A Beekeeper in a Magical World
Facing bankruptcy, a beekeeper crosses over into a magical fantasy world, gaining the ability to control bee swarms. Leveraging magic, he cultivates diverse mutant bee species: efficient honey-collecting bees, formidable combat bees, and entirely new bee species with extraordinary abilities.
He explores this fantastical world, bringing back various nectar-bearing flora for cultivation, creating magical honey imbued with enchanting effects, and distributing it to all corners of both worlds. While he becomes renowned as the Honey King of his original world and an elite beekeeper, his fame also spreads in the magical world, where he's known as the Bee Whisperer of the Black Forest.
The latest edition of the "Black Forest Adventure Guide" specifically warns: "Never attempt to provoke him, or his bee swarms will not spare you! Don't ask me how I know!"
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Chapter 1: The Blue Bee
"Negative review! I bought this honey, and after some time, sediment appeared in the bottle. It spoils too easily! I should have kept it in the fridge."
"It's fake, everyone! The taste is sour."
"They claim it's additive-free, but it turns out to be a counterfeit? I've reported it."
"Huayu Town is in trouble now."
"These individual beekeepers can't be trusted. I'd rather buy from a big brand. They ensure quality, and the taste is so much better."
As Hua Mi read the newly posted negative comments on his online store, his blood pressure shot up, ending his otherwise pleasant day.
It's not that he's narrow-minded. He runs an online store selling honey and is not afraid of customer complaints as long as they provide valid reasons. He will accept feedback gracefully and make improvements.
However, these reviews were filled with typical ignorance.
First, the issue of sediment. What is honey? It's a supersaturated liquid that easily crystallizes glucose within a specific temperature range. The absence of crystals only suggests low honey concentration, meaning high water content and inferior quality.
Secondly, regarding the taste, honey's flavor varies significantly depending on the floral source. Different bee species can also have some influence, but pure natural honey generally has a slight acidity. If it doesn't, it means additives were used to compensate for the missing taste.
Hua Mi's honey was claimed to be additive-free, so there was no way he added anything beyond honey. The ingredient list only had "honey" as the raw material. He raised and harvested the bees himself, no deception there!
But the average consumer didn't know that. After being accustomed to industrial sugar, they found pure natural honey's flavor to be off.
Hua Mi initially wanted to respond to each of these negative comments one by one, but his fingers hesitated over the keyboard. He stared at the screen, lost in thought.
At this point, responding wouldn't make much of a difference.
"The life of beekeepers is getting tougher," he sighed.
The words "Produced in Huayu Town" on his store's promotional page, which once guaranteed quality and reputation, were now nothing more than a joke.
There was a time when "Huayu Town" was the industry benchmark.
Huayu Town was a historic small town, predominantly inhabited by people with the surname Hua. Half of them were beekeepers, and the other half grew flowers.
The town was known for its abundant flowers, beautiful surroundings, unique honey flavors, low prices, and national distribution.
Hua Mi had always taken pride in his hometown, with its colorful flower fields and the sweet taste of honey, reminiscent of his childhood.
So, he made the resolute decision to return and continue his grandfather's beekeeping business.
Unfortunately, luck was not on his side. Within a year of taking over, Huayu Town began to decline, and now it had hit rock bottom.
Of course, besides the rampant adulteration of honey in the current market, there were also internal reasons for Huayu Town's decline.
The growing environmental issues due to industrial development were increasingly serious, and Huayu Town was not an isolated paradise, inevitably affected.
For example, due to environmental changes, several of the specialty flowers produced in Huayu Town had deteriorated in quality. Some couldn't even be grown anymore, and if they were, they couldn't thrive. It was expected that they would become extinct soon.
The industrial odor in the air, as the Luhua River flowed through the heart of Huayu Town, had transformed from the once clear and pristine river into a foul-smelling stream.
With such an environment, it was challenging to produce good honey.
The advantage of additive-free honey was thus neutralized, even becoming a disadvantage.
Honeys loaded with various artificial additives tasted much better, regardless of the nectar source, or even if the bees were kept indoors and fed sugar water all year round. Flavor could be adjusted with additives, saving the cost of growing flowers and ensuring year-round production.
