From Robinson Crusoe

On December 12, Chen Zhou left the kitchen full of semicircular wooden rims and headed to the beach to claim his reward.

Since the first anniversary, the Space-Time Administration has become more generous.

The Damascus steel billet awarded last time was already surprising enough. He thought that this time the reward would be more ordinary and smaller in size. After arriving at the beach, Chen Zhou was once again shocked by the generosity of the reward.

The reward was as big as a safe, in the shape of a rectangular block, and was placed upright in the middle of the wooden and stone wall.

It is estimated to be nearly one meter high, nearly 90cm long, and more than 50cm wide, and is still wrapped in a wooden frame on the outside.

However, the outer frame of this reward is not as tightly wrapped as other rewards, especially the bottom of the frame, which leaves a gap of about 3cm. Through the gap, you can see that the reward has four omnidirectional wheels.

The diameter of these four omnidirectional wheels is about 10cm, which is much larger than the casters on ergonomic chairs. In terms of practicality and durability, they are far superior to the casters on ergonomic chairs.

Simply remove them, install them on a wooden pallet, and then add a handle to the pallet to make a cart.

With a flatbed truck, the container left on the hillside can be transported up the mountain. When transporting stone, wood and clay, it is no problem to carry two or three hundred kilograms at a time.

Putting aside other things, just looking at these four omnidirectional wheels, Chen Zhou felt that he was going to get rich again.

He walked closer and pulled out the eight pieces of anti-collision cotton fixed on the eight corners of the wooden frame. He carefully pried off the nails on the wooden strips with the axe blade - the more intact ones could be reused.

Next, he started from the top and removed the wooden frame piece by piece.

Soon, the items in the package appeared intact before him.

This is a metal tool cart, made entirely of metal and plastic, with blue-gray and silver-white as the main colors. There are seven drawers from top to bottom.

In order to prevent scratches during transportation, several pieces of foam are stuck on the outside of the car body. The drawer can only be opened after removing these pieces of foam.

Before pulling out the drawer, Chen Zhou thought the box was empty, but he didn't expect it to be filled with all kinds of tools.

These include various types of long and short hexagonal sockets, plum sockets, pneumatic sockets, ratchet wrenches, and bent rod extensions.

Various types of open-end wrenches, combination wrenches, adjustable wrenches, screwdrivers, as well as handle suction rods, rubber screwdrivers, dust blowers...

There are also the most useful ones for Chen Zhou, including tape measures, vernier calipers, pointer torque testers, circlip pliers with multiple models of internal straight, external straight, internal curved and external curved, needle nose pliers, diagonal pliers and wire cutters.

There are also pliers, carp pliers, punches, testers, broken screw extractors, utility knives, ball-peen hammers, rubber hammers...

A rough count shows that the total number of tools of all kinds in all seven drawers should be more than 450, with a full range of models, and most of them do not require electricity.

Chen Zhou believes that with this set of tools, he can disassemble most cars into parts from the outside to the inside - because this is a mobile auto repair tool truck.

Unfortunately, at the moment he only has the dismantling tools but no car.

Don’t be fooled by the variety of tools in the drawer.

Actually, 90% of them are useless to him.

For example, those tools for tightening screws are useless at the moment.

There are also many tools such as electric tester, oil filter wrench, LED work light, oil seal hook, etc., which are temporarily useless.

However, it would be too absolute to say that they are completely useless. Chen Zhou can think of only one place where they can be used - to remove the combination lock of the safe.

When the safe was violently dismantled, part of the combination lock was destroyed, but most of the sophisticated mechanical structures were relatively intact.

According to Chen Zhou's understanding of mechanical safes, there are a lot of useful parts that can be disassembled from the safety device.

It includes the core frame that supports the entire mechanical lock and the "lock body" that installs the basic components;
The lock cylinder that inserts the key and transmits rotational power to complete the unlocking and locking actions; the paddle that senses the tooth shape of the key; the spring, pin, blade, clutch, brake block, and return spring.

The springs, part of the lock cylinder and lock body components, clutch, and stop block inside are all used in the manufacture of firearms, and they are all made of steel or copper. Their performance is several levels higher than the easily corroded iron firearms parts of this era.

When cutting the steel plate of the safe, Chen Zhou deliberately avoided the body of the safe and left the lock body.

At that time, he really wanted to directly disassemble the sophisticated and complex mechanical lock and take out the internal parts for later use, but due to the lack of suitable tools and the fact that making a gun had a relatively low priority among all his work, it has been put on hold until now.

I didn't expect that I would really get something good after waiting for this. With this set of auto repair tools, disassembling the safety lock is no longer a problem.

And in the process of making firearms, various pliers and vernier calipers can provide him with sufficient assistance.

For a qualified mechanical engineer, precision and standards are always the principles that must be adhered to.

Once a country disrespects standards and fools around like India did, accidents like its own torpedoes destroying its own submarines, frequent plane crashes and missile frigates capsizing will occur.

