Chapter 267 - 119: The 25th Mysterious Reward (Part 2)
Though not a qualified veterinarian and having never studied castrating sheep up close, Chen Zhou had somewhat grasped the knack from observing the elders castrating pigs.
He pondered that since all the rams he currently owned were for eating, not for selling, there should be no pressure on him when it comes to castrating sheep, so he should boldly give it a try.
If it dies, so be it; at worst, he could have a meal of lamb soup and still milk the ewe for another half month with no loss.
...
On October 4th, Chen Zhou, with strong execution, brought "surgical tools" and alcohol for disinfection near the cave to check the genders of the lambs.
Among the four lambs, two were rams, and after observing and comparing them, the slightly smaller one unfortunately became his "apprentice veterinarian" practice tool and was tied up in the cave for a castration operation.
Somewhat learning from the failure of the last surgery, this time Chen Zhou was much more careful, and although the lamb cried out in pain, he ultimately didn't cut the artery and only removed the two testicles, looking like peeled lychees, with a hint of tenderness.
After the surgery, he simply disinfected the lamb's wound and observed its condition for a while.
With two less body parts for no reason, naturally, the lamb wasn't in good shape, limping as it walked, with eyes appearing quite lost and vacant, as if it suddenly lost its life goal.
However, this state didn't last too long, as hunger kicked in, and the lamb immediately forgot about the pain and missing organs, snuggling up to its mother to nurse.
...
On October 10th, filled with anticipation for the first reward of the new year, Chen Zhou headed to the beach.
Before setting off, his biggest worry was that the reward content would reset each year.
The past year's rewards had a notable pattern of becoming increasingly valuable and useful, and by the anniversary, there was even a "Skill Book" along with a pile of practical tools.
Especially that hand saw made with modern steel saw blades, its importance to him was no less than two hand axes.
It's easy to go from frugal to luxury, but hard to go back from luxury to frugal.
The accumulation of rewards in the pool was becoming richer, and if it suddenly reset back to silicone phone cases, the thought itself was suffocating to Chen Zhou.
However, seriously thinking about it, he considered this possibility relatively low.
Since it's called a reward, no matter how much satire is there, it shouldn't turn into a punishment; otherwise, the rules in the forum should have mentioned a random item or small punishment every 15 days instead of writing as rewards.
Though the Space-Time Administration Bureau could be rather confounding in some things, in Chen Zhou's heart, it was still relatively trustworthy.
...
According to the pattern summarized by Robinson in the book, the rainy season should end at the beginning of October.
However, according to Chen Zhou's observations, this year's rainy season seemed to last longer than usual, probably influenced by more warm and moist air currents, with frequent overcast and rainy days until October 10th.
Strictly speaking, October 10th does fall within the early part of October, so one couldn't say Robinson's summarized patterns were problematic.
The day was cloudy.
As usual, the beach was wet, scattered with a few crab traps Chen Zhou made when practicing vine weaving, swaying with the waves.
Most of them were torn due to quality issues, though a few remained intact, but they hardly lived up to the name "crab trap," as neither a crab nor even a shrimp could be found in them.
...
This time, the reward packaging looked quite worrying—it was a very small, less than 20cm long and less than 15cm wide little paper box, reminding Chen Zhou of that familiar phone case with a rosy-cheeked Peppa Pig.
With an anxious feeling, he crossed the wooden stone wall and picked up the small packaging box.
The weight of the item inside gave him some consolation; at least it wasn't very light, and it felt pretty solid in hand, indicating that it was tightly packed inside.
Gently shaking it, no sound could be heard, boosting his confidence even more.
Cheap little goods usually come directly placed inside the packaging, leaving a lot of gaps.
Valuable items typically have shock-proof and anti-collision foam or bubble pads to avoid damage during transport, and the absence of a collision sound is one of the indicators of a high-value object.
Tightly gripping the packaging box, he forced himself to stop the guessing and pulled out the Dagger to start unpacking.
