As dawn broke, I heard the chirping of chicks.

I opened my blurry eyes. I had tied the birdcage to a branch not far from me, and the cage was hanging down right at the head of my bed.

I lifted a corner of the banana leaves that I was using to block the wind, and when the chicks heard the noise, they all ran to the corner I had opened.

They chirped even more excitedly when they saw me, like children who hadn't seen their mother all night and were naturally overjoyed to see her again.

I got up and took a closer look at the little ones. By then, the area on their buttocks that used to sag had shrunk so much that it was almost invisible.

Surprisingly, wild animals absorb egg yolks much faster than domestic chickens. No wonder they make noise; they're probably hungry and looking for something to eat.

"Alright, alright, I'll take you to find something to eat." With that, I untied the rope and started climbing down the tree with the cage in my arms.

Top had already gotten up by then, and I wondered where it had gone to play. It was soaking wet with dew, so it shook itself off and then climbed down the tree with me.

My food reserves consist of dried fish and smoked meat, which are obviously not suitable for feeding chicks with weak stomachs.

So I plan to feed myself first before I go and see if I can find some insects for them to eat.

For breakfast, Top and I cooked some smoked chicken stew with wild vegetables. Top is already used to this kind of life of eating big fish and meat first thing in the morning, after all, I am a capricious tycoon.

Since there's nothing else to do, I feel like I can even get interested in doing something like finding food for chicks, which seems like something only children should do.

I took the chicks to the vicinity of my vegetable garden, thinking that I might be able to find some insects or worms there.

Actually, my vegetable garden isn't much different from others; it just grows some wild vegetables. Generally, these common wild vegetables don't attract many pests.

Especially after I planted some bitter lettuce, purslane and other wild vegetables, the insects completely abandoned my vegetable garden.

Perhaps because bitter lettuce tastes bitter, purslane tastes sour, and the unique medicinal aroma of broom vegetable makes my entire vegetable garden grow lush and green even though it's barely been tended to.

It's already autumn, so finding insects isn't easy. I searched for ages and only found one or two pitifully small grasshoppers.

As soon as the two grasshoppers were put in, all the chicks inside rushed over to fight over the two tiny grasshoppers.

Finally, Top saw me looking for this thing and brought back a few crickets from somewhere. He was also a little curious and took the crickets to feed the chicks.

The chicks weren't afraid of Top; they were probably really starving.

Now all they could see were the crickets in Top's hands, and they pounced on them like hungry little tigers.

Top was also very happy to see this, as it was the first time it had played with an animal of a different species, and the monkey's curious and playful nature was on full display.

Top kept finding small insects to feed the chicks, and the chicks soon started playing with Top, the monkey.

Monkeys eat insects, so Top is much better at this than I am. I think it's best to leave the foraging for food to Top for now.

The chicks didn't eat much to begin with, but thanks to Top's efforts, their bellies were already round from eating, and they lay comfortably basking in the sun on the soft duck down.

Seeing that the chicks no longer came to eat from his hand, Top felt a little bored and hopped over the branches to his companions.

At this moment, a monkey sat on a branch and patiently began grooming Top's fur.

…………

I slung my basket over my shoulder and returned to the bamboo grove. This time, I planned to cut down a few more bamboo stalks to take back. It's already autumn, and although the weather is still quite hot, it will probably start to get colder after October.

Therefore, I feel it is necessary to reinforce my residence to cope with various unexpected weather conditions.

My judgment is not without basis, because in my place of residence, although there are many banana leaves, I have not seen any fruit grow on them all this time, until autumn.

Judging from the fact that most of the plants I see are from temperate regions, I think I am in a temperate region as well.

So it's very likely that it will snow here just like in my hometown, and I need to make thorough preparations before then.

My house is fine for keeping out some rain now, but it won't be able to keep out the biting north wind if it really snows.

The damp, cold air will accelerate the loss of heat from my place, so I need to think about how to make it warmer and more comfortable before that happens.

As I rapidly pondered these questions in my mind, I swiftly chopped down the bamboo stalks and removed all the excess branches.

In order to get more bamboo, I came up with a tip.

Unless it's absolutely necessary to use a whole bamboo stalk, you can simply divide the bamboo into four equal parts, remove the nodes, and then bundle it up to take with you.

I packed a large bundle of sorted bamboo strips, then went to the lake again to collect a few soft-shelled turtles and some fish caught with longline fishing, and threw them all into my basket.

With the collected materials in hand, I returned to my shed. I put down the bamboo and then threw the few still-living turtles into a small pond I had dug.

I've built a layer of smooth stones around this pool, so there's no need to worry about these guys climbing out of it.

I'll go and process the fish first. There are quite a few big fish here. I plan to also make some cured fish to use as food for the winter.

Just then, Top appeared beside me again, helping me gut the fish. Top pulled out the guts of one fish. He was about to throw the guts away.

I called out to Top and said with a smile, "You can keep some of the fish's innards and feed them to the chicks so you won't have to search for food for them."

Top is used to my seemingly self-talking behavior, and often it doesn't understand what I'm saying. It can't understand my more complex logical questions.

I laughed as I put the fish on the ground, then climbed the tree and took down the cage containing the baby pheasants.

I waved the fish innards in front of Top's eyes, then put it in the cage. The chicks, who had eaten breakfast that morning, were already hungry again, and immediately rushed over to grab the food.

Top finally understood what I meant, grinned, and picked up some fish innards to help me feed the chicks.