From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 107 Scattered
The sound of rain was like glass marbles hitting Chen Zhou's heart.

This wait is extremely painful.

The sky became darker and darker, until nightfall, when the heavy rain that had lasted almost the entire day finally stopped.

The clouds have not yet dispersed, and no stars or moon can be seen.

In the kitchen, in the stove, the fire was still burning.

Chen Zhou rubbed his scorched face, put on a leather raincoat, carried his backpack, and took out a lantern full of lamp oil.

It has been raining for so long that if the rewards on the beach were not waterproofed, they would have turned into porridge by now.

Despite this, he still wanted to go to the beach to take a look, even if it was in the dark.

Maybe this is what it means to not cry until you see the coffin.

Not only did we not get any rewards today, but the wooden and stone walls on the beach were not even tidied up.

However, Chen Zhou only planned to take a look at the reward and did not want to build the wooden and stone walls on a rainy night.

The cutting cycle lasts for fifteen days, or half a month, and we can always wait for a day with little rain.

Building a wooden or stone wall is not a life-threatening matter, so there is no need to work all night.

He lit the lantern, took a lighter, a bottle of rabbit meatballs, a bottle of dried lemons, and a bottle of cold boiled water in case of emergency, and also took the long-handled axe whose blade had just been sharpened and restored to its sharp edge.

Let Lai Fu stay at home, stepping on the puddles and mud on the platform that had not yet seeped into the ground. Chen Zhou's figure and the warm light in his hand were gradually swallowed up by the mountains and forests.

……

The better life is, the more afraid of death we are.

There are also three kittens and a bunch of baby mice at home waiting to be taken care of.

Fearing that he might get injured accidentally due to the slippery roads in rainy weather, Chen Zhou moved very slowly, and it took him almost twice as long to reach the beach.

The light from the lantern could only illuminate a small area around him. From a distance, he could only see the dilapidated wooden and stone wall casting a black and gray outline on the beach.

The sand has absorbed enough moisture, and every step you take leaves a footprint, as if it could squeeze out water.

Holding the lantern tightly, Chen Zhou became more and more nervous the closer he got to the mysterious reward.

The wooden and stone wall that blocked his view intensified his worry and uneasiness, making him eager to see what the reward was.

But he didn't lose his composure.

He kept his steps steady and moved the wooden and stone walls that were crooked by cutting and heavy rain.

Before the light illuminated the center of the sand, Chen Zhou smelled a familiar sweet fragrance in the dust of the wet sand after the rain.

Sniffing and taking a deep breath, he stretched out his arm, lifted the lamp further forward, kicked open the wooden and stone wall in front of him, and looked at the ground carefully with wide eyes.

At the edge of the light, at the center of the reward, you can vaguely see a large area of packaging soaked by rain, lying on the ground.

Further away, there were numerous round black shadows of various sizes scattered on the sand.

As the beach was uneven, most of them rolled towards the sea and were eventually stopped by the bottom of the wooden and stone wall, stopping in darkness that was too dark for the human eye to discern.

"Why does this smell like the autumn white apricots from my hometown?"

As he stepped into the circle of wooden and stone walls, Chen Zhou felt that the smell was more and more like the sweet scent of ripe apricots.

Bending down, he first walked to the cardboard box that was wet and soaked by the rain, and leaned over to check the rewards remaining in the box.

As expected, because the outer packaging was damaged, all the ripe apricots originally packed in the box were destroyed by the heavy rain.

The less ripe ones could still barely maintain their intact appearance, but the skin of the fully ripe apricots was soft and fragile, and was beaten and soaked by the raindrops, just like garlic cloves being pounded by a pestle and mortar in a bowl.

Except for the solid apricot kernel wrapped in the center of the flesh, everything turned into mud and turned into apricot juice and melted into the gravel.

“What a waste of things!”

Putting down his backpack and taking out a plastic bag, Chen Zhou picked out the relatively complete autumn white apricots from the pile of rotten apricots and put them into the plastic bag for preservation.

This kind of apricot, called "Autumn White Apricot", is a common name in his hometown. He doesn't know what the official name of this variety is.

What he knew was that this kind of apricots ripen in late July, early August or mid-August. They are large, thin-skinned and sweet. They taste sweet, sticky and soft, and have a very obvious apricot aroma.

At the autumn country fairs, the price of autumn white apricots is usually more than twice that of ordinary domestic apricots.

It is named "Autumn White Apricot" because it ripens in autumn and because when it ripens, its skin is not yellow like domestic apricots, but milky white or off-white.

When Chen Zhou was a child, there was an autumn apricot tree planted in a family across the street from his grandmother's house.

At that time, the children in the village had basically no snacks to eat. On weekdays, their parents would give them a few cents, and they would be very happy to go to the convenience store to buy some spicy chips, spicy strips, or chewing gum.

If you eat a small pudding or a "big torch" in late summer or early autumn when the heat has not yet dissipated, it is a rare luxury experience.

In this environment, every autumn, when fruits such as fragrant pears, sand apples, golden red fruits, and plums ripen, it is a carnival for children.

