From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 24: Cycas revoluta
Skinning is a skill.

Putting down the matchlock gun, Chen Zhou held Robinson's small dagger, spread the wild cat's body at the door of the tent, laid a wooden board on the ground, recalled the working procedures of the old people to slaughter pigs and sheep, and chose the starting position.

“The first step seems to be bleeding.

Otherwise, the color will not look good when cooked and it will taste fishy.

But this guy is dead, will it still work? "

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Zhou still stabbed the corpse in the neck.

Robinson's dagger was much sharper than the iron knife, and it easily cut through the still soft fur, and a warm stream immediately flowed out.

The wooden board was stained. Chen Zhou lifted the wild cat's hind legs, turned its head downward, and controlled the moisture.

After all, it was a corpse. Without the pumping of the heart, the flow of body fluids was slow and soon stagnated.

The salt-rich liquid flowed from the slightly inclined wooden board into the woodland. Lai Fu had been salivating over it for a long time. He slowly walked to the side and licked it, gently shaking his tail, looking very satisfied.

Rubbing Lai Fu's chest, Chen Zhou recalled his father's method of skinning a sheep and peeled off the skin of the prey bit by bit.

When I help out at home, I always feel that I have learned how to do it with my eyes and brain, but once I really start, I find that there are many difficulties.

Due to lack of experience, he was unable to handle the head properly.

The tail is also missing because it was nailed to the tree, and with the holes bitten by the dog, the whole process is full of flaws.

Putting down the dagger and picking up the fur, Chen Zhou looked at the gap on it and gave himself a score of five - just barely reaching the passing line.

Although I am not completely satisfied, I have a sense of accomplishment. At least I have a "presentable" look.

"Should I process the cat meat first, or should I follow the guide on the forum and tan the leather?"

As he thought it would rain in the next few days, which would not be conducive for drying the furs, he temporarily gave up the plan of tanning the furs.

The lower abdomen had not yet been opened, the body looked very clean and there was very little odor.

When Chen Zhou cut open the stomach, a strong stench came out along with the intestines, a mixture of the unique smell of internal organs and the fishy smell of undigested food.

Looking embarrassed, Chen Zhou hung the fur on a tree branch and ran to the river with the wooden board.

While cleaning the inside of the body with the help of river water, he was thinking about how to take out the intestines and stomach.

The wild cat's intestines were very thin, so Chen Zhou didn't dare to pull them violently. What if the cat got a stomach full of shit, and then it wouldn't be able to eat it.

In addition to the large and small intestines and stomach, there are also two kidneys, pancreas, bladder and other organs in the cavity. You have to be very careful when handling them. You cannot use a knife and can only pull them slowly with your hands.

After studying the internal structure for a while, Chen Zhou discovered that the stomach was connected to the forelock. After opening the diaphragm between the forelock and forelock, he could see the esophagus that went directly from the cat's throat to the stomach.

This thin esophagus can be pulled apart from the mouth. In order to prevent the food in the stomach from flowing out of the esophagus, Chen Zhou tied a knot in the esophagus and then moved his eyes to the cat's hind half.

The lower abdomen was completely opened, and the heart, liver, lungs, esophagus and ribs were all in sight, and the situation gradually became clear.

Chen Zhou also became more and more familiar with handling the situation.

Carefully pinching the connection between the large intestine and the anus, he took the wild cat's entire digestive system out of the abdomen intact, without missing a single bit of feces.

Call ~
"Great victory!" Chen Zhou thought.

Placing the intestines on the grass and smelling the much lighter fishy stench after being washed by river water, he suddenly had an idea.

“These intestines should not be wasted, they should be made into fish bait.

After using them to catch fish, I would catch a few mice in advance to test the poison, and then draw an illustrated guide. Gradually, I would learn which fish I could eat and which I could not.

This way, I can also take care of seafood. I am such a freaking genius!"

The idea of testing poison on rats inspired Chen Zhou.

His knowledge of plants and animals was limited, and there were many unfamiliar flowers and fruits on the island.

If you are not sure which fruit is poisonous or not, feed it to mice, then slowly observe their reactions and record the symptoms.

As long as you are patient, sooner or later you will find out what is edible and delicious on this island.

While conceiving the "Rat Quality Inspector" plan, Chen Zhou's hands were not idle.

