From Robinson Crusoe

For Saturday, traditional Chinese painting, with its unique style and novel approach, is undoubtedly a gateway to a new world.

Ink and brush, these drawing tools that are so different from charcoal sticks and pencils, seem simple, yet they contain too many secrets, or rather—

philosophy.

As I stumbled through the book, pondering the wording, I felt more and more on Saturday that the artistic conception pursued by traditional Chinese painting resonated with the concept of "celestial beings" in a certain way.

If he were asked to describe it using one thing from nature, he would choose "water".

Water is a substance that is ever-changing, possessing boundless power yet exhibiting a gentle and reserved nature.

When it is gentle, it transforms into a light rain that nourishes all things, promotes vegetation growth, provides drinking water for humans, and sustains the lives of living organisms.

When it is enraged, it can create waves tens of meters high, destroying everything at sea, and can even climb onto the beach and uproot thick trees.

It is neither as dull and slow as the natives, nor as easily understood as the Spanish.

Like a god.

When he is angry, he can take a person's life in an instant without hesitation.

He is usually very approachable, making people feel genuinely close to him.

……

Reading the introductory text on traditional Chinese painting techniques, from the lines of sentences introducing what Zen is, what blank space is, what freehand brushwork is, and what metaphor and allegory are, Saturday saw a vast amount of knowledge and culture that he had never seen before beckoning to him.

He thought that the "gods" might have come from the world described in this uniquely shaped book with its beautiful paper.

Those profound and obscure sentences—

"When you see a mountain, it is a mountain; when you see water, it is water; when you see a mountain, it is not a mountain; when you see a mountain, it is a mountain again." All of these are like lights shrouded in a fog, faintly floating in the distance, extremely unreal.

If you try to get close enough to touch it, no matter how fast you walk or how far you go, you can't get a clear view of it.

But if you stand still, it will still float ahead, hazy and indistinct.

This unique feeling was different from what the "gods" usually taught them.

The knowledge taught by the gods is all very clear.

For example, they can clearly understand the principles behind how crops are planted and how machines work.

Even those mythological stories have a beginning and an end.

How Yu the Great controlled the floods, how Gonggong knocked down Buzhou Mountain, how Nuwa cut off the old tortoise's four legs to mend the sky, and the cause and effect of Houyi shooting down the sun—these are all easy to understand and comprehend.

Unlike the words, the knowledge, and the uniquely charming poems in the book.

"Do not judge the difficulty of painting bamboo by its complexity; it is difficult to make it complex, but even more difficult to make it simple."

Look at those few withered leaves; the wind and rain fill the hall, making it unbearably cold.

Why is it that intricate paintings are difficult to create, while simple ones are more difficult than intricate ones?

"How can you use the plants in the painting to express the feeling of an approaching storm and the biting cold?"

There are many things I can't understand on Saturday.

He had long known that the place he originally lived in was backward and lacked common sense, but he never expected that a primitive tribe could be so backward.

Not only in farming, animal husbandry, and skills, but also in culture, it is far inferior to the homeland of the gods.

But he wasn't discouraged on Saturday.

He understood very well that lacking knowledge was not something to be ashamed of; at least he could learn, and he was still young.

He can start learning from the most basic literacy and speaking skills, just like learning to draw, starting with the simplest straight and diagonal lines.

He may never acquire enough knowledge in his entire life, but every bit of progress he makes today compared to who he was yesterday is a gain in itself.

……

Chen Zhou admits that he is not very sensitive to traditional culture. He is a person who is more inclined to rational thinking and does not have much feeling for the illusion and reality and artistic conception pursued by traditional Chinese painting.

Therefore, after receiving the two books, he didn't read them much.

Moreover, he is currently focused on various mechanical manufacturing projects on the island and how to obtain raw materials for explosives. He has no interest in studying traditional Chinese painting, and he is not even very interested in sketching anymore.

In fact, he had never painted since capturing the second group of natives; all he ever drew were blueprints.

Sometimes, when he was alone in his study and looked at the books on the bookshelf, Chen Zhou would occasionally feel sorry that there would be no successors to carry on their legacy in this world.

Fortunately, among the nine natives on the island, there was indeed a talented child named Saturday.

Chen Zhou thought that perhaps one day, he could truly plant a seed belonging to the Yanhuang people in this place, which is extremely far from the Eurasian continent.

Once the challenge ends and he leaves this world, will the world take a different path due to his influence?

