass of white snow. He cooed and brushed past. From Yun Chi’s angle, he could only see the big snow mass was rustling and shaking.

After a while, Sa’gya sneakily returned the way he came, pulled his nose out of the snow, and said to Yun Chi, “I got five more eggs!”