[Cozy Fantasy] [Farming LitRPG] The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm

Chapter 146 - Let's all bee positive and make the world a sweeter place.

🙞❤︎🙜

I was tempted to go ham and yell, “No, not the bees!” like Nicolas Cage from The Wicker Man, but refrained.

When we went outside, I saw why he was alarmed.

“It’s like a living carpet of bees,” I said. “There’s thousands of them. Keep your distance.”

The vegetable field was covered in bees, their constant buzzing creating an eerie soundtrack to the normally tranquil scene. The ground itself seemed to undulate with the rhythmic movements of thousands of restless bees.

Of course, bees were pollinators, so this shouldn’t be bad. Half of the plants still had flowers while the other half had started fruiting a few days ago.

To my surprise, Lari seemed pleased by the sight.

“A bee swarm… I heard about these. Teacher, can I take care of it?” he asked.

I was confused. “What? How?”

“It’s in the [Hunting] tab,” he said.

It was? This wasn’t in Adventure Incarnate! I browsed the tab, and when I couldn’t find it, I used the search function.

“Wow, there really is a bee swarm resettlement activity.” I guess smoking bees to sedate them and then using a tool to vacuum them up and place them in a new bee house was similar to trapping animals, which was the main Hunting activity. “Okay, you can do it since you have the highest Hunting level.”

It was great to see Lari volunteering and taking the lead. All this time, I had thought of him as an indolent fellow because of the [Lazy] trait that the System showed me when I first saw them at the orphanage. However, today’s events showed that I should rethink that. Lari no longer seemed [Lazy], just as Mo was no longer as [Shy] as she used to be.

My apprentices were maturing at an incredible rate!

“Okay. We’ll help you put the suit on,” I said.

I got the beekeeping suit from the System toolbelt and he put it on while we helped with buttoning it up. On Earth, the sturdy white coveralls would probably have zippers and velcro, but here it was fastened with buttons in keeping with the low-tech setting.

He put on the helmet with the mesh veil and the gloves himself while I lit five sticks of [Bee Incense] before handing them to him.

“Put these near the bees. The smoke should make them calmer,” I said.

Lari went to the vegetable field and planted the incense around the plants while we waited at a distance.

“Should we help him, Teacher?” asked Mo.

“I think he can do it easily enough. Do you think he needs our help?” I asked.

“He’ll get all the Hunting exp,” said Mo.

Kharli suddenly looked excited. “Oh, do you think he’ll get exp per bee? We should take turns!”

“My dear, dear disciples, you should already know that exp is hard to get. I doubt he’ll get exp per bee. More likely the exp will be granted when he finishes putting the swarm in a new [Bee House],” I said. “Let’s ask him to signal us if he gets exp using the [Bee Vac].”

I waved an arm and Lari walked back to us after setting up the incense.

“Hey, don’t keep all the exp to yourself. If you get exp when you use the [Bee Vac], wave your arms, and we’ll go help,” said Kharli.

“I thought you girls were scared of bees,” said Lari. “Fine, but wear the suit now. I don’t want to wait too long.”

Kharli and Mo put on their beekeeping suits.

I handed Lari the [Bee Vac], which was simply a large wooden box with a handle on top and a flexible hose with a nozzle at the end. “To use this, just press this red Start/Stop button. Try it.”

Lari pressed the button and marveled at the way the air was sucked into the hose. “What a great item! The bees will have no chance against this.”

“Yes, and when all the bees are in the box, come back and we’ll put the bees in their new house,” I said.

We could see that the incense had done its work since the bees were now quite sluggish, as though they were half asleep.

“Yes, Teacher.” Lari saluted me and then went back to the vegetable plants where he turned on the tool and started vacuuming up the bees.

“He’s not waving, so he’s not getting any exp,” said Kharli.

“I knew it,” I said.

“This is a bother, but at least Lari will get his Hunting exp, and all the flowers got pollinated,” said Mo.

The girls took off their bee suits.

As I was looking around for a good place to put the new beehive, I realized that we were missing a person. “Wait, where’s Haoran?”

“He’s checking the other beehive to see if they also swarmed,” said Kharli.

“Looks like this is going to take a while. Let’s sit down.” I took out some chairs and a table from my inventory and we sat down. “We still have a lot to do after this.”

Lari returned with a full box of somnolent bees. Thankfully, transferring the bees to their new house was as simple as clicking [Use] on the [Bee Vac] and the [Bee House]. I wondered how exactly the System did that. Did it create a mini-portal for every bee to teleport them into their new habitat?

“Nice exp.” Lari grinned. “I got almost as much as I did from the [Lunar Goats].”

“I wanna do the next one,” said Mo.

“They’re all yours. I don’t like bees,” said Kharli.

I coughed loudly.

Mo looked abashed. “I mean the one after Teacher gets her turn.”

“Thanks for thinking about me.” I pinched Mo’s cheek. “Let’s go, we have a lot to do.”

Now that the bees had been handled, it was time to do our daily farm chores. Our first stop was the field where I was making [Black Soil].

I bent down and scooped up a handful of soil. “Wow, the plants decomposed fast.”

That must be System magic since I was sure that the plants we had plowed back into the soil would have taken at least a few weeks to decompose back on Earth.

My apprentices were very excited.

“The soil is a lot darker,” said Kharli. “We're making great progress.”

“Yes! It looks ready for planting,” said Mo.

“I thought we could only plant during planting season?” asked Lari.

“No, the rules are different for cover crops. We can plant them any time,” I said. “The soil was already plowed, so I’ll start by spreading the [Mysterious Goo] as fertilizer.”

