The biggest loss this time was the raisins. Top, his monkeys, and I worked hard to pick less than one-tenth of the grapes. All our efforts were in vain.
In the end, I kept only a few with me, and distributed the rest of the raisins to the monkeys in several batches.
This was a miscalculation on my part; I didn't expect a hurricane, which should have arrived in the summer, to actually blow up here after the temperature had dropped to this level.
This kind of hurricane that occurs in winter is beyond my understanding. It seems that there are quite a few unusual things about the area I live in.
The only thing I can be thankful for is my treehouse. Because it's the shortest of all the buildings, the treehouse only suffered some scratches on the gold leaf on the outside, and the overall structure is still quite intact.
Having learned my lesson, I moved the shed to a location near a mountain, close to the mountainside, to avoid the wind blowing from the lake directly affecting my shed.
The structure also adopts an octagonal shape similar to that of a warehouse, which makes the shed more wind-resistant.
With all the necessary tools and equipment at hand, the shed was rebuilt in a short time, and the entire project took only three or four days.
The kiln was completely unusable; a piece of wood had cut it in half, and flying stones had smashed it into countless holes, rendering it beyond repair.
In the end, I only removed the furnace bridge, leaving the rest of the kiln body in place.
I spent another day rebuilding a kiln in the new shed. This kiln is more refined than the previous one, and some structural modifications have made it even more effective.
After that, I moved those large jars of wine, which were filled with gold, to the new shed.
Each of these bottles of wine is estimated to weigh over 100 jin (50 kg), and with the weight of the bottle itself, it may add another 20 to 30 jin (10-15 kg).
Perhaps due to its own weight, the wine jar next to it was not blown away; it was just that its surface was dented and uneven.
The rest of the time was spent repairing my warehouse and residence. For a long time after that hurricane, I slept in fear, afraid that a hurricane would come in the middle of the night and blow me off the tree.
However, there was one lucky thing: my chicken coop was suspended between two trees. I originally thought that all the chicks would probably perish this time.
Unexpectedly, those bamboo-woven chicken coops miraculously withstood the hurricane.
Not only that, the chickens inside were only scared half to death; a count of more than ten chickens showed that none of them died.
These chickens were probably too frightened, and for a whole day and night they stayed in the corner, too scared to come out and eat. They only started eating again when they were really hungry.
This can be considered a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.
It took me almost half a month to get everything back on track.
After finishing these tasks, the hurricane didn't come back, but the weather got colder day by day.
I wear my fur coat outside every day, and it's pretty warm. I don't feel cold at all even in the biting wind; it's better than those designer down jackets.
Now that I have nothing to do, and I don't want to go hunting anymore, because the few hundred pounds of stored grain are already enough to worry me.
Others who survive in the wilderness worry about not having enough to eat.
But I'm worried about whether I can finish this food before the weather gets warmer; it would be such a waste if it got moldy and spoiled.
Lately, besides wandering around collecting firewood, I've been using a hammer to break up my dried fish bit by bit, and then using a wooden block to support it and chop all the broken dried fish into small pieces.
I feel that feeding pheasants with swan meat is a bit too extravagant. I worry that one day they will get tired of eating swans and want to kill a pheasant to eat, and it will taste just like swan meat.
So I think we shouldn't spoil the chickens too much; it's better to feed them some whole grains.
The pheasants also really liked the chopped dried fish. So on a whim, I chopped up three big baskets of dried fish to feed the chickens. I couldn't possibly eat that much dried fish by myself, since those few monkeys couldn't possibly eat it all.
Besides, they also have to help me consume those chestnuts, otherwise a large number of chestnuts will be infested with insects and wasted after spring arrives.
One thing that's been bothering me lately is that I don't know where Top goes during the day.
It wouldn't come to my shed until dinner time in the evening, when it would bring its whole bunch of monkeys with it.
I noticed that they all seemed a bit damp. After arriving at the shed, led by Top, they all squatted by the fire, comfortably warming themselves, looking just like old men sunbathing.
I hadn't paid much attention to these monkeys before, thinking it was just that the dew in the mountains was heavy, so it was normal for their bodies to be a little damp. It wasn't until one day that I realized how cunning these guys were.
For several days in a row, all the monkeys, including Top, remained soaking wet. This puzzled me.
Given Top's personality, even if there's dew, he would probably let the other monkeys wade across first before crossing himself.
Top used to use banana leaves to shield itself from the rain, so why did it get completely soaked for several days in such cold weather?
Since I had nothing else to do, I made a golden bell out of gold that night and put it around Top's neck.
Top was delighted to see that the golden thing was a gift for it. It jumped and hopped around, making the golden bell ring out with a clear, crisp sound.
I gave a wicked smile. "Monkey, you're still too naive. Your recent movements have indeed been a bit strange. Let me see what kind of shady business you've been up to."
I went to bed very early that day, and just as dawn was breaking, I heard a clear ringing of a bell. Good heavens! Up so early, what's going on?
I pretended to stay in bed without making a sound, then quietly peeked out to see what Top was up to.
At this moment, I saw Top carrying his basket on his back. I couldn't help but wonder, is there anything that can be gathered at this time of year?
I thought about it carefully, but I quickly dismissed the idea. Impossible. There couldn't possibly be any nuts or wild fruits here in the dead of winter. What could it be up to?
Then I saw Top gather all the monkeys nearby. They came down from the tree and came to the basket of chestnuts that I had left for them to use.
The monkeys each grabbed a handful of chestnuts and put them into Top's basket, and soon the basket was more than half full of chestnuts.
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