31: wild honey

In the distance, a flash of white light suddenly streaked across the sky, followed by a deafening roar.

"Huh? Is that thunder?"

Lu Chuan straightened his back in surprise, looking up at the sky.

But he only saw blue skies, white clouds, and a bright sun; there was no sign of the imagined dark, ominous clouds.

"A dry thunderstorm? The weather doesn't look like it's going to rain, though?"

Lu Chuan, who had lived for over a decade, had never seen such a sight.

He shook his head, no longer concerned about the matter.

He had been wandering for a long time, but had only found improved ingredients for lemon tea, mung bean paste, and double-skin milk; the ice cream ingredients were still nowhere to be found.

Lu Chuan sighed, but when he looked down at his new haul in his basket, a smile was hard to suppress.

He had originally come out this time to see if he could find some wild honey.

So he had specially brought some homemade equipment.

And he really did have an unexpected harvest.

Forty minutes ago, while passing a patch of wildflowers, he was drawn to a bee perched on a flower.

Leaning in to examine it, he was surprised to find that this bee was small and delicate, with a dark back, yellowish-brown stripes on its abdomen, and clusters of black fuzz at the end of its abdomen.

Combining the recipes and culinary knowledge he had acquired, Lu Chuan thought for a moment and realized that this type of bee was extremely similar to the Chinese bee, which produces high-quality honey.

The only difference between the two was that this unfamiliar bee had tiny speckles on its wings, making it very beautiful when it flew.

Furthermore, it carried a faint, refreshing scent of tea, which was particularly pleasant.

Lu Chuan felt that this bee was probably not a Chinese bee, but it also didn't quite match other bee species he knew.

"Could it be another new species?"

He couldn't help but look at the clusters of mushrooms in his basket, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Standing still and waiting patiently for a while, Lu Chuan finally saw the bee collect enough nectar.

The greedy bee fluttered its wings unsteadily and flew up, then circled Lu Chuan once before flying off in a certain direction.

"Follow it!"

Lu Chuan quickly took off after it.

But the mountain path was difficult, and he almost lost track of it several times.

Fortunately, he was already approaching the hive, and occasionally saw its companions also returning to the hive.

After losing track of three bees, Lu Chuan finally followed the fourth bee and found the hemispherical, dark yellow beehive hanging from a crooked-necked tree.

Outside the hive, bees were constantly flying in and out, guarding it.

He twitched his nose, faintly catching a fresh tea scent.

His body, which had been somewhat fatigued, slowly began to recover.

Lu Chuan's enhanced sense of smell, upon catching this scent, immediately conjured an image of golden, bright amber honey in his mind.

And as the image appeared, he couldn't help but imagine the sweet, slightly tart, delicate, and rich taste of the honey, and he involuntarily swallowed.

Lu Chuan remembered that when he was a child, his father would occasionally bring back some honey from beekeepers after work for him to eat as a snack.

He was so happy eating it back then, sometimes he couldn't bear to finish it all at once, so he would put it in a honey pot and just dip a tiny bit with his finger to taste each time.

And this became one of his fond childhood memories.

If domesticated honey was so delicious, what kind of flavor would this wild, naturally grown honey have?

Lu Chuan's appetite was whetted just thinking about it.

He immediately squatted down and took out his beekeeping suit, gloves, mask, honey knife, bee brush, honey bucket, smoker, and other equipment from the basket on his back.

Then, with practiced ease, he put on the protective suit and gloves, and then the mask.

Next, he took some dried mugwort and dried cow dung, mixed them, lit them, and put them into the smoker.

Because this set of equipment was homemade, the entire process took less than five minutes.

Lu Chuan grinned, holding the crude smoker, and approached the beehive step by step.

As if sensing danger approaching, the previously lazy swarm of bees suddenly became agitated.

Then strong bees rushed out of the hive, ready to attack Lu Chuan.

But under the effect of the smoky smoker, all the bees suddenly swayed as if drunk, and their aggressiveness greatly diminished.

Seeing this, Lu Chuan placed the smoker, which was still emitting smoke, below the beehive.

He then observed the hemispherical hive, and once he had a plan, he began his work.

He had no intention of depleting the resource; rather than killing them all, he preferred sustainable development.

Therefore, he adopted a layered cutting method, only taking the honey frames while preserving the brood frames and pollen frames.

The Z-shaped honey knife was as easy to use in his hand as a kitchen knife.

With almost surgical precision in cutting, he maximized the preservation of the central brood area and the upper pollen storage area, greatly maintaining the reproductive capacity of the bee colony.

Perhaps this honey harvest would lead to a reduction in the number of individual bees in the colony, but the flowering season was still long.

Perhaps before long, this bee colony would grow strong again.

Lu Chuan was not a bleeding heart; his careful efforts were naturally for the sake of future harvests.

After harvesting the honey, Lu Chuan quickly moved away from the area with the honey bucket.

It wasn't until he was a safe distance away that he had the leisure to check the contents of the bucket.

Opening the honey bucket, he saw that some of the amber honey, encased in beeswax, had already seeped out, thick and paste-like.

Perhaps due to the mixture of some pollen, the overall color was bright but slightly cloudy.

But the fresh tea scent that wafted out immediately caught Lu Chuan's attention.

Although he called it a tea scent, a closer sniff revealed it to be a complex mixture of various fresh flowers and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

It was only because it slightly resembled the tea scent he usually drank that Lu Chuan instinctively mistook it for tea.

Gulp.

Lu Chuan couldn't resist. After washing his hands clean, he used his index finger to scoop a little and put it in his mouth for a taste.

As the thick honey entered his mouth, a slightly bitter taste immediately assaulted his taste buds.

Then came a sweet and rich aftertaste, followed by a surge of fruity acidity, mixing with the ultimately explosive sweetness, pushing the overall flavor to another climax.

Lu Chuan's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but dip each of his remaining fingers into some honey and savor it in his mouth.

"This honey is absolutely amazing!"

Lu Chuan resisted the temptation to taste more, carefully resealed the honey bucket, and then resumed his search for new ingredients.

"This honey can be used in the improved recipes for mung bean paste and double-skin milk. Combined with my current culinary skills, I'm sure I can create top-tier delicacies that will make people want to taste them again and again."

"All that's left is the key ingredient needed for the final improved ice cream recipe!"

A delicious ice cream not only needs to taste superb, but its appearance must also be unforgettable.

Here, appearance refers not only to shape but also to its color.

Shape is easy to solve.

The recipes Lu Chuan acquired included various unique design styles.

But color is difficult. All common and uncommon colors have been tried by others.

To innovate in this area, one must make a breakthrough.

For example, a colorful black?