The next day, Zhang Fan went to the automatic restaurant to find the cockroach.

He was certain the cockroach was dead; after being exposed to such a large dose of insecticide and circulating it overnight, it was impossible for any insect to survive.

The problem is that the three girls are determined to see Xiaoqiang alive or dead. They refuse to enter the restaurant or eat any food taken from it until they find Xiaoqiang's body.

This is a big problem.

"This is breakfast today, aren't you all going to eat?"

"How do we know if cockroaches have eaten these? What if they laid their eggs on them?"

"Okay, if you guys aren't going to eat, then I'll eat first. I'm not afraid."

"If you eat any food that cockroaches have crawled on, don't even think about talking to us again!"

"Ah, this..."

By nightfall, the girls were so hungry that they lay sprawled out in various places in the main control room.

The melting of the Martian south polar ice cap and the eruption of Olympus Mons failed to damage the "Bird's Nest" base in the slightest, yet it was driven to the brink of destruction by a tiny insect.

Finally, Zhang Fan was forced to take a desperate gamble, so he retrieved tools from the maintenance bay and disassembled everything in the restaurant that could be taken apart, carefully inspected it, and then moved it to another location.

Using this most honest but absolutely effective method, they finally found the dead cockroach in the gap between two compressed wooden boards.

At the insistence of the three girls, Zhang Fan, treating Xiaoqiang's body with the same level of care as a biological weapon, took it to the research chamber.

In the following days, the pressure chamber at the entrance of the "Bird's Nest" base was modified to have a disinfection function.

Every time an astronaut enters the "Bird's Nest," they must undergo a thorough disinfection and cleaning in the pressure chamber, following the standards for returning from a plague-contaminated area.

Now, not a single insect can sneak in anymore!

After dealing with the cockroach, Zhang Fan was figuring out how to deal with the larva. Telling the three girls about it at this stage was obviously inappropriate, so Zhang Fan had to do it alone.

During the day, Zhang Fan strolled around the "Bird's Nest" base a few times, seemingly taking a leisurely walk.

The route he took was the same one where he had previously repaired or replaced parts. Since he came with a specific problem, he also noticed many unusual things:

There are traces of biological activity outside the "Bird's Nest" base.

Just like Earth, Mars experiences fluctuations in atmospheric temperature and also has its own ice ages.

Liao Changtian said that the warming and humidity caused by the eruption of Mount Olympus may have awakened cockroaches that were hiding underground to avoid the Martian "ice age".

Insects are often particularly active on nights after rain, and this is for the same reason.

If we start from detonating Mount Olympus, based on the cockroaches' activity range, they should have reached the "Bird's Nest" base by now.

Zhang Fan couldn't stay outside searching for cockroaches forever, so he had to use the old method to deal with them—

To administer the medicine.

Making poison bait is simple. Prepare boric acid, onions, flour, sugar, etc. Chop the onions into small pieces, add water in several batches, mixing well after each addition. Knead all the ingredients into a dough. Boric acid is available at most pharmacies, and the other ingredients can be found in your kitchen.

This is an environmentally friendly bait strongly recommended by the "Homemakers' Union Environmental Protection Foundation." Just from the name of this foundation, you can see how much women hate cockroaches.

Zhang Fan prepared 30 poison baits inside the research module and deployed them around the base, focusing on areas that had previously been repaired.

On Mars, the effects of poison bait don't last long. If there's no success after one night, you'll have to think of other methods.

Hopefully, it will be fruitful.

The next day, Zhang Fan walked alone along the route where he had placed the poisoned bait the day before. The bait had dried out overnight, and the powder clumps crumbled when squeezed.

1, 2, 3, 4...

When Zhang Fan reached the location where the 22nd poison bait was placed, he stopped and stared intently.

This should be it, right?

When insects are unusually large, they can cause discomfort.

This was the first time Zhang Fan had ever found Xiao Qiang so disgusting.

A tiny cockroach, no bigger than a palm, lay motionless on its back in front of him.

Zhang Fan determined that it was a larva.

With a large head and a small body, it doesn't look like an adult insect at all.

Zhang Fan used a shovel to put the dead cockroach into a black sealed bag. After searching the remaining poison bait without success, he returned to the "Bird's Nest" base.

That evening, the video communication location between Mars and Earth was changed from the main control room to the research module. Liao Changtian did not appear on the communication screen; instead, a group of elderly men and women appeared on it.

Zhang Fan set up four cameras around the control panel and turned on the fill lights.

"Oh my God! It's so beautiful!" The moment the camera connected, the elderly people crowded in front of the screen, exclaiming in amazement and excitement.

"This is a masterpiece of natural selection!"

"This is powerful proof of Darwin's theory of evolution!"

"Oh my god, it's still a baby! If only it were alive!"

"What a wonderful little thing!"

A bunch of perverts!

Zhang Fan was speechless.

Is it true that becoming a top expert in a certain field depends not only on the necessary knowledge base, but also on the degree of passion for the subject of study?

The group of elderly people on the other side of the screen are some of the top biologists and entomologists on Earth today.

"Dear teachers, I must remind you, we only have one hour." Zhang Fan, already fully equipped with protective gear and holding a scalpel, asked, "What do you want me to do? Where should we begin?"

“Let’s start with the small ones,” an old lady said. “I want to know about its respiratory system.”

"Xiao Zhang, make the incision a little to the left, so you don't damage its digestive system..."

"Yes, yes, please zoom in a bit, I can't see clearly." An old man put on his reading glasses, stared wide-eyed at the screen, and squinted, looking quite comical.

"Oh, I see, so that's how it is!" As the autopsy proceeded, the elderly couple in front of the screen were completely absorbed, their only emotions being surprise and cheers; this was their world.

"How could I not have thought of that? My previous research direction was completely wrong!"

"Oh, is that so... it's that simple?"

"Who could have imagined this if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes?"

"Fungal carpet! It's fungal carpet! I should have known!" An old man excitedly grabbed his hair. "Even ants cultivate fungi as food!"

"Where does the fungal carpet get its nutrients?" an old lady asked. "Are there natural fungi underground on Mars?"

“Of course not.” The old man shook his head and replied, “We can define ‘Xiao Bao’s’ role as a ‘worker cockroach’. It transforms other substances, such as ores, metals, soil, and corpses, into a compound in its digestive system and then spits it out as nutrients for the fungal carpet.”

"Maintaining the microbial mat?"

What are the roles of "worker ants" in ants and "worker bees" in bees?

The other elderly people quickly understood what he meant.

"But how does the fungal carpet perform photosynthesis underground?" an old man asked.

"Judging from the current situation, it's clear that we can't use theories from Earth to define life on Mars," another old man replied. "It's possible that there are fungi that eat cosmic rays, or we could call it 'celestial action'."

"What a beautiful name!" an old lady exclaimed.

"Moreover, judging from 'Dabao's' digestive system, the out-of-control swarm of insects will also eat each other."

"This is a natural thing; on Mars, every resource is precious."

Zhang Fan was speechless the whole time. These old men and women were even more freakish than mutated cockroaches. They were practically trying to make Zhang Fan eat them to taste what mutated cockroaches were like.

Humans have performed countless surgical procedures via video link.

However, this video-based surgical procedure spanning 60 million kilometers will completely alter the history of life evolution on Mars.

This, in turn, changed the history of Earth.