Cen Yemeng truly started making the cake from scratch, her hands busily whipping cream.
"Why go through all this trouble?" Jiang Ye stood by, watching. "You could have just bought one, or asked the chef to make one, or even printed one."
"This is about thoughtfulness, my dear husband. Don't you have any romantic bones in your body?" Cen Yemeng continued whipping the cream. "I read a newly published history book that said ancient couples considered cooking for each other a sign of deep affection. Food bought from a supermarket or delivered wouldn't carry the same sentiment."
"History is unreliable. This notion wasn't around back then. Don't believe those writers' nonsense," Jiang Ye chuckled. "I've also prepared a small gift for you."
"For me?" Cen Yemeng paused, surprised.
Jiang Ye produced a small box. Inside lay some incredibly fine blue powder.
"What is this?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"These are the remains of the first evolved organisms from Planet Spiral, some fungal corpses preserved as specimens," Jiang Ye explained. "If all goes as expected, their companions will grow and flourish, becoming one of the progenitors of Planet Spiral's ecosystem. Many years from now, when you see the plants, trees, birds, and beasts of Planet Spiral, you'll be reminded that it all began with this little box."
Cen Yemeng's eyes lit up. "That sounds like something that belongs in a museum. I love it."
"I need to get to work. You don't need to fuss over this. Your presence to share a meal with me is the best birthday gift," Jiang Ye said.
Jiang Ye began his busy workday.
Soon, the morning passed.
Jiang Ye stood up from his desk, his bones cracking like breaking ice.
He started checking the messages from the intelligent fungi.
"Hmm?" Jiang Ye couldn't help but express his surprise.
First were the flagellated bacteria.
[Flagellated bacteria, repeatedly fed primitive cells by intelligent fungi, have surged in number to one million.]
[A fierce cosmic ray storm swept through; only a very small number of flagellated bacteria perished. The vast majority remained unharmed.]
[Approximately 300,000 flagellated bacteria turned back towards the alkaline hot spring area and engaged in fierce combat with the alkaliphilic bacteria near the springs. With the added attack bonus from their flagella, the flagellated bacteria wreaked havoc, causing the deaths of about 10 million alkaliphilic bacteria. The flagellated bacteria then began to consume the corpses of the alkaliphilic bacteria in large quantities.]
[700,000 flagellated bacteria continued to spread outwards, seeking living space and food. After several hours, the majority of these flagellated bacteria starved to death. The remaining ones were busy devouring the corpses of their companions.]
[300,000 flagellated bacteria near the alkaline hot springs experienced mass death, with approximately 295,000 perishing. The cause of death was poisoning from consuming too many alkaliphilic bacteria. Severely poisoned flagellated bacteria collectively died off, leaving only five thousand mildly poisoned flagellated bacteria temporarily surviving near the hot springs. They shivered, afraid to continue consuming the corpses of the alkaliphilic bacteria.]
[After multiple rounds of starvation, the 700,000 flagellated bacteria that had spread outwards were reduced to about 10,000. These 10,000 hungry flagellated bacteria continued to swim outwards, attempting to find food.]
Jiang Ye scratched his head.
He felt these flagellated bacteria were rather pathetic.
They had managed to grow to the million mark, only to disappear, leaving just fifteen thousand, and those in a state of hunger or poisoning.
He had previously anticipated that if the flagellated bacteria couldn't find food externally, they might turn back to consume the alkaliphilic bacteria. With the advantage of flagella, their combat power would surge, making them unstoppable by the delicate alkaliphilic bacteria.
According to Jiang Ye's vision, the alkaliphilic bacteria were likely to be reduced to a pig-like status, controlled and farmed by the flagellated bacteria, who would kill and eat them when hungry.
He had never imagined that the alkaliphilic bacteria would prove toxic to the flagellated bacteria, causing most of them to die from poisoning.
Looking at the alkaliphilic bacteria family, their situation also seemed grim.
[Alkaline hot springs erupted with magma multiple times, affecting the nearby alkaliphilic bacteria and causing their numbers to plummet to 3 million.]
