On the rainy morning of March 11, Chen Zhou crouched inside the house and spent several hours sewing leather raincoats.
Working long hours with his head down, his neck beca sowhat stiff, and he even felt like the muscles in his left arm shortened, frequently curling and stretching his palm made his entire left arm feel particularly uncomfortable.
He gave himself a massage with a hot towel, rubbed so alcohol on his arm, soothing the muscles, and took a nap at noon.
When he woke up in the afternoon, Chen Zhou's arm had eased quite a bit, but the muscles in his neck were still tense, and even massage didn't help.
He estimated that his symptoms could only be relieved through rest, so he twisted his neck from side to side, rubbed his shoulders, temporarily easing the tense muscles.
Chen Zhou donned a wide-brimd hat, put on the top half of a leather raincoat, tucked a box of salt into his chest, grabbed a wooden bucket, took his Hand Axe, and left the kiln.
Little Dragon Cat had already eaten all its fresh grass food, and for the past few days, it's been gnawing on dry grass, eating rather reluctantly, and the pellets it excreted beca increasingly dry. Chen Zhou decided to cut so fresh grass for it. anwhile, he'd check whether the salt left in the cave had been consud by the mother goats and add so salt to their diet.
After cutting the grass and adding salt, if the sky hadn't turned dark and it wasn't raining, he'd go upstream of the river to see if he could find a shallow area where he could dig out so river sand and see if it could be mixed directly with cent.
If there's no trivial matter disrupting him during this ti, he could concentrate on his work, and it would take up to four days to build four cent load-bearing pillars.
It would take more than twenty days for the cent to dry and stabilize completely.
After all, it's the rainy season on the island, and the cent pillars are located in the kiln's interior, which sees no sunlight. With the usual condition of watering once every 24 hours, cent that typically completes hydration in ten days would take at least twice as long here.
Calculating this way, he only had about ten days to prepare the sand, so he must prioritize by lowering other tasks and deal with the sand digging first.
Fortunately, the total height of the four load-bearing pillars plus the foundation was only about 4.5 ters, requiring not much river sand. As long as the quality of the river sand was satisfactory, even if he used a shoulder pole and wood bucket to carry the sand, he could collect enough within two days.
...
On the mountain slope, as usual, the dog is in front, and the person is behind.
Chen Zhou walked leisurely with a wooden bucket, tossing and catching the Hand Axe as if practicing circus tricks, catching glimpses of Lai Fu rushing ahead.
Rain-drenched grass was glowing green, and water droplets, not yet fallen, bent the tips of the leaves like beautiful jade beads.
Lai Fu's fur on its legs was soaked by the water on the grass, turning a deep brown.
It sotis sped up and stopped abruptly, ran in a straight line, and then nimbly turned, rolling on the slope, covered in mud and water before continuing to run.
On the sparsely grassed ground, one could see a line of plum blossom-like paw prints left by Lai Fu.
Among the mountain's low shrubs, there were patches of dog hair it scraped off on the twigs.
When Lai Fu ran down the ridge and out of sight, there was no need to shout loudly. A whistle brought it back in a flurry, wagging its tail eagerly as it approached the thigh.
At such tis, Chen Zhou would gently push Lai Fu's large dog head away—a mix of mud and water covered its whole body, unrecognizable from its original color, rubbing against him would require changing clothes.
If this were modern society, a pet doggetting all muddy and needing a bath and grooming might make its owner's blood pressure soar.
But on the isolated island, Chen Zhou didn't care about such things; he enjoyed seeing Lai Fu in its carefree state.
The joy it exuded while running freely was sothing anyone would feel internally jubilant, a display of pure, unfettered happiness.
...
After spending over 160 days together, Lai Fu, this "foreign dog," was no longer unfamiliar with Chinese.
Many tis, it knew what to do without Chen Zhou having to say anything.
Chen Zhou thought Lai Fu had a better ability to read situations than he, a living human.
Running all the way to the cave, Lai Fu instinctively halted at the cave entrance, turning back to look at Chen Zhou's position, waiting for him to enter its field of vision.
Soon enough, Chen Zhou's silhouette appeared from afar, carrying the wooden bucket. He whistled to call Lai Fu over and enthusiastically rubbed its head, showering it with praise.
"Good dog~ good dog~"
Lai Fu wagged its tail furiously like a fan, jumping and frolicking around, ready to pounce on its owner.
The newly sewn seal skin raincoat had not yet been weathered; it couldn't afford to get stained by Lai Fu.
Chen Zhou quietly sidestepped, jogging into the cave, pretending to inspect the salt inside.
Seeing its owner assu that posture, Lai Fu obediently refrained from disturbing him and dutifully squatted at the cave entrance, standing guard.
The mother goats were slow to consu salt, and Chen Zhou surmised that they sotis obtained salt from outside.
Considering the mother goat was no longer tethered, although nosed restraints were in place, their movents were not too restricted. They could travel afar to consu salt fully.
Moreover, Chen Zhou was glad they supplented their diet with salts naturally, which spared him from using much of the finite supply.
During the rainy season, even digging out evaporation pools wouldn't achieve salt drying; boiling seawater at ho was the only option for salt production.
Boiling salt was inefficient, produced inferior quality, and consud much firewood.
Unless the salt reserves were nearing depletion, Chen Zhou wouldn't waste ti and materials boiling salt.
The last ti Chen Zhou added salt for the mother goats was two days ago; typically, a bowl of salt lasted them three to five days. Today, Chen Zhou brought only a small box of salt just to refill the salt bowl, avoiding another trip in a couple of days.
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