I am the rise of an empire of ants

Chapter 9: The Swan That Becomes an Ugly Duckling
So Huang Huang then told Tangtang a story about "The Ugly Duckling". He told Tangtang how pitiful the ugly duckling was at first, lonely and rejected by its peers everywhere, but it never gave up its desire for life. After hard work, it finally Transforming from an ugly duck into an elegant and beautiful white swan... As he talked, he was moved by the scene he described.

As expected, Tangtang listened with her mouth open all the time, without making a sound.

After the story was finished, Huang Huang took a careful look at Tang Tang and asked, "Did you understand the story?"

Tangtang replied in a ignorant manner: "I seem to understand... Isn't it the story of a duck turning into a swan!"

"En", Huang Huang nodded in satisfaction, expressing his affirmation of Tangtang's understanding.He was afraid that since Tangtang had never seen ducks and swans, he would not understand what he was talking about!
He just wanted to explain the moral of the story to Tangtang, but Tangtang said to him: "Your story is meaningless, is it fun for one animal to become another animal? What if it becomes a swan? Willing to be an ant!"

Huang Huang was stunned for a moment, Tangtang's words made his heart tighten.He told Tangtang the story of "The Ugly Duckling" to tell him not to give up hope, as long as he perseveres, maybe he will turn around like an ugly duckling.Who knew that Tangtang's words made him sad now. Isn't this experience in his body the scene of the story of "The Ugly Duckling" reappearing?It's just that the movie was played upside down, and the beautiful white swan turned into an ugly duckling again.

He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.After a while, he asked Tangtang a little melancholy: "If you could become a human one day, would you be happy?"

Without even thinking about it, Tangtang replied with certainty: "What's there to be happy about? I was originally an ant, and I just want to live the life of an ant. What's the point of becoming a human?"

Huang Huang was speechless.Yes, if there is a choice, who wants to be forced to change by others?Tangtang's words are right, no matter how miserable and tiring an ant's life is, as long as it is the life it wants, it will still feel very happy.As for himself, he didn't have the right to make such a choice at all, and somehow became an ant. From this aspect, he felt that Tangtang was much happier than himself.

Only then did he suddenly realize that his original thoughts about Tangtang were all wrong, he shouldn't change Tangtang, and it should decide on its own path.And all I can do is to encourage and support me as a friend.

He fixed his eyes on Tangtang, and asked it softly, "Then do you still want to be a soldier ant?"

Tangtang replied firmly: "I think, even if my mother looks down on me, I will not waver in my determination. This is my long-standing dream, and I will not give up. I will work hard at the autumn martial arts competition, If it fails, I will be an ordinary worker ant honestly, and I will have no regrets!"

Huang Huang was moved by Tangtang's words, he only realized now that Tangtang is not so cowardly, he is far stronger than the Tangtang he imagined.He looked at Tangtang, his eyes suddenly got wet.He felt that he was really lucky to know such a friend.

The two of them stopped talking, lying on the ground next to each other.Ants sleep for a short time, and usually they can recover after taking a nap, but because their eyesight is not very good, they all stay in the nest when it gets dark.Most of the time, they are not sleeping, but walking around in the barracks.

The atmosphere in the hall tonight was very abnormal. All the ants were lying quietly on their seats, quietly thinking about their thoughts, and no one whispered to each other.They opened their eyes, looking forward to the day when they could stand up again in the future, and the flames flickered in their eyes.

Huang Huang lay on the ground and fell asleep within a short while. After all, this was his first night in the ant nest. He still retained some human habits. He wanted to sleep when it got dark.So he and Tangtang didn't lie there for a long time, and he fell asleep, sleeping quite deeply.

The next morning, Huang Huang was woken up by Tang Tang.Ants are social animals, and there is a set of strict work and rest rules in the ant nest.Every day as soon as it is dawn, the sentinel will notify the soldier ants on duty that it is dawn and they can go out to find things, and then the soldier ants will notify each battalion management, and the battalion management will lead the soldiers of each battalion to go out for food.

Huanghuang and Tangtang's current positions are camp managers, which are equivalent to team leaders in human society, usually managing eight to ten worker ants.Ants are a social system in which all people are soldiers. These worker ants are responsible for finding food on weekdays, and they will immediately transform into a warrior in wartime, fighting hard together with the soldier ants.

Now both of them are helping in the training ground, they just have a vacant position, and there are no soldiers to bring, but they still have to abide by the rules in the ant nest, so Tangtang saw that the soldier ants on duty announced that it was dawn, Then he quickly woke Huang Huang up.

