CH 60.1

In the Kunlun were birds, with the shape of bees but the size of mandarin ducks, known as qinyuan. With a single sting, they could kill any bird or beast. With a single sting, they could wither trees.

The qinyuan recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas were a type of powerful beast. Even though they looked like bees, they were a lot bigger than them. If they encountered any fauna, the fauna would die. If they encountered any flora, the flora would wither. Generally, everyone would take pains to avoid them. It was rare that anyone would come to provoke them, leaving them to happily live their lives in peace. Those happy days continued, until one day, it all suddenly ended.

The weather had been fine that day. They had been flying freely in the sky, talking about what to eat, when they felt a terrifying aura fall upon them. Before they could even react, they were enveloped by black fog. Then, a pair of giant claws pressed against their bodies.

One of the qinyuan tried to fight back with its stinger, but after touching the giant beast, found that the stinger on its behind couldn’t even pierce the skin on the beast’s claw. They were held in that thing’s palm like tiny toys. 

We’re going to die, we’re going to die, we’re going to die…… All the qinyuan thought that they were done for, about to be swallowed whole, but just as they’d mentally prepared themselves for death, they heard an imposing voice sound out from above their heads.

“Can you produce honey?” The fierce beast asked.

Produce honey? The oldest qinyuan was called Man Chen. He was the most senior one, but even though he had already experienced a lot of things, he was still left stunned for a moment by the fierce beast’s question.

Not receiving a response, the fierce beast became impatient. “Can you produce honey or not?”

“Can can can!!” Man Chen replied, terrified. He recognised that if he couldn’t produce honey, in the next moment, he might be buried in the beast’s mouth, so his strong will for survival made him give a definite answer, “We can!”

“En,” The fierce beast made a satisfied hum, “Then you will all be honeybees.”

Man Chen, “……”

The other qinyuan, “……” They hadn’t thought that they would be demoted just like that, going straight from monstrous beasts that killed anything they touched and withered any tree they came into contact with to cute little honeybees. 

“What? Got an opinion?” The fierce beast sensed their silence.

“No no no no.” How could Man Chen dare to hesitate any longer. “We’re little honeybees, we’re little honeybees!”

The fierce beast, “En, when the time comes, you’d better not slip up.”

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He carried out the beehive he’d made. Looking at those big bodies of theirs, he was a little troubled. “This beehive is too small, I don’t think you guys can fit.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” The biggest one out of all of them hurriedly said, “We can become smaller, please don’t worry [tn content="yourself"]respectful[/tn] over this!” As he said this, he shrunk to the size of a thumb with a shake of his wings. 

Lu Qingjiu was amused. He said, “You guys can really produce honey?”

“We can,” Man Chen said, “What flavour of honey do [tn content="you"]respectful[/tn] want?”

Lu Qingjiu, “……I can even choose the flavour?”

“Aren’t there a lot? Like what osmanthus honey, Japanese pagoda tree honey, goji berry honey, that sort.” Man Chen lay down on top of the beehive, staring anxiously at Lu Qingjiu. 

Lu Qingjiu smiled and said, “Anything’s fine, just go with whatever’s convenient for you.” These qinyuan were actually really pretty, with gorgeous feathers of all colours on their wings, beautiful gemstone-blue eyes, so exquisite they looked like works of art. Looking at them, Lu Qingjiu’s hand started to itch slightly. “Can I touch you?”

Man Chen, “Go ahead, touch me anywhere you want, as long as you don’t touch the stinger on my tail.” Even though they didn’t know what kind of identity Lu Qingjiu had, only able to smell the scent of an ordinary person from his body, seeing how that fierce beast treated Lu Qingjiu, they knew that the person before them wasn’t someone they could slight…… 

Lu Qingjiu reached out a hand and stroked the qinyuan’s feathers. His feathers were incredibly soft and smooth like satin. He couldn’t help but laugh, “If it’s really not okay, don’t force yourself.”

“I’m not forcing myself, I’m not forcing myself.” Man Chen had never been touched by a human before, so he’d originally been a little nervous, but he hadn’t expected that the feeling of Lu Qingjiu’s warm fingers against his body actually wasn’t bad. It actually even felt rather good. But in the next second a cold gaze pierced into him. The qinyuan’s body tense. Tracing back the gaze’s source, he found that the fierce beast was currently staring at him with an unfriendly look on his face, looking very unhappy. 

Man Chen, “……Ge, don’t touch anymore.” If he stroked his skin any longer, he wouldn’t have a skin anymore.

Lu Qingjiu, “Oh, I’m sorry. It just feels too good, so I couldn’t hold back.”

