I took all the parts out of the porcupine and cleaned the lungs, intestines, and large and small intestines thoroughly. It had been so long since I'd eaten these things; I couldn't let them go to waste.

I chopped the porcupine into appropriately sized pieces with an axe, put them in a bamboo basket to drain, and then lit a fire under the golden wok.

Since we're cooking stir-fries, oil is essential. Luckily, I managed to get a lot of lard from this porcupine's belly, which will make some decent pork fat when rendered.

Add a little water to the pot, then put the cut lard directly into the pot. As the temperature of the pot rises, the lard sizzles.

After about ten minutes, the lard had turned a golden brown color, and the lard in the pot was as clear and transparent as water.

I used a small jar that I had previously forged to store lard. These lards actually rendered into a full jar of lard, probably two or three pounds.

I'm very satisfied with this; it will definitely be great for stir-frying wild vegetables later.

Scoop out the cracklings; they're edible, and freshly made cracklings smell delicious. Monkey Top, seeing me eating the cracklings, also got hungry.

I couldn't bear to see my old friend eat alone, so I smiled and said to Top, "Top, go get your bowl, I'll give you some to eat yourself."

Top is very clever, and it really liked the golden bowl. After using it a few times, it realized that it was a bowl specially prepared for it.

As soon as it's mealtime, it will consciously bring its own bowl, sit down, and wait for me to serve it.

A little while later, Top brought over a bowl, and I put quite a bit of hot oil residue into it. I knew that this monkey had somehow become a little more generous.

Occasionally, I'll see it bring food to other monkeys, especially the baby monkeys and the mother monkeys. It must be plotting some secret scheme again.

Just as I expected, several monkeys came to my shed while I was making oil residue for Top. They kept peeking out and looking around, seemingly very interested in my food.

Top picked up a bowl of pork cracklings, gave me a polite grin, and then leaped onto the roof beam. With a few more jumps, he was already on the roof.

Curious, I went out to take a look and discovered that several female monkeys had swollen bellies, presumably because they were pregnant. This guy is quite concerned about his companions.

It was just a hardship for the other monkeys who could only watch their mothers eat the fried dough bits.

However, Top, as the monkey king, was quite respected by his followers. After distributing the food among the pregnant female monkeys, he gave each of the monkeys who were just staring blankly a piece of fried dough, and by the end, his own bowl was completely empty.

However, Top doesn't seem to care about any of that. I know he's trying to curry favor with me. As long as I'm here, he'll have no trouble getting all the good stuff.

I looked at Top, smiled helplessly, and shook my head. What a cunning monkey.

Those internal organs spoil easily, so we need to stir-fry and eat them today.

I blanched the large intestine, small intestine, and lungs, then cut the intestines into sections and the lungs into slices. I poured in some lard, and as soon as the oil was hot, the meat sizzled as soon as it hit the pan.

The long-lost voice is still as beautiful as ever.

The only seasoning I had was wild onions that I had gathered, but stir-frying offal with them did give it a unique flavor.

Next comes slicing and stir-frying the heart and liver. With the addition of lard, this dish tastes good no matter how it's cooked. Soon, a caramelized aroma mixed with a rich scallion fragrance wafts towards you.

This time, I'm going to prepare a proper side dish. I took some lean meat and stir-fried it in the pan until it was golden brown, then added the green wild vegetables and stir-fried it together with the pork.

Soon, the bright green wild vegetables and the golden brown lean meat complemented each other perfectly, and the taste was almost identical to the home-style stir-fried vegetables and meat at home.

Finally, I picked out some spare ribs and stir-fried them over high heat until they were golden brown and fragrant. Then I poured in the water that had already boiled in the bamboo tube next to me. While waiting for the milky white soup to release its tempting aroma, I sprinkled a handful of chopped green and white scallions into the pot.

The pure, fresh aroma was instantly amplified to a new level by the scallions, and I was completely captivated by the smell of the pork rib soup.

At this moment, all I want to do is sing a song: This thing can only exist in heaven; it is hard to find on earth.

Perhaps Top knew that we were going to have a better meal today, because it didn't slack off. It simply carried its basket on its back and went into the mountains. By the time I finished cooking all the vegetables, it had already returned to my shed with a basket full of its harvest.

To my surprise, I found several bunches of dark wild grapes in its basket. I ate one, but it wasn't very tasty; it was even a bit sour.

But if I could get some sugarcane from the eastern mountain valley, and then refine it into sugar, maybe I could even make wine.

This is... absolutely insane.

In the wilderness, serving three dishes and a soup in gold vessels, plus fruit for dessert, is already extravagant enough. Now, it's even possible to have a bottle of fine wine?

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but swallow hard. It seems that this godforsaken place, apart from the fact that I can't escape for the time being, is much better than I imagined.

Having learned from my experience searching for sugarcane last time, I didn't immediately go with Top to look for wild grapes this time. As long as they're around here, I'll find them sooner or later, so there's no need to rush.

Top and I washed the wild berries, and N brought out a forged gold plate and arranged all the berries on it.

There was no other way; gold is relatively easy to process. Actually, I didn't want to be so extravagant.

And so, Top and I, each with a monkey, began to eat, each holding a golden bowl. Since we got this thing, I've been too lazy to even wash my chopsticks; I've just switched to gold ones.

Simply put, this thing doesn't attract much oil and is easy to clean.

Eating hot stir-fried dishes and drinking pork rib soup, I felt like I was back home.

Lately, I don't know why, ever since I got metal objects, I've been thinking about going to see that high mountain on the east side of the lake.

Perhaps I've been here a bit too long. Looking at the dense marks on the wooden spear, I sighed softly and finished the bowl of meat soup in one gulp.

...

This porcupine incident has given me some inspiration on how to defend against wild animals.

Since porcupine quills can defend against some predators, if I were to find suitable materials to imitate porcupine quills and make a set of clothes, I wonder if it would be able to protect me from attacks by wild animals.

Once the idea took hold, it took root in my mind. Every day I started to visualize the structure of this defense system in my head, and on the third day I finally made some progress.