The core area, where the fire raged most fiercely, had already been consumed by bright flames. The wooden framing crackled and popped, and charred beams crashed down from time to time, kicking up showers of sparks.
Fortunately, most of the honey jars stored around the perimeter were unharmed. The thick clay pots had shielded their contents from the open flames, keeping them intact.
Amid the chaos, several young villagers carried out over a dozen heavy, sealed clay jars one after another.
A thin layer of black soot coated the outside of the jars, but the containers themselves were undamaged.
However, the last few jars to be brought out had either been bumped against something or struck by a falling beam inside; they had cracked open, showing various fractures of different sizes.
A thick, golden-brown liquid seeped from the cracks, dripping onto the dry dirt ground.
Unlike ordinary honey, this liquid had a sticky, viscous texture that was almost solid. A dense, cloyingly sweet aroma quickly spread through the air, so overpowering that it made one feel slightly lightheaded.
“Hurry! Find something to catch it! This raw honey has been aging for so long—it would be a tragedy to waste even a single drop!”
Someone shouted urgently, and several villagers scrambled over. In a frantic rush, they grabbed containers meant for hauling firefighting water to catch the leaking raw honey, terrified of letting the precious syrup go to waste.
The crowd was a chaotic, bustling mess. With some fighting the fire and others salvaging the raw honey, absolutely no one paid attention to their surroundings.
Seizing this fleeting window of opportunity, Bai Ci stepped forward under the pretense of helping.
Her fingertips brushed against the raw honey flowing on the ground, seemingly by accident. With just that single touch, the thick, sticky liquid adhered to her finger pads.
On her next trip back to the well to fetch water, Bai Ci slipped her hand into her sleeve and retrieved Grow with Time.
If the god here was actually an alien lifeform whose true body resembled vines, could this liquid they called "raw honey" really be honey?
Furthermore, considering Sang Lan's attitude of staying as far away from the apiary as possible, trying to explain it away as an alien simply hating honey felt a bit far-fetched and absurd.
Therefore, Bai Ci wanted to test the composition of this substance.
And the only item in her possession that had anything to do with testing was Grow with Time, which functioned as a toxin detector.
As her fingertips came into contact with the envelope-style item, a bottle of clear, transparent neutralizing agent materialized in her palm a moment later.
No words were needed; the result was crystal clear.
The raw honey was toxic.
Even if it wasn't strictly a poison, it would still inflict some kind of negative status effect.
This was clearly no ordinary honey—in fact, it might not even be honey at all.
At that moment, Bai Ci suddenly recalled a story Shen Jiayi had told. When she was young, she had sneaked a taste of the raw honey from the apiary. Afterward, she had felt extremely dizzy and staggered around as if drunk, which was how she got caught.
Looking at it now, those were clearly the symptoms of dizziness and paralysis caused by poisoning.
Remaining calm, Bai Ci bent down under the pretense of tying her shoelaces and wiped the last trace of raw honey from her fingertips onto the ground, cleaning it off completely.
Aside from a certain someone with a highly sensitive nose and another who believed himself to be Sang Lan, no one should have noticed.
Sure enough, the moment Bai Ci handed the bucket to Sang Lan to draw water, his brow furrowed.
“Ci-mei'er, you... sigh...” Sang Lan wore a conflicted, aggrieved expression, ultimately shifting the blame onto the villagers.
“What is wrong with these people? They can't even store things properly.”
“Ci-mei'er, I'm about to suffocate from this smell...” Sang Lan clenched his fists. “If I find out who started this fire, I'm going to punch them. This is pure torture...”
“Why do you treat their raw honey like it's some kind of terrifying monster?” Bai Ci teased with a smile.
Sang Lan shook his head. “That's different.”
“I'd rather face an actual monster. At least then Ci-mei'er would remember my cool, heroic fighting stance. This... is just depressing.”
“Brother Sang, stop acting spoiled with Sister Bai and come help!” Wang Dong, who was dutifully drawing water, called out for assistance.
Sang Lan called back in acknowledgment and picked up an empty wooden bucket from the ground. “Gotta go, gotta go. Anyway, Ci-mei'er, remember to stay far away from it. Don't touch it, or you'll get the smell all over you.”
After nearly an hour of hard work, the remaining open flames were finally completely extinguished. The billowing black smoke gradually thinned, leaving only heat and a lingering scorched smell hanging in the air.
All the salvaged raw honey jars were neatly arranged in an open space, and the leaked syrup had been successfully collected. The losses did not seem too devastating.
At least everyone was safe.
However, the villagers of Tianmi Village did not see it that way.
The apiary was in a remote location, with no weeds or dry branches piled around it. Inside, only sealed honey jars were kept year-round, meaning there was nothing that could serve as kindling.
More importantly, the village had strict rules. Villagers never approached the apiary without reason, let alone carried any fire source inside.
This massive fire had broken out without any warning—it was bizarre and sudden.
Once the fire was out and the smoke cleared, the gathered villagers finally had a moment of rest.
And when people have nothing to do, they begin to gossip about what had caused the fire in the apiary.
“In all these years, the apiary has never caught fire. There's no way it was done by one of our own. If you ask me, this trouble most likely came from the outsiders,” someone speculated maliciously.
A villager with a high-pitched, squeaky voice chimed in with absolute certainty.
“I know! Yesterday, I saw that outsider—you know, that flashy, coquettish woman—loitering around the apiary. She was acting all sneaky. Who else could it be but her?”
The voice was loud, shrill, and piercing. Nearly everyone present heard it loud and clear.
At the description of a “coquettish woman,” most of the villagers immediately directed their gazes toward the fashionably dressed Qu Ling.
A few villagers who were clueless about the situation instinctively looked at Sang Lan first.
A “coquettish woman”—that also fit him, in a way.
“What are you looking at? Never seen a handsome man before? I have a wife—I'm all man.” Sang Lan threw an arm around Bai Ci and glared back at the people staring at him.
With that, nearly every eye focused squarely on Qu Ling.
Faced with the groundless accusation, Qu Ling didn't look panicked at all. Instead, she let out a laugh—a mocking, slightly angry chuckle.
Stepping forward, she spoke with a frank, sharp, and powerful tone that commanded attention.
“I indeed took a walk around the village yesterday and passed through this area. I won't deny that.”
“But I was just passing by. I never took a single step close to the apiary. Which eye of yours saw me acting sneaky?”
“Whichever eye it was, you might as well gouge it out. It's useless to you anyway.”
“From yesterday afternoon until noon today, our entire team has been busy preparing at the church. I've been working alongside everyone the whole time.”
“It's been a full day since yesterday morning. What, did I walk past yesterday and set a fire that only decided to start burning today?”
“What kind of nonsense are you spewing?”
Rate on N.U.
