From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 89 Rest Day

On the evening of May 5, before it got dark, Chen Zhou cut off the mature ears of rice, pulled out the roots of the rice, and loosened the soil.

The fertilizer in the platform toilet has fermented.

After resting for two days, he would apply fertilizer to the land where rice was planted to increase the yield of grain in the next season.

He placed the plump ears of grain on the windowsill of his bedroom, where they were dried initially to remove moisture before being shelled.

Of course, this is also because there is only one model of the earthen rice huller now, and the internal mud grinding disc is not heavy enough. Although it can barely process rice, the effect is not good.

The theoretical problems have been studied thoroughly, and it will only take a few days to build a real earthen rice huller.

For the tired Chen Zhou, it's time to take a break.

……

On May 5, Chen Zhou, who had given himself a day off, slept in and did not get up until around ten in the morning.

He boiled water and cooked, fed Lai Fu, Xiao Huihui and the chinchilla, washed his hair with hot water, moved the mirror to the outdoor platform, and shaved off his overly long hair.

While cutting his hair, Chen Zhou noticed that his neck and chest were different colors. Because he often rolled up his sleeves to work, the colors of his exposed forearms and upper arms were also distinctly different.

The sun on the island is very strong during the dry season. Even if you wear a wide-brimmed hat and go to places with shade from trees such as forests, you will inevitably get a tan.

After shaving his hair, he trimmed his beard, slightly changing his sloppy image and no longer looking like a weird, muscular man who had escaped from a mental hospital.

Not forgetting what he had promised Lai Fu yesterday afternoon, Chen Zhou took a small wooden box for catching chinchillas, a bucket, a pickaxe and other tools, and headed for the gravel slope under the increasingly hot sun, calling Lai Fu.

Once you leave the shade and enter the sunny side of the mountain, the temperature rises suddenly.

Especially halfway up the mountain, there was no shelter at all, and it felt like a fire was falling.

On such a sunny day, Lai Fu was so exhausted from the sun that he hung his tail, stuck out his tongue and panted.

Following behind Chen Zhou, it stared at the water on the shoulder pole, trotting forward from time to time and licking the water with a gurgling sound. Before it reached the destination, it had drunk up half of the water in the bucket.

After drinking the water, Lai Fu wanted to urinate, so he ran around here and there, leaving countless marks on the dry soil.

Looking at Lai Fu running back and forth, Chen Zhou felt pity for it and wanted to laugh at the same time, so he couldn't help but call out to it to stop.

"Come on, come on, we'll be there soon, don't run.

Since you're so hot, let's just fill two holes.

It doesn't matter if you can't catch a chinchilla. I'll take you fishing this afternoon and give you a bath. Look at your fur, it's so dirty that you look like a little black dog."

Wang!
Lai Fu responded to him and saw that there was a gravel slope ahead. Instead of stopping, he quickened his pace and rushed down.

This is not because it is particularly interested in catching chinchillas, but because there are woods at the foot of the mountain, which is somewhat cooler than places exposed to direct sunlight.

Seeing that Lai Fu was not in high spirits, Chen Zhou also felt a little disappointed.

The main reason he came here was to make up for his debt to Lai Fu. It didn't really matter whether he caught the little chinchilla or not.

……

There are four pets in my family, including a dog, two cats and a chinchilla.

Among them, Chen Zhou's favorite is undoubtedly Lai Fu, and Lai Fu has lived up to his favor. Since landing on the island, he has been guarding the house, catching sheep and rabbits, and he even barked to warn people to prevent him from being attacked by a python. It can be said that he has made great contributions and deserves all the kindness and attention.

After Lai Fu, he used to like Xiao Huihui more and was not very friendly to Tizi. But as time went by, Xiao Huihui's lazy and gluttonous character and Tizi's diligent and capable performance formed a sharp contrast.

In addition, of the two cats, Xiao Huihui is too lazy to move, so he interacts less and less with him. Sometimes when he holds him in his arms, he is like a stuffed toy, motionless and unable to provide any emotional value to him.

On the contrary, it was Grape, who often brought small animals home and was very harsh on mice and rabbits. Since being "released from prison", his favorability has been increasing rapidly.

At this point, if Chen Zhou were asked to choose between Xiao Huihui and Tizi, it would be a very difficult decision.

Because he thinks both cats are important, one is better because he has been with him for a longer time, while the other one has no other shortcomings except that he has not spent enough time with him.

As for the chinchilla, it is the least noticeable one among all pets.

It was not like those spoiled pets that would scratch their boxes and lose their temper at every turn. Except for being a little restless during the first few days after being caught, it quickly adapted to a comfortable life where it could sleep after eating and eat after waking up, without having to worry about danger.

Moreover, it knows how to defecate at designated spots in the wooden box without being taught, and it can also separate clean food from food wetted by feces or water. It is usually always quiet and has never shown fear or aggression towards the presence of cats and dogs in the house.

Perhaps because of the abundance of food or the natural wariness of wild animals towards humans, Chen Zhou had almost never seen the chinchilla begging for food. He had only seen it rolling around in the wooden box and shaking its body.

Later he remembered that chinchillas could take a bath in sand, so he filled a plate of dried white soil for the little guy and took it out and put it in it.

When the little chinchilla came into contact with the white clay, it performed a death roll like a crocodile, fell into it and turned into a spinning top, rolling rapidly, making "white smoke" around the plate.

After taking a bath, it stopped its "epileptic" behavior, stood up straight, held up its two little paws, and waited blankly for Chen Zhou to take it back to the wooden box.

Compared with animals with lower IQ and poorer self-care abilities, chinchillas seem to be too sensible and well-behaved.

It is precisely because of this well-behaved behavior that Chen Zhou has never paid much attention to it.

Apart from adding grass and water, and taking it out for a bath from time to time, I basically never played or communicated with it. I even didn't give it a name after raising it for so long.

Chen Zhou didn't know whether modern pet chinchillas were also as independent and stable in character, but he guessed that they would be different from the one he caught.

In this way, they always maintained an ambiguous relationship. The little chinchilla never showed any discomfort in its solitary life and made almost no noise. Sometimes, when Chen Zhou was too busy, he would even ignore the existence of the little chinchilla and only feed the cats and dogs.

While moving towards the gravel slope, recalling the past, Chen Zhou felt that the current way of getting along was pretty good.

If the little chinchilla were to find a companion, the situation might be worse than it is now.

Besides, he didn't know how to distinguish between male and female chinchillas.

And whether they will fight for favor among the same sex and bite each other to the death.

Also, can the opposite sexes get along well with each other? What is the chinchilla's reproductive ability? Will it be like a rabbit, producing a litter every few months, with more and more chicks, and eventually eating him to death?

Carrying a shoulder pole, he followed Lai Fu from a distance. Seeing that it had found the chinchilla cave and stopped beside it, wagging its tail, Chen Zhou quickly interrupted his thoughts and quickened his pace.

The water in the bucket swayed back and forth, spilling some of it out.

He originally planned to give up on catching the chinchilla, but looking at the wet ground and Lai Fu who was interested, he didn't want to waste the water, so he decided to give it a try.

Since it's a rest day, don't be so utilitarian. Just have fun no matter whether you gain anything or not.

And just now he remembered that there were bird eggs to be picked up on the rubble pile. If he failed to catch the bird, he could also dig out the bird's nest and get a few more eggs to cook and eat. The taste would still be very delicious.

　My schedule is messed up, so I'll go to bed early today and adjust my state. I'll start updating twice a day tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)