From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 77 Waiting
In most cases, knowing the future is a good thing.

But sometimes it's not so pleasant.

Chen Zhou knew that a disaster was coming, but he could not predict how serious the impact would be or how much severe the damage would be. He felt anxious and tormented.

After getting up on April 4, he read Robinson Crusoe again, carefully checking the important events that occurred along the dates, from landing on the island to the earthquake and then leaving the island.

In the book, Robinson Crusoe clearly stated that there was no error in the year and date he recorded, which meant that the earthquake would definitely occur as expected on April 4.

The earthquake was followed by a storm.

There were about six days of safety left, so Chen Zhou first went to the camp at the foot of the mountain and moved out a few lead plates and placed them on the beach, waiting for the next cutting to make them into lead strips to be embedded in the surface of the wheels.

He then checked and maintained all the shacks again and reinforced the wooden houses on the mountain.

Earthquakes could affect the structural strength of the wooden house. Faced with this terrible natural disaster, Chen Zhou couldn't even have confidence in the concrete load-bearing columns in the cave, let alone the temporary shelter that had been built in just a few days.

He was worried about the damage to the cabin in the storm that followed the earthquake.

Leaks, collapses, dents, any of these situations would make him extremely anxious.

He was particularly afraid of collapse. He would lose his shelter in a stormy weather and would be unable to make a fire or keep warm. He would most likely fall seriously ill, just like Robinson Crusoe.

During this period, Chen Zhou would read Robinson Crusoe every day, only reading the descriptions before and after the earthquake.

He read it so many times that he almost memorized those pages.

According to the book, the earthquake was not strong and did not cause terrible disasters such as tsunamis or volcanic eruptions. Even the trees on the island were not seriously damaged.

The only big noise was that a huge rock on the mountain by the sea was loosened and fell into the sea.

Moreover, this earthquake came and went quickly.

The ground shook three times in eight minutes, and there were no more aftershocks.

Less than half an hour after the earthquake, a severe and rapid storm hit, bringing heavy rainfall to the island for more than three hours.

After that, the rainy season waved its sleeves and took away all the thunder and lightning clouds, leaving behind a vast clear sky.

No matter how you look at it, this disaster cannot pose a threat to your life.

Chen Zhou felt more and more that he was worrying too much and often tried to comfort himself.

The constant psychological suggestion eased his uneasy mood. To be on the safe side, he tried to stay away from mountain tops and dead trees when traveling every day to avoid being killed by strange things falling from the sky.

……

Life becomes more cautious, but work cannot be stopped.

Taking care of the farmland, reinforcing the slopes, feeding the cats, dogs and sheep, checking the traps, and occasionally carrying some stones to the beach to serve as materials for the next cutting, these are all habitual tasks. If he stopped suddenly, Chen Zhou would feel uncomfortable.

In addition to his daily chores, he also brought up a dozen windows with window frames from the shack in the camp at the foot of the mountain, preparing to build the sunroom first.

However, he did not plan to install the windows of this sun room immediately, but wanted to wait until the earthquake was over.

Now just install the window frames.

Glass is fragile and cannot be repaired if damaged during an earthquake. Also, the broken glass scattered all over the ground is very dangerous.

He was afraid of getting his feet pricked by glass fragments even though he was wearing leather boots, let alone Lai Fu who was walking barefoot.

……

By April 4, the basic frame of the sunroom was completely assembled, and a gap was deliberately left in the aisle between the wooden house and the sunroom.

Chen Zhou drove a pile outside the opening, placed a short beam on the roof beam, and built a triangular short corridor along the opening.

The short corridor has no door and is open on both sides. It has a staircase connected to the ground and its function is similar to that of an entrance hall.

Chen Zhou hung his bucket, hand axe, leather raincoat and wide-brimmed hat in the short corridor. He would change them in the corridor every time he went out or came home. It was very convenient.

