From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 26 Cave
Chen Zhou spent his childhood in the countryside. Although he did not have the various entertainment options that city kids had, such as the Children's Palace, game halls, and black Internet cafes, he learned other unique skills - slaughtering chickens and geese, skinning and bleeding...

Feeling that the bird was very similar to a goose, he immediately boiled some hot water and prepared to water it and pluck its feathers.

In fact, giving the goose some wine before killing it will make bleeding faster and plucking its feathers more convenient.

Unfortunately, Lai Fu bit the bird too quickly and killed it before Chen Zhou could get close to it, and the blood was not drained completely.

But the matter is done and there is no way to remedy it.

In order to facilitate the subsequent cooking, Chen Zhou removed the front door of the tent that was in the way, laid wooden boards, brought a pile of dry firewood, salt and wine in advance, and quietly waited beside the iron kettle for the water to boil.

Smelling the scent of bird blood, the little gray cat tiptoed to the body of the big bird and carefully and curiously stretched out its claws to touch its wings.

Chen Zhou casually broke off a feather and threw it to the kitten. Looking at it running and playing in the woods with the feather in its mouth, he thought that he should keep the feathers.

They can be used to make quills, crossbow arrows, or to repair the feathers of old crossbow arrows.

In addition to regular feather products, Chen Zhou also thought of the feather dusters commonly used in the village.

His third grandmother was very clever and could make soybean paste, pickle pickles, tie broomsticks, tie feather dusters, and roll hemp ropes. She knew how to do many things and did them well.

When Chen Zhou was a child, he often went to his third grandmother's house for meals and helped out a lot, so he was more or less familiar with the manufacturing process.

Now he had goose feathers, cloth strips, glue, and thin wooden sticks. He wanted to try to make a goose feather duster. He had plenty of time anyway.

The dry wood burned vigorously and the kettle of water soon boiled.

There was no basin big enough, so Chen Zhou stuffed the bird into a small wooden barrel and poured boiling water over it.

The bird's corpse was steaming hot, and it gave off a strange smell that was unique to geese, a smell of grease mixed with earth and blood.

Call ~
Chen Zhou's hands were burned red by the steam. He quickly held down the bird's body and immersed it in boiling water to expand the pores.

Blowing the hot air and pouring some boiling water on it, Chen Zhou began to pluck the hair.

Plucking hair requires speed, accuracy and ruthlessness. If you are not fast, you will get burned, and if you are not accurate and ruthless, you won’t be able to pluck it out.

Chen Zhou's technique is not very smooth, but he has mastered the tricks long ago. Although there are occasional mistakes, they do not affect the overall progress.

In fact, if you want to save trouble, you can also skin the bird.

However, skinning would result in the loss of the bird's oil-rich skin and the failure to obtain complete feathers, so Chen Zhou would rather spend more time.

Placing the feathers individually in a small wooden box, he set about disassembling the bird’s body.

The entire neck and the bird's head were chopped off directly. Then Chen Zhou removed the two wings and prepared to roast them tomorrow. He gave the butt as a reward to Lai Fu, and cut the rest into large pieces and threw them into the pot. He blanched them in water, sprinkled some salt and poured some wine, and stewed them casually.

Cooking without seasoning is so simple and plain.

The big iron kettle is not a pressure cooker, so even if the firewood is strong, the bird meat will take a long time to stew.

While waiting for dinner to be ready, Chen Zhou tidied the feathers in the wooden box.

He compared the feathers of the crossbow arrows, selected feathers of similar size and shape and placed them separately. The fine fluff that could be used as bedding filling was placed on one side, and the long feathers that could be used as goose feather dusters were also placed in a separate pile.

There aren't many materials from a bird. Excluding the poor quality feathers, the remaining long feathers would probably be difficult to make a large duster.

Chen Zhou plans to get some more together.

The flock of birds is not gone forever. There will be a chance to kill a few more in the future. After making a duster, you can also make a goose feather mat. Now you just need to keep the feathers properly.

After tidying up the feathers, he opened the lid and looked at the color of the bird meat. It felt like it was not stewed yet, so Chen Zhou went to the river to clean the wood blocks.

He named the spindle-shaped tree "pineapple tree".

I usually have no interest in videos about animal and plant science, but only now do I realize how terrible it is to be uneducated.

