From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 23 Wild Cat
tick.

A drop of water slid down from the top beam of the tent and hit Chen Zhou's face.

He wiped his face in a daze, thinking that it was Lai Fu who was licking him and mumbling vaguely.

"Don't make trouble~"

After saying that, he turned over and hit his forehead against the corner of the wooden box. With a "bang", he woke up instantly.

"hiss."

Covering his head, Chen Zhou sat up drowsily. He felt a little dark in front of his eyes and had a feeling of dizziness.

"I should have known not to drink so much. This Arrack tastes soft and sweet, and the alcohol content doesn't seem high, so why is the aftereffect so strong?"

After leaning against the box for a while and regaining his normal thinking ability, Chen Zhou held the edge of the bed and slowly stood up.

pat.

Another drop of water fell, creating a small hole in the dry ground inside the tent.

Looking at the soaked soil, Chen Zhou was stunned for a second and looked up at the beam.

A whole night of heavy rain soaked the thick canvas, which had average waterproof properties. The rain penetrated the layers of wall panels, branches and canvas and flowed in through the gaps in the beams.

Raising his arm and touching the beam, looking at the water stains on his palm, Chen Zhou realized that something was wrong and hurriedly left the tent.

It was October 25th, and the sky was still overcast, but there was still some light, so it must be morning.

It was drizzling in the forest and the ground was covered with mud and water.

The loose soil was washed away, leaving many shallow gullies in the woods. Rainwater accumulated at the raised roots of the trees, and brightly colored frogs were squatting in the puddles and croaking.

The raised earthen platform around the tent was also washed away. Many fallen leaves and twigs floated down the slope with the water, hitting the roots of the trees and wrapping them around half a circle of brown and black scarf.

Chen Zhou was having to pee, so he went to relieve himself under a tree and then went to check on the shack.

As expected, these simple small warehouses encountered similar problems as the tents, and the canvas was penetrated.

However, because the shack is triangular in shape, with a small top area and a large inclined wall angle, it cannot hold water. Most of the rainwater flows to the ground, and a small amount of water only seeps down from the top. The problem is not difficult to solve.

He rummaged through the box and took out a pile of wooden bowls and wine glasses, and placed them under the leak in the roof of the shack to catch the rain water. This temporarily solved the problem.

But collecting water is only a temporary solution. It is better to replace the canvas or move the supplies to a dry place.

The problem is that the rain is still going on and will even turn into a rainstorm again in the afternoon. There is no condition to change the canvas or transport supplies, so Chen Zhou can only resort to this last resort.

After simply solving the problem of water leakage in the shack, Chen Zhou took out the iron knife he used to dig loaches and prepared to fill the collapsed earth platform at the edge of the tent to prevent the gap from expanding again and allowing the accumulated water to flow into the tent.

In just a few days, a thin layer of red rust had grown on the surface of the iron knife, making the already thin blade even more fragile, and it would bend as if it was about to break after digging a few pieces of soil.

Knowing that these inferior products were unreliable, Chen Zhou didn't care too much.

There are still three or four hundred such iron knives in the box. By the time they are all used up, the furnace should be ready, and then they can all be sent back into the furnace for remaking.

He has a wealth of theoretical knowledge on manual forging.

Metal heat treatment is one of the important processes in mechanical manufacturing.

Even though Chen Zhou's major does not involve too many heat treatment processes, he has a general understanding of the principles of gas carburizing, ion nitriding, carburizing processes, laser electron beam surface heat treatment and chemical heat treatment.

In addition, after entering society and starting to work, he also likes to watch some hand-forging variety shows, and has followed more than ten episodes.

Although this knowledge is limited to theory or paper talk.

There is enough time and opportunities for practice on Naihe Island.

Even if he is a complete layman, and has been swinging a hammer for five or six years, or pulling a bellows for seven or eight years, as long as he is willing to use his brain to find his shortcomings, accumulate lessons and summarize experience, he will be able to make a decent kitchen knife or hoe, instead of turning it into a pile of scrap metal.

