The wind had just stopped when Chen Hao was squatting on the edge of the field picking sand out of his shoes. Just as he slipped his fingers inside the shoe, he heard Nana say, "The swarm signal has disappeared."
He paused, then looked up at her.
"What?"
“Within a two-kilometer radius, all bee activity ceased. The hive temperature dropped, and there were no records of entry or exit, lasting for thirty-seven minutes.” Nana stood to the side, her optical eyes flashing slightly, as if retrieving some data. “Based on behavioral model deduction, they collectively left.”
Chen Hao shook his shoes off, put them back on, and frowned: "Let them go, they're not even relatives of mine, why do I have to hold a farewell banquet?"
“The bean sprouts you planted yesterday will flower in three days,” Nana said calmly. “Without a pollinator, the flowers won’t bear fruit.”
"..."
He stood up, brushed the dirt off his pants, and looked utterly helpless, as if betrayed by fate: "I braved the rain yesterday to sow seeds, and you thought I was just doing it for fun? And now you're telling me it was all for nothing?"
"To be precise, it means we're about to work for nothing."
Chen Hao rolled his eyes and walked towards the beehive. It was a makeshift nest built from broken wooden boxes and sheet metal, hanging on a crooked tree branch, covered with a layer of mud for wind protection. He looked closer and saw that it was empty, without even a trace of bee droppings.
"These little bastards, they ran away without even saying goodbye?" He reached inside and felt around, pulling out a dried beeswax residue. "They're not even going to keep their belongings?"
Nana scanned the internal structure: "The concentration of residual honey sugar is abnormally high, suggesting the presence of a stronger attraction source."
"Stronger? Stronger than my handmade honey? I've been feeding them premium white sugar all along!"
"Their current goal is probably to have more than three times the amount of natural sugars."
Where can I find this kind of flower?
"3.2 kilometers southeast, in a valley area. Thermal imaging shows a sudden increase in plant density, and spectral analysis matches an unknown orchid species."
Chen Hao sighed, plopped down on the ground, and leaned against a tree trunk: "I just finished planting, and my feet are still hurting. Now I have to climb a mountain? Can't you insects have some kind of physical fitness management system?"
“Okay,” Nana said, “but if you don’t come, there won’t be a harvest next year.”
He stared at the sky, his eyes vacant: "I'm too lazy to even pretend to be desperate anymore. Can't we just go straight to accepting our fate?"
"No." She handed him a water bottle. "Get some water and get ready to go."
"You're the least empathetic robot out there."
"I am the only one."
Chen Hao hesitated for a while before finally standing up. The two walked southeast along the edge of the field, passing through a protective belt that had been torn apart by the wind, their feet sinking into bits of grass and broken ropes. When they reached the thorny slope, a wave of heat hit them, the air feeling like it had been baked through a tin shed, making their throats dry with every breath.
"This place is getting more and more like a barbecue grill." Chen Hao wiped his sweat, his t-shirt sticking to his back. "Do you think those flowers are possessed, deliberately choosing this time to lure the bees?"
“It’s more likely that they’ve evolved an efficient trapping mechanism.” Nana activated navigation mode, leading him around a collapsed area. “The high-sugar nectar attracts pollinators, but the release of neurotoxins inhibits their ability to return to the nest, achieving one-way capture.”
"It doesn't sound like a flower blooming, but more like a scam to butcher pigs."
"The analogy is appropriate."
Chen Hao rolled his eyes: "You robots talk about ecology like you're talking about financial fraud."
The slope was incredibly steep; Chen Hao would take two steps, rest for five seconds, and finally resorted to using all four limbs. Nana used her robotic arm to support his shoulders and forcefully pulled him up. Once they reached the top, the view opened up dramatically, revealing a narrow valley with a dry riverbed flanked by rock walls on either side, and at the bottom—
A sea of crimson flowers spread out, dense and layered, like someone had spilled a bucket of paint.
"Wow," Chen Hao gasped, "it's actually quite good-looking."
"Don't come any closer." Nana grabbed his wrist. "Trace amounts of volatile organic compounds have been detected in the air, preliminarily identified as precursors to neuroleptic inhibitors."
How poisonous is it?
"For insects, it causes paralysis; for mammals, long-term exposure may lead to cognitive impairment and muscle tremors."
Chen Hao shrank back: "Then let's get out of here quickly. I'm not very smart to begin with, and if I get any dumber, I'll be really useless."
“We need to collect samples.” Nana took out a sealed container and sampling forceps from the back hatch. “You stay here, I’m going down.”
"Bullshit, you're leaving me here all alone? What if the location changes?"
"Won't."
"You'll forget about me! Last time I said I was hungry, you finished clearing the area and left, leaving me to eat compressed biscuits by myself!"
“You ate three pieces that time, which was 20 percent over the recommended calorie limit.”
"That's just emotional comfort! Don't they understand human emotional needs?!"
Nana ignored him, activating a miniature shield that created a low-energy barrier in front of her, blocking the oncoming pollen stream. Chen Hao followed closely behind, and the two descended along the edge of the rock face. The closer they got to the flower bushes, the stronger the scent became.
"This smell..." Chen Hao covered his nose, "It smells like rotten bananas soaked in medicine."
"Correction: Similar to rotten citrus mixed with ammonia, with trace amounts of sulfides."
