From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 39 Pica

Happy times are always very short.

After taking a day off and releasing the accumulated pressure in his heart, Chen Zhou returned to work.

On December 12, he came to the foot of the mountain, disassembled the raft, carried it into the camp, and covered it with canvas.

The quality of the canvas in the 17th century was beyond Chen Zhou's imagination. After being exposed to rain and sun in the woods, the cloth still remained intact and tough, only slightly whitish.

Thanks to their protection, most of the supplies stored in the shack remain intact and undamaged.

Of course, foods such as salted vegetables and pickled meats are not included in this category.

Most of the pickled meats on the ship are soaked in salt water and have not been baked at high temperatures to remove moisture, so their shelf life is far from comparable to that of other foods such as bacon and ham.

After being left in such a warm environment for nearly three months, the meat strips in the barrel had gone bad and gave off a strong stench, attracting a swarm of flies to fly around the shack. The incessant buzzing sound was disgusting.

After dealing with the raft, it was already late, so Chen Zhou decided to rest in the camp for a day and bury the pickled meat and salted vegetables.

In order to prevent the greedy Lai Fu from secretly digging up and eating these spoiled foods, which would then cause illness.

Before burying the food, he found a rope to tie Lai Fu in the camp, then walked to a distant slope and dug a deep pit.

Then Chen Zhou poured the black brine in the pickling barrel onto the rocky beach, pressed the remaining spoiled meat and vegetables to the bottom of the pit with stones, and then filled it with soil.

Tie up the dog, dig a deep pit, press stones, and bury.

With several layers of insurance, even if Lai Fu had great skills, he would not be able to dig out the rotten meat. In addition, with his strict supervision, the matter was considered a sure thing, and Chen Zhou was relieved.

On December 12rd, it was still dawn.

Worried that Xiao Huihui and the newly captured chinchilla on the mountain would starve, Chen Zhou got up early and rushed back to the cave.

The little chinchilla has been kept in a wooden box. It may not be aware that there is a cat at home. Its mood is relatively stable and it has not refused to eat or shown any signs of lethargy.

Little Huihui is heartless. He is always out and about or sleeping in bed. He doesn’t even know when a new member joined the family.

Cats are very independent animals and can take care of themselves without humans.

When Xiao Huihui was thirsty, he would look for water. When he was hungry, he would pull the dried fish hanging in the cave and eat them. Chen Zhou had personally tested the poison on these fish on the second day after landing on the island, so he could guarantee their safety.

Compared with his peers or Lai Fu who work hard hunting in the wild, Xiao Huihui does not need to worry about attacks from wild beasts, nor does he have to work. He lives a very happy life.

After making sure that the two little guys were in good health, did not interfere with each other, and got along well with each other, Chen Zhou had a simple breakfast and set off for the cave.

He had to install the last two load-bearing pillars and top beam, clear out most of the sand and soil in the cave, and then move the bed and some supplies from the cave into the cave before the next reward arrived.

12 month 25 day.

As New Year's Day of 1660 approached, Chen Zhou spent two days in busy work.

There were more than a dozen long ropes stretched on the sandy ground, and under the ropes were light black lines created by the charcoal water.

Six load-bearing columns stand between the passages formed by the line segments, dividing the entire cave neatly into three parts.

If it weren't for the few piles of sand and soil left in the cave that ruined the overall atmosphere, this place would really feel like an unfinished house in the northwest from the 1960s and 1970s.

In the afternoon, Chen Zhou built a fire on the platform to heat the waterproof paint brought from the camp. Carrying a steaming wooden barrel in his hand, he stopped at the entrance of the cave and looked at the mostly empty residence, feeling quite a sense of accomplishment.

This is the result of his hard work for more than fifty days.

Although it is only in its infancy now, there is still a long way to go. After gradual improvement, it will sooner or later become what he dreams of.

Strong, comfortable, discreet, beautiful...

Thinking of these words, Chen Zhou became full of energy. He moved the wooden boxes placed in the cave that served as scaffolding. While they were still hot, he began to paint the horizontal and vertical beams on the top of the cave.

In the 17th century, this resin mixed with natural pigments to make a varnish commonly used in ship structures. It can effectively prevent water and corrosion, and can extend the service life of wood, especially suitable for humid coastal environments.

There were no walls or furniture, and Chen Zhou, who was painting in the cave, looked particularly lonely and small.

Lai Fu was playing at the foot of the slope. In the empty house, only the echoing sounds could fill everything.

12 month 26 day.

As the New Year is approaching, Chen Zhou works even harder.

He wanted to finish cleaning the cave before January 1660, 1, and put the bed, bedside table, some tools, weapons and food in the cave here, then cook a good meal, drink a bottle of wine, and happily welcome the New Year.

In two days, it will be time to claim the sixth mysterious reward.

Chen Zhou didn't know whether the person who gave out the award recognized Chinese culture, and whether he would add some extra spice to this pre-Chinese New Year reward.

