From Robinson Crusoe

On September 1660, 9, Chen Zhou organized the most sumptuous banquet since he arrived on the island in the cave.

In order to place the many dishes, he specially cleared out the bedroom, pulled out two short tables and put them together.

There are several chairs next to the short table, which are the exclusive seats for Lai Fu, Xiao Huihui, Ti Zi, Totoro and the three kittens.

……

It did not rain on the 30th. Looking out at the forest from the platform, there was white fog everywhere, as if one had walked into the place where the gods in Norse mythology lived.

Chen Zhou got up early, washed up, and lit all the oil lamps.

The cave has never been so bright.

The dust particles floating in the air drifted in the light. Tizi hugged the three little ones, poked his head out of the wooden box beside the bed, and blinked his left eye gently with a lazy expression.

The wooden floor in the bedroom had been cleaned with a homemade mop and was not yet dry.

Lai Fu walked over it, leaving behind a row of plum blossom-shaped footprints and a few dog hairs.

The prepared ingredients were neatly arranged next to the kitchen chopping board - mutton, turtle meat, fresh fish, rabbit meat, frogs, pigeons...

The dagger and iron knife used for cutting meat had long been polished to a sharp gleam and were placed horizontally on the chopping board.

Oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, rum, sugar, garlic, fennel...

The seasonings are placed on a wooden rack and can be used at any time.

As if knowing that this was an important day, the fire in the stove was much brighter than usual.

The flames danced excitedly, the bright red tongues rose and fell, licking the bottom of the pot and burning the seal oil inside.

Chen Zhou put on the apron he had sewn himself, rubbed Lai Fu's dog head, rinsed his hands in the clay pot, and glanced outside the kitchen.

Without the sound of the dripping rain, the world seems quieter than usual.

The sun had not yet risen, and the thin mist that was wrapped around the treetops like a ribbon in the distance had not yet dissipated. The noisy sound of chopping meat added a bit of liveliness to the quiet forest.

Knowing that his appetite is limited, Chen Zhou’s main theme for this banquet is “small but beautiful”.

There was no refrigerator on the island, and his freezer was barely even built.

The homemade "saltpeter refrigerator" could barely hold two and a half fish, and the only result of cooking too much food was spoilage.

Fried prawns, roasted pigeons, roasted fish, turtle soup, lamb skewers, fried frogs, rabbit meatballs...

Add to that steamed shellfish, sea urchins and steamed turtle eggs, as well as canned yellow peaches, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and pickled and fried almonds.

After the meal, there were also chopped sugarcane pieces, some shriveled grapes, lemon juice and orange segments.

There is even a secret recipe of aloe vera juice that can help clear the stomach and intestines.

Even in modern society, this banquet can be considered sumptuous.

There is everything there, including those flying in the sky, walking on the ground, and swimming in the water, meat or vegetarian, sour, sweet, salty, spicy, fragrant, and restrained.

Thanks to Chen Zhou, Lai Fu and his friends were able to enjoy a rare and sumptuous meal that they had never had before.

Of course, when Chen Zhou was cooking early in the morning, they were sleeping or playing, and they had no idea what September 9th meant to them.

……

Walking around the kitchen, Chen Zhou, wearing an apron, found a bit of the feeling of a "chef". There were more and more dishes on the table, most of which were simply presented.

A few slices of lemon, a few leaves, broken flowers that have not yet withered, and exquisite silver plates give it the feel of a high-end restaurant - if you ignore the simple furnishings in the cave.

The cooking took too long and the stove was always on. The cave, which was always damp, became dry for the first time, and the heat wave made Chen Zhou drink water continuously.

The first dishes prepared are placed under the plates to prevent them from cooling down and affecting the taste.

His own dishes were freshly cooked one by one, and there was still a lot of fresh meat left on the chopping board. Chen Zhou chopped it into minced meat, mixed it with flour, put it into his homemade ceramic bowl to shape it, and finally steamed it in an iron can filled with half a can of water.

Several unattractive "bowl-shaped cakes" in various flesh colors were his gifts for cats and dogs.

Even though this cake doesn't look good and has no salt or soy sauce, or even a drop of oil, it is a hodgepodge of various meats and tastes as rich as it can be - at least that's what Chen Zhou thinks.

It turns out that Lai Fu and Xiao Hui Hui are not superficial people who care about "appearance", and the pure meat cakes are very popular with them.

Lai Fu, who had shown no interest in shellfish meat last time, took two bites of a small cake and his appetite was greatly stimulated as if he had taken a stomach-strengthening and digestion-promoting tablet.

