Chapter 590 - 1: Change_3
To him, earning less is equivalent to a loss.
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The islanders’ lives are getting better little by little, and skilled workers are becoming more numerous.
Graduating smoothly from school, the young islanders who have mastered more advanced technologies and acquired more knowledge gradually step into the middle class, injecting powerful fresh blood into the progress of the island’s industrial level.
Chen Zhou’s work has become less busy.
He is still concerned about the people on the island, but aside from dealing with livelihood issues, he also has to leave more time to accompany his old buddies, the cats and dogs that have been with him since he had nothing.
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In human terms, Lai Fu has remained a bachelor until an equivalent age of over forty.
After the little female dog brought by Kilian was brought to the island in heat, although Lai Fu was eager, he seemed particularly clumsy. Without Chen Zhou’s help, he might still escape the fate of being sterile despite being surrounded by "a bevy of beauties."
Initially, Chen Zhou was worried that Lai Fu might become infertile due to his age and decreased sperm vitality.
It wasn’t until he saw the female dog’s belly grow larger day by day that his heart settled.
The first-time "dad" Lai Fu, after all, wasn’t a young dog. Every time he finished favoring his three or four wives, he looked like he’d been drained of his soul, his legs soft and weak.
Noticing this, Chen Zhou separated Lai Fu and the pregnant female dogs, avoiding Lai Fu’s lifespan being affected by frequent mating.
He built a new residence in the scenic Fruit Tree Valley inside the island.
This new residence was different from the factory; it was designed without any consideration for office functions, built entirely according to the standards of a private villa.
When he doesn’t need to deal with official duties or when official duties are few, Chen Zhou would live in the villa in Fruit Tree Valley with his pets, picking wild fruits from the mountains, drawing a few landscape paintings, playing the flute, fishing, relaxing his mind.
Lai Fu’s lifespan is estimated to have two or three years left; in these final days, Chen Zhou hopes he can accompany it through.
The other pets at home are also entering their twilight years with the passage of time, the Little Dragon Cat shows the signs of aging most markedly.
Although it wasn’t very active when it was captured, in recent years, it’s obviously lazier than before. Even if it’s not lying in its nest, when it stands, it always looks listless, unwilling to even open its eyes.
Its dense fur, which once shone with a silvery-gray luster, is now much duller.
Nevertheless, Chen Zhou still calls it "Little Dragon Cat," as if it is still the "mouse-catching" unexpected treasure, resting quietly at the head of the bed in the simple cave, the one joyfully running on the wheel beside the bedside table in the factory dormitory.
Among all the pets, the Little Dragon Cat is the quietest, most of the time it stands still like a plush toy in the "villa" customized by Chen Zhou for it.
It doesn’t like interacting with people, only appearing most vibrant when rolling in the delicate white ash, and it can’t really understand human speech, always appearing bewildered.
But it has accompanied Chen Zhou for nearly eight years, and sometimes when he sees the Little Dragon Cat standing dumbly in the luxurious new wooden villa, repeatedly wandering unable to find its way back to its nest, Chen Zhou would recall its younger, somewhat wily demeanor.
Sometimes, Chen Zhou wished time could pause, allowing these little fellows to live a while longer.
Yet time is the most ruthless and the fairest, what is gone is destined to be gone; in this matter, whether king and official or street beggar, all are equal.