But no matter what, it would be his last reward in 1659, and it could be considered a New Year's gift, so he was looking forward to it.

Time flies, and it’s December 12th in a blink of an eye.

The sand and gravel in the main living room were cleaned up first and dumped out, leaving a large area of yellow earth on the ground at the entrance of the cave, which was particularly conspicuous when looking down from a high place.

The bed, chinchilla box, bedside table and a large bucket of bread have been moved into the cave.

Leaving the narrow cave and enjoying such a large space by himself, Chen Zhou felt a little uncomfortable, especially the cave entrance that was wide open on all sides. It made him feel insecure and he couldn't sleep well at night.

As the work progressed, including building walls and laying bricks, installing doors and windows, the issue of finding clay was officially put on the agenda.

Of course, before that, Chen Zhou had to go and see his "New Year's gift".

The lunar calendar records are quite complicated, especially the part about leap months.

The new calendar balances the total number of days in each year by adding one day at the end of February, while the lunar calendar has a leap month that occurs seven times in 19 years.

For those who are not familiar with the lunar calendar, it is simply impossible to accurately work backwards from the lunar calendar dates of the 21st century all the way to the 17th century.

Therefore, Chen Zhou could only celebrate the new calendar as the lunar calendar, and the New Year's Day of the Gregorian calendar suddenly became the real New Year.

Walking along the familiar mountain road.

Looking at the grass with obvious traces of being trampled under his feet, Chen Zhou couldn't help but think of Mr. Lu Xun's famous saying:

"There was no road on the ground, but when more people walked on it, it became a road."

“I don’t know how many more roads I will have to open on the island, and I don’t know what the island will look like when I leave here.”

As he was daydreaming, the beach that he loved and hated appeared before his eyes.

Feeling peaceful.

After the last prank, Chen Zhou could no longer have a strong expectation for the mysterious reward.

In his opinion, those "people" who give out awards just like to see challengers full of hope, then fall into despair, and finally break down and collapse.

After all, it was made clear when signing up for the challenge that this is a "large-scale reality challenge show across time and space."

If a variety show has no gimmicks and no program effects, can it still have high ratings?

Chen Zhou reasonably guessed that the more he fulfilled the wishes of that group of "people" and the more intense his emotions became, the more perverted the teasing he would receive next time would be.

On the other hand, if he reacts to the prank with indifference or disdain, the reward will tend to be normal.

There are a bunch of weird items that are useless and a bunch of tools that have practical value. Do you even need to think about which one to choose?
Remind yourself not to lose composure even if you do see a silicone doll or something more unexpected.

Trying hard to keep a straight face, Chen Zhou put on a paralyzed expression and pushed the large cardboard box on the beach.

Judging from the size alone, this reward is definitely the highlight. The entire packaging box is more than one meter high, and more than one meter long and wide, which is very conspicuous when placed on the beach.

The weight of the objects in the box was even greater. Chen Zhou's casual push failed to even shake the box. He just felt that there were several skeletons supporting the inside of the corrugated paper, protecting the reward extremely tightly.

Looking at the suspicious size of the packaging box, Chen Zhou couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.

"I was just saying it casually last time. You didn't really send me a doll, did you?"

He glanced cautiously at the sky but couldn't see any device that looked like a camera. Like a thief, he gently tore off the tape on the carton, ready to take a look at the reward.

Unfortunately, the box did not contain the items he had imagined, but was instead filled with packages of translucent nylon bags.

These bags are all 5kg in weight, and you can vaguely see that they are filled with fragments of different colors, which are completely different from common daily necessities.

Seeing these strange bags, Chen Zhou felt relieved but also a little regretful.

He pried open the wooden frame on the top that was used for protection and load-bearing, and pulled out a bag filled with orange-yellow fragments. Just as he was about to see what it was, he suddenly discovered a huge color-printed product introduction in the box.

So Chen Zhou put the bag down again and picked up the product introduction.

“Large quantities of edible soil?”

When he saw the first line of words, he found it a little difficult to control his expression, and the more he read, the more his brows furrowed.

“We select excellent soil species from all over the world, with fine texture, different colors, fragrant taste and crispy texture.

Potato chip red, strawberry soil, imported white, Ural red, golden yellow, yogurt powder, Altay yellow, Nalati red, violet soil...

After water washing, screening and high temperature sterilization, bacteria and impurities are removed.

Vacuum packed, safe and reliable, suitable for pica.

Buy multiple flavors at once to enjoy all year long and say no to food anxiety!

After receiving the product, add a 6-word positive review in the video and you can get a yuan cashback..."

"Cash back? No, is there really anyone buying this thing?"

After reading the entire introduction, Chen Zhou felt countless emotions popping up in his mind, but he didn't know where to start for a moment.

Every time he thought that the weirdness of the mysterious reward had reached its limit and could no longer affect him, this thing would refresh his cognition again.

Even if you carefully select from the endless amount of industrial waste, it would be difficult to find something more useless than this box of colorful soil.

What’s even more frightening is that this box of soil may cost more than those two axes.

