Five miles outside Qingshan Village lies the mountain and estate of the Lin family, surrounded by lush green fields of rapeseed seedlings, yet to bloom.
Qiao Yue estimated the time and suddenly realized it was almost time for the bees to start their spring breeding. The number of bees and the quality of honey depend on the initial spring breeding each year. During this period, new and old bees naturally alternate, reproducing and growing strong, preparing for the upcoming major honey flow season.
Qiao Yue kept a beehive on the mountain. Beekeeping seems simple, but there are quite a few tricks to it. When he first took over from his father, there were two hives, but now only one remains.
When Qiao Yue was fifteen, Qiao Lao Er noticed that Qiao Laohan always avoided discussing his son’s marriage. Qiao Lao Er realized that if Xingsheng never became a scholar, his son would never be able to marry. He remembered the beekeeping skills his grandfather had taught him as a child and thought he might have to earn money himself.
However, Qiao Laohan had always been extremely averse to beekeeping. When he saw his father secretly teaching his son, he scolded young Qiao Lao Er harshly. So, Qiao Lao Er had to secretly keep bees outside. He struggled for a long time in the first year and barely made any money. By the third spring, he finally earned four taels of silver, but then military service came.
In a hurry, Qiao Lao Er had to tell him the location of the beehives in the mountains. When Qiao Yue first took over, it was the autumn honey flow season, and he happily collected over ten pounds of honey, earning four taels.
Following his father’s occasional teachings, Qiao Yue had a good grasp of beekeeping. At that time, when he got the four taels, he immediately thought he could just sit back and count money in the future. However, during last year’s spring breeding, due to neglecting the bee colony, the number of bees sharply decreased, and half of them died.
Fortunately, after a year of exploration, Qiao Yue finally managed to keep the remaining bees alive. Now, just thinking about having to frequently go in and out of the mountains gives him a headache. But if he neglects it like last year, not entering the mountains every three to five days, he fears he won’t be able to keep even this one hive.
Qiao Yue still wants to keep the bee colony and hive his father left him. If he can’t, he believes his father wouldn’t blame him.
In the evening, a few more people were in the vegetable field at the village entrance, picking vegetables and pulling radishes. In just a few moves, a pile was stacked at the edge of the field. After gathering enough for two days, the women picked them up in baskets, straightened their backs, and prepared to take them to the stream for washing. From the village entrance, they saw a tall and slender figure slowly approaching from the direction of the Lin family estate.
Aunt Ma Ershen’s eyes lit up, and she turned to the husbands in the field beside her, saying, “Hey, look, isn’t that Scholar Qiao coming back?”
“…Let me see, it does look a bit like him.”
Zhou Fulang glanced over and then teased, “You old thing, are you still thinking of marrying your son to Scholar Qiao? Now that he’s a scholar, he wouldn’t look at us.”
“I’ve asked around, and Mrs. Zhou didn’t say her son must marry a girl from the county. Why wouldn’t he look at my son? My son is good-looking, not worse than Fang Ge’er. Fang Ge’er’s family was so poor, yet he managed to marry well, although later they didn’t want him…”
As she spoke, Aunt Ma Ershen seemed to find her words amusing and covered her mouth, laughing.
Zhou Fulang laughed dryly, “Is that so.”
He was from the same clan as Mrs. Zhou, and when he visited his family, he heard that Scholar Qiao planned to continue his studies.
In just those few words, the person in the distance had walked up to them, greeting them with a smile, “Hello, aunts and uncles, what a coincidence!”
When they saw who it was, Aunt Ma Ershen’s previously excited expression instantly fell, “Oh, it’s you, Yue?”
Qiao Yue’s face fell too, “Auntie, what’s wrong? Were you… talking about me behind my back?”
Aunt Ma Ershen: “…No, no?”
Qiao Yue looked at her with disbelief, “Then why do you look so unhappy to see me? You weren’t talking about me, were you?”
Zhou Fulang: “…” Maybe because she wanted to see Scholar Qiao Xingsheng, not a lazy guy with a sharp tongue.