……

In fact, in terms of living experience, after staying for a few days, the sense of security and comfort brought to him by the wooden house is even better than that of the cave. The outer wall of the cave is incomplete, and the three rooms of kitchen, bedroom and storage room are not separated and are completely connected. It is useless to build only the outer wall of the bedroom. If an animal or enemy wants to enter from the outside, they just need to take a few more steps and turn a corner.

Moreover, the opening of the cave is too large, and on windy days, wind often blows into the cave, whistling around the load-bearing columns, causing great psychological pressure on people.

At the same time, the cave house has no ceiling or floor, so walking around the house doesn’t give you a homey feeling, as if you’re living in an unfinished building or in the wilderness—even though it was originally in the wilderness.

There was no ceiling. When I lay in bed at night and looked up, I saw only a few corrugated paper paintings I had drawn hanging under the load-bearing beams, and the rest were large areas of sand and gravel.

Occasionally, a few stones or sand would fall down, making the bedding on the bed full of dust. I had to shake the mattress carefully before going to bed every night to avoid being woken by stones that came from nowhere when I turned over.

Living in such an environment is neither safe, warm nor sanitary, and is inferior to this newly built cabin in every way.

Even its only advantage, "spaciousness", is actually stretched to its limits. The various stacked materials take up most of the space in the cave, which is still slightly insufficient. If you think about it carefully, it is not very spacious.

If you really look into it, the biggest advantage of a cave dwelling may be its potential.

Once the outer walls are built, the ceiling and floor are laid, the interior is organized, a few pieces of furniture are added, and a fire wall is built, it will be far superior to a log cabin.

……

On April 4, knowing that an earthquake would occur the next day, Chen Zhou's mood, which had originally been stable, became tense again.

During breakfast, he often left the room and squatted in the short corridor to look at the mountain, worried that the earth would suddenly shake, and then the front rock wall would begin to collapse, bringing about a devastating scene.

As it turned out, his idea was pure unnecessary worry.

After eating three bowls of porridge in a row, the mountain is still the same mountain, the trees are still the same trees, there is no change.

Being in such a mood, he naturally couldn't continue working. Chen Zhou dug out the improved fishing rod he had made long ago, and prepared to go to the small lake to catch a few fish, bring them back and put them in the puddles to see if they could be developed into a small fish pond.

According to Robinson's observations, the island had entered the dry season in mid-April.

This is indeed the case. Since April 4, the frequency and intensity of precipitation have significantly weakened.

It is expected that in a few days, sunny days will overwhelm rainy days and become the main feature of the island.

Thanks to rising temperatures and longer hours of sunshine, the rice has begun to bloom.

As the "northerner most northerner in the country", it was the first time for Chen Zhou to actually observe rice flowers in real life.

When they bloom, they emerge from the small green square bags tightly arranged on the rice ears. The flowers are very small, with some being light yellow or light green. The extended anthers are like insect antennae. From a distance, they look so densely packed that it seems as if the rice ears are covered with aphids.

Not only do rice flowers look strange, they also have a short flowering period.

Chen Zhou estimated based on his own feelings that it took less than an hour for the rice flowers to open and close.

If he hadn't cared about the fields and walked around the fields every morning, noon and evening like punching in for work, he might not have seen the rice bloom.

According to the process of plant reproduction, pollination should take place after flowering.

Seeing that the dry season is about to come, helpful pollinating insects such as butterflies and bees will become active. Chen Zhou is in a good mood, thinking that with the right time, place and people, his fields will surely have a good harvest this time.

In fact, this is because he doesn't know enough about rice.

As a self-pollinating plant, the stamens and pistils of rice are adjacent, and the pollen is extremely small, so pollination can be completed by wind, without the help of insects.

Most of the crops he knew were cross-pollinated plants, such as the corn that was grown on a large scale in his hometown.

The main characteristic of cross-pollination is that the yield drops sharply after self-pollination, and the offspring are thin, unhealthy and prone to death.

The older generation of farmers have passed on the word of mouth, and by the time it came to Chen Zhou, they believed that all crops would have lower yields if pollen was not spread by insects.

This doesn't make sense, because he has thrown all the biology knowledge he has learned out of the window.

　finished.

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(End of this chapter)