From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 40 Four dishes and one soup

1659 12 Month 31 Day.

The last day of the year is also the key node connecting to the first day of 1660.

Chen Zhou put down his work and prepared to spend this New Year peacefully.

After three days of hard work, more than a dozen small walls have been built on the flat ground outside the cave, and are waiting for strength testing after drying.

The cave has been decorated to have a homely atmosphere.

Chen Zhou brought many long wooden boards from the camp at the foot of the mountain and simply spliced them together on the floor of the main living room, forming a whole uneven floor.

At the end of this old floor, there were his bed, bedside tables, a storage rack more than half a person's height, and a wooden box for keeping chinchillas.

There was a carpet near the cave entrance, and next to the carpet were several wooden boxes stacked up. The boxes contained either tools or food, all marked and in order.

Next to the box was a square table with paper, pen, ink, oil lamp and tableware on it. Behind the table was a wooden chair, which was where Chen Zhou ate and worked.

Passing through the load-bearing columns, you come to the simple kitchen.

The floor of the room was still sandy, and there were several wooden barrels against the wall, containing rum and successfully fermented vinegar with a strong sour smell.

Further inside the kitchen, there were two thin wooden racks on which gutted small fish were drying.

This is Xiao Huihui’s granary. Lai Fu gets tired of eating noodles and occasionally tries something new.

There is a large iron can behind the wooden rack. It is too heavy and is basically not used except for boiling large amounts of hot water.

Chen Zhou was already preparing to carry stove bricks up the mountain to build a stove. Before the stove was built, he was still used to cooking with an iron kettle.

After being on the island for so long, he basically only has three cooking methods - stewing, boiling and cooking.

There is no other way. Neither an iron can nor an iron kettle can achieve the function of stir-frying. You can only add water and stew it.

As for roasting over fire, Chen Zhou never tried it because he was worried that it would not completely kill the parasites.

Robinson Crusoe worried about having soup on the island for several years.

He, on the other hand, drank soup until he felt like vomiting, and when the New Year was approaching, he always wanted to do some frying, stir-frying, and deep-frying.

Unfortunately, there was no large iron plate among the parts removed from the ship, so it was impossible to knock out a frying pan.

There are quite a few thin lead plates, but they are poisonous when heated. You can't eat heavy metals just to cure your gluttony.

There is basically no solution to the wok issue except hoping for an unreliable mysterious reward.

Chen Zhou thought that when the technology for firing pottery matured in the future, he might be able to try making a ceramic wok.

But he had never heard of a wok or frying pan made purely of ceramic in modern times.

After all, ceramic materials have defects such as inability to dry burn, not resistant to high fire, and easy to break. Before these problems are solved, even if it is beautiful, non-stick and easy to clean, it cannot become a mainstream wok.

This is a problem that is difficult to solve with modern technology. In his simple environment, making a ceramic pot is probably a pipe dream. It is probably not as reliable as finding iron ore to cast a pot himself.

After washing up and eating in the morning, Chen Zhou moved out a large iron can, placed it in the dug fire pit, filled it with cold water, and prepared to take a warm bath in the evening.

Since landing on the island, he had only taken a few simple cold showers in the river, which lasted only a few minutes and were not thorough enough.

New Year's Eve is of great significance and he cannot fool around any longer. His new home has just been completed and he wants to clean himself thoroughly in his mountain residence.

Start a fire and fill the fire pit with wood.

Chen Zhou called Lai Fu, picked up the musket, took the short axe and crossbow, and went out hunting.

……

Whether overseas or in a different world, the customs of the hometown are always engraved in the blood of the wanderers.

It’s the New Year, and although living conditions are simple, we can’t continue to eat noodles and milk tea as we did in the past.

And the vinegar is ready, how can we not make dumplings?

Since we are making dumplings, we can’t eat those with flour filling. We must find a way to make them oily or meaty.

The best choice for dumpling filling is lamb.

But Chen Zhou hadn't seen the herd of wild goats for some time. Since the explosion, they had never appeared on the platform on the mountain again.

He had some free time today, and he didn't want to go into the forest and waste his energy looking for those cunning beasts. Instead, he wanted to try his luck by the river to see if he could encounter the big bird he ate last time.

