From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 91 Rat Circle
By accident, eight baby mice were caught.

Carrying the bucket, Chen Zhou even wanted to give up the idea of robbing the bird's nest and go home directly to build a stone breeding cage to keep these little creatures in captivity.

In his opinion, in the entire natural world, apart from other primates, there are few animals that can better than mice in testing poisons or drugs.

When it comes to reproduction rate and eating habits, even animals like monkeys and chimpanzees have to fall behind and give way to mice, the "natural poison testers."

A total of eight baby mice were caught this time. As long as they are well cared for and do not die in large numbers due to accidents, if we can survive with a male and a female among them, we will have an endless supply of rats for testing poisons in the future.

Of course, the possibility of eight all-male or eight all-female kittens does exist.

However, Chen Zhou felt that he shouldn't be that unlucky.

A simple probability calculation shows that the probability that the mice in this nest are of the same gender is 1/128. If he really wins this "big prize", it would be unreasonable for him not to give an excavator as the next mysterious reward.

He placed the bucket under the shade of a tree to prevent the baby mice from dying of heat, and observed Lai Fu's reaction.

During the entire mouse-catching process, Lai Fu basically did not consume any energy except for locating the mouse and reminding it to escape through another hole. Now, his eyes were bright and he was staring at him, and it seemed that he had not had enough fun yet.

Now that the "child" has made another contribution, we can't go back on our promise, pour cold water on him, and dampen his enthusiasm.

He pulled up a few large branches to cover the bucket to prevent wild animals that feed on mice from sneaking onto the bucket and causing trouble. Then he whistled and ran towards the gravel slope.

Hearing the sharp and loud sound, Lai Fu jumped and followed his master, running into the rocky "white forest".

Chen Zhou had collected building materials here many times and brought them back to the cave, so he was quite familiar with the edge structure of the stone forest.

Ever since he destroyed that bird's nest, he has never seen a bird's nest about three meters above the ground in the marginal area. Even if there is one, it is an empty nest left over from the past.

Most birds choose to nest in the forest canopy.

The few who were interested in the stone forest only built their shelters on the tops of the five or six meter high stone pillars or in the natural grooves weathered on the stone pillars. It was simply impossible to simply remove the bird's nests and take away the eggs inside.

While tilting his head back and squinting his eyes to reduce the impact of sunlight on his vision, he looked upwards and paid attention to Lai Fu's reaction.

When it comes to finding prey, it is difficult for humans to surpass dogs.

After going around a few familiar stone pillars and circling on the gravel slope, Chen Zhou's neck was stiff, but he didn't see Lai Fu barking.

As he walked through, he did see a few bird nests, but those nests were located in high and dangerous places, and even with a pickaxe and his arms, he could not reach them.

"It's too hot. Let's go home and play the bone throwing game."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Chen Zhou discussed with Lai Fu.

He was worried about the baby mice and wanted to go home, so he was not careful when looking for the bird's nest.

Once you have this intention, you may turn a blind eye to a bird's nest even if it is within reach.

After hearing this, Lai Fu stood there thinking for a moment, and seemed to think it was boring to hang around here, so he wagged his tail and ran to the bucket under the tree first.

Secretly thanking his luck that this fellow had been sensible today, Chen Zhou hurriedly followed behind Lai Fu, fearing that he might suddenly discover a hare or other animal and chase after it for fun.

The vitality of young mice is far less tenacious than that of adult mice. It is not easy to catch this nest of rare creatures. In such a high temperature, it would be a waste if they were suffocated to death.

……

Since Lai Fu had no objection, Chen Zhou assumed that he agreed.

In order to fool the innocent child, he did not stop on the gravel slope. Instead, he packed up his tools, picked up the bucket, and headed straight home.

On the way back, Chen Zhou was afraid of arousing Lai Fu's interest in playing, so he said nothing, which made Lai Fu confused instead.

It thought it had done something wrong and no longer dared to run wildly. It followed its owner carefully, observing Chen Zhou's expression and no longer wagged its tail. It looked like an eggplant hit by frost - wilted.

Seeing Lai Fu's look, Chen Zhou immediately guessed what he was thinking based on the tacit understanding they had gained from their long time together. He couldn't help wanting to laugh, but was afraid of arousing his suspicion, so he tried to remain serious and silent and walked back home.

Just before stepping into the cave, Chen Zhou put down his carrying pole and finally couldn't help laughing out loud, which scared Lai Fu.

It stopped cautiously, stood where it was, tilted its head and looked at its suddenly crazy owner, its eyes full of questions.

Before he could figure out the problem, Chen Zhou grabbed its loose lips and pulled them apart, and pushed it to the ground, muttering things like "You're so cute, you're so funny", which made Lai Fu look helpless.

