Chapter 303 - 133: Entering June
During these 55 days, Chen Zhou harvested a new batch of rice.
For the previous times when the rice matured, he consistently avoided eating most of the grains directly as food, instead using them to sprout and replant.
Under this terrifying exponential growth rate, his fields were quickly filled with dense rice and wheat.
After processing, the new crop filled several large pottery jars, and the urgency regarding food supply had basically dissipated.
...
The chili seeds that came as a reward couldn’t compare to the hybrid seeds in the vegetable planting base; the plants were not tall, and even with fertilizer, the flowering was not so dense.
They were like the northern green peppers in Chen Zhou’s grandma’s garden, looking plain and unassuming, yet they were resistant to diseases and were not picky about barren land, quietly growing until they fruited and withered.
Garlic planted in the fields was the same.
As time passed, the distinctive green hue of garlic seedlings had grown quite striking.
Now when cooking, Chen Zhou no longer worries about running out of garlic; he can add as much as he likes.
Occasionally cooking a pot of coarse noodles, steaming hot, stir-frying a bowl of minced meat sauce, pouring it over the noodles, slurping the noodles while adding garlic.
During the rainy season, with the heavy damp, taking a bite of this was truly satisfying!
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The development of animal husbandry was going smoothly; the wild goats were tamed, and although their range of activity was restricted, they still grazed on grass without any hindrance.
Thanks to a sufficient salt supply, the quality of life for the flock had not decreased, but rather improved.
As an introduced species, the wild goats had been on the island for perhaps not even a decade.
While they were destructive to vegetation, eating fresh grass and gnawing bark which led to tree death,
due to the limited number of goats, the current level of ecological damage was actually quite limited–
Moreover, even if they posed a threat to the island’s ecology, Chen Zhou would not stand idly by; who would refuse a meal of goat meat?
...
Except for lambs that died from snake bites, toxins, and inflamed wounds, all other lambs had grown up smoothly.
As the lambs matured, the mother goats gradually weaned them.
Fortunately, circumstances had changed from the past; Chen Zhou not only had a refrigerator but a cellar too, greatly extending the storage time for fresh milk.
Now, during the dry season, he could enjoy iced milk tea and leisurely relax in an ergonomic chair, with a plate of grapes and a few melons by his side, rejuvenating while enjoying the rare coolness.
...
The expansion of the cave dwelling mainly concentrated on the kitchen and storeroom; although the bedroom space was also inadequate, the urgency of the storeroom’s space requirement was far greater.
This is because increasing the bedroom size primarily improved living quality, whereas the storeroom size was essential as a practical space.
Materials from the camp at the foot of the mountain had been stored there for nearly two years.
A while ago, Chen Zhou inspected and discovered that the bottom of some neglected shacks were soaked by rainwater and gnawed on by insects, almost breaking apart.
To avoid unnecessary losses, he had no choice but to use a cart to transfer materials from those shacks to the small wooden house on the mountain.
After the rodent storage room in the storeroom was dug out, he expanded the storeroom area by more than twenty square meters, and then moved more important materials from the camp at the foot of the mountain to the mountain.
At this point, over half of the camp at the foot of the mountain had been emptied, with only the large house, repaired once, at the camp center remaining; the other small houses contained useless goods, like glass balls and ceramic dolls.
Notably, all of Chen Zhou’s fishing gear was stored in the large house at the camp.
This was convenient for fishing.
The distance from the camp at the foot of the mountain to the small lake was short, less than forty minutes back and forth, convenient whether departing or taking a break back at the camp.
...
With other tasks completed, the gradually free Chen Zhou felt it necessary to select a higher ground near the camp at the foot of the mountain, unlikely to be flooded by rain, to build a semi-permanent house.
After all, the cave dwelling was still too far from the beach; sometimes when going out to catch pigeons or gather nitrates, he would unknowingly be caught in the dark.
In the dry season, walking home at night with an oil lamp only added some risk.
In the rainy season, often heavy rain falls at night, making it impossible to return home overnight or sleep outdoors, uncomfortable to stay in the large house in the camp, truly inconvenient.
If there were a house at the foot of the mountain, in addition to being convenient for a rest, he wouldn’t have to get up from bed in the middle of the night when tide-pooling.
Arriving at the beach timely, the dead fish picked would be fresh, rather than those left behind by sea birds.
Moreover, always living on the mountainside sometimes made him feel tired of the view; changing the location also changed the mood.
Fortunately, the building materials piled by the beach were already stacked high, some woodboards pressed at the bottom even showed signs of rotting, so using them promptly would be ideal.
Better yet, constructing a few rain shelters by the materials yard beside the beach would protect the timber from the elements.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to the felled trees nor to his efforts and time spent on these materials.
...
Of course, in Chen Zhou’s mind, the top priority was capturing or rescuing the Indigenous Peoples.
For this, he not only spent a lot of time making firearms, vine armor, shields, and bows and arrows.
Starting from May 10, he also formulated a training plan, honing his physical strength and practicing cold weapon skills.
He designated the training ground at the beach in the northeast direction of Shandong.
That beach was where the Indigenous Peoples held cannibalistic feasts; every morning and evening, he would start from the beach and sprint up the mountain, reaching the summit.
After more than a year of physical labor, Chen Zhou’s physique was already very strong.
His diet was rich in fats, proteins, and vitamins, so despite being on a lonely island in the 17th century, he showed no signs of becoming skinny; on the contrary, he had gained some weight.
Usually, running ten kilometers on flat ground is a breeze.
