Chapter 241 - 108: Future Box_2
This common home-cooked dish, found in both northern and southern regions, doesn't require many ingredients.
Garlic sprouts, shredded or sliced meat, scallions and ginger, cooking wine, soy sauce, and salt. You can also add chili or sugar depending on personal taste.
Chen Zhou didn't have scallions, ginger, or soy sauce, so he used fresh garlic sprouts, some sliced seal jerky and rabbit meat, rum, and salt to make a large plate of stir-fried garlic sprouts with meat.
Food cooked in seal oil has a fish oil taste, slightly fishy.
However, Chen Zhou has been consuming seal oil for quite some time, and he can fully accept this taste.
Besides, the key point of stir-fried garlic sprouts with meat is the sprouts and meat; the flavor of the oil is not so important.
Chewing on the hot stir-fry, the unique spicy aroma and tender texture of the garlic sprouts blend with the meat's fragrance.
Paired with freshly scooped rice.
Chen Zhou ate to his heart's content, leaving Lai Fu drooling with envy.
...
By September 3rd, the kittens gradually opened their eyes.
At this time, their limbs were still uncoordinated; their legs couldn't stand upright at all, and when taken out of the cat nest, they only crawled around on the floor like turtles.
While crawling, the kittens always kept their tails straight, making them even more resemble turtles.
Fortunately, the bedroom floor had long been covered with flooring; otherwise, they'd be covered in dirt.
Perhaps because they lived next door to Chen Zhou from a young age, the kittens were extraordinarily affectionate towards him. Besides their mother and milk source, their favorite was Chen Zhou.
As for Xiao Huihui, their attitude can be summed up in two words—indifferent.
Having just opened their eyes, the kittens' eyesight wasn't much better than before. Their eyes were still covered with a blue membrane, and they crawled around unsteadily, often bumping into the bedroom furniture and yowling in pain.
Lai Fu, with sharp hearing, couldn't stand these noisy little creatures, yet couldn't attack them.
Whenever the kittens meowed loudly, Lai Fu was so annoyed that he joined in "singing," creating a concert of small and big voices echoing through the cave like a unique performance.
Now able to see what the world truly looked like, the kittens became increasingly mischievous, and their enthusiasm for "escaping prison" grew.
Thus, Chen Zhou often saw a helpless Tiger Head carrying a kitten by the scruff of its neck, moving around indoors, putting the kitten back in the cat nest.
...
Unlike the kittens living in a honey pot, the situation of the young mice was quite miserable.
The completion of Chen Zhou's project to expand the storage room was still a long way off, so the young mice crowded together with their mother in the "apartment building."
29 young mice and 6 mother mice turned the already cramped "apartment building" into a crowded, chaotic "cheap rental house."
Plus, Chen Zhou wasn't nearly as attentive to them as he was to the kittens, having sentenced them to "death" in his mind early on, and tossed food into the pen quite carelessly.
Over a few days, two young mice were unfortunately killed in inexplicable fights among the mother mice.
To prevent his "poison-testing mice" from a complete wipeout, Chen Zhou had to reorganize and clean the "apartment building," completely sealing the originally connected individual rooms into small rooms to eliminate the mother mice's fighting from the root.
Meanwhile, he sped up the progress of expanding the "poison-testing mice" breeding room, spending more time daily digging into the cave wall.
The "pick head" cut from solid steel plates was sturdy and durable, much stronger than the iron-fused wooden shovel, greatly accelerating Chen Zhou's digging speed.
Despite this, digging a tunnel leading to the mouse breeding room was still quite an undertaking. Chen Zhou estimated he would complete this task by mid-October.
...
From late August to early September, construction work occupied most of Chen Zhou's time.
Besides that, there were a few small matters worth mentioning.
The first was the germination and planting of Autumn White Almonds.
When the Autumn White Almonds were sent over as rewards, they were fully matured, and the almonds were plump.
After cracking open the sturdy shell, Chen Zhou placed the almonds in a glass jar, covered them with a layer of wet cloth, and patiently waited for the almonds to sprout.
The germination process of tree fruits is much slower than rice or wheat, taking nearly fifteen days to sprout a tender green shoot.
With plenty of seeds brought back from the beach, a rough count indicated Chen Zhou could potentially plant over two hundred almond trees, creating an artificial almond forest on the deserted island.
Unfortunately, it takes several years for almond trees to bear fruit after being planted, and the yield is very low in their early fruit-bearing years, so he wouldn't achieve freedom with Autumn White Almonds anytime soon.
The second matter was an unexpected discovery.
While building a wooden and stone wall on the beach, Chen Zhou unexpectedly spotted something resembling a turtle shell floating not far from the shore.
At that time, drizzle was falling, and visibility was poor.
Chen Zhou couldn't tell if that dark-looking thing was the elusive sea turtle or tortoise.
To prevent disturbing this living treasure chest and "turtle egg storage box" from coming ashore, he retreated dozens of steps into the near-shore woods, gripping the axe handle, anticipating a battle similar to hunting seals.
However, this matter ended in an anticlimactic manner, ultimately disappointing him.
Perhaps sensing obscure danger on the island, the large sea turtle circled near the coast several times before retracting into the water, disappearing into the unknown.
Chen Zhou was played for a fool by this sea turtle, cursing furiously yet helplessly.
If it were the dry season, clear weather, and the sea turtle approached close enough to the shore, he might have mustered the courage with tackle to go underwater, restraining the sea turtle and attempting to drag it back to shore.