That night.
Tang Yue was lying on the bed, covered tightly by the blanket, with only his head exposed. The soft buzzing of the fan was like the sound of a mosquito. The temperature in the passenger cabin was maintained at 20 degrees Celsius, but at this time, the temperature outside had dropped to -60 degrees Celsius.
A pale yellow light shone through the gap in the curtains. Old Cat had not yet rested. It was still preparing for tomorrow's trip by packing its luggage. Tang Yue heard a rustling sound. It was Old Cat rolling up a map. The front of the Mars Wanderer was severely damaged, and there was not even a complete display left. They had no choice but to use paper maps.
Tang Yue looked at the thin light on the floor and inexplicably remembered when he was very young. During the summer vacation, he went back to his hometown and lived in an old brick house. Every night, the young him would wrap himself in a blanket and sleep. Warm light shone through the gap in the door. Occasionally, his grandparents would gently come in and tuck him in. At that time, he would immediately close his eyes and pretend to sleep. He would only open his eyes after the old people left.
He did not know why he was thinking of these things. The house in his hometown had been demolished long ago. His grandparents had also passed away when he was in college. Now, even the Earth had disappeared. No one could prove that all of this had once existed. It only existed in Tang Yue's memory.
Tang Yue repeatedly chewed on these memories. From when he was young to now, from the TV and popsicles in the house in his hometown during the summer vacation, to the training in Jiuquan Center and Old Wang lighting a fire at Lop Nur, he tried to confirm every detail. The tune of the opening theme of the old drama "Young Justice Bao", the handwriting on the paper of the popsicle, Old Wang sitting by the campfire and rummaging through his backpack to take out the hidden Tsingtao beer.
Tang Yue was afraid that he would forget these people one day.
Unfortunately, memories were the most difficult thing to fix in this world. Even if you tried hard to mold them into the shape of someone, even if you could see every strand of hair clearly, they would still gradually fade away like sand. In the end, all that was left was a bare ball. Even if you stared at it for a long time, you still wouldn't be able to see anything.
Tang Yue closed his eyes and said softly, "Are you guys still there?"
Everything was quiet and peaceful.
There was a glass of water on the cabinet beside Tang Yue's bed, and beside it was a wooden photo frame. There was only one photo, and it was a group photo of the crew of Orion I at Jiuquan Center before they set off. Commander Elder Wang and Old Tang were standing in the middle of the back row, with Zheng and Old Mai on both sides. Tang Yue and Mai Dong were squatting in the front row, and the six of them were smiling at the camera with their arms around each other's shoulders. At that time, the wind was very strong, and the girl was pressing her hair beside her ear. Old Wang's eyes were clouded by sand, and he grimaced in pain. He was about to curse, but before he could say anything, time was frozen forever by the camera.
Further away was a tall launch pad under the clear sky. The manned spacecraft was still being assembled, and the sun was shining brightly.
There was a pair of slippers on the floor next to the bed. There was an empty plastic trash can in the corner, and there were pants, shirts, and empty clothes hangers hanging on the wall. Tang Yue's cabin was very simple. He did not have much to take with him.
"Old Cat?" Tang Yue pulled his arm out from under the blanket and used it as a pillow.
"I'm here." A cat's head poked in through the gap in the curtain. "Aren't you going to sleep?
You have to wake up early tomorrow morning. "
"I can't sleep," Tang Yue said.
"Nervous?"
Tang Yue shook his head.
"Anxious?"
Tang Yue shook his head.
"Afraid?"
Tang Yue still shook his head. He looked at his hand. "Do you know that human emotions are built on life? Only when there is life will there be emotions … But I can't find the reality of my life. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm an unconscious puppet. I can't even feel my own temperature. Compared to you, I'm more like a robot …"
"Don't doubt yourself."
Tang Yue was stunned.
"Don't doubt yourself."
Old Cat repeated. It walked over and held Tang Yue's hand, pressing its paws into his palm. "Look, how can there be no temperature?
Never doubt the value and meaning of your existence. No matter what kind of desperate situation you're in, even if no one in the world recognizes you, even if no one can witness or record it, you must believe that your life is the most important thing in the universe … You must believe that you're the only one in the universe. You can live, you must live. "
Tang Yue nodded slowly.
"Every time you encounter a hurdle that you can't cross, tell yourself this."
Old Cat smiled. "Because in this world, there's no one else who can believe in you except yourself."
"Sleep well. If you can't sleep, count sheep."
It let go of Tang Yue's hand and turned to leave the cabin, closing the curtain on the way.
·
·
·
Old Cat's desk was full of papers and tables. The dense and lengthy numbers were dizzying, like a password table. Old Cat was like an astronomer in the Middle Ages, doing things that no one could understand.
In the era before the birth of large aperture optical telescopes and computers, astronomers dealt with mathematics every day. They calculated with pen and paper, sorted out the vast and boundless observational data, and then found a new celestial body from the huge numbers.
To outsiders, astronomers at that time were mysterious. Some people even believed that they could see the future, because these people could predict the arrival of a total solar eclipse just based on the numbers on the papyrus.
Old Cat was doing a similar job at the moment.
Latitude could be read using a sextant, but it couldn't directly determine longitude. If one wanted to know their longitude, they had to determine it indirectly. Old Cat was sorting out an extremely precise star catalog, which could help them not get lost in the desert.
"11 … 261. 233.541 … 155. 355.712 …"
"12 … 200.351. 547,399.241. 955 …"
Old Cat sat motionless on the chair, holding a pen in its paw, with a charging cable on its back. Its furry body was curled into a ball, and its slender cat fur trembled in the breeze.
"12, 26. 413.273 …"
"12,274.360. 669 …"
As Tomcat did the calculations softly, it put pen to paper on the form. The clock ticked away.
There was no movement in the cabin. Tang Yue had fallen asleep.
The night was getting darker, and the pile of paper on the table was taller than Old Cat's head. The numbers on the paper were the results of the calculations, not the process. Tang Yue wasn't around, so Old Cat didn't need to show the calculations to anyone, so he did the calculations in his head. However, due to the huge amount of data, there wasn't enough blank paper. In the end, even the draft paper had to be recycled.
Old Cat stacked the data together, patted it, and put it in the drawer.
If there were no accidents, these papers would stay there until the end of the world.
"SUN, 10, 00,102.543. 027 …"
“FRIDAY。”
"01, 02, 03 … until 23."
"Next is SATURDAY."
"00,102.548. 227,104.424. 152,212.240. 270, 01 …"
“195.544.473。”
“01，25，02，52，03，45。”
"Next is SUNDAY."
“SUNDAY。”
"SUNDAY … SUNDAY, SUNDAY, WHERE IS SUNDAY?"
After an unknown amount of time, Old Cat put away the pen, satisfied. He let out a long breath and announced the completion of the calculation. The sun under the horizon had already lit up the sky.