From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 70 River Sand
The yellow peaches are immersed in sugar water, and the sweetness of the peach aroma is intoxicating.

Chen Zhou opened the can halfway and ate it in small bites with great care.

Dopamine was secreted crazily in this sweetness, diluting the fatigue accumulated during the day.

After eating five yellow peaches in a row, Chen Zhou reluctantly put down the can and took it to the wooden box in the bedroom for storage. He resisted the urge to eat the whole can in one breath and decided to continue his work - digging river sand.

He tightened the rope buckle of his straw raincoat around his neck, put on a wide-brimmed hat, picked up a wooden bucket and an iron-wrapped wooden shovel, and headed straight upstream.

Going up from the rocky beach and passing the deep pool, the river ahead is mostly narrow and deep, with slow currents and a deep water surface. It looks tranquil but is actually dangerous.

Going further, the river gradually widens.

The water depth decreases here and the current becomes turbulent, hitting the rocks trapped in the river channel and stirring up waves.

A few starlight leaked through the gaps in the dark clouds, illuminating the water surface, and fish could be seen swimming in the water from afar.

This is a shallow beach more than 50 meters wide, covered with light yellow fine sand.

Chen Zhou stopped and dug a bucket of river sand in the quiet atmosphere of birds singing in the forest and frogs croaking by the river.

Standing on the river bank with the handle of a wooden shovel in his hand, listening to the sound of the river flowing and looking at the flat and open grassland here, he wanted to build a wooden house here and settle down by the river.

However, when he thought about the dangers of living in a humid place for a long time, such as being prone to rheumatism, being harassed by snakes and insects, and being threatened by rising river water, he gave up the idea.

Of course, the most important reason is that the cave house has not been built.

There are many places on the island with beautiful scenery and rich resources. We can't build a shelter in every place. It will take ten years to build a good house if we don't do it here and there.

……

Marking the shallows here as a God-given resource point suitable for fishing with river-blocking and dragnet fishing, Chen Zhou returned to the cave with a full bucket of wet river sand.

After returning home, Chen Zhou poured the river sand into the storage room and spread it out to dry. He then hurried to the bedroom, opened the wooden box, and checked whether his canned yellow peaches had been disturbed.

The empty box placed on the clothing box is nearly one meter above the ground. Even if there are mice in the cave, it is impossible for them to crawl into the box and steal food.

What's more, after Ti Zi regained his freedom, there has been no trace of mice in the house since then.

Seeing that the cans in the box were still the same, Chen Zhou couldn't help but feel that he was a little neurotic for attaching so much importance to a bottle of canned yellow peaches. He smiled awkwardly.

Light the oil lamp, open the can lid completely, and save the cut can lid.

Take out a piece of softer bread, cut a plate of seal meat, pair it with kelp and mutton porridge, and serve with two wild lemons.

The table was filled with silver cutlery. Holding a shiny silver fork and spoon, Chen Zhou's exquisite and decent midnight snack began.

Take the yellow peach chunks out of the can like you're handling a top-notch steak, cut them into small cubes with a knife, and then pick them up with a fork and put them into your mouth.

The more he ate, the faster Chen Zhou ate. Finally, he stuffed a whole piece of yellow peach into his mouth and chewed it quickly.

The net content of the can is 500g. After removing more than half of the canned soup, there are only a few yellow peaches added together. How can they withstand Chen Zhou's way of eating? They were soon finished.

Eating sweets can be addictive, and the same is true for eating canned foods.

After swallowing the last piece of yellow peach pulp, Chen Zhou was still not satisfied and even wanted to open another can to eat.

He had thought of the reasons - canned food could be used as small cooking pots, and if he wanted to make more small pots, he would have to eat more cans. Besides, it didn't matter whether he ate it early or late, so it was better to eat it early and enjoy it early.

He suppressed his greedy thoughts, put the can of sugar water on the bedside table, and saved it for when he got up in the middle of the night to quench his thirst. He carved a dent on the wooden wedge, blew out the oil lamp, and with a heart full of happiness, Chen Zhou got into bed. …

On March 3, when Chen Zhou got up and looked at the door as usual, he found that the bedroom window was much brighter than usual.

He put on his coat and walked towards the door. He was surprised to find that it was a rare sunny day outside, with only a few scattered clouds floating in the azure sky.

The long-lost warmth bakes the earth.

Walking to the platform and seeing the green fields, Chen Zhou stretched lazily.

The tense muscles in his neck have completely healed and he feels very comfortable now.

Not wanting to waste such good weather, after breakfast, Chen Zhou went to the storage room to look through the river sand, picked it up and felt the roughness of the gravel.

After a moment, he rubbed his hands on the ground casually to scrape off the sand on them, and sighed.

The reason for his anger was not because the river sand was unqualified, but because he simply could not figure out whether the river sand met the standards for construction sand.

Even though he has worked in the cement factory for nearly a year, he seems to be very familiar with cement.

In fact, during this year's working time, 90% of his energy was spent on dealing with various machines and maintaining the large equipment in the factory.

Either he deals with leaders, listens to lectures at frequent meetings, or records new standards, new regulations and a bunch of other messy things. When it comes to the application of cement and construction standards, he is not as good as an ordinary contractor.

陈舟只知道按42.5型号水泥的标准配比，制造强度C30混凝土，水泥、沙子、石子和水的配比大概是0.38:1:1.11:2.72。

Affected by factors such as cement grade, concrete grade, slump, sand moisture content, and gravel particle size, the cement ratio is not fixed and needs to be adjusted appropriately according to different materials.

As for building houses or livestock sheds by the public, brick-concrete structures generally only require cement, sand and water, without gravel.

In addition to the ratio, there are also requirements for sand and cement.

Sea sand contains a large amount of salt and halide minerals, while desert sand is too fine and contains a high amount of impurities, and is generally not suitable for mixing with cement.

Only river sand has few impurities and uniform texture, making it a natural building material.

But even if river sand is used, it must be screened, otherwise the impurities and uneven particles in it will still affect the strength of the cement.

Time is tight, and without a screen, it is impossible to build load-bearing columns according to the best standards and with cement.

All Chen Zhou wanted now was to quickly store enough sand, dry it, and then quickly build the load-bearing columns.

……

I took out the shoulder pole and two wooden barrels that had been idle for a while - the river sand was mixed with a lot of water, and it would be too heavy to carry in a wooden box. Instead, smaller wooden barrels were more suitable for carrying sand.

After making sure that it wouldn't rain suddenly in this weather, Chen Zhou put the iron-inlaid wooden shovel into an empty bucket, hung his wide-brimmed hat and leather raincoat on the rack, and took them to the platform to dry.

He put on light clothes, brought Lai Fu, carried a wooden barrel on his shoulders, and came to the edge of the field.

I pulled out the newly grown weeds in the fields, thinking that the feces in the toilet next to the camp at the foot of the mountain should have fermented. I should try to carry it up the mountain when I have time and pile it in the empty fields for planting the next season's crops.

After pulling out the weeds, he added two shovels of soil to the "chinchilla food" planted the day before to consolidate the foundation. Then Chen Zhou left the mountainside and followed the route he explored last night, passing through the forest and heading towards the shallows.

(End of this chapter)