The residents were half asleep, and their first reaction was to think there had been another earthquake. They hurriedly woke up the people next to them, shouting for their family members, picking up children, dragging thick sofa cushions or long tables into the bathroom to hide underneath.
But after hiding, they quickly realized that the building didn’t seem to be shaking. So where did that loud crash come from? What exactly happened?
At the same time, the source of the loud noise was on the fourteenth floor, or more precisely, between the thirteenth and fourteenth floors. The earth-shattering sound made everyone in the room jump up in alarm.
They were close enough to immediately tell that it wasn’t an earthquake but that something inside the building had collapsed.
The family of three on the fourteenth floor quickly left their room, turned on the lights, and the daughter screamed, stepping back a few paces toward the rear room. They saw a large hole had opened up in the living room floor, which had caved in.
The hole was about a meter wide and nearly two meters long, along the wall that separated the dining room and living room. The sofa and cabinet, which had been placed against the wall, had fallen down with the collapsing floor. Even the dividing wall was missing half of it.
Since the floors above the tenth level were all high-rise staggered floors, each floor was very tall. The collapsed section of the building had essentially fallen from two floors up into the living room of the apartment below, which explained the deafening crash.
The living room was filled with dust and debris from the collapsed walls, causing them to cough uncontrollably.
The family stood in shock, staring at the gaping hole in their living room. But before they could react, their daughter yelled again as she ran toward them.
“There are ants! Mom, Dad, so many ants!”
As the dust cleared, countless “ants” crawled out from the broken walls—some were dark brown, others white.
They poured out like a stream, crawling from the gap in the wall toward the ceiling, the adjacent walls, and even down toward the thirteenth floor.
The family was terrified, not bothering to put on shoes or even grab their phones, and rushed out of the door while screaming for help.
When Yu Xi arrived, the situation on the fourteenth and affected thirteenth floors was chaotic.
Children’s cries, the terrified screams of adults, and arguments all mixed together. The air was thick with the smell of insecticide, along with the strange odor Yu Xi had previously smelled in the 14th-floor resident’s apartment.
These “ants” were slightly larger than ordinary ants and were in such overwhelming numbers that it seemed like they had been preparing for this for a long time. They spread from the gap in the wall of the 14th floor toward the 13th floor and continued to infest other apartments on both floors. Some had even climbed up to the stairwell, seemingly preparing to spread further to the upper and lower floors.
The insecticide could kill mutated cockroaches and mosquitoes, but it didn’t seem to be as effective against these “ants.”
The 13th floor had been innocently affected, with a large hole in the living room ceiling. Concrete chunks, sofas, cabinets, and walls had fallen down, making it even more chaotic than the 14th floor. The living room was filled with construction debris and the crawling “ants.”
“This isn’t ants, it’s termites,” Xu Yan, who had arrived, said gravely. He lived on a lower floor, unlike those closer to these two floors who had been woken up by the loud noise from the start. “These termites must have mutated. The missing food in this apartment was stored in the fallen wooden cabinet, so it’s likely related to the termites.”
Yu Xi understood the situation now. The termites had crawled out from the partition wall in the 14th floor apartment. This wall had been added later by the residents and was made from a different material than the original building’s construction. They weren’t sure where things had gone wrong, but it seemed this large nest of termites had been hiding inside.
Although the termites hadn’t changed in size much, they had certainly mutated—otherwise, they wouldn’t have been eating human food.
Termites secrete formic acid, and even before they mutated, termites could eat silver. After the mutation, they could secrete formic acid directly in food, devouring it clean, and then retreat back into the cracks of the wooden cabinet, leaving no trace.
Such a large colony of termites wouldn’t have formed by itself. It was likely that a queen termite had mutated and was producing large quantities of termites. With so many of them, they eventually hollowed out the building’s internal structure, causing the collapse.
To other residents, the family on the 14th floor was the culprit, and they immediately began to angrily accuse them.
“Let’s call for help first,” Yu Xi said as she took out her phone. “With so many termites, we can’t handle them. If they spread to the entire building, with their breeding rate, this building will eventually collapse.”
Fortunately, this time was different, and the request for help was accepted. After recording the details and address, the authorities assured them that the rescue team would be arriving soon and would land directly on the rooftop. They were told to prepare.
While Yu Xi was making the call, the termite swarm had already crawled along the walls toward the 12th floor. The residents of the 12th floor had long been awake, and the family closest to the stairwell was the one involved in the previous mix-up with the turtle.
When the parents of this family saw the swarming termites, they screamed in shock. Their child had already woken up and, despite being told not to leave, couldn’t resist running out in his slippers. To their surprise, behind the child was a turtle the size of a basin.
Cold-blooded animals didn’t typically have intelligence, but this turtle was acting more like a family pet, following the child closely like a loyal dog. When the child stopped and stood by his parents, the turtle opened its mouth and tugged at his pants, trying to pull him back toward the house. It seemed as though the turtle, sensing danger ahead, was warning its young owner to return home quickly.
Fortunately, when the parents saw the child run out and were startled by the termites, they quickly grabbed the child and ran back inside. But the termites didn’t stay on the ground—they moved up to the 12th floor’s ceiling, heading toward their apartment.
Soon, the door to their apartment was completely covered in termites. The father hesitated, unsure whether to open the door and go in or escape with his family. But their home was here, and the outside was so dangerous. Where could they go?