If you don't catch anything, you can still dig some clams on the rocky beach and pick up some scallops and cockles.

The isolated island is not like those popular sea-hunting spots in modern times, where there are more people than fish.

Here, various natural seafood resources are extremely abundant.

They do not require rich seasonings. After they are placed in water to spit out the dirt in their stomachs, they can be eaten by adding a little salt and boiling them.

Living in the northern inland, Chen Zhou usually only ate cheap seafood such as kelp, hairtail and frozen shrimp.

While watching short videos, he was very curious about the taste of the water-spraying cat's-eye snails, salt-sprinkled bamboo clams and some seaside shellfish dug up by the beachgoers.

Now he can finally catch some seafood himself and take it home to cook, and he is particularly excited.

According to what he learned from the videos about seafood hunting, the best time to hunt seafood is two or three hours after the tide goes out. Chen Zhou plans to go to the river bank to shoot birds first, and then go to the beach to hunt seafood after the tide goes out at noon.

There are iron knives in the camp at the foot of the mountain that can be used for digging. There are also many wooden barrels and coarse salt, which can be used to help catch clams and store fish. You can use them after shooting birds.

Carrying a matchlock gun on his back, with Lai Fu walking in front and behind him, he quietly came to a slope next to the grass on the river bank and lay on the ground to lie in ambush.

Observing whether there was any unusual shaking at the tips of the grass, Chen Zhou took out his crossbow.

The noise of the matchlock was too loud and could easily scare away the flock of birds, so he wanted to try the crossbow first.

The flock of birds that look like wild geese would come to the river bank every three to five days to catch fish and shrimp. Near noon, they would usually nest in the grass to rest, leaving only one or two birds to keep watch.

As Chen Zhou often travels up and down the mountain, he is quite familiar with the habits of the bird flocks.

It's just that he doesn't usually carry long-range weapons, which is why these guys have been able to get away with it until now.

After abstaining from electronic products for a long time, Chen Zhou feels that his eyesight has become sharper.

The symptoms of myopia and eye fatigue have completely improved, and I even have the illusion of returning to the peak state of my youth.

Keep a close eye on the swaying of the dense grass stems and leaves to find the exact spot where the bird is resting.

Holding up the crossbow, he quietly picked up a stone and threw it at the edge of the grass.

Gah!
The flock of birds acted as very competent sentinels and sounded the alarm immediately after the stone fell.

A flock of birds took off with a whooshing sound. After circling in the sky, they found no threat and landed back in the grass.

Guessing that the flock of birds had just adjusted their posture and were ready to rest, Chen Zhou threw another stone out.

quack!

The sentry sounded the alarm again, and the flock of birds flew up again, but again found no threat. After a moment, they fell back into the grass.

Chen Zhou didn't do this for fun.

He once heard an old Mongolian man tell a story about a flock of geese.

It is said that when wild geese take a rest during migration, they always leave an alert goose to keep watch.

When other geese let their guard down, the flock relies entirely on this "sentinel" to ensure its safety. At the slightest sign of trouble, it will sound a warning, often causing hunters with ulterior motives to return empty-handed.

In order to deal with this sentinel, the old hunters developed a method similar to "the wolf is coming". They repeatedly made small noises to torture the sentinel, causing it to issue warnings again and again, making it impossible for the entire flock of geese to rest normally.

Geese are very intelligent birds with a certain degree of sociality. When most geese in the flock feel that a sentinel is incompetent, the sentinel will be ostracized.

In order to restore its position in the flock, the sentinel then turned a blind eye and no longer sounded the alarm at the slightest noise, and the eyes and ears of the entire flock of geese were destroyed.

At that time, it would be convenient for the hunter to slowly approach the flock of geese, draw his bow and arrow and start hunting.

It is said that later the Khan learned the tactics of surprise and harassment from the hunter's experience and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy.

When Chen Zhou was a child, he did not believe this story. He always felt that bird society was not that complicated and geese were not that smart.

After arriving on the island, he witnessed Lai Fu trying to catch birds for more than a dozen times without success. Gradually, he discovered that there actually were sentinels among the bird flocks.