At that time, there were no autumn white apricots at Chen Zhou's grandmother's house, only a few wild apricots.

The fruit of wild apricot is sour, hard and astringent. Eating it can make your face wrinkle, which makes it the most unpopular fruit.

But there was a very good plum tree in his grandma's yard, as well as sand apples, golden red apples, and chicken heart fruit trees.

When the fruits were ripe, he would secretly pick plums and other fruits from his home and exchange them with his friends who had autumn white apricots at home.

Maybe because he was used to eating fruits from his grandma's house, he always felt that autumn white apricots were particularly sweet and to his taste, and he had a particularly deep impression of this fruit.

When he grew up, Chen Zhou went to the town to attend junior high school. He once suffered from stomach disease and indigestion. He listened to the doctor's advice and took a lot of autumn apricots along with medication, which cured his stomach disease.

This made him like this fruit even more, so he felt even more distressed when he saw the corrugated cardboard boxes soaked by rain and the inedible apricots scattered on the ground.

After carefully selecting the apricots with better appearance, Chen Zhou found two small sealed plastic bags in a pile of "apricot-flavored mud" at the bottom of the box.

The two small bags lay flat in the pile of rotten apricots, their surfaces covered with apricot mud and rainwater. Through the outer packaging, you could see that one of them contained hazelnuts and the other contained pine nuts.

"Oh, good stuff!"

Bringing the lantern closer, Chen Zhou wiped off the stains on the plastic bag, and through the plastic bag, he carefully observed the hazelnuts and pine nuts inside.

Not long after, he sighed.

The reason why he was so excited just now was that he felt that hazelnuts and pine nuts could be grown into big trees, thus producing hazelnuts and pine nuts continuously.

Hazelnuts have a high starch content and taste sweet and delicious when soaked in sugar water and cooked. They are a rare nut.

Although pine nuts are not as delicious as hazelnuts, they are also a kind of Chinese medicine. They have their own unique flavor and are also good food.

If he could plant a hazelnut or pine forest, he would have more delicious food on his table in a few years.

Unfortunately, the hazelnuts and pine nuts in the plastic bags are processed nuts that can only be eaten as snacks and there is no possibility for them to grow into big trees.

Chen Zhou, who was feeling regretful at this time, didn't know that even if pine nuts and hazelnuts were both good unprocessed seeds, he could only eat one of them at most during the challenge on the island.

It takes 5 to 7 years for hazelnuts to grow and bear fruit from being planted, so he can eat as much as he wants during his lifetime.

Pine nuts are a rare fruit that comes from red pine.

The red pine is different from the common pine trees in the northern shelterbelts. It is a national first-class endangered species and is rare in number. Wild red pine takes fifty years to grow before it starts to produce seeds.

Even if he planted pine nuts on the day he landed on the island, he would not be able to eat the pine nuts he planted and harvested the day he left the island. However, there is a lyric that says "People without ideals are not sad", which translates to Chen Zhou as "People who don't understand plants dare to imagine."

He quickly glanced at the two bags of northern specialty nuts, realizing that they had no other use except as snacks, so he stuffed the two bags of "gifts" into his backpack and continued to pick and gather autumn white apricots.

Hazelnuts and pine nuts will definitely not produce the "second generation of fruit", but the apricot kernels inside the autumn white apricots are real mature seeds.

Just take out the apricot kernel, carefully pry open the solid outer shell, and then place the almonds inside in a moist, clean and ventilated place and wait for them to germinate.

It takes about five years for an apricot tree to grow from bud to fruit.

There are at least five or six hundred autumn white apricots in this field. Even if the germination rate is low, it can provide Chen Zhou with an apricot forest.

……

Carefully sweeping the autumn white apricots on the ground, Chen Zhou squatted on the ground with the help of the lantern light, and slowly walked from the reward center to the edge of the wooden and stone wall.

He collected the apricots very seriously, and even found some broken apricots that were stuck in the gravel and almost blended with the yellow sand.

He even dug out the apricots that were embedded in the gaps between the wooden boards and the sand at the bottom of the wooden and stone wall.

After all, any ignored apricot kernel may become an apricot tree full of fruits in the future, so we must not be careless.

The relatively complete apricots filled half of the plastic bag, and Chen Zhou planned to eat them when he got home tonight.

Apricots soaked in water cannot be preserved at all. Even if placed in a "saltpeter refrigerator", they cannot last for 24 hours. It is better to eat them early, at least you can have peace of mind.

Most of the autumn white apricots had turned into "half an apricot" or apricot paste. Since they were inedible, Chen Zhou was no longer polite and simply wiped off the remaining flesh on the surface of the apricots with his hands, leaving only the apricot kernels.

Even so, the weight of an apricot pit is much greater than that of a whole apricot, which shows how great the loss of this reward is.

……

On my way back to the cave with my backpack, I thought about the reward.

Although there were some regrets, overall, Chen Zhou still felt that this reward was enough to satisfy him.

First of all, the main losses in this reward are from Xingzi.