In order to give himself a clear memory point, Chen Zhou could only name them according to his own temperament to avoid confusion.

The wood pieces of pineapple tree are wedge-shaped, yellow in color, and have axe marks on the surface. After cleaning, the fine texture can be seen. It feels heavy in the hand and very substantial.

Chen Zhou tried knocking the wooden board with the sharp end of the wooden block and found that it could make an obvious dent in the board, but the board itself remained intact, which showed that the hardness was obviously not low.

Although he didn't know whether the pineapple tree was the iron tree that Robinson mentioned, he had already decided that if he couldn't find better wood after searching for two more days, he would use the pineapple tree to make a wooden shovel.

The bird meat in the iron pot was stewed over a high fire for more than an hour. The aroma came out through the lid of the pot and filled the entire hillside.

Lai Fu was like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit. He had already swallowed the bird's butt whole. Only when he smelled the fragrance did he feel extremely hungry. He excitedly shook his head and tail and came to the fire.

If they weren't afraid of the heat, they would have taken the iron kettle down.

Darkness had enveloped the slope, and a fire was burning brightly next to the simple tent.

Moving a wooden box to use as a dining table, Chen Zhou sat on a low stool, spread out cheese and bread, and began to enjoy dinner.

The bird meat is generally delicious and the texture is very tough. Even after being stewed for such a long time, it still takes a lot of effort to tear it apart. In addition to the salty and fresh taste, it also has a light fishy smell in the mouth. It is much more delicious than cat meat.

Moreover, the bird skin is full of fat. After stewing, the oil floats on the soup, sparkling under the light of the campfire. Combined with the rising heat, it makes people's appetite increase.

The shreds of meat in the bird's chest and the gaps between its spine were difficult to eat, so Chen Zhou threw them to the little gray cat and Lai Fu.

There was little wind that night and the temperature in the woods was just right, but the light was a little dim.

Chen Zhou was enjoying the meal so much that he took off his coat and started tearing the bird's legs apart.

The branches and leaves rustled, and a man, a dog, and a cat cast their silhouettes in the woods. They seemed lonely, yet they were leaning on and snuggling up to each other.

Frogs croaked and only a pile of leftovers were left by the campfire. The full family returned to the tent and fell into a deep sleep.

Only a group of light-seeking flying insects were left, circling the fire, occasionally dashing into the flames and turning into ashes...

The morning of the 27th was still clear, with few clouds in the blue sky, as if the rainfall a few days ago was just a dream.

I heated up the leftovers, dipped the bread in the broth, and had a hearty breakfast.

After meeting his physiological needs, Chen Zhou packed up his equipment and continued climbing the mountain.

The sins I suffered from being caught in the rain are still fresh in my mind.

In order to prevent sudden bad weather, Chen Zhou never forgets to wear a coat when going out even when the climate on the island is hot.

But he was not wearing Robinson Crusoe's thick coat with a fur collar. That coat was ill-fitting, restricted his movements, and was too thick.

In the large cabin next to the captain's room, he found twelve sailors' duty uniforms and used them as work clothes.

This kind of clothes is made of rough fabric, with long sleeves and wide lapels. It is very loose and has no cotton lining. It is suitable for the island's climate, but the cuffs will rub the wrists when working and need to be rolled up.

In addition to the coat, Chen Zhou also wears leather boots and a wide-brimmed hat when traveling.

Leather boots are sturdy and durable, and can protect against attacks from thorns, snakes and insects in the woods. When encountering an attack from wild beasts, the kicks are more lethal.

There are two holes on the brim of the wide-brimmed hat, which can be hung around the neck with a short rope. You don't need to wear it in the forest, but it can block the sun when you go out of the forest and prevent you from getting wet when it rains or blows.

The total weight of this outfit is eight or nine kilograms, and the biggest disadvantage is that it is too heavy and consumes physical strength too quickly. But compared with its advantages, these disadvantages are not worth mentioning.

Exploring an island is not a 100-meter race, so don’t rush.

Yesterday we went all the way west from the cliff, and today Chen Zhou decided to go east.

The mountains in the southern hemisphere face the sun on the north and the shade on the south.

The cliff is not a straight line, but slants towards the northeast. The further east you go, the lower the tree density and the drier the ground.

Flowing water no longer erodes the land here, replaced by sea breeze.

