Chapter 251 - 112: Wickerwork and Beachcombing (Part 2)
This type of handicraft mainly consists of small everyday items, toys, and decorations. Among them are highly practical items such as tote baskets, jars, boxes, lamp stands, pen holders, flower pot covers, as well as small toys like rattan-weaved pandas, frogs, and giraffes that are loved by children.
The practical tutorial mentions most traditional rattan woven furniture.
However, the variety and styles of all rattan woven furniture combined are boundless, especially those large pieces that take hundreds of steps. The idea of explaining them completely from the starting phase to the end would require dozens of hefty volumes.
Hence, apart from simple small items and rattan woven toys, the book only teaches a few weaving methods for rattan chairs and boxes.
As for rattan mats and rattan seats, they are only briefly described in a few pages.
To research and develop intricately textured and attractive rattan mats and seats based solely on this information, Chen Zhou can only rely on his own experience and creativity.
Flipping to the end of the rattan weaving techniques, after the weaving methods, the book also introduces coloring, bleaching, painting, and other techniques to enrich the color of rattan handicrafts, along with a few pages of "additional knowledge" on waxing rattan crafts.
This additional knowledge taught Chen Zhou how to melt paraffin, beeswax, or soy wax to make candles.
Paraffin is a hydrocarbon mixture extracted from petroleum, shale oil, or other mineral oils, which surely cannot be found on the island.
Soy wax is not available either, but Chen Zhou thinks he might be able to find beeswax.
Yet upon consideration, he realizes that despite being on the island for so long, he has not paid much attention to whether there are large beehives in the forest, nor has he even considered the existence of a sizeable bee population.
Whether he can find a beehive to produce candles with beeswax is uncertain.
…
Just flipping from the very start to the very end of the rattan weaving section and quickly browsing through those summary-like introductions and color photos took Chen Zhou over an hour.
The sudden influx of knowledge made his head dizzy, as if he had swallowed a whole steamed bun and was unable to digest it for a while.
Rubbing his temples, he looked at the faint smoke from the oil lamp beside him and gently closed the book.
He decided to stop studying for today.
Starting tomorrow, he will slowly learn from the basic knowledge, chop down different vines in the forest, individually test the properties of each rattan material, soak, and dry according to the methods taught in the book…
Previously, when he was exploring on his own, he could always find an excuse for failing—it took our ancestors thousands of years to understand this technology, so it is normal for me not to understand it in ten years.
Now, with a tutorial at hand, he no longer has any excuse for slacking.
Moreover, rattan products are indeed necessary tools for him; whether to improve his quality of life or to enrich his knowledge and foundation, he cannot ignore the knowledge in the book.
…
On September 26, filled with myriad rattan weaving skills, Chen Zhou climbed out of bed.
Yesterday, he was busy bringing home the "big gift pack," and has yet to organize or build the wood-stone wall on the beach.
Now he has "official permission," doing these tasks no longer requires being worried or secretive.
Compared to before, he is even less inclined to waste the "new benefit" received every 15 days.
After getting out of bed, he took care of his household "little ancestors," had breakfast, then immediately dressed in a leather raincoat, packed his backpack, and set off with his tools.
…
There are only four days left until the island anniversary.
Coinciding with the huge success of the "poison testing rat" project, the mice in the rat circle will soon be one month old.
Chen Zhou feels it's time for them to shine for his "dietary career."
Additionally, the last reward included a bottle of soy sauce, albeit a 1L inexpensive soy sauce, it was still a modern seasoning he desperately wanted.
Soy sauce has a shelf life and won't last long.
Just in time, for this "anniversary celebration," using soy sauce, he wants to make some seafood that he didn't dare to eat before, creating several hearty dishes.
From the start of the challenge until now, it has been over 360 days.
As a challenger living beside the sea, the only seafood he has eaten is seaweed, which would be a laughingstock to mention.
However, Chen Zhou believes his excessive caution was justified.
One less seafood meal won't kill me; there's an abundance of food resources on the island.
But randomly eating unfamiliar fish and crabs could lead to mild diarrhea, parasitic infections, or severe outcomes like death.
With limited medical supplies, he does not dare to gamble with his own life.
…
In modern times, Chen Zhou once obsessed over seaside foraging videos which helped him grasp some "useless theoretical knowledge."
He knows the best time for seaside foraging is during the spring tide period.