Not to mention Xiao Huihui, Tizi and the three little foodies, they all ate until their bellies were full and went to find a place to sleep contentedly.

As for the vegetarian chinchilla, it was not ignored. Chen Zhou prepared a few meatballs made of fresh grass for it.

The meatballs were both edible and entertaining, making the little chinchilla extremely happy. For a moment, it was reluctant to eat them, and it held the meatballs with its short front paws and rolled around in the wooden box for a long time.

……

He started cooking as soon as he got up and was busy until the afternoon. Some of the dishes were already cold, but Chen Zhou finally completed the whole feast.

However, even though the food was cold, it didn't mean that he didn't enjoy the food when it tasted its best right out of the pot.

As the saying goes, "If the cook doesn't steal, the crops won't be harvested." When the food was ready, Chen Zhou stuffed a lot of it into his mouth.

Anyway, he is the only one here, so how could he really despise himself?

His energy was constantly replenished, and by the time all the dishes were ready, he was almost full.

After briefly tasting the last few dishes, Chen Zhou felt that the food was almost piled up to his throat. He really didn't dare to eat any more, so he packed up all the dishes, washed the kitchen utensils, and went out for a walk.

Firstly, we wanted to take advantage of the rare good weather today without any rain to appreciate the vibrant scene of the island during the rainy season.

Secondly, I ate too much, so I took a walk to digest the food, and took Lai Fu out to play and have some fun.

This guy stays at home all day sleeping, and he looks like he's about to get horns from being suffocated.

Third, I took this opportunity to take a look at the female goat.

It was pregnant around May 5. The gestation period of sheep is generally about 9 days. Calculating the date, the lamb will be born within a week. Chen Zhou was always busy with trivial matters and never made a move on the large flock of sheep. In the past month, except for capturing an old sheep with a noose and a sharpened wooden spear two days ago, he had no close contact with sheep.

He estimated that until all the tools to improve productivity were completed and crop planting and processing were on track, the livestock industry could basically only rely on the mother goat and her kids.

He really hoped that the goat would give birth to a female lamb this time.

Ewes are an important driving force for sheep reproduction. They can also eliminate the risk of death due to failed "sterilization" operations. They are relatively docile in temperament and can produce milk. They are simply perfect.

……

He was not wearing a fur raincoat, nor was he wearing a wide-brimmed hat whose leather had fallen off due to too much rain. With only a long-handled axe in hand, Chen Zhou called Lai Fu and walked along the mountainside towards the platform.

A cool breeze was blowing on the hillside after the rain.

Crystal clear water droplets hung on the tips of the grass.

Wild flowers are blooming beside the wet gravel road, and the delicate purple-red petals are swaying in the wind with tender yellow stamens.

The sky and the earth have been cleansed, and everything looks clean and fresh.

The clouds seemed lower than usual, and the mist was so light, slowly climbing up from the foot of the mountain, like a white sea, surging with the wind.

Lai Fu's barking was loud and he ran happily and freely, startling the insects in the grass.

A dragonfly with blue transparent wings drew a semicircle, suddenly accelerated, and landed on Chen Zhou's shoulder, looking at this huge and strange creature with its big, shining eyes.

Looking into the dragonfly's eyes, Chen Zhou vaguely saw himself in its eyes.

Smiling slightly, he carefully extended a finger to tentatively touch the dragonfly.

Then it shook its blue wings, and like a fallen leaf blown away by the wind, it flew away, chasing Lai Fu's wagging tail and gradually left.

It has been a long time since Lai Fu accompanied his master out in such weather. He ran freely on the mountain road, his flowing hair like waves, like a leaping horse.

Chen Zhou didn't know what it was chasing, and didn't call out. He just maintained his steady pace and watched it disappear from his sight.

Then he was the only one left between heaven and earth, and there were some flying and jumping insects on the roadside.

This is the 365th day of survival, or life, on the isolated island. For Chen Zhou, today is undoubtedly a special day.

As he moved forward alone, he couldn't help but review his experiences of the past year.

In the early days of the challenge, his life was undoubtedly very difficult.

On the one hand, difficulties and obstacles come from fear of the unknown and doubt about oneself.

On the one hand, it comes from being separated from the modern environment and facing various things that need to be adapted to.

From the bed to the clothes, to the food and the tools used for work, he needs to slowly adapt, slowly learn, and slowly overcome these.

Chen Zhou's grandmother often said: "There is no hardship that people cannot endure, only happiness that they cannot enjoy."