The ground was covered with gravel and sand, the view was extremely wide, and the wind was blowing in through the neck and collar, making people's stomach and back feel cold.

Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and lowering the brim to block the sea breeze, Chen Zhou found that the terrain under his feet was getting higher and higher, while the cliff was getting lower and lower. He was about to bypass this natural barrier and reach the mountainside.

Climbing slowly, always looking upwards, Chen Zhou spotted the flock of sheep from a distance.

This time there was no cliff to block the view, and the entire flock of sheep was in sight.

There were more than thirty of them, most of them were adult sheep, and they were now walking down from a platform on the mountainside, as if to find food or drink water.

The one walking in the front seemed to be the big sheep that was on guard yesterday. It seemed very relaxed, stopping from time to time to eat some tender grass. It did not seem as nervous as it was yesterday when it stopped by the mountain stream.

No wonder.

There is a giant python living in the deep pool under the mountain stream. The sheep must have been attacked by the python, so they are vigilant when drinking water.

The view is wide halfway up the mountain, and even the grass is not very tall, so you can see everything at a glance, and the sheep can naturally relax.

Chen Zhou lay behind a low rock and after a moment's thought he figured out where the sheep were going. He quickly picked up his gun and tried to move diagonally to the path the sheep must take to block them.

Using the gravel and bushes on the mountain to cover his body, he took Lai Fu and sneaked to a small woods more than 100 meters ahead of the flock of sheep. He waited quietly for the prey to come.

However, Chen Zhou's hunting experience was still too shallow. He only thought of vision and hearing, but forgot about the sense of smell.

The wind blowing from the sea passes through his body first, and then rushes to the flock of sheep carrying complex information.

The unique pungent smell of gunpowder startled the lead sheep.

It raised its head, slightly turned its body, stopped the flock of sheep, narrowed its eyes slightly, and its pupils swept across the woods.

The trees in this forest belt are not only sparse but also thin. The thickest tree can only be hugged by one person.

The tree where Chen Zhou was hiding could only barely cover most of his body. He leaned his head out to look and noticed the unusual behavior of the leader sheep. His heart skipped a beat and he thought to himself that something was wrong.

Sure enough, sensing the danger, the lead sheep had already sounded the warning and was ready to lead the flock back to the open mountainside.

There, as long as the hunter's running speed and agility cannot match theirs, it will be impossible to kill them.

"This wild goat is more clever than a monkey."

Seeing that the flock of sheep had already started running away, Chen Zhou could only pick up the gun with lead bullets and lit the fuse, trying to get lucky and kill a sheep like he did last night.

Bang!
The sheep scattered in a rush, accompanied by black smoke. The ground was clean, without a single drop of blood, and even the spot where the lead bullet hit could not be found.

Knowing that his shot would be fruitless, Chen Zhou put away his musket, feeling both regretful and unbelievable.

"How did they know I was lying in ambush in the woods?
I wanted to kill them yesterday but Lai Fu exposed our position and I didn’t shoot…”

"What the hell!"

"Did I get discovered when I was making a detour? That doesn't make sense!"

Completely confused, Chen Zhou could only attribute the failure to his poor marksmanship. He thought that if he were a sharpshooter, he would have shot their hairy heads off one by one and eaten their meat.

"I'll practice my gun and crossbow when I get home tonight!"

Angrily slapping the tree next to him, as if complaining that it was not thick enough and exposed himself, Chen Zhou suddenly realized that this tree seemed to be a species he had never seen before.

Its bark is dark brown, and it stands tall and straight. It looks plain, with no branches at the bottom and a dense crown, and it looks like a strong American man.

Taking down the hatchet, Chen Zhou tried to chop it.
I never expected that the tree was so hard that the crudely made axe could only slightly break the bark and could no longer penetrate further.

Prying open the dark brown bark, Chen Zhou discovered that the wood of this tree was actually black, and its structure was so dense that the fibers were almost invisible, just like a piece of cast iron.

“Could this be the real iron tree?”

Silently comparing the hardness of this tree with that of the pineapple tree, Chen Zhou felt more and more that his guess was correct, so he swung the axe, wanting to chop down the tree that was as thick as his waist.

Clang clang clang, the axe blade collided with the tree, making a crisp sound, like the collision of metal and iron.

After chopping vigorously for dozens of times, Chen Zhou felt that the axe was becoming duller and duller, and the last few times he chopped it had no effect at all.

