Chapter 94 – Extra: The Drone Bees. Reunion. HE
Little Sweetie’s one-month celebration brought many members of the Bee Clan, including the former Bee Queen, Chu Jiexiang. When the two drone bees flanked Chu Jiexiang and proactively asked to see him off at the airport, everyone present fell silent for a moment.
When something out of the ordinary happens, there’s always something strange behind it.
Meng Xueyuan glanced at Lu Xiao, hesitated, then asked, “Are you close with Fu Jin and Gu Yunlang?”
Lu Xiao denied it outright. “Very average.” His friends must have done something stupid again—once you’re married, you need to keep a clear line from the unmarried.
“Oh.” Meng Xueyuan thought, then forget it. The lazy ones looked like they were about to run away; dragging them out of Baihua Village again would only get harder. He could tell Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao weren’t indifferent to their bosses—this sudden escape must have come from some misunderstanding.
If those two bosses were really good friends of Lu Xiao’s, maybe Lu Xiao could drop a hint or two.
The full-moon banquet ended. An hour later, Lu Xiao received a call from Fu Jin.
“Is Xiang Jin still with you? Why can’t I get through to his phone?”
Lu Xiao said, “An elder from Yuan-yuan’s hometown came over. Xiang Jin went to see him off at the airport.”
Fu Jin: “I see… wait, seeing someone off doesn’t require turning off your phone, does it?”
Lu Xiao: “Probably ran out of battery.”
Fu Jin thought about it—it made sense. Xiang Jin was the type too lazy to charge his phone. If no one helped him fully charge it before going out, chances were he’d be unreachable all day.
“Is anyone else with him? Give me a contact.”
Lu Xiao sent him the driver’s number.
He had barely hung up when he tossed his phone onto the table. Less than five seconds later, it rang again.
[Lu Xiao, hurry up and answer~]
If the ringtone hadn’t been recorded by his wife, Lu Xiao wouldn’t have bothered. Seeing it was Gu Yunlang, he answered without lifting his eyes. “Lian Qiao went to the airport to see someone off. If his phone’s unreachable, it’s probably out of battery. You can contact my driver—his number is 189****5678.”
Gu Yunlang: “Thanks… wait. Where did you memorize that script from? Fu Jin called you too? Xiang Jin’s phone is off as well? Both off at the same time—is that normal?”
Lu Xiao paused. “That’s… pretty abnormal.”
Lu Xiao’s driver connected three calls in a row. “Yes, dropped them off—right at the security checkpoint… The plane took off, no delay. I’m on my way back.”
“Yes, they all boarded. Not one left behind.”
Only then did Lu Xiao realize—everyone had seen that the drone bees were running away.
He felt a flicker of guilt, but not much. He could only pull the two of them into a group chat and offer a useful suggestion: “If you’re going to chase them to Baihua Village, don’t wear suits. Bring several sets of comfortable clothes.”
Suitable for labor.
Gu Yunlang: “You mean we’re going to get beaten?”
Lu Xiao: “Weren’t you planning to snatch someone away?”
Gu Yunlang: “I’m worried my future in-laws won’t approve of the marriage.” If they saw some jerk swaggering in, they’d definitely grab poles and start swinging.
“Should I bring an orthopedic doctor?”
Lu Xiao: “Bring a neurologist.”
Gu Yunlang: “?”
Fu Jin: “……”
Lu Xiao: “First worry about whether your wife agrees to the marriage.”
Fu Jin: “@Gu, your main problem is your wife running away, not parental opposition.”
Gu Yunlang: “…And you?”
Fu Jin: “My wife is definitely accompanying your wife home.”
Gu Yunlang: “Get lost.”
Fu Jin: “My wife and I are doing just fine.”
Gu Yunlang: “Even better than you.”
Fu Jin was already on his way to the airport. The last flight of the day was at 11:50 p.m., landing around three. After resting two hours at an airport hotel, he’d head straight for Baihua Village.
It wasn’t surprising to run into Gu Yunlang in the VIP lounge. Both were too restless to stay home, so they’d come early.
Seeing him, Gu Yunlang said, “Their flight lands in five minutes. Isn’t your wife just accompanying them? Call him.”
Fu Jin sat down calmly. “Just because he’s accompanying them means he’ll turn on his phone? Can security work like that?”
Ten minutes later—
Fu Jin: “I’m going to smoke.”
Gu Yunlang: “I’ll use the restroom.”
