Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 47 - 17: Landing (2)

Chapter 47: Chapter 17: Landing (2)
The new job freed him from the tedium of carving wood, allowing him to rediscover the freshness and joy of life.
Unknowingly, the first batch of goods was already all loaded onto the raft.
Throwing the short-handled single paddle he found in the boat onto the raft, removing the long wooden board, and untying the rope, Chen Zhou’s first island-hopping journey began.
During the loading process, Lai Fu remained silent, watching his new owner’s every move. Watching him like those sailors before, lowering the boat, moving supplies, then paddling away, a familiar feeling of being abandoned grew stronger.
It drooped its head, slowly walked to the gap, and watched the raft drift away, finally unable to hold back and barked loudly at its new owner.
The siren-like loud barking echoed across the sea surface.
Chen Zhou squatted on one side of the raft, holding the paddle with one hand, figuring out how to row, and turned his head in confusion when he heard the barking, seeing the yellow dot at the boat’s gap getting smaller and smaller, he waved his hand gracefully and shouted loudly.
"Wait for me on the boat, Lai Fu, I’ll be right back!"
Unexpectedly, upon hearing his voice, Lai Fu’s mood did not improve, but instead, it became even more agitated.
Responding with two barks in succession, watching the raft drift further on the sea, it anxiously paced on the boat, hesitated for a moment, then finally made up its mind, leapt off the gap, and dived into the water, swimming towards the raft.
Seeing this, Chen Zhou worried that Lai Fu might not have enough strength, so he had no choice but to paddle backward with effort, trying to bring the raft back towards the boat.
But paddling, unlike using a hammer or chisel, was not easy to pick up. Chen Zhou, using this new tool for the first time, knew nothing about its techniques, and after half a day of rowing, the raft only turned around in place on the sea, without any substantial progress.
So Chen Zhou could only awkwardly grasp the paddle, watching Lai Fu’s head appear and disappear in the sea waves, finally reaching the side of the raft.
Seeing its owner again, Lai Fu was extremely happy, struggling with its front paws to paddle the seawater, its bright eyes not blinking, fixed on Chen Zhou’s face, reluctant to look away.
Chen Zhou smiled, helplessly and tenderly grabbing Lai Fu’s front paws, pulling it onto the raft.
Lai Fu was a male dog, large in size, although not heavy, it still weighed over seventy pounds, and once its fur was soaked, it became even heavier, making it difficult for an ordinary man to pull it up in one go.
Fortunately, Lai Fu understood its owner’s intention, leveraging the pull to hold onto the edge of the raft, then climbed onto it.
Ha~ Ha~
Exhausted, its body temperature rising, Lai Fu stuck out its tongue, panting heavily, shaking its fur.
The seawater sprayed from its wet fur like raindrops, splashing all over Chen Zhou.
However, having gotten wet from swimming, Chen Zhou had no clothes on, and his pants were wet too, so he didn’t mind Lai Fu’s actions, just patted its large head, soothing its emotions.
"What, did you think I wasn’t coming back for you?"
Talking to Lai Fu as if talking to himself, Chen Zhou continued to fiddle with the paddle, trying to figure out how it could move the raft back and forth.
The tide slowly pushed towards the island, and even if he didn’t row, the raft could still reach the island.
But Chen Zhou didn’t want to just stop the boat anywhere.
He hoped the raft could enter the Rock Beach and then dock within the river course, so he could directly move the supplies into the low slope woods.
The forest was rich in resources, with both timber and wild beasts, fruits, and was close to a water source, making it a good place to set up a temporary shelter. Storing supplies there would make them easier to access. If the supplies were unloaded on the beach, a second transport would be necessary, causing more hassle.
After trying for half a day, Chen Zhou finally discovered the key reason the paddle was hard to use—the raft was too big.
The two paddles left on the boat were only suitable for Canoes, sampans, and other small boats driven by multiple people, requiring at least two people to paddle simultaneously on both sides of the boat.
Yet, he was just one person.
The raft was over two meters wide, and the paddle was too short, making it impossible to paddle both sides at once.
If he kept paddling one side at the same frequency, the raft would just spin in place. To paddle both sides, he would need to move left and right frequently, and the movements couldn’t be too large, nor could his back be too straight, to avoid affecting the boat’s balance.
Repeating this set of movements made Chen Zhou more fatigued than sawing wood.
Physical exhaustion aside, the most frustrating part was that Chen Zhou felt that if it wasn’t for the current, the raft’s forward speed might be no faster than a crawling turtle, and during this process, the paddle’s effect was negligible.
"If this keeps up, reaching the island is a certainty, but how am I supposed to paddle the raft back to the boat?"
Sighing, feeling the raft’s sway beneath him, Chen Zhou couldn’t help but think of his name.
"Chen Zhou" sounds like "Sinking Boat."
For those living in coastal areas and living off the water, this name is hardly auspicious or smooth.
It was only because Chen Zhou’s parents and elders had lived inland for generations, with no taboos about words like shipwreck or capsizing, that they gave him such a name.
But this name wasn’t just randomly chosen in a hot-headed moment; it actually came from a verse by Liu Yuxi.
"On the side of the sunken boat, a thousand sails pass by, in front of the sick tree, a thousand trees spring."
Chen Zhou’s father hoped he would thrive and surpass the older generation as the family’s new generation, breaking away from this poor, ordinary family background.
But clearly, this hope did not come to fruition.
Of course, the meaning of the name didn’t make Chen Zhou successful, and the so-called homophone with shipwreck and curse was naturally nonsense.
Only, in his previous life journey, Chen Zhou never thought he’d have a day when he was rowing on the sea.