The closest Lai Fu came to success was when he walked slowly and quietly, half crawling, but he only got twenty meters close to the flock of birds before he was discovered by a sentinel bird, disrupting his hunt.

It is even more difficult for a large upright animal like Chen Zhou to get close to the flock of birds. At most, it can get about fifty meters away before the flock of birds flies away.

In order to increase the success rate of hunting, he paralyzed the vigilance of the flock of birds according to the skills of the hunter in the story, hoping to succeed in one shot.

It's not that I have to eat the bird meat, I just want to prove it to Lai Fu -

The master is the master, and once he makes a move, he will reach a height that you will never be able to reach in your entire life.

After startling the birds several times, Chen Zhou heard a burst of fierce creaking sounds coming from the grass, followed by the flapping of wings and the collision of limbs.

Guessing that there was already dissatisfaction among the flock of birds towards the sentry, he remained silent.

Wait until the grass returns to calm, then throw the stone again - the familiar "click" sound does not sound again.

"You are as cunning as a devil, but you still want to eat my hot pot water?"

Holding Lai Fu's mouth, signaling it not to make a sound, Chen Zhou quietly stood up and approached the bushes.

Normally, the flock of birds would react when they were sixty or seventy meters away, but this time they kept approaching until they were thirty or forty meters away, and the sentry did not raise the alarm.

Finding a large bird resting on the mud outside the bushes, Chen Zhou first lit the matchlock, put it aside, and then picked up the crossbow.

Aim and shoot!
After more than three months of regular practice, Chen Zhou's accuracy has greatly improved, and he basically makes no mistakes when facing this kind of fixed target.

The arrow hit the target directly, piercing one of its wings and nailing it to the mud.

Gah!
The big bird that was shot screamed, but the flock of birds seemed to be asleep and waited for more than a second before they reacted and prepared to take off.

At this time, Chen Zhou had put down the crossbow, squatted down to hold up the musket, aimed at the top of the grass, and waited for the "lucky guy" who was hit by the lead bullet.

Fluttering, finally the sentinel was the first to spread its wings and fly.

Before leaving the ground, it turned its head slightly and glanced at its fellows who were still struggling in the grass, wondering whether it was sympathizing with their plight or mocking their suspicion and exclusion.

But it was too early to be happy.

The metal protrusion on the matchlock barrel moved quietly to its lower abdomen.

"boom"!
Gunshots.

A puff of black smoke rose up, and the sentry in mid-air was pierced by a lead bullet, feathers splattered everywhere, and his body fell obliquely into the river due to inertia.

The terrible sound of gunpowder explosions was much more effective than the screams of the same kind.

The grass was in chaos, and the big birds rushed to take off, not even circling in the air, and went straight away from the river bank.

Chen Zhou did not feel sorry about their departure because he knew that the flock of birds would come back after some time.

After extinguishing the fuse, he calmly walked towards the bird in the grass that was shot by a crossbow arrow.

As for the "sentinel" that fell into the river, Lai Fu had already gone to deal with it.

The first phase of the hunting mission was completed in excess. Regardless of whether the follow-up was smooth or not, the dumpling filling for tonight was settled, and Chen Zhou was in a good mood.

After carrying the two big birds to the camp, simply bleeding them and cleaning the dirt off their feathers, he took a nap.

When I woke up, the tide had just receded and it was not yet the best time to go fishing.

With nothing to do, Chen Zhou planned to take a walk along the beach first.

In the original book, the best delicacy Robinson Crusoe ate while he was trapped on an isolated island was turtle eggs.

That kind of egg does not require any seasoning and is equally delicious whether it is baked or boiled.

Even when Robinson later drank broth and ate homemade raisins and bread, he still missed the turtle eggs.

Chen Zhou knew that the beach area in the north of the island was a breeding ground for large sea turtles. When the temperature was suitable, hundreds of sea turtles could be seen digging holes on the beach to lay eggs.

But the northern part of the island is dozens of kilometers away from here, and the mountain road is rugged. It is difficult to go back and forth within one or two days without taking a detour by boat. It is really not easy to catch turtles there.

Fortunately, the number of sea turtles is huge, and there are always a few outliers that sneak to the southern beach, which is near his landing point, to lay eggs.