Man Chen wept silently in his heart. It also felt very good to be touched, okay? But compared to feeling good, his life was still more important.

Just like that, under Bai Yuehu’s enthusiastic arrangements, this swarm of bees successfully settled into Lu Qingjiu’s home. However, unlike real bees, there were only four to five qinyuan in a swarm. After becoming smaller, the beehive seemed rather empty. Lu Qingjiu asked them whether he should place them somewhere where there were more wildflowers, but they all expressed that there was no problem, they could travel a thousand li in a day. Other than that, they were already troubling Lu Qingjiu to help them make a ceiling for their beehive, so that they wouldn’t get drenched by the rain. 

Lu Qingjiu then placed these little bees in his inner courtyard, and even built them a canopy out of wooden boards, saying that from now on, this place was their home, if they ever needed anything, they could just ask him directly.

The few little honeybees nodded pitifully, saying to Lu Qingjiu, “You really are a good person.”

Lu Qingjiu, “……” He didn’t have the heart to tell the little honeybees that it was him who had brought up wanting to eat honey in the first place.

However, Lu Qingjiu didn’t have much hope of actually getting honey. Could these qinyuan really produce honey? According to the records of them, didn’t everything they touched die? But oh well, he could just keep them at home and take care of them, it didn’t matter anyways. 

Thinking such thoughts, Lu Qingjiu soon threw the matter of the honeybees to the back of his mind, up until half a month later, Yin Xun, who’d gone to clean the inner courtyard suddenly started shouting, “Qingjiu, Qingjiu quickly come over!!!”

Lu Qingjiu had been frying crispy meat for Yin Xun. Hearing his shouts, he put the spatula aside and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Yin Xun said, “Our beehive is full?”

Lu Qingjiu was stunned for a moment, then headed over to the inner courtyard to see the beehive Yin Xun was talking about. He saw that the top of the beehive was covered with golden, extremely alluring honey. Because there was too much honey, it was even overflowing from a crack in the beehive, dripping onto the ground. 

“It’s completely full.” Yin Xun pulled out a frame and said in surprise, “So fast?”

Lu Qingjiu was still lost in his shock, when he saw a little qinyuan fly out of the beehive and say in a small voice, “What flavour of honey would you like?”

Lu Qingjiu, “There’s even different flavours?”

Yin Xun, this thing, stood by the side making noise, “I want chocolate flavoured honey.” 

That little qinyuan rolled his eyes at Yin Xun, “I was asking about what flower.”

Spring was the season where hundreds of thousands of flowers were in bloom. Most flora bloomed with beautiful flowers in spring, and the honey produced from different pollen would taste different, even containing the fragrance of the flowers.

Lu Qingjiu, “What flowers do you have?”

“Peach blossom, pear blossom, roses, we have all kinds.” This little qinyuan seemed to still be quite young, and wasn’t as scared as that big qinyuan. “You can take it all, but I have a tiny condition.” 

Lu Qingjiu, “What condition?”

“You have to touch me,” The little qinyuan said, “Like how you touched Man Chen!”

Lu Qingjiu was confused for a moment, before realising that Man Chen was that qinyuan that he’d stroked before. The tiny one before him was also very cute, and besides, they felt really good to the touch, so Lu Qingjiu happily agreed. He reached out his hand and carefully stroked the qinyuan’s soft feathers.

The little qinyuan’s eyes curved from the pleasure. He was even humming. 

Yin Xun’s hand felt itchy. “Can I touch you as well?”

“Don’t touch me.” That little qinyuan mercilessly rejected Yin Xun’s request. “Don’t defile my pure body.”

Yin Xun’s eyes widened. “But why can he touch you?”

The little qinyuan, “He’s human, are you?” 

Yin Xun, “……”

The little qinyuan, “Humans and us can’t be together, but you’re not human. What if you fall for me?”

Yin Xun, “I won’t fall for you!”

The little qinyuan, “Ha, nothing you mountain gods say can be trusted.” 

Yin Xun, “……” Friend, what in the world happened to you.

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help bursting into laughter. After massaging the qinyuan for a few minutes, Lu Qingjiu successfully obtained a few frames of honey, just that there now lay the question of how to get the honey off the frames. Just as Lu Qingjiu was pondering this, he saw Yin Xun bring over an iron tube, saying that he could leave this job to him. Then, Lu Qingjiu saw him shake off all the honey on the frame into a bucket.

This was the honey of a farmer family in spring. Lu Qingjiu tasted a bit, and found the taste very good. There was none of the overly sweet taste of artificial honey. The honey actually wasn’t particularly sweet, mainly filled with a strong fragrance. It was especially suitable for mixing into water and making pastries.