From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 78 Earthquake
I'm in a restless mood and fishing doesn't help me relax.

Squatting by the water, throwing the hook into the lake, and waiting blankly for more than ten minutes, the float still did not move. Chen Zhou suddenly remembered that he did not put bait on the hook.

He reeled in the line and put on the bait, then sat for a few minutes, looking back at the mountain again and again, with no intention of staring at the fishing rod.

Knowing that he would not catch any fish and would not gain anything if he continued like this, he put away his fishing gear and prepared to go to Yangpo to check on the "family of three".

The last time he added salt to the goats, he noticed the female was showing signs of estrus.

The big ram's injuries were no longer serious, and it was expected that he had already hooked up with the female goat.

In just over five months, this family of three will become four or even five, and the first milestone of his animal husbandry will be completed.

……

After putting the fishing gear back into the cabin, he took Lai Fu to the pasture where the sheep were tied.

Goats are apparently much more intelligent than sheep.

The big ram and the female goat were not far apart, rubbing their ears together with their passionate love, making the little lamb next to them look like an outsider.

Seeing Chen Zhou approaching from afar, the big ram lowered its head suddenly, stepped back in fear, and its eyelids drooped, not daring to look directly at him.

After a goat is beaten, it will never forget the pain it suffered even after a long time.

It would be different if it were sheep.

In his hometown in the north, Chen Zhou had seen several big-tailed Han sheep without tails.

After asking the old man, he found out that the tails of these sheep were eaten by pigs.

At that time, the sheep shed had not been built yet and it was winter, so the family kept the sheep in the vegetable garden. The pig pen was also in the vegetable garden, next to the sheep.

We raised a breeding pig in the pen back then and let it out for a walk every day to exercise.

The greedy pig saw the sheep lying on the ground and started to bite the sheep's tail. As the name suggests, the big-tailed Han sheep has a big tail with a lot of fat stored in it.

If there were goats in the garden, they would not allow the huge breeding boar weighing more than 800 pounds to get close to them and would have run away long ago.

Even if they don't dodge, they will bleat loudly and run away after being bitten.

The only difference is that sheep are muddle-headed and have no smart brains at all. Even when bitten, they just lie on the ground without making a sound. As a result, the tails of several sheep were bitten off by the pigs. If they hadn't received timely treatment, they would have lost their lives.

In his subsequent interactions with sheep, Chen Zhou realized that sheep with such stubbornness were not isolated cases.

The flocks of sheep grazing on the mountains would not hide in the woods when a sudden rainstorm occurred. Instead, they would just stand there stupidly when drenched by the rain. Sheep that did not know how to take shelter from the rain or were even drenched to death from hypothermia and illness could be seen everywhere.

In the process of being domesticated by humans, sheep seem to have long lost the alertness of their wild populations, and their intelligence has declined to a disgusting level.

If the flock on the island were sheep instead of goats, Chen Zhou wouldn't have to work so hard to catch the sheep.

Of course, raising sheep is not as worry-free as it could be - in the rainy season, the sheep flock will surely suffer losses if no one is looking after them, unlike goats which can migrate on their own.

Very pleased with the performance of the Billy Goat.

Walking closer, Chen Zhou touched its neck and saw that the wound on its head had healed. He untied the rope and led it to another grassland farther away from the mountain.

The grass here is a little sparse, and the variety is not the type that sheep particularly like. Because it has grown for too long, the grass leaves are a little thick and dry, which is actually not very suitable for sheep's taste.

Chen Zhou chose this place because it was farther away from the rock wall and could reduce the risk of being hit by falling rocks.

It will take a while to tame a big male goat, and the restrictions on its freedom cannot be lifted, so this method can only be used temporarily.

A little troublesome, but safe.

……

After moving the goats to a safe location, the sun was about to set when they returned to the cabin. Chen Zhou had no mood to cook, so he looked at the puddles on the grass and the sky, trying to find any abnormalities before the earthquake.

The town where he grew up is located deep in the continent, just off the edge of an earthquake zone.

From childhood to adulthood, he has only experienced one minor earthquake, when he was four or five years old, so he does not have a deep memory of the earthquake.

Recalling the past, he vaguely remembered that he seemed to be lying on the kang in his grandmother's house with his sister, mother, aunt and grandfather. Suddenly, the whole world began to shake slightly, as if he had been spinning in circles for too long and felt top-heavy and unable to stand steadily.

The adults in the room quickly picked up the child and ran out.

My grandma's bungalow was not big, and it only took a few seconds for him to be carried out of the yard. He could not remember what happened afterwards.

I only remember that on the night after the earthquake, no one in the entire village dared to go back to the house to sleep, and everyone camped in the open space outside.

It was summer and it was drizzling.

My grandfather's family had a diesel tricycle. They laid wooden boards and plastic sheets on the bed of the tricycle to create a temporary residence, and the whole family squeezed in.

The adults’ panic had nothing to do with the children. Chen Zhou just felt it was a lively place, as if everyone was playing house with him.

The truck bed was covered with bedding, which was very hard to walk on.

There was no light, only the dim candlelight.

The rain outside was not heavy, falling on the yellow soil and wetting the donkey dung left by the donkey cart. The smell seeped into the cart bed, smelly and pungent, with a hint of earth.

He and his sister used pillows to build a wall and played in the narrow truck bed until very late before going to bed - it was a night that he still remembers vividly.

Looking back later, Chen Zhou felt that the earthquake was probably only of magnitude 1 or 2.

After the earthquake, no one in the village heard of any deaths or house collapses due to the earthquake, and many children of the same age had lost their memory of the earthquake.

After going to school, there was only one earthquake that he could not forget, which was the huge disaster in 08 that shocked the world.

On the old big-head TV, the news broadcast showed pictures full of ruins, as if the end of the world had come.

It was even more unforgettable to see the teacher leading the children in the class to line up on the school playground, and as the song "Thank You" was played on the speakers, they stuffed five or ten yuan bills into the donation box.

It was this terrible 8.0 magnitude earthquake that made Chen Zhou realize the horror of natural disasters.

In the face of the power of nature, humans are like grass.

When I was young, I was taken care of by my relatives and I was ignorant and didn’t know what fear was.

Now that he was about to face the natural disaster alone, Chen Zhou felt like the birds, beasts, snakes and rats fleeing in panic before an earthquake, with inexplicable fear in his heart.

This fear even gave rise to all kinds of irrational thoughts and made people lose their composure.

I reminded myself many times to stay calm and went back to the cabin to make a fire and cook.

By the light of the fire, he read Robinson Crusoe three more times, and through the descriptions in the original book he told himself:

This earthquake is at most level three. As long as you don't go to dangerous places, your life will not be in danger.

In this way, relying on anesthetizing himself again and again, Chen Zhou pretended to be calm as he finished his meal and took care of the two cats, one mouse and one dog in the house.

That night the stars were shining brightly and everything was quiet. It was a good day to have a peaceful rest.

He stared at the ceiling and it was unknown when he finally fell asleep.

　The next chapter is 4000 words long and will be updated late at night. If you want to catch up, you’d better wait until tomorrow to read it.

　　There was a power outage in the afternoon, otherwise I would have to make up another chapter today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)