If he is lucky today, he might come across one.

At that time, you can not only harvest turtle eggs and turtle meat, but also peel off a turtle shell.

If the turtle in the book is really a precious hawksbill turtle as some netizens said, then the value of this turtle shell would be greater than the sum of all the silver tableware in the first mate's room.

Of course, Chen Zhou has always abided by the law and has no idea about the market price of hawksbill turtle shells.

Therefore, he could only make a conservative estimate and did not dare to say that the value of the hawksbill turtle shell could exceed those gold coins. After all, gold was much more valuable than silver.

Walking leisurely to the beach with square steps, Chen Zhou found that there were many broken kelp, fish and crabs left on the beach after the tide receded.

Especially on the offshore reefs, there are more kelp, like dark green ribbons.

"Can this be eaten? It looks quite fresh."

Squatting next to a piece of kelp, Chen Zhou poked it curiously with his hand.

In his hometown, kelp usually appears in shopping malls and supermarkets in dried form. This kind of kelp that is more than one meter wide and still has sea water hanging on it is the first time he has seen it.

The kelp does not have a strong odor, only the unique fishy smell of sea water. It is not sticky when you poke it, but is hard and elastic, and it does not feel spoiled.

"How about some pickled vegetables?"

After hesitating for a moment, in order to prepare four dishes and a soup for the New Year's Eve dinner, Chen Zhou returned to the camp, got a wooden barrel, filled half of it with river water, and picked a few pieces of kelp that looked in good condition and soaked them in the barrel.

After cleaning it, he planned to divide the kelp into three parts, sprinkle salt on the largest part, cut it into slices and hang it up to dry.

The remaining kelp can be used to cook a dish or make a cold dish tonight, or paired with seafood or poultry dumplings. I'm sure it will have a unique flavor.

After carrying the wooden barrel back to the camp, Chen Zhou started picking up crabs and fish on the beach again.

In order to avoid accidentally touching poisonous jellyfish or the legendary blue-lined octopus, he found a short stick to replace his hands.

Walk west along the beach, poke at any air holes you come across, and flip them over with a short stick.

Most of what Chen Zhou saw were dead fish with their stomachs turned upside down and very small crabs.

Occasionally he came across shellfish, but the shells always had strange patterns on them. There were no cat's-eye snails or clams that he was familiar with. They were all unfamiliar things, so he didn't dare to pick them up.

“It would be great if the Australian lobsters, geoducks and sea cucumbers picked up by those people who made fake videos about catching seafood could appear in my possession…

If it really happens, I will take back all the words I said against them and apologize to them."

Silently making a wish in his heart, hoping to encounter a fresh Australian lobster tied with a hemp rope, Chen Zhou continued to move forward.

　Thanks to: Su Bangzhizhe and Uncle Wow for their rewards!
　　感谢：weerdws、书友尾号1882、灰猫的碗、叶舞秋殇、银河球棒侠、酒神糊涂仙、Mr_Li_9943、迷之摸鱼人、昵称味太冲、黄万万、书友尾号8815、书友尾号0937、一只狸花压海棠喵、偷偷订阅、鹏鹏他爸、每天6小时、书友尾号8715、一叶丶流枫、忘吃药你吃了吗、黑白信者、MOOU、书友哎推万、晔、书友尾号0705、虚古城风雨、RXSeven、君墨梦、leves、书友尾号2981、蝶君十惑、书友尾号3485、鼓手2831、书友尾号3991、从2010开始看网文、我真的是喝多了、幻天晨、哇大叔、好昵称都被人取了、大脑非常光滑、书友尾号2813、Aaron陈、天空与海拉、凤求凰、王胖子大胖子、书友尾号1702、最爱吃小龙虾、华东抬杠项目总承包商、陈明糖、长风一笑、上清大洞真经作者、嫌贫爱F、林敏吉拒绝、罗非罗非罗罗鱼、浮世三千界、怪盗、幻海霄云、撞钟的和尚、活在2081、不晓得我是谁、secretquake、哎呦起名好烦、啊啊啊1112、书友尾号8734、语之声音、盖着秘密的创可贴、枫叶焉影的月票支持，谢谢各位！
　　
　
(End of this chapter)