The protagonist guesses that there is only one possibility for the death of the male ants and worker ants last night, that is, they were killed by a group of companions with the same breath, so they did not issue a warning in advance or resist. Moreover, after they die, the oil on their body surface should quickly deteriorate into a pungent oleic acid smell that can be clearly smelled outside the nest. There was only a faint smell of oily acid on these corpses. Could it be that the murderers had cleverly licked off the deteriorating oil? Why did they cover up the death scene?
The protagonist rewinds the information package and carefully searches for details that may have been missed before, starting from the moment when the team left "Dongyang City" and encountered the worker ant guard team.
First, Gun asked one of the worker ants, and the worker ant replied that he was ordered to escort Gun and the others to the main nest. Then whose orders did they take? Before, both Gun and the protagonist took it for granted that Lao Wang had arranged for these worker ants to perform guard tasks before his death, but now it seems that this is obviously not the case. There is a murderer among these worker ants, and Lao Wang also died at the hands of the murderer. It is impossible for Lao Wang to be with the murderer.
If these worker ants are not following Lao Wang’s orders, then whose orders are they following? Gun knew clearly that Lao Wang was the only adult king in the entire "Dongyang City", and only he was qualified to issue important orders to all the ants in the nest. This is an abnormal thing in itself. This kind of remote secondary nest usually has several to dozens of adult kings depending on its size. It is impossible to have only one king.
Could it be that there is an adult king hidden in "Dongyang City" that no one knows about? He sent this convoy mixed with this murderer? Or did he send a murderer to sneak into the escort assigned by Lao Wang? The latter is more likely. If it is the former, then the entire escort team should be the murderer.
Secondly, the protagonist learned from the senior brother that generally remote sub-nests give birth to about 20 young male ants every year to participate in the wedding flight ceremony, but "Dongyang City" gave birth to a full 50 male ants this year, including the protagonist. It's also very abnormal. The protagonist recalled what the police officer said back then, which seemed to have something to it: "Maybe it's God's will... This is not normal. You went to "Dongyang City" according to God's will. Please be sure to find out the reason. This may be related to the survival of a sub-nest, or it may be directly related to divine decree. "Does the police know something?"
Third, ants cannot lie. Gun asked a worker ant, and the worker ant said that she was responsible for escorting. If this is true, then at least some of the worker ants in the worker ant escort team are not the same as the murderer. They are indeed performing their escort mission seriously. At this time, the protagonist regrets that he came to the main nest early. If the protagonist had set off with Gun and the others, then by making full use of the characteristic that ants cannot lie, the protagonist would have been able to find out the murderer through interrogation one by one.
But then again, the protagonist previously knew that ants would not intentionally harm their own kind, but now a series of murders have overturned this iron law. So, is the rule that ants can’t talk still valid? The protagonist can’t guarantee it either.
Fourth, on the first night of camping, 4 male ants and 8 worker ants died in a remote camping cave**, and according to the scene, they did not put up any effective resistance at all. In addition to showing that an ant companion committed the crime, it also showed that the murderer had the ability to kill 12 ants at the same time. Only in this way would he not alarm other victims who had not yet been attacked. After all, ants sleep very lightly and are easily awakened. According to the average number in each cave, there are about 20 worker ants in this cave. So the number of about 12 missing worker ants just meets the number conditions of the murderer. Could they be the murderer? Where did they go?
The protagonist cannot find enough evidence to explain these questions. He can only continue to watch the information packets rolling in, hoping to gain something.
After a short discussion between Gun and the other male ants, they believed that the deceased died at the hands of carnivorous insects. Therefore, after leaving the body of their companion behind, they continued towards the main nest without too much doubt.
Today the team was traveling much slower than the first day because they were lost.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the ant expressway from "Dongyang City" to the main nest is mainly marked by the long-lasting pheromones left by the male ants, but this long-lasting pheromone can only be effective for eight or nine months. , then it will become fainter and fainter until it disappears, but the annual wedding is separated by a full year. When they reached the current location, they were faced with the problem of not being able to find the pheromone road signs. The reason why this problem did not exist yesterday is because there are a large number of worker ants and soldier ants in the area near the nest, and they will leave a large amount of short-term pheromones. The pheromones left around the ant expressway are especially dense, which can play a role. The role of alternative road signs. But the section of road where they were lost now was a blank area between the two sub-nests where there were few ant activities.
The protagonist of this pot also has to carry half of it. When he set off for the main nest half a month ago, he could still read the long-lasting pheromones that had not completely disappeared. According to convention, as a male ant, he should also leave his own pheromones as a supplement, but the protagonist, who lacks experience and awareness in this area, did not do so. And Gun, they all kept their own pheromones in a well-behaved manner along the way.
Getting lost is not a big deal. Every year, the team that sets off to the main nest to participate in the wedding flight ceremony will encounter it more or less. They stopped where they were and sent a large number of worker ant scouts to find out their location.
After waiting for a long time, a worker ant came back. She found the pheromones left by the worker ants in the west sub-nest, which could point the direction. Gun and the others immediately set off following the guide worker ants, leaving exclusive pheromones along the way so that the scout worker ants who had not returned yet could catch up with the large army when they returned.
Due to the influence of getting lost, the distance they traveled today was relatively short, but this was not enough to cause them to miss the wedding ceremony. Soon, it was time to camp again. While the sun had just gone down and the sky was still full of bright reflections, the ants began to build their campsite. The subsequent scout worker ants also caught up one after another.
The work of digging the cave is undertaken by the worker ants. The male and female ants gather in a group aside and do not participate in the labor. By the way, the protagonist immediately paused the scene and carefully counted the number of male and female ants. There were a total of 44 male ants and 1 female ant, and only 32 male ants and 1 female ant finally arrived at the main nest. This means that 12 female ants will encounter misfortune on the next journey. How many of them are there? Was he murdered by a murderer?
Now that he could count the number of male ants, the protagonist thought of counting the number of worker ants as well. Counting scattered burrowing worker ants is more difficult than counting clustered male ants. The protagonist spliced together several different rolling visions in his mind, and then counted the points one by one, and also eliminated duplicate worker ants. After a lot of effort, he finally counted them clearly.
There are 253 worker ants in total. When we camped the night before, there were 13 caves, and on average there were 20 worker ants in each cave, so the guard team should have about 260 worker ants in total. But last night, 8 worker ants died and about 12 worker ants were missing. There should be about 240 worker ants today. Why are there 253 now?
what does that mean? This means that there are about 12 worker ants who may be the killers, and they are still hiding in this team...
