From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 31 The Third Mysterious Reward

In addition to learning knowledge, another potential advantage of university life is that you can make friends from all over the world and learn about the languages and cultures of different regions.

Chen Zhou has a roommate who is from Shanxi and is very jealous.

On weekdays, everyone is too lazy to go to the cafeteria, so they cook instant noodles in the dormitory and basically eat braised beef or pickled cabbage flavor, but he just likes hot and sour beef noodles.

Dissatisfied with the fact that the vinegar inside was not flavorful enough, he poured some old vinegar he brought from his hometown into it. The sour aroma could be smelled from two or three dormitories away.

Shanxi vinegar culture has a long history. When they were free and chatting in the dormitory, their roommates told them some stories about wine and vinegar.

According to legend, vinegar was invented by Heita, the son of Du Kang, the wine saint.

Heita soaked the lees left over from brewing wine in a jar. After twenty-one days, he opened the jar and found that it had turned into a sour and fragrant liquid, which was the earliest vinegar.

Vinegar and wine are inseparable. The ancients had a saying that "where there is wine, there is vinegar."

According to Chen Zhou's roommate, if strong liquor is diluted with water or directly fermented with low-alcohol liquor, as long as the temperature is high enough and it is stirred frequently, vinegar can be made in about half a month.

The temperature must be above 30 degrees, or even 40 degrees.

It would be better if there is acetic acid bacteria, and the success rate will be higher. It doesn’t matter if there is no acetic acid bacteria. This kind of bacteria is distributed in large quantities in the air, and as long as it is not completely sealed, it will always enter the brewing jar.

The taste of vinegar made directly from low-alcohol wine is far less layered, fragrant and mellow than that of edible vinegar.

However, it has a high acetic acid content, and by wiping the surface, it can achieve the effect of sterilization and disinfection to a certain extent.

As for fumigating with vinegar to kill bacteria, Chen Zhou had long known that it was "wrong common sense" passed down from his ancestors.

Acetic acid at too low a concentration cannot pose a threat to the virus, so it is not intended to be tried.

In addition to sterilization and scale removal, vinegar itself is also a seasoning and medicine. Applying it to tired and sore areas can provide some relief, strengthen the stomach and aid digestion, and can be used as an emergency antidote in the event of alkaline food poisoning.

Sailors in the 17th century were very dependent on alcohol for anesthesia. The food on the ship tasted bad and the drinking water was unhygienic, so alcohol became the choice to quench thirst.

Most of the time, the captain has to rely on drinks to maintain order on the ship.

Not to mention the sailors, even the captain and the first mate often drink, not to mention the alcoholic gunner.

Wine is undoubtedly an indispensable part of life at sea.

Chen Zhou carried down sixteen large barrels of rum from the ship, as well as a number of high-quality bottled arrack, and several bottles of fine wine with silver caps, such as brandy, that had not yet been opened.

In the notes of the book, he learned that Arak is a famous liquor originating from Asia, brewed from coconut juice, honey, rice and dates.

Although this wine tastes slightly sweet and has a soft flavor, it is an authentic strong liquor. No wonder I got drunk that day without realizing it.

Previously, Chen Zhou had thought about getting some seasonings to help with cooking, but his thoughts never turned to vinegar, and the little stories told by his roommates were always buried deep in his memory.

While digging the hole in the morning, he suddenly remembered this incident for some reason, so he hurried back to try whether it was feasible to make vinegar with wine.

There is a huge amount of rum and the alcohol content is not low.

He hardly drinks alcohol normally, so he can't use up so much alcohol in reserve, so this is a good opportunity to test whether his good brother is lying or not.

There are also quite a few wooden barrels used for fermentation, which are placed on a sunny slope. The temperature is sufficient. You just need to stir it every day and wait for the acetic acid bacteria to be generated.

Picking up the carrying pole, Chen Zhou walked straight down the mountain.

He filled two large barrels of wine in the camp, carried them to the sunny side of the mountain, added some cold boiled water, stirred it vigorously for a while, tightened the lid slightly, and returned to the shady side to continue digging.

Making vinegar is different from making wine. Vinegar does not need to be sealed so tightly. It needs to be opened and breathed every day to allow acetic bacteria a chance to take over, so that it can be brewed successfully.

In this way, starting from November 11, Chen Zhou had an additional job - opening the lid of the vinegar barrel and stirring it at noon every day.

Regular life continues until November 11th.

Another day passed. Sitting on the bed in the cave, Chen Zhou carved a mark on the wedge-shaped calendar, stroking the undulating indentations, and found that another half a month had passed unknowingly.

The tight schedule makes time seem to be swallowed up and disappear silently.

As the third mysterious reward was about to arrive, Chen Zhou was no longer as excited as the previous two times.

He was basically certain that the so-called mysterious rewards were mostly cheap small commodities, which were even more deceptive than drawing blind boxes, and nine out of ten would be useless modern industrial defective products.

