HLM -Chapter 1241 Beheading the Ant Queen

As he spent more time living in the castle, Wang Bo gradually developed the same feeling.

The castle was magnificent and ancient, but it sorely lacked any sense of modernity.
Apart from the bedrooms, there were no wooden floors or carpets—just bare marble slabs underfoot. The ceilings had no decoration either, hanging there empty and stark.

In its current state, the castle was livable, but just as Porter had said, living in it like this was a waste. It was like installing a W12 engine in a car whose body was nothing more than an empty shell—an utter waste of resources.

So the very next day, Wang Bo began studying the renovation plans Wendy had designed for the castle.

This renovation was a massive project and might take a full year to complete, because it wasn’t just interior decoration—many structural adjustments were involved as well.

For example, the castle had no garage. Cars were usually parked in the inner or outer courtyard. But Porter felt that using the outer courtyard for parking was far too wasteful; it could instead be transformed into a golf course and landscaped gardens.

So he designed an underground parking garage carved into the mountainside, hollowing out part of the mountain’s interior. This garage would extend further back toward Lake Hāwea, and at the entrance a private dock could be built, seamlessly integrating the mountain, the lake, and the castle into a single complex.

After seeing the 3D renderings, Wang Bo was immediately tempted. On top of that, the renovated castle would include a children’s playroom—something he urgently needed now that he had kids.

Eva and Father Bo and Mother Bo were also very satisfied after seeing the designs, so they began a major move.

Porter’s suggestion was actually not to move at all—just keep living in the castle. It was huge, after all, and the renovations would be done zone by zone. They could simply switch living areas as work progressed.

But Wang Bo saw that the villa district had already been put into use, and he had reserved one villa for himself. So he decided they might as well move there as a family. With fifteen or sixteen rooms, it was more than enough for all of them.

This villa district wasn’t the ultra-luxurious kind. It was more like a standard countryside resort. When Wang Bo and Porter first built it, they hadn’t foreseen that Sunset Town would develop into New Zealand’s number-one town within just a few years.

At the time, they believed that even if they built a super-luxury villa district, it wouldn’t sell. It was better to sell the scenery, to sell the charm of Sunset Town—letting the villas hide among the mountains and forests.

Still, compared to the castle, moving into this villa was like stepping straight out of the Middle Ages and into the 21st century.

The villa covered an area of 5,000 square meters and included sixteen bedrooms, an outdoor marble swimming pool, five indoor bathrooms, an office, a reception room, two dining rooms, a bowling alley, and a private cinema with twenty seats.

That alone was already extravagant, but underground there was also a wine cellar. Near the edge of Lake Hāwea was a terrace with a huge swimming pool, equipped with four automatic massage chairs inside the pool.

Lying in the water, one could gaze out over the vast blue waves of Lake Hāwea, where water and sky blended into one—pure indulgence and comfort.

After the rooms were assigned, everyone was excited at first. Father Bo and Mother Bo were especially satisfied; they had never lived in such a luxurious house before.

But soon, some small problems began to surface.

As Father Bo and Mother Bo toured the villa, they kept exclaiming,

“Wow, this renovation is amazing—must’ve cost a fortune!”

“Hey, the living room is all gold-colored! What do you call this? Pure nouveau riche!”

Little Bartier sat calmly on the sofa reading a book. Wang Bo asked him, “Little Bartier, what do you think?”

The boy glanced at him and answered honestly, “Not as good as the castle.”

Wang Bo burst out laughing. The kid was perceptive. The castle had a Level-Three Castle Heart anchoring it, while this place only had a Level-One Residential Heart. It really couldn’t compare.

This villa was lavish on the surface but lacked depth. Porter had warned him back then that decorating it this way wouldn’t be ideal.

But Wang Bo had insisted, because the castle itself had almost no decoration or modern amenities. So he had decided to make this villa fully modern in style.

Little Bartier had seen plenty of places like this. No matter how luxurious the villa was, it was still far inferior to his family’s mansions in Auckland and Wellington.

After everyone finished touring, more small issues emerged:

“A house can’t be left unoccupied for too long. Look—there are termites here.”

“Oh no, there are termites in the guest room too. What’s going on?”

“Come to the kitchen—there are even more ants here. Wasn’t any ant extermination done during construction?” Little Hani said.

If they wanted to move in, the first thing they had to do was eliminate the ants—especially termites. They could hollow out wooden furniture, beams, and walls, making them a major household menace.

In Wang Bo’s view, small ants were easy to kill and not particularly resilient. But the problem was that the ant queen—her majesty—could reproduce like crazy.

On the first day, they cleaned out every last ant. Wang Bo even bought insecticide spray and thoroughly treated every area where ants had appeared.

But when he came home from work the next day, he discovered ant colonies had reappeared inside the house!

“Could there be an ant queen nearby?” everyone asked, staring at one another.

Wang Bo went to ask the neighbors. People nearby had also suffered from ant infestations before, but they had all resolved the problem.

So Wang Bo humbly asked how they dealt with ants—and received all kinds of answers.

Blocking small holes with toothpaste, sprinkling baking soda along ant trails, placing mothballs around the house, washing floors with detergent and bleach, even using all sorts of strange spices.

Armed with these folk remedies, Wang Bo went home and started experimenting with Dale.

But none of it worked. The ants were wiped out during the day, only to return tirelessly the next day—and this time, it was mostly termites. Ordinary ants were rarely seen anymore.

Wang Bo went back to consult the neighbors again, only to hear that they had only ever encountered ordinary ants, not termites…

Now things got serious. He finally confirmed that there was a damned termite nest beneath his villa. In his mind’s eye, he could see a termite queen tirelessly producing little termites to wreak havoc on his house.

Left with no choice, he consulted his subordinates. When Anderson heard about it, he sent over a bottle labeled “Beheading the Ant Queen.”

The name alone was intimidating. Wang Bo asked, “Does it really work?”

Anderson replied confidently, “Of course. Absolutely. This small bottle can destroy an entire ant nest. It’s low-toxicity and has no side effects on humans or pets.”

Wang Bo took it home and sprinkled it in several corners of the house according to Anderson’s instructions. Two days later, not a single termite appeared.

This stuff was practically a miracle drug. Wang Bo went back to ask Anderson how it worked.

Anderson explained, “The principle is simple. Borax is mixed into a sweet, sticky solution, and its scent attracts the worker ants to carry it away.”

“Worker ants are diligent and honest. When they find something tasty, they’ll never keep it for themselves. They always carry it back to the nest and regurgitate it for the queen to eat.”

“But the substance itself is toxic. Once the queen consumes enough of it, the accumulated borax poisons her. During this process, worker ants also keep dying off. In the end, the entire colony is naturally wiped out.”