The fire had just died down when Chen Hao was still squatting there staring at the half-wet, half-dry fish, when he suddenly heard a rustling sound outside.

He looked up, and Nana had already turned around, her optical eyes scanning the cave entrance.

"Thirty-one live animal movement signals were detected, with a speed of 3.7 meters per second and a direction directly towards the planting area."

"What?" Chen Hao was taken aback. "Who dares to touch my carrot?"

He scrambled out, ignoring the smoke still rising from his shoes. The rain had just stopped, the ground was wet, and a sour, rotten smell filled the air. But before he could even steady himself, he saw a grayish-white shadow darting about in the field—it was the group of rabbits he had once fenced in but which had later escaped.

Right now, they are collectively munching on the carrot seedlings he painstakingly planted, some even digging up the roots and crunching away happily.

"Damn it!" Chen Hao grabbed a broom leaning against the rock wall and charged over. "You bunch of bastards have learned to take revenge, huh!"

He chased after them with his broom, and the rabbits scattered and fled, but he was panting heavily after only a few steps, his fat body swaying unsteadily, unable to stop the few agile rabbits at all. One with big ears even circled around his feet, almost tripping him.

"You fucking know how to walk people around?" He jumped up and down in anger. "Yesterday, acid rain ruined my pottery jars, and today you guys come to ruin my vegetable garden? Are we taking turns bullying each other?"

When Nana followed him out, he was already exhausted and collapsed in the mud, still clutching half a broom handle in his hand.

“I suggest stopping this pointless consumption.” She crouched down, and the robotic arm deployed a miniature projection. “Their behavior patterns do not conform to random foraging characteristics.”

"What does that mean? Are they doing it on purpose?"

“Trajectory analysis shows that this group of rabbits traveled back and forth along the same path five times in the past seventeen minutes, and each time they stopped at a point three meters to the east on the hard soil.” She pulled up a set of data charts, “and… they were trampling.”

Chen Hao wiped the mud off his face: "Why are you stepping on me? Are you stepping on my heart?"

“No.” Nana stood up and looked at a thicket of thorns in the distance. “They’re marking the location of a water source.”

"ha?"

"The abnormal soil moisture gradient and the ring-shaped vegetation distribution, combined with animal behavior models, suggest the existence of a closed aquifer underground. The rabbits' repeated compaction of the ground may be in preparation for subsequent excavation."

Chen Hao paused for a few seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing: "You mean... they're not here to steal vegetables, but to dig a well?"

"To be more precise, they are guiding their kind to obtain resources. The carrots you planted just happened to grow on the seepage line, which attracted their attention."

Chen Hao looked at the ravaged land and gritted his teeth: "So I've become a free gardener? Planting something to guide you?"

“The logic holds true,” Nana said calmly. “Besides, they discovered the value of this area before you did.”

"..."

Chen Hao silently threw the broom into the mud.

“Alright.” He patted his pants and stood up. “Since they’re so capable, then lead the way and let’s see. If there really is water, I’ll treat them to a cup—I’ll use them to make soup.”

The two followed the direction in which the rabbit herd had last disappeared. The thicket of thorns was dense, the branches bark and snapping against their clothes. Chen Hao grumbled and cursed all the way, stopping every few steps to tug at his trouser leg.

"Why is this place full of prickly things?" He looked down at his calves. "I'm practically a hedgehog now."

“The plants in this area have evolved physical defense mechanisms to resist being eaten by highly active insects.” As Nana parted the vines, she released a drone the size of a fingernail. It silently glided into the low sky and flew along the tiny claw marks on the ground.

A few minutes later, the data was transmitted back.

"We've confirmed a continuous vibration signal 30 centimeters underground, with a frequency that matches the friction of water against the rock." Nana stopped. "Five meters ahead, there's a cavity structure beneath the rock strata."

"Really?" Chen Hao brushed aside a pile of dead leaves, revealing a gray-black stone slab. "This is it?"

"The probability is 89.6%."

"Then what are we waiting for?" He bent down and picked up a sharp stone. "Let's dig."

At first, they could only dig with their hands, but later they found a piece of scrap metal to use as a shovel, which they managed to pry away at the surface gravel. The deeper they went, the wetter the soil became, and a faint damp smell began to rise in the air.

"I'm starting to feel it," Chen Hao said, panting. "Give it a try."

Nana used the robotic arm to stabilize the loose rocks at the edges to prevent a collapse. Just as they had dug to a depth of about half a meter, a muffled thud came from below.

"Watch out!" Nana suddenly pulled him back.

The next second, a thin crack opened, and a stream of clear water gushed out, splashing Chen Hao's face.

He froze, reached out and took a handful, then brought it close to his nose and smelled it.

"No smell...and it's clean?"

"Preliminary tests show a neutral pH and microbial levels below the drinking water standard limit," Nana said after the scan. "This is uncontaminated groundwater."