When I picked it up and looked at the axe blade, I found that it had been smashed flat. Not to mention the blade, even the sharp angle could not be found.

Intuit!
Spitting, Chen Zhou took out the second axe from his waist and continued chopping.

The sun moved from the east to the west, and a dark cloud floated over the sea in the distance. The weather was gloomy and it seemed like it was going to rain.

He had barely chopped down one-third of the tree, and the blade of his second hand axe was also bent. He had no other tools on him, and Chen Zhou had no hope of chopping down the tree.

Looking at the sky, he decided to continue walking around before the rain started, to get a clear idea of the terrain on the mountainside, and then bring a good axe and a short saw to cut off the remaining part tomorrow.

Further east in the sunny direction is a flat piece of land where the sheep once stayed.

Since there are no trees, everything in sight is clear when you look over there. Just walk a little towards the top of the mountain and over the ridge, you can peek at another beach by the sea.

If the landing location is not much different, that beach should be the place where the natives held the cannibal feast.

Knowing that he would return here tomorrow, Chen Zhou did not go east, but turned around and walked towards the shade.

Just crossing the dividing line carved by the sun is like passing through a barrier of the world, and everything is completely different.

The land on the shady slopes is home to many low plants that prefer cool, damp weather. The top of the mountain is shrouded in a thin mist, and although the trees are low, they are much denser.

Looking up, the mountain is steep and smooth rock surfaces three to five meters high can be seen everywhere.

The lower part of the mountain was made of loess mixed with sand and gravel. Chen Zhou tried to break it apart and felt it was very solid and difficult to shake.

Going further ahead, he saw from afar a cave entrance more than one meter high on the rock wall that was perpendicular to the ground. It was so dark that it looked like the eye of some wild beast.

Worried that the cave was a wild beast's lair, Chen Zhou loaded the crossbow and lead bullets in advance and carefully observed the area around the cave entrance.

There was no wild animal droppings, no unusual footprints, and no traces of snakes crawling on the ground.

Feeling a little relieved, Chen Zhou squinted his eyes and looked into the cave. Seeing that the interior was narrow and empty, with no dead corners to hide, he crawled in.

The entrance of the cave is big and the cave is small.

There are no stalactites in it, nor are there any forks leading to other places. It is just a simple circular space, approximately a dozen square meters in size.

After walking around, Chen Zhou found that most of the cave walls were made of solid rock, with only a small part around the cave entrance being sand and gravel.

The temperature inside the cave is slightly lower than outside, but it is not humid. The ground is very dry and there is no moisture in the soil at all.

If a door could be installed at the entrance of the cave, it could be used as a temporary shelter, and could also be used to store some food that is sensitive to heat and moisture - at least it wouldn't leak.

However, in Chen Zhou's mind, the greatest value of this cave is to expand it into a permanent residence.

But he didn't have the right digging tools. Even if he made a wooden pickaxe and a shovel, he couldn't dig through the rock cave wall and couldn't make full use of the place.

After finally finding such a Feng Shui treasure land, Chen Zhou was unwilling to just use it as a temporary shelter. He walked around the cave wall and examined it carefully, focusing on the small sand and gravel structures, trying to find flaws that could be excavated.

Outside the cave, the rain began to fall quietly.

A slanting wind blew, and the raindrops hit the protruding rocks at the entrance of the cave, gathering into a stream that flowed only down the slope without soaking an inch of the land in the cave.

Chen Zhou squatted there, holding a short axe, knocking here and prying there.

In the end, they helplessly discovered that if they wanted to expand the cave, they either had to use iron tools to slowly grind it or directly use black powder to blast it.

Relying on the wooden pickaxe, unless he can live to be two hundred and eighty years old.

"It's a pity, it's a pity."

Sitting on the ground, looking at the drizzle like a pearl curtain, Chen Zhou sighed.

There are few things in nature that are perfect, and he had already prepared himself mentally.

It's just that when hopes are dashed, there's bound to be some regret.

Wangwu~
Noticing that his master was in a low mood, Lai Fu gently licked the back of Chen Zhou's hand which was supporting the ground, and sat obediently beside him, wagging his tail.

Chen Zhou took shelter in the cave and fell asleep without realizing it.

When I woke up, the rain had stopped and the clouds had dispersed. Standing on the mountainside and looking out, I saw the sky full of red clouds, as if I had arrived at the 800-li Flaming Mountain.