What's more, Chen Zhou also has a notebook that records the practical experience of the blacksmith in Tieba.

Even though the blacksmith's experience was collected from all over the place and most of the information provided was unreliable, at least there were a few pieces that came in handy to help him overcome some technical difficulties and grow into a qualified blacksmith more quickly.

After repairing the earthen platform, Chen Zhou dismantled the wooden walls and branches on both sides of the tent, emptied out the accumulated water inside, and pressed it up again. Only then did he have time to eat lunch.

In the afternoon, he stared at the wooden bowl in the shack and poured rainwater diligently until the rain intensified again before nightfall.

Chen Zhou and Lai Fu hid in the tent again.

While cooking the familiar bread batter, I saw the little gray cat running out of the wooden box, digging a hole in the ground inside the tent, and squatting on it to poop.

There was water all over the ground outside the house, and the little guy didn't want to get his feet wet, so he urinated and defecated everywhere in the tent.

The space is narrow and the smell of cat feces is strong and pungent.

Chen Zhou fanned the air in front of his nose in disdain and opened the door a little wider. After the little gray cat finished defecating, he shoveled away the cat feces with a metal knife and threw it outside the house, then sprinkled soil to cover the hole in the house.

The smell has weakened.

The water in the iron kettle is about to boil.

Amid the gurgling sounds, Chen Zhou pinched the little gray cat by the scruff of its neck, and ignoring its confused look, carried it to the side of the pit and gave it a few fake scoldings.

"Meow~"

The little gray cat naturally didn't understand what was being said. It felt uncomfortable being caught, so it moved its limbs and struggled hard.

Helpless, Chen Zhou had to let go.

As soon as its four limbs touched the ground, the little gray cat quickly jumped away, grabbed the rough outer wall of the wooden box, and returned to its old nest.

In this regard, Chen Zhou only hopes that it can remember this lesson and not make the same mistake again.

Otherwise, we will have to use more severe measures next time.

He spent most of the day in the tent to avoid the rain.

When busyness becomes the main theme of life, Chen Zhou feels a little at a loss when he suddenly has some free time. He just adds charcoal to the fire, or flips through the book "Robinson Crusoe" and teases Lai Fu.

Late at night, he inspected all the shacks in the heavy rain, poured out the accumulated water in the containers, and only went to sleep peacefully after making sure that there was no problem.

…………

October 26th.

Just as the sky was getting light, Chen Zhou heard Lai Fu's excited barking.

I impatiently buried my head in the quilt, wanting to lie down for a while longer.

Amid the rough barking of dogs, he vaguely heard the shrill and warning meow of a cat.

Chen Zhou got up with sleepy eyes and looked at the wooden box beside him.

The little gray cat's belly was round from eating so much. It lay at the bottom of the box, with its ears erected and its head tilted to listen alertly to the movement in the distance.

"What's going on? If it's not you who's barking, then who is Lai Fu biting?"

Remember that there are many wild cats on the island, and their fighting power is incomparable to that of the little gray cat.

Worried about Lai Fu's safety, Chen Zhou hurriedly put on his coat, loaded a lead bullet into the musket in advance, and left the tent with flint and other tools.

After a day and two nights, the heavy clouds finally dissipated, leaving only a few fragments blown away by the wind.

The stars reappeared in the sky after a long absence, and the woods were filled with fresh air after the rain.

Birds are singing and butterflies are fluttering.

Crystal clear water drops slide down from the leaf tips.

The depressing atmosphere is swept away, and everywhere is filled with vitality.

Taking a deep breath, feeling the breath of nature, Chen Zhou picked up his matchlock gun and walked towards the direction where Lai Fu was barking. After almost two days of rest, his sore body was relieved.

The muscle fibers are subjected to labor intensity that exceeds the load, resulting in tiny tears and damage.

