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CHAPTER 12: Scent
Chu Li froze.
Jin Lan froze too.
The whole scene fell into stunned silence. Little Lian, seemingly oblivious to everyone's reaction, only raised his voice further, pleading earnestly with Chu Li. "She must be jealous that you're so pretty, Sister, and wants to make you as ugly as her, that's why she's trying so hard to make you angry... but I don't want you to become ugly, Sister."
Only then did Chu Li finally understand what he'd meant, and she couldn't help but soothe him, torn between laughing and sighing. "All right, all right, I'm not angry. I won't waste my energy on someone like her. But you need to let go of me first, or how am I supposed to clear my name in front of the three elders?"
"Are you really not angry anymore, Sister?" Little Lian leaned against her arm, still reluctant to let go.
Chu Li had no idea what to do with him. "With you pleading so earnestly like that, how could I possibly stay angry?"
"Then you'd better keep your word, Sister." Only then did he finally, reluctantly release his hold, standing there and letting Chu Li ruffle his hair.
"You little brat, who exactly are you calling ugly?" Jin Lan's eyes practically bulged out of her head with fury, and she raised her jade flute toward him.
But Elder Wen lifted a finger, sealing the flute in Jin Lan's grip with a thread of spiritual energy before she could act.
"Resorting to violence over a disagreement, is that really becoming of you?" Elder Wen's tone stayed level. "The three of us will decide what actually happened here." She turned her gaze to Chu Li. "Xiao Li, I have a few questions, and I hope you'll answer them honestly."
Chu Li answered without hesitation or defensiveness. "Please, ask whatever you need to."
Elder Wen exchanged a glance with the elders on either side of her, then laid out a series of questions.
"Did you set foot in the rear mountains today?"
"Did you come into contact with a beehive?"
"Were you attacked by a spirit bee?"
To each of these questions, Chu Li answered honestly in the affirmative.
But knowing this wasn't the full picture, she quickly clarified, "Elder Wen, this disciple went to the rear mountains today only to collect an abandoned wild hive for making candles. During that time, I was accidentally stung on the shoulder by a spirit bee lying in wait inside it. I never harmed that bee, and I have absolutely nothing to do with whatever happened to the rest of the colony. I ask that you look into this carefully."
"I already have a general understanding of what you've described." Elder Wen turned to her left. "Elder Lu, you've tended this sect's spirit bees for years now. No one understands their nature better than you. Do you have any further questions for Xiao Li?"
Elder Lu nodded silently, then slowly opened his palm toward Chu Li, revealing an enormous spirit bee, easily three inches long, its trembling, thin wings missing a chunk at the edge, clearly injured.
"Chu Li, is this the bee that stung you?"
Chu Li frowned, searching her memory carefully. "The bee that stung me was flying unsteadily, off balance, as if injured. It also seemed larger than an ordinary spirit bee."
Elder Yu, meanwhile, carefully examined the sting on Chu Li's left shoulder. "There's no sign the stinger was ever manually removed from the wound, which means it wasn't left behind in the flesh. The bee retracted it on its own."
Seeing Chu Li's confusion, Elder Lu explained, "Within a colony, only the queen ever grows to that size, and only the queen can retract her stinger after striking and continue living afterward."
Chu Li was startled. "Didn't you say the whole colony was wiped out? Does that mean the queen survived?"
Elder Lu's gaze turned cold. "The entire colony died in spirit flame while trying to protect their queen. She's the sole survivor. Spirit bees may not welcome contact from outsiders, but they don't attack cultivators without provocation. The reason she stung you is that she felt threatened, with no colony left to protect her, forced to defend herself alone."
Chu Li finally understood why she'd been able to find a hive that looked so freshly abandoned, why a massive spirit bee had suddenly burst out of it, and why traces of fresh honey had still remained inside...
That hive had been a deliberate trap, planted by whoever the true culprit was.
More and more questions surfaced in her mind. "This disciple doesn't understand. If the colony died from spirit flame, how could the hive I found have remained completely intact?"
"Likely because the culprit needed to preserve the hive itself, and so didn't dare damage it. Based on the evidence so far, the culprit sealed the hive's entrance with spirit flame while the colony was out foraging, and the returning bees, desperate to save their queen trapped inside, threw themselves against the flames to reach her."
