Chapter 209 - 94: Albendazole
Time flies.
Since the earthquake, Chen Zhou's life has turned into a series of tasks on a schedule, all moving steadily forward.
The prototype of the water mill was completed on June 7th.
Chen Zhou prepared three designs for it.
The smallest one operates with foot power, has low efficiency, and is used for processing less grain. However, since it doesn't use water power, calling it a water mill seems inaccurate, and perhaps "foot mill" would be more appropriate.
The medium-sized one is a standard water mill, placed in the river to use water power to drive the blades, allowing for 24-hour continuous grain processing. The water power is relatively stable, making it the most practical of the three designs.
The largest and most complex is a wind-driven crushing tool, which is still in the blueprint stage.
In Chen Zhou's vision, this largest wind-powered mill would have an interface to connect to windmill power, much like a grain hulling machine.
Its mill head would be made of cut hard Stone, with the mill rod, mill frame, and base made from ironwood boards to extend the tool's lifespan.
In the future, once the windmill mill is constructed, this wind-powered mill could not only process rice but also grind barley, wheat, or some softer minerals, coarse salt grains, etc.
Although wind power isn't as stable as water power, it has an advantage—it isn't limited by water location.
Chen Zhou plans to build the windmill mill on the sunny slope of a hillside, where there is wind year-round and it's close to the cave dwelling.
In the future, after harvesting crops, they'll be dried on a platform, hulled, and husked, and then directly sent to the windmill mill for processing with a stone grinder or wind-powered mill, completing the entire grain processing process in at most three days.
Of course, relying solely on his own strength and energy, such a beautiful vision might take a decade to realize.
A massive and complex mill requires manpower and resources, which is astronomical.
In medieval Europe, a mill master with a windmill mill was looked upon even by esteemed nobles.
This production tool, created by the collective effort of ordinary workers, carpenters, stonemasons, bricklayers, blacksmiths, and old architects over months, becomes a small money tree once built.
Compared to the teamwork of others, Chen Zhou alone, even with superior design and more convenient construction methods, cannot surpass the limits of human power.
Moreover, even if he completes the windmill mill, the maintenance work on the internal components over the next decade would be enough to exhaust him.
...
But for now, the project is still far from ready, and the windmill mill remains a distant prospect.
With the prototype completed and proven effective through practical testing, Chen Zhou devoted all his efforts to starting the construction of the foot mill.
...
During the process of making parts for the foot mill, he often felt proud of his bold idea back then.
Without the help of the "Space-Time Cutter," relying solely on his own capabilities, he wouldn't have been able to cut so many smooth and even boards, and who knows how many years it would take to complete these complex machines.
Compared to Sharp Axe, lighters, a mountaineering bag, an ear spoon set, toilet paper, or the bearings removed from an ergonomic chair, this cutter that could only be used once every fifteen days was the greatest aid in his challenges.
However, the process had its ups and downs; while ample boards were a gift from heaven, the tools used to chisel and saw the boards had to endure wear and tear.
Tools like chisels and hammers, with proper maintenance, can still be used, but the sharp teeth on the hand saw became increasingly blunt.
Since building a raft and arriving on the island, this hand saw had cut through countless pieces of wood in under a year—likely doing the work of a normal saw over three years.
Chen Zhou once used a whetstone to finely sharpen the saw teeth, but that only made it sharp; it couldn't compensate for the wear on the saw blade's metal.
According to his estimation, if used continually at this intensity, this saw would probably be declared unusable before December.
Among the carpenter's tools, there were three saws in total: two short saws and one long saw, and this was the most handy, being the only saw capable of cutting trees with a diameter of over a meter.
If it became unusable, many future tasks would be difficult to advance.
...
Anticipating future challenges, Chen Zhou had another bold idea—
He wanted to cut open the titanium alloy armrests and metal pipes along the backrest edge of that ergonomic chair and angle them to gradually cut out saw teeth for future use.
To validate his idea, he even calculated how much time it would take to cut out a hand saw.
The result was disappointing.
A saw blade with medium teeth spacing is about 1.2mm apart, and a meter-long saw blade would need at least 72 teeth.
If the saw blade were positioned at the four corners of a square cut, each attempt would yield one substandard saw tooth.
