Today was the second to last day before they arrived at their destination. The Mars Wanderer stopped to recharge after 30 kilometers. Tang Yue still climbed to a high vantage point, but he couldn't see anything.
"Only 30 kilometers left." Tang Yue looked up at the sky, which was getting darker. "But I still can't see anything."
"Of course you can't see anything at 30 kilometers. You might not even be able to see anything at 3 kilometers."
The long journey was finally coming to an end. No matter what kind of monster it was, it was going to meet Tang Yue.
They were getting closer and closer to the coordinates of 88.2 degrees east longitude and 17.6 degrees north latitude. On the large-scale map, Tang Yue and the target location were even close together. Every time Old Cat unfolded the map, Tang Yue thought they had arrived, but Old Cat waved its paw and pointed ahead, saying that there were still a few more days to go.
Tang Yue sat on a rock and looked at the sun slowly setting over his head. He found that he liked to daydream more and more. He often sat silently on the side without saying a word or moving. Old Cat thought he was thinking about something, so it didn't disturb him. But in fact, Tang Yue knew that he was just daydreaming. He stared at the distant horizon or a rock for a long time, and when he came back to his senses, the whole afternoon had slipped away.
Wilde once said that being alive was a rare thing in this world because most people just existed.
Tang Yue gently tapped his chest.
"The sandstorm is still getting stronger."
Old Cat waved its paw and grabbed at the air. It couldn't feel the flow of air. The thin atmosphere couldn't even blow its fur, but Old Cat could judge the wind speed based on the turbidity of the air. "In the foreseeable future, the weather should continue to worsen. I think it might be a heavy smog day tomorrow."
"Will it affect us?"
"It doesn't matter much. Tomorrow is the last 30 kilometers. If we charge the stray dog's battery today, we can reach our destination directly tomorrow. There's no need to recharge it," Old Cat replied. "It doesn't matter how bad the weather is."
"In other words, by the time we set off tomorrow morning, the historical mission of these solar panels will have been completed?"
"Yes." The Old Cat nodded. "We don't have to bring them along when we depart tomorrow."
"No."
Tang Yue said lightly, "You still need the solar panels when you return. Their historical mission is not over yet. When you no longer need them, they will have completed their mission … Actually, I don't think you need to return immediately."
"What do you mean?"
"You can take the Mars rover and solar panels and travel around Mars."
Tang Yue replied, "If you still remember where those probes landed, you can even go and take a look at them. The Opportunity should still be at Endeavour crater."
"Oh, I can't find Oppy." The Old Cat shrugged. "She's too far away. She's in the southern hemisphere, and we're in the northern hemisphere."
“Oppy？”
"Opportunity. According to NASA, she's a young girl."
"She should be an old lady now."
Tang Yue returned to the experiment cabin. After dinner, the sky outside the window had completely darkened.
There were no other lighting tools in the cabin. In order to conserve electricity, Tang Yue turned off all the lights. The only light source was the small solar emergency light bulb.
Tang Yue placed the emergency light in the center of the experiment cabin, leaned against the cabin wall, and sat cross-legged on the floor. Wearing the Bright Light Armour, he couldn't lie down and sleep normally. For so many days, Tang Yue slept sitting up.
The cabin door opened, and the Old Cat came in.
Every night, the Old Cat would watch the stars. It would only come back to sleep late at night.
Occasionally, it would say that it could predict good fortune or bad luck by observing the stars at night. For example, it would say something like, "The lucky star rises in the southeast and suddenly turns red. It shines for a few days. It's very auspicious."
Tang Yue: "Speak human language."
Old Cat: "Supernova explosion."
The Old Cat climbed into the experiment cabin, turned around, and locked the inner cabin door. Half of Tang Yue's body was illuminated by the dim yellow light, and the other half was hidden in the darkness. There was a thin layer of mist on the glass mask. They looked like Eskimos huddled in an igloo with a small whale oil lamp. The Old Cat lay down across from Tang Yue and found a comfortable position to curl up into a ball.
The experiment module's space was cramped, and Tomcat's sprawl took up most of the space.
Tang Yue reached out and poked its belly.
"What are you doing?" The cat turned its face and rolled its eyes.
"Are you fatter than before?"
Tang Yue asked. "I remember that you weren't this fat when we first met. Why are you getting fatter?"
"Am I fat?"
The Old Cat raised its head and glanced at itself. It was silent for a few seconds. Then, it used its paws to adjust its waist and butt. "I still weigh 100 kilograms. It's always been this weight. It has never changed. Is 100 kilograms heavy?"
"But your upright height is less than 1.5 meters. You're only 1.4 meters tall … About 1.46 meters?"
"Who said that I'm less than 1.5 meters tall?
My factory height is 150 centimeters, which is 1.5 meters. It's definitely not 1.46 meters like you said. There's a fundamental difference between 1.5 meters and 1.4 meters. 1.4 meters is one meter, and 1.5 meters is two meters, "the Old Cat retorted." The difference between the two is one meter. "
Tang Yue's gaze became more and more suspicious.
"You don't believe that I'm two meters tall?
Open your eyes and watch carefully. "
The Old Cat stretched its body. Its two front paws pressed against the inner wall of the experiment cabin. Then, it stretched its body like a noodle and tried to use its hind legs to reach the cabin door. Tang Yue watched the cat's body stretch longer and longer … Then, there was a crisp crack.
Oh, f * ck my old waist.
The Old Cat instantly bounced back and curled up into a ball, shivering.
Who asked you to be a demon?
You broke your waist.
Tang Yue adjusted his sitting position. He leaned his head against the Bright Light Armour helmet and closed his eyes with a smile.
The Old Cat snorted. It noticed that Tang Yue had fallen asleep and was not moving. It quietly got up and snuggled into Tang Yue's arms. It curled up into a big furry ball and closed its eyes.
They had ten hours to rest before the sun rose the next day.
In this long and quiet night, Tang Yue repeatedly had the same dream. In the dream, he had arrived at the location marked on the letter. But the destination was not as grand as the Tower of Tibai. There were also no strange spaceships or little green men. There was only a lonely tomb set up there. Tang Yue wanted to see the writing on the tombstone, but he always returned to the starting point when he got close to the tomb.
Tang Yue did everything he could to see the epitaph. He did not know how many times he had repeated this path in the dream. Some were as short as a moment, and some were as long as a year.
In the dream, the Old Cat sneered and said, "This is a Mobius strip. Do you know what a Mobius strip is?"
Tang Yue finally collapsed to the ground and slowly crawled towards the tomb. The Old Cat stood on the tombstone and laughed loudly. It had never shown such a ferocious and terrifying expression. It looked more like a wolf than a cat. The Old Cat laughed and shouted at him.
This is a Mobius strip!
Do you know what a Mobius strip is?
Do you know what the myth of Sisyphus is?
This is a cycle!
An endless cycle!
This is an endless cycle that you can never get out of!
Tang Yue woke up with a start. He opened his eyes and was covered in cold sweat.
He took a deep breath in the dark. Tang Yue still remembered this strange and inexplicable dream, but he did not know why he had such a dream. Was it because he was anxious about arriving at his destination?
The geolab was still pitch-black. From the looks of it, it was still nighttime. The sky wasn't bright yet, so Tang Yue might not have slept for long. He fumbled around to switch on the emergency light and looked around. Tang Yue saw a pile of canned food and bottled water, as well as the RTG. However, Tomcat was nowhere to be seen. The geolab was empty, leaving him alone.