From Robinson Crusoe

In the early morning of August 8, Chen Zhou woke up from his bedroom smelling slightly of alcohol.

The image in his mind was still the clear wine that was poured into the glass before going to bed last night. He scratched his messy hair, thinking that he should find time to shave his head, and hurriedly got out of bed.

Today is the day for a long journey, so we can't delay.

He washed his face with cold water, carefully squeezed out a grain of toothpaste and brushed his teeth with a small homemade brush, then began to pack his bags.

This trip was much more comfortable than the last time.

In addition to the backpack, he also brought the large parasol that came with the fishing tool box and a sleeping bag.

The dry season has not yet ended, but it is approaching the rainy season. The probability of dark clouds appearing in the sky is getting higher and higher, and occasionally a gust of humid wind will blow from the sea.

When camping outdoors and it rains, having such an umbrella can at least provide some protection from the wind and rain.

As for the sleeping bag, it was one of the four rewards delivered in the past two months.

It’s not too thick, weighs about 1.5kg, is filled with down, is shaped like an envelope and has its own raised pillow.

When using it, you can not only crawl into it to rest, but also unzip the side of the sleeping bag, unfold it into a quilt, and sleep in a more stretched posture.

The climate on the island is hot, so you don’t need to stay in a sleeping bag to keep warm when you rest at night. The unfolding design of the sleeping bag is very thoughtful, otherwise you will wake up covered in sweat.

……

Except for the sleeping bag, the other three rewards are pretty standard.

Two mercury thermometers were delivered on June 6 and placed by Chen Zhou in the drawer of the bedside table. In case he caught a cold or had a fever in the future, he could use them to measure his body temperature.

The reward on June 6 was a sleeping bag, and the reward on July 22 was ten buckets of waterproof paint.

However, these ten buckets are all wall waterproof paint, which is not very useful to Chen Zhou. He needs waterproof paint suitable for wooden boards.

Moreover, all ten buckets of paint were pink, and even if he could paint them on the stone brick walls, he was not willing to do so.

The reward delivered on July 7 was ten 22kg bags of high-gluten flour, along with fifty small packets of dry yeast.

As consumables, flour can only improve Chen Zhou's meals. Dry yeast is much more useful. It is difficult to make steamed buns or bread without yeast.

Unfortunately, fifty packets of dry yeast are still too little, and they have a limited shelf life, so they can't be used for long.

But Chen Zhou knows a way to make yeast "infinitely refillable".

After the dough has risen, tear off a piece, dry it, and store it in a jar. It will not be a problem to store it for a year or two.

The next time you need yeast to work, just add this piece of dough to the new dough and the yeast will work.

However, he is too busy on weekdays and sometimes forgets to feed his cats and dogs. Steaming buns is still too troublesome. Chen Zhou does not plan to make starter for the time being. It is also fine to let the dry yeast stay quietly in the packaging bag.

As long as it saves trouble, he would rather not eat steamed buns.

……

Chen Zhou tied the sleeping bag into a small roll with a hemp rope, ready to tie it to the top or bottom of the mountaineering bag later. When it came to choosing a melee weapon, he was in a dilemma.

Thanks to the mysterious reward, he has quite a few melee weapons.

Among them there are tools like long axes and short axes that can be used as both tools and weapons, there are also weapons like kitchen knives and daggers that are easy to carry and relatively light, and there are also rewards like assembled spears that can only be used as weapons.

Even some unpopular tools, such as pipe pliers, loose plates, and various heavy metal auto repair tools, can be used as weapons.

You must bring an axe with you, otherwise you won’t even be able to prepare firewood to make a fire.

Chen Zhou was hesitant about whether to bring a kitchen knife for preparing food.

Because he planned to be away for four days in total.

He set out on the 2nd and returned on the 6th. He had already prepared the dry food needed for these four days, and even prepared a portion for Lai Fu.

He used cans to get drinking water. He walked along the river. When he was thirsty, he just built a campfire and boiled water directly without worrying about the lack of clean water.

During this period, he tried not to hunt, but focused on traveling, looking for crops, transplanting some plants in the fruit valley, and collecting seeds of ripe fruits.

In this case, it is unnecessary to bring a special knife for cutting and processing food.

As for the spear, after some thought, Chen Zhou finally chose to leave it at home.

This thing is too long to fit in a backpack, and it is also very heavy, making it inconvenient to carry.

Moreover, on this long journey, Chen Zhou only planned to stay in the plain area for most of the day, trying to find out whether there was cassava there. If he couldn't find any, he would go straight to the fruit valley.

The valley is full of trees, which is not suitable for the use of long-handled weapons.

In the face of numerous defects, the spear was naturally eliminated and replaced by a longbow and ten sharp arrows - when it comes to dealing with prey, the bow and arrow seem to be much more useful than the spear.

