Chapter 81: Dividing the Bees
After Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan finished clearing the bamboo, they carried the freshly dug bamboo shoots on their backs and returned home.
The bamboo shoots, still wrapped in thick husks, rolled around in the basket with a clattering sound.
Ying Kongtu ignored them. He freed one hand and held hands with Wen Zhongshan.
The two of them slowly made their way home like that.
When they got back, all the furry ones at home had returned.
Tiaozhu, Dart, Jingwei, and Shuangzhong were guarding the four corners of the courtyard, playing ball. One kick here, one kick there, they sent it back and forth. Shuangzhong could even catch the ball with its talons.
Xian Niao was lying in its nest under the eaves, sleeping with its head on a pillow. The wind gently lifted its long fur, making it look especially comfortable.
Hearing people return, Xian Niao’s thick ears twitched, and its paws moved along with them.
“Keep sleeping.” Ying Kongtu gently rubbed Xian Niao’s big head, signaling for it to continue sleeping, while he and Wen Zhongshan went into the kitchen to cook.
Fresh bamboo shoots were sweet, crisp, and tender. After a simple blanching, they could be eaten directly without soaking.
After the two drank chilled sour plum soup, they slowly peeled the bamboo shoots, blanched them, and placed them in a large basin for later use.
Ying Kongtu asked Wen Zhongshan to cut the beef first, while he went to the attic to get pickled mustard greens.
“How big should the beef cubes be?”
“About the size of a pinky fingertip.” Ying Kongtu stretched out his finger to demonstrate. “They’ll shrink after being stir-fried later.”
Wen Zhongshan nodded to show he understood.
“The bamboo shoots also need to be diced later. Cut them about half the size of the beef cubes. After frying, their sizes will be about the same.”
“Leave it to me.”
Ying Kongtu went to the attic to get the pickled mustard greens.
This batch of pickled mustard greens had been made from mustard greens in his small vegetable garden. They had been cut and pickled only after the snow fell last winter.
After frost, snow, sun-drying, pickling, and fermentation, they had slowly turned sour. Now, when the jar was opened, a unique sour fragrance rushed out, and the color was a brilliant golden yellow, extremely beautiful.
Ying Kongtu inhaled deeply, filled with anticipation for this batch of pickled mustard greens.
He took out a small plate of them and was just about to turn downstairs when he saw that Xian Niao had somehow come up too. It stood behind him, looking at the jar of pickled greens.
“Xian Niao!” Seeing Xian Niao, Ying Kongtu’s eyes filled with laughter. He asked, “Do you want pickled greens today?”
Xian Niao softly opened its mouth. “Awo.”
Ying Kongtu said, “You haven’t eaten them in many years either, have you?”
Xian Niao nudged Ying Kongtu’s waist with its big head as its answer.
“Kongtu?” Wen Zhongshan called from below.
“Coming—” Ying Kongtu drew out his voice, used his free hand to pet Xian Niao, then took the stairs two or three steps at a time and ran to the kitchen. “Finished cutting the bamboo shoots?”
“Finished.”
“Then the pickled greens need to be cut too.” Ying Kongtu stuffed the plate of pickled greens into Wen Zhongshan’s hand. “Just cut them the same size as the bamboo shoot cubes.”
“All right.”
Ying Kongtu first made food for Xian Niao and the others.
He heated the wok, lit the fire, poured frozen chicken broth into the pot to melt, then added all kinds of meat. Once they were cooked, that became their special meal.
After finishing the food for Xian Niao and the others, Ying Kongtu washed the wok clean and then made the humans’ meal.
He poured the pickled greens into the wok and stir-fried them until the moisture dried out. After plating them, he added ginger, scallion, garlic, star anise, and dried chili to hot oil to release their fragrance. Then he poured in the beef cubes and stir-fried them until the moisture dried out, frying them until they were slightly charred and fragrant. After that, he added the pickled green cubes and stir-fried everything over high heat.
At this moment, the aroma in the wok was scorched by the roaring fire and rose up all at once.
A sour, fragrant, savory scent rushed straight into their noses and lingered around them.
Ying Kongtu then added the diced bamboo shoots and stir-fried them over high heat. The scent in the wok became even more fragrant, so rich that it made one’s stomach start rumbling.
