It really felt like quite an achievement!
Afterward, Shen Guoguo cleaned the entire workstation she had used.
This was simply her personal habit — she liked everything neat and ready for next time.
Other chefs, after finishing their work, usually just walked off. Even Master Li the Great Chef’s assistants wouldn’t bother cleaning up.
Just then, on the robot’s cracked head panel, two words suddenly appeared:
【Beep, thank you】
“You’re welcome. But I do need to borrow these three big basins for a bit. I’ll return them next time, okay?”
【Beep…】
The robot short-circuited again…
Watching the little exchange, Huo Tao was genuinely surprised.
If he remembered correctly, the safety base’s robots weren’t programmed to take the initiative to say “thank you.”
Those two words were just part of a simple etiquette subroutine — they only triggered after someone did something specific for them.
But just now, Shen Guoguo hadn’t interacted with it at all; the robot had spoken first…
Huo Tao kept staring at the machine. When Shen Guoguo wasn’t paying attention, he sidled up to it, imitating her tone, “Hey, brother…”
The robot: Are you sick or something?
When it didn’t respond to him, he quietly backed off, smiling and shaking his head.
The moment that robot said “thank you,” he suddenly felt it seemed… human.
What a ridiculous thought. Still, maybe he was just overthinking it.
Just as Shen Guoguo was preparing to finish up for the day, another group of people poured into the slaughterhouse.
And coincidentally — it was the same group who owned that “mountain chicken”… which turned out to be a phoenix.
When they saw Shen Guoguo, they got overly excited and ran straight over, throwing down what they were carrying.
“Chef Guoguo! I didn’t expect to see you again!”
Of course not — I’m not dead.
Shen Guoguo coughed lightly. “Please, don’t call me ‘Great Chef.’ Just call me Guoguo.”
Seeing that she and the team leader seemed to know each other, Huo Tao relaxed his guard and quietly stood behind her.
“Alright, alright, Guoguo. Since you’re here, I won’t bother Master Li the Great Chef. Please take a look at this for me.”
He stepped aside, revealing what he’d brought.
Shen Guoguo tilted her head to look — it was an unusually tall plant, planted in an iron bucket, its roots still clinging to chunks of soil.
She examined it closely — it was a tomato plant.
“I…”
Looking up at the tomato seedling that was as tall as a house, Shen Guoguo couldn’t help but marvel at the wonders of nature.
Honestly, she was full of curiosity about the world beyond the base.
After the nuclear war three hundred years ago, what had the outside become? For a tomato plant to grow this huge…
The ones she used to plant herself barely reached her own height. But now? Good grief — if she weren’t so knowledgeable, she might not even recognize it.
“Guoguo, we found this out on the wasteland. Most of the patch was dead, but this one was still green, so we brought it back,” the team leader explained.
“You… think you can do something with it? No one in Windsoil City has ever seen one of these before. If you don’t recognize it… that’s fine too.”
He was blunt by nature, but after speaking, he realized it might have sounded impolite.
Shen Guoguo didn’t take offense. She circled the tomato plant a few times, lifting one of the neatly broken branches.
It was the little stem left behind after a tomato had been picked — proof that this plant could bear fruit.
“Can we eat it?” the team leader asked eagerly.
“No,” Shen Guoguo replied. “I suggest you don’t eat it.”
“Huh? We can’t eat it?” He looked crestfallen.
After selling phoenix meat last time, he’d made quite a profit and even recruited new people to his squad. The newcomers didn’t know Shen Guoguo’s abilities and whispered among themselves:
“Maybe she doesn’t actually know what it is? Aren’t all green plants edible?”
Shen Guoguo nearly rolled her eyes.
Well, at least they knew to eat green plants. She forgave the comment — after all, this was the wasteland age; civilization had long broken down.
“It’s not that it’s inedible,” she explained, “but it’s better used for something else.”
“You should find a place to plant it. Bury the roots in soil — preferably soil from where you found it. Water it once a week, but make sure the soil doesn’t clump up; otherwise, the roots will rot.”
“When it blooms, help it pollinate manually — then you can wait for it to bear fruit.”
“The fruits are green at first, but when they turn red, you can eat them… though I’m not entirely sure about the color.”
“Anyway, that’s the fruit you should eat.”
Better to be cautious — what if the color had mutated too?
“Huh?” The team leader frowned. He knew all the words she’d said, but somehow, together they didn’t make sense.
“Guoguo, what do you mean by ‘manual pollination’?”
Shen Guoguo: “…”
“Well… you know what flowers are, right?”
“Yeah.”
“When it blooms, shake the flower gently — gently, don’t knock it off.” Seeing how little they knew about farming, Shen Guoguo tried to make the explanation as clear as possible.
“Oh, okay. When it blooms, I’ll come find you, and you can shake it,” he said expectantly.
After a brief thought, Shen Guoguo nodded — she wanted to eat tomatoes too.
“Alright then. Give me your address,” said the team leader cheerfully. “When it blooms, I’ll bring the… uh, what’s this plant called?”
“It’s called a tomato plant.”
“Got it! When it blooms, I’ll bring the tomato plant to you.”
Now he had a legitimate reason to ask for her address, grinning from ear to ear — completely unaware that Huo Tao’s face had darkened slightly.
Shen Guoguo turned toward Huo Tao and nudged her chin at him.
“Give the team leader our address.”
The darkness on Huo Tao’s face instantly vanished, replaced by a glowing smile — because she’d said our home.
He rolled his wheelchair forward, lifted his wristband, and shared their home address with the leader.
The leader insisted on transferring 1,000 star coins to her, but Shen Guoguo refused.
“Tell you what,” she said, “lend me your cart for a few days instead.”
She’d taken a liking to his solar-powered cart.
It was about the size of half a single bed — like an oversized supermarket trolley, but made of solid iron and topped with a solar panel.
“Of course! Use it as you like.”
She had seen these carts in shops before — they cost around 4,000 star coins each, well beyond her budget. Borrowing one was perfect.
The team leader was more than happy to oblige. Now that he had her address, he’d have plenty of chances to interact with her again.
Making friends with a top-tier chef? Excellent deal.
He left the solar cart behind, then departed with his men and the tomato plant.
“Perfect! Now we’ve even got a vehicle!”
Just moments ago, Shen Guoguo had been worrying about how to carry those big basins home — and then, like fate, the solution rolled right in.
Even though Huo Tao couldn’t walk, his arm strength was still solid; he alone could lift one huge basin with ease.
He loaded all three onto the cart.
Glancing at the time on her wristband, Shen Guoguo said, “We’ve still got time. Let’s go home first, then head to Uncle Yang’s.”
She laid out the plan.
At the same time, in the Ma family hall, Captain Ma sat with a dark face, glaring at the dwarf radish.
On the table beside him lay the dead silkworm.