They split calmly, then, out of sight, each pulled out his phone and called his wife.
[The number you have dialed is powered off.]
They returned silently to their seats.
After another unbearable fifteen minutes—the restroom couldn’t be used again so soon, but cigarette cravings could strike in turns—Gu Yunlang said, “I’ll go smoke too.”
[The number you have dialed is powered off.]
Gu Yunlang clenched his phone, his gaze darkening.
What was going on? They’d been in high spirits that morning at the full-moon banquet. The day before yesterday they’d gone shopping together for a gold lock, cheerful the whole time. Was it because he hadn’t paid? But Lian Qiao had insisted on paying himself—and Gu Yunlang had prepared a separate full-moon gift for Lu Xiao’s son.
He felt their relationship was only getting better. He’d even been thinking about meeting the parents this Lunar New Year.
At 11:30 p.m., boarding finished.
A new message popped up in the three-person chat: Lian Qiao and Xiang Jin have arrived home safely.
Gu Yunlang could no longer pretend to be calm. He asked Fu Jin, “Have you figured out the reason?”
Fu Jin replied bitterly, “No.”
As the plane taxied and accelerated, Gu Yunlang sent one last text to Lian Qiao, then turned on airplane mode.
…
The sunlight was bright. The tips of the grass were tinged with autumn yellow; now and then a leaf fell onto the water, ripples spreading outward.
At 10:30 a.m., Lian Qiao went out to graze the sheep. By then, the diligent villagers had already driven the sheep onto the hillside—if they’d waited for the drone bees, the sheep would have starved.
So the two of them were mainly there to watch the flock.
He met Xiang Jin at the foot of the mountain. Both wore sunglasses. Seeing each other, they guiltily lifted them a little and coughed. “Up early.”
“I usually wake up around this time.”
In the past, they never wore sunglasses to graze sheep—at most a straw hat. They’d lie motionless on lounge chairs, unfazed even by direct sunlight.
But in Nan Cheng, someone carried bags for them. The moment the sun grew strong—before they even frowned—a pair of sunglasses would be placed on their noses.
Today, on a whim, Lian Qiao had brought sunglasses.
Didn’t sleep well last night—dark circles. Might as well hide them.
They lay in their usual spot watching the sheep. On the hillside, the sheep looked like clouds scattered across the sky—but clouds belonged to the heavens; sheep kept their hooves firmly on the ground.
After an hour, Lian Qiao felt thirsty. Strange—before, unless they lay there until they didn’t want to anymore, basic needs would never overcome laziness and issue commands to the brain.
Thirst, hunger, heat, cold…
Had just ten months as city dwellers made them this delicate?
Lian Qiao lifted his sunglasses slightly and peeked at Xiang Jin from the corner of his eye.
Mm. Xiang Jin was still calm.
Lian Qiao lowered his sunglasses again. The next second, light flooded his vision—sunlight glaring through his thin eyelids. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, and then heard a familiar voice.
“Why did you run?” Gu Yunlang stared straight at him. “If I did something wrong, tell me. I can change. Don’t just leave without a word, okay? You’ll scare me sick.”
Lian Qiao shot upright. “Why are you here?”
Gu Yunlang: “My wife ran away. Could I not come?”
Lian Qiao: “I’m not your wife. And I don’t want to be a secretary anymore.”
Gu Yunlang: “You don’t have to be a secretary. It is tiring.”
Lian Qiao: “No—being your wife is just as tiring. I don’t want to do that either.”
Gu Yunlang laughed in exasperation. “Being my wife—you don’t get to enjoy anything?”
Seeing Lian Qiao’s lips a bit dry, he twisted open the mineral water in his hand and brought it to his mouth. “Take a sip. Then talk properly.”
Forced to drink, Lian Qiao smacked his lips and shouted, “Yes! I just want to enjoy myself and don’t want to give anything. The moment you ask me to give even a little, I get unhappy!”
Gu Yunlang: “I know—”
“You don’t!” Xiang Jin glared at Fu Jin. “I’m exactly this kind of unambitious person who mooches off my parents with a clear conscience, then mooches off the younger generation—living off others my whole life. That’s my nature. It’ll never change.”
Lian Qiao: “You’re not my dad or my mom. You’re just in it for novelty—you won’t tolerate me forever.”
Gu Yunlang: “Isn’t it just a ‘dad-type boyfriend’…”
Xiang Jin said to Fu Jin, “No. You don’t understand anything. Go. I’ll stay in the village and no one will mock me. You’re from outside—you can’t understand.”
