Chapter 204 - 91: Mouse Pen
By coincidence, he captured eight baby mice.
Holding the bucket, Chen Zhou even considered giving up on his plans to raid bird nests and directly heading home to build a stone enclosure to raise these little creatures.
In his understanding, in the entire natural world, apart from other primates, few animals can surpass mice in poison testing or drug trials.
If he were to discuss reproduction speed and diet, even monkeys and chimpanzees would fall behind and give way to mice, the "born poison testing saints."
This time, he caught a total of eight baby mice. As long as he takes care of them and prevents large-scale deaths due to accidents, he could get a male and female pair, providing an endless supply of test mice for future experiments.
Of course, the possibility of having eight males or eight females is not impossible either.
However, Chen Zhou feels he isn't that unlucky yet.
A simple probability calculation shows that the chance of the mice being of the same gender is 1/128. If he truly hits this "jackpot," then not getting a mysterious reward like a digger next time would be hard to stomach.
Setting the bucket in the shade to prevent the baby mice from dying of heat, he observed Lai Fu's reaction.
Throughout the mouse trapping process, Lai Fu didn't exhaust much energy apart from locating and alerting the mice to escape from another hole. Now, with eyes shining brightly, watching him intently, it seemed Lai Fu hadn't had enough fun.
Since the "kid" had contributed again, he couldn't backtrack on his promise and dampen its enthusiasm.
Dragged a few branches over the bucket to prevent wild animals that feed on mice from sneaking up to cause trouble; after blowing a whistle, Chen Zhou ran toward a rocky slope.
Upon hearing the sharp and loud sound, Lai Fu bounced after him, jumping into the rocky "white forest" with its owner.
Having collected building materials here many times to take back to the cave, Chen Zhou was quite familiar with the structure at the edge of the stone forest.
Ever since he removed a bird's nest once, he hasn't seen nests about three meters off the ground around the edges. Even if there were any, they were empty nests left from before.
Most birds chose to nest in the treetops within the forest.
A few favored the stone forest, constructing shelters atop stone columns five to six meters high or in naturally weathered grooves in the columns. Fetching bird nests casually or taking bird eggs from them was simply impossible.
While looking up, squinting, and minimizing the sunlight's impact on his vision by glancing upward, he kept an eye on Lai Fu's reactions.
When it comes to finding prey, humans can hardly beat dogs.
After circling several familiar stone columns and wandering on the rocky slope until his neck stiffened, he still hadn't seen Lai Fu bark.
During the walk, he did spot a few bird nests, but they were situated in high and dangerous spots, unreachable even with a pickaxe and arm extension.
"It's too hot, how about we head home and play the throw-the-bone game?"
Rubbing his back neck, Chen Zhou discussed with Lai Fu.
He was preoccupied with thoughts of the baby mice, solely intent on returning home, making his search for bird nests rather careless.
With such an intention in mind, even if there were bird nests within reach, he might overlook them.
Hearing this, Lai Fu deliberated for a moment before seeming to find wandering here unsatisfying, wagging its tail and first running towards the bucket under the tree.
Grateful this guy was sensible today, Chen Zhou hurriedly followed behind Lai Fu, fearing it might suddenly decide to chase after wild rabbits or other animals for fun.
Baby mice aren't nearly as resilient as adult mice. Now that he's caught this rare bunch, with such high temperatures, they'd be wasted if they suffocate to death.
...
Since Lai Fu didn't oppose, Chen Zhou took it as an agreement.
Fooling the simple-minded furry child, he didn't linger on the rocky slope, tidied up the tools, picked up the bucket, and headed straight home.
On the way back, to avoid stirring Lai Fu's playfulness, Chen Zhou remained silent, ironically causing Lai Fu to become curious.
It wondered if it had done something wrong, cautiously falling in behind its master, observing Chen Zhou's expression, no longer wagging its tail, looking wilted like an eggplant with frost.
Seeing Lai Fu in this state, relying on the long-standing understanding, Chen Zhou instantly guessed its innocent thoughts, straining not to laugh, yet fearing to arouse suspicion, maintained seriousness and silence all the way home.
Just before stepping into the cave, having put down the shoulder pole, Chen Zhou finally couldn't help bursting into laughter, startling Lai Fu.