Chen Hao froze for a few seconds, then suddenly threw his head back and burst into laughter: "Hahaha! I've struck gold! I'm the richest man on this desolate planet!"

He turned and tried to run back: "I need to go back and get a bucket! And bottles! Jars will do! Even chamber pots will do!"

“No need,” Nana said, pointing to a spot not far away. “They’re back.”

The group of rabbits had gathered around the pit at some point, standing quietly. The gray rabbit that led the group even took two steps forward and twitched its nose slightly.

"Oh, now you're playing innocent again?" Chen Hao said, hands on his hips. "Why weren't you this well-behaved when you were stealing my vegetables?"

Nana suddenly spoke up: "They gnaw on carrots, not for the food itself."

"ah?"

"Carrot roots are rich in potassium ions, which are extremely rare in dry topsoil. Rabbits use their sense of smell to locate areas with high mineral content, and then find water sources below. Your planting behavior inadvertently provides them with exploration coordinates."

Chen Hao opened his mouth: "So...they're not thieves, they're a geological team?"

The analogy holds true.

He looked down at the bubbling clear water, then at the group of quiet rabbits, his expression changing several times.

Finally, he rummaged through his backpack and pulled out the last intact carrot, squatted down, and slowly handed it to the gray rabbit that was leading the pack.

The rabbit sniffed it but didn't eat it.

"Alright then." Chen Hao put the carrot on the ground. "Consider it a debt I owe you. From now on, you can come and step on this land whenever you want—but don't eat it all, leave some for me to make soup."

The gray rabbit blinked, took a bite of carrot, then turned and hopped a few steps before suddenly kicking the ground hard with its hind legs, kicking up a clump of wet soil.

"Hey! You're kicking me again?" Chen Hao dodged backward.

Nana immediately raised her hand to write: "Repeat the movement, increasing the force by forty percent. This is not playing around."

She quickly approached the pit and scanned it with a detector: "The underground cavity is expanding, and the water flow speed has increased by 22 percent. Their kick just now may have triggered some kind of structural loosening."

Before he finished speaking, a slight tremor came from beneath his feet.

Immediately afterwards, a nearby boulder cracked open with a "crack," and an even larger stream of water shot into the sky, forming a small fountain.

Chen Hao was dumbfounded: "They can even do blasting operations?"

“It wasn’t an explosion.” Nana stared at the direction of the water flow. “It was a dredging operation. These rabbits have been living here for a long time and are familiar with the distribution of underground fissures. The spot where they just stepped was right above the blockage point.”

The spring water gushed out more and more, soon forming a stream that flowed down the slope to the lower ground.

"My God..." Chen Hao murmured, "These rabbits are practically a wild water conservancy engineering team."

He stood by the spring, covered in mud and water, his hair dripping wet, but his face was beaming with joy.

"I knew raising rabbits was much better than growing vegetables." He patted the gray rabbit's head. "From now on, you'll be the foreman. Your wages will be paid by the carrot, and overtime pay will be calculated separately for a handful of grass."

The gray rabbit flicked its ears, hopped to the water's edge, took a sip, then glanced back at him, as if to say: **This was originally our territory.**

Nana crouched down to collect a water sample. The robotic arm operated deftly, and she suddenly said softly, "The water contains trace amounts of silicates, which may help with bone metabolism and repair if consumed long-term."

As Chen Hao wrung out the water from his clothes, he casually asked, "Can you drink some too? To get some iron?"

“I don’t need to drink water,” she said, “but I can help you store it.”

“Indeed.” He smiled and looked up at the sky. “This rain wasn’t all for nothing. At least it made us see clearly—sometimes when the enemy goes around in circles, they’re actually showing you the way.”

He bent down, scooped up a handful of water, and took a sip.

It's refreshing and goes down your throat smoothly, with a hint of sweetness.

“To be honest,” he wiped his mouth, “I never thought I would thank a bunch of rabbits one day.”

The gray rabbit then slowly walked to his feet, raised its front paw, and gently placed it on his shoe.

Chen Hao lowered his head and smiled.

"What, you want a raise?"

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly noticed that a section of the soil downstream had been washed away, revealing a strange, curved stone wall with a smooth surface, clearly not formed naturally.

"What is that?" he asked, squinting.

Nana immediately glided over and scanned with her beam: "The material is similar to ceramic, with a radius of curvature of 3.2 meters. It is preliminarily judged to be a remnant of a man-made structure."

"Artificial?" Chen Hao's eyes widened. "There's something else down there?"

“The probability has risen to seventy-six.” Nana continued probing. “The structure extends northwest and is estimated to be more than ten meters deep.”

Chen Hao swallowed hard and looked at the group of rabbits.

They had all jumped into the depths of the thorns, leaving only the gray rabbit behind, quietly watching him.

"Do you... know more?" he asked in a low voice.

The gray rabbit didn't move, but simply stomped its foot lightly.

The ground trembled slightly.

The next second, the soil collapsed at the edge of the stream not far away, and a dark, gloomy hole slowly appeared.