Just as they were at a loss, the turtle, which had been following them, crawled toward the door, opened its mouth, stuck out its tongue, and licked the door with force. The tongue, covered in termites, was drawn back into its mouth, and the turtle swallowed them with a loud
chomp
.
Yu Xi, who had just arrived downstairs, witnessed this scene. The child’s parents stood frozen in disbelief, while the six- or seven-year-old boy struggled out of his father’s arms and ran toward the turtle, shouting, “Good job, Little Turtle! Eat all the ants so we can go home!”
The turtle, as if it understood, turned back to look at the boy, then opened its mouth again and began licking the door, this time much faster than before.
After licking all the reachable areas, the turtle paused, its head tilted as it seemed to ponder something. After a moment, it stopped licking, extended its tongue halfway, and remained motionless.
An unusual odor seemed to fill the air. The family didn’t notice it, but Yu Xi’s sharp senses detected it immediately.
Soon, she realized that the termites, which had been gnawing on the door, started to turn and crawl toward the turtle’s tongue. Every time the turtle’s tongue was covered with termites, it would swallow them with a
chomp
, then extend its tongue again.
It was as if the turtle’s tongue acted like a pheromone lure, drawing in the termites. After repeating this process several times, the turtle had consumed all the termites near the door. It even let out a contented burp.
The child’s parents…
Yu Xi…
Ten minutes later, a rescue team, along with several experts in protective suits, landed on the rooftop of their building by helicopter. The experts carried professional tools and moved with practiced ease, showing no signs of panic even as they saw the walls covered in termites.
The team leader was a familiar face—someone who had visited their community twice before. Both Yu Xi and Xu Yan recognized him.
He also remembered them. Approaching them, he took off his protective mask, nodded in acknowledgment, and then addressed the other residents, explaining that the team members were experts in termite extermination. These termites were not a new phenomenon; several areas in the city had experienced the same termite crisis in the past couple of days.
The experts explained that the termites had a long incubation period, and it wasn’t until the walls or floors collapsed that people realized what had happened. By then, the termites had multiplied to such a degree that ordinary people couldn’t handle them.
The experts had developed a special lure after multiple attempts to create an effective solution. It wasn’t about killing the termites but rather drawing them into boxes they had brought with them.
This new lure was even more powerful than the turtle’s method. The termites surged like a flood, eagerly crawling into the boxes the experts had provided.
Twenty minutes later, the termites on the 15th and 12th floors had been completely cleaned up.
But the experts didn’t leave. Instead, they took out a smaller box and headed to the 14th floor, continuing to wait.
After another five minutes, a huge white insect, roughly ten times the size of the other termites, crawled out from the cracked wall on the 14th floor. It resembled a silkworm but had a much smaller head. It wriggled its way toward the small hole in the box and crawled in.
“This… what is this?” The residents on the 14th floor were so terrified that their teeth chattered.
“This is the queen termite. All the termites in the colony are bred by her. Typically, there is only one queen in a colony,” one of the experts replied. “Don’t worry, now that the queen has come out, there won’t be any more termites.”
But how could they feel reassured? Just the thought that their home, where they had been living every day, had been hiding so many termites, including a fat, constantly laying queen termite, made them feel immense fear. They didn’t even dare to step back into their home, convinced that somewhere in a corner, insects might still be lurking.
The rescue team stayed for about half an hour, resolving the termite crisis. They then began to clear the walls of any possible termite eggs. However, these termite eggs, like those before the mutation, couldn’t hatch without the colony’s care. They would die quickly once separated from the colony.
The team was cautious, not wanting to leave any hidden dangers. They ended up dismantling the entire partition wall, along with the half that had fallen from the 13th floor’s living room, and some broken pieces. Everything was taken to the rooftop to be burned and destroyed.
Finally, the team conducted one last check of the building, using the lure agent to confirm that no other termites remained. Afterward, they contacted the helicopter via the walkie-talkie to arrange for their departure.
The Gou brothers and several others had been watching the entire process, and when they saw the rescue team preparing to leave, they couldn’t resist following them to the rooftop.
Xu Yan and Yu Xi had already reacted first and were talking to the team leader on the rooftop. Naturally, they were asking about the situation outside.
While the internet was full of information, much of it wasn’t really useful. They were asking skillfully, and the team leader didn’t answer directly, but the general message became clear: in the short term, S City would remain in its current state. In fact, some people had already left for other cities with better conditions.
The rescue team wouldn’t be leaving. They were still carrying out daily rescue missions, but due to various limitations, their efforts couldn’t be as extensive as before.
At the moment, the most severely affected areas of S City were the urban parts. The situation in the suburbs was better, and the roads were still passable in some areas. However, leaving the city meant giving up on the air-dropped supplies and the rescue team’s assistance. Given the current situation inside the city, with the public facing various difficulties, most of the official resources had been focused here.
Some resources had been allocated to the shelters, but the conditions there were well-known—they were overcrowded, and for the time being, they could only serve as a temporary refuge.
From what Yu Xi could gather, the team leader’s message was clear. After thanking him, the helicopter soon arrived. The team leader nodded at them, put his mask back on, and left.
After the helicopter took off, Xu Yan and Yu Xi saw several people standing by the stairwell.
Gou Yaoyang spoke first. “Let’s call a meeting with everyone in the group tomorrow morning.”
Everyone understood immediately.
The meeting, of course, was to discuss the evacuation plan.
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