From Robinson Crusoe

On December 12, when the island was almost completely plunged into darkness, the two natives followed Chen Zhou back to the cabin.

The moon has gone from full to crescent.

The dim mountain road was illuminated by the bright moonlight, the lush crops swayed in the wind, and the lights in the watchtower inside the wall were lit again.

……

Dodulu and Atun sat on the edge of the bed covered with mattresses, staring at the oil lamp on the bedside table in a daze.

Everything they saw and heard today was new and novel to them. Even the work they did was something they had never done before.

From the cart pushed by Chen Zhou, to the camp at the foot of the mountain, the wooden and stone walls on the beach, and the hideous and heavy armor.

Then there was the fishing rod in Chen Zhou's hand, the bonfire that could be lit without drilling wood, and the delicious grilled fish...

Life after being rescued was far less bad than they had imagined.

Because of the presence of companions, the two felt that life here was not only happier than in the tribe, but also less lonely.

Thinking of this, Dodulu couldn't help but touch his round belly, stood up, opened the drawer, and took out the remaining half of the chocolate.

"Atun, here you go."

In the light of the lamp, he broke half a bar of chocolate in half and handed it to his skinny companion.

Atun wanted to accept it, but when he thought of his father's experience, he retracted his hand.

"This is a gift from God to you. I cannot accept it..."

Before he could finish his words, Dodoru grabbed his hand and forcefully stuffed the chocolate into it.

"Ah, don't you understand yet?

We have left the tribe, this is heaven.

In heaven, the merciful gods will not cut off your ears, and in heaven, no one will take away the food you have gathered and only give you a few wild fruits. "

His brown-black eyes reflected the burning light, flickering with a light that had never appeared before, called hope.

Looking through the glass window beside the bed, Doduru looked at the towering watchtower, his tone filled with indescribable reverence and longing.

“This is our new home, and we are alive again.

Do you understand?
Atun, we are no longer who we were in the past. We are now closer to the real gods than the chiefs and the priests.

He loves us like a father loves his children..."

After he finished speaking, seeing that Atun was still looking at the chocolate in his palm in silence, Duodulu patted Atun on the shoulder and encouraged him again.

"Eat with peace of mind. After that we'll go to sleep. Tomorrow you can catch more fish to report back to the gods."

……

After hesitating for a moment, Ah Tuan finally tentatively picked up the chocolate and put it in his mouth, chewing it slowly and carefully, feeling the sweetness of this magical food.

While eating, he looked at the stone wall behind the house or at the door of the wooden house, as if he was afraid that two people would suddenly jump out and cut off his ears.

Fortunately, what he feared did not happen, and the night remained quiet until the chocolate completely melted in his mouth.

Call ~
Following Chen Zhou's instructions, Duoduolu blew out the oil lamp, and the warm dim light in the wooden house disappeared.

"Go to sleep, Ahtun. I want to get to tomorrow soon."

As he said that, Dodoru took off his pants and climbed onto the bed.

The scent of lavender surrounded him. He pressed the soft mattress, slowly lay down, and gently placed his head on the pillow.

He felt relaxed, warm, and many other feelings he had never experienced before.

Turning his head to the side, he could just see the stars in the sky and the outer wall of the cave under the starry sky through the glass. Duoduolu turned over from the bottom of his heart and lay on the bed, his heart full of piety.

He seemed to feel it again, that invisible foot stepping on the back of his head. It was still gentle, still compassionate, and it brought him the most longed-for feeling -

Safety.

……

Having already developed some initial trust in the two natives, Chen Zhou did not climb up the watchtower to monitor the two natives again on the evening of the 19th.

But he didn't go to bed early either.

Compared to the past, today's workload was so light that he felt like he had taken a day off.

Before I could stretch my muscles, I fished for several hours in the afternoon. Then I made a fire, grilled the fish, had a big meal, and the day was over.

At night, he had no place to vent his energy and could only light the lights in the cave and do other things.

……

The addition of the two helpers has already made him taste the sweetness. Chen Zhou can't wait to train the two natives and then throw all the tedious, mechanical and repetitive work to them.

