Just a little hope

Wu Liang and Ao Nan went to the direction of the small forest where the forest ground bees were kept and raised, these animals were quite friendly, their honey was actually the residue left over from their food liquid taken from the juice of the pine tree leaves.

These dark yellow striped bees like to live in the ground because their bodies require the exact cold conditions that the ground provides.

Not much different from normal bees, except that their body size is large, the size of an adult's palm, but fortunately they are friendly and kind.

"Mom! Mom!!!"

Ao Nan shouted, while Wu Liang beside his just helped look around their place.

Here in the pine forest where the forest ground bees were nurtured, the pine trees kept a distance from each other, and from that distance there was a huge mound, and some of them were almost as tall as Wu Liang and Ao Nan.

This mound had a hole in the center that was the top and center of the mound, this hole was the entrance to the giant tunnel habitat where the forest ground bees lived, some of the holes could even fit Wu Liang or Ao Na's face if they put their faces there.

"Ah your mom seems to be at the other end, let's go meet her" Wu Liang suggested.

Ao Nan nodded his head and the two of them took a leisurely walk, even though they had always seen the scenery of this place, but why did it always feel new.

Walking among the tall and sparse pine trees, and surrounded by hundreds of mounds as big as their bodies, this is enough to illustrate how large and massive the kingdom of bees has been taken care of by generations.

Occasionally a bee would emerge from the hole and fly high into the pine tree's leaves, which were quite dense, sometimes leaving only a few leaves on a single tree.

Sometimes there is also a bee that comes down from the top of the tree with the juice of the pine tree leaves that they have digested, the process works is, the bees will consume a pick of pine leaves, then they will take the essence of it, and the rest of the residue that comes out of the hole of their back stomach.

From afar, Ao Nan faintly saw his mother and other aunts harvesting the honey juice attached to the tree trunk.

"Mom!"

Aunt Ao Mei glanced in the direction of the voice and found her son, Ao Nan running towards him.

"Eh? What's wrong Ao Nan?" asked Ao Mei's aunt in surprise.

"Mom, Dad told me to ask you for come back soon earlier." Aunt Ao Mei glanced at the aunt who was not far away.

"Eh? Why?"

"I don't know why either, maybe dad knew it was going to rain today so he asked mom to come back sooner."

"owhh your dad is really good, just calm down after this one tree is finished mom will be back" said Ao Mei's aunt while taking a stream of honey that hardened with a thin layer of membrane on the pine tree in front of her.

"I'll wait for mom" said Ao Nan briefly.

After a while Auntie Ao Mei finished the last tree and the three of them, along with the other aunties Shang Luo, Jin Yiu and Ning Xiu, returned to the village.

"Did your father say anything important?" asked Auntie Ao Mei curiously.

"Nothing, he just told me to you for hurry back," replied Ao Nan.

"hehehe your father is like that, he rarely tells the reason behind his actions, but every action of his must always have an important effect" said Ao Mei's aunt slightly smiling, with her middle age she still had the figure and impression of a warm young girl with one kid.

"Oh, did mom want to be with father because of that?" asked Ao Nan while pulling her eyebrows up.

"Hmm? My son has grown up now, don't you? how dare to ask such a question like that" Aunt Ao Mei refuted.

"I'm just curious, Mom." replied Ao Nan as Wu Liang looked on.

"How's the training going? Who replaced your father?" Aunt Ao Mei asked the two.

"That's Uncle Ge Wuan, he's filling in for dad" Wu Liang replied as Auntie Ao Mei glanced at him.

"Oh good, at least someone is guiding you all" Auntie Ao Mei added in response to Wu Liang's answer.

Raindrops began to fall one by one then gradually got faster and more numerous.

"oh no, let's run" said aunt Shang Luo who was in front of everyone, followed by grandma Ning Xiu, aunt Jin Yiu, then Ao Mei, Ao Nan and Wu Liang.

The six of them ran slowly on the dirt path that also slowly turned into mud because of the puddles, from the road they passed, to their left, as they passed the field where Ao Nan and Wu Liang practiced, Wu Liang saw uncle Ge Wuan and Jin Hao trying to put the livestock into the barn to shelter from the rain as Wu Liang ran towards the village above.

The muddy path up, a little bit almost made Ning Xiu's aunt slipped, but because it has been experienced all her life, she easily overcame it and then with others back to their respective homes, but because it is now the time Wu Liang's sister Shan Yu is still working to help Huang Xie's aunt, so Wu Liang followed Ao Nan to his house which is only a few tens of steps from the entrance of the village above.

