บท 31: Chapter 31: Basketball Hive
By the time Suming and Mr. Peng arrived at Xiongshan, the tourists nearby had already been evacuated, and the animal keeper Li was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. Through the cage bars, he pointed at several trees on Xiongshan and stammered, "There, right there..."
The area of Xiongshan was only a little more than one-third the size of Monkey Mountain. Inside, there were some rockeries, but there was also a small patch of woods with over a dozen trees.
Several beehives, each almost the size of a basketball, hung on the treetops. From a distance, they looked like heavy fruits, with many bees flying in and out of the hives.
Underneath those trees, two larger bears sat on the ground with their legs crossed, their eyes wide open and round, staring intently at the beehives several meters above their heads. A smaller black bear, almost one meter high, was standing upright with its front paws resting on the trunk, making 'woo woo woo' sounds at the hives above, its face full of longing and shiny drool dripping down from the corners of its mouth.
After seeing the beehives clearly, Mr. Peng was quite surprised and asked Li, "Such large beehives? Li, are you sure whether they are honeybees or wasps?"
Wasps are commonly referred to as "yellow jackets," and they are much more poisonous and aggressive than honeybees. A sting from a yellow jacket, if not treated in time, can easily lead to poisoning, and about a dozen yellow jackets could sting a person to death.
Honeybees don't easily sting people because their stingers are connected to their intestines, and the bee dies after stinging. Yellow jackets, on the other hand, can use their stingers repeatedly.
If there were several basketball-sized wasp nests, then it would be a big problem. The zoo probably wouldn't dare to handle it; they would have to call in a professional fire brigade to deal with it.
"It's not wasps, it's honeybees!"
Zookeeper Li's face looked mournful as he said, "I just discovered them the day before yesterday; there was only one beehive about the size of a fist. Since we do have honeybees in the zoo, I didn't pay much attention. But then yesterday, it was unbelievable, several more beehives had appeared out of nowhere, and that's when I realized something was wrong. I prepared tools last night planning to remove them today, but I didn't expect that there would be even more of them this afternoon, and they've grown so large!"
As the administrator of Xiongshan, if the bears were badly stung by the honeybees, or if a person got stung, Li would be held responsible. At the very least, a month's performance bonus would be docked, and if something really serious happened, he might even lose his job.
Like Suming, Li was also a temporary worker. He came from a rural family too, with a younger sister in school, depending on his income to support the family. No wonder he was so anxious.
Mr. Peng and the other animal keepers looked at each other in dismay. It was normal to have some plants and occasionally some honeybees or small beehives in the zoo, but for so many to appear overnight was abnormal.
Xiongshan was not far from the back mountain, which was lush with blooming flowers and a wild environment, rarely trodden by humans. If the honeybees were to settle down, they should have done so in the back mountain. Why would they come running to Xiongshan out of nowhere?
"Su, what do you think?" Mr. Peng asked Suming instinctively.
Suming was also at a loss as to why this was happening. Could these honeybees have come for him?
But then he thought it was unlikely. Although 'Friend of the Animals' could bond with animals, it required him to actively use his spiritual power; it wasn't like honey that could be smelled from far away.
"Never mind the reason for now. Li, you and the others lead those bears away first. Su, come with me to knock down the beehives!"
Mr. Peng put on a headcover, took a long bamboo pole in one hand, which had cotton soaked in gasoline wrapped around one end, and gestured to Suming to carry a large bucket.
Suming felt a wave of frustration thinking, 'Mr. Peng, you're too kind. It was clearly Li's neglect that allowed the beehives to multiply and grow into a menace, and yet you're taking on the most dangerous task of stirring up a hornet's nest and bringing me along with you.'
There was no choice, since he was Mr. Peng's apprentice. If his master was going, he had no choice but to stiffen his resolve, carry the bucket, and follow.
"An animal friend should be effective against bees, right? I just don't know how many bees it can control at once!"
Suming looked at the several large beehives and didn't feel very confident. Inside those large hives, there could be thousands of bees. If something went wrong and they all swarmed out to attack him...
Just thinking about that scenario made his scalp tingle, his skin breaking out in goosebumps. He instinctively wrapped his head and face tightly, leaving only his eyes exposed, with swimming goggles hanging around his neck, ready to protect his eyes whenever necessary.
Under Xiongshan, there was a keeper's entrance. After opening the iron gate and walking down the pitch-dark corridor for seven or eight meters, he arrived in a dim room.
The room was divided into two sections, one side was where the black bears rested, and the other was where the keepers dispensed food. There was a device on the wall to control the iron gates. When it was time to clean Xiongshan, they would lure the black bears back to their resting place with food. Then, an operator on the other side would close the door to the black bears' rest area with a switch, allowing entry into Xiongshan.
Currently, all three members of the black bear family were lingering under the trees, and the resting area was empty. Various half-eaten fruits and meats were carelessly scattered around, emitting an unpleasant odor.
"Ding ding ding... ding ding ding..." Keeper Li, holding a big slab of raw pork in one hand and a small iron rod in the other, struck the iron cage to make noise, trying to attract the nearby black bear family.
Usually, as soon as they heard this sound, the black bear family would know there was food and immediately run over.
But at this moment, the three bears only glanced over listlessly and then turned back, greedily salivating at the beehives in the trees, not even moving their buttocks.
The small black bear, Hei, didn't even glance over here, a bright shiny line of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth, nearly reaching the ground.
Clearly, the allure of honey was far greater for them than the fatty and greasy, not very fresh pork.
Li was so anxious that he began to sweat, hitting the iron bars harder with the small rod, creating a noise so loud it hurt people's ears.
But to no avail, not only did the black bear family not come over, one of the larger black bears even bared its teeth towards them with a 'huff huff huff' growl.
A black bear's 'huff huff huff' is not a sign of sleepiness but an expression of anger. Clearly, Hei was very dissatisfied with those who were disturbing their dreams of delicious honey.
"Su, have you got any ideas?" Mr. Peng suddenly asked Suming. Suming fed the animals every day with him, and Mr. Peng had clearly felt that all the animals were very close to him. Combined with Suming's previous heroic act of saving the little girl, Mr. Peng had an inexplicable trust in Suming.
Not far away, due to Hei's constant shaking of the tree, one of the beehives finally wobbled slightly.
A drop of honey slipped out from the beehive and landed right into Hei's gaping mouth.
"Wu wu wu..."
Hei let out a series of contented cries, and Suming felt a wave of happiness through his spiritual power.
"Damn, this is bad!"
But Suming didn't feel any pleasure, instead, he yelled out loud, quickly shrinking his neck and putting on the swimming goggles, enveloping his entire body in a military coat, wrapping himself up tight!
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