Chen Hao stared at the main plant in the cultivation chamber, his fingers unconsciously tapping the edge of the observation window. The plant had just turned around again, its leaf tips pointing at him, and it paused for about ten seconds before slowly returning to its original position. He didn't call for help or take any video; he simply turned to a new page in his notebook and wrote, "Third turn, time interval approximately two hours and seventeen minutes."

He didn't even look up when Nana came in from the corridor.

“You’ve been standing there for half an hour,” she said.

“It’s watching me,” Chen Hao said. “It’s not moving, it’s turning. The whole plant is adjusting its angle.”

“The water flow deviation is within the allowable range.” Nana walked to the control panel and pulled up the data. “After the last nutrient solution replacement, the metabolic curves of the five culture tanks showed slight fluctuations, but no alarm was triggered.”

"Shocks?" Chen Hao finally looked up. "Which five?"

“b7, c2, d4, E1, and F3 are all newly formed divisions.”

"They are all from the best-looking batches."

Nana nodded. "The light signal of three units has been interrupted for more than forty minutes, and the dissolved oxygen fluctuation exceeds the threshold by thirty-two percent."

Chen Hao closed his notebook and slammed his hand on the workbench. The sound wasn't loud, but Karl poked his head out from the tool shed.

“Don’t tell me we have to do it all over again.” Carl was still holding the syringe cannula in his hand. “I just cleaned the waste tubing yesterday.”

“This isn’t an oxidation issue.” Chen Hao walked over and pointed to the curve on the screen. “Look at this downward trend, doesn’t it look like it’s been eaten up by something?”

Susan then entered the control room, carrying a hot drink. She didn't drink it; instead, she placed it on the table and went to look at the monitoring charts.

“The carbon-nitrogen ratio is unbalanced,” she said. “Too much nitrogen and too little carbon. This isn’t a problem with the nutrient solution; it’s an abnormality in microbial activity.”

Nana immediately pulled up the waste liquid sample analysis report. An unfamiliar gene sequence was highlighted on the screen.

“It’s an unregistered strain,” she said. “It has an 89% similarity to a certain anaerobic bacterium found in deep-sea sediments, and it has the ability to reproduce rapidly. It may enter the system through root incisions.”

“So it’s not sick,” Chen Hao said, stroking his chin. “It’s infected.”

"To be precise, it's an ecological imbalance," Nana corrected. "The original symbiotic flora has been suppressed, and harmful bacteria have taken over, leading to a decrease in energy conversion efficiency."

“Then kill it.” Karl had already walked towards the sterilization cabinet. “High-temperature circulation, full-cabin sterilization, one more time.”

"No," Susan stopped him. "The main plant has just stabilized. If it experiences another drastic environmental change, it will most likely not be able to withstand it."

“But if we don’t clean it up, it’ll die even faster.” Karl glared.

“We can’t solve this problem by brute force,” Susan said calmly. “It’s a closed system, and any intervention will have a chain reaction.”

The room fell silent. Chen Hao paced back and forth, then suddenly stopped.

"Nana, do you have any cases in your database of similar situations? For example... algae blooms in fishponds, or soil microbial imbalances?"

“Yes.” Nana’s eyes flickered slightly. “There are multiple records of closed ecosystem restoration on Earth. A common strategy is to introduce competing microorganisms to suppress the expansion of harmful populations.”

"So it's about using bacteria to treat bacteria?"

"yes."

"Can you find a suitable one?"

“There are three candidate strains in the database. One of them was used in Chapter 658 to purify polluted seawater. It secretes specific peptides that can selectively inhibit the growth of target bacteria without affecting other biological activities.”

"Then let's use it." Chen Hao waved his hand. "Get it done quickly."

“The microinjection device needs to be modified.” Karl looked at the tools in his hand. “A pressure buffer valve needs to be added, otherwise injecting it directly into the culture medium will cause too much disturbance.”

“You’re in charge,” Chen Hao said. “Susan and I will keep an eye on the data changes. Nana will monitor and provide feedback throughout the process.”

The four immediately split up. Carl disassembled the old nozzle and welded a thinner conduit; Susan recalibrated the sensor sensitivity; Nana continuously updated the model's prediction curves; and Chen Hao stayed in front of the main control screen, recording the values ​​every five minutes.

