Chapter 164 - 70: River Sand
Yellow peaches submerged in syrup, their sweet aroma intoxicating.
Opening the can halfway, Chen Zhou ate it carefully, savoring each bite.
Dopamine surged in this sweetness, washing away the fatigue accumulated over the day.
After eating five pieces of yellow peaches, he reluctantly set the can aside, saving it in the wooden box in the bedroom, resisting the urge to finish it in one go, and decided to continue his work—digging river sand.
Tightening the string knot of the raincoat around his neck, donning a wide-brimmed hat, carrying a wooden bucket and an iron-tipped wooden shovel, he headed straight upstream.
Going up from Rock Beach, past the deep pool, the river ahead was mostly narrow and deep; the flow was slow, with a tranquil and mysterious surface, calm yet fraught with peril.
Further up, the river widened.
The water depth decreased here, with the flow becoming turbulent, crashing against rocks lodged in the river, creating a spray of waves.
Starlight trickled through the gaps in the dark clouds, illuminating the water surface, and from afar, fish could be seen swimming.
This was a shallow area over fifty meters wide, covered in light yellow fine sand.
Chen Zhou stopped, and amidst the serene atmosphere filled with birdsong and frog croaks by the riverbank, he filled a bucket with river sand.
Standing on the riverbank with his hand gripping the shovel's handle, listening to the gurgling river, he thought of building a wooden house here on the flat and open grassland, living by the riverside.
But considering that living long-term in a damp place would easily cause rheumatism and attract pests, as well as the threats posed by rising river waters, he abandoned the idea.
Of course, the most important reason was that the cave dwelling was not yet completed.
The island had many places with beautiful scenery and abundant resources, and building a shelter at every one was impractical, hammering here and there wouldn't yield a good house even in ten years.
...
Marking the shallow spot as a God-given resource point suitable for netting across the river to catch fish, Chen Zhou returned to the cave dwelling with a full bucket of wet river sand.
Home again, he spread out the river sand in the storeroom to dry, quickly checking his yellow peach can in the wooden box in the bedroom.
The empty box on the clothing chest was nearly a meter off the ground; even if there were mice in the cave, they couldn't climb up to steal the cans.
Moreover, since Lai Fu regained his freedom, no traces of mice had been seen in the house.
Seeing the canned peaches untouched, Chen Zhou couldn't help but feel a bit neurotic for valuing a can of yellow peaches so much, chuckling awkwardly.
Lighting the oil lamp, he fully opened the can lid, preserving the cut lid.
Taking out a rather soft flatbread, he sliced some seal meat, pairing it with seaweed lamb porridge and two wild lemons.
The table was adorned with silver utensils, and with a shiny silver fork and spoon in hand, Chen Zhou began a refined and dignified late-night snack.
Handling it like a premium steak, he took the peach pieces from the can one by one, cutting them into small cubes with a knife, then spearing them with a fork and eating them.
The more he ate, the faster he went, eventually just spearing entire peach pieces and quickly chewing them.
With a net content of 500g in the can, after removing over half the syrup, there weren't many peach pieces left, which couldn't withstand Chen Zhou's eating pace and quickly vanished.
Sweets can be addictive, and canned fruit is no exception.
Swallowing the last piece of peach, Chen Zhou lingered, even wanting to open another can.
He had already rationalized it—the can's packaging could be repurposed as a small cooking pot. To make more small pots, he needed to eat more canned food. Whether eaten sooner or later, he might as well enjoy it sooner.
Suppressing his greedy thoughts, he placed the syrup-filled iron can on the bedside for a midnight thirst quencher, carved a notch in a wooden wedge, extinguished the oil lamp, and with a full heart of happiness, climbed under the covers.
...
On March 13th, waking up, Chen Zhou habitually glanced at the door and noticed that the window in the bedroom was much brighter than usual.
Putting on a coat and walking to the door, he was surprised to find a rare clear day outside, with a brilliant blue sky and a few wisps of clouds.
The long-lost warmth basked the earth.
Reaching the platform, seeing the green fields, Chen Zhou stretched lazily.
The tense muscles in his neck had completely healed, feeling perfectly comfortable.
Not wanting to waste such good weather, after breakfast, Chen Zhou went to the storeroom to check the river sand, feeling its rough texture with his hands.
Pausing for a moment, he idly scraped his hand on the ground, brushing off the sand, and sighed.
The sigh wasn't due to the river sand being unqualified, but because he couldn't figure out if the river sand met construction sand standards.
Despite nearly a year working in a cement plant, supposedly very familiar with cement.
In truth, during that year's work, ninety percent of his energy was spent dealing with various machinery and maintaining the plant's large equipment.
Otherwise, it was interacting with management, attending frequent meetings, listening to instructions, and noting new standards—amidst a mess of trivial matters, when it came to the application of cement and construction standards, he was less knowledgeable than an average foreman.
Chen Zhou only knew the proportioning for 42.5-grade cement, making C30 concrete: cement, sand, gravel, and water at about 0.38:1:1.11:2.72.
The cement ratio varied based on cement grade, concrete grade, slump size, sand's water content, and gravel size, requiring adjustments according to different materials.
For civilian house building or livestock sheds using brick and mortar, generally, only cement and sand-water without gravel are needed.
Apart from proportioning, the sand also had requirements.
Sea sand contained lots of salt and halide minerals, desert sand was too fine with high impurities, generally unsuitable for mixing with cement.
Only river sand, with fewer impurities and uniform texture, is a natural construction material.
However, even when using river sand, it should be sieved; otherwise, impurities and uneven particles would still affect cement strength.
With time pressing and no sieve available, achieving the optimal proportion to form load-bearing pillars was impossible.
Chen Zhou now only wanted to quickly reserve enough sand, dry it, then rapidly erect the load-bearing columns.
...
Taking out the yoke and two wooden buckets that had been unused for a while—river sand mixed with plenty of water was too heavy for a wooden box, smaller wooden buckets were more suitable for carrying sand.
Ensuring the weather wouldn't suddenly change with rain, Chen Zhou placed the iron-tipped wooden shovel in an empty bucket, hung his wide-brimmed hat and leather raincoat on the rack, and took them to the platform to dry.
Dressing lightly, accompanied by Lai Fu, he hoisted the wooden buckets onto his shoulder and reached the field's edge.
Weeding the newly sprouted weeds in the field, he thought about how the toilet compost near the camp at the foot of the mountain should have fermented by now, and when he had time, he would haul it up the mountain, pile it on the empty field, ready for the next planting season.
After weeding, he added two shovelfuls of soil to the "Dragon Cat Feed" he had planted a couple of days ago, reinforcing the roots, and then left the mountainside, following the path he explored last night, through the forest towards the sandy shallows.