Anyway, the reward had arrived, speculating about its content wouldn't change it, so he might as well do it straightforwardly.
Upon unpacking, he found the corrugated cardboard wrapping this reward significantly more solid and tightly structured than the packaging for those two hand axes.
"Oh? There's hope!"
Lifting the corrugated cardboard, Chen Zhou felt slightly excited, but when he considered the size of the packaging, this excitement quickly waned.
Bigger is better; more is beautiful.
Small items are unlikely to provide him with substantial help.
Opening the paper box, the sight of yet another layer of packaging further confirmed Chen Zhou's thoughts.
It was a pitch-black wooden box, with a line of gold embossed English letters on the surface, surrounded by decorative script, undoubtedly another luxury brand he had never heard of.
Luxurious items like this generally tend to be the least useful.
And this packaging box closely resembled the outer packaging of a high-end lighter, reminding Chen Zhou of his flint, lighter, and fire starter.
"If I get a kerosene lighter, my fire tools will be complete..."
With a look of resignation, Chen Zhou opened the wooden box.
Seeing the item inside, he paused for a moment.
This pause was not only because the reward item inside was unexpected but also due to its exquisite nature, which left him stunned.
The arrangement inside the box was simple, with an octagonal groove in the upper right, holding a small bottle of ink.
Beneath the octagonal groove, a delicate fountain pen was nestled in a horizontal slot, its body adorned in gold and black, mixed with a bright red base color and complex reliefs and hollow design.
Upon closely inspecting the pen, he saw that all the carved themes revolved around the famous Western fantasy masterpiece "The Lord of the Rings."
The all-seeing eye of Sauron, the claw-like tower of Baradur, the golden "Gollum" and sword, wrapped vines, and adornments on the pen body demonstrated theme unity and the designer's ingenuity amidst complexity.
From the unusually heavy weight of the entire pen, all the enchanting gold on the pen body must be made of gold, particularly that dazzling nib must be crafted from 18K gold, enhancing the pen's price and noble atmosphere while ensuring its practicality.
Such a pen, which could be called an art piece, need not have its price elaborated.
With Chen Zhou's limited knowledge of luxury goods, coupled with the gold used in the pen body, he reckoned the entire pen's price was at least above 18,000 yuan.
Of course, the pen's price itself was secondary; what Chen Zhou valued most was its practicality.
17th-century quills were truly uncomfortable to use, and his so-called "fountain pen" was also trash, barely acceptable, hardly comparable to modern fountain pens.
Being someone who loves to write, while living in the cave, he occasionally did some sketches, and that self-made pen didn't meet his needs at all, even adding a lot of inconvenience—
For instance, the nib couldn't hold ink, requiring a dip after every two strokes; moreover, the nib was too sharp, easily tearing the paper...
Now receiving this fountain pen, although it wasn't significantly improving his quality of life, it indeed was practical, and he liked it very much.
Happily removing the pen cap and unscrewing the pen body, Chen Zhou found that the pen surprisingly used a rarely-seen piston filling system.
It meant no need to unscrew the ink sac; just rotate the pen's tail piston, like winding up a clock, until it couldn't turn anymore, then dip the nib into ink, and the ink sac would automatically draw in ink.
Piston fillers rarely appeared in commonly used stationery for middle and primary school students and were basically replaced by simpler filling methods like pressure filling and ink sac replacement in China. If not for learning about it during extracurricular reading in college, Chen Zhou might not have known.
However, truly speaking, the piston filling isn't considered a rare filling method.
To his knowledge, there were also crescent fillers, coin fillers, key fillers, and even submarine fillers among fountain pens, much more interesting than piston fillers.
Of course, the practicality was much poorer.
...
"New year, new beginnings; this pen is like a good start, seems like I'll have a good fortune this year."
Thinking to himself, he put the fountain pen back into the box, packed it in his backpack, and filled with anticipation for future life, began tidying up the wooden stone wall with renewed energy.