Keep reminding yourself in your heart to "control your emotions, control your expressions."

Chen Zhou pretended to be calm and put down the paper in his hand, picked up the bag of heavy orange-yellow soil, stared at it for a moment, and stuffed it into the box.

“This big box probably weighs about 170 to 180 kilograms.

The only uses that can be thought of for now are decorating walls and making pottery. If the introduction of high-temperature sterilization is true, it should also be able to treat wounds or stop diarrhea, but Bing Xixi's introduction is not trustworthy.

Considering the price, we should move them back to the camp. They may be of great use to us in the future."

This box of "edible soil" is the kind of useless stuff that is tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away. It is of no use at the moment, but it contains strange potential waiting to be tapped.

Chen Zhou didn't dare to throw them on the beach, so he had to spend a lot of energy to carry them to the shack on the slope, and then return to the cave.

The last thing worth remembering finally had its answer. Although I was not satisfied with the result, life still had to go on.

After a late breakfast, Chen Zhou took his tools and his "little tail" Lai Fu and went down the mountain to look for clay.

In his hometown, earthen houses are usually built with rammed earth bricks.

Earth bricks are made of a mixture of loess, chopped grass, water and a little wood ash.

When making earthen bricks, the prepared soil is piled in the middle of a rectangular rammed earth slab, and then several adult men pound it solid with a wooden pestle. After a layer of earthen bricks is pressed firmly and tightly enough, they slowly cover it up.

The walls of this rammed earth house are very thick, reaching about 70 to 80 centimeters. Although it looks clumsy and dirty, it is very practical.

In the cold north, rammed earth houses are better at keeping out the cold and keeping warm than brick houses. After drying, they are also very strong and earthquake-resistant.

The only problem is that the construction process is too complicated, requiring the participation of half the village's young and old men.

Moreover, they can only be built with one layer. The higher the wall, the easier it is to collapse. At the same time, they are afraid of floods, weathering, and easy to fall apart. This is why brick houses were eliminated.

Chen Zhou had never seen the process of building a mud house with his own eyes. He had only heard his grandfather talk about the hardships and wisdom of the older generation.

In addition to the loess used in rammed earth houses, after working in the cement factory he also learned about another kind of clay - kaolin.

This soil is white and can be used to make cement after mixing with limestone. It can also be used to fire ceramics or make clay handicrafts.

Compared with loess, kaolin is more beautiful, has stronger viscosity and is more suitable for wall construction.

Among the big box of soil given as a mysterious reward, the white one is likely to be kaolin.

But the amount of soil was too small, and it was difficult to even build a wall. If we wanted to supply it for large-scale use, we still had to search the island.

Having planned to build a wall a long time ago, Chen Zhou never forgot to observe the soil quality near the seaside mountain.

The river bank soil is loose and fertile, with sand and gravel mixed in the bottom layer, which is suitable for growing herbaceous plants with underdeveloped root systems;

The low slopes of the forest are washed by rainwater all year round, and the topsoil is solid and difficult to dig. The soil on the high slopes is black, rich in humus, and has a thick soil layer, which can be used to plant trees and flowers.

The sunny slopes of the mountains have gray soil and loess, mixed with a lot of sand and gravel. The soil is dry and low in water content, and may be suitable for building walls.

There is also the silt on both sides of the river, the sand at the bottom of the river, and the mud in the dry riverbed, which are also worth a try.

Chen Zhou had never learned anything about soil and masonry.

There was no information available on this island, so all he could do was keep trying, learning and improving.

Carrying a shoulder pole, he walked around the mountainside half a circle, filled two buckets with different types of soil, returned to the cave and dumped them on the ground, then set off again.

After repeating this process over and over again, by dark, more than a dozen earth mounds of different colors had piled up at the entrance of the cave.

Prepare cool water and chopped grass leaves in advance, and Chen Zhou pours water into the soil bag and adds chopped grass leaves in roughly the same proportion.

Then he picked up a wooden spade and stirred it until the loose soil turned into mud.

When cleaning the sand and gravel, I deliberately selected rocks suitable for building the wall, just waiting for this moment.

Using a rolled iron knife as a trowel, Chen Zhou recalled the techniques of the bricklayers in his hometown, picked up the stones, smeared them with the prepared mud, and built them up little by little.

He planned to spend more time testing the solidity of these mud walls one by one.

The more than ten piles of soil today are just the beginning. He will continue to pick up soil tomorrow until the wall reaches a strength that satisfies him.

At the same time, in order to avoid misunderstandings caused by problems with his own proportions or wall-building techniques, Chen Zhou has to conduct multiple rounds of tests on the same type of soil to avoid missing out on truly high-quality materials.

For him, this is not only a process of selecting mud for masonry, but also an important part of finding pottery clay and selecting materials for building forges, ovens and brick kilns. It is also a necessary step to cultivate construction skills.

Just like planting a tree.

The time and energy you invest now will always bear sweet fruit in the future.

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(End of this chapter)