From Robinson Crusoe

The lemon-juicing machine, also made by Zebra, is placed on a long table on the east side of the awning.

Wang Lin seemed oblivious to the anger of the veterans—

Of course, it's also possible that he's already used to the old guys' attitude and just takes it for granted.

Wang Lin put the lemon into the machine, placed the ceramic cup filled with water under the juicer nozzle, signaled his chess partner to wait a moment, and then began to crank the machine handle.

The wooden gears turned, making a teeth-grinding sound.

The greenish-yellow lemon, shaped like a rugby ball, was quickly flattened, and juice with a lemony aroma flowed out.

The water in the ceramic cup quickly turned yellow.

The sound of the gears meshing together was like drumsticks striking a zebra's heart, and with each turn of the handle, his expression grew more gloomy.

When Wang Lin finished making the lemon juice and walked towards the chessboard with the ceramic cup, Zebra finally couldn't contain his anger and stood up.

Just as Wang Lin was handing the ceramic cup to his chess friend, Zebra rushed over, snatched the cup, and splashed lemon juice on Wang Lin's friend's face.

After cursing a native's swear word and offering a warm greeting to Wang Lin's mother, Zebra continued its actions, kicking over the chessboard.

"You think you're worthy of eating my food?"

Zebra roared, pointing at Wang Lin's nose, and at the same time shoved Wang Lin in the chest, causing the much smaller young man to stumble and almost fall to the ground.

Although Wang Lin was caught off guard by Zebra, he was no pushover either.

After maintaining his balance, he grabbed the chessboard and delivered a flying kick to the zebra's belly. Then he swung the thick wooden chessboard and smashed it on the zebra's head, instantly turning this ordinary physical altercation into a bloody one.

Zebra never expected this young man who joined the island later to be so brave, and was caught off guard and beaten bloody.

The head, still dazed from being hit by the chessboard, was already swaying slightly from the tall zebra's body.

Before he could regain control of his body, Wang Lin pressed his advantage, taking a step forward with the chessboard and continuing to beat him.

Most of the workers resting under the high-end sunshade are veterans.

When the conflict first broke out, they all thought they would see Wang Lin make a fool of himself, but they never expected the situation to reverse so quickly.

Seeing that they would suffer greatly upon encountering a zebra, in their desperation, these people forgot the legal provisions and swarmed forward, blocking Wang Lin's path.

Several of them, who were closest to Zebra, pretended to stop the fight, snatched the chessboard from Wang Lin's hands, and then directly knocked Wang Lin to the ground.

Wang Lin temporarily gained the upper hand through sheer courage and ruthless methods.

In a 1v1 situation, he has undoubtedly won.

Unfortunately, this was the territory of the veterans, and after incurring their wrath, no matter how skilled he was, he couldn't fight against four hands with two fists.

He was pinned to the ground, clutching his head tightly, his body hunched over, enduring the beatings from the others with his back and sides.

The chess player who got his face splashed with lemon juice, seeing that things were going badly, had already sneaked away when no one was watching.

But he didn't run away; instead, he went to get reinforcements.

Ultimately, there are more newcomers than old people on the island.

As the most promising of the new islanders, Wang Lin had an extremely close relationship with his companions. Upon hearing that he had been beaten, the new islanders immediately picked up shovels, pickaxes, steel pipes, and other tools, gathered together, and rushed towards the high-class sunshade.

……

It was noon, and the workers were resting. The teenagers who were supervising the work also needed a break. When they arrived at the scene after hearing the commotion and shouting outside, the situation was already out of control.

Despite being temporarily educated and appearing civilized after arriving on the island, these people are still essentially savage and fierce natives.

The moment they see blood, they instantly transform into fearless warriors in the midst of conflict, disregarding their injuries and charging forward headlong.

His temper flared, the young overseer dared not approach, fearing he might be drawn into the fray.

Several people shouted for them to stop while others ran towards the factory to report the news to their leader.

……

When weapons and combat skills are similar, numbers become the biggest advantage.

When the new members arrived on Sunday with Fu Lu Shou, the veterans were already surrounded in the center of the sunshade. They could only use the long table as a shield to barely defend themselves, and in reality, they were being beaten so badly by the new members that they had no chance to fight back.

The seriously injured were sheltered in the center by the others, waiting desperately for rescue.

If they had arrived any later on Sunday, their defenses would have been breached, and they might have been beaten to death here.

……

Once their tempers flared and they gained the upper hand in the conflict, the emotionally charged new member wouldn't listen to anything.

Seeing Wang Lin beaten and disheveled, all the past conflicts and grievances surged into their hearts. At this moment, they had only one thought—

I'll kill those old bastards!
He rarely appeared in front of this group on Sundays, and he never let them witness his ferocity and ruthlessness, so his deterrent effect was clearly insufficient.

