Harvesting Wild Honey ( 2 )

As Chen Jianmin waited for the smoke to thicken, he wrapped himself tightly to avoid bee stings and readied the knife Lu Jueyu had given him. Though its shape was unusual, the knife was ideal for cutting through honeycombs.

After a while, the smoke grew thicker, and Chen Jianmin inserted the bamboo tube into a small hole below the tree trunk. As smoke filled the trunk, groups of honey bees began to fly out.

Seeing this, Chen Jianmin smiled and climbed up the tree. When he noticed that the number of bees inside had lessened, he reached inside and started cutting the honeycomb. He held the honeycomb carefully and placed it in the buckets he had brought.

He had brought four buckets this time, three of which he borrowed from Li Jingxu. It took about twenty minutes to harvest half of the honeycomb inside the tree trunk, filling three buckets. Looking at the remaining honeycomb inside, he decided to leave it alone.