Chapter 178 - 76: A Belated Reward
Helplessly, Chen Zhou pulled out a piece of canvas from beside the bed and wiped the drool from Lai Fu and pushed him aside.
"Hold on, how can I give you food without letting it cool?
If you're too eager, you'll burn your mouth!"
With that, he put on his shoes, took a handful of dried fish from the wooden box at the foot of the bed, fed it to Xiao Huihui and Tizi, and placed some hay for Little Dragon Cat.
The new shelter was about 4 meters long, more than 3 meters wide, and about 2 meters from the floor to the wooden beam. Under the floor was a 0.5-meter support column, which would provide ample space for one person to live if it weren't filled with supplies.
However, too many important items couldn't be parted with.
Chen Zhou, an 184 cm tall big guy, had to put up with it, fully utilizing his body's flexibility to cook and live in this cramped space.
After eating and feeding Lai Fu, he placed the dishes on the stone bricks next to the stove, put on the wide-brimmed hat, took down the leather raincoat hanging by the bed, and as usual, took an axe with him as he prepared to head to the beach.
When he was in the kiln house, he used to wash the pots and dishes after meals before going out, otherwise the porridge would dry and stick to the inner wall of the iron pot, requiring a dagger to clean, which was troublesome.
But the space in the wooden house was already maxed out, leaving no room for multiple water storage barrels.
And not just water barrels, Chen Zhou didn't even bring the large iron kettle he typically used for boiling water, leaving it back at the kiln house.
This was partly because the iron kettle was too heavy and took up too much space, getting in the way in the wooden house.
Another reason was that the iron kettle was hard to damage; even if the kiln house collapsed, it would just be buried in the sand and could be dug out for use. So it didn't matter where it was placed.
Currently, there were only two barrels in the house, filled with pre-boiled cool water for cooking.
Until the earthquake passed, Chen Zhou planned to wash his face and feet at the mountain stream or riverside for personal hygiene, postponing washing clothes by changing into clean ones instead.
After all, it's too troublesome to boil water in the wooden house.
Only a small portion of the dry firewood stored in the kiln house was brought over, reserved for making a fire and dealing with rainy days as emergency supplies.
The wood outside was damp, producing thick smoke when burned. It worked fine mixed with dry firewood, but when burning only wet wood, the smoke was so dense that even if the chimney released ninety-nine percent of the smoke, the remaining one percent was enough to fill the wooden house, making it hard to keep one's eyes open.
Clean drinking water was precious, so except for the consumption for brushing teeth and rinsing the mouth, Chen Zhou didn't plan to use a lot of water for other purposes.
After all, this was a deserted island; living alone, it didn't matter much whether things were clean or tidy, as long as hands were washed clean to avoid illness.
...
It was already April 11th, according to Robinson Crusoe timeline, an earthquake would strike in six or seven days.
This day was also the last mysterious reward before the earthquake and the last mysterious reward of this rainy season.
Recalling the previous head-flicking Divine Artifact, Chen Zhou had some expectations for this time's mysterious reward.
Even modern industrial trash still had some use; once disassembled, there were always some usable small components, as long as they didn't give him wood carvings or wooden crafts that were found everywhere on the island.
Braving the rain, he arrived at the beach.
As expected, from a distance, Chen Zhou again saw the toppled wooden and stone wall affected by the cutting effect.
The cutting effect every 15 days was needless to say, but the preparation process was too complex; each time rebuilding and sorting everything was a dawn-to-dusk task. Without spending half the day, the Super Space-Time Cutter's function couldn't be realized, which had its pros and cons.
Moving the outer wooden boards and stones aside, he walked to the seriously collapsed rain shelter.
Thinking about reinforcing the rain shelter when rebuilding the cutting wall today, he lifted the thick canvas and took out the reward located at the center of the shelter.
This time's reward packaging was still a rectangular box shape, but with dimensions significantly smaller compared to previous rewards.
The reward box inside the packaging bag was about 20 centimeters long, width over ten centimeters, and height similar to the width, packed full and not light.
Grabbing the box and gently shaking, he heard no sound of metal collision, nor the sound of ceramics, glassware, or plastic rattling, putting Chen Zhou slightly at ease.
There were many tasks to complete, worried unpacking the reward directly would risk rain soaking and damage, Chen Zhou laid a wooden board on the ground, then stuffed the reward back into the rain shelter, starting to adjust the wooden and stone wall.
...
No lunch was had, another busy day went by, and after the new cutting wall was finished, Chen Zhou chopped some trees to reinforce the rain shelter, then took out the reward box to go home.
Lai Fu followed him outside the whole day, thoroughly soaked with sand stuck to his feet.
Pushing open the wooden door, Chen Zhou stepped inside while using his body to block Lai Fu, not taking off the leather raincoat.
Once Lai Fu jumped into the room, he embraced Lai Fu's neck, pulled out a large piece of canvas from under the bed, wrapping Lai Fu, rubbing vigorously to absorb the moisture from its fur.
After a slight dry-off, Chen Zhou loosened the canvas, and Lai Fu immediately turned his head and shook his body, trying hard to fling out the drops of water from his fur.
However, the rainwater had already been wiped clean, even with all its strength, it could only dislodge slight droplets, not getting the bed wet.
Woo~
Seemingly lamenting his master's cunning, Lai Fu lay down by the door, head resting on his chin, staring at the stove where the scent of food still lingered.
"You weren't like this when you first got off the boat, how come you're getting greedier?"