The ants continued to crawl along the road and we followed right behind them. Although they seemed to be crawling as fast as they could, it was still very slow compared to our walking speed. We held our breaths whenever they crossed the street, afraid that they might get squished by the passing cars. If they all get killed, then we might as well throw in our towels because the murderer might never be found.

The ants naturally had no notion of traffic rules and what traffic lights were, so we unavoidably violated more than a few traffic laws and jumped a few red lights just by following them. Xiaotao had to stop other cars in their tracks to avoid squishing the ants. We were even stopped by a few traffic police officers, but Xiaotao merely had to show her badge and explain that we were investigating a murder case and we were let off without any further questions.

Fortunately, the vehicles on the road were few because it was getting late into the night. By then, the ants had been crawling for three hours. It was...