The wild cat's heart, liver and lungs were taken out and thrown to Lai Fu who had been waiting for a long time.

He used a dagger to remove the wild cat's four legs, then cut open the connection between the ribs and the spine, and gave these parts with less meat and more bones to Lai Fu as rewards. Chen Zhou returned to the camp carrying the four legs that he had finally decomposed.

Light a bonfire and boil water in a pot.

After simply blanching the cat meat, sprinkling some salt, and pouring a few ounces of rum to remove the fishy smell, Chen Zhou looked anxiously at the large iron kettle that was making gurgling sounds.

There were no onions, ginger, garlic, peppercorns, or even chili peppers. It was such a primitive way of eating. He couldn't imagine how bad the boiled cat meat would taste.

While waiting for the meat to be cooked, he found two straight branches, peeled off the bark, cut the square end and the round head, and made a simple pair of chopsticks.

Chen Zhou would occasionally open the lid to check if the cat meat was cooked. He took out the dry white bread in advance, ready to replace the "dark dish" that was about to appear at any time.

The fresh meat was bubbling in the boiling water. There was almost no floating oil in the pot, but a faint aroma of meat was emanating.

Take a breath.

Not smelling the legendary sour smell, Chen Zhou couldn't help but doubt the claim that cat meat is sour.

The water had been boiling for a long time. Worried that it might not be able to completely kill the bacteria and parasites, he deliberately simmered it for a while longer, until the cat meat naturally fell off the leg bones. Only then did he take out the bowl and chopsticks and start eating.

The smell of cooking attracted the little gray cat. It walked around the campfire twice, opened its mouth slightly and sniffed the special smell carefully. It couldn't help showing disgust and turned around and walked back to the tent.

"You can smell it even when it's cooked?"

Holding the bowl and staring at the grayish-white cat meat, Chen Zhou could not help but realize the importance of "color" among color, fragrance and taste. Even if the smell was not bad, just looking at the white color that looked like boiled chicken breast would reduce his appetite by more than half.

Tried a bite.

The taste is very bland and the texture is very strange.

Maybe because it was stewed for a long time, the fibers of the cat meat appear unusually delicate. It has neither sour nor smelly, but it is not fragrant either, and has a slight fishy smell.

The salt did not seem to completely penetrate into the meat, leaving only a faint salty taste on the surface. The more I chewed, the harder it became to swallow, and I had to swallow it raw. It was completely incomparable to the pork, beef, and mutton I usually eat.

If it happened in modern times, Chen Zhou would give the merchant a bad review without hesitation after taking two bites of such boiled meat.

But here, no matter how dissatisfied he was, he ate all the meat and even drank two bowls of soup.

It has been a long time since Chen Zhou last consumed high-quality protein, and he knew very well what his body was craving.

Skinning and cooking took several hours.
After packing up the kitchen utensils and looking at the clear sky, Chen Zhou didn't want to stay in the camp to rest any longer.

So he called Lai Fu, put on his musket, took out his crossbow, and prepared to go out for a walk to find a suitable place to build a shelter.

While huddled in the tent to avoid the rain, he already had a rough idea of the location of the shelter.

First, the shelter must be located high up, if not on the top of the mountain, then on the mountainside.

The high place provides a wide view, making it convenient to climb up and look far away, and to grasp any abnormal conditions on the sea around the island at the first time. Both the natives and the merchant ships can see it.

Especially the indigenous people, their attitude towards other races is to kill them all without any mercy.

Living in the dense forest in the low-lying area is indeed hidden, but the trees are both a barrier for oneself and a protective umbrella for the natives. Once they discover the location of the shelter, they can sneak up on you without being noticed, and you are likely to be eaten alive.

Compared with passive defense, Chen Zhou prefers to hold the initiative in his own hands.

The high ground is open and there are no obstacles to block the bullets.

As long as lead bullets are loaded in advance, the hundreds of meters of bare slope will be the road to death for the natives. Even if thirty natives rush up together, Chen Zhou is confident that he can defeat their morale before they run to his face.

But being high does not mean exposing your shelter to the enemy's sight.

Taking into account the smoke produced by cooking and the traces left by human fire construction, Chen Zhou planned to place the main body of the shelter on the back of the mountain, and at the same time build a charcoal kiln in the forest at the foot of the mountain to produce charcoal with less smoke.

