Chapter 161

Ming Chunxi was surprised. "The quality has improved so quickly?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I shouldn't be mistaken about something this simple. I'll just use the Mall Assistant to scan it and I'll know."

As she spoke, Qing Mengzhu took out the Mall Assistant and scanned the items.

The scan results showed that this batch of orange trees had indeed become "Fine Grade+" quality, but it was still 87 percent away from "Superior Grade- ". It's unknown whether it will ever become "Superior Grade- " in this lifetime.

Qing Mengzhu said, "It seems that these orange trees have great potential. We only used fermented fertilizer to slightly improve their quality."

Ming Chunxi: "Let's see if there are any changes in the other fruit trees?"

Qing Mengzhu looked at it carefully, then scanned it with the Mall Assistant, and finally shook her head regretfully. "Not yet. It's difficult to improve quality anyway, and we haven't used any good stuff on them."

Ming Chunxi nodded. "That's true."

Qing Mengzhu consoled herself, "The improved quality of the orange trees is already a pleasant surprise; let's not ask for more. Tomorrow I'll talk to He Xi and ask him to bring up two boxes of bees."

Upon hearing him mention bees, Ming Chunxi suddenly remembered, "Let's see if the Interstellar Mall sells bee pupae?"

Qing Mengzhu opened her eyes wide.

Ming Chunxi reminded him, "Aren't our shrimp larvae hatched from shrimp eggs? Bee pupae are a similar product; you should be able to buy them and hatch them yourself."

Qing Mengzhu patted Ming Chunxi on the shoulder. "You're right, how come I didn't remember? Haha, I'll go look right now!"

They found a spot to stand by the orange tree, took out their phones, and started searching for bee pupae on the Interstellar Mall.

However, they didn't find any related bee pupae, only a pet food containing bee pupae. It looked quite delicious in the picture, but it was very expensive, costing 750 Star Coins per box.

Qing Mengzhu originally wanted to buy a box for the little ones as a treat, but seeing the price, she had to give up regretfully—it was too expensive. She'll wait for a discount.

Just as Qing Mengzhu was about to close the search bar, Ming Chunxi suddenly said, "Wait a minute, there's a promotion here."

Qing Mengzhu followed his finger and looked over. "What kind of promotion? Let me see."

Ming Chunxi: "A kind of honey?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Huh? It really seems so. Let me take a look. This doesn't seem to be honey for humans, but honey for bees. It's said that feeding it to bees helps promote their mutations and improves their quality."

Ming Chunxi also read the description below, "Products from the cultivation world seem quite reliable."

Qing Mengzhu: "It seems to be real, and the price isn't too expensive, only 220 yuan a bottle. Should I buy some and try it?"

Ming Chunxi nodded. "If we can improve the quality of the bees, it's almost the same as buying good bee pupae and hatching them directly."

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, then I'll buy it."

They quickly bought that honey.

After retrieving it from her personal center, Qing Mengzhu held it under her nose and smelled it.

It smells like ordinary honey with a slight hint of pollen. It smells nice, but there's nothing particularly special about it.

Qing Mengzhu was somewhat disappointed. "I wonder if there's been any exaggeration in the advertising?"

Ming Chunxi: "It's alright, it's not expensive anyway, I'll buy it and try it. If it works, great; if not, forget it."

Qing Mengzhu: "If it's useful, we'll buy more; if it's not, we won't buy any more."

Because they had bought special honey, Qing Mengzhu urged Zhao Hexi to buy them bees.

Previously, the bees were all purchased through Zhao Hexi's contacts. Qing Mengzhu didn't know anyone in the relevant field, so she simply asked him to handle it.

Zhao Hexi: "I'll have someone go over and install it for you today. Old Zhou said he has some newly separated bees over there, so we'll give them to us first."

Qing Mengzhu: "Please thank him for me. Or maybe we should just have him bring the beehives along with the beehives. It's too much trouble to move them around, and they might sting people. Give him a little more money and talk to Old Zhou about it."

Zhao Hexi laughed on the other end, "Dharma Protector, your swollen nose still hasn't gone down?"