“Happy, why wouldn’t I be happy,” Aunt Ma Ershen forced a smile, then her eyes turned, curious, “Yue, you’re nineteen this year, right? Why haven’t you talked about marriage yet? Could it be…”
Qiao Yue was still unmarried, and everyone in Qingshan Village knew why. A few years ago, it was because they had to support Scholar Qiao’s studies, and the family had no money. Now that Scholar Qiao had completed his studies, no one was interested in Qiao Yue simply because Qiao Lao Er was gone, and the only man in the Qiao family’s second branch was a lazy one.
One was a lazy man with a scholar cousin, and the other was the scholar himself. Naturally, the scholar was more popular. Many families were looking for opportunities to connect with Qiao Xingsheng.
Aunt Ma Ershen’s words were purely to feign ignorance and deliberately humiliate him. If it were any other man, they would be embarrassed whether they refuted it or not.
Qiao Yue just laughed, “What, Auntie, do you have a girl or a son to introduce to me? But let me say first, I don’t like them too dark!”
Aunt Ma Ershen: “…” If someone is interested in you, you should be laughing.
“Hehe… Yue, you really know how to joke.”
“Come on, if you don’t have anyone, why bring it up,” Qiao Yue said dejectedly, “But…”
Qiao Yue looked up, glanced at the woman’s face, pursed his lips, and shook his head, “…Forget it, I like good-looking ones. If you have any good-looking ones, introduce them to me.”
With that, he walked away.
“What does he mean by that!”
“Is he saying I’m ugly!”
Aunt Ma Ershen couldn’t hold her basket anymore, dropped it on the ground, and pointed at the tall figure, cursing.
“That lazy bum, I don’t even want him, and he dares to look down on me. Who does he think he is? Even his scholar cousin wouldn’t be so arrogant. When my son marries into the Qiao family, I’ll make sure the second branch gets what’s coming to them!”
Qiao Yue initially planned to go home for a meal before checking the beehive in the back mountain. But then he thought, once he got home, he probably wouldn’t want to go out again. So, he changed his path and headed to the back mountain.
By the time Qiao Yue reached the beehive, the surrounding area was filled with purple flowers and grass. The sky was completely dark. He found a torch in the cave where he usually stayed, and by the dim light, he used oil paper and cloth to insulate the beehive while ensuring ventilation.
After securing the beehive, Qiao Yue took the torch and headed down the mountain. Once it got dark, the mountain was filled with snakes, insects, and rodents, and the path was difficult. Qiao Yue picked up a stick to help him slowly make his way down.
When Qiao Yue got home, Qiao Laohan and the others had already washed up and gone to their rooms. Only a small oil lamp was lit in the main room. Xia He was resting his face on one hand, the dim light casting a gentle and serene silhouette on his face.
“Little Dad.”
“Shanzi is back,” Xia He stood up, took the basket off his back, and asked, “Why are you back so late? Are you hungry? Have something to eat.”
In the afternoon, while helping Fang Chuyue, he only had time to eat half a bun and a bowl of pickled soup. That was long gone, and now he was starving. He nodded, “I’m hungry. Is Yuan Ge’er already asleep? I wandered around the county and then went to the mountain, so I got back late.”
“Yuan Ge’er was running and jumping all day. He fell asleep not long after dinner. You went to the mountain? Oh right, you need to take care of the bees there.”
Xia He said, then went to the kitchen and came back with a bowl, speaking in a low voice, “Eat quickly, I just heated it up.”
Qiao Yue looked at the half bun and two cornbread in the bowl, stunned, “Little Dad, you didn’t eat?”
“I did, I did. I can’t eat that much. I had half for lunch and half for dinner. Yuan Ge’er and I couldn’t finish it. You eat, I saved you two cornbread.”
Such a big bun, if not for the lack of space, could last several days eating a small piece a day.
Qiao Yue felt relieved and sat down to eat.
After satisfying his hunger, Qiao Yue took out a small silver coin he earned from selling mushrooms, “Forty wen per jin, sold for ninety wen.”
“Mushrooms really sell well, huh? Just a little bit for eighty wen.” If it were other common mushrooms, even dried, a jin would only be thirty or forty wen.
