She's skilled in medicine, martial arts, and even understands animal language—the abandoned dau

Back home, Shen Man was still a little scared.

"Mother, thankfully it was Steward Liu who was in the wrong this time. If we had sold the honey to the Kong family for no reason, who knows what the Zhu family would have done to us!"

Lanxiang nodded, "Yes, but after this incident, we need to be more careful when dealing with the Kong family in the future."

Shen Man agreed, "Yes, after all, we're just an ordinary farming family; we can't afford to offend those powerful families. However, the fact that Steward Liu actually knelt before Master Kong for that honey shows that our honey is quite important to the Zhu family..."

Lanxiang thought for a moment and spoke again: "Last year during the Spring Festival, Steward Liu came to deliver New Year's gifts to us. Didn't he say that Master Zhu gave the honey to the Prefect, and the Prefect later sent it to the Emperor? Could it be that the Emperor also likes our honey and asked the Prefect for some?"

“That’s possible!” Shen Man nodded in agreement.

"What if someone finds out that the honey came from our home? Wouldn't our bees be in danger?"

Shen Man and Lan Xiang exchanged a glance, both seeing worry in each other's eyes.

"How about we hide the bees in our house?" Lanxiang suggested.

Shen Man shook her head. "No, if we get found out, the consequences will be even more serious."

"What can we do? We can't just sit here and wait to die," Lanxiang said anxiously.

Shen Man pondered for a moment, "Why don't we go find Master Zhu, explain the situation to him, and ask him for help? After all, he was the one who took those honey to give to the prefect, so he should have a way to deal with it."

Lanxiang thought it was a good idea. "Okay, then let's go find Master Zhu tomorrow."

The next day, Shen Man and Lan Xiang arrived at the Zhu residence and explained their purpose to Master Zhu.

After hearing this, Master Zhu said he would find a way to protect the family and promised that if anyone investigated the source of the honey, he would step forward to explain.

Shen Man and Lan Xiang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, three days later, when they returned to the jujube orchard, the sight before them astonished them.

The once neat and orderly jujube orchard is now a mess, with footprints and disorderly marks everywhere on the ground.

Many jujube saplings were mercilessly trampled to the ground, their tender green leaves and fragile branches scattered on the ground as if they had suffered a huge disaster.

What's even more heartbreaking is that the honey boxes that were once placed on the ground have all disappeared without a trace.

The mother and daughter searched everywhere, but could not find any trace of them.

"What are we going to do? How will we live without the bees?" Lanxiang said anxiously.

Shen Man frowned, feeling very worried.

Just then, they heard a familiar buzzing sound.

The two looked in the direction of the sound and saw a bee fly over and land on Shen Man's hand.

"Little bee, tell me quickly, where have the queen bee and your friends gone?"

"Buzz buzz buzz! Someone has moved our home away! The queen bee and her friends saw that things were not good, so they all escaped from the hive!"

"Ah, where are they now?" Shen Man was overjoyed to hear this. Fortunately, the bees were clever; those people only stole the beehives and failed to steal the bees themselves.

"It's in the valley over there on the other side of the mountain, where many flowers bloom. The queen bee said it wasn't safe here, so we'll settle down there from now on."

Shen Man nodded, "I understand, thank you for telling me this news."

"Our queen bee said that if you need honey in the future, you can go there to get it."

"Okay, I understand. Please thank your queen bee for me." After Shen Man finished speaking, the little bee buzzed and flew away.

"Man'er, what did the little bee say to you?"

"It said that when they saw the situation was bad, they all escaped from the hives and have now settled in the valley on the other side of the mountain. If we need honey, we can go and get it."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Upon hearing this, Lanxiang's worried expression vanished.

“Mother, I don’t know who told those thieves the location of our beehives. When we get back, we have to put on a show so that everyone knows our bees have been stolen.”

"Okay!" Lanxiang nodded in agreement.

Half an hour later, the mother and daughter returned to the village, distraught, and sat under the big camphor tree at the entrance, wailing loudly.

Curious, passing villagers immediately approached and asked, "Lanxiang, Man'er, what's wrong? Why are you crying so sadly?"

"Auntie, all of our dozen or so beehives that we kept in the jujube orchard have been stolen, waaaaah..." Shen Man cried, tears streaming down her face, as she spoke to the woman.

"What? People dare to steal bees? Aren't they afraid of getting stung?"

"Are you stupid? Didn't they cover their faces completely when they stole them? Oh dear, your family is losing a lot of money without these bees!" another woman said.

"Yes, Auntie, our family relied on these bees to collect honey to make a living, but now, we have nothing left!"

"Sigh, stop crying. It's already lost, what can you do? Even if you report it to the authorities, no one will care. You can only accept your bad luck."

Thanks to the energetic performance of Lanxiang and her daughter Shenman, the news of their bees being stolen spread throughout Xiaoyao Village in less than an hour.

Meanwhile, ten miles away from Xiaoyao Village, on a village owned by the Zhu family, a group of people were discussing something around a dozen beehives.

The person in charge was none other than Liu Sheng, the former manager of the Zhu family business, who had been demoted to work on the estate three days prior.

He was a shrewd man, and as soon as he arrived, he slipped fifty taels of silver to the estate manager, securing him the title of deputy estate manager.

"Deputy Manager Liu, we stole all the beehives according to your instructions. Our brothers suffered countless stings while trying to get these bees, so you can't skimp on the reward you promised!"

"Don't worry, when have I ever broken my promise? Hmm, why is this beehive so quiet..."

Liu Sheng reached out and knocked on one of the beehives, only to find that no bees had flown out for a long time.

"The bees were all inside the boxes when they were being loaded onto the truck. They must be too scared to come out... Deputy Head Liu, give the payment to the brothers first!"

"What's the rush? You'll get your share!"

Liu Sheng sensed something was wrong, so he reached out and opened the lid of one of the beehives. He found that there wasn't a single bee in the honeycomb inside, except for a small amount of honey.

"Look what you've done! You stole empty beehives from me, not a single bee!"

The men were dumbfounded. There were bees when they were stealing them, so how come they all disappeared here?

"I told you to steal the bees, not the empty beehives!"

"Liu, the deputy head of the village, you're not trying to renege on your debt to the brothers, are you?"