Chapter 397 - 172: Butterfly Wings
The dense forest obscured people’s vision.
Behind the lush green vegetation, the soil gradually soaked with fresh blood.
There were no screams, no cries of pain.
Death was masked by the chirping of birds and insects, swallowed by the waves and the wind, leaving only the numbed and dazed crowd on the beach.
...
Sunday was always serious about his rewards.
After pulling out a broad leaf to wipe the warm blood off the blade, he sheathed the knife and strode back to the shore with agile steps.
...
They left as four but returned as one.
Perhaps many of the natives had doubts in their hearts, not knowing the fate of their companions, but they dared not speak up.
At this moment, having reached this state, they had to be cautious even with their breathing.
...
No words were needed; just by seeing Sunday’s confident demeanor, Chen Zhou knew he had successfully completed the task.
Nodding slightly, he told Saturday to go drink some water and rest, entrusting Sunday with the aftermath.
"You first instruct these people to dig a few pits in the forest and bury those four corpses.
Everyone has to work, including that brown-haired one, keep an extra eye on him, he might try to escape.
If there are no tools, make them dig with sticks, with their hands, and if it’s not done by tonight, no food."
"As for those three you killed in the forest, have Saturday deal with them after he’s rested, make sure they are buried deep enough.
And the canoe dragged to the shore.
Once they finish burying the bodies, instruct them to drag the canoe up completely and destroy it.
As for how to destroy it, I trust you know without my needing to tell you."
"After finishing these tasks, bring them back to the mountain before dark, give them something to eat, but don’t let them eat their fill, just enough to keep them from starving.
Once back on the mountain, I have other things to assign.
That’s all, got it?"
Chen Zhou asked Sunday after speaking.
"Got it."
"Repeat it," Chen Zhou said.
...
Chen Zhou had different attitudes toward different people.
Since Sunday showed leadership potential and intention to lead others, Chen Zhou couldn’t lower his expectations.
Natives were after all not cattle.
They may be ignorant, but ultimately they were human, with their own thoughts, emotions, and desires.
If overly exploited, it would reduce work efficiency.
If treated too kindly, they would gradually overlook the differences between them and become pushy.
Chen Zhou didn’t consider himself ruthless enough; most of the time, he couldn’t easily end a human life like Sunday—
The moral concepts from the 21st century weren’t something that could be reversed overnight.
But he could hand over the "dirty work" and "brutal work" to Sunday, and fortunately, this native boy also liked the job.
As for Chen Zhou himself.
He felt that as long as he could fully utilize his knowledge, which was ahead of the world, firmly grasp supreme power, and manage Sunday and Saturday well to keep them loyal, he needn’t worry too much.
...
Assured that Sunday could finish his assigned tasks, Chen Zhou left the beach with Lai Fu.
Before returning to the kiln hole, he went to the wooden hut to check his fishing gear.
Saturday always proved reliable when handling these trivial matters.
He not only retrieved all the fishing gear abandoned by the natives and placed them neatly in front of the wooden hut but also carefully wiped the dirt off the gear, even organizing the scattered tackle boxes, fishing lines, and floats in the fishing box.
"What a pity, someone so attentive in work but so soft in personality.
Even if I assign all logistics to you, I doubt you could be a good ’logistics director’!"
Leaving the wooden hut, Chen Zhou sighed, contemplating Saturday’s unsatisfactory performance today.
...
The sudden "visit" by the natives disrupted Chen Zhou’s plans.
Especially that suspected Spaniard, the brown-haired guy, his appearance was a dangerous signal.
On July 7, originally according to the novel, there shouldn’t have been any native landings on the island, let alone someone from the civilized world.
The appearance of the brown-haired guy meant the previous interference with the ritual and the slaughter of the natives had stirred the butterfly wings, leading the entire challenge to an unknown path.
In fact, ever since the earthquake, the original "Robinson Crusoe" had offered little help to Chen Zhou.
Many events in the book occurred at inaccurate times, with locations even more vague.
Without personal exploration, relying solely on the book’s descriptions, it’s challenging to know where things specifically happened.
For instance, the river Robinson discovered and the river Chen Zhou found, the wild goats Robinson saw and the ones Chen Zhou encountered, were eight or nine kilometers apart, with one at the bottom of the mountain and the other atop.
These unexpected coincidences caused Chen Zhou much trouble at the challenge’s outset.
Especially during his first expedition, when searching for the River Valley Plain and Fruit Tree Valley, leading him on many unnecessary detours.
But by now, the initial unfamiliarity with the island had long passed.
In the north-south-east-west of the mountains, this area covered in forests with two rivers and a mountain stream flowing through it, there was hardly a place Chen Zhou couldn’t find.
Nonetheless, he would occasionally take out the original novel, reading it thoroughly from front to back to check if he missed anything.
Especially Robinson’s later life on the island, exploring the entire island and circumnavigating it in a self-made boat, still provided some help to him.