We hadn’t made enough [Mysterious Goo], so I used the ones from my inventory that only I could use. Once I was done, we each planted [Spirit Grass], [Wild Seed Mix] and [Soybeans] seeds on one-fourth of the field and then watered the soil. The exp was pretty nice, especially with the twenty percent bonus I got from my 99 Astrology skill.

“Teacher is giggling to herself again,” said Kharli to the others.

“She’s just happy we're getting Farming exp,” said Lari.

“Maybe she’s thinking of the Prince,” said Mo.

Lari grimaced. “Ew.”

Kharli sidled over to Mo and playfully elbowed her on the side. “When we grow up, let's both get a tall, handsome, and rich man to giggle over.”

I turned a blind eye to their antics and continued working. When we finished, we walked over to the rice paddies.

Now that the rice was nearly ready to harvest, we had to drain the water and remove the carp. I opened the water gates and we settled down to watch over the process to make sure that the [Rice Carp] safely swam down to the [Fish Refuge].

[Fish Refuge:

A deeper area in the Rice-fish Culture System that serves as a refuge for the fish in case the water level drops. It can take the form of trenches, ponds, or pits, but trenches are preferred since they also provide the fish with passageways for feeding in the rice field.]

“As far as I know, using the nets to capture the fish won’t give any exp. Do you want to try using the fishing rods? We might get fishing exp, though I doubt it. It’s worth a try anyway,” I said.

Of course, they wanted to try it, but, as expected, even using the fishing rod didn’t give exp.

“It’s fine. What’s more important is that the rice plants look healthier this time. I hope we get more Farming exp,” I said.

“What a pity the [Cleaner Shrimp] are too small to eat,” said Lari.

“Teacher, look that poor fish is flopping around in the mud!” Kharli pointed to a carp that hadn’t swum fast enough and was stuck in the too-shallow water.

“Quick, Kharli, use a net to capture it before it damages the plants,” I said. “The rest of us will walk around the perimeter with our nets and look for others like that.”

Lari caught another fish that was also stuck, but that was it. All of the other carp managed to swim to the fish refuge where we scooped them up and put them in large wooden barrels filled with water that Shuye had provided. The clan wanted to buy the live fish from me for use in their own fish ponds.

Bending down repeatedly to haul up a heavy load of fish was quite tiring. Wiping my forehead with a cotton handkerchief that Yinuo had embroidered with a peony design, I said, “We’re done here. I’m gonna rest for a bit. Someone go back to the house and let them know the barrels are ready.”

Kharli, who was still full of energy, ran off to the house while I spread a picnic blanket and lay down to relax. Lari and Mo continued dipping their nets in the now muddy water to check if there were any left. There were none.

I got up when Kharli came back with three clan members who picked up the barrels as though they were light as air and carried them to the ox carts that the clan had prepared for transport. The clan members made quick work of loading the barrels and thanked us profusely for the fish which they called “legendary spirit fish” even though they were just regular spirit carp.

Of course, we kept some for ourselves. Deming picked the barrel that he wanted and promised us a wonderful treat for tonight’s dinner.

To be honest, I much preferred meat to fish, but I was tired and hungry enough to look forward to it.

That night, as the Demon Chef promised, we had a carp-themed meal.

Instead of courses being served separately, this time the staff set up a round table full of dishes where we sat around and served each other choice tidbits, as was the custom in family-style meals.

The hot and sour fish broth was amazingly tangy and refreshing. There was a steamed carp wrapped in lotus leaves made of tender carp meat mingled with fragrant chives, ginger, and a dash of soy sauce, but the others’ favorite dish was the crispy carp with a spicy glaze. I personally preferred the carp in ginger and sesame sauce. Deming waited until we were all finished eating before serving the dessert. Thankfully, it wasn't fish, but a wonderful ball of fried dough that turned out to have ice cream inside it.

“What a decadent meal!” I leaned back on my chair and put my hands on my stomach, fearing that I had overeaten. “Carp is delicious.”

“Do you think the clans will be successful in adding the carp to their fish ponds?” asked Kharli.

“I have no idea whatsoever. Fengying told me most of the animals we gave to other farmers to raise are mostly okay…” The pigs and junglefowl were healthy so far, but half of the chickens had died. The [Lizardwings] must be an exception since all of them were thriving in the desert. “The carp we sold are full-grown. They should be quite hardy.”

“Teacher, don’t you think it’s strange that some of your items can be easily grown by others but some frequently die off?” asked Kharli. “The clan members have grown a lot of [Dusk Dandelions], but the potato seeds we sold to them never sprouted.”

That was a bit of an exaggeration. The seeds from the fruits and vegetables we ate were sold on the open market, and Shuye told me that, based on the feedback from the buyers, only one in eighty seeds were viable. However, he also said that many families would probably keep it secret if they did manage to grow spirit crops for their own consumption, in order to avoid the additional taxes.

I shrugged. “Some plants and animals are just more delicate, I guess.”

The staff started clearing the table, and we said our goodnights.

***

I woke up with one thought in my mind. I lifted Mr. Bear and whispered into his ear, “Harvest time.”

Today was the first day of the two-week harvest period, and we were all excited. Everyone woke up before dawn, and by the time I arrived at the tea field, Lari, Kharli, and Mo were already there.

“Good morning, Teacher!” they all said.

The tea plants under the shade of the canopy stood in orderly rows, vibrant green leaves ready for the harvest. They were now waist-high, the branches densely packed with foliage. Hand-plucking the finest quality tea meant taking only the uppermost leaf bud and the next two leaves. The older, mature leaves were not good enough. Some of the highest quality teas even picked only the topmost new buds!

“Let’s harvest right before dawn,” I said to the others.