The protagonist and Lao Wang have only met three times, both times in the classroom. Lao Wang, as an irresponsible teacher, always conveys the content of a few sentences and then walks away. The protagonist always feels that other male ants can quickly master skills such as group command skills by relying on genetic instinct after receiving simple instructions, while the protagonist himself can only fumble hard and lags far behind in learning efficiency. Fortunately, the protagonist has thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of civilization as a human being, so he can barely keep up with the progress.
The second meeting between the protagonist and Lao Wang was not even pleasant. The protagonist broke into Lao Wang's private nest, making Lao Wang furious, exuding strong anger and hostility, and finally kicked himself out.
But now, the protagonist still has to go see Lao Wang. Although Hua Mulan had been to the kin's lair where fire was said to be, she refused to take herself there. This may be because there are some hidden ant rules constraining her. The intelligence and logic level of the soldier ants is roughly equivalent to a simple computer program with a small amount of emotion, and it is unlikely to violate such mandatory rules. Then it is useless even if the protagonist finds other soldier ants who have also been to the destination, they will still refuse the request to lead the way. It seems that the breakthrough can only be with Lao Wang.
After only a few contacts with Lao Wang, the protagonist has already felt that Lao Wang is probably a wise man and elder in the ant colony. Only such an important role can impart necessary knowledge to other male ants. The protagonist can have some relatively simple communication with Roll and Rambo, and this communication efficiency is far more efficient than the communication with mechanical and rigid soldier ants and worker ants. Referring to Gun's example, there should be no obstacles in the communication between the protagonist and Lao Wang.
The only problem is how to meet Lao Wang. After the unpleasant incident last time, the protagonist felt that if he tried to break into Lao Wang's private nest again, he would probably be torn apart by those huge soldier ants. Just like if another ant barged into her two-bedroom apartment without permission, she would definitely be very unhappy, not to mention the repeated offense, so asking Mulan to kick the other person out would have been an act of restraint.
Another way is to wait until class time to naturally see Lao Wang in class. Although Lao Wang lives in seclusion, he can still show up on time during class time. However, the protagonist has been lying down in the two-bedroom apartment for the past few days doing battles between heaven and man. I don’t know if they have taken a few new classes or when the next class will be.
The protagonist first goes to Gun to get some information about the class from him. The protagonist, alone, ran away to the nest where they were. When we got there, we found that the entire nest was unusually empty, with less than twenty male ants and the same number of soldier ants inside.
"Are they going to be taught in batches again?" the protagonist thought to himself. After all, the previous hunting class where he encountered the mantis was eight male ants who went out alone. The other male ants were here to stand by.
The protagonist found the nearest male ant and asked. The male ant told the protagonist honestly that all the male ants who had completed the hunting course had moved away and had independent nests.
"Damn, you've graduated in just two classes, right? We've all been assigned a house, why didn't anyone notify me of this good thing?" The protagonist was immediately dissatisfied: "I dug a nest for myself by myself!"
The protagonist hurriedly asked the male ant if he knew where they had moved, but the male ant said he didn't know. The protagonist asked Lao Wang if the course had appeared in the past few days. The male ant said that he had not gone to the ground to attend the course and did not know.
When the protagonist hears that this male ant has not been to the ground yet, it seems that the hunting lesson is not over yet. I quickly counted and found that there were a total of eighteen male ants in the nest, so counting today, thirty-two male ants had participated in the hunting course. If a batch of ants went out every day, and each batch contained the same eight male ants as his time, then four days would have passed since he encountered the mantis.
Unable to find Gun and no news about Lao Wang, the protagonist simply decided to go to the ground and find the guide worker ant. She must be Lao Wang's confidant, or at least an important subordinate, who can independently guide the male ants in hunting. Course tasks.
Moreover, the protagonist feels that the communication ability of the guide ants is far superior to that of other ordinary worker ants, and they appear to be more intelligent.
The protagonist quickly climbed out of the nest. When he came out of the cave, he was surprised to find that the entrance to the nest had turned into a pile of hollow pointed cones made of gravel and soil. From a distance, it looked like a miniature crater. Moreover, there are still worker ants carrying sediment in their mouths to heighten and thicken the pointed cone.
The protagonist clearly remembers that during his first two visits, although there were worker ants going back and forth to clear the sand out of the nest, there was never such a large pointed cone built above the nest. Looking at the sky again, the sky has turned blue, the sun is dazzling, and the strong wind that has been howling all day has weakened to a gentle breeze.
The protagonist has a guess. In the past, the loose sand outside the nest was blown away by strong winds, not to mention that the wind at night is generally stronger than during the day. Now that the weather is calm, the waste sand cleaned up by the worker ants is discarded outside the nest, and a crater is once again piled up. This conjecture can be easily verified. Just wait until the next windy day to take a look. So the protagonist put this trivial matter behind him.
The protagonist quickly found the guide worker ant. Since he felt that this worker ant was more intelligent than other worker ants, the protagonist carefully looked at the worker up and down this time and found that her size was actually larger than that of ordinary worker ants. She was already close to a soldier. The size of an ant. But it can be seen from her smaller head that this is still in the form of a worker ant.
Ignoring these anomalies, the protagonist hurriedly went up and asked if he could meet Lao Wang. The guide worker ant replied that he would convey the protagonist's request to Lao Wang, and then asked the protagonist: The protagonist failed to obtain prey in the last hunting lesson, and does he need to practice again?
The protagonist hurriedly refused. The last time he met a mantis, two of his men died. He didn't want to be unlucky again. And if everything goes well, he will soon be traveling far away, and his destination is the den of his relatives that is said to have fire. Even if he needs to exercise and hunt, he will have plenty of time on the way.
The protagonist and the guide ant made an agreement. If Lao Wang agrees to meet, the guide ant will go to the two-bedroom apartment to inform the protagonist. As for the meeting place, the protagonist is tentatively scheduled to be in the classroom, so that both himself and Lao Wang can accept it and are familiar with the route.
After finishing his work, the protagonist returned to the two-bedroom apartment and asked Hua Mulan to catch two worker ants and bring them sunflower seeds and honeydew. After the meal, the satisfied protagonist fell asleep, ending this busy day.
