Deep affection knows no origin; remember the polar bear's love for you.

Chapter 89 The Ground Squirrel's Food Reserves
The next day, Guo Mi slept until late morning, and then took the little bear for a stroll.

I haven't eaten for two days. My stomach is growling and my mind is blank. I want to rest after walking a few steps. I keep closing my eyes as I walk. I don't know if I'm sleepy or starving.

Guo Mi has lost most of her thinking ability and is now relying entirely on instinct.

The little bear grew increasingly worried as she followed behind. The salmon trotted a few steps to catch up with her and whispered:

"Guo, Guo Mi, are you feeling unwell?"

Guo Mi looked down at her with a blank expression:

"Huh? No."

Fishbone ran forward, looking worried:

"Guo Mi, is something bothering you? If you're feeling down, could you tell us? We might not be able to help you, but talking about it might make you feel better, right?"

Guo Mi was somewhat dazed. She looked up at the sky, then looked down at him.

"Unhappy...am I?"

She tilted her head and pondered for a moment:
"I don't think I'm unhappy at all. I think I'm perfectly normal."

It's practically a state of calm with a touch of madness.

The little bear cried out in its heart:
What's wrong with it?!

As she spoke, Guo Mi paused in her steps, sniffed the air, and then her gaze fell on something not far away, a glint of light flashing in her eyes:
"There's something to eat."

The two bear cubs turned their heads with some doubt, but before they could even see what kind of fruit it was, Mi had already darted out and raised her paws high towards the grass in the distance!

A nimble little figure darted swiftly through the bushes, skillfully dodging Guo Mi's swatting claws, and ran straight towards a small earthen mound in the distance!
Guo Mi turned around and gave chase, but it was too late; the small animal with gray patterns had already disappeared into a hole on the earthen slope.

The two bear cubs then realized what was happening and quickly ran over, only to find that Guo Mi had already started digging frantically at the entrance of the hole!

This is a ground squirrel's burrow.

Ground squirrels look very similar to common squirrels, but they are burrowing animals and like to store food in underground burrows.

It's probably because the Arctic climate is cold and vegetation is sparse, so there aren't any trees suitable for making holes.

These little things are smaller than Guo Mi's bear paws and can only be eaten as snacks.

They dig very deep burrows, and once inside, they are difficult to get out, so bears generally don't target them.

...because the effort required to dig a hole is not proportional to the energy replenished by eating them.

But for the little bears now, what they care about is no longer whether catching this ground squirrel can fill their stomachs, but whether Guo Mi will cheer up again.

The result disappointed them.

Guo Mi's stubborn spirit was almost gone. After digging a couple of times, she gave up, muttered "Never mind," and collapsed onto the nearby earthen slope.

The bears exchanged a glance, and the salmon took the lead in digging into the hole that Guo Mi had dug, followed by the fishbone joining the fray!

The two little bears' paws flew up and down, scattering dirt everywhere.

While digging, the salmon still panted and said:

"Guo Mi, we might not be unable to catch her. We might just dig her out soon!"

Fishbone was busy working, its claws even leaving afterimages as it swung around!
The two little ones didn't really know what was wrong with Guo Mi. Maybe she was just tired, or maybe she was hungry.

Digging up a ground squirrel might not seem to change anything, but it was the prey that Guo Mi wanted, and their intuition told them that they would be much happier if they dug it up.

However, the ground squirrel's burrows are intricate and have countless chambers. The two bear cubs even dug through one of the small animals' granaries, but they still couldn't find it.

The tiny ground squirrel's food storage is surprisingly large, 40 times its own size, with many plant seeds and berries covered in mud spilling out.

The main road that the little bear followed didn't seem to end; it appeared to be bottomless.

The squirrel may have already escaped through another exit of the burrow, and their efforts were destined to be in vain.

The two little bears were filthy, with mud stuck to the tip of their noses and their white fur on their paws stained yellow. They sat there looking quite pathetic, their pitiful gazes fixed on Guo Mi.