What he was thinking about tonight was how to teach the two natives how to farm and herd as quickly as possible, and let them take care of the crops he had worked so hard to cultivate and the goats he had captured and domesticated with great difficulty.

Communicating through words or body language obviously doesn't work.

Chen Zhou finally decided to use his expertise to teach in the most understandable way - painting.

There were still quite a few white mud slabs left in the cave, and he drew several teaching pictures about the plant growth process overnight.

Each picture on the clay tablet is divided into several small pictures, labeled with Arabic numerals and annotated with Chinese characters - the Chinese characters can be useful when the natives learn Chinese in the future.

Chen Zhou thoughtfully marked for the natives many possible hazards that crops might encounter during their growth.

For example, in the illustration of watering, there is a process where crops grow vigorously and mature after being watered with the right amount of water, there are also pictures of crops withering due to lack of water, and crops dying due to root rot due to too much water.

For example, weeds, insect pests, rodents and birds can harm crops.

Relying on his knowledge of the creatures living along the edge of the woods, even though he had not seen the common weeds and parasitic plants like dodder with his own eyes, Chen Zhou still accurately drew their appearances with charcoal.

As for the beetles that like to gnaw on crops, the hares and mice that are almost extinct near the crop fields, and the birds with bad mouths, they are all painted on the white clay board like wanted criminals.

In order to let the natives have a more accurate understanding of what happens when a plant grows from a seed to maturity, Chen Zhou racked his brains and, with his limited knowledge of botany, drew all the changes that a seed undergoes from taking root and sprouting, to growing vigorously, to blooming and bearing fruit, and finally to withering and dying.

After finishing the last stroke and taking a sip of water, Chen Zhou already felt extremely tired. He had originally wanted to draw the composting, fertilizing, watering, and pruning of apricot and orange trees.

But he usually paints to relax, and draws what he wants based on his inspiration, which are works full of beauty and artistry.

Working on this rigorous "textbook" that required accurate expression was too exhausting, and he couldn't hold on any longer until midnight.

"Come on, you can't become fat in one go. There will be plenty of time later, so let's just stop here for now!"

Rubbing his sore eyes, Chen Zhou blew out the oil lamp beside the desk and walked into the depths of the bedroom.

……

Early in the morning of December 12, Chen Zhou washed up, made breakfast, and served two bowls of hot meat porridge to the two natives. Then he immediately prepared to start his new job of "teaching and educating people" according to the plan.

However, before taking out the "farming guide" he had worked so hard to draw, he had to first teach the two natives how to live a better life.

For example, the most basic issues are boiling water for drinking, making fire for cooking, washing dishes after meals, and keeping them properly for next use, as well as how to use tableware correctly, using a spoon to drink porridge and using chopsticks to pick up vegetables.

He didn't want to be the natives' nanny and chef, cooking for them every meal. How could that be called a hands-off boss?

……

After the two natives awkwardly held the spoon, blew on the hot air from the bowl, and carefully finished the whole bowl of meat porridge, Chen Zhou did not ask them to clean up the dishes immediately. Instead, he took them to solve some personal physiological problems.

Afterwards, he led the natives who had just wiped their butts into the cave courtyard and gave each of them a small wooden bucket and a shoulder pole.

After demonstrating how to carry a wooden barrel on a shoulder pole, and seeing that the native boys had learned well, Chen Zhou led the way and brought the two little guys to the mountain stream.

After filling two buckets of water, he picked up the shoulder pole again, set an example, and carried the water back to the wooden house.

Not long after the two natives had finished their meal, they walked along a mountain road carrying shoulder poles. They were sweating and felt a little thirsty. After returning to the cabin, they wanted to drink some cold water directly.

Chen Zhou stopped the two men in time and gave each of them a flint.

Since the invention of lighters, he rarely uses flint for the sake of convenience and ease.

There is always fire kept in the cave. To make a fire, just put a dry branch in the stove.