During the year on the island, he truly understood this sentence, and also understood the powerful endurance that human beings have when faced with fatigue and pain.

If there is anything that has kept him going until today and keeps him moving forward, he can only sum it up in four words - "hope and optimism."

Hope is the last light in the darkness, and optimism is the endless power in his body, driving him towards a better tomorrow.

Although he had cursed the "Space-Time Administration" and the "program crew" that he didn't know whether it existed in his heart more than once, and expressed dissatisfaction with many mysterious rewards.

However, Chen Zhou had to admit that the "mysterious reward" from the present or the future every 15 days was an indispensable milestone in his long challenge, which always allowed him to maintain a relatively healthier mental state and constantly move towards the next goal.

The environment is so primitive and the living conditions are so simple that it is not easy for a person to persist for a whole year.

Analyzing his own inner thoughts, Chen Zhou felt that his mental state was not too bad, but there were still various problems.

……

Sometimes he felt inexplicably tired;
Sometimes he would be extremely irritable;
Sometimes he wanted to put everything aside and have a good sleep, or stop thinking, empty himself, and just sit quietly for an hour, or for the whole afternoon.

Maybe he had some psychological trauma, but it healed on its own.

As for whether there would be any "scars" left after recovery, he had no idea.

Of course, facing "himself", Chen Zhou didn't want to lie.

He had to admit that during this year he had developed many "problems" that had never been apparent before.

His mood became more and more changeable, and he seemed to have taken off the mask of "kindness and elegance" in modern society and became more capricious, or "moody".

Most of the time, he can keep his emotions stable and have awe and compassion for natural creations, including the lives of various small animals.

However, once he was in a bad mood, the severity of his attacks and the cruelty of his methods were unprecedented.

He would chop a tree until it was covered with fish-scale scars, nail a snake to a tree and skin it alive bit by bit, and cut off the limbs of a lizard to watch it wriggle desperately on the ground...

After seeing blood, this terrible and violent emotion was particularly prominent, and sometimes he had to restrain himself very much before he could put down his weapon.

Chen Zhou had been in a bad mood before, but rarely had his emotions been pushed to this extent.

Therefore, he was very worried. He was worried that if he lived for a long time in such a primitive place where people did whatever they wanted without laws and moral constraints, he would gradually release the animal nature deep in his heart and become more and more like the cannibalistic natives, or even more cunning and brutal than them.

At the same time, Chen Zhou noticed that due to the long-term suppression of sexual desire, he often had some bold ideas late at night or when the temperature was high, and these ideas always revolved around female rabbits, female goats, fish swimming in the sea, or even jellyfish.

Whenever this happened, he would wash his face with cold water, put his head in a bucket, and use the feeling of suffocation to maintain restraint.

Besides, he had two other reasons to convince himself not to do so.

One is the hygiene issue, and the other is the "Space-Time Administration" and those invisible "audiences".

He kept reminding himself that this was a reality show and none of his actions were truly private, so he couldn't indulge.

If being entangled with a beautiful creature of the opposite sex is "erotic" and being entangled with an ugly creature of the opposite sex is "eye-catching", then being entangled with another species can only be summarized as "perverted".

Humans are creatures driven by desires and also animals that yearn for beauty.

Chen Zhou doesn't want to see himself degenerate into the same state as Teddy. He hopes that after 28 years, when he returns to modern society, he can still maintain a basic behavior that conforms to modern people's behavior, even if it is a disguise.

In addition to controlling his desires, Chen Zhou also found that his original "perfectionism" character became more and more obvious, even extreme.

When making earthen rice hullers and foot-operated pestles, he polished the wooden models used to verify the theory like a work of art, maintaining even the small parts that did not affect the normal operation of the machine.

He was well aware that this pursuit of perfection would consume a lot of time and energy, but he could not change it during the work process.

Because once the manufactured parts do not meet the ideal standards, he will become nauseated and then develop a temper.

Since this pursuit of perfection will not cause too much harm for the time being and is still beneficial from a certain perspective, and since Chen Zhou can't think of a way to change his "perfectionist" personality, he can only continue like this.

……

While thinking, I had unknowingly walked to the vicinity of the cave, and Lai Fu's dog's barking was getting closer and closer.

From a distance, you can see it running around the male goat and the pregnant female goat, shaking its head like a dancing lion.

Worried that Lai Fu might scare the goat and cause it to miscarry, Chen Zhou quickened his pace and walked down the mountain, shouting at Lai Fu to stop running and playing. (End of this chapter)