Monster Hunting High School

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 rest after the practical class, Zheng Qing worked hard for a while yesterday afternoon, so after the labor at noon today, the replacement work for the night patrol on Saturday has been completely completed. it's over.

Compared with the summer and autumn, the big oak tree at the entrance of Baicao Garden has become much duller, the oak 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 originally prepared a handful of peanuts, intending to supplement them with nutrients.

"I'm just so kind-hearted." The wizard thought of the old story of being hit on the head by a squirrel with a nut when he first came to Baicao Garden. 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 present, they all looked familiar, but Zheng Qing couldn't name most of them. They should also be students of Jiuyou College.

However, 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 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 his 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, the old man Stendhal called their names and began to make pre-work announcements: "They 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 earth dragons 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, all of which are enclosed in the glass room. Yes, so don’t scare yourself and destroy my herbs.”

Hearing this slightly teasing warning, the students let out a burst of low laughter.

"Besides, if you find any thorns that smell like sticks on the ridges of the fields, no doubt they are weeds. Just brush them off for me. 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 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 the traces of bees should pay attention to the direction in which they finally disappear. Remember to look through the hives. Although no large-scale deaths were found in previous random inspections, 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 no longer has to worry about damaging flowers and plants during pollination, or scratching his fingers when cleaning scented thorns. He is 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. Inside 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 workers in this colony are gone. That's unusual."

Professor Li's voice was always so light and airy. 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 around the beehive 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 as was the case with this hive, most of the worker bees go out to collect honey and never come back."

"There are no returning hives. There are no burials in cemeteries. There are no traces of mass bee deaths even in 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 high-speed spread, high incidence, and infection Bee colonies infected with this disease lose their sense of direction and end up lost in the wild."

"Very keen." 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 reviewed these diseases, including Mediterranean Acute Colony Paralysis, Assam Bee Virus, and Returning Poplar Nectar Spores, 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 inundation of green worms. etc."

"You only need to record in detail what you investigated. 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