"Let's paddle, the little boat pushes away the waves —"
The Mars Wanderer galloped across the desert while Old Cat sang at the top of his voice. Even the thin atmosphere of Mars couldn't stop Old Cat's magical voice from filling the brain.
"Shut up," Tang Yue shouted angrily.
Old Cat glanced at him and continued to look ahead. "If you don't want to be disturbed by anything, the best way is to join in and sing with me. You can sing, right?
Everyone in China can sing this … The sea reflects the beautiful white tower, surrounded by green trees and red walls —!
The little boat gently floats in the water, the cool wind blows —! "
Tang Yue expressed his disdain and didn't want to be in cahoots with Old Cat.
"Get lost, I won't sing with you!"
·
·
·
Ten minutes later.
"Even if fate is wandering!"
"Even if fate is full of twists and turns!"
"Even if fate threatens you, life is no fun!"
"Don't cry, don't be sad, and don't give up, I'm willing to accompany you forever —!"
Tang Yue stood in the front passenger seat, waving his hands like a conductor of a symphony orchestra. He was emitting sounds that sounded like he was having a seizure, "Ahhh — Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
The Mars Wanderer took him across the desolate desert. Even birds didn't shit, but in Tang Yue's eyes, there were a sea of people on both sides of the road.
"How many times have I fallen, how many times have I shed tears in the rainy night!"
"I'll walk through the twists and turns of life!"
Tang Yue sang loudly, but it wasn't clear whether he was singing in Cantonese or Japanese.
Old Cat shook his legs and harmonized. This man and cat's singing was a perfect match. One was sawing the foot of a bed, and the cat was knocking on a broken gong. They even complemented each other and enjoyed themselves.
In the end, Tang Yue sang the last line of the lyrics with a broken voice. Old Cat clapped fiercely.
"I told you that you have talent."
Today was the second day after leaving Kunlun Station. Old Cat estimated the distance between them and Kunlun Station, which was more than 50 kilometers.
Early in the morning, Tang Yue and Old Cat got up and packed up. First, they charged Bright Light Armour and Old Cat. Then, they moved the solar panels onto the Wanderer. The road was very uneven. The Wanderer did not have a shock-resistant suspension. Tang Yue sat in the passenger seat and shook along with the vibration.
Tang Yue took out the map from the storage compartment and opened it. He looked at it horizontally and vertically, but he couldn't understand it for a long time.
The map drawn by the Old Cat could only be understood by itself.
"Is this the map of the Isidis Planum?" Tang Yue pointed at the crooked lines on the map. "What are these lines?
Contour lines? "
"No." Old Cat said, "You're holding it upside down."
Tang Yue turned the map around.
He still couldn't see anything.
"You should at least indicate the direction, legend, and scale. A usable map also needs a coordinate ruler and directional data."
Tang Yue frowned and complained in a low voice. He looked around, hoping to find some obvious landmarks. "But what exactly are you drawing..."
Old Cat glanced at him.
"Oh, you're holding the wrong one. That's not a map. It's the result of a simulation."
"Simulation?
Simulation of what? "
"The distribution of the debris of the Joint Space Station," Old Cat said lightly.
Tang Yue's hand trembled.
"The Joint Space Station is such a large and sturdy object. It's impossible for it to be completely destroyed in the atmosphere. There will be a large number of debris falling to the ground. I thought of collecting the wreckage of the space station. At least give it a home."
Old Cat continued, "But unfortunately, the site of its crash is too far away from us. We can't find it."
"You... when did you draw it?"
"The day after the space station crashed."
Tang Yue stared into the distance. On the horizon that he couldn't see, the charred wreckage of the space station was scattered on the desert.
"If I can win the lawsuit against them … Can the Joint Space Station come back?"
"I don't know." Old Cat shook his head.
"The letter said that if I win, they will compensate me for all my losses. Is the Joint Space Station included?
All living and non-living things in the Joint Space Station should be included, right? "
Tang Yue asked. "Those god-like high-dimensional intelligence will extract the frame before the space station crashed and rewrite history. Old Cat, don't you think so?"
"I don't know, Tang Yue... Don't ask me. I don't know anything."
Old Cat looked very depressed.
Tang Yue was a little disappointed. He knew that Old Cat couldn't give him any answer to this question, but he still hoped to get a positive answer.
But at that moment, Tomcat spoke the truth again.
"I'm sorry, Tang Yue. I can't give you any answer. You're Estragon, and I'm Vladimir. We're all waiting for Gordor, but none of us know what Gordor is."
"In Waiting for Gordor, isn't Gordor hope?"
"No," Old Cat said. "It was never hope."
Tang Yue leaned back in his chair and looked straight ahead. In front of him was an endless cycle of rocks and sand. They were approaching the end step by step. At the end of the Mars Wanderer's journey, what would be waiting for him?
Old Cat couldn't give him any answer. Even if the words in the letter were true, then Tang Yue would have to face a god-like intelligent civilization and defeat it.
The former sounded inconceivable, while the latter sounded like wishful thinking.
How could Tang Yue defeat a powerful intelligence that had the ability to interfere and even manipulate time?
This might be a journey destined to fail. Tang Yue had long been mentally prepared for this. He believed that Old Cat had it too, but no one said it out loud.
"If I fail, then wouldn't I be the greatest sinner in human history?"
Old Cat was silent for a few seconds.
"Yes."
"At this time, you can excuse me."
"I don't need to excuse you."
Old Cat said, "Because no one can blame you, and you don't have to be responsible to anyone. On this issue, unless you can successfully save Earth, you'll be a sinner no matter what you do. You can actually ignore this letter and live your life. Burn this inexplicable letter, and the world will immediately return to normal. Have you heard of the trolley problem?"
Tang Yue nodded. "The problem of 'an innocent passerby is tied to one side of the tracks, five naughty kids are tied to the other side of the tracks, and I happen to pass by with a toilet bowl'?"
"Yes."
Old Cat nodded. "Unless you're Superman and can lift the train and throw it out, your actions are mistakes, and your inaction is also a mistake. What should you do at this time?"
"What can I do..."
Tang Yue sighed.
"Probably go home and flush the toilet."