He was lucky to get the nail clipper set last time, but it might not be a good thing this time.

It takes about an hour and a half to walk from the cave on the mountainside to the landing place, which means a whole morning to go back and forth. It is very time-consuming, and Chen Zhou is actually a little reluctant to go.

But there is no way. The lower limit of mysterious rewards is low but the upper limit is high. If you draw a box of lighters but don’t take it and it is taken away by a seabird, you don’t know when you will be able to get a useful reward again.

So even though he was reluctant, he got up early and headed for the beach in the early morning.

In fact, there is one thing that Chen Zhou is quite curious about - when will the mysterious reward be refreshed on the beach.

Will he appear directly after midnight, or will he appear only when he gets close to the beach?

If he had been waiting on the beach the night before, would he have been able to see the reward appear?
Or capture the movements of the Time Travel Administration staff and observe what aliens look like.

The answers to these questions are unknown, and Chen Zhou does not intend to risk being silenced to spy on the true appearance of the "aliens".

Besides, since they can change time and space, they must have eliminated the backward manual delivery method long ago and adopted some faster and quicker way to send out mysterious rewards.

Even if he was so curious that he stayed on the beach all night to observe, it would most likely be in vain.

Don't do meaningless things and don't waste your energy in vain.

Chen Zhou arrived at the beach before the sun rose from the sea.

Since the beginning of the dry season, the daytime on the island has become increasingly hotter and there are very few clouds in the sky.

In this kind of climate, traveling early in the morning or at night will actually save you some suffering.

Thanks to the cloudless sky, the light of the stars and the moon can shine on the earth without any hindrance.

Everything on the beach was extremely clear. Chen Zhou saw from a distance that the mysterious reward was lying in a familiar position, motionless.

This time the reward package is slightly smaller than the previous two times, and the paper box has changed from corrugated paper to colorful cardboard with printed patterns.

As he got closer and saw the pattern printed on the cardboard, Chen Zhou became increasingly confused about what the reward was.

It was a cartoon-like old monk wearing a blue cassock, sitting upright on the ground with a wooden fish in front of him and some short sentences written next to it that looked like Buddhist scriptures.

"Magic weapon? Or scripture?"

"It's useless to me. There's no ghost on the island. Are you trying to persuade me to convert to Buddhism?"

Chen Zhou was speechless. He picked up the box and opened it quickly.

The small box is not big, and there is not even any tape on the outside. After opening the lid, there is a classic second layer of packaging and a thin plastic groove inside.

Obviously, the manufacturer wants to make the product look upscale in this way.

But everyone knows that wrapping garbage in gold foil cannot change its nature.

The second layer of packaging is translucent, with two lines of words printed on it - knock on the electronic wooden fish and accumulate cyber merits.

After tearing open the plastic packaging, you can see a wooden fish connected to a base and a small hammer for hitting the wooden fish. There is a red button at the end of the hammer with "Merit +1" printed on it. Seeing this, Chen Zhou already knew that this thing might be even less useful than a silicone phone case, but he still took out the electronic wooden fish.

There is a battery installation port under the base, and two AA batteries are included in the box.

Put the batteries in, press the red button, and the small hammer will hit the wooden fish, making a "dong dong dong" sound.

Of course, this sound is not actually made by the wooden fish, because the wooden fish is made of plastic and cannot produce that kind of ethereal sound.

The "dong dong dong" sound comes from the sound system inside the wooden fish. Each time you press the button, it will sound three times. If you press it multiple times, you will also hear the chanting of Buddhist scriptures.

After pressing it a few more times, Chen Zhou became more and more certain that this thing was useless, so he took out the battery and returned to the cave with the useless electronic wooden fish and the cyber merit he had just accumulated.

On the way back, he couldn't help cursing again.

This abnormal little toy caused Chen Zhou to lower his expectations for the next reward.

If the reward pool includes all small commodities below ten yuan, then the probability of him getting a lighter by chance is probably one in ten thousand.

Not to mention anything else, the cheap small commodities produced in Yiwu alone are enough to last for ten years.

The only parts of this electronic wooden fish that Chen Zhou could use were the internal motor, audio components and batteries.

But the No. 5 battery is not durable and the motor is too small, so it can only make a small plastic hammer weighing a few grams knock up and down. If the hammer is replaced with an iron nail, it may hardly move.

No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't think of a scenario where it would be useful.

"Just think of it as accumulating luck. It's a mysterious reward. How can you get the guaranteed reward without putting in a few shots?"

To comfort himself, Chen Zhou continued working according to his schedule.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it has come from November 11th to November 13rd.

After more than ten days of brewing, the vinegar barrel has produced a distinct sour smell, the rum diluted with water has become turbid, and some sediment has emerged from the bottom of the barrel.

Judging from the smell, the vinegar brewing seems to be on the right track, but judging from the color, something seems to be wrong.

Chen Zhou started making vinegar based on a method he heard from others. He had no experience in this matter and didn't know whether this reaction was problematic, so he could only let nature take its course.