The Dharma Protector got bitten on the nose. It was fine yesterday, but this morning its nose was swollen to twice its normal size. It looked both pitiful and funny, which made the Dharma Protector feel down. Now it doesn't talk to people much.

Qing Mengzhu sighed, "Not yet. We've already applied the medicine, but it keeps licking itself. We can only wait for it to heal on its own. Wild bees are really venomous."

Zhao Hexi: "Old Zhou's bees are also poisonous. They're high-quality and highly venomous, so be careful."

Thinking of the newly bought honey, Qing Mengzhu said impatiently, "I understand. I want high-quality honey. Please arrange it quickly."

Chapter 161

After the bees were released into the orchard, Qing Mengzhu would manually feed them every afternoon.

The honey he bought from the Interstellar Mall is actually called "Brood-Feeding Honey," which, according to the product description, is specifically designed for feeding young bees.

It is used to replace regular honey and directly raise young bees.

However, worker bees only live for a few dozen days, and bees are replaced very quickly. Qing Mengzhu was too lazy to replace the honey in the hive again and again, so he simply went up the mountain every day to make honey water with Brood-Feeding Honey to feed these bees.

This honey water is made with well water, which can be considered Spirit Spring Water, containing spiritual energy.

The bees should be able to tell that this is good stuff, and they love his honey water. Every day when he brings the honey water up, it is quickly drunk up.

Today, Qing Mengzhu, as usual, carried a thermos of prepared honey water to the beehive.

Bees were crawling on the hive, and many more were going in and out. Qing Mengzhu approached them but they didn't react much. Perhaps these bees had developed a subtle sense of belonging after drinking the Brood-Feeding Honey.

Qing Mengzhu can freely enter and leave their territory, Ming Chunxi cannot, nor can the two dogs and small animals such as the red fox.

Qing Mengzhu glanced at the shallow dish used to hold the honey water. The honey water had long been drunk up, leaving only the grass stems he had placed at the bottom of the dish and a little trace of dried honey water.

He opened the thermos and poured the honey water into two shallow dishes.

Soon, bees attracted by the scent flew over and quickly filled the two shallow dishes, diligently drinking the honey water.

After checking and finding no other problems, Qing Mengzhu left.

On his way down the mountain, he made a point of digging up some bamboo shoots and then went around to the terraced fields to pick some Sichuan pepper leaves.

I'm going to stir-fry meat tonight. I'll add some Sichuan peppercorn leaves to make a flavorful oil; it'll taste even better.

Qing Mengzhu and the others took great care of their bees. After feeding them one bottle of Brood-Feeding Honey, they bought another bottle from the Interstellar Mall and continued feeding them.

Zhao Hexi and the others didn't know they had Interstellar Mall, but they did know that he went up the mountain every evening to feed the bees, so they couldn't help but become curious about the taste of the honey.

That day, Qing Mengzhu was going up the mountain to feed the bees again, and Zhao Hexi followed behind him. "You've been feeding them for so long, how does the honey from this batch of bees taste? It must be especially delicious!"

Qing Mengzhu: "It hasn't even been half a month, and we haven't harvested any honey yet. How could we possibly know what honey tastes like?"

Zhao Hexi: "Can we harvest it now? Old Zhou and the others harvest honey every twenty or thirty days, and it's been almost half a month now, so harvesting a small portion should still be possible."

Qing Mengzhu shook her head. "Bees need time to make honey. If the time is too short, the water content of the honey simply won't drop."

Bees repeatedly process the collected nectar, and only seal the honeycomb with beeswax when the water content drops below 20%, indicating that the honey is ready.

There wasn't enough time; the bees simply couldn't produce the honey.

Zhao Hexi: "Not necessarily, what if? Let's go check it out."

Seeing his genuine curiosity, Qing Mengzhu agreed, "I'll take a look when I feed the bees later."

Zhao Hexi: "Okay, I'll go feed the ducks and geese for you."

The bees at Qing Mengzhu's house can sting people; even Ming Chunxi might get stung, so Zhao Hexi would be even more afraid to go up there.