Just thinking about it made Chen Zhou find it interesting.

……

After handing over the two books to Saturday, Chen Zhou, having solved the problem of the indigenous people stirring the syrup, once again found himself with nothing to do.

With more than a month left in the rainy season, he had to find something meaningful to do during this long period.

Chen Zhou originally wanted to disassemble the two-cylinder steam engine model, record the dimensions of each part, and then try to forge a medium-sized engine.

However, there were too many problems to solve in the manufacturing process of the twin-cylinder steam engine, and the various complex parts could not be forged by his own hands alone.

Moreover, he had just been working intensely on iron for a few days, so it was really hard for him to muster the energy to fully immerse himself in the forging room, surrounded by furnaces and metal.

It just so happened that he had been studying "An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Painting Techniques" on Saturdays and frequently came to the cave dwelling to ask Chen Zhou questions, which inspired him and led Chen Zhou to find another meaningful job—

To impart more knowledge.

It includes not only knowledge of farming and animal husbandry, but also knowledge of poems, allusions, and other aspects of traditional Chinese culture.

……

It has been too long since his school days, and Chen Zhou can no longer clearly remember some of the famous literary works he studied.

However, he can still remember the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, the Thousand Character Classic, and the Standards for Being a Good Student and Child that he memorized in his youth.

In addition, he also remembered many poems by great poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Du Mu, Xin Qiji, and Su Shi.

He unearthed these works from the depths of his memory, wrote them down one by one on paper, and thoughtfully annotated some obscure parts. Chen Zhou then bound them into a booklet.

Each booklet contains only a dozen or so pages, and the content is not much. However, for the indigenous people who do not know many characters, it is still like a foreign language. Let alone understanding it, it is impossible for them to read it from beginning to end.

However, Chen Zhou did not intend for the natives to immediately learn to memorize these booklets.

This kind of cultural "assimilation" only begins gradually after people's lifestyles and customs have become similar or even merged.

Prior to this, all the "booklets" were placed in the cabin on Saturdays and Sundays, and were studied first by these two people, or rather, on Saturdays.

This was partly to avoid him frequently coming to the cave dwelling on Saturdays to ask questions, allowing him to study on his own with the booklet.

On the other hand, Sunday was someone who disliked studying and preferred to solve problems with violence. Chen Zhou hoped that when Sunday lived and ate with him, he could teach Sunday some knowledge while Saturday studied.

Living with top students means that even if you don't become a top student yourself, your grades won't be too bad.

……

In addition to traditional culture, Chen Zhou also possesses a great deal of more practical knowledge that is more worthy of the indigenous people's attention.

For example, the various weaving techniques in rattan books.

He had previously drawn some techniques specifically to teach the indigenous people, who successfully learned them and applied them to various areas of their work.

However, that knitting technique book is only the tip of the iceberg of the whole book, and it focuses more on basic knitting.

Now that most of the natives have mastered the basics, Chen Zhou selected some practical and beautiful utensil weaving techniques, compiled them into a booklet, and gave it to Saturday to teach.

Subsequently, Chen Zhou compiled two more books based on his own experience.

One of the books is a beginner's guide to carpentry, which lists various precautions, carving and sawing techniques, and several simple methods for making mortise and tenon structures.

The other book is a beginner's guide to forging, which contains Chen Zhou's forging experience accumulated over the past few months, as well as some knowledge about the properties of basic minerals and metals, and how to sharpen and maintain knives.

……

Thinking and writing may seem easy, but actually doing it can be mentally exhausting.

Especially considering that these manuals are written for indigenous people, Chen Zhou cannot use too many technical terms and must describe them in a more concise and easy-to-understand way.

If he encountered complex situations that couldn't be explained in words, he would draw diagrams on paper to overcome the reading barriers faced by the indigenous people.

As the saying goes, once you enter the study, you're in deep trouble.

Spending his days huddled in his cave dwelling, listening to the rain outside the window, and writing technical manuals, Chen Zhou felt that time was flying by.

Before we knew it, it was already early April.

……

April 1st marked the arrival of the 85th mysterious reward on the island.

After a rough calculation, Chen Zhou suddenly realized that he had been on the island for nearly 1300 days.

He has already completed a full tenth of the more than 10,000-day challenge.

Looking back on the beginning of the challenge, every day seemed exceptionally long, with all sorts of difficulties coming one after another, often keeping him extremely busy.

Now, he doesn't need to worry about anything, whether it's farming, animal husbandry, building wooden and stone walls, or even cooking.