No one said a word when the first injection was given.

The optical signal in slot B7 was already close to flat, but it continued to decline after the injection. Ten minutes passed, and the curve showed no improvement.

"Is the dosage too low?" Chen Hao asked.

“The value calculated according to the model is accurate,” Nana replied. “The delay in reaction may be because the new strain needs to adapt to the environment.”

How long does it take to adjust?

"The longest is seventy-two hours."

“We can’t wait that long.” Carl looked at the other slot. “The E1’s blades are already starting to turn black.”

They decided to administer an additional half dose to C2 and D4. After the second injection, everyone returned to the control room and stared at the screen.

No one spoke, and no one left.

Six hours later, the curve began to change.

First, dissolved oxygen levels rose, followed by a slow increase in the metabolic rate. The light signal in slot B7 flashed again, though faintly, it was indeed active light emission.

"It's alive?" Chen Hao leaned closer to the screen.

“It’s not that it’s alive,” Susan said, looking at the data stream. “It’s that the balance is starting to return. The number of harmful bacteria is decreasing, and the rate of decrease is increasing by one or two percentage points per hour.”

“Positive feedback has been established,” Nana said. “The new strain has formed a stable population, and ecological reshaping is expected to be completed within 24 hours.”

Chen Hao plopped down in the chair, sinking into it completely.

"At least... it wasn't all for nothing."

“It’s not over yet,” Susan cautioned. “We need to develop a long-term management plan, otherwise it will relapse.”

So they held a short meeting early the next morning.

Article 1 of the "Deep Sea Qing No. 1 Farm Ecological Management Rules": Rotate the basic formula of nutrient solution every week to prevent microorganisms from developing adaptation.

Article 2: Establish three buffer culture units to store emergency strains and be ready for inoculation at any time.

Article 3: All operations must be carried out in an inert gas environment to avoid secondary pollution.

Article 4: Three comprehensive tests are conducted daily, and the data is uploaded and backed up synchronously.

Article 5: No one may adjust system parameters without authorization, even if they think "it looks fine".

After the meeting, Carl went to clean the workbench, Susan organized the experimental logs, and Nana entered low-power standby mode but continued to scan in the background.

Chen Hao stood alone in front of the incubation chamber.

The light frequency of the main plant has returned to normal, the new buds are unfurling, and the leaves are swaying gently. He reached out and pressed his hand against the glass; the temperature was a little lower than before.

"Do you even understand what we're doing?" he said in a low voice.

There was no response.

But he noticed that the stem of the main plant moved slightly, as if it were swaying gently.

Thirty minutes later, the alarm went off.

It wasn't a red emergency alert, but a yellow warning sound—a trace amount of abnormal bacteria was detected in tank F5, with a concentration below the threshold, and it had not yet spread.

“It’s newly appeared,” Nana immediately realized. “It doesn’t belong to the previous source of pollution, nor is it in the existing database.”

Chen Hao turned to look at the control panel.

"Location?"

"It adheres to the inner wall of the nutrient tube, near the bend at the outlet."

"Could it have come from another slot?"

"The pipeline isolation is normal, and cross-contamination has been ruled out."

Susan frowned. "This means... the source of the contamination might still be inside the system?"

“Or,” Chen Hao said slowly, “it generates itself.”

“Impossible.” Karl shook his head. “Plants can’t create bacteria out of thin air.”

“But it can change the environment.” Chen Hao stared at the flashing yellow dot. “We added new bacteria, changed the formula, and the temperature and pressure are all changing. Perhaps there are some things that we didn’t anticipate.”

Nana pulled up a 3D structure diagram. The entire farm's pipeline network stretched out like a spider web, with each node labeled with real-time data.

"I recommend immediately isolating F5 and initiating a localized purification process," she said.

"Wait a minute." Chen Hao raised his hand. "Let's take a sample first. I want to see what this thing is."

Karl took a small amount of liquid and placed it into the portable analyzer. Three minutes later, the results came out.

Everyone was stunned.

“This sequence…” Susan read aloud, “has some homology with the host DNA.”

“What do you mean?” Carl asked.

“What I mean is,” Chen Hao slowly sat down, “this fungus may have been ‘cultivated’ by itself.”