……

It took more than an hour to pack my luggage.

It was around 9 o'clock in the morning, when the sun was shining brightly. Chen Zhou finally put on his backpack, called Lai Fu to his side, and set out on the road to the river valley plain.

Food has been prepared for all the pets at home. There is water and dried fish in the cat's food bowl, and there is enough fresh grass and hay in the chinchilla's "luxury villa".

Even the poison testers were given a large amount of leftover food from the birthday party, and it was a rare New Year celebration.

……

With curiosity about the unexplored place, Chen Zhou tightened the straw hat on his head.

After going down the mountain, he turned into the coastal woods and headed deeper into the island along the river.

Long-term mountain climbing and running training has greatly increased his physical strength. This time he was familiar with the route to Heguping, and with his improved physical fitness, his speed was much faster than last time.

……

Before dark, Chen Zhou had arrived at the river valley plain.

The scenery here is basically the same as the last time I came here, as if time has stopped here.

After selecting a camping site and clearing away the weeds on the ground to prevent snakes and insects from hiding there, Chen Zhou started a campfire.

He added enough firewood to the campfire to last for an hour, and before it got dark, he took Lai Fu around the campsite twice to see if he could make any new discoveries.

Before leaving, he brought two lighting tools.

One of these was a lantern filled with lamp oil, used to provide light in regular situations.

The other is a high-power flashlight.

This flashlight was a reward in the anniversary gift package. It uses a removable lithium battery. When Chen Zhou received it, he tried pressing the switch and found that the flashlight still had sufficient power, so he removed the battery and placed it in a dry place for safekeeping.

There is no need for a flashlight at home. When exploring pigeon caves or collecting saltpeter, a lantern is enough to meet the lighting needs, so this flashlight has been idle.

There was a possibility of encountering unexpected emergencies during this outing, so after thinking it over, Chen Zhou decided to bring a flashlight with him.

At critical moments, this thing is much more useful than an oil lamp.

The lighting range is large, the distance is long, the light is bright enough, and it can be switched to strobe mode. If you encounter any wild beasts or natives at night, this flashlight alone can scare them to death.

……

The sun was about to set, and the valley plain was already shrouded in twilight. The tips of the lush herbs were illuminated by the oil lamps, and it seemed as if there were noises flickering like fine sand.

Lai Fu pressed close to Chen Zhou's calf. Right in front of them were a few half-dead trees, with thick vines wrapped around them, full of grapes.

Grapes grown in the dry season lack water, so they taste less juicy and sweeter than grapes grown in the rainy season, and are Chen Zhou's favorite.

However, although grapes are good, you cannot eat too many of them, as they can easily cause abdominal pain and diarrhea - this is the lesson Chen Zhou learned from his personal experience.

In addition, he also knew that grapes should not be fed to dogs.

Nowadays, many people keep pets, and various strange pet taboos are also widely publicized.

For example, dogs cannot eat chocolate, grapes, or macadamia nuts.

Chen Zhou didn't know how much of this was reliable, and he didn't dare to use Lai Fu for experiments.

In fact, for Lai Fu's health, he has not even put too much oil and salt in Lai Fu's meals in recent times.

They were afraid that excessive oil and salt would put too much strain on Lai Fu's kidneys and shorten his lifespan.

……

With a lantern in one hand and a can on his belt, Chen Zhou reached out and picked grapes from the vine, thinking of making himself a fresh nightly dessert.

He had only picked two or three grapes when he suddenly noticed, in the dim light of the oil lamp, that a vine was reflecting an unusual light - it was an exceptionally fresh green with black and white stripes like a woven ribbon.

"what is this?"

Curiously moving the lantern closer, Chen Zhou noticed that the special vine slowly moved back, and his scalp suddenly went numb.

"Fuck, it's a snake!"

He quickly stepped back, grabbed Lai Fu's mane, and led him away from the vine.

Because it was too far away, the light from the lantern could not illuminate the grape vines clearly. All that could be seen were the vines entangled in the tree trunks, some thick and some thin, densely stretched upwards.

Although he was thankful that he was not bitten, Chen Zhou still couldn't hide his curiosity about the strange snake-like creature. He really wanted to know what it was and whether his lamb was bitten by it.

Although his reason told him that it would be best to leave here now to avoid danger, curiosity clearly prevailed at this moment.

Putting down the lantern, he took out a high-powered flashlight, took off the long-handled axe from his waist, tentatively shone it towards the place where he had just seen the snake, and used the axe to poke at the vines.

The beam of light from the high-intensity flashlight illuminated the entire grape vine as if it were daytime; even the small insects resting on the vines were clearly visible.