Huang Huang yawned loudly, and opened his eyes in a daze. The scene in front of him was different from the work shed he was familiar with when he woke up. He was taken aback.Thinking about it carefully, he was turned into an ant yesterday, and now he is in the ant's nest, and his mood immediately began to lose again.

He was lying on the ground alone in a daze, Commander Tian Tian came in with a very strong soldier ant, both ants had a ball of cotton thread in their mouths.

Commander Tiantian is in good spirits, and it seems that the artificial leg has begun to adapt to it, and the limping is not as obvious as it was yesterday when walking.It didn't come to live last night, and went back to its original guard camp to chat with the old subordinates all night. Now that Huang Huang saw it, it was still very excited.

It walked up to Huang Huang, put the cotton thread in its mouth on the ground, and said to Huang Huang a little excitedly: "The queen mother has let me go back. From today, I will move to the guard camp."

Huang Huang smiled and congratulated it.

Commander Tian Tian turned to the soldier ant behind him and introduced to Huang Huang: "This is the Blue Guard of the Guards Camp. I asked him to come and help out temporarily. If you need anything in the future, just call him!"

Commander Tiantian used to be the head of the guard camp, and the queen has always valued him very much.After its leg was injured, although it has been staying in the training ground, the position of the head of the guard battalion has been vacant.This time the queen ant saw that it could walk again, so she tuned it back again.

Huang Huang glanced at the soldier ant introduced by Commander Tiantian, seeing that it looked very simple and easy-going, and it was smiling at him and Tangtang at the moment.

He also nodded to the soldier ant named Lanlan, and then asked Commander Tiantian: "Lu Luchang is in charge, isn't it said that this cotton thread was collected by him? Why did you send it here?"

Commander Tiantian’s expression changed slightly, and then he said perfunctorily: “Lu Luchang has a lot of things in charge, and he doesn’t know much about you, so he doesn’t come here. If you really have something Things, just go find it, it will help you!"

"Oh!" Huang Huang nodded. He didn't realize that he had offended Lu Luchang, and thought that what Commander Tiantian said was true, so he didn't take it to heart.

The wounded soldiers in the hall, when they saw Commander Tian Tian coming in with cotton thread, they all knew that they were going to start legging themselves, and they all scrambled to surround them, fearing that others would preempt them.After a while, the yellow and yellow were surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside. For a while, the scene was very chaotic.

Huang Huang saw that this was not good, if they were all crowded together, they would have to fight.He then suggested to Commander Tiantian: "Tell them, everyone has a share in loading everyone's legs, and tell them not to crowd. The lightly wounded should be loaded first, and the seriously wounded should be loaded after the loading. Only one leg is broken." Those with legs stay first, and the rest go back first."

Commander Tian Tian nodded, turned around and explained a few words to the blue guard, the blue guard nodded to express his understanding, and then passed the words to the person next to him, one after another, after a while, the surrounding All got orders.

Huang Huang knelt there and frowned. This problem, which could have been solved in one or two sentences, took so much time to pass messages to each other. He didn't know why there was such a rule in the ant nest, but it was obvious , this provision is wrong.

The power of habit is very powerful, some things are clearly known to be wrong, but no one is willing to change it.Those who dare to be the first to eat crabs must be great people, but great people often do not necessarily have any good results.Huang Huang thinks that he is not a great person, so he is not willing to violate this rule.

After getting the order, the ants who came forward to watch had different expressions.Some were ecstatic when they heard the news because of minor injuries, while others were depressed when they got the news because of serious injuries.But fortunately, ants are social insects, they have been taught to obey since they were young, so although some ants were dissatisfied, they obediently dispersed.

Huang Huang looked at the remaining ants, there were about [-] ants left, including soldier ants and worker ants, so he told Commander Tiantian: "Go and tell these people to come in order and go to the training ground first." The ones are loaded first, and the ones that come after are lined up in turn."

Commander Tian Tian was stunned for a moment, then he shook his head to express his disapproval: "Let the soldier ants pretend first, they are all elites in the ant nest, the safety of the whole family will depend on them in the future!"

In the ant nest, soldier ants enjoy many privileges. They generally eat better than ordinary worker ants, and they don’t have to work. Sometimes, some soldier ants beat and scold worker ants for no reason, and the leaders of the upper layer of the ant nest also complain about it. Turn a blind eye.

Commander Tian Tian also has his own selfishness in saying this.Among those soldier ants, several are its old subordinates, and they get along well with each other. It has already patted its chest and promised those people that as long as it finds bamboo sticks, it will give them priority in installing prosthetic limbs. Let them stand up like it, so now it desperately speaks for these soldier ants.

(End of this chapter)