After doing all that, Xu Lai and Li Qingya, afraid of disturbing the little bird, both stepped back a bit.
Upon seeing this, the little bird perched on the withered tree seemed to possess a certain intelligence, as if it knew that humans had given it water and food. So it flapped its weak wings and glided down from the tree with difficulty.
It first used its sharp beak to peck at the water in the cup, drinking it sip by sip for a long time.
After drinking the water, he finally felt a bit better, so he started munching on the dry food next to his water glass.
Suddenly, the little bird, which was eating its dry food properly, suddenly spread its wings and started flapping. After flapping a few times, it fell straight to the ground.
What's wrong with this bird?
Xu Haiguo, who was standing in front, couldn't help but feel curious as he watched the little bird, which had been alive just a dozen seconds ago, suddenly collapse to the ground.
"Could he have choked to death? That doesn't seem likely!"
Now, Old Master Lu, who was to Xu Lai's right, muttered to himself.
The bird, which had seemed to be in better spirits after drinking water, suddenly fluttered a few times and died. This was truly bizarre.
Especially in this dilapidated forest, half of which is charred black and the other half is filled with withered trees, it looks particularly chilling.
"I'll go take a look!"
Xu Lai mustered his courage, reached into his pocket, pulled out a retractable stun gun, and swung it around before cautiously approaching the bird.
Five meters, four meters, three meters, two meters, one meter—the closer Xu Lai got, the more she realized something was wrong.
Whether it was her imagination or not, she actually saw the little bird moving horizontally.
After getting half a meter away from the bird, Xu Lai reached out and picked up the stun gun, turning the already dead bird over.
"There are big red ants!"
There were five large, bright red ants on the bird's abdomen, each as big as half of her thumb.
The large ant was entirely red, including its antennae, and it shone brightly, especially under the sunlight.
Its beak, visible to the naked eye, gripped the little bird's abdomen tightly like a pair of pliers.
At this moment, perhaps seeing that Xu Lai, a large living creature, had turned their prey over, they immediately released their grip and fiercely chased after Xu Lai.
Xu Lai had once watched a documentary about red ants on television; the saliva of red ants in jungle areas is poisonous.
After they bite someone, the wound will become red, swollen, painful, blistered, and may even cause a fever.
People with allergies may experience severe reactions such as difficulty breathing and fainting.
Therefore, Xu Lai was very careful when she saw these big red ants.
She first used the stun gun in her hand to knock the red ants that were rushing towards it to the ground one by one.
As a result, the enraged red ants, teased by the incident, actually spat their saliva at Xu Lai's stun gun.
As a result, a piece of her stun gun that had been stained with the saliva of the large red ants was corroded away.
This stun gun is made of metal, yet it was corroded by the saliva of this big red ant!
How did such large and venomous red ants end up here? What if they bite someone?
Xu Lai's heart was instantly filled with a storm of emotions!
Xu Lai picked up the stun gun, intending to turn it on and electrocute the five large red ants, but she ultimately restrained herself.
Where there are a few red ants, there will surely be a red ant nest. A single red ant nest can contain tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of ants.
What if she electrocutes these five large red ants, and the other large red ants in the ant nest smell the corpse of their companion or the scent on these people and come after them?
The thought of ants' incredible sense of smell gave Xu Lai goosebumps all over her body.
"Hurry down the mountain! There are dangerous big red ants here!"
Thinking of this, Xu Lai shouted at the others, grabbed Li Qingya, and ran away.
The group of five ran all the way to the foot of the mountain. They were all so tired that they were bent over, their hands supporting their knees. They waited for a while, panting heavily, and only stopped when they saw that the big red ants had not chased after them.
What happened on the mountain just now?
After resting for a while, the four people surrounding Xu Lai finally asked her why she had told them to run away quickly.
Xu Lai recounted how she had just witnessed five large red ants kill the bird in the blink of an eye and corrode a piece of her metal stun gun with their saliva.
"Oh dear, I completely forgot to take a picture of those big red ants with my phone when I was at Wangtai Mountain!"
After showing everyone a piece of the corroded part on the stun gun in his hand, Xu Lai suddenly slapped his forehead, looking very annoyed.
Xu Haiguo, Xiao Rui, Li Qingya, and Grandpa Lu looked at the three small, pitted, honeycomb-like corroded surfaces on the tip of Xu Lai's stun gun, and their hearts were filled with immense sorrow.
In particular, Xiao Rui and Li Qingya, as a couple of highly educated intellectuals, have a perspective on issues that is far different from that of Xu Haiguo and Grandpa Lu.
The couple exchanged a glance with Xu Lai, but neither of them spoke.
The five of them had been chattering away the whole way when they arrived, but now they were all silent. They simply cut down two trees on the outskirts of the forest, loaded them onto an electric tricycle, and sped home.
The firewood in the electric tricycle's cargo box was exactly six bundles, and each family, regardless of size, would divide two bundles equally.
After everyone carried the firewood home, Xu Haiguo finally asked Xu Lai what she had encountered on the mountain.
"Second Uncle, Dad, Mom, Xiao Chao, from now on, we must be extra careful whether we go out or stay at home. In this environment, there is a high possibility that dangerous mutated animals and insects have appeared!"
"Mutated dangerous animals and insects?"
Everyone else in the family looked at Xu Lai with surprise.
"Yes, for example, poisonous ants that have grown many times larger and more venomous, mutated poisonous rats, or mutated poisonous scorpions."
Xu Lai recounted to her family once again the story of the five giant poisonous red ants she encountered on Yangtai Mountain.
"Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but we should still be careful in the future!"
As she spoke, Xu Lai immediately called Chen Cheng to ask if he had any insecticides for sale.
She ordered twenty bottles of insecticide at once.
"Hey girl, what do you need so much insecticide for? In this scorching heat, all those mosquitoes and flies would have died long ago!"
Chen Cheng was quite puzzled when he heard that Xu Lai had ordered so much insecticide for mosquitoes and flies from him and even reminded him to stock up on some as well.
"Brother Chen, I'm not joking. What if these mosquitoes, flies, ants, and other insects mutate?"
Xu Lai only said this one sentence before hanging up the phone.
After many interactions, Chen Cheng believed that his important female client was not someone who spoke without reason.
Thinking about this, his back suddenly felt cold.
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