Although he was often troubled by the monotony of food on the island, he was not so angry about not being able to eat a few bites of apricots.

Secondly, although the reward was soaked by the rain, its true value was not destroyed.

Almonds are protected by the apricot kernels and are safe and sound. As long as the almonds are taken out to germinate and no accidents occur during the subsequent sowing, watering and fertilizing, it is highly likely that an apricot tree will be grown.

In at least four more years, and at most six, he will be able to eat unlimited supply of autumn white apricots.

As for the differences between southern oranges and northern citrons caused by incompatibility of local climate and soil, Chen Zhou had also considered it.

However, considering the worst outcome, these autumn white apricots will all be small and sour when they bear fruit, and will not taste good at all. At least the apricot kernels can be fried and eaten, so it is not a waste.

……

It took too much time to pick and choose apricots on the beach. Chen Zhou estimated that it was almost twelve o'clock or one o'clock in the morning when he set out for home.

On the way home, it started to drizzle, making visibility even lower and the forest roads even more slippery, which slowed down his progress again.

Fortunately, the top cover and shoulder straps of the mountaineering bag are covered with a layer of waterproof material. Although the side fabric is not waterproof, it also has a hydrophobic layer, which protects the apricots and nuts in the backpack.

Let this rain only slow down Chen Zhou's pace but not cause him more trouble.

……

By the time we reached the edge of the forest and walked out onto the platform from the field, the remaining fire in the kitchen had long gone out.

Wherever the light goes, the cave looks like a woman quietly waiting for her husband to return, looking out quietly in the dark.

His trouser legs and leather boots had long been soaked by the raindrops on the grass and trees in the forest. As he dragged his heavy body to the door of the house, Chen Zhou's steps were already a little tired.

Here, he could finally rest in peace, so he put down the long-handled axe in his hand and took off his wide-brimmed hat.

With a low dog bark, Lai Fu's huge head emerged from the darkness.

During the rainy season, Chen Zhou stayed in the cave, and his exercise volume decreased. In addition, due to the grapes, the quality of his food became higher and higher, and his weight increased again.

Chen Zhou estimated that it was already approaching the 110-jin mark.

When he found Lai Fu on the boat, he thought Lai Fu was an adult dog. Unexpectedly, Lai Fu grew a little bigger after he followed him ashore.

It was not until June this year that it stopped growing taller and longer and began to grow wider.

If it weren't for the heat on the island, Lai Fu's fur would have grown longer, and the lion's mane-like hair on his neck would no longer be thick, and his size would have been much more intimidating than it is now.

"Good dog!"

Reaching out his hand and letting Lai Fu put his head into his palm, Chen Zhou took the opportunity to rub the soft hair on its head.

haha~
Lai Fu stuck out his tongue proudly, walked around Chen Zhou and sniffed his backpack.

As if it didn't smell the meat, it walked away, wagging its big tail, and didn't seem to be very interested.

"Little glutton."

After saying something funny and cursing, Chen Zhou put down his backpack. Although he was very tired, he couldn't go to bed immediately.

He had to check on the condition of Grape and the three kittens first, then feed the female mice, and finally deal with Apricot.

Chen Zhou was very clear about how tired he was, and he didn't dare close his eyes.

Because he knew that if he continued to sleep, he would not wake up until at least this afternoon. Such a long time was enough to delay many things.

Lighting the oil lamp in the bedroom, he first looked at Raisin's food bowl and water bowl.

Grape has been eating a lot recently and drinking more frequently than before pregnancy. Both wooden bowls have been licked clean.

Thinking that he would wash the apricots and pick the apricot kernels while heating up some food for Tizi, and also fill his own stomach and feed Lai Fu, Chen Zhou came to Tizi's nest.

The light from the oil lamp could not reach into the nest, and he could only vaguely see that a huge body was stuffed into the small wooden box.

Reaching his hand inside, he was rewarded with a lazy "meow~".

Grasping the soft fur he touched, Chen Zhou gritted his teeth and pulled Xiao Huihui out of the wooden box.

Little Huihui was woken up inexplicably. He squinted his eyes, with fatigue and confusion still on his face. He looked at his owner puzzledly, then licked the corner of his mouth.

"Are you shameless? Why are you squeezing your own wife and children? How old are you?"

After patting Xiao Huihui's head, Chen Zhou bent down and looked at the kittens in the nest, fearing that they would be crushed to death by Xiao Huihui, the unreliable father.

Fortunately, Tizi was very protective of the cubs, and Xiao Huihui did not deliberately harm the kittens, so the little ones were all safe and sound.

However, when Chen Zhou was stroking the kitten, he noticed another detail - Ti Zi's breasts were all shriveled.

The kitten is only five or six days old, and Grape’s diet is good, so it usually can’t eat it all. Why is it acting so abnormally today?

With a turn of his eyes, Chen Zhou locked his gaze on Xiao Huihui, who was sitting beside him with a puzzled look on his face. He focused on observing its wet chin and the tongue licking the corner of its mouth, and gradually understood everything.

"You are such a shameless person! You are stealing the child's milk?"

(End of this chapter)