They successfully stole the honeycomb and raced down the mountain as fast as they could.
The bees chased them for quite a distance, eventually buzzing angrily before flying back. After all, they still had many hives left on the cliff.
“Hahaha… Jiang Wenwu, your hat wasn’t on properly—your eyes are all swollen!”
“You have the nerve to say that? Take a look at your own hand!”
Since they weren’t professional honey harvesters, even though they had prepared well, various mishaps still occurred. Fortunately, none were serious.
Being stung by these bees only caused some swelling, with no other toxins. Though it was painful and left them looking a bit worse for wear, the harvest was substantial.
“This honeycomb is huge and heavy! There must be so much honey, and it’s wild too!”
Everyone was thrilled and didn’t want to waste time. They hurried out of the mountains with the honeycomb, worried that if they stayed out too long, the honey might leak—a sight that would break their hearts.
The honeycomb Song Wei and Lin Zhen harvested was the largest.
The group attracted a lot of attention as they carried the honeycombs out of the mountains.
“Where did you find so many honeycombs?”
“Is that wild honey? It looks amazing! Why didn’t you take me along?”
“Where did you find it? Are you selling the honey? Can I buy some from you?”
The honeycombs were too large to hide, and they couldn’t fit into sacks without breaking them. The thought of honey leaking out from broken combs was too painful, so they simply carried them openly.
Honey was something you could keep for yourself if you found it—unlike meat, which had to be shared.
“We went deep into the mountains. Without Wolf One, Wolf Two, and Brother Lin Zhen leading the way, we wouldn’t have dared go. The cliff was steep—I almost fell off! The bees were fierce too. Even though I was covered up and my hat was on properly, some still got in and stung me until I looked like this.”
“There’s only so much honeycomb. If we told everyone, we wouldn’t have been able to harvest any! It’s not like cabbage, growing everywhere.”
“No, no, we’re not sharing. This isn’t even enough for my family. If I give you some today, how many people will come asking for it tomorrow?”
“Make way, make way! Don’t crowd us—if the honeycomb gets crushed and the honey leaks, you might not care, but I will!”
After finally breaking through the crowd, they hurried home.
Song Wei and Lin Zhen went to the educated youth compound, while the others returned to their own homes.
The five from Great Grandpa’s family brought back two honeycombs—one larger and one smaller.
Jiang Wenyong and his brother brought back a moderately sized honeycomb, only slightly smaller than the one Song Wei and Lin Zhen carried.
When Song Wei and Lin Zhen arrived at the educated youth compound, those who hadn’t gone to work gathered around to see.
“So this is why you two were gone early in the morning—you went to get wild honey!”
“Holy crap, this honeycomb is huge! It’s enormous!”
Zhao Su and Gao Le, city boys through and through, had never seen such a large honeycomb. Before coming to the countryside, they hadn’t even seen a honeycomb at all. Now, they were utterly amazed, circling it with wide eyes and exclaiming in awe.
“What kind of honeycomb is this? It’s so big! Incredible!”
“Don’t extract the honey yet! Where’s the camera? I’ll get it—I need a photo with this honeycomb!”
Gao Le rushed to his room to fetch his camera. After seeing Song Wei take photos with her camera, he had grown envious and wrote home complaining until his family bought him one and mailed it over.
Gao Le and Zhao Su took turns posing in front of the honeycomb, trying every pose they could think of, and enthusiastically took photos for the other educated youths as well.
“Are you done? We need to extract the honey now.”
“Done, done! We’ll help.”
Even though the honeycomb wasn’t theirs, they were more than willing to lend a hand.
Song Wei and Lin Zhen were quite generous, cutting off palm-sized pieces of honeycomb and handing them out.
“This is for you.”
Even Hei Dan got a piece.
Hei Dan took the glistening, plump chunk of honey and took a bite. Instantly, his eyes lit up at the sweetness.
“So delicious! So sweet! So fragrant!”
“Ying, ying, ying…”
The foodie fox also shamelessly waddled over.
Song Wei said, “We’ll make honey water for you later. Don’t cause trouble now.”
The honeycomb still contained many plump, white larvae—the young of the bees.
They looked somewhat terrifying, but these things were incredibly nutritious and would become incredibly fragrant when fried in oil!
Song Wei had eaten everything there was to eat, and the sight of these plump little larvae made her eyes shine.
“Lin Zhen, Lin Zhen, I want to eat fried bee pupae.”
“Okay.”
They picked out the bee pupae. Bai Yunjiao and the other girls looked at the bowl of insects and felt a bit queasy.
“Can these really be eaten?”
Song Wei: “Of course! They’re delicious and very fragrant.”
Gao Le rubbed his arms. “Eww, I can hardly stand to look at them.”
After removing the pupae, they began wrapping the crushed honeycomb in fine gauze and squeezing it.
Thick, amber-like, translucent dark golden honey flowed through the gauze into a clean enamel basin.
The sweet aroma spread, and the adults and children gathered outside the gate were practically drooling with envy.
It looked and smelled incredibly sweet.
The honey in the comb was highly concentrated and plentiful. It took them three hours to finally squeeze out all the honey.
“My hands are so sticky.”
But they couldn’t bear to wash it off with water, so they simply licked their fingers.
Since everyone was doing it, they didn’t feel too embarrassed.
Song Wei glanced at the crowd outside the gate. “We’re going to rinse the gauze and the honey residue with water. Would you like to drink it?”
They couldn’t afford to give away the honey itself—there were too many people outside, both familiar and unfamiliar. If they gave it away, they’d have nothing left.
But the honey water from rinsing could be shared.
“Yes, yes! Thank you, Educated Youth Song! We’d love to taste something sweet, hehe.”
As for it being rinse water—they had all seen how much sweet honey was still clinging to the gauze.
Song Wei and Lin Zhen weren’t stingy. They didn’t scrape off the honey from the gauze but simply poured water into it to rinse.
Soon, a large basin of sweet honey water was ready.
It was quite sweet.
Song Wei even tasted some herself.
She scooped out some for the dogs at home, then carried the rest to the gate.
“We only have two bowls. Everyone, line up properly—one bowl per person. Children first.”
The bowls they brought out were large.
Children loved sweet things the most. Two lines formed, and the children at the front held their bowls while Li Juan and Liu Linlin helped ladle the honey water, not letting them touch it directly.
After all, people in the countryside weren’t always particular about hygiene, especially children with their dirty little hands.
A bucket of clean water was placed nearby so the next person could wash the bowl before use.
“So sweet!”
“Thank you, Sister Li, Sister Liu, Sister Song, and Brother Lin Zhen!”
The children who drank the honey water became extra polite, not minding the trouble to thank each one individually before leaving happily. They hurried off to call their families to come and taste the honey water!
There was still plenty of honey water left, and Song Wei didn’t mind—they would just keep serving until it was gone.
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