"Your description is even more disgusting."
They stopped about ten meters from the flowerbed. Nana extended her robotic arm, used sampling forceps to cut off a small petal, and quickly sealed it into a jar. At the same time, the drone's probe popped out from its shoulder, hovering and photographing the root structure.
“It has been confirmed as a variant of the orchid family, an unregistered species,” she reported in a low voice. “Its roots extend four meters underground and coexist with basalt fissures, suggesting that it uses mineral elements to synthesize toxins.”
"So it doesn't rely on soil nutrients, but lives off the rocks?"
"precise."
Chen Hao stared at the sea of flowers and suddenly asked, "Where are the bees?"
Nana activated the thermal projection, and a dozen faint red dots were displayed on the hologram, concentrated in the center of the flower bushes.
“They’re still here,” she said, “but their activity is extremely low, their flight paths are erratic, and some have already crashed.”
"They... won't wake up?"
"The nervous system has been disrupted, making it unable to recognize the homing route. Without intervention, it will die of dehydration within 48 hours."
Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, then scratched his head: "Can we save them?"
"No. But we can stop the spread."
He glanced at the struggling red dots, then at the dazzling sea of flowers before him, and suddenly grinned: "Tell me, if I pluck these flowers, would I be considered a hero who saves the bees?"
"Calculate the ecological damage sample."
"Can I just step on it twice instead of pulling it out?"
"It still affects data integrity."
"Then what do you want me to do? Just stand here and watch them all get wiped out?"
"We need to know its reproductive methods and whether it has the ability to spread across species."
Chen Hao sighed and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket—a planting diagram he had drawn last night, which had been soaked by rain and had blackened and curled edges.
"I even got my farming blueprints wet, and now I have to write an observation diary for a poisonous flower?" He folded it up and stuffed it back into his pocket. "Fine, it's not like this is the first time I've done something meaningless."
Nana continued sampling while releasing tracking particles to mark the direction of airflow. Chen Hao squatted beside her, watching the petals tremble gently in the wind, and suddenly felt something was wrong.
"Wait," he said, "did this flower... move?"
"Plants have no ability to move independently."
"But just now... it seemed to tilt slightly towards me."
Nana immediately turned the camera to the nearest orchid. The image zoomed in, showing the stem swaying slightly and the stamens opening and closing gently, as if breathing.
“Impossible.” Her tone was unusually serious. “This is not a normal physiological reaction.”
"Could it be... conscious?"
"Rule it out. But there may be a sensing mechanism that responds to external vibrations or changes in gas composition."
Chen Hao slowly took a step back: "Then...shouldn't we be standing so close?"
Nana puts away the equipment: "Sample acquired, evacuate."
The two quickly retraced their steps, and just as they reached the top of the slope, a muffled thud came from behind them, like something heavy had fallen. Chen Hao looked back and saw that where they had just stood, the soil around the roots of several orchids had cracked, and their stems were slowly turning in the direction they had left.
"Am I seeing things?" His voice was strained. "It... turned its head to follow us?"
Nana didn't answer and quickened her pace.
Back on level ground, Chen Hao remained silent the entire way until he crossed the protective fence and reached the outer warehouse area of the base, where he finally stopped to catch his breath. As dusk settled, the entrance to the distant cave was hidden in the twilight, resembling a half-open mouth.
Nana connected the sealed container to the testing platform, the screen lit up, and the data stream scrolled rapidly.
"Toxin type confirmed: acetylcholinesterase inhibitor variant," she read. "It can be spread through pollen and root exudates, and potential hosts include hymenoptera, lepidopterans, and some arthropods."
"Does that mean it's very poisonous and contagious?"
"yes."
Chen Hao sat down against the wall, still clutching the sealed jar in his hand, his knuckles white.
"If all the bees die, other insects will suffer too... Then will even the birds have nothing to eat? Then the rats will disappear, the snakes will starve, and finally it will be my turn?"
"Ecosystem collapses typically do not proceed linearly, but localized chain breaks can indeed occur."
"So now I'm not just a farmer, but also an ecological protector?"
"You're the only one who can weed manually now."
He smiled bitterly: "I thought the worst thing would be not being able to grow any crops, but I didn't expect that what's even worse is that even if I do grow them, there's no one to help me pollinate them."
Nana was adjusting the equipment when she suddenly said, "Spore activity has been detected."
"What?"
"Microspores, eight micrometers in diameter, exist in the air and have the ability to attach to flying insects. If not blocked in time, they may spread to other areas with the wind."
Chen Hao suddenly looked up: "Including here?"
"It cannot be ruled out."
He stood up, looked at the quiet farmland in the distance, and then glanced at the purplish-red petal in the sealed jar in his hand.
"So the question now is not 'whether to intervene,' but 'how to intervene'?"
Nana nodded: "I suggest we develop a cleanup plan immediately and establish a containment zone."
Chen Hao took a deep breath, placed the jar in his hand on the table, and made a soft sound.
“Burn these samples first,” he said. “Then—”
Before he could finish speaking, the sealed jar on the table suddenly vibrated.
Both of them stared at it at the same time.
Inside the jar, a thin stream of clear liquid slowly seeped from the edge of the petal, sliding down the glass wall like a tear.
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