After shouting a few times, seeing that the conflict was still going on and had not stopped for even a moment because of his arrival, Sunday's temper was also provoked.

……

When Chen Fu found him, he was practicing shooting at the shooting range.

Hearing that a large-scale conflict had occurred, he brought a rifle and bullets with him when he arrived, in order to avoid any accidents, and of course, the long knife at his waist was also with him.

At this moment, the crowd shouted in the native language like monkeys, accompanied by the clanging of metal tools, footsteps and curses, all combined into a roaring sound wave.

The voices of Sunday, Fu Lu Shou, and others were swallowed up by the tide, like raindrops falling into the ocean, unable to create even the slightest ripple.

But Sunday has a louder voice—

The bullet was chambered, the muzzle was pointed at the sky, and the trigger was pulled.

boom!
The loud gunshot from behind was like a thunderclap piercing everyone's ears, and the swinging steel pipes, steel bars, shovels, and picks suddenly stopped.

The new member at the back slowly turned around and finally spotted Sunday, Fu Lu Shou, and the others with angry expressions.

Although they might attack veterans out of old grudges and momentary anger, they still couldn't help but feel somewhat intimidated by Sunday and the island's true senior leadership.

The conflict had been going on for nearly an hour, and both those who were directly confronting the veterans and those who were providing support from the rear were getting tired.

Taking advantage of Sunday as a "stepping stone," they all wisely put down their weapons and obediently squatted to the side, waiting for the outcome.

……

This was the first time such a major event had occurred on the island. Even though Fu Lu Shou was nominally handling everything on behalf of Chen Zhou, they dared not act on their own initiative in such a situation.

After bringing the situation under control, they immediately sent someone to notify Chen Zhou.

Chen Zhou, who was taking a nap, was also shocked and incredulous when he received the news.

He never dreamed that the island's first conflict would come from within.

He groggily got out of bed, washed his face with cold water to wake himself up, and asked the islander who brought the news to call Saturday as well. Chen Zhou went to see Lai Fu first.

……

There's a saying about large dogs: three years as a puppy, three years as a good dog, and three years as an old dog.

Laifu is now almost 6 years old, transitioning from his prime to old age.

Spending all his time with it, Chen Zhou noticed that Lai Fu's golden fur was getting lighter in color year by year, and its dark nose was gradually turning gray.

Like clothes that have been washed many times, stained pale by time.

Along with the physical changes, Laifu's personality and temperament also changed.

It is no longer as enthusiastic about playing as before; its temper has become more stable, and its personality more lazy.

For the past two years, whenever Laifu was brought to the riverbank, it would leap into the water upon hearing the croaking of frogs, and even if it couldn't catch them, it would still "fight" with the frogs.

Now, even if frogs come up to Laifu and croak, Laifu ignores them. He usually prefers to lie in a shady spot on the second floor of the factory.

Normally, whenever Chen Zhou went out, Lai Fu would happily follow him. Now, unless Chen Zhou specifically asks him to, Lai Fu will basically not insist on going out to play.

Its energy is declining with age.

Being together day and night, Chen Zhou could clearly feel it.

The old companion who joined him in the challenges and stayed with him through his loneliest times is growing old day by day.

In the stillness of the night, when Chen Zhou recalled exploring the island with Lai Fu, and his own elation when Lai Fu caught a lamb, he always felt a sense of loss.

Life is long for humans, but exceptionally short for dogs.

Although Chen Zhou knew that he would lose Laifu one day, he still found it hard to accept the thought of that day coming.

The Time and Space Administration sent many rewards, from expensive handicrafts to sophisticated electronic devices, and even living creatures like Simmental cattle, but not the other dog.

Chen Zhou remembered that he had promised Lai Fu that he would find it a wife—

He didn't have the ability to extend Laifu's lifespan, but he was able to preserve Laifu's genes, allowing its life to continue in this world in another way.

Previously, Chen Zhou had always been hoping for a mysterious reward from the Time and Space Administration.

After waiting for so long and still seeing no hope, he finally felt anxious.

The reason for building the port and wharf was to prepare for communication with the outside world in advance. In fact, there was also the idea of ​​using Spanish, Dutch or British merchant ships to find a few female dogs from the outside world.

Unexpectedly, this incident occurred before the port and docks were even completed.

……

When Chen Zhou found Lai Fu, Lai Fu was lying relaxed in his usual spot, fast asleep.

Its fur was somewhat loose, and its eyes often had a small piece of eye discharge.

Chen Zhou patted Laifu's head, wiped away its eye boogers, and watched Laifu lazily wag its tail. In the end, he didn't take it downstairs.

Taking paper and pen from the office, Chen Zhou also brought his revolver just in case.