Gu Yunlang: “……”
Gu Yunlang, furious, said to Fu Jin, “You can’t even argue with him—can you at least shut him up?”
Xiang Jin: “What are you looking at? I’m lazy and bad-tempered.”
Lian Qiao: “A—mouthpiece.”
Xiang Jin wanted to drive Fu Jin away immediately, saying the nastiest things he could.
Fu Jin and Gu Yunlang exchanged a look and, in tacit agreement, abducted their wives, separating the two as fast as possible.
Headache.
Fu Jin held his hot-tempered wife, circled behind a haystack, pinned him against it, and kissed him hard.
“Don’t talk about yourself like that,” Fu Jin said, his gaze dark. “It hurts me to hear it.”
Xiang Jin was kissed until he couldn’t breathe. “You—you don’t understand my true nature.”
Fu Jin: “If ten months together isn’t enough to understand you, I apply for another ten.”
Xiang Jin: “I was pretending at work the whole time. I don’t like working at all.”
Fu Jin: “Who isn’t pretending at work? Who actually likes it? You pretend better than most—you’re better than most people.”
Xiang Jin stalled. “I pretend in bed too. I don’t like sex either.”
Fu Jin’s face darkened. “Then I don’t. Say that one more time and I’ll fuck you to death.”
Xiang Jin: “……” This guy talked terrifyingly.
Fu Jin: “You say I don’t understand. Tell me—and I’ll understand.”
“Yes—Lu Xiao said, if you trust me, you’ll tell me.” Fu Jin finally remembered Lu Xiao’s hints. Xiang Jin must be hiding a secret. “What did I do to make you deduct trust points? I’ll change it.”
Xiang Jin blurted out, “You always lie to me in bed.”
From minute five to minute fifty—like the most hateful fitness coach in the world.
Fu Jin: “……” That really couldn’t be helped. Unless he came prematurely, five minutes was too short.
Fu Jin reasoned with him. “Your stamina’s improved too, hasn’t it?”
Xiang Jin: “……”
This time, Fu Jin had brought his brain to Baihua Village. If that didn’t work, he could bring a neurologist. “You keep emphasizing ‘nature.’ Are you saying you’ll always be this lazy, that you can’t change, and you’re afraid I won’t tolerate you?”
Xiang Jin stayed silent. After a while, he said, “Don’t hold onto wishful thinking. Don’t think me going to work later means I’ve changed—that was just to buy my nephew a gold bracelet.”
Fu Jin: “But how many people in this world don’t even have the motivation to buy a gold bracelet? You may be lazy, but you don’t consume much of Earth’s resources, do you?”
“Compared to the waste of the rich, our Xiang Jin is actually beneficial to the planet. I’m even less meaningful to Earth—so I like the more meaningful you.”
Xiang Jin froze. You could put it like that? Presidents really were silver-tongued.
“But what you’re seeing isn’t the real me—it’s the changed me—”
Fu Jin: “You’re worried I’ll like the changed version of you more?”
“Your change is insignificant compared to your already powerful base. Whether moving from luxury to frugality or vice versa, you’re always composed.” Fu Jin looked at his wife, equally at home on a silk bed or a rough haystack, and said sincerely, “That shows inner strength and stability—that’s the ‘nature’ you talk about.”
Xiang Jin fell into thought.
Fu Jin deliberately kept him talking. “As long as I’m not bankrupt, your laziness isn’t a problem.”
In plain terms, laziness meant nothing in front of money.
As expected, Xiang Jin pressed, “What if you do go bankrupt?”
Fu Jin: “Then I’ll be thicker-skinned and take you to Lu Xiao’s place to freeload. Even if we end up begging on the streets, I’ll be the one opening my mouth—you just follow behind me and eat.”
Xiang Jin: “You make it sound nice.”
Fu Jin: “If it sounds nice, then listen. When it finally sinks in, I’ll let you go.”
Xiang Jin snorted—believe it or not, I’ll rush into Baihua Village and take the drone bee hostage; one shout and they’ll break your legs.
“Move.”
“No.”
Xiang Jin: “Move. I need to discuss something with Lian Qiao.”
Why did something like this need to be discussed with Lian Qiao? Fu Jin grew grave, afraid Gu Yunlang would drag him down—he hadn’t finished coaxing his man.
He tried to stall, lifting Xiang Jin’s chin and kissing him back into the hay.