Besides researching various machines to improve the island's productivity and writing books to teach the natives more knowledge, there was only one thing he had to do: collect rewards.

……

Chen Zhou could let go of many things, but this was the one thing he trusted only himself.

The potential reward for the mystery was far too high. He couldn't even imagine what the natives would do to him if they got their hands on an automatic rifle, a grenade, or a landmine first.

Moreover, even if the natives don't know how to use it or dare not use it, letting them see the shape of the weapon and figure out how to use it might be a problem.

Especially since the island has zebras, which are spineless animals.

If he discovers the secret, and a conflict arises with the Spanish in the future, and he is captured, there is a very high probability that he will reveal the secret to the Spanish, and the resulting negative consequences would be incalculable.

Chen Zhou used to have a good impression of Zebra, but after learning about Zebra's deceitful behavior, his impression of him plummeted.

If there were enough people on the island and Zebra wasn't the only native with skilled carpentry, he would definitely find a reason to get rid of Zebra.

But Zebra has only made a minor mistake so far.

Moreover, Chen Zhou's assumption that he was "prone to betrayal" was merely a guess, and he had not actually put it into practice. It would be difficult for Chen Zhou to take someone's life on trumped-up charges.

Whether this is convincing or not is another matter; he felt the root cause was that he was betraying his own conscience.

If Zebra is truly an untrustworthy person and has become a traitor, then killing him is perfectly justified.

Before he commits a crime, you cannot punish or even kill him just because you "think he might make a mistake." That would be disregarding human life.

……

Before heading to the beach to collect his rewards, Chen Zhou made a point of organizing the rewards that had been sent over the past few months.

Perhaps it was because his ambitious construction project was forced to stop due to the rainy season, and the Spanish and the large indigenous tribes had disappeared without a trace and no one was sent to the island again, that the tense atmosphere gradually dissipated.

Since mid-November, after that batch of modern shovels and picks, the mysterious reward has returned to everyday items.

For example, the high-end fishing rod from November 29th is clear evidence of this.

By December 14th, the reward arrived as a large batch of seasonings, including two large barrels of sunflower oil, two large barrels of soy sauce, a box of white vinegar, a box of salt, a box of granulated sugar, two small bags of MSG, and a barrel of traditional Northeastern soybean paste.

This batch of seasonings made up for Chen Zhou's lack of condiments and became his private supply.

While other indigenous people were eating coarse salt dried on the beach and chewing on brown sugar made from sugarcane juice, he was enjoying the perfect saltiness of refined salt and the savory flavor of dishes with added MSG.

……

Of all these seasonings, Chen Zhou valued the soybean paste the most.

Soybean paste contains relatively clean fermentation bacteria, which can be used as a starter for making soy sauce.

During the dry season, after finishing the factory construction, he could steam several more batches of steamed buns and try to make some soybean paste using the methods of the older generation.

When there was no soybean paste, Chen Zhou thought of relying on the microorganisms in nature for fermentation.

However, that would result in too many bacteria, leading to a poor-tasting fermented soybean paste, and it might even become moldy and smelly.

Now that he has this bucket of soybean paste, another worry in his heart has been lifted.

A batch of fluororubber delivered on December 29th was stored at the factory site. It has high utilization value, but people who do not understand its properties cannot think of its best use.

Chen Zhou believes that in the 17th century, there were probably very few people who could understand the properties of rubber, and even fewer who could apply rubber to weapons and machinery manufacturing. There might not be many in the whole world.

These people were obviously not on the island, so he felt at ease leaving the fluororubber in the rain shelter at the factory.

The mysterious reward for January 13th has been placed in the bedroom of the cave dwelling—a luxurious clock.

Chen Zhou then broke down a portion of the reward from January 28th.

He carefully drew structural diagrams based on the parts, preparing for the future manufacture of steam engines.

The brass steam engine model and the boiler model that came with it were a very attractive toy for Chen Zhou.

He couldn't even resist the urge to share his "new toy" with others, and secretly took Saturday and Sunday to the forge to start the steam engine once.

He still remembers the steam engine being filled with water and the charcoal being lit.

As the water inside the steam engine boiled and the steam expanded, it propelled the piston. Saturday and Sunday watched in astonishment as the drive shaft turned the small gear he had made.

Compared to the waterwheel, this thing was clearly far too advanced for their limited minds to comprehend, leading them to believe that "it's a creation of the gods." (End of Chapter)