From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 9 Big Dog
There was no lock on the door, it was just closed tightly.

Chen Zhou hid his body against the wall and carefully stretched out a hand to push the door.

The old floor rubbed against the bottom edge of the door, making a teeth-grinding sound.

The sound was like a taut fishing line, which suddenly lifted Chen Zhou's heart.

He didn't know if he had alarmed the creatures in the room. He wanted to lean over to take a look, but he was afraid.

Keeping the posture of pushing the door, Chen Zhou put his ear against the wall, concentrating on listening to the movements in the room, trying to grasp the enemy's movements, but his hearing was always disturbed by the dripping sound of rain outside the cabin.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally couldn't suppress his curiosity and stuck his head out to peek inside through the crack of the open door.

The room was even darker than the cabin, with only a very narrow round window for light.

In the deep darkness, a motionless black shadow could be vaguely seen standing in the center of the room.

It was about half a meter tall, pitch black, with a slender outline and the same thickness from top to bottom. It was impossible to tell where the head was and where the feet were, nor where the chest was and where the back was. It just stood there silently, like a monster in a horror movie with a confident plan, thinking about how to play with its prey.

The moment he saw the black shadow, Chen Zhou had the illusion that his heart stopped. He seemed to feel the monster's cold eyes, and his hair stood on end. He subconsciously pulled the trigger of the crossbow.

The sharp crossbow arrow had been ready to go. Pushed by the bowstring, it shot out, brushed past the black shadow with a "swoosh" sound, and pierced into the wooden wall at the back of the room.

"It's over!"

The moment he saw the arrow miss the target, a thin layer of sweat suddenly broke out on Chen Zhou's head under his hat.

He had only one chance to strike first, but he failed to aim carefully, which was undoubtedly a fatal mistake.

Pupils dilated, breathing quickened, heart beat violently.

Fear, panic, tension, negative emotions flooded out and almost drowned Chen Zhou.

His remaining sanity reminded him, "Run! The monster is about to attack!"

The surging adrenaline forced him to make the opposite choice - he drew the rapier from his waist, ready to fight the monster to the death.

Gripping the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands and pointing the sharp blade at the black shadow, Chen Zhou focused his attention extremely, guarding against attacks from any angle.

A long standoff.

Time passed by minute by minute, and my fast-working brain subconsciously filtered out the sound of wind and rain, and the room was filled with deathly silence.

After a moment, Chen Zhou slightly loosened his sweaty palms.

I clenched it too tightly and my fingers felt sore.

The tip of the sword shook slightly because of his movement. This seemed to be a perfect time to attack, but the black shadow remained motionless, as if blind.

At this point, Chen Zhou finally felt that something was wrong.

At least three minutes had passed since the crossbow arrow was fired. During this time, the black shadow not only did not move at all, it did not even make a sound.

If you think about it carefully, from the first time I saw it until now, it doesn't even seem to have the ups and downs that a normal creature should have when breathing.

"Could it be that it is already dead?"

"Or was it never a living thing?"

Chen Zhou bravely walked into the room. The sound of his leather boots stepping on the floor was extremely loud. If the black shadow was really some unknown creature, it would have reacted when hearing this sound.

But it remained motionless.

Seeing this, Chen Zhou took another step forward.

He was getting closer and closer to the shadow.

The sound of rain outside the cabin weakened, and the light coming in through the small window suddenly became brighter. Amid the pungent stench, Chen Zhou finally saw the true face of the black shadow.

Just as he guessed, the black shadow was not a living creature at all, but an iron cylinder extending from the bottom cabin.

It is made of cast iron and is completely black. There is a long iron rod on the top and a water outlet on the side, but I couldn't see it because of the angle when I was standing at the door.

The stench came partly from the water outlet of the iron cylinder, and partly from the empty bucket placed in the corner of the room. It was not the smell of a rotting corpse at all.