As energy was taken in, muscle fibers gradually healed, allowing Chen Zhou to adapt to increasingly high labor intensities and increase his strength and endurance.

The matchlock rifle that seemed so heavy when I first picked it up was no longer a heavy burden.

He walked with vigorous steps, stepping on the puddles in the woods.

From a distance, Chen Zhou saw Lai Fu.

It was guarding under a tree, with its eyes wide open, its head raised, and barking towards the treetops.

Getting closer, Chen Zhou discovered that there was a wound on Lai Fu's ear, which tore the fur and almost penetrated the entire earlobe. Blood was now flowing, and as Lai Fu's head shook frequently, its front shoulder was dyed red.

"Oh shit!"

Seeing Lai Fu injured, a surge of anger suddenly rushed into Chen Zhou's heart.

When beating a dog, one has to look at the owner first. As the only human on the entire island, he cannot accept his pet being hurt.

He hurriedly took out the flint and the bottle of primer. He was going to light the match first and then pour the primer into the gunpowder pool little by little.

The complicated ignition procedure not only failed to dispel his anger and calm him down, but made him even more irritable. He wished he could immediately turn the matchlock in his hand into a rocket launcher and blast the creature on the tree to pieces - no matter what it was.

bass!
bass!
After striking the flint several times, he finally lit the fuse. But before he could aim and pull the trigger, a gust of wind suddenly blew through the forest, blowing away the primer in the gunpowder pool, making Chen Zhou even more furious.

"What the fuck is this shit gun!"

It was only when Chen Zhou used the matchlock gun in actual combat for the first time that he discovered it was truly a magic weapon for treating hypotension.

Fortunately, the enemy he encountered in his first battle was this kind of weak enemy who hid in the trees. If he had relied on the matchlock when fighting the natives for his life, he would probably have been impaled on a stick and roasted by now.

Trying to remain patient and keep his hands steady, Chen Zhou unscrewed the primer bottle and walked to the bottom of the tree, hoping to find the exact location of the culprit in advance and then give it a good shot.

Looking through the branches and leaves washed by rain, Chen Zhou saw an "old acquaintance" near the treetops.

It had wet gray-brown fur, and its eyes were slightly green with its pupils shrunk into a vertical line.

Because it was wet, its body size shrunk slightly. Its four claws tightly grasped the tree trunk, its tail swelled into a short stick, and it was howling loudly.

"Isn't this the wild cat that frightened me the morning after we landed on the island?"

Chen Zhou still remembered the wild cat that caught birds, and he turned his head to look at Lai Fu.

Its ears were still dripping with blood. When it saw its owner, it retracted its ferocious face, wagged its tail pitifully, and let out a few whimpers from its throat, as if it was complaining.

"Don't be afraid, I'll make the decision for you."

Chen Zhou already had some grudge against this wild cat, and now the new and old hatreds were added together, making the two enemies even more jealous of each other.

The primer was finally filled. He held the gun and aimed with the help of the protruding iron block at the front end of the barrel.

Holding his breath, Chen Zhou seemed to have turned into a sniper, placing the crude crosshairs on the wild cat's head.

Pull the trigger——

boom!
There was a loud noise, and countless birds flew into the air startled.

The hot lead bullet burst out of the barrel, shattering all the branches and leaves along the way, and hit the base of the wild cat's tail.

The air was filled with smoke, and Chen Zhou's eardrums felt like they were hit by two sledgehammers, buzzing and roaring.

oooo~
The wild cat's butt was burned by the lead bullet, as if it was on fire, and the intense stinging sensation instantly rushed from the end of its body to the top of its head.

The lower half of its tail was nailed to the tree. The terrible gunshot frightened and hurt the wild cat. It jumped up more than a meter like crazy, grabbed a branch swaying in the wind, and jumped to the treetop nearby without paying attention to the man and the dog who were still waiting under the tree.

