178: Chapter 178 The first strawberry is so sweet! The fourth signal from the Iron Hoof arrives.

8:07 AM.

The communicator rang.

It was Lin Wan.

"City Lord, the strawberries are ripe."

Lu Chen sat up straight in the driver's seat.

"The first batch is all ripe?"

"The first batch of five plants is fully ripe. The fruits are over five centimeters, completely colored from bottom to top, the flesh is firm, and the sugar content is high. They're ready to be picked."

"How many berries?"

"Five plants, with three to five berries per plant, totaling nineteen."

Nineteen Grade A Cream Strawberries, the first batch.

He wrote a line in his logbook: Day 59, first batch of strawberries ripe, nineteen berries.

"City Lord, I've already picked yours and put it in a clean bowl. I'm coming to deliver it now."

"Don't deliver it yet; wait for me to go down and get it."

"You're coming down?"

"I'm going to the Greenhouse."

The communicator hung up.

He stood up and walked toward the elevator.

He was already very familiar with the corridor from the third floor to the third-floor Greenhouse; he had walked it repeatedly since the upgrade.

Each time he entered, the temperature in the Greenhouse was different from the corridor outside.

The Greenhouse was kept at a constant temperature of nearly twenty-five degrees.

The moment he entered, warmth enveloped him.

Lin Wan stood in the Strawberry area, holding a small iron bowl with a single Strawberry inside.

She looked up, saw Lu Chen walking in, and handed him the bowl.

"The biggest one, 5.3 centimeters. I measured it."

He took the bowl and glanced down.

The Strawberry was conical and a deep, uniform red all over. The seeds on the surface were distinct, and the leaves at the stem were emerald green and fresh.

He picked it up and took a bite.

Juice spread between his teeth.

It was sweet.

It was a complex sweetness, slightly tart with the chewiness of fruit fiber, completely different from the sweetness of any synthetic food.

He put the remaining half in his mouth, chewed three times, and swallowed.

"Delicious."

"Better than noodles or Cabbage soup?"

"They're different," Lu Chen said, handing the bowl back to her. "It's sweet."

Lin Wan looked at him, her lips pursed, stifling a laugh.

"City Lord, how should the remaining eighteen berries be distributed?"

"Han Zhengqing's Engineering Team first, then the rest to the oldest workers in the Engineering Team. Give one to Liao Dacheng and one to Ma Dong as well."

"Only one for yourself?"

"I've already eaten one."

"There are seventeen left. After giving them to Chief Engineer Han's Engineering Team, there will be a few left. What about those?"

"Give them to Song Ya; she's been helping in the Greenhouse for a long time."

"Three for Song Ya. What about me?"

Lu Chen glanced at her.

"Three for you too."

"What number were you originally going to say?"

"Two."

"So you added the third one yourself?"

"One more isn't a big deal."

Lin Wan held the bowl, lowered her head to check the remaining strawberries one by one, and picked out eight with the most even color, placing them into a slightly larger bowl.

"These eight are for Chief Engineer Han. I'll send them down this morning."

"Good."

"City Lord," she said without looking up, her hands still arranging the strawberries, "when you ate that Strawberry just now, you had a different expression on your face."

"What expression?"

"I don't know, it just wasn't the expression you usually have when eating Nutrient Bars or drinking porridge."

Lu Chen didn't respond to that.

He walked a few steps toward the Strawberry racks and looked at the second batch that wasn't fully ripe yet. The fruits were around four centimeters, still pale red or white at the top.

"When will the second batch be ripe?"

"Five to seven days, between Day 64 and Day 66."

"Quantity?"

"There are eight plants in the second batch, each with four to six berries, about thirty to forty in total."

"When the time comes, distribute them to the residential area first. Regardless of rank, one per person until they're all gone."

Lin Wan's movements paused for a moment.

"How many people will that cover?"

"Thirty to forty people. It's not many, but the significance is different."

"True," Lin Wan said, placing the bowl on the workstation next to the Hydroponic Rack. "Letting the residents know there are strawberries on this ship is more important than the strawberries themselves."

"Exactly."

Lu Chen stood in the Greenhouse for a while, feeling the twenty-five-degree air.

It had all started from the first day he planted the Cabbage seedlings.

Now the Greenhouse had wheat, rice, Strawberries, Watermelons, seven types of regular vegetables, and a seed vault of Grade A improved crops.

Fifty-nine days.

He thought about it for three seconds, then set the thought aside and turned toward the exit.

"City Lord," Lin Wan called out from behind him, "what are you eating this afternoon?"

"Nutrient Bar."

"I'm grinding the second harvest of flour this afternoon. The first batch should be ready by this evening to make noodles. Do you want some?"

Lu Chen paused at the Greenhouse door.

"If you make them, save a bowl for me. Plain, with salt."

"Okay."

He walked out of the Greenhouse. The cold wind in the corridor hit his face; the temperature difference was extreme.

He walked toward the elevator.

Halfway there, the communicator rang.

It was Chen Li.

It wasn't time for the daily report yet.

"City Lord, emergency."

He didn't stop walking and pressed the communication button.

"Speak."

"Northern signal log. At 8:03 AM today, the fourth signal appeared."

Lu Chen's finger stopped at the edge of the communicator.

"Parameters."

"Pulse width 0.04 milliseconds, constant. Signal duration 2.1 seconds. Direction: nine degrees west of due north."

"Two point one seconds."

"Nine degrees west of due north."

The direction continued to converge toward due north.

The signal duration had increased from 1.4 seconds to 2.1 seconds.

A two-day interval.

The intervals between the first three were eight days and seven days; this interval was only two days.

The interval was shortening rapidly.

"Send the waveform data."

"Sent."

He studied the waveform chart popping up on the panel for ten seconds.

The encoding structure of this waveform showed a sudden leap compared to the first three—definitely not a gradual change. It was a direct increase in complexity, with the pulse group's hierarchy increasing by one level.

This was a calling signal.

The scout vehicle was requesting confirmation to advance from the Main Base.

He closed his eyes, counted to three, and then opened them.

"Chen Li, notify Zhou Yuan and Zhao Tiezhu to be in the Cockpit in five minutes."

"Okay."

"Also, notify Lin Xiao. 3:00 PM today, Cockpit. He must come."

"Understood."

The communicator hung up.

He quickened his pace toward the elevator.

The sweetness of the Strawberry still lingered in his mouth.

But those four dark red signal records on the Cockpit panel were clearer in his mind than the sweetness.