It cautiously halted in its tracks, standing still, tilting its head to examine its seemingly mad owner, eyes filled with questions.
Before it could figure out the issue, Chen Zhou grabbed its loose lips, tugged them to both sides, and pinned it down, repeating phrases like "you're so cute, you're so funny," filling Lai Fu with helplessness.
Vigorously rubbing the dog's head, then fondling the warm dog belly, until Lai Fu's "little lipstick" emerged out of sheer excitement, did Chen Zhou get back up covered in dog hair.
By now, it was probably past four in the afternoon, so he took out the wooden box from the bucket.
The frightened baby mice squeaked noisily.
Counting all the baby mice through the gaps, eight in total, no more, no less, all living, Chen Zhou felt relieved.
Plenty of stones and bricks were left for building the walls; construction materials were ample.
While wandering around the cave, he initially thought of building the mouse pen in the kitchen but remembered that Tizi's territory was between the kitchen and the bedroom, prompting him to abandon that thought.
To mice, Tizi is undoubtedly a standard "Living Yama." If forced to coexist in the same room every day, even with a stone wall in between, the mice's little hearts might not withstand it.
After some consideration, he decided to place the baby mice's residence in the storeroom.
To avoid space limitations as the baby mice grow up, he fashioned their home after pigsty structures, constructing four "dual mouse compartments" for the little fellows.
The floor of the mouse pen was cobbled with cut bluestone bricks, making it extremely sturdy.
The surrounding walls were also built with bricks and white mud, up to twenty centimeters thick. Not only mice but even pangolins wouldn't be able to burrow out.
The wall height is half a meter, effectively preventing mice from leaping out, with multiple white stone slabs atop, thwarting Tizi and Xiao Huihui from treating it as a buffet while keeping the mice contained.
Once the mice population increases, Chen Zhou plans to independently construct a small house outside to raise more mice.
Based on his needs, he aims to reserve at least twenty mice for poison testing; otherwise, too few of them may lead to shortage.
If mice reproduce too quickly in excess, they'll be killed to feed the cat or thrown live to Xiao Huihui to train its hunting skills. Its current performance has indeed shamed the feline clan.
Chen Zhou estimates if it continues this way, the entire island would possibly have no female cat who would fancy it.
...
Clearing a spot at the innermost corner after moving aside the materials stacked in the storeroom.
In a short time, Chen Zhou completed the mouse pen and paved a layer of dry hay on the bottom layer of stone slabs before placing the baby mice into it.
Building the mouse pen wasn't too difficult; finding feed for the mice indeed puzzled him.
He knew mice are omnivorous creatures but wasn't sure if mice could subsist solely on meat instead of vegetables.
Strictly speaking, cereals and plant seeds are undoubtedly the optimal feed for mice, plus there are some drying paddy grains at home.
Those are reserved seeds for next season's farming. Unless he lost his mind, even if mice become precious, feeding them with those grains would be impossible.
"Forget it, forget it, your mother's been gone; I don't know if you've been weaned yet or what you like to eat.
Just giving you a bit of rabbit sausage and some dry grass favored by chinchillas counts as a balanced diet.
Don't be ignorant of your blessings; this is what wild mice dream of having for meals.
Should this meal somehow kill you, I can only say you lack the destiny to enjoy blessings, don't blame me."
Muttering to himself, Chen Zhou took a jar of rabbit sausage from the kitchen, enticing the greedy Xiao Huihui to follow along.
Opening the jar lid, amid Xiao Huihui's incredulous gaze, he placed the rabbit sausage into the mouse pen.
Meow~
Waiting for a long time, seeing Chen Zhou already resealing the lid without a share for itself, Xiao Huihui couldn't help but start acting coy.
"What are you looking at? You've grown as fat as a pig, yet you still want meat?
When those mice grow up, you can catch them yourself to eat. If you can't catch any, you'll go hungry!
I won't pity you anymore!"
Not giving Xiao Huihui a good look, Chen Zhou sternly reprimanded.
Seeing this, Xiao Huihui didn't insist, twisting its tubby frame and decided to find a spot to nap.
As for Chen Zhou's remarks, regardless of whether it understood them or not, it wouldn't take them to heart—after all, a carefree heart fits a chubby body.
If it could truly hold grudges, it would have fought Tizi to the death long ago to establish its status within the household.