In addition to the iron cylinder and bucket in the center, there were also some wooden boards and two large wooden boxes stacked in the room.

Looking closer, Chen Zhou felt that the iron cylinder looked more and more familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

After thinking for a while, he suddenly realized.

"Isn't this a foreign well?"

Chen Zhou never expected that this kind of water-discharging device that relied on a piston to draw water would appear on a wooden sailing ship in 1695. He was shocked and felt a sense of trance as if time and space were distorted.

In his memory, when he was five or six years old, only a few of the large wells in the village for irrigating fields still used windlasses to draw water. It was not until he was in elementary school that it became popular for families to use foreign wells. At that time, Chen Zhou often helped his grandmother to pump wells.

Finally, with the development and construction of rural areas, this once popular imported product was replaced by a more convenient and faster water pump, and the foreign well was buried in the corner of memory and never appeared again.

What he saw in his childhood made Chen Zhou always think that the foreign well was a modern product. He never expected that this thing had been made more than four hundred years ago.

According to time calculations, China should still be in the Qing Dynasty at this time. Its technology was so backward and it was still closed to the outside world. No wonder it was humiliated by the great powers in the late 19th century.

With such a ruler, there is no way the country will not decline!

After sighing for a while, Chen Zhou finally figured out the purpose of this well.

If I'm not mistaken, it should be used to pump out water from the bottom of the ship.

There are often storms at sea, and this ship is made of wood, so it is inevitable that rain or sea water will seep into the bottom cabin. If we use buckets to get the water from below and then carry it up to the deck to pour it out, it will be time-consuming and laborious, and may also affect the work of other sailors.

By using a pumping well, pumping operations can be completed closer to the deck, saving time and effort. It is indeed a good design.

While appreciating the ingenuity of the sailboat builder, Chen Zhou also took a liking to the well and thought that if he had the ability, he would definitely unload it and transport it to the island.

At that time, we will build a small courtyard on the island, dig a well in the courtyard, open up a vegetable garden, and plant a row of grapes along the courtyard wall. During the dry season, we can just press the well to get water to irrigate the vegetable garden.

If the sun is at its highest at noon, you can sit under the trellis covered with grape vines to cool off, drink a sip of cool well water to cool off, and eat a few sweet and sour grapes. You don't have to go to the river under the hot sun to fetch a wooden bucket, nor do you have to hope for rain. It's so comfortable.

As a person who has enjoyed the benefits of modern technological progress, although Chen Zhou is on an isolated island, he still can't forget the convenient and comfortable life.

He will not skimp on his efforts where labor is required, and he will not miss any opportunity to be lazy.

After all, it is lazy people who drive the world forward, he consoled himself in this way.

After examining the well, Chen Zhou opened the lid of the large wooden box and took a look.

What he didn't expect was that these two boxes were also carpenter's tool boxes.

Unlike the toolbox in the room, the tools in these two boxes are more diverse and have more complete models. Moreover, most of the tools have no obvious signs of use on their surfaces. Even the nails and angle irons are brand new and more valuable.

Looking through the various tools neatly arranged in the box and thinking of the traditional carpenters in his hometown, Chen Zhou truly felt the difference between European carpenters and Chinese carpenters.

European carpenters focus less on skills and more on tools.

Their axes are divided into large axes, medium axes, and small axes; hammers are divided into nail hammers, round head hammers, square head hammers... Each tool is divided into various models and styles, which are used in different work links. As long as beginners can correctly understand and master the use of these tools, they can use them to carve out what they want.

The rich variety of these tools has shaped their extremely low minimum usage. As long as you don't mind the trouble of frequently switching tools, some simple carpentry work is no problem at all.

Chinese carpenters focus on skills. They run around from street to street working for different families. Too many tools would be cumbersome, so they usually only need a few simple tools and use special techniques as well as years of experience and tactile feel to make parts.

For novices, Chinese carpenters need more guidance from their masters, but they also need to practice and think often, summarize lessons, and hone their skills in order to grow into excellent carpenters.