Chen Zhou had not used flint to make fire for a long time, so his technique was a little unfamiliar when he tried to make a fire outdoors for the first time. He collected tinder and picked up dry branches before he finally made a fire in front of the natives.

Chen Zhou didn't expect his performance to be so terrible. His old face, tanned by the sun, rarely turned red.

However, there is no harm without comparison. The native boy didn't know that Chen Zhou could make a fire with a flint in just a few minutes.

They only knew that the fire in the tribe had to be kept alive at all times. If it went out, it would take at least half an hour or even more to light a new fire.

Moreover, the ignition process is far from being as easy as Chen Zhou's, and often makes the person who starts the fire sweat profusely.

The flint, which seemed extremely backward in Chen Zhou's eyes, was a rare artifact in the world for the two natives.

Therefore, when they saw the flames gradually growing stronger, their eyes lit up, and they looked at the flints in their hands, and they were eager to try it out.

……

During the demonstration, Chen Zhou was under tremendous psychological pressure, fearing that he would not be able to light the fire.

Fortunately, the island is dry enough during the dry season, so even if you make a fire outdoors, the process is relatively smooth.

The bonfire was burning brightly, and after adding a few more branches into it, he finally signaled the two natives to make a fire themselves according to the method of using flint that they had learned.

……

Although they have lived in a primitive tribe since childhood, the intelligence of the two teenagers is no lower than that of modern people.

According to their age, if they lived in modern times, they should be in the third year of junior high school or high school. At this time, their memory and learning ability are at the peak of their lives.

Duoduolu's memory was better than Atun's. After watching Chen Zhou make a fire, he immediately picked up the tinder, dug a small sheltered hole in the ground, squatted down, picked up the flint and struck sparks at the tinder in the hole.

However, no matter how good his memory was, his first few attempts inevitably failed due to his lack of understanding and experience in using flint, a fire-making tool.

But this is the advantage of having a teacher. As an experienced user of flint for nearly a year, although Chen Zhou is no longer proficient in it, the skills and details of using flint are deeply imprinted in his mind.

Seeing that the two natives were using the flint incorrectly, he immediately corrected them, demonstrated to them the correct use of the flint from every angle, and taught them the details of how to make a fire the fastest.

Following the instruction, the natives, who were not stupid to begin with, quickly grasped the key points.

After about ten minutes, Atun, who was lying on the ground, came from behind and was the first to start a fire, ahead of Dodulu.

"Woo~"

Watching the birth of fire under his own hands, Ah Tuan gently blew on the burning tinder. When he saw the flame spread and grow, he immediately raised his little face that was blackened by smoke and cheered excitedly.

Not long after, Dodulu beside him also successfully lit a fire. The two of them took the flint given to them by Chen Zhou and habitually lay on the ground again, trying to express their gratitude for the "gift from God" in this way.

But this time, Chen Zhou did not accept their courtesy as before, but answered them with a word that they had just understood.

"No!"

Chen Zhou refused seriously and then pulled the two men up from the ground.

He made his attitude towards this etiquette clear with a majestic expression and heavy tone.

Just as the two natives were terrified by God's rejection, Chen Zhou grabbed Dodoru's body and put him in another position -

Kneel on one knee, lower your head, and clench your right fist and press it to your left chest over your heart.

"That's right!"

Chen Zhou said this, pressing his big, broad hand on the top of Duoduolu's head, his voice as gentle and affirmative as possible.

……

Chen Zhou felt greatly relieved when the two indigenous boys got rid of their fear of his refusal to submit, understood the meaning of the new posture, and assumed the same posture.

He stroked the heads of the natives one by one. In addition to verbal encouragement, he also took out the chocolate he had prepared in advance from his pocket and gave each of them a piece.

"It's much more pleasing to the eye."

Speaking words that the natives could not understand, Chen Zhou added a piece of firewood to the fire started by the two teenagers and walked towards the cave.

They have been taught how to make fire. Next, we should teach them how to boil water, wash their faces, brush their teeth and wash clothes, and instill in them the concept of drinking hot water and eating cooked food. (End of this chapter)