In the best case, without mistakes, it would take 1080 days, nearly three years, to cut out a barely usable saw blade.
Moreover, this was a "superior-quality saw blade" whose tooth spacing likely didn't meet the standard.
If any accident occurred during the cutting process, like a gust of wind or a rain shower affecting the positioning of the metal strip on the beach, the manufacturing time would be extended.
After weighing everything, he realized that his bold new idea was completely impractical.
Comparatively, constructing a water-powered grinding wheel by the river, grinding a saw blade himself, or constructing a charcoal kiln and furnace to recycle waste metal for saw blades seemed more reliable.
...
Regardless, the day when the saw truly wears out hasn't yet arrived; as long as its teeth can still cut wood fibers, it must continue to serve Chen Zhou's work.
It was already June 10th in the blink of an eye, and the seventeenth mysterious reward arrived as scheduled.
This reward was different from the past—its size had shrunk significantly, completely unlike recent rewards.
After sorting and moving the wood boards and Stones, Chen Zhou almost thought the reward had been stolen, seeing the empty reward center.
Because this reward had no packaging, it was just a bare white plastic bottle with the printed side facing down, the back covered by fine sand blown by the wind, hardly noticeable without a closer look.
But despite its small size, this reward was actually not trash like a phone case or an Electronic Wooden Fish.
It was one of the materials Chen Zhou needed the most—medicine.
This was a bottle of veterinary medicine called Albendazole tablets, with 100 tablets in total.
According to the description on the bottle, this medicine is primarily used for broad-spectrum deworming and is effective against parasite eggs, nematodes, tapeworms, trematodes, and roundworms.
The dosage instructions indicated that the medication is intended for internal use for cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, and poultry: 0.2-0.3 tablets per kilogram for sheep, 0.5-1 tablet per kilogram for dogs, given once every week.
In the 17th century on the isolated island, the diet inevitably included wild animals like wild geese, frogs, or fish.
If care wasn't taken during cooking, and wild game wasn't fully stewed, or if one inadvertently ate fruit containing parasite eggs, having a bottle of antiparasitic medicine would bring great peace of mind.
Unfortunately, although it seemed like a lot, 100 tablets were far from enough if actually consumed.
Currently, Lai Fu's weight is nearing 45 kilograms, meaning he needs to take at least 22 tablets at once and be dosed again in a week, which uses half of the bottle for deworming.
Chen Zhou couldn't estimate his own weight, but comparing his current muscle size to before the challenge began, he felt he was at least over 160 pounds.
The veterinary medicine instructions didn't specify a dosage for humans, but he conservatively estimated that his effective dose would be similar to Lai Fu's.
With this calculation, the whole bottle was only enough to deworm the two of them once, not to mention Xiao Huihui, Tizi, and the goat, which would far exceed the amount.
"Damn it, stingily generous in times of need but so stingy when generosity is needed.
You've already given an ergonomic chair worth over a hundred thousand, and yet such a small bottle of antiparasitic medicine worth only a few tens of dollars—just giving one is going to break the bank?"
Clutching the medicine bottle, Chen Zhou grit his teeth.
After reviewing the instructions and dosage, he didn't forget to check the expiration date.
Incidentally, this medicine's production date was identical to that of the canned goods—September 30, 2025—but its shelf life was far shorter, only two years.
Feeling no recent physical anomaly—he wasn't losing appetite, experiencing unexpected stomach aches or diarrhea, nor was he seeing expelled parasites or eggs—Chen Zhou decided to save this bottle until symptoms suggestive of parasitic infection appeared.
Lai Fu was equally healthy, enjoying meals heartily over the past months with a spirited demeanor and rapid weight gain.
Chen Zhou often checked its feces for the presence of parasites, so its portion of the medicine wasn't immediately necessary either.
Without medication, treating a parasitic infection is difficult. Despite the small size of this medicine bottle, its value was underappreciated compared to an ergonomic chair's wheel, yet it was a life-saving resource in critical moments.
Chen Zhou carefully stored away the small medicine bottle, not even daring to unscrew the cap or puncture the aluminum foil seal, for fear of affecting the medicine's shelf life.