Ever since he deciphered the documents in the safe, he's had this feeling that the gun carries some kind of evil power, and he rarely carries it with him unless absolutely necessary.

The situation is still unclear, and Chen Zhou is unsure whether the situation was under control on Sunday, which is why he tucked the gun into his waistband.

If a riot were to break out, the six bullets in his gun, even if they couldn't help him escape, would at least buy him precious time.

……

Rushing to the construction site, Chen Zhou found the situation to be slightly better than he had imagined.

Fu Lu Shou and his two companions had separated the seriously wounded from the lightly wounded and treated their injuries in a timely manner.

The natives were as ruthless as ever. In addition to the zebra, whose head was bleeding profusely, two veterans had their arms broken and a new member had his leg broken.

Wang Lin, who started the conflict, only suffered minor injuries because the fight had not yet escalated into a brawl when he was beaten; it was limited to fists and kicks.

He and Zebra are now squatting alone on either side of the sunshade, his face bruised and covered in dust, his eyes devoid of their former sparkle.

Neither of the two people who stirred up the vortex expected that their impulsive actions would cause such a huge mess.

Squatting on the ground, the two couldn't help but recall the punishments promulgated by their leader, and the images of "beheading" and "death by a thousand cuts" in the picture book, filling them with dread.

But what's done is done, and as the instigators, they can't escape.

Now that things have come to this, all we can do is wait and see how the leader decides right from wrong. Judging from past punishments, being able to save one's life is probably the best outcome.

……

Upon arriving at Yantan and taking over the affairs from Fu Lu Shou and Sunday, Chen Zhou's first task was to further treat the wounded.

The island's drug reserves have now reached a considerable amount.

A while ago, one of the rewards was a "deworming medicine gift pack," and thanks to this gift pack, all the islanders underwent internal and external deworming treatment.

As for external wound medicine, hemostatic medicine, and medicine for sprains and bruises, the amount stored in the warehouse is almost enough to open a small pharmacy.

All medicines have an expiration date, and they are stored properly for this very day.

……

After tallying up the number of seriously wounded, lightly wounded, and those with only minor external injuries, Chen Zhou instructed Saturday, Chen Fu, and Chen Lu to treat them in turn and distribute medicine.

By the time this matter was resolved, it was already 4 PM.

The effects of adrenaline had long worn off, and the severely injured islander was overwhelmed by pain. He wanted to groan, but remembering the grave mistake he had made that day, he forcibly suppressed the urge, enduring the pain and daring not to utter a sound.

Without letting the islanders go home, and after roughly treating their injuries, Chen Zhou instructed them to set up a long table on Saturday, and then interrogate each of the participants in the incident and record their testimonies.

He wanted to know exactly how the conflict occurred.

Logically speaking, all the islanders come from the same tribe, and some of them were even close friends in the past. With this relationship, how could they possibly turn against each other or even kill each other?

……

Even if the participants colluded beforehand, it would be difficult to distort the detailed events of a large-scale brawl involving dozens of people.

Moreover, the islanders simply didn't have time to coordinate their stories.

Faced with Sunday's face that seemed to want to devour people, the leader's extremely oppressive physique, and Saturday's teacher's paper and pen, each person being interrogated did not hide the cause and course of events, and told the whole story in detail.

After verification, Chen Zhou finally sorted out the whole process of the incident clearly.

……

On the surface, this is just a conflict caused by a lemon.

Fundamentally, this is a conflict between new and old forces.

As the leader of the old faction, Zebra and Wang Lin were at odds, which led to a long-standing conflict that finally ignited the powder keg on this hot noon, triggering a fierce brawl.

From the perspective of an observer afterward, Wang Lin's act of using other people's lemons was clearly provocative.

But Zebra was the one who struck first, so he was at a disadvantage both morally and logically.

Taking into account the islanders' feelings, Chen Zhou ultimately decided to punish both sides equally.

Wang Lin and Zebra, along with the others who instigated the fight and sparked the conflict, will all be punished.

Among them, Wang Lin and Zebra suffered the most severe punishments.

Their prized detached houses will be reclaimed, and their treatment will plummet.

After their injuries heal, the two will move into an old four-person room.

For some time afterward, they had to repay their punishment through forced labor.

Every day, the two of them have to arrive at work an hour earlier and leave an hour later than others.

Chen Zhou would order the supervisors to keep a close watch on the quality of their work.

If there is any perfunctory performance, the punishment will be more severe, and the labor service time will be further extended.

……

Chen Zhou knew that "giving each side equal blame" was only a temporary solution and not a permanent cure.

The conflict between the old and new forces will not disappear because of his persuasion; it will only accumulate and deepen over time.

There is a very simple way to solve this problem—

A larger influx of new islanders will be introduced, and promising individuals will be selected from among them to establish a security system to maintain order. (End of Chapter)