Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 153 - 66: Recovery

After hurriedly finishing off the last few pieces of lamb, Chen Zhou took down a pile of glass jars from the top shelf of the kitchen's food rack, sorting out the ones that might contain plant seeds separately, lining them up by the stove one by one, and opening the lids to fan the scent towards his nose to take a whiff.

Most of the seeds in the glass jars emitted very faint, yet peculiar smells.

Some seeds were spicy, some had a slightly sweet aroma, some were quite bitter, and there were even seeds with a moldy scent, and even some with a stinking smell.

Chen Zhou found it hard to describe the strange and peculiar smells of these seeds in words.

He could only say that these medicinal smells had something in common with traditional Chinese medicine, all stemming from nature, full of primitive, natural scents.

Apart from the seeds with obvious smells, there were also some that seemed to carry no scent at all.

To deal with these "understated" seeds, special means were necessary.

Chen Zhou brushed a layer of oil onto a wooden stick, then adhered the seeds to it and roasted them from a distance without burning them.

Once heated, the originally scentless seeds began to release different aromas.

Sitting on a low stool, Chen Zhou worked hard to sniff and recorded the aroma of each bottle of seeds in a notebook.

Based on his personal experience, he separated the spicy, sweet, and strongly flavored seeds from the others, planning to focus on cultivating them; perhaps these seeds would turn into plants that could replace spices.

As long as the storage environment was clean enough, and with no pests chewing on them, the seeds had a long shelf life.

As long as they were plump enough and not processed by frying or pickling, they theoretically have the potential to germinate.

He found a few pairs of clean socks, took out the seeds, placed them in the sock barrels, moistened them, and put them back into the glass jars, placing the jars in a warm place, leaving the rest to fate.

If lucky, in a few days the seeds would germinate and sprout into plants.

If unlucky, it would be a total loss.

However, it wouldn't waste much resources.

The soaked seeds could still be dried, and the socks could be washed and reused, a trade Chen Zhou was more than willing to make.

...

During this week, besides firing pottery tiles, catching goats, and soaking seeds, there were two small matters worth mentioning.

From capturing Tizi on January 24th to March 3rd, 39 days had passed.

After a brief detainment and a long period of being leashed, Tizi's temper was becoming more like the domestic cat in Chen Zhou's impression.

It now relieved itself at a fixed spot and wasn't as resistant to humans. Even without food in hand, one could gently pet it and even pick it up.

Another merit of Tizi was that it wasn't possessive of food — at least not under Chen Zhou's gaze.

Feeling it was mostly tamed, at noon on March 3rd, Chen Zhou untied the long rope on Tizi's neck, brought it into the bedroom, and tentatively set it on the floor to observe its reaction.

Being in this both familiar yet unfamiliar place, Tizi's tail no longer stood proudly. It cautiously walked around the bedroom, sniffing here and there, never hastily dashing out of the room.

Following Tizi around the house, even reaching the storage room, Tizi showed no signs of wanting to escape.

It's almost certain that, under human feeding, it had gotten used to a carefree life and didn't want to return to the wild to endure the hardship of hunting for survival.

Now, even if it were thrown out, it might shamelessly return.

Introducing a new mouse-catching employee, Chen Zhou put Xiao Huihui and Tizi together, like their supervisor, delivering a long speech full of encouragement to the two little fellows and ended the talk by drawing a pie — if they performed well, they'd get shark meat later.

Of course, how good "good performance" needed to be wasn't up to them.

Also, when specifically "later" was, that couldn't be determined.

...

Tizi's release after serving its "sentence," now granted with its own cat nest and freedom to use the toilet, was considered a major event in the cave recently.

Chen Zhou no longer needed to clean cat poop daily, removing a task from his list.

However, Xiao Huihui suffered.

From the moment Tizi's constraints were removed, Xiao Huihui lost its right to enter the kitchen — it wasn't its territory.

If Xiao Huihui dared to step into the kitchen, it would face Tizi's frenzied attacks.

Although Xiao Huihui was hefty and stout, outweighing Tizi by over two pounds,

during a real fight, it was no match for Tizi, enduring a flurry of cat claws and a series of kicks, with cat fur flying everywhere, screaming incessantly.

Worried that Tizi might hurt Xiao Huihui, Chen Zhou tried to mediate, attempting to persuade the fiery-tempered Tizi.

Unfortunately, his mediation only worked during the fights. Without his supervision, Tizi still attacked as usual. In just one day, it added several new scars to Xiao Huihui.

Two cats, one kept for a long time with deep feelings, although plump and pleasant-looking, it doesn't work.

The other, having been kept for a short time with shallow feelings, wild-tempered and aggressive, but able to catch mice and birds.

Both the palm and the back of the hand are flesh; it's out of the question to hit Tizi, still counting on it to guard the house.

So only Xiao Huihui had to be wronged.

Helpless, Chen Zhou moved Xiao Huihui's home, shifting its cat nest to the storage room.

A bedroom separated the storage room and the kitchen, Tizi's attacks were limited to Xiao Huihui infringing on its territory without initiating attacks.

Xiao Huihui was also happy to stay away from this tigress.

Now, it only wanted to curl up in its cat nest and sleep soundly. After waking, filling its stomach, playing at the cave entrance for a while, it lost all interest in the opposite sex.