At noon on Friday, after lunch after the alchemy class, there were still five minutes before twelve o'clock. Zheng Qing came to the gate of Baicao Garden early to prepare for his last volunteer work this week.
The night patrol at Linzhong Lake lasts for a total of five hours, evenly distributed over three days, almost an hour and a half each day.
Forty minutes at noon and forty minutes in the afternoon.
Originally, there were still more than forty minutes of labor content this afternoon, but in order to avoid the need to recuperate after the practical class, Zheng Qing worked hard for a while yesterday afternoon, so after this labor at noon today, the replacement work for the night patrol on Saturday has been completely completed.
it's over.
Compared with summer and autumn, the big oak tree at the entrance of Baicao Garden has become much more gloomy, its leaves have dimmed, and the two-tailed squirrels running among the branches have disappeared.
Zheng Qing raised his neck and searched for a long time, but never saw those lively little guys. He had originally prepared a handful of peanuts, intending to supplement their nutrition.
"I'm just so kind-hearted." The wizard thought of the old time when he was hit on the head by a squirrel with a nut when he came to Baicao Garden for the first time. He couldn't help feeling good about himself and sighed: "This is the legendary repaying evil with kindness..."
Just after twelve o'clock, the "temporary school workers" who came to work began to arrive one after another.
The leader was naturally the old school worker Si Tangda, the person in charge of Baicao Garden. To Zheng Qing's expectation, Mr. Li Qihuang, the professor of potions, also appeared at the gate of the garden. As for the other people at the scene, they all looked familiar.
But most of Zheng Qing's names couldn't be named. He should also be a student of Jiuyou College.
On the other hand, those students clearly recognized Zheng Qing's identity, whispering to each other, nodding to Zheng Qing from time to time, showing curious eyes and kind smiles, as if they were silently encouraging him.
Zheng Qing would rather they pat him on the shoulder and greet him carelessly.
He braved this somewhat embarrassing atmosphere, put on dragon skin overalls and deerskin gloves, and slowly moved to Professor Li and Old Man Stendhal, waiting for instructions.
"Everyone should be aware of today's work."
After everyone gathered, Elder Stendhal called their names and began to make pre-work announcements: "I have all taken pharmacy classes and entered the Herb Garden. I won't go into details about the precautions."
"Two tasks."
"First, artificial pollination, help pollinate some herbs in the garden. Because there have been more bees missing recently, many herbs are almost past their flowering period; second, track the bees in the garden to see how long they disappear.
Where is it?"
"Students in charge of artificial pollination, please be careful not to be frightened by the passing earthworms or running rabbits. There are no wild monsters in the garden. They are all herbs. The most dangerous ones are just a few big-mouthed grunts, and they are all enclosed in the glass house.
Yes, so don’t scare yourself and trample on my herbs."
Hearing this slightly ironic warning, the students burst into low laughter.
"Besides, if you find thorns that smell like sticks on the ridges of the fields, no doubt they are weeds. Just brush them off for me and you won't be wrong."
The first time Zheng Qing entered the Baicao Garden was to clean up the smelly thorns. He didn't expect that he would still be doing this kind of thing after so long. Sure enough, there is nothing new under the sun, and the Baicao Garden is probably filled with this kind of repetitive work on weekdays.
Old man Stendhal continued to give instructions:
"Students who are responsible for tracking bees should pay attention to the direction in which they finally disappear. Remember to check the hives as well. Although no large-scale deaths were found in previous spot checks, this possibility cannot be completely ruled out."
"There are ten bee colonies in total, belonging to different categories. Each of you only needs to be responsible for the investigation of one bee colony. The specific content will be arranged by Professor Li later... Do you have any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads in unison.
The old man looked back at Professor Li.
Professor Li nodded, opened the noteboard in his hand, and began to assign tasks by naming names.
Fortunately, this time Zheng Qing did not need to worry about damaging flowers and plants during pollination, or scratching his fingers when cleaning scented thorns. He was assigned by his professor the task of investigating the disappearance of bees.
"I need to let you know the situation in detail before assigning tasks."
Professor Li took everyone to a bee colony and opened a beehive. In the hive, the milky white bee eggs, the fat queen bee, and the wriggling young bees were all staying peacefully in their own nests.
However, Zheng Qing keenly discovered that in such a large bee colony, there are only a few worker bees working hard to collect honey. According to their abilities, they are completely unable to meet the needs of the entire bee colony.
"As you can see, most of the worker bees in this colony have disappeared. This is very abnormal."
Professor Li's voice was always so light and airy, and Zheng Qing tried hard to analyze every word he said: "Under normal circumstances, worker bees are born here, grow up here, and die here. They are born and grow in the beehive, and they are around the beehive."
They collect honey from the flowers and sleep in the cemetery behind the hive - the dead worker bees will be carried to the bee cemetery by their companions."
"But like in the case of this beehive, most of the worker bees go out to collect honey and never come back."
"There are no returning beehives. There are no burials in the cemetery. There are no traces of mass bee deaths even in the nearby flower fields."
"This is abnormal." Professor Li sighed softly and shook his head.
"Could it be some extinct disease?" A tall and thin boy adjusted his glasses and asked: "For example, Mediterranean swarm acute paralysis, this disease has rapid spread, high incidence, and infection
Bee colonies infected with this disease will lose their sense of direction and eventually become lost in the wild."
"Very sensitive." Professor Li nodded appreciatively, but then denied: "The health of the bee colony is monitored in real time by multiple magic talisman arrays. If there are sick bees, they will be detected immediately. Because large-scale epidemics may
The risk is extremely low. We have repeatedly sorted out these diseases, including Mediterranean Acute Colony Paralysis, Assam Bee Virus, and Poplar Nectar Spores in the early stages, and have not found any similar cases."
"So these bees were eaten by monsters?" A little fat man poked the squirming larvae in the beehive with a smile.
"This means you didn't listen carefully just now." Professor Li glanced at him and said slowly: "Uncle Stendhal just mentioned before that there is nothing more dangerous in the garden than a big-mouthed grunt... You know this
You can rest assured.”
The little fat man grinned, put his hands behind his back, and honestly stopped saying anything.
Professor Li turned his attention to other students:
"In fact, based on the information we have now, the disappearance of these bees is very likely to be one of a series of cases of ecological imbalance in Phuket Island...including the early return of the silent tide at the end of last year, the rat plague, and this year's insect plague and the proliferation of green worms.
etc."
"You only need to record the contents of your investigation in detail, and other matters will be handled by more professional people."
"Before tracking the swarm, I need to emphasize discipline to you again: first, listen to the teacher's instructions; second, don't move; third, listen to the teacher's instructions and don't move!"
"start to act!"
Three heads
This chapter has been completed!