Chen Hao's hand froze in mid-air, his fingertips still two centimeters away from the clump of dark blue vines. He didn't move, nor did he pull back; he just stood there, frozen, like a fat cat trying to steal some food but being watched by its owner.
“I feel like it’s watching me,” he said.
Nana stood half a step behind him, the robotic arm slightly adjusting its angle, the optical lens silently gliding over the scene before her. "Plants don't have a visual system."
"But it just flashed."
"That's an illusion caused by the reflection of light from your cornea when you blink."
"I didn't even blink!"
"You held your breath for three seconds, which caused your eyes to dry out and the tear film to rupture, resulting in abnormal light refraction."
Chen Hao sighed, slowly withdrew his hand, and rubbed his numb fingertips. "You're right, we're not here to make friends, we're here to collect samples." He turned to Nana, "If we just pick them off, we might damage the roots. Is there another way? Let's not make it look like we're pulling out hair, pulling out a bunch of hair follicles."
Nana's waist-mounted capsule gently popped open, revealing a silver-white sampling forceps and a sterile scraper, like a student pulling stationery from their sleeve. "We recommend using a local cutting method, preserving the activity of the main root, and only taking samples from lateral branches and surface secretions."
"It sounds like a small advertisement posted outside a hospital—'Minimally invasive hair transplant, without damaging hair follicles.'"
"Your analogy lacks scientific rigor."
“But I understood.” Chen Hao took the tweezers, weighed them in his hand, and said, “Be gentle, don’t cause trouble.”
The first target was a clump of bluish-purple vines growing tightly against the rock, its stems densely intertwined, their surface glistening with water droplets, undulating slightly with the air currents, like some kind of slowly breathing living thing. Chen Hao squatted down, his knees making a dull thud, like an old sofa collapsing under his weight.
"This position is too unfriendly," he muttered. "I'll have to apply for a knee brace subsidy when I get back to base."
“The current environment does not support a welfare system.” Nana handed over the sealed box. “Begin the collection.”
He pinched a thin branch, about to cut it, when the vine suddenly trembled slightly, the edges of the leaves curled up rapidly, and the whole branch seemed to "stir up its fur" in an instant.
"Huh?!" Chen Hao's hand trembled, almost dropping the tweezers into the water. "It can react to stress?"
“Touch triggers the defense mechanism.” Nana lowered the optical frequency. “Simulate the morning light rhythm to induce a state of relaxation.”
The blue light in her eyes flickered slowly, the frequency gradually decreasing, like the gradual brightening of the sky before dawn. A few seconds later, the vine leaves slowly unfolded, returning to their previous supple posture.
"Done." Chen Hao held his breath, gently cut off a small section of the side branch with scissors, and placed it in a transparent container. The labeler spat out a small slip of paper: "G-01".
"This operation is more nerve-wracking than defusing a bomb." He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "At least when defusing a bomb, you can swear a couple of times to vent your anger. Here, you can't even breathe loudly."
"You have exceeded the limit for three consecutive deep breaths."
"That's because I was excited!"
The second type of sample is a fluorescent grass that grows close to the ground. Its leaves are arranged in a star shape and will close immediately when touched, like a mimosa but more decisive. Chen Hao tried it twice, and each time, as soon as he touched the leaf surface, the whole grass would snap shut, as decisively as an ex who turns her back on you.
"This grass must have some kind of psychological trauma," he muttered. "Who stepped on it when they were a kid?"
“It might be a natural defense against microbial invasion in high-humidity environments.” Nana moved closer and released a low-frequency beam of light. “Try this.”
Under specific lighting, the grass blades gradually relaxed, slowly unfurling to reveal a slightly concave gland in the center. Chen Hao carefully scraped off a small amount of the secretion and placed it into a separate tube.
"G-02, got it." He grinned. "We're using light to lull the child to sleep, aren't we?"
"From a biological perspective, they do not possess emotional cognitive abilities."
"But they have tempers."
The third sampling point was located at the edge of shallow water, where a cluster of fluorescent vines coiled around a half-submerged rock. Its roots were buried deep in the silt and were rich in mucus, so they would break if pulled even slightly.
“This stuff is even harder to untangle than the harassment fee from my ex.” Chen Hao tried to separate it by hand, but the more he pulled, the more tangled it became. “No way, trying to remove it by hand is suicide.”
Nana took out the micro-heating vibrating blade and set it to the 0.3-second pulse heating mode. The blade tip lightly touched the connection point, and the mucus was briefly deactivated by the heat, allowing the vine to separate.
"Beautiful!" Chen Hao slapped his thigh. "This technique is good enough to open a Michelin-starred restaurant—'Wilderness Molecular Gastronomy, Freshly Harvested and Sealed'."
"Current energy priorities do not support cooking projects."
"Can't you just play along with me for a bit?"
"I can record your fantasies and categorize them as 'unnecessary mental exhaustion'."
That hurts.
Six samples were successively packaged: G-01 to G-06, labeled as lateral branches, leaves, secretions, root tissue, compound mucus, and symbiotic moss, respectively. Each sample underwent three processes: wiping with a waterproof cloth, laser sealing, and manual labeling, as meticulously as sealing a will with wax.
Chen Hao put the last box into the storage compartment and breathed a sigh of relief. "We're civilized herb gatherers, we don't engage in short-sighted practices."
Nana scanned the site: "No tools were left behind, and the area of vegetation disturbance was controlled within a diameter of 30 centimeters, which meets the principle of minimal intervention."
"Should I write a protection declaration? Like, 'The places I've walked through haven't even had their ant nests moved.'"
"You stepped on a patch of fungal carpet with your left foot."
"...That was an accident."
Just as he was about to bend down to check, he suddenly noticed a small amount of liquid seeping from the cut end of a vine, creating a faint reflection on the stone surface, like a drop of silver paint that someone had accidentally spilled.
“Hey,” he said in a low voice, “it’s bleeding.”
Nana immediately released a miniature probe sphere, which orbited at low altitude to monitor the situation. "Detection in progress... no toxic diffusion, the liquid composition is similar to plant callus sap, which is a normal physiological response."
"So it heals itself?"
"similar."
"Thank goodness we didn't end up with a 'Revenge of the Angry Vines'," Chen Hao breathed a sigh of relief. "Otherwise, I'd be dreaming about being dragged into the mud by a green rope tonight."
"Dream prediction is not within the scope of the current task."
"Unfortunately, I can tell a good story."
All the samples were returned to their places, the raft remained moored on the shore, its poles leaning against the main beam, and the waterproof tarpaulin neatly folded in the corner. Chen Hao took one last look around at the luminous plant community, the soft blue light undulating quietly, as if it had never been disturbed.
“Let’s go,” he said. “If we stay any longer, I’ll start to feel like an environmental ambassador.”
Nana's eyes flickered slightly with blue light. "Mission completion rate 100%, return procedure can be initiated."
He turned to grab the pole, and just as his hand touched the wooden handle, he suddenly heard a very soft "click".
Looking down, I saw a translucent crystal fragment at my feet that I had accidentally kicked, which slid into the water and created a barely visible ripple.
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