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Chapter 160: Chapter 160: Capturing the Queen Bee
Understanding their language was a situation that these hundreds of wasps had never encountered before. It was unheard of, unseen, and more than just novel; it was alarming.
[Woman, what is your purpose for seeking us out?] As expected of the Wasp Queen, she was smarter than the other wasps, getting to the point straight away.
Tong Yao looked directly at the Wasp Queen, trying to ignore the wasps swarming on her plastic sheet. She responded in a high-pitched voice, "No specific purpose, I just want to cooperate with you. When I need it, you could send out some of your more daring wasps to help scare people."
[Just that?]The Wasp Queen fluttered her wings, asking from her superior position.
Tong Yao nodded emphatically, "Just that. If it’s really necessary, stinging people a bit is not a problem."
After pausing, she opened her eyes wide, "Are you willing to cooperate?"
[Why would we risk our entire hive to cooperate with you humans? We don’t interfere with each other. If humans don’t provoke us, we don’t provoke humans, allowing us to coexist.]
"Because, if you don’t cooperate with me, I will have your hive destroyed. I can always find your new home no matter where you move." Tong Yao ruthlessly threatened the Wasp Queen, "On the other hand, as long as you agree to support me and occasionally help me make a show of force without hurting passers-by, I promise that no one will come looking to destroy your hive. Someone wanted to come and destroy your hive yesterday, but I stopped them, and their stick is still left by the roadside."
[Boss, this human woman is evil. She’s threatening you!]The wasp who stirred up trouble flew madly around Tong Yao, trying to find a hole in the plastic sheet covering her to give Tong Yao a fierce sting as punishment while also gaining some merit.
However, the Wasp Queen didn’t acknowledge it. She seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of cooperating with Tong Yao.
"Don’t think about agreeing to stall for time and then pulling a fast one. If I get stung by a wasp again, I will definitely have a team specially responsible for exterminating you, leaving none behind." Tong Yao added to prevent the Wasp Queen from harboring any ill intentions.
[...You dare...?]The troublemaking wasp, scared, sounded very terrified.
After weighing the pros and cons in her mind, the Wasp Queen made her decision. If she agreed, not only could she maintain her hive without significant harm, but if she refused, she might risk extermination.
They couldn’t resist human methods, for humans, as the top species in the food chain, could devise various means to deal with them.
After much thought, the Wasp Queen decided to cooperate with Tong Yao. She was the Queen and couldn’t let her newborn children suffer the calamity of being homeless.
[I can agree, but you have to provide us with food for a certain period of time as a show of sincerity in cooperation.] She had to gain some advantage, so it wouldn’t seem like she was agreeing out of fear, and she wouldn’t lose her Queen’s prestige.
Food?
Tong Yao was somewhat troubled. She had never raised wasps before, so how would she know what they liked to eat?
"What do you normally eat?"
[Fruits and vegetables.]
"Deal." Tong Yao, in high spirits, quickly agreed to the Wasp Queen’s request. She glanced at the mass of wasps on her body and felt her scalp tingle, "Since we’ve agreed, all of you should hurry back to your hive! If people see me like this, they’ll think I’m a monster."
Luckily, this road wasn’t very busy, or people may really have been scared by the sight.
Upon hearing this, the Wasp Queen immediately ordered the wasps to return, save for the troublemaker who kept circling Tong Yao.
She’d been sweltering under the plastic sheet for so long that she was drenched in sweat and on the verge of fainting from the heat. Thankfully it was still morning; she would have surely suffered heatstroke if it were the afternoon. Finally taking off the plastic sheet, she felt revived. She took a deep breath of fresh air, and as the breeze blew, she sighed in relief.
Glancing at the troublemaking wasp circling her, she said, "You can follow me if you have nothing to do. Keep a distance of about two or three meters and fly a little higher. If I run into trouble, you can come back and report and bring more of your brothers to help me make a show of force. How does that sound?"
[Pft, what’s in it for me if I help you?]The troublemaker wasp disdainfully asked.
Catching the motive in its words, Tong Yao asked with a suppressed smile, "What do you want in return?"
[Bring me the food I like. I like peaches, ripe peaches.]
So it’s a foodie. The smile in Tong Yao’s eyes intensified as she readily agreed. She was more comfortable now that it had made a demand. If this troublemaking wasp had been indifferent, she wouldn’t have trusted it to get the job done.
After settling on that, Tong Yao happily returned to the residential area to return the plastic sheet. She went to the vegetable market specially to buy three pounds of peaches to thank Li Nuanchun. She left one under the wasp hive and took two home with the rest making their way to Li Nuanchun’s house.
Li Nuanchun did not expect Tong Yao to be so courteous, and she couldn’t stop smiling. Despite saying that she shouldn’t have, she eagerly accepted the peaches, "Girl, you’re too polite. You’re even bringing peaches to thank me for lending you a raincloth. I feel embarrassed."
It was good to have dealings with Tong Yao. At the very least, she wasn’t like Chen Yanmei who loved to take advantage of others. Chen would never miss an opportunity grab even the smallest advantage.
She sighed inwardly, thinking how more comfortable it was interacting with Tong Yao compared to Chen Yanmei. Being around Chen always left her irritated.
"Sister-in-law, don’t think too much of it. I happened to be going to the market to buy meat for dumplings. I saw the peaches and thought they looked nice, so I bought some so everyone could try them." Seeing that Chen Yanmei had accepted the peaches, she didn’t dwell on it, "Sister-in-law, you can go about your work. I’m going to make dumplings."
"Alright, alright, you go ahead." Li Nuanchun waved her hand. After seeing Tong Yao leave, she quickly took the peaches back home, fearing that Chen Yanmei and her son would see them.
Baodan, her son, was spoiled and always wanted what others had, quite similar to Chen Yanmei. He was a real glutton.
Back home, Tong Yao cooled off under the fan for a while before starting to make dumplings in the kitchen. Even though she seldom cooked since she’d come to this era, when she did get to work, she didn’t dawdle at all. She put on an apron, picked up a knife and started chopping the filling.
In this era, the vegetable markets didn’t have meat grinders, so everyone bought pork and chopped it up at home. Just by listening to the chopping sound, one could tell which family was making dumplings. Li Meiyu, who was reading a book in the next room, became very upset as she listened to the ’thud thud’ sound.
She didn’t have a job, yet she lived a luxurious life. Every meal included either fish or meat, and now even dumplings. It was almost like celebrating Chinese New Year every day. She could not understand how Si Chen stretched his small paycheck to pay for all of this.
Come to think of it, it had been a month since she last ate dumplings.