Xiang Jin remembered hiding in haystacks to sleep while grazing sheep as a child and thought angrily: even if you kiss me all day, without Lian Qiao’s consent I still won’t tell you my secret.
Meanwhile, Lian Qiao worried that Xiang Jin’s attitude was far firmer than his own—he probably wouldn’t agree.
Compared to himself, who’d been fed several mouthfuls of water, Xiang Jin didn’t even get thirsty.
Gu Yunlang was worried too. Fu Jin looked like he’d come to argue—full of gunpowder. If it turned into a fight, he’d probably lose… damn it, why did he have such a pig-teammate? He’d been useless since contract signing.
The two drone bees, straw bits stuck in their hair, spoke calmly as if nothing was wrong: “You—”
Never mind. After grazing sheep together for so many years, one look was enough.
Xiang Jin sighed. What was he worried about? Lian Qiao was exactly the type who, when told not to touch, got even more curious. There really were people who, after being spared once for a near miss, would still go back for a closer look and then get caught and executed on the spot.
He was easy to coax—but rules had to be set first.
Xiang Jin: “Three days fishing, two days drying nets. Weekends off.”
Weekends were non-negotiable.
Fu Jin somehow understood perfectly. Right now, there was nothing he couldn’t agree to. “Okay.”
Xiang Jin: “Then… come home with me. I’m itchy all over.”
Fu Jin was overjoyed. On the way, he opened Lu Xiao’s secret manual on winning over the mother-in-law.
[Heaven rewards diligence.]
Especially men who can plow two mu of land.
It was harvest season. Fu Jin and Gu Yunlang worked solidly in Baihua Village for three days. They didn’t know techniques, so they did pure manual labor.
Their wives lay at home watching TV.
Thinking of that, the CEOs worked even harder. Never had they felt more keenly that a wife’s good life must be created with one’s own hands.
That night, Xiang Jin happily kissed Fu Jin. “Ever since you came, my mom hasn’t called me lazy once.”
Otherwise, by experience, after three days of lying around at home, a mother’s love would be used up and she’d start assigning chores.
Fu Jin’s sense of a husband’s responsibility and glory swelled infinitely. He promised, “Every time you come back, I’ll come with you. Mom will never say a word about you again.”
“President Fu, I like you.”
…
Gu Yunlang fed his wife seedless grapes while studying farming knowledge, determined to outdo Fu Jin. Though he still didn’t know Baihua Village’s secret, he knew one thing: this was a place where diligence was the highest honor.
Not just Fu Jin—before them were Lu Xiao and Lu Yushu. With such examples ahead, for his wife’s glory, he couldn’t lose.
Lian Qiao: “Ah, that’s not necessary—you’re already doing great.”
Gu Yunlang: “There’s still room to improve.”
Lian Qiao: “In my heart, you’re the best.”
Gu Yunlang: “Baby, I love you. I’ll become even better.”
Sleepy, Lian Qiao said, “I love you too—then do your best.”
…
Some time later, because Meng Xueyuan had just given birth and circumstances were special, the Bee Clan held its first online general assembly. With a unanimous vote, they accepted two new members.
Only then did Fu Jin and Gu Yunlang realize—they had fallen in love with a cute little honeybee, and one of the clan’s very rare drone bees.
…
Afterword
The Drone Bees’ Second Rise
The drone bees’ second rise was also related to Meng Xueyuan’s Little Sweetie.
On a weekend when everyone happened to be working, Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao went to the Lu household to help care for the baby—of course, there were nannies as well.
Little Sweetie was too adorable to leave to the nannies alone. Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao decided to do it themselves—mixing formula and cutting fruit.
They squeezed into the kitchen. One awkwardly mixed formula; the other clumsily cut fruit—having held a kitchen knife only a few times in his life.
Formula spilled from the can; fruit pieces bounced onto the floor.
Baby Meng Lingxiao sat on the floor between them, stuck out his tongue to lick the formula that landed on his face—sweet. He blinked, cupped his hands under his head to catch more powder, licked it vigorously, then grabbed fruit from the floor and stuffed it into his mouth.
In short, very busy.
The drone-bee uncles couldn’t do anything—baby to the rescue, destroying the evidence!
A piece fell from the cutting board, he grabbed one—worthy of a vine-type baby, happily clearing the board.
When Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao finally finished and brought out something presentable, Little Sweetie accidentally told the truth: “Uncle, I’m full already.”
The two lazybones shamefully trained for a whole month at home on mixing formula and cutting fruit.