Elder Lu's expression darkened further as he continued. "I've already recovered the colony's remains in the rear mountains, confirming they did die from spirit flame. This method requires very little cultivation skill from the culprit. Even a Qi refining disciple could have managed it."
Under the icy weight of Elder Lu's gaze, Chu Li felt increasingly certain the situation was turning against her.
Jin Lan had already begun gloating. "Junior Sister Chu, have you run out of things to say for yourself?"
"I did go to the rear mountains, and I did collect the hive, and I was indeed stung by a spirit bee, but none of that makes me the culprit." Chu Li kept her tone steady as she addressed Elder Lu, then turned a cold look on Jin Lan. "Senior Sister Jin, you claim you can testify to all this, but are you willing to give false testimony against something I never did?"
"Junior Sister Chu, have you forgotten something?" Jin Lan smirked. "Everyone in this sect knows spirit bees never forget a grudge. If they've been harmed, they won't simply let it go. Since all three elders are already here, why not release the queen and let her identify the culprit herself?"
"Senior Sister Jin, don't push this too far!" Chu Li knew immediately this was a trap. The queen, having already mistakenly attacked her once out of pure self-defense, would very likely hold some lingering hostility toward her regardless of the truth.
And Jin Lan, Chu Li suspected, almost certainly had some connection to what had actually happened here. The only reason she'd dare make such bold accusations in front of everyone was probably that she hadn't personally set the fire herself, giving her confidence she'd come out clean in front of the queen.
"Chu Li, you claim you're innocent, yet you have no solid proof to offer." Elder Lu regarded her gravely. "Jin Lan isn't wrong. Spirit bees rely on scent to distinguish friend from foe, strong from weak. If the queen identifies you as the culprit on the spot, no amount of protest on your part will change anything."
Chu Li argued her case firmly. "But if the queen sees me only as an enemy because I happened to take the hive, wouldn't the method Senior Sister Jin's proposing be fundamentally unfair to me?"
"You underestimate the queen. All living things carry some measure of spirit and awareness, spirit bees especially so. Even though she lashed out at you in a moment of panic, she's already been calmed under my care since then." Elder Lu spoke with unwavering conviction. "If you merely stumbled onto the scene by accident, the queen won't continue to hold it against you, and we won't trouble you any further either."
Chu Li felt thoroughly miserable.
If only she understood the bees' language of scent, she'd have gladly cleared the whole matter up with the queen herself right then and there.
She truly did not want to be blamed for wiping out an entire colony!
Just as her head was beginning to throb from the whole ordeal, a slender hand reached through the fabric of her sleeve, fumbling to take hold of her own.
"Sister," Little Lian said, lifting her hand and staring at it, his gaze freezing for an instant before tears suddenly began streaming down his face. He pressed his cheek against her sleeve, breaking into sobs. "How dare they treat you like this, Sister. I won't let them bully you..."
Chu Li had absolutely no defense against his tears. She pulled him into her arms, patting his thin back over and over. "Do you trust me?"
Little Lian leaned into her shoulder, nodding fiercely, though his crying only intensified. "But I'm so scared. If they refuse to listen to reason and take you away, Sister, what am I supposed to do?"
He seemed entirely unconcerned with what anyone else might think, tears falling in a steady, unbroken stream, quickly soaking a dark patch into the fabric at her shoulder.
Torn between pitying herself and pitying him, Chu Li let him work through his emotions, and only after a good while, once an entire stick of incense might have burned down, did she finally manage a composed enough voice to reassure him. "I'll be fine. Just wait here for me."
It took considerable effort to convince Little Lian to release her sleeve, and she watched him quietly retreat several paces.
At the same time, following Elder Lu's instructions, Jin Lan positioned herself twenty feet away from Chu Li, her gaze sweeping arrogantly over Chu Li's face, brimming with smug confidence.
Chu Li braced herself as if facing down a formidable enemy, her hands clenching tightly inside her sleeves.
"The Bliss Sect's spiritual flowers flourish more richly than anywhere else in the cultivation world, and much of that is owed to the contributions of our sect's spirit bees. Though this particular wild colony wasn't one we personally kept, our sect has always regarded spirit bees as a gift from heaven and earth. Anyone who harms them deserves severe punishment, without exception."
With that, Elder Lu lifted her palm gently, and the queen, as though sensing the moment intuitively, spread her slightly damaged wings and rose slowly from her hand.
