From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 46 Early Morning Rain (Subscribe!)
New members moved into the cave.

Hearing Tizi's cry, Xiao Huihui, who was still sleeping soundly on the bed, slowly opened his eyes, climbed up slowly, stretched, and then jumped out of bed.

There was a muffled "bang" sound, and some dust floated on the ground.

Little Gray's plump belly trembled, and he let out an unclear "meow". He took a difficult step and trotted to the wooden box containing the grapes.

Chen Zhou went to get dried fish for Tizi, and only Lai Fu was here.

Little Huihui sniffed and smelled the scent of the opposite sex. His eyes lit up, and he stood up by holding on to the edge of the box and looked inside.

Lai Fu had already put the rabbit in his mouth on the ground and sat aside, loyally guarding the prey captured by his master.

Seeing Xiao Huihui approaching the wooden box and behaving a little presumptuously, Lai Fu quickly stretched out a paw to pull it, while humming in a delicate voice, as if to inform Chen Zhou, "Come and take care of it!"

meow~
Little Huihui was pushed back repeatedly by Lai Fu's big claws, crying out in dissatisfaction.

When Chen Zhou returned to the bedroom with a bunch of fishing rods, he saw Xiao Huihui with disheveled hair, a gloomy face, flat ears, sitting on the ground sulking.

Its fat body was piled there like a triangular rice ball, its thick tail swinging impatiently from side to side, and the expression on its face was both defiant and a little cowardly.

It was as if he was saying to Lai Fu: "If I could beat you, I would definitely teach you a lesson."

Conflicts between cats and dogs have long been the norm in the family, and Chen Zhou has seen it many times.

He rubbed Xiao Huihui's soft belly, then pulled the dried fish off the wooden sticks one by one and put them in the wooden box.

The fishy smell woke up the lightly sleeping Tizi. It examined the strange food beside it with cautious eyes, and then looked at Chen Zhou who was looking down at it at the box mouth, but did not react.

Out of survival instinct, wild cats will not easily eat unfamiliar food.

Injured and arrested, in physical pain and mentally stressed, Tizi's attitude was even more indifferent than usual. Even if he was hungry, he would not eat for a while.

Chen Zhou knew that he needed to give it some time to adapt, so he closed the lid of the box and did not force Tizi to eat the dried fish immediately.

If it's hungry, it will naturally try this new food.

As the saying goes, there is no cat that doesn't like fish. Chen Zhou believes that after Grapes gets better, he will soon be conquered by the dried fish and become a powerful mouse catcher in the family.

Before he could have any face-to-face communication or contact with the opposite sex, Xiao Huihui was ruthlessly separated.

It meowed twice outside the box, looking a little melancholy, and walked towards the cave entrance step by step with its fat body.

It was supposed to go for a walk outside, but controlled by muscle memory, it turned without hesitation and came to the fish drying rack in the kitchen, picked up a few fallen fish and ate them.

After filling his stomach, Xiao Huihui was in a good mood. He forgot about the grapes and went to the bottom shelf of the food shelf to sleep.

"Alas, you are such a heartless person. You can't even handle your wife even if she catches you on the kang..."

Looking at the solid gray meat ball on the food rack, Chen Zhou shook his head, thinking that the character Xiao Huihui was completely ruined.

……

From January 1 to 25, while Chen Zhou continued to carry stones, he also went to the forest to cut some tough and thick vines.

In order to reduce the loss of wooden barrels, after dinner at home, he lit an oil lamp and used the free time before going to bed to study how to weave baskets.

The first problem he faced was that the young vines had too much juice, and the skin was delicate and would break easily if rubbed, so it was not strong enough.

Chen Zhou thought that this problem could only be solved after the vines were dried, so he hung up some vines to dry.

After the thinner vines dried, he tried again, but encountered a new problem.