And every month around the first and fifteenth days of the lunar calendar are within the range of spring tide periods.
Having lived on the island for a year, during the dry season, he frequently gazes at the starry sky, relishing the unpolluted night sky during clear weather.
In this process, he naturally observed the changes in the moon's phases.
Lunar calendar timing is closely related to the moon, with the sky on the first day essentially devoid of the moon.
On the 14th, 15th, and 16th days, the moon is full. Hence, there is a folk saying that the moon is most round on the 16th.
By roughly determining the lunar date based on the moon's changes, even if it rains all day during the rainy season and the moon is unseen, Chen Zhou can discern that September 26 is likely around the 20th day of the lunar calendar.
At this point, the spring tide has already passed, not the best time for seaside foraging.
But the island's environment does not resemble modern coastlines, where after each tide recedes, a swarm of people arrive with spades, small buckets, racks, and gloves to ravage the beach like locusts, leaving a mess when departing.
Here, natural resources are abundant and undeveloped.
Even a casual wander along the seaside reveals little shrimp, crabs, and shell-burrowing mollusks. If you dare to eat them, seafood is certainly not lacking even without the spring tide.
…
When getting up in the morning, it was still drizzling outside, but by the time Chen Zhou and Lai Fu reached the beach, the dense raindrops had turned into light drizzle.
The sky did not show the sunlight like yesterday, making the beach seem a bit somber.
The tide has not receded yet, and after letting Lai Fu play on his own, Chen Zhou proceeded to handle the wood-stone wall.
He has cut wooden boards and stones more than ten times, back and forth.
The coastal forest resembles a middle-aged programmer, balding piece by piece, making it increasingly difficult to find appropriately sized trees, necessitating journeys to farther places.
Stones are the same; relying solely on the natural stones left by the sea is entirely insufficient.
Nevertheless, Chen Zhou anticipated this issue long ago; during the dry season, he transported a lot of suitable stones from Broken Cliff near the mountain camp to the beach, and there are still some left.
Thus, during the construction of the new wood-stone wall, wood remains the most troublesome element.
…
Patiently transporting the already cut stone and wood, arranging the steel plates and semi-finished stone mills, and then constructing the new wall, Chen Zhou occasionally glanced at the beach, hoping for the tide to recede.
Time flew by, and unbeknownst to him, most of the wood-stone wall had been built, and the tide had receded.
The rain had not spattered the wide-brimmed hat for a long time, only the fishy, damp sea breeze blowing.
On the freshly receded beach, large patches of seaweed and long brown-black dragon whisker algae resembling hair could be seen.
Some shrimp and crabs exposed on the land scurried hurriedly, like excavators waving their pincers or slender, strong legs, digging the sand around them to hide within.
Mollusks, starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and conches, which are slower in movement, aren't as agile; most of their bodies are exposed, unable to bury themselves quickly.
Especially creatures like starfish and sea cucumbers, they just lie on the beach, not bothering to move at all.
Of course, their arrogance is understandable because they are not favored by seabirds.
With the delicious fish, shrimp, crabs, and mollusks aplenty, who would expend effort eating such tough and resilient things that aren't particularly nutritious?
Taking off the wide-brimmed hat, casually pressing it down with a stone, and removing his backpack, Chen Zhou took out the equipment he prepared for this seaside foraging trip.
Among them are plastic bags for holding the catch, a homemade ceramic pot, stainless steel tongs that came with a frying pan, and a long iron rod for digging—he didn't bring salt this time.
Taking off his leather boots, grabbing a plastic bag in one hand and a long iron rod in the other, and clipping the stainless steel tongs in his belt.
Shooing away the crowding Lai Fu to play elsewhere, Chen Zhou treaded on the pleasantly warm, wet sand, stooping and gazing wide-eyed at those "familiar-faced" marine organisms.
When it comes to seafood, aside from fish, shrimp and crabs are the most beloved.
For this seaside foraging, Chen Zhou's primary targets are shrimp and crabs.
He has seen tightly-bound lobsters and shrimp known as mantis shrimps in supermarkets.
But on this beach, looking around, he cannot find even the few marine species he recognizes.
Even if there are shrimps, they are often small-sized ones with semi-transparent bodies or peculiar bigger shrimps with red and white stripes, which appear to either lack meat or taste unappetizing.