Chapter 266 - 119: The Twenty-Fifth Mysterious Reward
The process of capturing goats was much simpler than Chen Zhou had imagined.
The goat locked in the live capture cage, needless to say, could be taken away by removing two wooden slats and tying a rope around its neck through the gap.
The only challenging one was the mother goat that cared for her kids; she was still free, could leave whenever she wanted, and would be hard to catch if she really wished to escape.
However, this mother goat was exceptionally maternal and valued her kids greatly. Her reluctance to leave the area spoke volumes about her nature.
As Chen Zhou tiptoed around the ridge to the capture site full of bleating sounds, the mother goat had already noticed his presence and cautiously ran to higher ground, observing the unwelcome visitor.
When Chen Zhou thought capturing was hopeless and the goat was going to leave her kids behind, she surprisingly returned and fearlessly launched an attack on him.
This mother goat wasn't very big, seemingly having just given birth to her first child, with a character that was pure and naive.
She hadn't considered how her small size could compete with a big creature like Chen Zhou. Her small brain further couldn't conceive of the fact that even if she drove Chen Zhou away, she wouldn't be able to open the peculiar "bush" imprisoning her child.
Thus, Chen Zhou effortlessly controlled the three mother goats.
Once the leader was under control, the little kids were no longer of concern. For Chen Zhou, the only difficulty was the dark environment.
Practically stumbling in the dark, he tied all the large goats together, allowing the hungry kids to feed well. He no longer added new bait to the capture cage, even removed the controlling mechanism of the cage door.
Soon, the mother goats would give birth again, adding these seven goats; Chen Zhou would have at least ten goats to care for.
Life was already busy, with many tasks set aside. Catching more male goats would exhaust him completely. Realizing his limited capabilities, he contently stopped capturing goats.
After all, the live capture cage was effective. Capturing goats was no longer a problem; letting the wild goats wander the island and reproduce slowly was fine, without worry.
Whenever needed, he could make more live capture cages to bring them back.
...
That night, as planned, Chen Zhou led the goat troop to the cave. After lighting torches, he left them in the sheltered forest to avoid rain, then returned to the kiln cave.
This journey exceeded his expectations, feeling quite lucky. Before leaving the slope, he checked the rope snare traps he had set.
To his disappointment, they were completely unsuccessful, yielding nothing.
This fully proved that rope snare traps for capturing goats were relatively outdated, less effective than baited live capture cages.
Of course, perhaps Chen Zhou's trap setting skills were inadequate — being a good rabbit hunter doesn't mean being good at capturing goats.
...
The anniversary feast was reminiscent of Chinese New Year, with bustling, festive, hopeful joy that swiftly passed compared to the more than 360 days of work and daily necessities.
Adjusting his schedule toward survival and improving life quality, Chen Zhou busied himself with work.
Each day upon waking, after routine washing and cooking, feeding the cats and dogs, the first task besides using the toilet was tending to the fields and other crops he had planted.
He then would check on the goats, chop vines, and apply the knowledge gained from books to process natural vines for weaving.
Finishing these, afternoon arrived, and he needed to prepare meals for the cats, dogs, and mice kept at home.
The kiln cave was shaded, with early darkness requiring oil lamps to be lit.
The seal oil remained sufficient, but Chen Zhou didn't want to waste these precious oils, so he started trying to render fish oil.
On rainless days, he'd get up early to go down to the sea.
His home had trial poison mice giving him confidence; things he once dared not eat, became testable thanks to these brave test animals.
Thus, on these sea trips, he'd collect strange things, either for bucket storage at home first, then slice up for the trial mice to taste.
These included but weren't limited to — purplish sea plants, sea star limbs, dead jellyfish, various shrimp and crabs, insects resembling cockroaches residing by the sea…
Trial mice, after all, didn't have iron stomachs and couldn't endure such harm, so within days, more than half were gone, leaving only two lucky ones trembling in the "cell," waiting for the next feeding.
...
October 3rd, the mother goat delivered smoothly, producing two kids, with mother and children safe.
After assisting the birth, Chen Zhou was surprised to find, upon checking the gender, that the mother had given birth to two female goats, meaning his reproduction army would have two more generals, truly comforting him.
While caring for the two kids, he suddenly recalled that he hadn't checked the gender of the other four kids.
If there were many male goats among them, it would be best to keep only one strong one as a breeding male, neutering the rest early to prevent unmanageable mating issues later. Neutering after maturity often repeats a young male goat's tragic fate.
It's said that neutering goats is much like making eunuchs; the younger the better to sever roots of problems, with less impact.
Neutering adults could cause bleeding or fatal pain, while wounds in young goats were smaller and less prone to infection.