Chapter 218 - 98: Recuperation and Organization (Bonus - )
The prolonged violent dismantling severely exhausted Chen Zhou.
After cracking open the safe, seeing the reward, and putting away the pistol, the intense thrill quickly vanished, followed by endless fatigue.
He dragged the broken safe into the shed to avoid it getting wet in the rain.
Before heading back to the cave, Chen Zhou made a trip to the beach, stuffing the foam packaging from the ergonomic chair reward into his backpack to bring home.
...
Despite feeling extremely weary, once home, Chen Zhou couldn't immediately go to sleep.
Lai Fu accompanied him down the mountain, and with the quality of food declining these two days, their stomachs never felt satisfied, so a nutritious meal was needed, and the Little Dragon Cat and mouse at home also needed feeding.
Also, the crops in the sunroom and fields awaited irrigation, and the herbs in the flower beds at the entrance...
A pile of tasks to do, forgetting any would lead to losses.
Summoning his energy, Chen Zhou groggily took care of all matters, and only then did he collapse into bed, falling into a deep sleep.
...
Life requires balance; after working intensely for two days, Chen Zhou decided to rest at home for a few days before exploring Pigeon Cave again.
Manufacturing the earth mortar and foot pestle left a lot of scraps on the platform, piled up as an eyesore.
There were also various items previously piled haphazardly in the storage room, rabbit skins hung at the entrance, spare firewood, stones, and white clay occupying bedroom space...
After going in and out of the house daily, Chen Zhou felt annoyed after seeing it for too long and took advantage of this time at home to sort through and organize these things.
When tidying up the seal oil in plastic bags on the wooden shelves in the storage room, he was surprised to find that the oils had seeped out of the plastic, making the shelves sticky.
Luckily, several new wooden barrels were freed up at home now, and some seal oil previously stored in glass jars was used up, so Chen Zhou transferred the seal oil from the plastic bags into new containers.
During oil extraction, he pooled the edible soil inside the bags into a wooden box. After a few months, the chunks of edible soil had adhered together, becoming indistinguishable.
This time, when tidying the cave, he specially made a box with several small wooden grids inside, dividing and categorizing the adhered edible soil pieces by color into the box.
In the future, when pottery-making techniques mature, he can try using edible soil of different colors to craft patterned pottery, adding more joy to life.
...
On the evening of June 28th, Chen Zhou, covered in dust, finally put down the simple broom made from thin willow branches, declaring the end of the "big tidying operation."
During this tidying, he not only categorized and neatly arranged various materials already at home but also reserved space for items from the camp at the foot of the mountain that had not been moved yet.
However, because of the limited space in the cave, only the most important parts of the supplies from the mountain camp could be moved up, while other lower-priority items would have to wait until the cave expanded before they could be brought up.
...
On June 29th, to celebrate the end of the big tidying operation, Chen Zhou luxuriously took out rice and cut some mint leaves, brewing a pot of mint rice porridge.
Unfortunately, the taste of mint rice porridge wasn't as delicious as he had imagined; instead, it carried a hint of mint's rawness and coolness, tasting like toothpaste porridge.
Suspecting a lack of seasoning or incorrect preparation methods, he also considered whether it was due to taste differences between northern and southern people.
Despite being dissatisfied with the mint rice porridge's taste, Chen Zhou couldn't afford to waste food and pinched his nose to eat a big bowl.
Later, he discovered that adding some freshly squeezed sugarcane juice to the mint rice porridge improved the taste significantly, allowing him to reluctantly finish the large pot of mint rice porridge.
The disappointing experiment did not affect Chen Zhou's mood.
In the afternoon of the 29th, sitting on the platform facing the fields and forest, he sketched a huge landscape painting on corrugated paper.
On the back of the cardboard, driven by his imagination, Chen Zhou outlined the vision of his ideal cave—
The ceiling's exquisite arched load-bearing beam, covered with polished wooden boards.
An iron chain hanging from the ceiling, with an oil lamp at its end providing ample indoor lighting.
The bedroom furnished with a wardrobe, bookshelves, storage racks, a long table, chairs, and a mirror...
Practical items and decorations neatly arranged, making the bedroom appear cozy and harmonious.
The bedroom floor neatly covered with wooden planks, while the area near the outer wall used blue-grey mosaic bricks.
The stone bricks bonded with white clay, presenting a subtle texture after drying, resembling modern decorative art.
Four sturdy concrete load-bearing pillars connected to the arched load-bearing beam, with their lower ends deep into the ground embraced by the wooden floor.
The surface of the pillars nailed with wooden boards, masking the coldness peculiar to stone materials.
On the wooden boards were nails to hang decorative paintings, including oil paintings Chen Zhou brought down from a ship and his own sketch works.
The indoor walls entirely constructed with cut stone bricks and white clay, with a fire wall on the kitchen-adjacent wall providing warmth to the bedroom during rainy seasons.
Limited by the size of the corrugated cardboard, Chen Zhou's pen ultimately rested beside the fire wall at the little fireplace, where a flower pot was placed atop the flat stone mantle.
Dreaming of an ideal homeland.
That night, Chen Zhou had a beautiful dream where he hastily spent a day in the newly renovated cave, eventually returning to reality.
...
On June 30th, waking up early, Chen Zhou, full of energy, restarted the Pigeon Cave exploration plan.
This time, no time was needed at the beach; he decided to explore Pigeon Cave methodically, stuffing an oil lamp and a can of seal oil into his mountaineering bag for illumination in the dark cave.
Apart from lighting equipment, he also planned the exploration time.
The plan was to act when the sun was setting, and the pigeons returned to the cave to avoid the pigeons being too nimble, resulting in no gains.
As for the daylight on the 30th, he intended to casually wander in the forest, seeking unfamiliar wild fruits.
By noon, he would look for traces of another group of wild mountain goats in the woods by the beach, setting some snares or digging a trap to expand his herd of goats.
While searching for goats, Chen Zhou also wanted to search along the way to find Pigeon Cave.
If he could find Pigeon Cave ahead of time and the sun hadn't set by then, he would go to the river to fish for a while.
After bringing back the foam, he improved the fishing rod by removing the float made from driftwood and using foam blocks as a float instead.
Foam is lighter than driftwood, floating more agilely on the water with quicker responses, making it more suitable as a float than driftwood.
Only a little foam was used to make the float; the rest Chen Zhou planned to use for constructing an insulated box.
In the future, when capturing and raising fragile and cold-fearing young animals or keeping animals in cold, wet rainy seasons, he could place the little creatures in an insulated box to significantly increase survival rates.
Of course, that might happen in the distant future.
For now, the bunch of animals of various sizes at home was enough for him to care for.