From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 98: Self-cultivation and Reorganization (Additional Update)
The long and violent demolition seriously drained Chen Zhou's energy.

After breaking open the safe, seeing the reward, and putting away the pistol, the intense sense of excitement quickly faded, and was followed by endless fatigue.

Drag the dismantled safe into the shed to avoid getting wet in the rain.

Before returning to the cave, Chen Zhou went to the beach and stuffed the foam used in the reward packaging of the ergonomic chair into his backpack and took it home.

……

Although he was extremely tired, Chen Zhou couldn't fall asleep immediately after returning home.

Lai Fu went down the mountain with him. The quality of the food had declined in the past two days and he could never fill his stomach. It was time to have a good meal to replenish his nutrition. The chinchillas and mice at home also needed to be fed.

There are also crops waiting to be irrigated in the sun room and fields, and herbs in the flowerbed at the door...

There are so many things to do, and forgetting any one of them will cause losses.

Forcing himself to stay awake, Chen Zhou dealt with all matters in a daze, then fell headfirst onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

……

Life needs a balance between relaxation and tension. After two days of intense busyness, Chen Zhou decided to rest at home for a few days before exploring the Pigeon Cave.

When making earthen rice hullers and foot-operated pestles, a lot of scraps were left on the platform, piled up on one side and very unsightly.

There were also various items that were randomly piled up in the storage room, rabbit skins hung out to dry at the door, spare firewood, stones, and clay that occupied the bedroom space...

Chen Zhou felt annoyed after going in and out of the house every day for a long time. He took advantage of the few days at home to sort these things into categories and organize them properly.

When he was cleaning up the seal oil in plastic bags on the wooden shelves in the storage room, he was surprised to find that the oil had seeped out of the plastic, making the wooden shelves sticky.

Fortunately, there are now several new wooden barrels available at home, and some of the seal oil previously stored in glass jars has been used up. Chen Zhou then took out the plastic bag containing the seal oil and poured it into the new container.

When making oil, he poured the edible soil in the bag into a wooden box. After a few months, those clumps of edible soil had stuck together and were difficult to distinguish from each other.

When cleaning up the cave this time, he specially made a box with several small wooden grids inside. He cut the edible soil that was stuck together and put them into the box according to color.

When his pottery making skills mature in the future, he can try to use edible clay of different colors to burn pottery with patterns, adding more fun to his life.

……

On the evening of June 6, Chen Zhou, covered in dust, was finally able to put down the simple broom made of thin willow branches in his hand and announced the end of the "big cleanup operation."

This time, he not only classified and arranged the various materials originally in his home neatly, but also reserved space for items that had not yet been moved in from the camp at the foot of the mountain.

However, due to the limited space in the cave, only the most important supplies could be moved from the camp at the foot of the mountain. As for other items with lower priority, they would have to wait until the cave was expanded before they could be moved up.

……

On June 6, in order to celebrate the completion of the big cleanup operation, Chen Zhou lavishly took out rice, cut some mint leaves, and boiled a pot of mint rice porridge.

To his regret, the mint rice porridge did not taste as good as he had imagined. Instead, it had the green and cool taste of mint and tasted like porridge made with toothpaste.

I suspected that I was missing seasoning or that the cooking method was wrong, and I also considered that it was because of the difference in taste between people in the north and south.

Although he was not satisfied with the taste of the mint rice porridge, Chen Zhou still couldn't waste food, so he pinched his nose and ate a large bowl of it.
Later, he found that adding some freshly squeezed sugarcane juice to the mint rice porridge would make it taste much better, so he reluctantly finished the whole pot of mint rice porridge.

The bad trial experience did not affect Chen Zhou's mood.

On the afternoon of the 29th, sitting on the platform, facing the fields and forests, he painted a huge landscape painting on corrugated paper.

On the back of the cardboard, Chen Zhou used his imagination to sketch out what his ideal cave dwelling would look like - an exquisitely arched load-bearing beam on the roof, with shiny cut wooden boards covering the beams.

An iron chain hung from the ceiling, with an oil lamp hanging at the end of the chain, providing ample lighting for the room.

The bedroom is filled with furniture, wardrobes, bookshelves, shelves, long tables, chairs, mirrors...

Practical items and decorative items are neatly organized, making the bedroom look warm and harmonious.

The interior of the bedroom is covered with neat wooden floors, while blue-gray patchwork bricks are used near the exterior walls.

The stone bricks are bonded together with white mud, which presents plain texture after drying, giving it a modern decorative art feel.

Four sturdy concrete load-bearing columns are connected to arched load-bearing beams, the lower ends of which are deep into the ground and surrounded by wooden floors.

Wooden boards are nailed on the surface of the load-bearing columns, concealing the unique coldness of the stone material.

There are nails hammered into the wooden boards and decorative paintings hung on them, including oil paintings that Chen Zhou brought down from the ship and sketches he created himself.

The interior walls are all made of cut stone bricks and white mud. There is also a fire wall on the wall near the kitchen to provide warmth for the bedroom during the rainy season.

Limited by the size of the corrugated cardboard, Chen Zhou's pen finally stopped at the small fireplace on the other side of the fire wall. On top of the fireplace, which was made of flat stone slabs, there was a pot of blooming flowers.

Looking forward to an ideal home.

That night, Chen Zhou had a beautiful dream. He hurriedly lived in the renovated cave for a day and finally returned to reality.

……

On June 6, Chen Zhou got up early and was in good shape to restart the Pigeon Cave Project.

There was no need to waste time on the beach this time, so he decided to explore the Pigeon Cave in an organized manner. He stuffed an oil lamp and a can of seal oil into his backpack to illuminate the dark Pigeon Cave.

In addition to lighting equipment, he also has a plan for caving time.

That is to try to catch the pigeons before the sun sets and after they return to their holes, to avoid the pigeons being too agile and getting nothing.

As for the daytime on the 30th, he planned to wander around the forest and look for unfamiliar wild fruits.

At noon, he would go to the woods near the beach to look for traces of another group of wild goats, set a few traps or dig a snare to expand his own small herd.

While looking for sheep, Chen Zhou also wanted to search along the way for pigeon holes.

If he could really find the pigeon hole in advance and the sun hadn't set yet, he would go to the river to fish for a while.

After carrying the foam back, he improved the fishing rod by removing the float made of driftwood and using foam blocks as float instead.

Foam is lighter than driftwood, floats more flexibly on the water, and reacts more quickly, making it more suitable for floating than driftwood.

Only a little foam was used to make the float, and Chen Zhou planned to use the rest to make an insulated box.

In the future, when he captures and raises fragile and cold-sensitive young animals, or when he raises animals in the damp and cold rainy season, he will place the little ones in an incubator to take care of them, which can greatly increase the survival rate.

Of course, that might be a long time in the future.

At present, the animals of all sizes at home are enough for him to take care of.

　No broken promise
　　
　
(End of this chapter)