He rubbed the dog's head vigorously, and stroked the dog's warm belly for a while, until Lai Fu's "little lipstick" was stretched out due to excessive excitement, and Chen Zhou stood up with dog hair all over his body. It was probably around four o'clock in the afternoon, and he took out the wooden box from the barrel.

The baby mice were frightened and started squeaking again.

Chen Zhou counted all the mice through the gap and found that there were eight of them, no more, no less, all alive. He felt relieved.

There are still a lot of stones and bricks left for building walls, so there are sufficient building materials.

After walking around the cave twice, he wanted to build a rat pen in the kitchen, but then he remembered that Ti Zi's territory was in the kitchen and bedroom, so he immediately gave up the idea.

To mice, grapes are a typical "living devil". If they stay in the same room with them all day, even if there is a stone wall between them, the mice's little hearts may find it hard to bear it.

After much thought, he decided to place the baby mice in the storage room.

In order to prevent the baby mice from having insufficient space when they grow up, he built four "double mouse rooms" for the little ones, imitating the structure of a pigpen.

The bottom of the rat pen is made of stone bricks cut from bluestone, which is extremely sturdy.

The surrounding walls are made of stone bricks and white mud, and are 20 centimeters thick. Not only mice but even pangolins cannot get out.

The wall is half a meter high, which can effectively prevent rats from jumping out. There are several white stone slabs on the top, which can not only prevent Tizi and Xiao Huihui from using this place as a buffet restaurant, but also keep the rats in.

As the number of rats increases in the future, Chen Zhou plans to build a separate small house outdoors to raise more rats.

According to his needs, at least twenty mice must be kept for testing poison, otherwise the number will be too small and he may not be able to turn it over.

If the mice reproduce too quickly and there are too many of them, they will be killed and fed to the cats, or fed alive to Xiao Huihui to train his hunting ability. His current performance is really a shame to the cat family.

Chen Zhou estimated that if it continued like this, no female cat on the entire island would look up to it.

……

Move the materials piled up in the storage room and make room in the innermost corner.

It didn't take long for Chen Zhou to build the rat pen, then he covered the bottom stone slab with a layer of hay and put the baby mice in.

Building a rat pen was not difficult, but finding food for the rats was a problem for him.

He knew that mice were omnivores, but he didn't know whether mice could only eat meat and not vegetables.

Strictly speaking, grains and plant seeds are definitely the most suitable foods to feed mice, and there is some rice drying at home.

But those were seeds saved for planting next season. Unless he was insane, he would not feed the mice no matter how precious they were.

"Forget it, forget it. Even if I kill your mother, I don't know whether you are weaned or not, or what you like to eat.

I'll just give you some rabbit sausage and some hay, which is chinchillas' favorite food. This can be considered a combination of meat and vegetables.

Don't be ungrateful for what you have. This is the food that wild mice dream of.

If this can kill you, then I can only say that you are not destined to enjoy happiness, so don’t blame me.”

As he muttered, Chen Zhou took out a jar of rabbit sausage from the kitchen, attracting the greedy Xiao Huihui to follow him.

He opened the lid of the jar and put the rabbit sausage into the mouse pen under Xiao Huihui's incredulous look.

meow~
After waiting for a long time, seeing that Chen Zhou had already put the lid back on but her portion was not yet served, Xiao Huihui couldn't help but start to act coquettishly.

"What are you looking at? You're as fat as a pig, and you still want to eat meat?
When these mice grow up, you can catch them and eat them yourself. If you fail to catch them, you will starve!
I will never pity you again!"

Chen Zhou didn't give Xiao Huihui a good look, covered him with a stone slab, and scolded him harshly.

Seeing this, Xiao Huihui didn't force it. He twisted his fat body and went to find a place to sleep.

As for Chen Zhou’s words, whether he understood them or not, he would not take them to heart - a happy heart makes a fat body.

If it really had something to let go, it would have fought with Tizi to the death and established its own position in the family.

　Thanks to: Book friend with the last digit 8595, Two and a Half Years of Becoming a Buddha, Version is Coming, Master of Youhuang Pavilion, Old Taoist hx, Hao Gan, Qinghong, Tangyuan and Baozi, Yuan Xiangle, Starry Sky Reflecting the Sword Shadow, Zhu Yan, Book friend with the last digit 2467, Guan Shan Mu Han, Wade is teasing you, Big Brother, How are you? I’m at the House of the Beautiful Host, The Monk Who Rings the Bell, Sansande Wine, Book friend with the last digit 8399, Camphor Balls, Chen Mingtang, Xiaoci, Xixi, and Feng Zhiya’s monthly tickets, thank you for your support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)