Afraid of encountering danger while traveling after dark, Chen Zhou hurried back with Lai Fu.

He heated up the leftover bird meat from yesterday. It had a stronger fishy smell today, but Chen Zhou ate it with gusto.

Nearly a month had passed, and he could feel himself gradually becoming stronger.

After the last trip, the excessive physical labor was reduced.

Chen Zhou's weight has decreased and his physical fitness has improved as he runs around with loads almost every day.

My muscles are no longer sore, the scars on my body are slowly healing, and everything is moving in the right direction.

After dinner, Chen Zhou hung a string of targets with ropes and began practicing with the matchlock and crossbow.

The sound of gunfire rang out throughout the forest. The birds that had just returned to their nests fled in panic, flying out of the treetops in black masses like a dark cloud.

The wooden stick that served as the target was sometimes hit and sometimes just missed by the lead bullet.

Chen Zhou continued to adapt to the original sight of the matchlock gun, feeling its trajectory and summarizing his shooting experience.

As lead bullets shot out one after another, his shoulders became more swollen and painful due to the recoil. He finally put down his musket and picked up the crossbow.

While practicing with the crossbow, Chen Zhou realized that there were abundant wood resources on the island, and animal tendons and fish bladder glue could also be obtained. He should try to make some hunting bows and arrows.

The bow and arrow is more difficult to use than the crossbow, but it does not require much effort to string the bow, has a faster firing frequency, and can capture fleeting opportunities. It just requires a huge amount of practice.

Coincidentally, what he lacks the least right now is time to practice.

Every time a crossbow is fired, the life of the arrow and bowstring is reduced. Chen Zhou concentrates on understanding the feeling of aiming to ensure that every shot is an improvement.

He stopped practicing before dark.

Now, he had a certain understanding of the ballistics of the musket and crossbow, and estimated that if he had enough time to aim, he had a 100% chance of hitting a medium-sized fixed target within 30 meters.

As for prey in motion, you can only take your time.

As a novice hunter, his accuracy still has a lot of room for improvement.

Shooting is a skill that relies on time and experience, and it cannot be mastered in just one or two hours.

After putting away his musket and crossbow, before going to bed, Chen Zhou checked the conditions of each supply shed one by one.

Because the rain at noon was not too heavy, there was not much water in the container.

Despite this, Chen Zhou poured out the water before returning to the tent.

The wooden door had been removed but not yet installed, and the breeze that blew in ruffled the hair on the bedding.

The little gray cat climbed out of the wooden box and wanted to get under the quilt, but Chen Zhou flicked its head and drove it off the bed.

Chen Zhou picked up the wedge-shaped piece of pineapple wood on the bedside table and felt its delicate touch. He suddenly had an idea and decided to use this piece of wood to make a special calendar.

Every day, he would carve marks on the surface of the wood.

The short bar represents a day, the long bar represents a week, and the short cross-shaped bar represents a month. Each piece of wood is engraved with 365 marks.

During his 28 years on the island, he had to find a different tree every year, and when the challenge was over, he would have 28 unique calendars.

The night after the rain, the tent was not stuffy and the breeze was cool, making it difficult for Chen Zhou to fall asleep.

The idea of marking the calendar became stronger and stronger. He tossed and turned, unable to wait until tomorrow morning. He would cover himself with a quilt, lie on the head of the bed, take out a dagger, count the days, and mark the passage of time that belonged to him alone from top to bottom.

Between the sea and the sky, the tide rises and the moon rises, and the broken corner becomes round again after reincarnation.

Only the stars gazed at the mountains and forests indifferently.

　Thanks: hhhrlx for the reward, thanks to No.1 Gate for the reward!

　　Thanks to: Shuai Qiechen, Yi Daiqing, Xiaoyaohun, book friend 160415110508157, Shengruxiahua980705, Not Enough to Fight Five, IEhct, book friend 20200308181554396, author Dacongming, Shengguang Dalang, Jianxue Moming, [Galaxy Batman], book friend 20220419234611565, The Early Bird Jumps First, Tea Color is Like Wine, and Qumou Yixiao Jiumeng Ruyan for their monthly tickets. Thank you all!
　　I have added 1,900 words, all in this chapter. Don’t accuse me of going back on my word.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)