[Story Plot Summary]
This story takes place in a village called Yi Wei, where, according to this story, the wasps used to be a peaceful insect group who lived in moderate harmony with the surrounding other wasp and insect nations
Until, one day, an irresponsible child finds a rock, and, having nothing better to do, throws it at the wasp nest. The villagers discover that when the nest is dipped in hot water it opens up to reveal an intricate map of different nations painted on its walls labeled in perfect Mandarin
After seeing this, the people of Yi Wei over farm these wasp nest to the point of extinction, so they can get their hands on these maps
Now a small section of surviving wasps led by a queen wasp create a boat nest and sail down a river to escape
The nest eventually crashes, but the wasps aren’t pressed because they decided there is no one formidable around except for this one bees’ nest a little ways off, which means the next logical step is obviously to build an empire, demand tribute, and expand
So the bees send three ambassadors. The wasps kill the first two and the last one, who is older than the others, acquiesces to the wasps’ demands for subjugation. Although she didn’t have much of a choice as the other options were enslavement or death
The bees agree to pay tribute as well as give the wasps one of every 100 of their offspring to be raised by the wasps and technically rule the bee subsidiary
The Queen of the Bees is devastated as she says these are her children, but the government structure is like meh we gotta do what we gotta do
Bees become subjugated and the wasps become rich and lethargic
Until one day a bee is born anarchist—which is not explained
Anarchist bee then breeds male bees, teaches them anarchy, and has them breed with other bees, so that there becomes an insurgent of revolutionary bees who take the teachings of the wasps and escape to start a new colony--rather than, you know, saving the current bee colony
At the same time, the sister of that kid who was wantonly throwing rocks at things is an agriculture student and realizes that these wasps with the tiny maps probably still exist somewhere. So she finds them and, basically in the night, steals all the wasps for scientific studies
The bees wake up like—the hell just happened? Their rulers slick disappeared in the night, but they don’t question it too much and rejoice for the most part except for the second generation queen who lowkey misses the old empire
The new generation of bees eventually find the separatist/anarchist bees, but they’re all dead after causing literally no revolution at all and only managing to leave behind their written works
The last line of the discarded works encourages the bees who would eventually find this ruined colony to write
[Story Thoughts and Feelings]
Who are the humans in the metaphor?
What if during slavery white slave owners had just disappeared randomly?