Xia He took the silver coin, pinched it with his fingernail, leaving a mark easily. Xia He smiled and carefully wiped the silver coin several times.
For the next period, Qiao Yue left early and returned late every day. For the sake of the bees in the mountains, he even changed his usual habit of sleeping until late morning.
Not to mention Mrs. Zhou, who always looked down on him, even the entire Qiao family was curious.
—What exactly made Qiao Yue get up early every day?
Mrs. Zhou even asked Xia He about it, but Xia He shook his head, “Sister-in-law, I don’t really know about Shanzi’s matters. Why don’t you ask him when he comes back?”
Seeing her son really leaving early and returning late every day, Xia He felt both gratified and that his son should be like this.
Mrs. Zhou pursed her lips, “You don’t know as his little dad?”
Only four-year-old Qiao Xiaoyuan, with two round buns on his head, boldly claimed he knew.
Seeing no one believed him, Qiao Xiaoyuan was so angry his little face trembled, “I really know. When I was little…”
“When you were little, hahaha~ Oh, you little guy, so young and already talking about when you were little.” Mrs. Zhou was amused, laughing heartily, for the first time thinking having a little guy wasn’t so bad.
Qiao Xiaoyuan was furious.
He puffed his cheeks and ran out.
Xia He gave Mrs. Zhou a helpless look. What Xiaoyuan meant by “when I was little” was probably last year when Shanzi first took care of the bees during breeding and suffered a major setback, losing half of the bees. That night, Qiao Yue secretly cried in his room.
It was probably then that Qiao Xiaoyuan saw it.
Xia He called out to Qiao Xiaoyuan from afar, “Don’t play by the river or in the back mountain!”
“Got it!”
…
After several days of leaving early and returning late, Qiao Yue felt physically and mentally exhausted. But with the large temperature difference between day and night, if he didn’t go to the mountain a few times a day, the bees might freeze to death.
Lying in bed, Qiao Yue thought about having to continue this early-to-rise, late-to-rest routine for two more months, feeling very depressed.
Outside, the night was shrouded in darkness, and all was silent.
Suddenly, Qiao Yue sat up in bed, his palm burning, and a fluffy, soft cloud appeared.
“Draw—”
The cloud stretched, the card box gently shook, and nothing appeared in front of him, only a sentence: “Xiangyun Coin balance is zero, please recharge promptly. Ten wen for one Xiangyun Coin, one coin per draw.”
Qiao Yue: “…” Ah, I forgot this spiritual treasure requires ten wen per draw.
If he draws a blue card like the bun, wouldn’t he lose out? Although the bun is big, it’s not worth ten wen!
But if he draws a purple card, ten wen is a bargain!
Qiao Yue hesitated for a long time, finally trembling as he handed over ten wen.
But he spoke with great bravado, “Let’s draw one!”
The light screen enveloped the copper coin, disappearing in an instant, and then the card box in the big white cloud shook out a card.
—A card with purple starlight floated in mid-air.
Qiao Yue got excited, a purple card! It’s a win!
He quickly rushed over, grabbed the card, and looked at it seriously, “An automatically temperature-adjusting beehive…”
Auto what?!
Qiao Yue’s eyes widened, speaking of the devil, there’s such a miraculous thing?!
[Automatically Temperature-Adjusting Beehive]
Rarity: Rare
Star Level: Purple Three-Star
Function Introduction: Are you troubled by the large temperature difference between day and night? Are you worried about bee spring breeding? Are you anxious about not being able to leave every day? Use this beehive to solve all your troubles!
Qiao Yue was so excited he ran back and forth, but accidentally stubbed his toe on the cabinet, the pain shooting straight to his heart.
“Big brother, what are you doing? Are you okay?”
Qiao Xiaoyuan heard the commotion, ran to the door, and knocked.
Qiao Yue hopped on one foot, his face twisted in pain, but his mood was soaring.
“Hiss… I’m fine, I’m fine!”
Qiao Xiaoyuan frowned, touching his chin in thought, is big brother really okay?