When conditions were not met, Chen Zhou always maintained an attitude of striving for excellence and perfection in manufacturing equipment. Now that he has modern measuring tools, he will raise his standards even more.

……

Grabbing the handle on the side of the tool cart and trying to lift it up, Chen Zhou estimated that the weight of the entire cart was about 140 to 150 kilograms. He failed to pull it off the wooden pallet.

This is a beach. If such a heavy tool cart is placed on it, its four omnidirectional wheels will definitely sink deep into the sand and will be unable to move.

He took the tools out of the drawer just like he had moved the container and the Damascus billets inside. It was safer to empty the drawer first and then take the empty tool cart away.

……

After two days of hard work, the auto repair tool box was brought back to the cave, and the available space in the storage room was further compressed.

After organizing all the tools, the first thing Chen Zhou did was to remove the omnidirectional wheels under the tool cart and install it on a two-meter-long, one and a half-meter-wide, nailed thick wooden board.

Then he installed a handle on the board, repaired the mountain road, pushed it to pull the container onto the platform, and temporarily placed it outdoors.

The appearance of the omnidirectional wheel seems to be a kind reminder from the Space Administration——

Stop working on that wheel you made from bent wood; it's useless. Just wait for me to bring it to you.

But Chen Zhou did not accept their kindness. He was not a man who gave up easily. It took him nearly a month to master the wood-beveling technology. He could see that it would be as advanced as firing pottery. How could he just give up at this critical juncture?

As the saying goes, a journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. I have already done ninety-nine bows, so what else is left but this last step?
Moreover, now that he has both practical experience and theoretical knowledge, and the wheels he manufactures are becoming more and more perfect, he has no reason to give up.

After all, there are still more than 9,000 days to go, and we can’t just rely on these four omnidirectional wheels to survive.

……

Keep putting in the work.

Near the end of December, Chen Zhou did not forget to climb to the top of the mountain to look at the beach and look for the movements of the cannibalistic natives.

Nearly a year had passed, and the place where the natives held the cannibal feast had long been smoothed by heavy rain. From a distance, the sand seemed flat and wide, as if nothing had happened.

He watched carefully until the end of December and only went to the beach once on December 12 to get the reward. Until New Year's Day 12, Chen Zhou did not see the natives land on the island.

The facts were just as he had guessed - the natives landed on the island once every other year.

They had already held a cannibal feast in 1659, so they would not hold it again in 1660. In 1661, that is, this year, it was time for them to gather on the island again. If they wanted to obtain labor or find a partner with higher intelligence and more help, they had less than 12 months to prepare.

……

As for the rewards on December 12th, it should be the worst after the first anniversary.

A box contains 24 bags of mixed instant noodles.

There are Chen Zhou’s favorite old-style pickled cabbage beef noodles and spicy and sour beef noodles, as well as classic braised beef noodles and fresh shrimp and fish noodles, as well as tomato beef noodles and golden soup beef noodles, four bags of each.

The shelf life of instant noodles is not as long as canned noodles. On the day he got them, Chen Zhou couldn't control his craving and directly cooked a bag of pickled cabbage beef noodles.

Since one bag of flour was not enough for the dough, he put a lot of dough lumps into the pot.

The second season wheat matured long ago, and the third season rice was harvested a few days ago. Almost half of the fields are planted, and fertilizers have been used for the new crops, which are growing well. Coupled with the goat milk provided by the female goats and the harvest from the sea, the "food crisis" on the island has been successfully overcome.

However, although there is plenty of food, it is not abundant enough to be wasted, as it is all grown with hard work.

Having experienced the hardship of "every grain of rice is hard-earned", Chen Zhou never dares to waste food. When cooking, he always considers the amount to use to avoid leftovers.

The island is still in the dry season and the weather is hot, so leftovers will spoil quickly. Even if they are placed in the kitchen where the temperature is lower, they can only be kept for seven or eight hours at most. If they are kept any longer, they will become sour.

……

When I was in high school, evening self-study lasted until nearly ten o'clock, and dinner was around six o'clock.

At that time, Chen Zhou was in the growth stage. He was tall and thin, and got hungry quickly. After evening self-study, he had to go to the canteen to buy some snacks and fill his stomach in the dormitory.

At that time, old-style pickled cabbage beef noodles was his favorite. He would drink up all the soup from the bucket of noodles, and he did this for three years.

During college, sometimes he was too lazy to go to the cafeteria to eat and thought takeout was too expensive, so he ate instant noodles in the dormitory. He ate countless buckets of pickled cabbage and beef noodles and finally got tired of it.

He even ate it to the point where he felt nauseous when he smelled the odor of pickled cabbage from afar while working in the staff dormitory.

Chen Zhou originally thought that his fate with Laotan Pickled Cabbage was over and he would never eat it again in his life.

Unexpectedly, after being left on an isolated island for more than a year, when he met his old friend again, among the six flavors, his favorite was actually the traditional pickled cabbage.

He boiled water, added the instant noodle soup and sauerkraut dumplings, and when he smelled the familiar sour and spicy taste, he couldn't help but saliva from his mouth.

