Chen Hao had just firmly planted the heel of his new shoes, his feet not yet off the ground, when he heard Nana's voice cut in from the side: "Stop setting off."
His raised leg froze in mid-air, the toe of his shoe three inches off the ground.
"What's wrong? You're not going to say 'low battery' again, are you?"
"The pressure in the underground aquifer has increased by 41 percent, exceeding the safety threshold. The irrigation system has not completed pressure testing, and if its activation is delayed further, it may lead to the collapse of the water source."
Chen Hao looked down at his shoes, then looked up at the sky. There were no clouds in the sky, but he felt an invisible pressure weighing on him.
"So you mean I'm not going to move the grain warehouse, but instead I'll work as a plumber here?"
“Logical priorities have been rearranged.” She pointed to the row of buried diversion pipes by the field. “The system can be started today. The grain depot task can be postponed by six hours; the risk is manageable.”
He sighed, stomped his raised foot heavily back on the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust: "Fine, my life isn't worth much anyway, drowning will at least save me some food."
The two walked to the main control well. The well cover was a round plate carved from spaceship wreckage, with several reinforcing ribs welded to the edges, making it look like a bitten pizza lid. Nana reached out and pushed, and the metal rail clicked open, revealing a dense network of wires and a thick main valve stem.
"Turn on manually, prepare to depressurize," she said.
Chen Hao rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a wrench, and inserted it into the valve handle. He took a deep breath, his shoulders slumped, and he twisted it forcefully.
"Crunch—Squeak—"
The sound of the valve turning was like someone chewing nails.
The water dripped tentatively a few times, then suddenly gushed out a stream of murky mud, splashing all over his face.
"Holy crap! Did this water come from someone's toilet?"
“The initial section contains sediment, which is normal.” Nana pulled up the projection map. “The water flow velocity is stable, and the pressure value has entered the green zone.”
A few seconds later, clear water began to gush out from the branch pipes and flow into the fields along the pre-designed ditches. The tender green seedlings swayed gently as the water washed over them, as if they had finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Chen Hao wiped the mud off his face and grinned, "Look, this counts as ecological agriculture."
He was about to pat Nana on the shoulder to celebrate when she suddenly froze, her optical eyes flashing blue before turning red.
"Warning: Strong electromagnetic pulse intrusion."
Before he could finish speaking, a burst of sparks erupted from the control box. Several electrical wires jumped up, like electrocuted earthworms, lashing against the well wall with a crackling sound.
"What the hell?" Chen Hao jumped back, almost sitting in the ditch.
"Main control module offline." Nana's voice changed. "Backup system is starting up...delayed two seconds."
But those two seconds could be fatal.
The main valve malfunctioned, and the water pressure surged instantly. The diversion pipe trembled violently, like a snake being strangled, before exploding open with a "boom." A high-pressure water jet shot into the sky, reaching a height of three meters, directly spraying Chen Hao's face.
He raised his hand to block the impact, but was knocked backward by the force of the impact, his buttocks hitting a mound of earth and landing hard in the mud.
"I'm speechless! I just praised you a couple of times and you start acting out a flood?"
Nana knelt on one knee, and the robotic arm quickly disassembled the back interface, pulling out a data cable and inserting it into the backup port at the bottom of the well. Her outer shell was slightly warm, and her optical eyes continuously refreshed the data stream.
"Taking over... Branch line 3 closed... Line 2 is reducing voltage... Line 1... is severely interfered with and cannot respond."
The burst main water pipe was still gushing, the water jet sweeping crookedly across the field ridges, the soil as if torn apart by an invisible hand, collapsing with a crash. A newly repaired furrow was washed away, turning into a riverbed, and several newly sprouted wheat seedlings were lifted up by their roots, tumbled twice in the air, and fell into a mud pit.
Chen Hao struggled to get up, wiped the mud from his eyes, and saw the emergency gate just five meters away, a rusty handwheel.
"I'll risk it all!" He lunged forward, grabbed the wheel, pushed off the ground with both feet, and pulled backward with all his might.
"Gah—!"
The handwheel remained completely still.
"Is this design for humans or for hydraulic presses?"
He was panting heavily, kicked off one shoe, and stepped barefoot on the ground to increase friction, then put his effort into the wheel. This time, the wheel finally clicked, followed by another click.