From a long-term perspective, Chinese and European carpenters each have their own strengths and weaknesses. In a relatively primitive working environment, Chinese carpenters can exert a higher ceiling, while European carpenters need more and more advanced tools and more and more standardized standards to promote progress.

But Chen Zhou was a complete layman. For him, making a raft with a single type of saw, chisel and hammer was an impossible task. He did not have the skills and European carpenters were better and more suitable for him.

After closing the lid, Chen Zhou endured the stench and carefully searched every corner of the room, confirming that there was nothing else in the room except some wooden boards of varying thickness and length and small pieces of canvas. Then he pulled out the crossbow arrow that was stuck in the wall and left the drainage room.

Perhaps because he had stayed in a dimly lit environment for too long, Chen Zhou felt that his eyes had become much sharper.

As soon as he walked out of the room, he found a brick chimney close to the wall on the other side. Then he realized that the kitchen was not on this floor, but on the ground floor.

If you think about it, it makes sense. If the kitchen was right next to the drainage room, the sailors would probably vomit into the bowls because of the stench.

So I turned back again and came to the narrow staircase on the right side of the middle that led to the lower floor.

Standing at the stairs and looking down at the dark cabin, Chen Zhou felt a little scared.

But thinking back to the funny battle of wits and courage he had with Yangjing not long ago, his courage suddenly burned up and overcame his fear of the unknown.

When people want to do something, they always make up various reasons to convince themselves.

Chen Zhou just wanted to go to the kitchen to eat something and warm himself by the fire, so he brainwashed himself through the not-so-rigorous process of elimination and logic that could not stand up to scrutiny.

After satisfying himself that there were no life-threatening creatures on board, he walked down the creaking stairs into the lower cabin without hesitation.

There were only a few pitifully small round windows in the lower cabin. Even if Chen Zhou opened them all, most of the furnishings in the cabin were hidden in the pitch-black darkness.

Chen Zhou took a few steps forward, one step deep and one step shallow. He wanted to go back to Robinson's room to get a lantern for lighting, but he soon found out that he had no tools to make a fire. He had to give up the idea of using the lantern and continued to move towards the kitchen.

The sailboat is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The corridor in the lower cabin is too cramped, and only two adults can barely pass through it side by side. Both sides of the corridor are cargo holds.

On the way to the kitchen, Chen Zhou curiously opened the cargo door and took a look.

Most of the rooms were empty, and the few that contained goods were packed full, making it difficult to take out the boxes or sacks. In order to avoid wasting time, he did not look through the goods, but simply memorized the locations of these rooms.

The corridor was of varying degrees of brightness. You could see things a little clearly where there were portholes, but it was pitch black where there were no windows, so you had to walk entirely by feeling.

When playing horror games in the past, Chen Zhou always complained that the protagonist’s lighter and flashlight were powered by nuclear batteries.

Now that it was his turn to face such a situation, he really wanted a lighter of the same model. Even if it could only illuminate a small area, it was better than walking in fear like this.

Just as I was distractedly reminiscing about some 3A masterpieces that I never get tired of playing, the usually solid touch under my feet suddenly changed and became soft as if I was stepping on a carpet.

Before I could react, a dissatisfied dog bark suddenly sounded in the dark corridor.

"Woo~woof!"

After the drainage room incident, the shadow in Chen Zhou's heart had not yet been eliminated. He was like a frightened bird. When he heard the loud cry, he almost jumped up in fright.

His left hand subconsciously reached for the scabbard, but was blocked by his right hand which was trying to pull the crossbow. For a moment he didn't know what to do.

Just as he was trying to coordinate his left and right hands that were almost entangled, the owner of the sound had already stood up slowly, turned around, and shook his tail that was hurt by being stepped on, and sniffed Chen Zhou's thigh.

After being drenched by the rain, Chen Zhou did not wear any underwear and only put on a thick coat in order to warm himself by the fire.

