Lu Zhe looked in the direction the sun bear had escaped and let out a sigh of relief: "Damn, that was close!"
"How was it close? As a bystander, I can confirm that from start to finish, you were the one beating it up."
"That's because I couldn't give it any chance to fight back, otherwise the one getting injured could have been me."
Lu Zhe then picked up the beehive and peered inside through the damaged opening, trying to find the largest queen bee, but couldn't find it.
"Crap, the queen bee might have been eaten!"
"Is there only one queen bee in a beehive?"
"Usually just one. Almost all the bees in a beehive are its descendants."
"If there's no queen bee, can the bees continue to reproduce?"
"Hard to say! Typically if they lose the queen bee, the worker bees will build queen cells and feed the larvae left by the queen bee royal jelly. When those larvae grow up, they become new queen bees. After mating with drones, they can continue breeding."
"Drones...I remember worker bees are all females..."
"That's right. Worker bees are all females, but some females give birth to babies. When those babies grow up, they become drones!"
"Heavens! So don't bees marry their grandmas?"
"Well, if you insist on putting it that way, I can't stop you."
Lu Zhe let out a sigh, somewhat worried: "But if the queen bee dies without leaving any larvae behind, this colony might face extinction. I hope these little creatures can create a miracle to continue propagating, providing us with a steady supply of honey."
"But how do we take this?!"
"Hang on, I'll weave a basket!"
Lu Zhe chopped off a bunch of branches and spent 20 minutes weaving a simple bamboo basket. He carefully placed the beehive inside and wrapped it with his clothes before putting it on his back.
"Don't get stung!"
"Honey bees aren't as aggressive as wasps. They usually won't attack people if left undisturbed. Even if stung, it's not a big deal. Just pull out the stinger, wash with soap, and it will be fine in a few days."
Jiang Yao was a bit puzzled: "What kind of person would disturb honey bees?"
"Yao Yao, sometimes I really can't answer your questions."
The two continued walking upstream along the creek. After another dozen minutes, they encountered that sun bear again.
At the moment, it was sitting on a rock, rubbing its face, and whimpering. It would occasionally slap the boulder, full of pent-up anger.
"How did it run here?"
Lu Zhe's first thought was to find another stick. This thing coming over spelled danger.
However, the sun bear didn't give him that chance. The moment it saw Lu Zhe, it let out a terrified cry and fled without a trace.
"I wasn't here to beat it up. Why did it run when it saw me?"
Jiang Yao said, "Wouldn't any creature be stricken with fear after being inexplicably tortured by a sudden stranger while sleeping?!"
"Who said so? Not me!"
"You? Who tortured you while you were sleeping?"
"Humph! Last night until this morning!"
Jiang Yao tilted her head. "Oh that. If it counts as torture...keep gloating. Oh, what a nice little flower."
"Want me to help you put it on?"
"Why don't you pick one for me yourself!"
Lu Zhe sighed. What could he do with a girl like Jiang Yao?
After walking another 10 minutes, as luck would have it, they encountered that sun bear again.
Lu Zhe lamented: "Thrice now. Why so persistent?!"
It was probably a bit hungry now, gnawing on tree bark. Still rattled, it saw Lu Zhe appear again.
This mood could no longer be appeased with a few words.
The sun bear let out a mournful cry, slammed its head despairingly against the tree three times, changed direction, and fled again, rolling and crawling.
"It doesn't think you came specifically to beat it up, right?"
Lu Zhe sighed. "I'll have to properly explain to it someday that I only wanted some honey that time and didn't mean to disturb its sleep. It wouldn't have come to blows if it didn't yell at me."
Jiang Yao smiled thinly. "It probably has a psychological shadow now."
"As neighbors on this volcanic island, some bumps and scrapes are inevitable. But if we keep a compassionate and friendly heart, we'll eventually gain the understanding and support of the little animals here."
After walking another half hour without encountering that frightening sun bear again, they arrived at Lu Zhe's destination.
Lu Zhe's guess was completely accurate.
Sure enough, about 300 meters from the campsite upstream on one side, he found the bend.
Along the way, Lu Zhe discovered countless dried gullies. These gullies were very narrow, usually without water unless there was heavy rain.
But they could divert the flow during downpours.
Lu Zhe carefully observed where these gullies flowed, and indeed found one leading towards the campsite.
Lu Zhe put down the beehive.
"Let's see if we can divert water towards the campsite through this gully."
"How do we do it?!"
"Like this. I'll open the water source here and divert the flow. You move some rocks to block the gullies to the west so the water flows towards the campsite."
"Got it!"
"Remember, don't block everything. It's enough for some of the water to flow towards the camp. I'm worried a downpour might impact the campsite too much."
Although he said this, Lu Zhe was secretly worried about something else.
It had rained continuously in July, but in August, not a single drop had fallen. Could they be facing another long drought?
But there was no need to worry too much!
After all, they had two mountain streams, a lake, and two ponds at the volcano's bottom. Even if it really didn't rain for months, they wouldn't starve.
Jiang Yao rolled up her sleeves. "Alright, I'll block first. Come check if it works later."
Lu Zhe observed which way those dried gullies flowed and determined one. Then he chopped a handy wooden stick to dig open the mountain stream, diverting the water flow to the diversion channel.
The clear mountain stream babbled towards the campsite.
"So now the campsite will have a steady fresh water source?"
"It should work, but I still feel a bit uneasy without seeing it myself. Let's go down and take a look,"
The two happily headed down the mountain, bringing back grass feed to the campsite.
Upon arrival, they saw Tang Xiaoguo beaming as she said:
"Brother Lu Zhe, Yao Yao,"
She then pulled them both by the hand to near the campsite and mysteriously said: "You definitely won't believe what I'm about to say. I sneezed twice in a row today and somehow felt the gods' favor. So I made a wish that it'd be perfect if a mountain spring flowed down, guess what happened?!"
"Then...a spring really flowed down?!"
Tang Xiaoguo excitedly exclaimed: "Yes, yes!"
"Xiaoguo, I suddenly feel you're more amazing than Little Zhe!"
"I know, right?!"
"Little Zhe went through so much trouble to snatch honey from the bear. But you, with an effortless sentence, snatched away our two hours of labor from northern water diversion!"
n Our Village Many years later, Xiushui Village had transformed from a remote, impoverished hamlet into the renowned and flourishing Xiushui City of the Shifang Continent. All of this, solely because it was the birthplace of the Shifang Continent's number one sect—the Lingxian Sect. This is the story of a group of village youths, family, and friends, building a sect and growing together. Lin Xiao: As the sect master, my days are filled with countless tasks. Cultivating really gets in the way of building the sect. System: Received. Understood. Arranging it immediately. [Ding—Congratulations, Host, on successfully activating the Auto-Cultivation Function] Lin Xiao: Oh no, we're out of spirit stones. System: Received. Understood. Arranging it immediately. [Ding—Sect Mission issued. Mission Reward: Spirit Stones xN] No one loves their host more profoundly than this System!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
spital. Good news: I've bound a system. Bad news: I'm still a baby. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not bully the middle-aged for being poor — Divorce Comeback System." "Your marriage may have failed, but your luck in love has never run dry. Your childhood sweetheart, out of contact for twenty years, reappears. Her beauty remains, yet her eyes are brimming with tears." [Listen to the childhood sweetheart's sorrowful story.] Chen Zhi looked down at the diaper he was wearing, then at the little childhood sweetheart crying her heart out beside him, and fell into deep thought. Can anyone relate? I'm having a midlife crisis at an age where even rolling over is a struggle.