But running uphill is much more strenuous than on flat ground, especially the stretch nearing the summit, where the slope is extremely steep, and stepping on loose stones, your feet constantly slip.
Additionally, during the run, there’s always the fear of rolling down the mountain, creating tremendous psychological pressure.
In the initial days of training, approaching the final stretch, Chen Zhou would subconsciously slow his pace, climbing almost as if he were crawling.
Knowing this habit wasn’t good, he forced himself during later training not to use his arms to grip protruding rocks, relying solely on his body and sturdy legs to maintain balance.
There were a few times when he overestimated himself, and his foot slipped, sending him rolling down the mountain with the loose stones.
Luckily, he deliberately wore the thickest set of Vine Armor, had rabbit fur gloves he sewed himself on his hands, and removed stones that could easily hit his head before training. The fall was a close call, but apart from getting covered in dust, he didn’t even scrape his skin.
...
The serious attitude brought huge rewards.
After persisting for half a month, except for going to the beach on May 23 to collect his fortieth mysterious reward, Chen Zhou never stopped his mountain climbing pace.
He became increasingly familiar with the terrain from the beach at the foot of the mountain to the summit, and his climbing speed became faster. Even the steep summit parts couldn’t stop him for long.
However, considering the indigenous people fought lightly armed, without the constraint of Armor, Chen Zhou was still wary.
As the saying goes, one must consider failure before planning for victory.
He couldn’t just think about how the plan would succeed; he had to understand the consequences of failure.
If it came to a fight he couldn’t win, he had to be able to outrun them.
After all, the modified flintlock gun was not an automatic rifle, and any mishap during use was not unexpected.
And the morale of the indigenous might not be so low.
One should know this group of indigenous people are believers.
If their priest was present, riling them up with talk like "You’ll enter the Hall of Heroes after death, with eternal souls enjoying the Celestial Kingdom," they might truly charge up the mountain against gunfire and heavy losses.
As the great leader once said — while disregarding the enemy in totality and strategy is acceptable, one should never underestimate the enemy in every part and specific issue.
Chen Zhou felt that although he could look down on the indigenous people in terms of thought and scientific knowledge, he shouldn’t underestimate them in actual combat.
After all, he was fighting one against thirty. If he were captured alive by the indigenous, the outcome would be dire, with no hopes for life or death.
...
Running training, meanwhile familiarizing with the terrain, researching good spots to set traps, took up a considerable amount of Chen Zhou’s time.
He also allocated the remaining time efficiently.
To prevent the indigenous from following him home and attacking the cave, he started reinforcing the slope and platform edges and built walls along the platform’s edge.
He didn’t forget the rainy season’s hassle — waterlogging pits.
In addition to building the wall, he had to lay stone tiles on the ground and patch the gaps with white clay.
...
Taking time out of his busy schedule to build walls and lay tiles wasn’t because Chen Zhou was arrogant, thinking he could handle the indigenous with minimal effort.
This was entirely thanks to the thirty-eighth mysterious reward he received on April 23 — a set of masonry tools.
The set included tools like a spirit level for leveling, a putty knife for scraping, and a hawk for holding plaster while coating walls.
Other tools such as a mason’s trowel, a large shovel, a steel chisel, a plumb line, a float, an angle planer, a sandpaper holder, sandpaper, a hand saw, and a chalk box were also very helpful for his masonry work.
Of course, such luck doesn’t come every time.
After receiving those three major gifts on March 14, by the end of May, he had consecutively received five more rewards.
Among these rewards, the masonry tools were undoubtedly the most useful.
Among the other items, there was the first clothing reward, which turned out to be an expensive dress — a wedding dress.
Chen Zhou later tore it into large pieces of fabric, stored it, and prepared to use it to bandage wounds or filter impurities when extracting sugarcane or fruit juice in the future.
There was also a set of exquisite purple clay tea sets, including more than thirty pieces of teapots and teacups, now placed on Chen Zhou’s desk to hold plain water.
If these three could barely find some utility, then the last two were "expensive waste."
One was a wooden precision metronome used to help instrumentalists keep time.
To be honest, without the packaging instructions, Chen Zhou might not have even known what this odd wooden box resembling a mantel clock, filled with various numbers, was used for.
He couldn’t fathom how this metronome could be of help to him.
The other reward was even stranger — an "umbrella dryer."
It was Chen Zhou’s first time seeing such a thing; in fact, it was the first time he had heard of an umbrella dryer.
It resembled a narrow, giant single-section bookshelf, over half a person’s height.
Equipped with four wheels at the bottom for easy movement, its sides were metal plates, and the inner sides of the gap were lined with large absorbing sponges.
Made of stainless steel with some plastic, its side thoughtfully instructed — place the umbrella inside the dryer and shake it left and right three to five times.
Among all the rewards, it was hard to find an item with such a large size and useful material, yet essentially useless on its own.
Not to mention the island didn’t have umbrellas; even if there were umbrellas, there was no need for a dryer. Just hanging it by the kitchen door was enough.
However, Chen Zhou always knew how to make use of waste. He planned to take out the absorbing sponges from the dryer, make them into mops, and use them for floor cleaning.
The absorbing sponges were thick and appeared sturdy and durable, large enough to make seven or eight mops upon cutting.
With regular maintenance and not pressing them too hard onto the floor, they could last at least four to five years.
As for the solid stainless steel plates on both sides, he intended to disassemble them and, if needed, take them to the beach for cutting. Even making a tabletop or a small stool would be more useful than in their current form.