The progress of cave excavation is as steady as ever, with approximately two square meters of interior space being opened up every three days.

Since the construction started on November 11, the newly excavated cave has opened up a total area of 5 square meters, which can barely accommodate a bed and some sundries.

The newly made pickaxe and wooden shovel were damaged, the work progress came to a standstill, and Chen Zhou had to make new tools.

And as we dig deeper, there is more and more rock, and the rate of loss will become faster and faster.

Sitting on the bed, he took out pineapple ink, paper and pen.

He did some calculations and found that it would take about 20 months to excavate all the rooms, including the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms, assuming 16 square meters were excavated per month.

If we add in the manufacturing of tools, felling of trees to build load-bearing structures, laying of floors, installation of wall panels, building of walls, and moving of furniture, the entire project may very well be delayed to as long as three years.

And during the excavation process, he also had to farm and graze.

If you think about it, it would take him at least eight or nine years to complete the entire shelter with just the crude tools he has now and his calloused hands.

"In 1989..."

Chen Zhou almost gritted his teeth as he said the number. He put down the feather pen in his hand and fell into deep thought as he looked at the pink and purple ink.

Now, the original plan took too long and he had to choose to compromise, take risks or change.

The compromise is simple, which is to lower the requirements for the shelter. The original total building area was 320 square meters, but now it has been reduced to 100 square meters. The original cave floor height was 3 meters, but now it has been reduced to 2 meters.

The original plan was to change the stone walls into wooden walls, there was no need to lay floors, the load-bearing materials were kept as simple as possible, and there was no need to bring up the large furniture moved from the ship. We should learn from Robinson Crusoe, not pursue enjoyment, and live the most simple and primitive life.

As for the adventure, it is to use black powder for blasting.

The fuse of the matchlock gun can act as a fuse to create distance and ensure safety.

The only accident he had to worry about was that the mountain structure was unstable and the blasting of the lower layer of sand and gravel would cause a large-scale landslide on the upper layer. By then, not to mention the shelter, he might be buried alive.

Change means improving tools and changing the way of mining.

For example, thermal expansion and contraction can be used to destroy rock strata, and water can be poured on rocks after fire to create cracks in the rocks.

Or find a way to make pickaxes and shovels made of pure metal, which would save the time of making tools and speed up progress.

Or, increase the number of workers...

December is approaching. If the natives really come to the island to hold a cannibal feast, we should find a way to make a big profit from them. By catching two strong laborers, the work progress can at least be doubled.

Of course, he could also choose to give up digging a hole and build a wooden house.

He used to think digging holes was faster, but after some practice, he now feels that wooden houses are more convenient.

There were a lot of wooden planks left in the camp, enough to build a simple wooden house - this was the last option, called giving up.

After an intense ideological struggle, Chen Zhou finally couldn't choose to give up.

In modern society, for the sake of safety, he has been a conservative too many times and missed too many opportunities.

This time, he wanted to be more radical.

“It’s impossible to make metal tools. Let’s try to use fire to cut through the mountain. If it works, we’ll continue to use fire. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just blast it.

There were several large barrels of gunpowder. I considered the dosage and slowly summed up my experience.

Lengthen the fuse, and if it fails to detonate, rest in the cave on the other side for a day before checking again. As long as you are steady enough, you can always save your life."

“If blasting doesn’t work, or causes landslides, we’ll focus on modifying the matchlock gun.

It would be best to have a decent flintlock by mid-December.

With this, I have the final say. At least I have to capture a native alive, tame him and make him work for me. Then I can slowly recruit more natives."

Compared to safe plans that require complicated details and a lot of thought, violence always seems so simple, powerful and direct.

By writing and drawing in his notebook, Chen Zhou quickly thought out what to do in the future.

The current cramped shelter appeared in his mind, and he made up his mind to build it into his dream home within a year.

After writing the last line, he put a heavy period on it.

Put down the quill with the pink-purple tip.

Thinking about the possibility that he would shoot and kill someone in the future and be stained with the blood of his own kind, Chen Zhou smiled a helpless yet carefree smile, took out the electronic wooden fish that had been placed in the bedside table for a long time, inserted the batteries, and gently pressed a few buttons.

dong dong dong~
dong dong dong~
　Thanks to Hong Yunxian and Han Xue Ye Xing for the rewards!

　　Thanks both brothers!

　　Thanks to Cui Dasheng 225266 for the 22 monthly tickets!
　　Thanks to Steven himself, Uncle Wow, Feng Ruoqing, Bloodthirsty Stu, Maotongmiaowangtongwang, Book Friend 20220330224147547, Book Friend 161108162342268, The One Who Asked Me For Help, Nickname Wei Taichong, Meng Yuqiu, Book Friend 20191229220632395, Fusheng Stealed Half a Day of Saltiness, Mu Tou is Leaving, and hhhrlx for their monthly tickets. Thank you all for your support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)