Chu Li swallowed hard, over and over, tension mounting. As the small golden shape of the bee drifted toward her, she instinctively raised an arm to shield herself.
The buzzing grew louder, then fainter, then louder again. For the first time in her life, Chu Li felt a bone-deep terror at the mere sound of a bee's wings.
The queen circled her once, unsteadily, then abruptly landed on her shoulder, right where a smear of tear stains still remained, unattended.
Once bitten by a snake, and you'll flinch at the sight of a rope for the next ten years.
The golden shape in the corner of her vision sent a chill down Chu Li's spine. She could almost swear it wasn't a spirit bee resting on her shoulder at all, but a ticking bomb, images flashing rapidly through her mind of the stinger sinking into her neck. She found herself holding her breath entirely without meaning to.
And yet, the disaster she'd been dreading never came.
She had no idea how much time passed before the buzzing picked up again, and steeling her nerve, Chu Li turned her head to look. The queen had already left her shoulder, circling around her instead in a series of unsteady loops.
The flight pattern seemed entirely aimless, and yet it never strayed more than a foot from Chu Li, almost as though performing some kind of ritual.
The three elders watching exchanged hushed murmurs amongst themselves.
Elder Lu's expression shifted into one of genuine astonishment, as though she were witnessing something truly unusual unfold.
Then, at last, the queen changed direction entirely, flying instead toward Jin Lan on the other side.
Jin Lan lifted her chin, looking down on Chu Li with disdain, apparently already convinced the matter was settled. "Junior Sister Chu, I'd say the outcome's quite clear now. The queen's clearly chosen you. Do you still have anything left to say for yourself?"
Chu Li watched, wide-eyed, as the queen circled behind Jin Lan's head, raising her tail to expose her stinger. Hesitating only briefly, Chu Li pointed. "It's... it's right behind you!"
"Such a dramatic little display." Jin Lan didn't take the warning seriously at all. "Don't think you can scare me with something like that, I won't—"
Before she could finish, Jin Lan's affected, dainty voice abruptly gave way to a sharp, piercing shriek.
"You wretched creature, how dare you sting me!"
One hand clamped over the back of her neck, Jin Lan snatched up her jade flute with the other, trying to drive the queen off, but the bee seemed almost possessed with fury, dodging every counterattack while launching one strike after another at Jin Lan's exposed head, neck, and shoulders.
The venom's potency proved formidable. Within moments, Jin Lan had collapsed to her knees, unable to fend off the assault any longer, clutching her head and shrieking wildly. "I swear I never harmed the colony, I truly never did! Please, Elders, save me, someone save me!"
Elder Lu's brow furrowed, and with a subtle flick of her fingers, cast a calming spell, sending several streams of light toward the queen.
But the queen paid it no mind whatsoever, entirely fixed on Jin Lan, relentlessly bombarding her without pause.
"This is the queen's own will now. Even I have no power to override it."
Elder Lu's words landed on Jin Lan like a death sentence.
She thrashed and wailed on the ground, screaming to the heavens and the earth, calling out for her mother and her father, crying out to Elder Lu and then to Elder Yu, and finally, her face swollen beyond recognition, dragged herself across the ground toward Chu Li. "Junior Sister Chu, save me, we're disciples of the same sect, how can you just stand there and watch!"
Chu Li stood there in complete shock, her fingers rising instinctively, though before she could actually do anything, Little Lian wrapped his arms around her from behind once more.
His arms circled her shoulders, holding her arms firmly in place, his chin resting against the tear-dampened patch of fabric at her shoulder, his breath drifting slowly across her ear.
His voice came out soft, yet every syllable carried an unmistakable, chilling indifference. "This is what happens to anyone who dares hurt you, Sister."
【Author's Note】
【Bonus scene】
Chu Li: I don't think "little brat" really suits you. At best, you're my little duckling.
Ji Wuyan: I'm over 180. You're calling me little?
Chu Li: Centimeters, or millimeters?
Ji Wuyan: ???
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Translator's Notes for Curious Readers 🤍
一朝被蛇咬，十年怕井绳 ("once bitten by a snake, scared of a rope for ten years"): A well-known Chinese proverb, roughly equivalent to the English "once bitten, twice shy," though considerably more vivid, describing lingering fear from a past trauma that gets triggered by something only superficially similar (a snake vs. a coiled rope).
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