Under a double blow, most of Huayu Town's beekeepers had been forced to change their profession, and only a few persisted.
"I can barely hold on anymore," Hua Mi sighed.
The sweet, pure taste that was a reminder of his childhood seemed to have vanished, just like his cherished memories.
Hua Mi took a deep breath, closed the store interface, and decided to put the negative reviews behind him.
He got up and headed towards his backyard.
The backyard was originally planned to have several flower fields, but now only one was in cultivation, a common rapeseed flower field that appeared dull and yellow.
Experienced beekeepers knew that the health of the honey source flowers was related to the strength of the bee colony, and the two influenced each other.
Thirty beehives were scattered around the flower field, and you could see bees coming and going.
In the past, Hua Mi had more than a hundred beehives, making him a major beekeeper. However, life often went like this: improvement was slow, while decline happened in the blink of an eye, and going downhill was much easier than climbing up.
Now he only had thirty beehives, each housing about six or seven thousand bees, all of which were Chinese honeybees, commonly known as "local bees."
This was the flowering season, when the bee colonies should be most active. However, the bees in front of him looked lethargic, with some workers lying inside the hives, hardly showing the diligence they were known for.
Beekeepers aimed for strong bee colonies, as it meant longer lifespans, stronger resistance, and higher productivity, resulting in better honey quality and efficiency. It was like having an elite force.
Conversely, weak bee colonies were like ailing troops, with greatly reduced combat capabilities.
The strength of a bee colony was not only related to the bee species but also to the environment.
The thirty colonies appeared to sense their impending elimination, just like their owner, struggling to find motivation.
Of course, China was vast, and there were still suitable places for beekeeping, such as Xin Province, with its ideal natural conditions.
However, leaving behind their ancestral homeland to work elsewhere required great courage, and transportation costs were also a concern. Hua Mi's financial situation didn't allow for reckless ventures.
Hua Mi walked to the center of the flower field without any protective gear.
Bees had a strong sense of territoriality and collective consciousness. A regular person stepping into the center was at risk of being stung. But having spent so much time among bee colonies, once the bees were familiar with him, they would seldom attack, unless provoked.
"You little guys, no slacking off! Enjoy the good fortune..."
Hua Mi bent down to inspect the bees when he unexpectedly spotted a peculiar bee on a rapeseed flower. Its appearance was strikingly different from the surrounding local bees.
Even with Hua Mi's expertise, he couldn't identify the bee's species. It was tiny, even smaller than the local bees, with a pale blue body, adorned with concentric white patterns. The strangest part was its compound eyes, which also had concentric patterns, resembling the cycle of samsara - strictly speaking, it couldn't even be called compound eyes.
"A mutant bee? But there seem to be too many of them."
This sight went beyond Hua Mi's understanding. He was hesitant to touch it but intended to take a picture with his phone to study it later. However, when he reached into his pocket, he realized he had left his phone inside.
Just then, the strange blue bee took flight and performed a circular dance in front of Hua Mi, forming an ordinary oval path.
This was a natural behavior for bees, something Hua Mi had seen many times. There was nothing unusual about it. However, what happened next shattered Hua Mi's world view.
The blue bee left a blue trail in the air, creating an elliptical "portal," filled with psychedelic colors, much like a video game's teleportation portal.
Judging from the reaction of the surrounding worker bees, they seemed oblivious to the existence of this "wormhole." Many bees flew through it unaffected, as if it were an optical illusion.
Hua Mi felt an irresistible urge to reach out and investigate...
The blue bee took advantage of the moment and landed on the back of his hand, its stinger immediately penetrating!
"Hiss!"
Hua Mi was jolted back to reality by the pain.
The blue bee perched on his hand, but its body gradually turned transparent. Simultaneously, the area where it had stung him showed faint blue patterns, as if the color had been injected into Hua Mi's hand through the stinger.
In just a couple of seconds, the blue bee completely disappeared, as if it had never existed.
Hua Mi suddenly felt his world spinning, lost his balance, and stumbled forward. He fell right into the "wormhole," vanishing from the flower field.
The "wormhole" closed in an instant.
The rapeseed field returned to its calm state, with the little bees busily working, unaware of the unusual event.
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