Chapter 191

Qi Bai turned his head and was startled by Lang Ze’s swollen face.

“Oh my god!”

He’d looked fine on the way back — how did he swell up so badly in just the blink of an eye?

Qi Bai reached out and covered Lang Ze’s face with his hand — it was burning hot. He quickly turned to shout through the window behind them, “Hu Xue, can you divide up the honey for us? We need to get home immediately.”

They had to hurry back to check if Lang Ze had been stung under his fur clothes.

Hu Xue was also shocked by Lang Ze’s puffed-up cheek. She quickly set down the animal-skin rag in her hand and ran over, saying, “Okay, I’ll watch over things here. You two get home quickly.”

Watching the two figures walk off, Hu Xue turned to a nearby tribesperson and said, “Go get Priest Yang Luo. Hurry.”

Qi Bai dragged Lang Ze home and helped him out of his fur clothing, carefully inspecting him from head to toe.

Sure enough, aside from the swelling on his face, he found another wound — a bee sting on Lang Ze’s left arm. The stinger was still embedded in his skin.

Qi Bai washed his hands, carefully removed the stinger, and frowned as he examined it.

“These bee stingers are so long?”

No wonder they got stung even through all that thick gear. The stinger must’ve been longer than the animal hide.

Lang Ze didn’t care much about the sting on his arm. The only thing he was truly relieved about was that Qi Bai wasn’t hurt.

Maybe because Qi Bai had kept swinging a torch under the tree, the bees didn’t want to go near him. Either way, it was a good thing Qi Bai wasn’t stung. As for himself… Lang Ze figured, no big deal. His skin was thick — he could handle it.

Lang Ze rubbed the space between Qi Bai’s brows and said, “The fur clothes you brought were good. I’ll be more careful tomorrow. I won’t get stung again.”

Qi Bai glared at him. “Your face is like this and you still want to go tomorrow? We’re not going.”

Those bee stingers were no joke. Just one sting caused such a reaction — what if someone got stung multiple times? It could be life-threatening. Since even animal hides weren’t enough to protect against them, they had to upgrade their gear.

“We still have extra hides at home. I’ll make two thicker protective suits these next couple of days. I’ll make sure they’re tougher than the bee stingers,” Qi Bai said. “While we’re at it, let’s also make a couple of bee boxes.”

“Bee boxes?” Lang Ze asked.

Qi Bai nodded. “Yeah. Basically some wooden houses for the bees.”

Lang Ze looked puzzled. “You want to make them homes?”

“Yup. Big wooden boxes so they’ll make honey inside. That way, harvesting honey will be much easier in the future.” Qi Bai gently tapped Lang Ze’s arm. “Does it hurt?”

Lang Ze shook his head. The pain was nothing — it just itched. He scratched the red, swollen spot with his hand.

“Don’t scratch it,” Qi Bai stopped him. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Wait here, I’ll go get some mint leaves.”

Qi Bai had planted a ring of mint beside their little garden next to the cave. He’d originally intended to use it for bug repellent — who knew it’d come in handy for something like this?

He ground the mint leaves into a paste and gently applied it to Lang Ze’s face and arm. The cooling sensation helped soothe the swelling and itching.

“Do I look really ugly now?” Lang Ze asked from above.

Qi Bai looked up at the poor guy who resembled a pitiful puppy.

“Pfft.”

Qi Bai couldn’t help laughing.

How to put it… Lang Ze definitely wasn’t ugly, but the blue-and-red swollen patchwork on his face definitely didn’t do his looks any favors.

Qi Bai grinned, revealing white teeth. “Not ugly. I like it.”

Then he lowered his head to keep applying the mint juice to Lang Ze’s arm — although his shoulders kept twitching from trying not to laugh, and eventually, he buried his face in Lang Ze’s chest.

Lang Ze sat on the bed with his head slightly tilted back. He suddenly understood why his father used to walk around shamelessly in front of his mother-father.

Yeah… who could resist a partner throwing themselves into your arms?

Lang Ze had intended to kiss the person in his arms, but seeing his own swollen arm, he gave up. Better not kiss him — he didn’t want Qi Bai to remember being kissed by a giant red face.

Priest Yang Luo arrived carrying medicinal herbs and walked in just in time to see this scene. He immediately felt the need to look away.

Qi Bai popped up from Lang Ze’s embrace. “Grandpa Priest, you’re here! I was just about to come find you.”

Yang Luo coughed and stepped inside. “What did you apply to him?”

“Mint leaves. It should cool and relieve the itching.”

Yang Luo pinched some and tasted it. He hadn’t used this herb before, but the simplest way to determine if a plant was safe was to taste it. If you could eat it, it usually wasn’t too dangerous.

He placed the herbs he brought on the bedside. “This is an antidote…”

Yang Luo paused, glanced at Lang Ze, then continued bluntly, “But I’ve never treated bee venom before. I don’t know if it’ll work.”

Qi Bai nodded — that was understandable. In the Beastman Continent, healing often relied more on luck and a strong immune system than precise remedies.

Three parts luck, seven parts constitution. The fact that Yang Luo even had a known antidote herb was enough to make Qi Bai feel grateful. He accepted the medicine and went to fetch a bucket of honey.

“Grandpa Priest, I packed a small tube of honey for you. Take it back — don’t tell anyone, I didn’t give it to anyone else.”

Yang Luo looked out the window like a guilty thief.