He simply adjusted the seasoning, sprinkled in a handful of bright green chopped scallions just before taking it out of the wok, then plated the stir-fried beef cubes with pickled greens and diced bamboo shoots onto a snow-white plate.
At this moment, the kitchen was full of the dish’s fragrance. The aroma had almost taken form as steam, drifting toward the wide-open doors and windows.
Ying Kongtu picked up the finished dish and was just about to place it on the counter when he turned his head and caught sight of the doorway from the corner of his eye.
All the furry ones at home were squatting at the door, staring brightly at them. Even Shuangzhong was no exception.
They were gazing longingly into the kitchen, and Dart was even drooling.
The way its drool flowed straight down made it very obvious that this dish’s aroma was deeply loved by Dart.
“I stir-fried your share too.” Ying Kongtu waved his hand. “Let it cool for a bit first. We’ll eat together later.”
The furry ones were satisfied, but still did not move their gazes away. Ying Kongtu had no choice but to bear their stares with tremendous pressure as he began making the other dishes.
Ying Kongtu made another dish of shredded chicken by hand, as well as a simple stir-fried pumpkin blossom dish. Lunch was complete.
The two of them ate two dishes and one soup. The furry ones at home ate meat mixed with pickled greens, bamboo shoots, and beef. Even Dart received a small spoonful, which Ying Kongtu mixed into its cat food for it.
“Let’s eat,” Ying Kongtu announced.
As his voice fell, the family officially began lunch.
Ying Kongtu scooped a spoonful of the beef with pickled greens and bamboo shoots onto the snow-white rice in Wen Zhongshan’s bowl, then scooped a spoonful for himself too.
This kind of finely diced dish, when mixed with rice, made the snow-white grains shine with oil. The yellow-brown of the pickled greens, the reddish-brown of the beef, the pale yellow of the bamboo shoots, and the vivid green of the scallions all formed a sharp contrast with the white rice.
This dish was not only beautiful in color. When he tasted it, the flavor was even more sour, fragrant, and savory. The more he tasted it, the more solid and rich the aroma filled his mouth, making it impossible to stop.
Ying Kongtu remembered the years he had spent in the mountains several hundred years ago.
Those simple, weighty, and not-so-convenient days, when the stove at home always had jars stocked with lard, crispy pork cracklings, diced wild chicken, dried venison, beef cubes, and the like.
After patrolling the mountain and working, these meat dishes would be mixed with all kinds of pickled vegetables fermented by time and seasonal mountain delicacies, becoming delicious meal after delicious meal, filling their stomachs and also filling their lives.
They passed one ordinary day after another amid these delicious dishes.
Ying Kongtu turned back to look at Tiaozhu and Xian Niao.
Tiaozhu and Xian Niao both raised their heads.
One person, one cat, and one wolf looked at one another, all their eyes shimmering with nostalgia for the life they once had.
Wen Zhongshan picked up a chopstickful of pumpkin blossom for Ying Kongtu. “Eat.”
Ying Kongtu withdrew his gaze. “You eat too. These bamboo shoot cubes are really good. So fresh and tender.”
“They’re especially good stir-fried with pickled greens and beef. Perfect with rice.”
“I think so too. Later, let’s go dig up some more bamboo shoots and make beef and bamboo shoot buns. It’s been a long time since we last ate those. We can make extra. If we can’t get up in the future, we can use them as breakfast.”
There were far too many bamboo shoots on the mountain. Ying Kongtu and the others spent several solid days digging them up.
Beef and bamboo shoot buns, pickled sour bamboo shoots, dried bamboo shoots… They found all kinds of ways to use bamboo shoots.
Ying Kongtu did not sell this batch of bamboo shoots.
The shoots had grown too well. Ying Kongtu planned to cut down some bamboo to free up space in the bamboo grove and let the shoots grow into new bamboo.
From bamboo shoots growing into bamboo, and then growing new bamboo shoots, it would take several years.
They would slowly renew the bamboo grove and cultivate an even better one.
Ba-snake pig manure was extremely useful.
In the mountain forests where they had been active, the trees on the mountain had visibly grown more lush.
Since this batch of fertilizer was so useful, Ying Kongtu specially dragged Wen Zhongshan up the mountain to collect a batch of pig manure and pile it at a designated fermentation spot to ferment.
