Chapter 314 - 137: Cacao Tree (Part 3)
The taste of cocoa beans is primarily fragrant, given that the main component of chocolate is cocoa butter, and it carries a slight bitterness. When eating chocolate candies, you can clearly feel that the texture of chocolate is very smooth and palatable.
Just like the ad for Dove chocolate—silky smooth enjoyment.
Therefore, compared to coffee, chocolate is more popular with the general public, especially children and women, and has become one of Chen Zhou’s favorite desserts.
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This time, having finally managed to find the time to come to Fruit Tree Valley and seeing the dense cocoa pods hanging from the trees, he immediately opened his backpack without a word and began harvesting the ripe pods with their hard shells.
To pack more cocoa beans, after picking the pods, he directly used an axe to crack open the hard wooden shells and poured the deep brown cocoa beans into his backpack.
The cocoa beans were still wrapped in a layer of smooth, thin shell, and pouring them into the backpack resulted in a crisp rustling sound, reminiscent of the delightful taste of chocolate that brings joy just by recalling it.
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This outing, while the task of finding cassava was a complete failure, the search for cocoa beans was unexpectedly successful.
It didn’t take long for Chen Zhou to fill over half of his backpack with cocoa beans, and then he transplanted a few young cocoa tree saplings, leaving Fruit Tree Valley satisfied.
He originally planned to stay outside for four days to ensure he had enough time to find the target plants.
To his surprise, everything concluded so quickly, in just two days, the work was done.
That night, he made a fire to cook and rest at the edge of the orchard.
On the morning of August 4th, before the sun rose and while the temperature was still relatively low, he set off early to return to the cave dwelling.
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On the way, Chen Zhou carefully reviewed the process of searching for plants over the past two days to ensure nothing was overlooked.
The experience of digging in the grassland flashed by, and concerning cassava, he had completely given up.
Then, thinking of the backpack full of cocoa beans, he couldn’t help but recall from the depths of his memory the traditional method of making chocolate. Accompanied by the steps in that video, a steaming cup of sweet beverage seemed to emerge in his mind.
However, pleasing moments are always fleeting.
It was already August, and there were less than four months left until the indigenous people landed on the island.
He had spent nearly a year preparing for this event.
Now, whenever he was idle, Chen Zhou would involuntarily start thinking about the unexpected situations he might face when the indigenous people arrived and how he should cope.
In his view, the fact that Robinson was able to have Friday as a helper can’t be entirely credited to Robinson.
If Friday hadn’t seized the opportunity to escape decisively when the other indigenous people weren’t paying attention, Robinson likely wouldn’t have stopped the indigenous feast of cannibalism.
As a self-styled "civilized man" and estate owner, Robinson was filled with malice toward the indigenous people. If Friday hadn’t submitted after meeting him or if there were others on the island with whom communication was possible, Robinson would surely have killed Friday outright.
Chen Zhou very much hoped that he could encounter such a good opportunity, longing for an indigenous person with a strong survival instinct to voluntarily flee into the depths of the island, seek his help, and submit to him.
Alas, the likelihood of such things happening is extremely slim.
If captives escaped every time there was a cannibal feast, another tribe would have already emerged on the island.
If Robinson hadn’t had such dumb luck, how could he have acquired such a loyal and simple servant as Friday?
Considering his luck to be far worse than Robinson’s, Chen Zhou could only try to make his plans more meticulous.
By minimizing unexpected incidents, he would take the initiative to create more opportunities for himself.