Chapter 111 (continued)

Shi Wen nodded. "I understand."

Reheman: "Now move the beehive a bit further away, so the old and new bee colonies don't mix."

Shi Wen, "So this counts as creating separate groups at the same time?"

Reheman: "Yours is... There are other grouping methods. If you want to learn them, I'll teach you the proper grouping method."

Shi Wen, "Then it's settled. We'll invite you down later."

The two ran around the beehives, carefully adjusting the quantity of various brood combs, honey combs, and pollen combs inside.

Reheman specifically instructed, "These days, you must feed the mating colony a certain amount of sugar water and pollen. No matter how abundant the nectar and pollen sources are outside, you still need to feed them. Without this, the new bee colony will not grow well."

Shi Wen quickly agreed, "Okay."

Besides the queen bee who eats royal jelly, bees' diet consists of both nectar and pollen. Ideally, they should have both for them to thrive.

Shi Wen bees are fed less pollen in winter, and therefore their growth is generally less impressive.

At the time, he didn't realize anything was wrong. It wasn't until summer, when new bee colonies replaced the previous ones, that he realized the previous colonies weren't doing very well.

After a busy day, Shi Wen and Reheman finally managed to get the bee matter mostly settled.

As evening approached and darkness fell, Shi Wen invited Reheman, "Grandpa, why don't you come to my house to rest and have dinner?"

Reheman opened WeChat, confirmed that the transfer had arrived, and declined, saying, "Thank you, but my family has already prepared dinner, so I won't trouble you."

Shi Wen had no choice but to see him off. He watched as Shi Wen rode off on his motorcycle, waved goodbye, and drove off with a flourish.

Night fell, and the wind grew a little chilly.

Shi Wen pulled her coat tighter and headed home.

In the afternoon, while he and Reheman were tending to the bee colony, he saw the dogs driving the pigs, cattle, and sheep back home.

Knowing that the livestock had all gone into the shed and the chickens and geese had returned to their fowl, he felt a little relieved and slowly walked towards the shed, intending to check on the livestock and, incidentally, the dogs.

Yan Kexing to conduct field research and wasn't home, Shi Wen didn't feel much motivation to go home either.

He always felt that staying indoors was cold and lonely, and he preferred to play with the dogs a little longer.

The grass outside the livestock shed was so soft and thick that it completely absorbed the Shi Wen footsteps.

He walked slowly and made almost no noise, so the little ones didn't even notice he had arrived when he entered the barn.

The little ones are huddled together, watching the computer at the entrance of the livestock shed.

Heiwa and the Wolf King stood up like humans, pressing their paws against the screen.

Their furry faces were illuminated by the flat panel light, and their eyes appeared very focused.

They've been eating very well for the past year; even the Wolf King has grown taller.

Now all the little ones in the house, including the Langwa, weigh over 80 pounds. When they stand up like humans by stepping on their hind paws, they look almost as tall as a person from a distance.

They huddled their furry heads together, pressing their paws together, seemingly touching something.

The little fox dragged its tail on the ground, whimpering anxiously. Every now and then, it would jump up onto Heiwa's back, trying to climb onto its head. However, Heiwa's fur was too slippery, and the little fox couldn't climb up no matter how many times it tried.

Heiwa and the others stood firmly on the ground, completely unaffected by the little fox.

Shi Wen at them from behind, Shi Wen wondered what they were up to.

After a long while, Heiwa and his friends finally pressed the correct button.

The robot parked in the server room started up with a "hum" and came out to start sweeping the floor.

Shi Wen only then that I noticed there was cow and sheep dung on the ground, probably from when the animals went into their pen.

When Heiwa and the others saw the robot start up, they excitedly paced around the livestock shed, happily taking small steps in circles.

The robots slowly swept the ground, moving around in the cleaned areas. Occasionally, they would bark at areas that weren't cleaned properly and nudge the robots with their paws, trying to make them turn around.

To save energy and make maintenance easier, they usually clean and disinfect once a day, choosing to do so in the morning. They only manually start the robot when they see it getting dirty.

Shi Wen was surprised to learn that Heiwa and his friends actually knew how to start the robot and could even operate it successfully!

Aren't they a bit outrageous?

Shi Wen couldn't hold back any longer, so he filmed a video and sent it to Yan Kexing.

Yan Kexing: [?]

Shi Wen that Heiwa and his friends have become sentient; they've learned to operate robots to clean the ground!

Yan Kexing: [Really?]

Shi Wen: [I'll show you when they shut down the robots! They look so familiar with the interface!]

Yan Kexing: [I might have noted it down when I watched you operate it before. Does turning on the robot vacuum only require three steps?]

Shi Wen: [Yes, I didn't set a password. I just needed to open the operating system and then open the cleanup command.]

Yan Kexing: [That's not too outrageous. When I get back, let's take them for a test to see what their IQ is now.]

Shi Wen: [They might be about the same age as human elementary school students.]

After discussing it for a long time, the two felt that Heiwa and the others' self-management ability was simply outrageous.

Perhaps Shi Wen was too proactive in the past, and assigned too many tasks to Heiwa and the others, which limited their ability to act independently and prevented them from doing much work.

In reality, they are probably no worse than experienced herders.

Shi Wen decided to let Heiwa and the others do the work on their own to see how capable they were.

The next morning, Shi Wen finished cooking dog food for Heiwa. Watching them eat, he tentatively said to them, "I'm so sleepy. Why don't you chase the animals out and I'll go back to sleep?"

Heiwa and Langwa tilted their heads and listened.

Shi Wen pointed to the livestock shed and repeated, "I'm going to sleep. Can you guys help me herd the livestock?"