In that case, the natives would not be able to directly observe the shelter from the sea. However, through the defensive facilities built on the mountain and with the help of a telescope, he could observe the beaches on both sides from a distance to find opportunities to capture or actively attack the natives.

As for the type of shelter, Chen Zhou felt that the best choice must be a brick house.

However, he is still a long way from opening a kiln and firing bricks, so he has to be realistic.

Faced with the same earthquake resistance problem, considering the construction time, waterproofness, concealment, etc., the most suitable method for him is to dig a cave.

Wooden houses are highly waterproof, poorly concealed, and take a long time to build, especially large wooden houses, where it takes a whole year just to cut down trees and transport wood;

Underground caves are quick to dig, highly concealed, and poorly waterproof, and can easily become swimming pools during the rainy season. Only caves are simple and crude.

But there was still a problem - he had no pickaxe, shovel or transportation to move sand and gravel.

The furnace had not even been built yet, so it was impossible to rely on it. Chen Zhou could only refer to Robinson Crusoe's solution and prepare to find a tree called "Brazilian iron tree", then cut one off and slowly carve out a few pickaxes and shovels.

In modern life, Chen Zhou has heard of ironwood chopsticks, ironwood cutting boards, and iron tree flowers, but he has never seen what an iron tree looks like.

Moreover, the "Brazilian iron tree" mentioned in Robinson Crusoe may not be the iron tree he knew.

In the vast forest, it is not easy to find a specific tree.

The only one to blame is Defoe, who did not describe in detail the main characteristics and exact location of the "Brazilian iron tree" in the book.

Chen Zhou just hoped that he would be lucky enough to find the iron tree, otherwise he would have to spend more effort to build the wooden house.

In order to ensure that the "tree-hunting journey" would go smoothly, Chen Zhou also brought two short axes as "wood testing tools".

According to the description in the book, there are some wood tumors on the branches of the iron tree. The wood is hard and heavy, and only a small piece can be cut off with an axe.

If you want to find it quickly, the best way is to chop down each tree you see with an axe until you come across a tree that you can't chop down.

The place where Robinson Crusoe temporarily lived was not far from the slope. Walking into the island or up the mountain, there were forests and countless trees everywhere.

Chen Zhou estimated that Robinson could not walk far in his search for wood, and he must have been lucky to find the iron tree so quickly.

Even if his luck is not as good as Robinson's, he can always find it by spending a few more days.

With beautiful fantasies about the future shelter in mind and carrying heavy weapons and equipment, Chen Zhou plunged into the deep primeval forest.

It was noon and the sun was shining brightly.

This ancient forest was dark, as if it were dusk.

Layers of leaves blocked the light. There were forests all over the mountain and hills. From towering trees to low shrubs, from thick vines to morning vines, the plants of varying shades and shapes dazzled Chen Zhou.

I don’t know what kind of bird was singing sweetly in the air; the emerald green parrot stood vigilantly on the branch, tilting its head in confusion to look at the strange visitor.

The woodpecker clung to the tree trunk, thrusting its long beak into the tree's wound like a pile driver, twitching wildly; squirrel-like animals leaped back and forth in the sky, and insects with protective colors crawled slowly, lurking among the green leaves and flowers.

You can discover different plants at every step and there are unexpected surprises at every glance.

After walking for hundreds of meters, before finding the iron tree, Chen Zhou first discovered a small tree with yellow fruits. He curiously picked a fruit, peeled off the tight skin and smelled it.

A strong sour smell unique to citrus hits you in the face.

Looking at the shape of the fruit with pointed ends and a round middle, Chen Zhou thought it should be a wild lemon tree.

Out of respect for his life, he did not hastily taste the fruit that looked like a lemon. Instead, he picked more fruits and put them in his pocket, preparing to train poison-testing rats to make sure they were non-toxic before eating them.

　Thanks to Gal_gadot for the tip!
　　Thanks to the Sunset Otaku Group, Wu from the Old Military Camp, Daytime Delusional, Heart Has a Home, If It Doesn't Work, You Have to Pay More, Some Also, Book Friend 20220322204736586, Book Friend 20210301106607942266, and the monthly ticket for Creating Sandbox World, thank you all!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)