[After several hours of recovery, the heat-resistant alkaliphilic bacteria's numbers returned to the 10 million mark. Ordinary alkaliphilic bacteria spread to another alkaline hot spring, found more food, and their numbers surged to 30 million.]
[Heat-resistant alkaliphilic bacteria and ordinary alkaliphilic bacteria engaged in another fierce battle, vying for the hot spring vents. Tens of thousands of bacteria died every minute.]
[A group of flagellated bacteria suddenly appeared and began a frenzied slaughter. Ordinary alkaliphilic bacteria were killed in the tens of millions, their corpses littering the landscape.]
To summarize the situation of the alkaliphilic bacteria in four words: "internal and external troubles."
They were fighting amongst themselves internally, and facing slaughter by flagellated bacteria externally.
It felt like a downward spiral.
The office door opened, and Cen Yemeng pushed a meal cart in.
As soon as she entered, she turned off the lights. The spaceship was currently flying over the night hemisphere of Planet Spiral, casting an all-encompassing darkness, as if in the deepest night.
Cen Yemeng took out a lighter and lit the candles on the cake.
With the candlelight, the atmosphere instantly transformed.
Jiang Ye was deeply touched, but when the meal cart was pushed closer and he saw the design on the cake, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
On the white cream, in red jam, a message was written: "Long live husband, long live, long, long live!"
The candle was shaped like the character "万" (wan, meaning ten thousand), burning steadily.
"Make a wish, blow out the candles, and then let's eat the cake," Cen Yemeng said with a radiant smile.
Jiang Ye clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and made a multitude of wishes: for his wife and child's health and safety, for the per capita income of Planet Jiang Ye to reach new heights, for the Planet Spiral ecological project to be a complete success, for the steady advancement of civilization and urban construction on Planet Birong, for universal peace, and so on.
He blew out the candles.
As soon as he finished, Cen Yemeng eagerly plunged a knife into the cake, cutting it into small pieces.
Jiang Ye picked up a piece with his chopsticks and ate it. "Hmm, it tastes really quite good."
"My cooking skills are absolutely top-notch," Cen Yemeng said proudly.
The couple decided to take half a day off, locked the door, and stayed in their room, not coming out.
The next morning, Cen Yemeng finally left, looking completely satisfied.
Jiang Ye walked unsteadily to his desk and looked at the intelligent fungi messages on the screen.
Some entirely different information appeared.
[New species "Heat-Resistant, Alkali-Tolerant, Radiation-Resistant Flagellated Bacteria" born!]
[Heat-Resistant, Alkali-Tolerant, Radiation-Resistant Flagellated Bacteria are formed by the contact between heat-resistant, alkali-tolerant bacteria and radiation-resistant flagellated bacteria. After some heat-resistant, alkali-tolerant bacteria were killed, their genetic material floated out, and the flagellated bacteria collected it into their bodies, completing the evolution.]
[In early fungal species, collecting genetic material from the environment is a common phenomenon.]
Jiang Ye was secretly amazed. Originally, they were one type of fungus. After entering the hot spring zone, they split into two major families, and now these two families had somehow merged again!
This process was likely guided intentionally by the intelligent fungi. It was even possible that this circuitous method of evolving separately was the design of the intelligent fungi.
Although similar events occurred in nature, the probability of such occurrences was extremely low, requiring hundreds of thousands or millions of years to succeed.
Jiang Ye pondered for a moment, then typed a message to the intelligent fungi.
"Isn't the name 'Heat-Resistant, Alkali-Tolerant, Radiation-Resistant Flagellated Bacteria' too long? If this were reported on the news, the announcer would have to use up a lot of saliva. How about changing the name to Spiral Bacteria?"
Intelligent Fungi: "But this bacterium is currently rod-shaped, not spiral."
Jiang Ye: "So rigorous. Then let's call it Stick Bacteria."
Intelligent Fungi: "So casual. Alright."
From then on, all the evolutionary messages provided by the intelligent fungi were under the name Stick Bacteria.