Chapter 1276: The Problem Bee

Xia Qing quickly sprayed disinfectant all over herself inside the small antechamber for full-body sterilization, then lifted the straw curtain, pushed open the plastic insulation-film door, and entered the beekeeping greenhouse, walking slowly toward the hive.

If she weren't afraid that moving too fast would agitate the colony, she would have dashed over in two steps.

Finally reaching the hive, Xia Qing—possessing Level Seven auditory evolution—still couldn't pick up anything wrong amid the hundreds and thousands of buzzing sounds; her vision couldn't tell which bee had a problem either, and her Type A and B magnetic senses hadn't caught any anomalous magnetic field fluctuations.

What was the anomaly then? A scent, a sound she couldn't catch, or a Type C magnetic field fluctuation?

Xia Qing looked up again at Wolf Lao Er standing outside the beekeeping greenhouse with a fierce expression, then carefully opened the hive lid, took out the first brood frame, examined it closely, found nothing abnormal, and put it back; then the second row, the third row…

The bees inside the hive were as busy as usual, and the finger-long queen crawled back and forth across the brood frame without noticing any intruder; bees have keen senses of smell, so it probably wasn't an unusual odor.

Xia Qing opened the second hive and still found no obvious abnormality, but she noticed that the nurse bees in this hive responsible for tending the larvae were somewhat agitated—their calls and crawling speed were clearly faster than usual. So Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button and asked, "Territory One, Jie-ge, Territory Two, Tang Huai, are you there?"

Although it wasn't yet half past seven in the morning, farmers rose at dawn, and upon hearing Xia Qing call out to her allies, everyone pricked up their ears to listen.

Tang Huai came online immediately. "Here."

Territory One agent Yin Jie also came online. "Here, Qing-jie, go ahead."

Xia Qing asked, "Have your bees shown any abnormalities? The nurse bees on my side are a bit agitated, cause unknown."

Yin Jie answered immediately, "I'll confirm the situation in Territory One's beekeeping greenhouse right away."

Newbie Tang Huai, who had just spent 15,000 points yesterday to trade Xia Qing for a box of bees, jogged toward the beekeeping greenhouse while asking, "Qing-jie, what counts as agitated for nurse bees? Should I take a video and send it to you?"

Xia Qing agreed. "Sure, I'll come over and take a look in a bit."

"Great, thanks Qing-jie, sorry for the trouble."

Yin Jie came back online quickly. "Territory One's bees—no abnormalities found for the moment."

Kuang Qingwei, who had long planned to keep bees and had researched extensively, offered a suggestion: "If you can't find the cause, Xia Qing, test the larvae in the comb and see if they've been infected with parasites."

Qi Fu also felt this was very likely. "That's possible. The hive sits on the ground, so parasitic evolved microorganisms from the soil might have burrowed in."

"Alright, I'll run a test." Although Xia Qing had already used crab-shell fertilizer to improve the soil in the beekeeping greenhouse, it was impossible to completely eradicate the harmful microorganisms in the soil.

Yin Jie from Territory One also replied, "I'll go confirm as well."

Just as Xia Qing was about to open the hive again, her pocket phone went "beep," and she pulled off her anti-bacterial gloves to take it out and check.

The message came from Zhang Shi, who was in the hidden valley on Hill Fifty: Xia Qing, Shiyi told me last night that there's a small animal in one of the hive boxes in your beekeeping greenhouse giving off a very strong magnetic field fluctuation, full of malice. I thought it was a new queen fighting the old one, so I didn't message you.

To get timely updates on the northern first-district territories, the hidden valley was also equipped with a walkie-talkie, but the people stationed there never spoke on it. To keep constant tabs on her daughter's situation, Zhang Shi also had a walkie-talkie, which was how she was able to hear the lords' conversation.

After thanking Zhang Shi, Xia Qing put her anti-bacterial gloves back on, picked up the honey extractor, and entered the beekeeping greenhouse again. Whatever could release a magnetic field of such strong malice that little Shiyi could pick it up with her magnetic sense definitely wasn't a larva. Judging by Wolf Lao Er's movements, that bee or other small animal was probably hiding inside the hive; right now the most urgent thing wasn't finding the source of that malicious magnetic field, but harvesting the honey.

A disaster had struck—she had to harvest food first!

"Qing-jie, Territory One's sampled larvae and pupae tests show no abnormalities." Yin Jie's voice came over the walkie-talkie.

Xia Qing, squatting beside the brood frame, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "I just took the honey; I'll go test the larvae in a bit."

"Right, getting the honey out first is what matters." Shi Mu, who was monitoring the lords' channel, came online immediately.

After Xia Qing took the honey-storage frames out of the hive and spun out the honey, she didn't put them back in the hive, but hung them on a wooden rack.

Besides the honey frames, the pollen frames and brood frames were also hung up. A little past seven in the morning, the nectar plants' flowers were blooming in competition, the perfect time for bees to be actively foraging. One by one, the diligent worker bees returned to the hive with nectar, couldn't find the honey-storage frames, and grew restless.

Soon the bees found their "home," buzzing noisily around the frames hanging on the rack.

Xia Qing quickly used Wolf Lao Er's reaction to confirm that the problematic creature was still hiding inside the hive. Visibility inside the hive was low and there were still several hundred bees—she had to lure them out.

So Xia Qing lightly scored a cut on a honey frame, letting honey drip onto the ground.

Honey is a powerful lure for bees; countless foraging bees and bees from inside the hive buzzed over, scrambling to feed on the honey, quickly sparking a colony conflict between the bees of the two hives. If she didn't stop it immediately, she'd lose a lot of bees.

But Xia Qing stood motionless at the side, staring at the hive, watching Wolf Lao Er. Losing bees to conflict pained Xia Qing, but if she didn't catch the creature releasing the malicious magnetic field that had alarmed Wolf Lao Er, she might not keep a single bee in either of her two hives!

"Grr—"

The wolfdog Wolf Lao Er outside the greenhouse let out a low growl, and Xia Qing's eyes instantly widened a fraction more as she stared at the bees flying out of the hive.

Which one, which one is it?!

There!

When the target appeared, Wolf Lao Er's growl grew louder, and Xia Qing—a Level Nine and a half visual evolver—immediately locked on; the moment the bee landed beside the honey on the ground, sniper Xia Qing slapped an insect net over it!

Seeing Wolf Lao Er staring at the bee she'd covered, Xia Qing felt reassured. She took two new hive boxes out of the small room, placed the frames in them one by one, and shoveled the honey on the ground out of the beekeeping greenhouse. The bees in the shed buzzed noisily for a while before order was restored.

Then Xia Qing tightened the opening of the insect net containing a dozen or so bees, carried it to the ventilation opening in the greenhouse's plastic film, and asked, "Lao Er, is this the guy?"

"Grr!" Wolf Lao Er bared more fangs at the net in Xia Qing's hand, looking fierce.

Xia Qing tightened her grip on the net opening and thanked her companion: "Thanks, Lao Er, for helping me catch the bad bee—otherwise I'd have no honey to eat. Lao Er, you're an evolved wolf standing at the top of the pyramid, my great farming helper, my great partner!"

Wolf Lao Er grinned, showing a happy smile.

Xia Qing released the normal bees from the net and carefully observed the captured insect that little Shiyi and Wolf Lao Er both considered problematic; she could now confirm this wasn't a bee, but an insect that looked very much like one.