Huang Xiaotao said, "But we are surrounded by ants!"
"Don't be afraid, I have a magic weapon here!" I grabbed a handful of white sugar and sprinkled it into the corner. No matter what kind of ants they were, they couldn't resist sugar.
The tide of bullet ants immediately retreated from us and rushed towards the white sugar. A big bulge immediately appeared there. The illusion I had just seen of a woman's head rising from the blood was because I had sprinkled some white sugar.
I dragged Huang Xiaotao out of the room. The entire corridor was full of bullet ants. I tore open the whole bag of white sugar and threw it at the end of the corridor to distract them.
If it wasn't for Wang Dali carelessly buying a bag of white sugar, we might have really died here tonight!
When running downstairs, I saw Wang Dali rolling on the ground with bullet ants crawling all over him. I quickly took off my coat to beat them off him and stuffed a Mind Clearing Pill into his mouth. Wang Dali was shocked, "So it wasn't fire!"
"Hurry up and go!"
We ran out of the villa in one breath and slumped down on the ground, exhausted.
Huang Xiaotao looked at her fingers and said distressfully, "Will this leave scars?"
I almost vomited blood. The first thing after a brush with death was to worry about this. Wang Dali lamented, "Are you alright? Look at me, here, here, and here..." He was about to unzip his pants to show us. I quickly stopped him. Wang Dali was indeed worse off than us, covered in injuries and unrecognizable.
I said not to worry, it was formic acid. When we go back, wipe it with alkaline water, it will scab over and heal in a few days.
Huang Xiaotao wanted to go back and collect evidence. I said let's wait until tomorrow, the ants are still ferocious now! They were both very curious about how we had mistaken the bullet ants for flames and blood. I already had some idea in my mind, but I hadn't confirmed it yet, so I just said everything would be revealed tomorrow.
The next day we came back to reinvestigate and collect evidence. A technician pried open a brick in the wall and found a dense ant nest underneath, but all the ants were in a semi-dormant state. Xiao Zhou took some back for testing.
I also asked him to scrape off some of the wall paint for testing. This was a major oversight on my part. The house was dilapidated, but the paint was new! I hadn't noticed it before, showing that some things can't be learned from books and require practical experience.
Xiao Zhou compared the formic acid from the bullet ants with the acidic substance found on the victim's body, confirming that the victim had indeed been killed by the bullet ants.
Analysis of the paint revealed some suspicious ingredients. Xiao Zhou didn't know what they were, so I wrote down a prescription for him to grab the herbs, which matched the ingredients when compared.
By the time everything was done, it was already noon. Huang Xiaotao, who had been kept in suspense all morning, rested her chin on her hands and asked, "Song Yang, can you reveal the answer now?"
I smiled and said, "You still owe me a meal!"
Huang Xiaotao punched me lightly, "I'll treat the whole team, and listen to your insights at the same time. But you have to live up to this meal!"
"Deal!" I nodded with a smile.
Huang Xiaotao picked a restaurant nearby. After everyone was seated, I explained, "Bullet ants live in Africa and are one of the ten most poisonous creatures in the world! They can secrete a very powerful formic acid. People killed by the acid look almost the same as burn victims on the surface. I was nearly fooled by this case too, because my ancestors never encountered such a poisonous insect from Africa."
Huang Xiaotao said, "Alright alright, we already know all that. What we want to know is how the illusions came about."
"There is an intoxicant called Unwilling to Leave Home at Night," I replied.
"Unwilling to Leave Home at Night?" Everyone was shocked.
I explained that Unwilling to Leave Home at Night was a secret perfume used by ancient prostitutes. Though called a perfume, it was actually colorless and odorless, with strong hallucinogenic effects. It was called Unwilling to Leave Home at Night because it only took effect at night, not during the day.
Xiao Zhou chimed in, "The chemicals in this drug are probably highly unstable. They decompose into harmless water and carbon dioxide under normal temperatures, only taking effect when it's cold."
Huang Xiaotao scolded, "Don't interrupt!"
I went on to say that after being intoxicated by Unwilling to Leave Home at Night, one's mind becomes very fragile and susceptible to suggestion. The ghosts we saw were actually just hallucinations. Wang Dali should still remember one detail - when I went downstairs earlier, I didn't see anything. But after he reminded me, I suddenly saw a white-clad female ghost standing behind Huang Xiaotao.
In fact, the ghosts we saw last night were conjured by our own fears and suggestions.
Wang Dali saw fire, while Huang Xiaotao saw blood, because both had encountered different information beforehand. Like most people, Wang Dali thought there had been a fire in that house. But Wang Yuanchao's later investigation revealed the fire was just a rumor. Huang Xiaotao and I knew this, but Wang Dali didn't.
Since the uncle and nephew were trial residents in the haunted house, they should have investigated beforehand, but through their channels they would have only found out about a past fire. So when the bullet ants attacked in swarms, in their eyes it turned into raging flames! In their panic they ran from room to room, trapped on both sides, and in the end burned to death.
Wang Dali breathed a sigh of relief, "So there are no ghosts in that house after all?"
I smiled and said, "I dare not conclusively say whether there are ghosts or not. All I can say is, the ghosts we saw last night were fake."
Huang Xiaotao banged the table, "This was a carefully planned murder! But Song Yang, the murderer never showed himself. How do we catch him?"
A wise gleam flashed across my eyes. "That's simple. Let the bullet ants lead us to him!"
"Bullet ants?" Huang Xiaotao didn't really understand what I meant.
I explained that the reason the murderer could control so many bullet ants was because ants have queens. They serve the queen faithfully and would die to protect her. It could be certain the queen was with the murderer. The car that was parked nearby last night must have contained the queen. With the queen trapped, the ants detected her distress signals and went mad.
Huang Xiaotao asked if the team had found the car, but everyone shook their heads. All the 4S shops in the city had people watching them.
I said, "Call the officers back to rest. The three of us are enough."
Wang Yuanchao flatly added, "I'm going too!"
Huang Xiaotao stood up and exclaimed, "No more eating! Let's go now!"
I said, "Don't be so hasty. Bullet ants live in Africa where the days are too hot, so they are active at night. We'll go again tonight."
Worried, Huang Xiaotao asked, "What if they attack us again?"
I said, "Help me find one thing." Then I whispered a few sentences in her ear.
Huang Xiaotao was shocked. "That's illegal! Good thing you told me instead of getting it yourself. I'd definitely arrest you."
I begged repeatedly, "Please, please!"
Seeing me whispering secretly with Huang Xiaotao, the officers laughed suggestively. Huang Xiaotao's face turned red as she slammed the table angrily, "Don't laugh! We're discussing work!"
That night, the four of us returned to the haunted house. To prevent being drugged by Unwilling to Leave Home at Night again, I had everyone take a Mind Clearing Pill first. Then, using a plastic bottle cut into a shovel shape, I shoveled some bullet ants from under the pried brick from earlier today.
Without the queen's command, they resisted but were individual actions without a swarm attack. Even so, once bitten by a snake, one fears ropes for ten years. Huang Xiaotao and Wang Dali were still anxious seeing me handle them!
We went to where the car was parked yesterday and released the bullet ants on the ground. They immediately crawled towards one direction.
Huang Xiaotao was surprised, "There's one thing I don't understand. Why didn't they leave the villa themselves to look for the queen?"
I said I had thought about it too. I smelled camphor around the house, probably left by the murderer to trap the ants inside.
Huang Xiaotao gasped, "What a cunning murderer!"