When they learned the bad news one by one, their heads lowered, their tentacles hanging on the ground, listlessly.
The protagonist was about to go over to comfort them, but he saw that many soldier ants had obtained the king's instructions, crawled behind the male and female ants one by one, and bit off their wings in one bite.
"Damn it, what are you doing..." The protagonist immediately became angry! Even if they are not allowed to participate in the wedding flight ceremony, now they are biting off their wings. This is intentional harm!
Compared to the main nest, the protagonist has a greater sense of belonging to the secondary nest of "Dongyang City" where he was born. He came to the main nest just to verify the legendary fire, and later stayed temporarily because he could systematically learn knowledge. The protagonist does not have much nostalgia for the identity of the Divine Envoy King and the environment of the main nest. If possible, he would rather go back to "Dongyang City" to get along with Gun and the others. As a result, now that his partner is being "bullied" in front of him, the protagonist quits.
The protagonist ran to the judge angrily and asked them why the ants in the main nest did this. The judge was confused and returned to his natural emotions.
The protagonist quickly ran to Gun and the others to comfort him. As a result, Gun and the other male and female ants did not express any aggrievement about having their wings torn off. In their opinion, they could no longer participate in the ceremony, so they could take or leave the wings. .
The protagonist realized that he seemed to have misunderstood something, scratched his head and stepped back.
Gun and the others accepted their fate. After deciding to quit participating in the ceremony, the king of the main nest informed them to follow the lead soldier ants to the temporary settlement site to rest. At least they would eat and drink enough before setting off back tomorrow.
The protagonist had no intention of watching the subsequent ceremony, and followed them to the temporary settlement. Along the way, the protagonist occasionally glanced at the sky.
By this time, the sky had gradually darkened, and more than half of the male and female ants had completed the ceremony. These female ants all completed mating successfully, and among the male ants there were both winners and losers who gave up the ritual and chose to survive.
The darkening sky made the atmosphere of the entire ceremony seem dangerous. What made the ants participating in the ceremony even more uneasy were some dragonflies that were attracted. Although the number of these dragonflies is still small, and they are wary of facing the extremely dense mating ceremony site, the temptation of food makes them tentatively approach the center of the ceremony little by little.
As fewer and fewer ants stayed in the air, these dragonflies finally took action. After a quick glide in the air, the first unlucky male ant was stuffed into the mouthparts of the giant dragonfly and chewed into pulp. A new aerial killing began.
The flying ants who were performing the ceremony seemed to have just discovered these uninvited guests who had been eyeing them for a long time. Some flying ants no longer care about mating and hurriedly land on the ground to accept the protection of their companions. But there are also many lucky flying ants who choose to continue.
The ants on the ground showed no reaction at all to their aerial companions being constantly hunted by dragonflies. I don’t know whether it was because the ant kingdom had no aerial power and could not help, or because they thought this was part of the cruel ritual of natural selection.
The protagonist no longer cares about these nominal comrades. After the whole ceremony, the protagonist has a new understanding of the morality of this ant kingdom. "As long as all my friends are alive," the protagonist thinks to himself.
Arriving at the temporary settlement site, the protagonist put on the airs of the Divine Envoy King and asked for a whole nest room to accommodate the friends from "Dongyang City". Anyway, there are enough rooms in this underground city-state. All the male ants, female ants and their subordinates crowded into the nest, which seemed a bit crowded. At this time, the guards of the main nest no longer forced the male and female ants to live separately. Anyway, the ceremony was over. These ants had lost the qualification to reproduce. As they followed the rules, they should not violate customs.
After the main nest soldier ants who led the way left, the protagonist ran to continue to comfort his companions. They were all very disappointed and lost the desire to communicate. The protagonist reads their emotions of disappointment and anger from the tentacles.
The protagonist doesn't know how to solve the problem. Fortunately, the ants didn't commit suicide. The protagonist decided to let them eat and sleep first, maybe they would be fine tomorrow.
The protagonist catches a worker ant passing by the door and asks her to take a few ants to bring the most delicious food from the granary. As the King of Divine Envoys, he still has this authority. The protagonist thinks that he never eats meat anyway, so he should give them the share he has saved in so many days.
After arranging dinner, the protagonist returned to his bedroom. Xiao Mi and Hua Mulan had been waiting for a long time and gathered around happily. Xiao Mi asked excitedly about the wedding ceremony, and didn't know how a worker ant who should be stupid could be so gossipy.
The protagonist told them all the scenes he had seen, and did not overshadow the bloody and cruel scenes. Anyway, the two ants didn't care, but listened with interest, as if these things were taken for granted, and they didn't care at all about the day. The kingdom lost a large number of its people.
The protagonist is waiting for the big brother to come back. He has many things to ask the big brother, and only the big brother can answer him in detail and patiently.
It wasn't until the protagonist fell asleep and woke up again that he realized that the senior brother opposite him had just returned. He ran over quickly. As a result, before he could ask his question, the senior brother on the other side was already bragging excitedly:
"I mate with two female ants today." The senior brother looked extremely excited. The protagonist is confused and doesn’t know what he can boast about twice a night. In his previous life, he had heard of a lot of Malatang and Seven Times a Night.
The senior brother felt the protagonist's confused mood and had to explain: "It is rare to get the right to mate with one female ant, but it is a very great thing to get the right to mate with two."
Finally, the senior brother added embarrassedly: "But the second female ant was later snatched away by another male ant, but I had already succeeded, so I ignored it."
The protagonist then realized that the wings on the senior brother's back were gone. He thought of getting rid of them, so he quickly asked about the wings.
"Wings, you need to tear them off after the ceremony." The senior brother has no regrets about missing a pair of wings: "Being without wings means adulthood."
"What about the ants that failed to participate in the ceremony or failed to mate successfully and had their wings torn off?" the protagonist asked.
"Then they are adults, but they have not successfully mated." The senior brother explained.
"Then why don't you come back for the wedding flight next year?" The protagonist is a little unwilling. Although there is no discrimination against whether Gun and the others are virgins, it seems that Gun and the others still attach great importance to this.
"Of course not, it's only a once-in-a-lifetime chance." The senior brother replied decisively. The protagonist had no choice but to give up this opportunistic calculation.
"Oh, did you succeed?" The senior brother finally remembered to ask the protagonist, but the protagonist had to lie to him and say that he succeeded, otherwise it would be too embarrassing.
"Your wings haven't been torn off yet, do you want my help?" Senior Brother asked again. The protagonist quickly refused, thinking: My body, hair, and skin are all my parents deserve, so I’d better keep these wings, even though I can’t even fly.
At this time, the protagonist suddenly thought of another question: Who are my parents in this life? Mom should be the queen ant in "Dongyang City". What about dad? "Dongyang City" seems to have only seen one adult male ant, Lao Wang...
The more the protagonist thinks about it, the more he sweats...