The houses in the tribe were all built along narrow alleys, and to be honest, if someone made too much noise at night, the neighbors could probably hear it. So if anyone passed by Qi Bai’s door right now, they’d easily hear them talking inside.

But then Yang Luo quickly realized — why was he sneaking around? Qi Bai had wanted to give him this. That meant their relationship was good. Why hide it?

After Qi Bai packed a small bamboo tube of honey and added a chunk of honeycomb, Yang Luo deliberately left the lid off the tube and walked out carrying it.

If anyone asked: “Priest Yang Luo, what’s that you’re holding?”

He’d stop, stretch the tube forward, and wave it casually.

“Bai gave me some honey. I told him no, but he insisted.”

The old beastmen sitting in the shade nodded knowingly.

“Yeah, yeah. Giving good stuff to your teacher. Bai’s a good kid — you raised a fine student.”

Someone even sighed, “Priest Yang Luo and Bai really are close!”

Yang Luo nodded in satisfaction. That’s exactly what he wanted to hear. He’d listen to that praise all day.

Humming a tune, he slowly made his way home.

Qi Bai didn’t know Yang Luo was out there flaunting their close relationship. He didn’t see what the big deal was.

Even if he had, Qi Bai wouldn’t have had time to care — he and Lang Ze were busy organizing the rest of the honey.

Honey stores very well — typically for a year or two without spoiling, if stored properly.

Qi Bai pulled out a few empty clay jars from the kitchen cupboard, washed them with mountain spring water, then scalded them in a clay pot. Once dry, he began ladling in honey.

He pressed a bamboo scoop into the bucket of honey — a full scoop came up, thick and golden.

The deeper into the tree hollow the honey came from, the darker its color. The older it was, the harder it was to identify the scent. The honey from outside the tree hollow was lighter in color, with a faint apricot blossom flavor.

Qi Bai sealed the orange-yellow honey in jars. As for the remaining comb, he cut some into pieces and placed them on a roasting tray, sliding it into the oven.

Roasted honeycomb had a unique flavor — even better than chewing it raw.

It made sense. Honey was practically made for barbecue.

While biting into roasted comb, Qi Bai said dreamily,

“Let’s brush some honey on our grilled meat later. I bet it’ll be delicious.”

Lang Ze was eating roasted honeycomb for the first time. Honey was so rare, people barely got enough to eat raw — no one would dream of using it as a seasoning.

But now that they knew how to smoke out bees, collecting honey wouldn’t be so hard in the future. Lang Ze made a mental note to keep an eye out for beehives while hunting.

The next day, Qi Bai and Lang Ze stayed home again, working together to build bee boxes at the doorstep.

When it came to woodworking, the best in the tribe was definitely Hu Huo.

But Hu Huo was already swamped making furniture and carts for the tribe. He and his assistants barely had a moment to rest. There was no way they’d bother him with personal projects like bee boxes.

Qi Bai’s house, on the other hand, was full of tools — some that even Hu Huo didn’t have. They had more than enough to build their own.

And don’t underestimate Lang Ze — he was the first one to help Qi Bai make bamboo beds and tables. He’d even crafted complex bone knives. A bee box was nothing for him.

Lang Ze split logs with a bone knife, used Qi Bai’s planer, and soon carved out wooden panels.

He glued the panels together with pig bladder glue, left an opening at the bottom for bees to enter and exit, and added a thick, sun-shading lid on top — a proper bee box. All it needed now were some empty comb frames.

Back when Qi Bai followed the adults to buy honey from the mountains, he always wondered why the honeycombs inside the bee boxes looked so neat and orderly. It wasn’t until yesterday, seeing the wild hives, that he realized — bees naturally built beautiful hives even without human help.

Qi Bai tied some old honeycomb to the frames, wondering if these “dormitory rooms” might make the bees like their new wooden home.

While the two of them were hammering away, a distant voice called out:

“The mining team is back!”

Qi Bai did a quick mental count. “Wait… they only left eight days ago. Why are they back so soon?”

This time’s mining team was larger than in winter — but so was the ore quota. Qi Bai had originally estimated they’d need at least 15–16 days.

Lang Ze paused his work and carried the half-finished bee box into the haystack.

“Let’s go check it out.”

Twenty carts were lined up outside the pavilion, piled so high they looked like pointy hills. Clearly, they couldn’t fit anything more and had returned early.

It didn’t take long for Qi Bai and Lang Ze to find out why.

As team leader, Niu Xi was flushed with pride.

“It was the Ju Feng Tribe’s beastmen — they helped us dig! Their beast forms were so useful. They didn’t need axes or chisels — they just picked up big rocks and smashed them against each other. Tons of ore would fall off. All I had to do was pick them up with a vine basket!”

Qi Bai looked in the direction Niu Xi was pointing and indeed saw shadowy figures among the trees.

“Why didn’t they come over?”

“They didn’t want to be in a crowd. But I told them we wouldn’t let them work for free…” Niu Xi glanced around and, seeing no sign of Yang Luo, lowered her voice.

“Right, Bai? We’re not going to let them work for free, are we?”

“Of course not,” Qi Bai confirmed.

Niu Xi beamed.

“See? I told them the Heishan Tribe is the most generous. I finally convinced them — they don’t want salt. They want food we made.”

Qi Bai glanced at the sky and said, “That’s fine. We’re about to make dinner anyway. Go ask them if they want to eat with us. Tell them we’ll make them something delicious.”