With each movement, the water column weakens by one point.
Nana finally managed to connect to the backup system, and her voice returned to normal: "Each branch line is gradually closing. The main valve will be completely shut off within fifteen seconds."
"Fifteen seconds? My grave is practically three meters long by now!"
The last jet of water finally subsided, leaving only a few thin streams seeping from the crack. The field fell silent, save for the sound of water dripping from the broken pipe.
Chen Hao slumped in the mud, still clutching the deformed wrench tightly in his hand. He looked down and saw that his clothes were completely soaked, his pants were covered in mud, and he only had one shoe left; the other had been washed away somewhere.
“This isn’t an irrigation system!” he gasped. “This is a flood control command center.”
Nana stood up; the outer casing was still dripping water. She looked down to inspect the control well, her optical eyes flickering.
"The interference source is from the northwest, and the frequency band is abnormal, which does not fall under the category of natural thunderstorms."
"Not lightning? Then who's discharging electricity? Aliens practicing yoga?"
"The possibility of activation by human intervention or remaining military facilities cannot be ruled out."
Chen Hao plopped down on the collapsed edge of the paddy field, looking at the mess before him. Half of the field embankment had been washed away, the drainage ditch had become a small river, and several low-lying areas had been filled with water.
“Our lives are more unstable than a cell phone signal.” He wiped his face with his hand. “We just got the water running, and then the power went out; we just finished repairing the canal, and then the pipe burst; we just wanted to plant something, and then God hit us with a high-pressure water gun.”
Nana crouched down, opened the palm projection, and pulled up a structural diagram: "It is recommended to add an electromagnetic shielding layer, using alloy foil from the spaceship wreckage for wrapping, which can reduce the interference reception rate by 87%."
"Alloy foil? That sounds like the aluminum foil we used to wrap leftovers when I was a kid."
"Material availability assessment has been completed, and inventory is sufficient."
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Did you have to wait until it exploded before proposing a solution?"
"There were no similar incidents recorded before, and the system did not trigger the early warning mechanism."
"So you're saying you didn't expect it to explode?"
"To be precise, I didn't expect you to get soaked to the bone."
Chen Hao paused for a moment, then turned to look at her.
Nana's optical eyes remained calm, but the corners of her mouth seemed to curve upwards by 0.5 millimeters.
He suddenly laughed out loud: "You robot, you're pretty good at finishing off enemies."
The laughter lasted less than two seconds before he coughed again, spitting out a mouthful of muddy saliva.
"Fine, we've already blown it up, we can't just let the soil heal on its own." He stood up, supporting himself on his knees. "You can change it however you want, but I have one condition."
Please explain.
"Let me run a little further away before starting next time."
"Yes. It is recommended that the evacuation radius be no less than twelve meters."
"Sixteen meters, no, twenty meters! I'd rather run a few more steps than take another mud bath."
Nana nodded: "Record: Chen Hao's safe distance has been adjusted to twenty meters."
She stood up and walked steadily toward the wreckage area. Chen Hao followed behind, dragging one shoe and limping.
"Hey, when you restarted the system just now, was there a two-second pause where it was completely frozen?"
"Yes. The main logic module is temporarily frozen and needs to be switched to offline mode."
"Then you mean... your computer crashed?"
The technical term should be "temporary system interruption".
"Come on, you're just a crash." He grinned. "A high-tech robot like you can actually get a blue screen."
"I don't have a screen."
"Aren't you panicking?"
"My system does not include the variable 'panic'."
“What a pity.” He shook his head. “If I had the video, I would definitely make a compilation of ‘robots being electrocuted’ and title it ‘How Steel is Wasted’.”
Nana stopped and glanced back at him: "The video footage doesn't exist. I suggest you focus on the current task."
"Tsk, no sense of humor at all." He muttered, bending down to pick up a piece of alloy. "Let's go, at worst we'll both crash, and make a pair."
They walked to the pile of wreckage, and Nana began to dismantle the outer shell, peeling off a layer of silver-gray metal foil. Chen Hao squatted beside her, clumsily but earnestly smoothing out the wrinkles with a wrench.
In the distance, the broken water pipe was still dripping water.
One drop.
Another drop.
It fell into the shoe he had dropped on the ground.
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