Zhong Zihuai is the "plant sensor" of the scavenger colony. She can tell whether plants contain radiation by touch. This ability comes from her missing botanist mother. During an exploration into the ruins of an old world botanical garden, she found a cluster of flowers rooted in concrete gaps under a broken glass dome, emitting a light blue shimmer—the photoseed flowers that were mentioned in her mother's notes as the "key to ecological restoration."
As soon as she picked off half of the petals, she was intercepted by Shen Zhou from Dome City's "Resource Control Team". Shen Zhou was originally ordered to destroy "abnormal creatures" on the ground, but he was shaken when he saw the light seed flower - his sister was comatose due to gray mist poisoning, and the petal juice could restore the temperature of his sister's fingertips.
The two reached a secret cooperation: Zhong Zihuai took Shen Zhou to find more light seed flowers, while Shen Zhou secretly delivered clean water to the settlement. But the top management of Dome City noticed something unusual, sent heavy troops to encircle and suppress it, and even released "mechanical sand leeches" that can eat plants. In order to protect the root system of the photoseed flower, Zhong Zihuai did not hesitate to use his perception to guide the sand leeches away, while Shen Zhou blew up the tracking device of the control team. Finally, they planted the seeds of the light seed flower in the center of the ruins. The pale blue light gradually dispersed the surrounding gray fog. The lower-class residents of the settlement and the dome city saw hope. A resistance to reconstruct the ecology was quietly sprouting from the ruins.