Now that the light rains were falling and drenching all the land and life in the Wu tribe's village area, this vast rain covered more than the area of the border forest itself, while clouds and lightning and winds began to strike from the top of the mountain not far from the village.

The booming sound, painful to the ears, makes the heart beat fast, in this village that is very close to the storm, Shan Yu is still trying to remain calm in the extreme weather conditions he is facing now while helping Huang Xie's aunt make a lot of bread, all windows, doors, everything is closed with wooden block locks.

"It's raining like this, the bread won't be finished as planned" Huang Xie's aunt complained.

"Our plans are made but fate determines, we can only accept what is given" replied Shan Yu while writing her book next to the toaster.

"Ehh? Shan Yu, you've become a wise man huh?" said Huang Xie's aunt praising with her right corner lip lifted up.

"I learned those words from my grandpa and grandpa Huang Gu" Shan Yu said clearly amidst the stormy wind that occasionally rained then calmed down again, then rained again.

"The old teach, the young accept, then grow and develop" Huang Xie's aunt replied as she worked on the dough mixed with cow's milk.

"Good words aunt, I will keep them" Shan Yu wrote with a smile and an occasional chuckle in front of his small book.

The two of them went about their activities and together passed the day's weather conditions with many good sentences and light-hearted jokes, along with the apprentice's fireplace warming their place and the smell of fragrant bread and flour dust scattered about.

Now in Ao Nan's house, Wu Liang was sitting listening to Ao Nan making a board game on the dining table in the living room.

"Wu Liang, do you know this?" asked Ao Nan with excited eyes.

"hmm, I never even thought about it, how would I know?" replied Wu Liang in surprise.

"I mean can you guess what I made?" said Ao Nan with a little regret and a silly smile.

"ohh, so tell me right, you are talking unclear how can I understand your meaning" replied Wu Liang casually.

"This is a game board, I got this inspiration from my dream last night" said Ao Nan while pointing to all parts of the wooden board in front of him, they sat facing each other in this living room, while Ao Mei's aunt was in the back of the house processing raw honey to be consumed more deliciously.

"oh, explain to me, come on" Wu Liang asked.

"Okay, so we need two things, one is this board that we will carve, then this small box, in this small box I have carved before forming a dot, so there is one dot to six dots" said Ao Nan while explaining enthusiastically.

"How to play it?" asked Wu Liang.

"You be patient now, okay, so if you want to play it, we need a map, so the task for both of us is to sculpt this board into a village map, do you have an idea what part we will sculpt first?" said Ao Nan while thinking about something in his brain.

The two of them thought hard and agreed to sculpt the village first, then head down towards the farm, the forest ground bee place, then the field and farm, then the forest, the mountain, and back to the village.

While sculpting the village Wu Liang and Ao Nan were met by Ao Mei's aunt.

"Hey, what are you guys making now?" asked Ao Mei's aunt.

"It's just a game board mom" replied Ao Nan while sculpting the village road, then sculpting the flow of the game road.

"Well, if there's anything I can do for you, I'll see you, I'll go back and take care of the food, you two have fun," said Auntie Ao Mei.

"Of course mom"

"Of course aunt" replied Ao Nan and Wu Liang simultaneously.

A few moments later, Ao Nan and Wu Liang were sculpting a section of the forest, making prominent reliefs of trees that symbolized the border forest.

Wu Liang slightly glanced at Ao Nan while sculpting his part, he saw Ao Nan who was a little gloomy and even looked sad.

"What's wrong Ao Nan?" asked Wu Liang.

"It's nothing, it's just that I feel sad for no reason" Ao Nan replied quietly.

"Should I call your mom?" said Wu Liang.

"Hey, don't!" said Ao Nan.

They both fell silent while continuing their work.

Black overcast clouds, strong winds blowing from the direction of the mountain, coming down the road to the border forest, and rainfall that changes, sometimes light rain, moderate and then change again makes the atmosphere confusing, the road is slightly muddy with several puddles along the village road from top to bottom right near the border forest, wheat grass swaying, crunching while rubbing itself against other wheat grass stalks.

"I just hope that my father will also come back soon" Ao Nan said after a moment of silence that filled this living room, while Wu Liang himself landed his gaze on Ao Nan in front of him.