Chapter 181: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-One, HELLO MARS
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
The girl giggled.
“I guarantee you that you and I will have dinner together on the sa table tomorrow night. Tomcat and I will serve you Kunlun Station’s valuable stash of red-braised beef biscuits and tomatoes.”
“It will be that grand?”
“Obviously, Miss Mai Dong. You are a VIP. I’ve stashed away all the red-braised beef biscuits. I’ll share them with you when you’re here,” Tang Yue said. “I’ve been eating salted squid biscuits all day now. It’s torture.”
“Is that a promise?” Mai Dong asked softly.
“Yes.” Tang Yue nodded. “We will definitely get you down safely... We have already done all the preparations. Orion II will definitely land safely. Tomcat guaranteed it.”
“Pinky promise?” the girl said.
“Pinky promise.”
The two extended their pinkies.
“Anyone who breaks this pinky promise is a puppy!”
Mai Dong giggled.
“Hey, Tang Yue. How many sols has it been?”
“321 sols,” Tang Yue replied. “About 320 sols have passed since Earth disappeared.”
“Ah... It’s already been 321 sols. It’s almost a year.” Mai Dong blinked. “But if you think about it, the days feel so long. It’s as if many years have passed. Life on Earth feels like sothing from another lifeti.”
Indeed, it hadn’t been a year since the two were left stranded around Mars, but it felt like a lifeti. The lives they had before leaving Earth felt like another lifeti away. Tang Yue could rember his family, friends, colleagues, and teachers, but those mories were fragnted and blurry. It was more like the life of a person nad Tang Yue more than a hundred million kiloters away.
At tis, Tang Yue would let his thoughts stray, wondering if he was born on Mars and if there was another Tang Yue who shared the sa na and looks as he did on Earth.
“I still rember... that before I left, Mom ca to send off at the center. She told to wear more clothes because it would be cold and to rember to eat breakfast daily. She said that it’s not good to skip breakfast. She reminded to call back ho regularly or send a video. I was told to drink warm water because I have a cold constitution.”
Tang Yue’s heart stirred.
Before leaving, he’d had a phone conversation with his family. His mother had repeatedly exhorted the sa things such as be safe, eat well, wear more clothes to not get sick, and to have good relationships with his colleagues. As for his father, he was listening by the side urging his wife to stop. “Enough, enough. Do you think a grown-ass man like him doesn’t know how to take care of himself? He’s an astronaut. An astronaut, got it? The country will take good care of him.”
His mother was a classic working woman. She was one of the ordinary mbers of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens. She hadn’t received any higher education, having graduated from junior college. She wasn’t an entrepreneur with her own business. The highest-ranking mber in society she ca across was the police inspector at the station across the street. The furthest places she had been were Thailand and Singapore.
All her life, Mars was nothing but a term she had read in books or the news. It was never a reachable place. She didn’t have a clear concept of what it ant to land on Mars, nor could she imagine a massive spacecraft weighing thousands of tonnes. It was only when she checked Wikipedia that she realized that a return trip took two years. She was shocked, surprised that it was such a distance away!
At that mont, his father grunted. “Of course it’s far. It’s Mars. Do you know what Mars is? The distance between Earth and Mars is at least... Son, how far is it?”
Tang Yue had already gone too far, so far that it was as though he had reached the stars in the sky.
“My dad stood by the side with a nasty look on his face. It’s because he didn’t support my decision to co to Mars. He said that I was too young, that such work should be left to older people,” Mai Dong continued. “I quarreled with him over this. He even went to the director and slamd on his desk saying, ‘My daughter is only twenty-five. Can you take the responsibility if anything happens to her by sending her to sowhere so dangerous?’ Later, he was dragged out by Mom... This was sothing Mom told via email later. She said that my dad had caused a fuss at the director’s office.”
“What happened after that?”
“Later, I participated in the training. Slowly, my dad stopped saying anything.” Mai Dong smiled. “My dad is a stiff, conflicted man. The hardest thing for him to do is to bow his head to others... But he eventually ca with Mom to send off. He only said one thing throughout the entire process.”
“What was it?”
“Be safe,” Mai Dong said. “Mom later sent an email telling that my dad cried the entire way ho on the bus.”
“Your father’s attitude is completely different from my dad.” Tang Yue sighed. “Indeed, a daughter is a treasure, but a son is nothing.”
“What did your father say?”
“Son, you are going to be an astronaut. This will bring glory to our ancestors! Go without any worries. I’ll take care of your mom!” Tang Yue curled his lips. “I told him that it was risky! That I might not return! Guess what he said?”
“What?”
“That clueless dad of mine said that he had also risked his life when he was young. He fought soone who held a knife on the street and was stabbed in the back. Thankfully, he was fast to react, or the knife would have hit his head,” Tang Yue said gloomily. “Injured, he ran far away and hid in an abandoned car, scaring a lady who happened to walk past. Later, that lady beca my mom... My dad often said that I wouldn’t exist if he hadn’t risked his life.”
Mai Dong hugged her stomach as she kept laughing until she was out of breath.
“Tang Yue, you have so many stories.”
“It’s because I was never considered a good student from a young age. I had all sorts of riffraff as friends. I relied on being smart, by having pretty good scores simply by working hard just before exams. I always was within the top ten for exams.” Tang Yue hugged his arms. “That’s why the teachers never cared about . I’m different from brainy students like you.”
“But that life is very boring. I’m so envious of you.” Mai Dong sighed. “When I was young, my dad was very, very strict with . After I got ho from school, I’d have English lessons and piano lessons. During piano lessons, he would stand beside with a cane in hand. If I were to be distracted, he would lash at the floor. On weekends, I still had mathematics enrichnt classes. I basically never had any free ti.”
“You know how to play the piano?”
“A little.” Mai Dong hesitated. “I passed Grade 10 during the graduation of middle school.”
Tang Yue whistled.
Strictly speaking, Tang Yue and Mai Dong had very different families. Tang Yue was born into a normal household. People from that class were often humble but flawed, kind but cowardly. They were tenacious. As for Mai Dong, she was the classic example of a daughter from an intellectual family. She had the reservations and discipline that stemd from being from a family of scholars.
“It’s not early, lady. It’s ti for you to sleep. “Tang Yue said. “Have a good rest. Make sure you have enough energy to deal with tomorrow’s work.”
“Tang Yue... Will we be able to et tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” Tang Yue said firmly. “We’ve pinky promised.”
“Yes, we did.” Mai Dong felt at ease as she closed her eyes in satisfaction. Monts later, she opened her eyes. “Tang Yue?”
“I’m here. What’s up?”
“Nothing.” Mai Dong shook her head. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
...
Kunlun Station beca silent.
Tomcat was curled in a bundle beside a wall with its eyes closed and ears drooped. When sleeping, it looked no different from an ordinary cat apart from its size. Of course, a certain fat orange cat was about the sa size.
Suddenly, the monitor on the desk silently lit up.
In the darkness, the cat’s ears pricked up.
The communications system popped up a window as the display showed a ssage reach Kunlun Station.
“HELLO MARS!”
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