When the big dog sniffed, the hot air gushing out of its nose immediately blew onto Chen Zhou's bare thighs, shaking his leg hair and making him feel very itchy.

In the dim light, Chen Zhou could see the appearance of the big dog clearly.

It has light yellow hair, a broad head, a thick and long mouth, and an upright body, but it is extremely thin and looks very much like a golden retriever.

Standing up straight, the big dog's head almost reached Chen Zhou's waist. It would be no joke if he was bitten by this guy.

Although the big dog showed no ill intentions, Chen Zhou was still nervous. He subconsciously wanted to reach out to block the dog's head next to his thigh and scratch it at the same time. The big dog suddenly stuck out its tongue and licked Chen Zhou's thigh, shaking its tail more and more vigorously, causing it to twist from its butt to its front shoulders.

The wet big tongue is very soft, and the dog's saliva is warm at first, and then becomes slightly cool as the water vapor evaporates.

"You're so presumptuous to lick my leg right after we met!"

Before he had the chance to complain about the dog's friendly behavior, Chen Zhou felt a furry dog's head forcefully stuffed into the palm of his hand.

The big dog sat on the ground obediently, sweeping the ground quickly with its tail and nudging Chen Zhou's palm with its head. Even though one couldn't see its eyes clearly, one could imagine its flattering expression just from its behavior.

The big dog tried his best to please Chen Zhou, but seeing that this human with a strange smell still didn't understand what he meant, he turned around and scratched the door with his claws.

The crisp clicking sound brought Chen Zhou back to his senses from the uncomfortable enthusiasm.

After a brief contact, the big dog had initially gained his trust, so he took the opportunity to rub the soft fur on the dog's head and then pushed the kitchen door.

However, the kitchen door did not move at all after being pushed back, which really surprised Chen Zhou.

With his eyes wide open, he carefully groped for the door in the dark again and found that there was a bolt on it.

When the big dog saw Chen Zhou touching the door bolt, it seemed to realize that dinner was about to begin. It wagged its tail even harder and let out an anxious hum from its throat.

"Isn't this bolt installed just to prevent you from sneaking in and eating?"

Chen Zhou smiled and touched the dog's head again. A warm feeling quietly arose in his heart. He already liked this friendly, smart and humane big guy.

Although he had just arrived in this world, Chen Zhou already knew that he would spend a long 28 years on an isolated island.

In order to avoid unnecessary variables, he did not want to rescue the cannibalistic natives or contact passing merchant ships during these 28 years, so it is very likely that he will be alone throughout the entire challenge.

He was prepared to face a long period of boring life alone and the loneliness of being the only one in the world, but he also longed for psychological comfort.

Looking at this hard-working and flattering big dog, Chen Zhou had the urge to hug it when he thought that it could accompany him for a few years or even more than ten years, help him relieve his boredom, follow him to walk through every inch of land on the isolated island that he had never set foot on, help him hunt, and guard the house.

With such a reliable partner, life in the future will surely be much easier.

Thinking about it again, the big dog lying at the kitchen door waiting must be looking forward to the sailors returning so that they can stroke its head and feed it food as usual.

But it never expected that those people had already died in the sea. If it had not boarded the ship, it might have waited here alone to starve to death, or swam to an isolated island and became a stray dog, how miserable it would be.

At this point, Chen Zhou's thoughts turned and he realized that he was also a pitiful person.

Just because of a momentary impulse, you are thrown into this desolate island, a strange world, and try your best to complete the long and arduous challenge and earn the unequal rewards.

In a sense, he and the big dog did share the same suffering, and by chance they achieved mutual redemption in their meeting. No wonder they got along so well when they first met.

"Maybe this is fate's arrangement!"

Talking to himself in his heart, Chen Zhou pulled out the bolt and pushed open the kitchen door.

　Thanks to 一生平安喜乐666 for the reward~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)