Later, when he was eating the noodles, he was sweating profusely and enjoying it so much that he even drank the sticky noodle soup and drank it all into his stomach.

In the past, Chen Zhou never understood what it meant to "meet an old friend in a foreign land". But after living on an isolated island and eating this pot of traditional pickled cabbage and beef noodles, he finally understood what this saying meant.

It’s a pity that there are only four bags of this flavor, and the shelf life is less than six months, so he obviously won’t be able to enjoy it many times.

……

Instant noodles brought enjoyment to Chen Zhou's taste buds, while time and hard work promoted the improvement of his wood-carving skills.

After a simple New Year's Day party, on January 5th, he finally made his first high-quality wooden wheel without delaying his work, and sorted out all the steps required before and after bending the wood into a wheel.

From selecting wood, cutting logs, drying them naturally or drying them, to fumigating and heating them in steam, and using molds to bend the wood.

Then fix the bent wood with a clamp to prevent it from rebounding and deforming after cooling. After it is dry, saw off the excess part and splice the two semicircles into a complete rim.

Afterwards, the hub with spokes installed must be embedded in the inner ring of the rim and glued together with fish bladder glue. The mortise and tenon structure is used to make the structural stress of the entire wheel more reasonable, and the entire wheel is completed.

The processes before and after are so complicated that the cost of trial and error can be imagined.

Without the way of thinking and understanding of materials science, physics, chemistry and other subjects brought by modern education, Chen Zhou simply couldn't imagine how long it would take him to make this wheel.

But he felt that his efforts were worthwhile because this wheel with a diameter of 80cm could already meet his needs.

It is no exaggeration to say that if he were given a chain, he could easily make a bicycle with wooden wheels.

Now, as long as he removes the casters of the ergonomic chair and takes out the bearings inside the casters, his cart will be half completed. Furthermore, using billy goats to pull the cart is not just a pipe dream.

……

But after working intensively for so long, and after confirming that he had succeeded and having full confidence in building the cart, Chen Zhou decided to relax his body and mind and take a break.

Before we knew it, the three kittens in the cave were already more than three months old.

The largest kitten at the moment, the only male cat, Lao Er, weighs nearly five kilograms. With his broad bones, when he stands next to Tizi, he does not seem much smaller than his mother at first glance.

This guy has yellow and black stripes on his body, and is slightly similar to a tabby cat. He is lively and alert. Recently, he often goes out hunting with Ti Zi. He is much better than his unreliable father Xiao Hui Hui, and is deeply loved by Chen Zhou.

Chen Zhou happened to have some free time, so he named the three kittens with great interest, which was also a way of formally accepting them as members of his own family.

The smallest one among them is the eldest, with mixed-colored fur. He is very similar to a popular online cat that Chen Zhou likes very much, but he doesn't look as old as that cat, and he doesn't bleat like that cat.

Chen Zhou named the cat "Gangdang", which is exactly the same name as the internet celebrity cat. He used the cat to express his nostalgia for modern life and at the same time fulfilled his own wish - he had wanted to raise a cat similar to Gangdang for a long time.

The second one is the largest and the most courageous, so he is named "Tiger Head". When Tizi grows up, the family can only rely on it to catch mice.

Little Huihui is lazy and greedy. Even if he has changed a little compared to before, he can never become the main force in catching mice.

Moreover, Chen Zhou felt that Hutou, which combined the size and skeleton of Xiaohuihui with the toughness and agility of Tizi, was likely to become the "king of cats" in this area.

In addition, the family has good food and no lack of nutrition. When this guy grows up, three or five wild cats may not be his match.

The third one is also a female cat. She inherited the fur color of the little gray cat. She is slightly bigger than the eldest one. Her personality is similar to her father. She is always lazy, so she was named "Gray Ball".

When they were young, the three little guys always gathered together and were inseparable. As they grew up and their personalities changed, they gradually became distant.

Hutou likes to go out with Tizi to catch mice. It is very brave and dares to go deep into the forest. Chen Zhou once saw it not far from the camp at the foot of the mountain.

Guangdang was not lazy either, but he was not as brave as Hutou and only dared to walk to the edge of the woods.

If you want to find it, just call it a few times around the fields and it will come out from the rice fields or wheat fields. Among the three kittens, Gangdang is the most friendly.

As for Gray Ball, it lives up to its name and loves to lie by the bed or in the kitchen.

The "delivery room" that Chen Zhou prepared for Tizi has now become its detached villa. It stays in there and sleeps all day long. No wonder it is a size bigger than Gangdang.

Because they were named too late, the kittens are not yet used to their own "big names", but they respond positively when being called "Biggest", "Second", and "Third".

In order to correct their wrong ideas, during the break, Chen Zhou fried a lot of fragrant dried fish and trained them in the same way as training dogs.

I called them over and over again, and rewarded them as long as they came over. Gradually, it started to work, and they finally understood what I was calling. (End of this chapter)