The uninvited intrusion of the axe caused a commotion among the insects. Those with wings quickly spread their wings and flew away, while those without wings also took steps and ran away quickly.

In this chaotic scene, Chen Zhou noticed that an extremely slender grape vine was also moving quietly and crawling downwards.

After confirming that it was the snake he had just seen, he stretched forward his hand that was tightly gripping the axe handle, and the upward axe blade immediately penetrated into the grape vine and picked up the moving vine.

At the same time, the flashlight also shone on the "grapevine".

Chen Zhou finally saw its true face.

It was a very peculiar-looking snake.

Its body is extremely thin, only slightly thicker than the middle finger, but extremely long, like a shoelace, wrapped around the vine.

Unlike normal snakes, this snake's body is not only extremely thin and long, but also flat. Its back is almost flat, and you can even see edges and corners on the edges of its body.

At the front end of this strange body, there is a long and sharp head like a spear head. You can tell at a glance that it is not a good creature.

If you say that her body is slender and her shape is peculiar, that's not the point.

The most striking thing about this snake is its eyes.

Its pupils do not grow vertically like those of common snakes, but are horizontally located between the eyes like those of sheep, giving people a cold and weird feeling.

At this moment, it was already angered by the axe blade's sudden disturbance. Its body was like a compressed spring, with its muscles tensed, its neck bent, and its tongue slightly sticking out, as if it was ready to attack at any time.

Lai Fu, who had not given any warning just now, finally saw the insidious assassin after Chen Zhou's active exploration, and began to bark loudly in anxiety.

The birds perched in the water plants on both sides of the river were startled by the loud barking of the dog and flew away.

The dark river valley plain was filled with the sound of flapping wings and the anxious calls of birds, making it extremely lively.

Realizing that the hot-tempered snake was about to attack, Chen Zhou did not give it a chance. He swung his hand axe and chopped the snake's body hanging on the axe blade directly onto the tough grape vines.

Although this snake looks strange, its intelligence is not much different from that of ordinary snakes. From beginning to end, it did not realize that the place where it was staying was not a natural creation, but a "guillotine" controlled by humans.

In just a moment, its body was pulled upward at an angle by the axe blade.

The axe blade, which seemed harmless just now, cut the snake's body into two pieces once it exerted force.

There was no ear-piercing scream, no blood splattering, just like chopping off a tree or cutting a rope.

The upper and lower bodies of the snake parted in a hurry without even saying goodbye.

Its upper body fell to the ground, while its lower body was still entangled in the vines, swinging from side to side.

When Lai Fu saw the snake's head falling in front of him, he subconsciously wanted to rush forward and bite it.

Fortunately, Chen Zhou was quick and pulled it back.

When he was having fun in the fishing bar, he often read posts from anglers who went fishing at night and encountered highly venomous snakes such as the Bungarus multicinctus, the Five-step Snake, and the Green Pit Viper.

There are also many novice anglers who encounter unfamiliar snakes and take photos and post them for identification by fellow forum users.

There is one identification rule that does not apply to all snakes, but is applicable to most snakes - the triangular head is a venomous snake, and the round head is a non-venomous snake.

It can be said that except for a few species of cobras such as the Zhoushan cobra and black mamba, most triangular-headed snakes are poisonous.

According to professionals in the forum who are more familiar with reptiles, the triangular head is poisonous because it is one of the characteristics of the Viperidae family, and all snakes in the Viperidae family are poisonous snakes.

Also note that a snake does not die immediately after its body is cut off; its upper body will still retain its attack power for a period of time.

If you think you can pick it up and play with it safely after cutting it off, you are wrong. If it uses up its last bit of strength to bite you and inject venom, it will be no joke.

Seeing that the head of the snake that was broken into two pieces was so pointed, Chen Zhou had already guessed that it was not a good person and did not dare to let Lai Fu get close to it.

If they really get close, it’s hard to say who will bite whom.

"I didn't expect there was such a thing in the river valley plain. It seems I can't wander around here after the sun sets."

Chen Zhou put away the axe, turned off the flashlight, and picked up the lantern on the ground, still feeling a lingering fear.

Although venomous snakes are small, they are far more deadly than wild beasts, and their small size makes them difficult to detect.

He would rather be scratched by a wild cat or bitten by a cat than deal with snakes.

In nature, venom is truly a superb weapon.

Even if his weight is hundreds of times that of a venomous snake, there is a high probability that he will die instantly if bitten.

The presence of poisonous snakes in the river valley plains was undoubtedly bad news for him.

This means that tomorrow when he looks for cassava, he will no longer be as leisurely and happy as before. He must slow down his pace, use a wooden stick to flatten the grass piece by piece, and scare away the snakes before he can move forward.

In this way, the time required to explore the same area will probably double, and the probability of finding cassava will also decrease. (End of this chapter)