Guo Mi lay motionless on the ground, but unable to bear the pangs of conscience, she sat up, lowered her head, sniffed the scattered, mud-covered seeds and berries, and finally stretched out her paw, pulled a small orange berry from the pile of fruit, and put it in her mouth.

"It tastes pretty good," Guo Mi muttered.

The tiny berries initially burst with sweet juice in your mouth, followed by a slight tartness without any astringency, perfectly complementing the initial sweetness.

The two bear cubs were delighted, but their faces quickly fell.

The salmon claws rummaged through the hemispherical seeds of an unknown plant on the ground, and whispered:

"Guo Mi, aren't we useless?"

Other bear cubs their age might already be able to help their adult bears hunt, but these cubs can't even dig a hole properly.

Guo Mi was stunned for a moment:
Why would you think that?

Putting everything else aside, these two little furballs are much easier to take care of than normal teddy bears. They have restrained their nature at a young age and stay in one place obediently for a whole day.

No normal animal cub can do that.

Guo Mi looked at the squirrel burrow, which had been dug up beyond recognition, and suddenly realized what had happened. She smiled and said:
"Didn't we already find something to eat?"

The little bear was a bit confused, so Guo Mi reached out her paws and dug out a lot of berries from the "warehouse" that the ground squirrel had dug up:

"Taste it."

The little guy still thought that Guo Mi was just trying to coax them, and with some doubt, he randomly picked two fruits and ate them whole.

The salmon's eyes lit up. She ate the tiny fruit as if she hadn't eaten anything, but a faint sweetness lingered in her mouth. She smacked her lips.

"good to eat!"

Fishbone, standing to the side, wore a pained expression and struggled for a long time before finally swallowing the fruit with difficulty.

"so bitter……"

Guo Mi looked down and saw that he was eating another kind of green and hard fruit. You could imagine the bitter taste of this fruit just by looking at it, without even eating it.

To avoid wrongly accusing it, Guo Mi even bent down and smelled it:
A bitter taste entered my nasal cavity.

Guo Mi casually pried open the small green fruits with her paws, then rummaged through the pile of fruits with her nose, pulling out a few more bright red ones:
"Eat this."

Its rounded shape and vibrant red color, almost dripping with color, made Fishbone hesitate. He whispered to Guo Mi:

"Will it be poisonous?"

Guo Mi hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly:

"...Probably not. Ground squirrels eat these seeds and berries all year round. If they were poisonous, they wouldn't pick them and store them in their burrows."

Fishbone was immediately convinced, lowered his head, put the fruit in his mouth, and his eyes lit up instantly as he chewed quickly.
"good to eat!"

The three-headed bear, like a bully, began to devour the berries that the squirrel had hidden in its burrow, eating all the ones that smelled good and leaving the bitter ones aside.

I also ate some nuts, all of which had soft shells and plump kernels. The small, hard-to-open nuts were placed together with the less tasty ones.

But berries are still more popular!

Whether they ate their fill or not is another matter, but they certainly satisfied their cravings.

During this time, Guo Mi dug around the collapsed hole twice more, and ended up digging out another "warehouse," which was another pile of scattered berries and seeds.

Let me indulge my craving for food one more time!
Whether it was because they ate too much or because of the psychological factor of chewing slowly, after digging up the squirrel's two storage rooms, the three bears actually felt like they had something in their stomachs.

I'm not full, but I'm not hungry for now either.

Guo Mi's heavy and depressed mood was eased a lot by the sweet berries. Before leaving, she even dug a hole to help the ground squirrel bury the leftover bitter fruits and hard-shelled nuts.

The hole she dug was much bigger than the one a ground squirrel would dig. The bear paws compacted the walls of the hole, and the leftover berries and nuts inside were only enough to fill the bottom, making the whole hole seem much more spacious.

Finally, after sealing it off, Guo Mi raised her paw and patted her masterpiece, extremely satisfied.

By storing up grain to buy a bigger house, she seems like a "bandit" with a conscience!
The three bears simply swaggered away from the "crime scene."

(End of this chapter)