If its tail was still there to help it keep its balance in the air, it might have a chance to complete this difficult move.

But at this moment it has lost an important part of its body after all.

The leaping torso drew a graceful arc in the sky.

It was still more than one meter away from the nearby treetop when it fell straight down and hit the leafless forest floor. It made an extremely real muffled sound and bounced twice, but it did not die and continued to struggle to get up.

Wang!
Lai Fu had lived on the sea for a long time and was not surprised by the gunshots. When he saw the wild cat land on the ground, he rushed over and bit the cat's neck, holding it tightly and shaking its head wildly.

The wild cat was like a rag doll, flying left and right in Lai Fu's mouth.

Chen Zhou's hearing recovered a little, and he vaguely heard the sound of broken bones. Then he saw Lai Fu running towards him excitedly and throwing the wild cat to the ground.

After being shot, falling from a height of more than ten meters, and being torn apart by a big dog like Lai Fu, even a cat with nine lives could not withstand such abuse.

There was blood coming out of its mouth and nose, and the wild cat's gray-brown fur was stained with some of the dog's saliva.

It was wet, limp, and completely motionless.

"Well done, Laifu!"

Holding the still smoking matchlock gun, Chen Zhou walked to the wild cat's body. Instead of checking the dead cat, he lifted Lai Fu's ear to observe his injuries.

The wound caused by the cat's scratch was more serious than he had imagined. The sharp cat claws went straight through the entire ear and could even let light through from the outside to the inside.

Fortunately, the cat's claws were small, so although it was a penetrating wound, the wound area was not large and did not scratch any vital parts.

The bleeding rate has slowed down now and it will probably stop after a while.

Pat Lai Fu's head and chest to calm him down.

Seeing that Lai Fu was not frightened or manic because of his injury, Chen Zhou was very relieved, and then he used the muzzle of the gun to poke the wild cat's body.

Completely different from the arrogance and domineering appearance when they first met, the wild cat now not only lost its life, but also its tail and beautiful fur. Chen Zhou couldn't help but feel sorry for it.

"Ugh."

Grabbing the cat by the scruff of the neck and looking it over, Chen Zhou sighed when he saw the wounds on its neck and buttocks.

"I originally wanted to skin a whole cat to make a mat, but now I can only practice on this."

"Come on, Lai Fu, let's go back and stew the cat meat. I'll go get some salt first."

Calling Lai Fu, Chen Zhou walked towards the tent.

He had heard since he was a child that cat meat was sour, but he had never eaten it. This time he really wanted to taste what the wild cats on this island tasted like.

He didn't dare eat those unfamiliar sea fish, shrimps and crabs for fear of being poisoned. Cat meat couldn't be poisonous, at most it just tasted bad.

The pickled meat on the boat was so bad that Chen Zhou had not eaten meat for more than twenty days since the challenge began.

According to the old factory workers, "If you don't eat meat for three days, your eyes won't turn away."

He has been "fasting" for nearly a month, and his eyeballs must be rusted.

Almost all the time-sensitive work has been completed. For the sake of his own health, balanced nutrition, and appetite, Chen Zhou has long been thinking about improving the meals.

Whether the first day of transformation into a carnivore can be a good start depends entirely on this wild cat.

Praying that the taste wouldn't be too bad, Chen Zhou took out a wooden box containing salt, sugar and tea, and prepared to build a bonfire and show off his cooking skills.

　Thanks to: Mysterious Mo Yu Ren, c Hamster Ball, Book Friend 20210301104120051738, Tea Color Like Wine, Live! 着, Less Than Five Scum, Book Friend 20240405184818095, Book Friend 20181024223458668, Pi Yu (by the way, do you pronounce this word mi or jiong), Cook Squad Leader, Lobster Killer and others for their monthly tickets!

　　Chapter 24 has been blocked, just wait for your release...

　　The content of imprisonment is turned into illustrations in this chapter, and the next chapter is the "optimized" one.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)