The searchlight cast a jagged spot of light on the concrete dam, and Chen Yao's radiation detector emitted a shrill beep.
Expert Liang's hand that was about to unscrew the sampling bottle suddenly stopped. The turbid water reflected the ice-blue droplets on the surface of the container, like some deep-sea creature breathing.
"Gene corrosive agent from the Seventh Research Institute." Chen Yao picked up a piece of mutated algae with tweezers. The veins of the leaves, which should have been emerald green, were now metallic gray. "They used nanorobots to pollute the entire Dark River tributary."
Three kilometers away in the underground planting area, farmer Du was smashing his cracked hoe on the concrete ground.
The oily nutrient solution dripped from between his fingers, and the rice leaves that had just emerged from the heading were curling up and turning black at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Son of a bitch!" Seed collector Fan kicked over the empty water tank. The milk vetch seeds he had just rescued from the radiation zone yesterday had grown deformed pods in the glass bottle. "All the seeds I worked so hard to find are gone!"
Mou Xuan tore off the protective suit stained with the blood of mutant rats. The pollution index jumping on the electronic screen made his temples throb.
In the microscopic images sent back by Chen Yao, nanorobots were frantically gnawing on the oxygen atoms in the water molecules. Those ice-blue mechanical creatures were more greedy than a swarm of locusts.
"Old Fan and I will go upstream to have a look." Farmer Du rolled up his muddy trouser legs, his treasured tobacco leaves crumbled into dregs in his pocket, "Even if it's the water of the Forgotten River in the Palace of Hades, we have to ask for water for the crops."
As they passed through the rusty floodgates, the Fan Seed Collector's radiation counter suddenly went off the charts.
Mutated catfish with their bellies turned upside down were floating on the twenty-meter-wide river. The dark river water, which should have been clear, was now emitting a strange mother-of-pearl luster.
On the rock wall on the opposite bank, the triangular logo of the Seventh Institute was flowing with fluorescent paint under the moonlight.
"They installed infiltration devices at the entrance of each tributary." Farmer Du used his hoe to hook up a rubber hose. The ice-blue mucus remaining in the hose immediately corroded the steel hoe tip. "This is going to wipe out my entire family!"
Mou Xuan was playing with the sealed bag given by Chen Yao. The radiated wheat was emitting a faint light in the lead glass container.
The negotiators from the Seventh Institute were wearing pure white protective suits, like a group of snowmen standing by the water.
"Share the genetic map of radiation-resistant crops, or watch your rice become a poisonous strain." The leader knocked on the infiltrator console on the river bank. The LCD screen showed a 97% pollution coverage rate. "I heard you have a pretty agronomist?"
When Chen Yao was inserting the last bulletproof steel plate into the outer wall of the planting area, she heard Technician Zhong arguing with Expert Liang.
The drought-resistant rice seeds brought by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences were locked in a lead box, while the warehouse manager Lao Luo was holding on to the moldy corn seeds.
"Convert the soilless cultivation area into a reservoir." She took off her fogged goggles and drew a blue mark on the 3D map with her fingertips. "Use Professor Liang's corrosive agent to reversely decompose the infiltrator - provided that Mou Xuan can get the structural diagram."
Mou Xuan, who was sitting at the negotiation table, suddenly chuckled.
He felt the bulge on the inside of the belt, and the radioactive wheat that Chen Yao had stuffed into his pocket was growing silently in the sealed bag.
The people at the Seventh Institute would never know that those nanorobots that gnawed on oxygen atoms would turn into the most fertile phosphorus fertilizer when exposed to beta rays.
The river breeze lifted the corner of the negotiator's snow-white clothes, and Mou Xuan's fingertips rubbed the sealed bag under the table.
When the other party pushed the gold-stamped cooperation agreement to him again, he noticed that the cuffs of the leader's protective suit were stained with star-shaped green corrosive liquid - the same type that Expert Liang stuffed into his backpack last night.
The fingers under the negotiation table suddenly glowed blue, and Mou Xuan smelled rust when he activated his time ability.
The image of the underground laboratory of the Seventh Institute seventy-two hours later flashed across his retina: three silver permeators were extracting groundwater, and technicians in protective clothing were dripping green liquid into petri dishes with syringes.
"The underground laboratory is 300 meters southeast." Mu Xuan suddenly pressed his dagger against the neck of the leader's protective suit. "Do you think the mutant algae in the culture dishes need oxygen?"
The white cuffs began to shake violently, and the pollution coverage on the LCD screen stopped at 97.3%.
There was a sudden electrical noise from Chen Yao's communicator, and a dull explosion was heard from the other side of the river - the corrosive agent reversely injected by Expert Liang was decomposing the casing of the infiltrator.
"I'll give you thirty seconds." Mou Xuan slapped the radioactive wheat on the agreement, and the roots of the wheat ears suddenly grew and pierced the gold-stamped cover.
The people from the Seventh Research Institute stumbled back, and the condensed water droplets on the leader's protective mask glowed light green.
Farmer Du was kneeling on a cracked ridge when the sound of three truck engines tore through the night sky.
The clear water of the underground river began to flow again, carrying the remains of the nanorobots, which looked like a handful of broken diamonds in the moonlight.
The Fan seed collector poured the last bottle of disinfectant into the reservoir, where the bodies of the mutant catfish were decomposing into dark brown fertilizer.
"This is temporary." Mou Xuan tore off the mutant moss on the collar of Shen Yao's protective suit. The drought-resistant rice seeds brought by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences were twitching in the sterile room.
The decomposer invented by Liang restored the water storage capacity to 65%, but the filter would fill up with silver metallic residue every six hours.
Before the bonfire of the celebration banquet was extinguished, Agronomist Meng knocked over the plastic box containing mutant grapes.
The third-generation radiation-resistant wheat he cultivated spit out bloody foam in the culture tank, and a tumor the size of a fingernail protruded from the surface of each grain.
"All hybrids have developed symbiotic diseases." Agronomist Meng had rotten germs embedded in his fingernails. The data in the experimental log fluctuated violently like an electrocardiogram. "They are... eating their own roots."
Mou Xuan pressed the buzzing radiation detector, and Chen Yao's action of brushing her hair suddenly froze.
There was a crisp sound of glass breaking in the sterile room, and the ears of wheat that should have been golden were now blooming bright red petals in the lead glass cover.
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