After the juice under the vine's epidermis disappears, the fibers gradually become dry. Although the epidermis is stronger and more wear-resistant than when it is fresh and tender, its toughness is reduced. If you bend it at a slightly larger angle, it will break in the middle, which is definitely not acceptable.

After thinking it over again and again, Chen Zhou estimated that there might be something wrong with the type of vine he chose, or it might be that the processing method was wrong.

When it comes to processing natural materials, traditional techniques often include soaking, boiling, drying, roasting, burning, stretching, and pressing.

His vines were simply dried in the sun and were not much different from the dead vines found everywhere in the forest. In order to make qualified basket weaving materials, the process problem had to be solved first.

The material problem was easy to solve. Chen Zhou planned to go to the forest to collect several types of vines and try them out.

Then go to the river bank and cut down some willows to feel the nature of the willow branches.

As for the craftsmanship, he could only find a big bucket to soak it in water for the time being. Boiling it would consume a lot of fuel, and he couldn't spare that much time and resources.

Anyway, it’s impossible to dry the vines and willow branches in a day or two. We have to take our time. There’s no point in being impatient.

……

As a cat that has lived in the wild since childhood, Tizi's vitality is far more tenacious than Xiao Huihui and its dead companions.

It endured wound cleaning and disinfection once in the morning and evening, and slowly adapted to the life of being imprisoned in a wooden box, eating and defecating in this small space.

The stone walls have not yet been built, and the entire cave is still an open space where animals can enter and exit freely.

Chen Zhou planned to wait until Tizi's injuries improved before releasing it, and first tied it up in the kitchen to scare away passing mice.

Once the grape feels a sense of belonging to the cave or the stone walls are built, it will be set free.

……

As we enter February, the air on the island seems to be a little more humid.

On the evening of the 26th, the sky was covered with thick clouds and no stars or moon could be seen. Chen Zhou estimated that it would rain at night, so he pulled some canvas in advance to cover the pile of white earth.

If it gets wet by rain, the white soil will clump together and it will take a long time to dry.

He also moved the firewood and rattan that were placed on the platform to dry indoors.

The spacious cave provides Chen Zhou with a huge storage space, and the materials currently moved to the mountain only account for the tip of the iceberg.

Lai Fu was supposed to be on night shift in the field, but was also brought back to the cave by Chen Zhou.

There is no doghouse outside to shelter it from the wind and rain. If it really rains at night and it is tied outside, it will suffer.

Lai Fu is the only good friend on the entire island who is humane, obedient and sensible. He is an indispensable spiritual tonic in Chen Zhou's life.

He would rather lose a few rice seedlings than let Lai Fu risk getting sick by standing guard outside.

The dark clouds gathered strength in the first half of the night until the early morning of the 27th.

A sudden rainstorm hit the island.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, illuminating the cave from time to time.

The cold wind blew straight into the cave, making the empty cave hum.

Chen Zhou huddled in the quilt with his head facing inside the hole and his feet facing outside. The wind came in through the gap at the bottom of the quilt, giving him goose bumps all over his body due to the cold.

"Sigh~"

Taking a deep breath and pressing the quilt with his feet, Chen Zhou grabbed Xiao Huihui who was sleeping soundly beside the pillow and held her in his arms.

"Isn't this the dry season? Why is it raining so heavily all of a sudden?
If I had known I would build the bedroom wall first, how would I sleep now? "

He struggled in the quilt for another ten minutes or so, and finally rubbed Little Huihui until he broke free from his arms and jumped off the bed.

Listening to the crackling sound of rain outside, Chen Zhou got up anyway, worried that the crops in the fields would be damaged by the sudden rain.

On a rainy night, it was dark outside the cave and windy inside. There was no subtropical heat at all, but a very cool air.

Before he got wet, Chen Zhou lit a bonfire and heated up some food to warm his stomach and dry his clothes when he returned to the house.

Then he put on his thick clothes, put on his wide-brimmed hat, and prepared to go outside for a look.

　First update, second update 4000 words.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)