They urgently needed a batch of fertilizer for planting.
The kiwifruit on the mountain and the rice in the terraced fields were both growing very well.
Precisely because they were growing well, they needed even more fertilizer for growth, flowering, and fruiting.
In the past, Ying Kongtu would have thought of going to exchange for a batch from the Ba-snakes. Now that there were Ba-snake pigs in the forest, he only needed to use the Ba-snake pigs’ manure. Things had become much simpler.
While Ying Kongtu and the others were busy with all kinds of work on the mountain, one day, when Ying Kongtu went up the mountain to observe the beehives, he noticed that the bees on Bihai Mountain had begun slacking off.
They no longer buzzed out to gather nectar, nor did they crawl around outside the beehive.
Compared with before, they seemed much quieter.
Ying Kongtu carefully opened the beehive and took a look. “Sure enough.”
Wen Zhongshan asked, “What is it?”
“Look at this queen bee—” Ying Kongtu pointed the queen bee out to Wen Zhongshan. “Its body is quite a bit smaller than before.”
Wen Zhongshan said, “Is it about to migrate?”
“I think so.” Ying Kongtu put the lid back onto the beehive. “It’s time for them to split the colony.”
Whenever a bee colony grew strong and food was abundant, the bees would split.
The worker bees would reduce the amount of food fed to the queen bee while also raising a new queen.
Once the old queen grew thin from hunger, she would lead half the bees out of the beehive, find a suitable tree branch nearby to land on, and wait for the colony to gather.
Then the old queen would lead the gathered swarm to fly elsewhere and find another suitable place to settle.
After the old queen left, the other bees remaining in the hive would quickly raise a new queen and form a new colony.
Ying Kongtu and the others had not harvested much honey in the past month or so precisely to leave enough reserves for the bees, helping them grow stronger and then split off a new colony.
The bees split very quickly.
Ying Kongtu hurriedly pulled Wen Zhongshan home, found the beehives they had made earlier, burned them over again with fire, then carried them up the mountain.
There were currently three bee colonies on the mountain.
Aside from this colony on Bihai Mountain, the other two colonies had also reached the point where they could split, but their new queen bees had not yet been cultivated.
They would not naturally split quite so soon for the time being, so Ying Kongtu helped them split artificially, dividing them in half as well.
The steps for artificial colony division were very similar to the steps of a natural split. The bees were roughly divided into two parts, with one portion moved to a new beehive together with the queen bee, while the other portion remained in the old hive.
The portion of bees left in the old hive had no queen bee, so the worker bees would urgently use royal jelly to feed and raise a new queen.
In just two or three days, the new colony would take shape.
“There are chicks on Qianzhongcui Mountain, so we won’t put beehives there for now. For the other six mountains, let’s place one beehive on each mountain.”
The six mountains Ying Kongtu mentioned were Wuchuan Mountain, Baogu Mountain, Xiwu Mountain, Qingfang Mountain, Bihai Mountain, and Gongshen Mountain.
He had reclaimed all six mountains for some time now. The plants on the mountains had been nourished by divine power and were growing very well.
Placing the beehives on these mountains would give the bees the best nectar sources, and they would definitely produce very good honey.
Ying Kongtu looked from afar at the newly settled beehives and said in satisfaction, “In another month or so, once the bee colonies settle down, we’ll be able to harvest the honey they make afterward.”
“Will we be able to pay off the debt we owe the Ba-snakes?”
“Definitely no problem. It’s only a little over ten jin. In half a year, maybe we’ll even have extra honey to exchange for other good things.”
Like a qualified farmer, Ying Kongtu surveyed his mountain forest and beehives with his gaze, then remembered something else. “And that nest of hornets. We need to move them somewhere else so they don’t clash with the honeybees.”
“Now?”
“Yes, we can go now. Let’s go.”
Author’s Note:
Jingwei likes pretending to be a dog to attract people.
Especially human girls. Whenever they encounter it, their eyes always light up, and they call out in a sweetened voice, “Puppy, puppy.”
After it grew into a majestic big wolf, it could no longer keep pretending to be a dog.
Whenever people saw it from far away, they would take a detour around it.
Unable to attract humans anymore, Jingwei lay gloomily at home, its ears flattened against its head.
