Chapter 227 - 102: Rat Trouble (Part 3)
But at that time there was no surveillance in the countryside, and no concrete evidence could be found in the big wolf dog's den, so no one had any reason to trouble it for a while.
A few more lambs disappeared from the family home after that, and Chen Zhou's great uncle could not bear it any longer and cornered the big wolf dog in its den and beat it to death.
Unexpectedly, even after the big wolf dog died, the disappearance of the lambs did not stop, forcing Chen Zhou's great uncle to bring the lambs inside and raise them through the winter, eventually recovering some losses.
It wasn't until two years later that a household in the village kept chickens, and in the winter suffered the loss of over sixty chickens. They set up a trap and captured the real culprit—the lynx.
This creature only drank the blood of the chickens, not eating the meat, and at a rate of ten chickens a day, it caused significant losses to the household.
The villagers, full of anger, didn't care that it was a protected animal. They wielded shovels, pickaxes, and pitchforks, and cornered it in the chicken pen and beat it to death.
After the lynx died, someone weighed it and found that it was a full sixty pounds.
Sixty pounds in a feline is different from sixty pounds in a dog.
The lynx had an astonishing leaping ability and could carry its prey over walls and rooftops. Not just a little clumsy chicken, even a goose weighing over a dozen pounds was no problem.
The villagers all said that the lambs from Chen Zhou's great uncle's home that year were actually taken away by the lynx.
Of course, no one really knew how the lambs disappeared.
It wasn't impossible that they were taken by the big wolf dog on some days and by the lynx on others.
Without surveillance at the time, many past events remain shrouded in mist.
...
Nowadays, the eight rats kept at Chen Zhou's home quite resemble their white-haired predecessor.
They live day and night with the cats and have surprisingly become accustomed to it. They remain silent most of the time, rarely gnaw, and don't move around much. Being separated by quite a distance from the bedroom, they are relatively quiet.
He moved aside the stone slab on the rat circle and, holding a lamp, looked into the now-crowded "rat dormitory."
Before he could check whether there was enough reserve food inside, Chen Zhou was surprised to find the two male rats already mounted on the female rats, starting to breed a next generation for his testing purposes.
"Great, this time I'll get sixty or seventy little mice, and my feast will finally be assured."
Seeing the rats he had raised for over a month earnestly doing their job, Chen Zhou was all smiles.
After making sure the rats' food was still sufficient, he added a few rabbit meatballs and some dried small fish to the circle to supplement the nutrition for the hardworking "stud males."
After taking care of the test rats, he carefully removed the oil lamp, gently covered the stone slab, fearing to disturb the rats' important business, and then returned to the bedroom to rest.
Sitting on the bed, while carving marks on the piece of boxwood, Chen Zhou suddenly realized that, unknowingly, he had already spent three hundred days on the island.
In just over two more months, he would have completed his first year on this deserted island.
In this nearly one year's time, he had accomplished many things he had never imagined before.
Transported an entire shipload of supplies, excavated and built a Shelter, hunted, planted and harvested crops, and raised goats...
At the same time, he also saved a dog and two cats, captured chinchillas and rats, breeding them into the next generation.
Compared to Robinson in the same timeframe, his progress had vastly improved. This was partly due to the head start provided by the original work and also thanks to his diligent hands and more advanced way of thinking.
The sharp tip of the Dagger pierced into the wedge of boxwood, the ever-deepening wood chips fell from between his fingers.
Blowing out the lamp, another day had passed.