[Skyler, you're getting increasingly misbehaved, and you dare to lie to me. I'm angry and I'm going to punish you.]
Skyler puffed up his cheeks, a defiant glimmer in his eyes, [I've been good, and it's you who's been naughty. You are a real meanie.]
No way was he going to hand over the antidote to Geoffrey. That was his secret concoction, something he prided himself on creating.
All day long, he had been on high alert, guarding his precious Orchid and Rose from Geoffrey's vile critters.
Upon waking the next morning and seeing the Orchid and Rose unscathed behind the bug net, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He was about to freshen up and grab breakfast when his bodyguard burst in, panic in his voice, "Trouble, Mr. Skyler. Some kind of pest invaded the garden overnight. They've stripped the flowers bare."
A sharp twinge of panic shot through Skyler as he dashed downstairs.
The flowerbed was a sight of desolation.
Lush leaves that once thrived were now gnawed to the stem, leaving nothing but skeletal remains.
Around the beds lay many moth carcasses, piled upon one other, sending a shiver down his spine.
The night shift had been covered by Martin, Rowland, and Jason.
Rowland recalled, "Last night, I noticed a bunch of odd little moths around the garden lamps. So, I called Martin over to spray some insecticide around the lamps and the yard perimeter. The moths vanished, so we turned off the lamps to prevent attracting more. Theoretically, those moths should be dead. How could they have eaten the flowers?"
Tears welled up in Skyler's eyes. He had planted those flowers with his own hands, and they were his friends.
Picking up a moth carcass with tweezers, he examined it closely.
"This is a mutated noctuid moth, only one-eighth the size of regular ones. Ordinary pesticides won't kill them, they just knock them out. But these moths live for only a day. After emerging, they enter a feeding frenzy, laying eggs like crazy."
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