Dead on Mars

Chapter 205 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Six, How Should A Wedding Photo Be Taken
Chapter 205: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Six, How Should A Wedding Photo Be Taken

Mai Dong reached out her hand and drew a curve on the glass windows that had frosted up. It overlapped with the Martian equator in the distance.

The United Space Station’s altitude was constantly dropping, but Mai Dong didn’t know the exact number of kilometers herself. However, she could somehow sense that Mars was getting nearer. She could see more of the details of the Martian surface, but perhaps that was just a mistake on her part. At that height, Mars was forever a dark orange curve that she could see but not touch.

However, because she couldn’t fully place this gigantic curve within her sights, she subconsciously felt that her altitude had indeed decreased significantly. With the horizon’s curvature becoming smaller, the gigantic sphere slowly turned into a flat plane before her very eyes.

The girl drew a tiny person on the window before adding a smiley face to it.

“Screw it in a little tighter. Use more strength. Kunlun Station doesn’t have any more acetylene welding torches… How troublesome. Look at this screw. It breaks with just a little force.” Over the comms, Tang Yue and Tomcat were busy at work. They were dismantling the foldable bed in the living quarters and refurbishing it as a stretcher. “Tomcat, have you screwed it in tight?”

“Yup.”

“Then let me sit on it. This thing needs to withstand at least fifty kilograms…”

With a crisp sound and a momentary deep silence, Tang Yue’s cries emptied out all the air in his lungs for the next five seconds. Following that, there was a breathless whimpering sound, one so tragic that it left one trembling. Mai Dong found it difficult to imagine which body part had been injured to make Tang Yue cry out so painfully.

“Tang Yue, why were you in such a rush? There were two screws that I hadn’t screwed in. This steel rod is loose… Forget it, you should just lie in bed and have some rest. Stop rolling underneath the table. Don’t bite my knee. Don’t hit your head on the wall.” Tomcat’s voice sounded. “Is it that painful?”

“Hiss— You… don’t… have… them… You… know sh*t… Heavens…”

Even though Tomcat had asked Tang Yue to make preparations for the worst, the man and cat still made preparations for Mai Dong’s descent. Tomcat had headed out to check on the Mars Wanderer’s condition and confirmed that its batteries were full and ready to answer to any mobilization emergency. If Tianzhou had any deviation in its landing process, they could drive the Mars Wanderer out to rescue her.

On the other hand, they had prepared a living quarter on Kunlun Station for Mai Dong. They had freed an empty cabin for the girl, and Tang Yue had even added a lock to the zip. Tomcat had planned out a recovery plan based on the resources on the cargo spacecraft to ensure that Tang Yue and Mai Dong would have their levels of nutrition recover to normal levels within two months.

“Tang Yue… Are you alright?” Mai Dong asked.

“I’m still okay. It’s fine… Damn it.” Tang Yue’s voice was faltering and weak. “We were making a stretcher for you. There’s 0.38 G of gravity here, so we are afraid you won’t be able to acclimatize when you are here.’

“Where will the Tianzhou land?”

“If there aren’t any accidents, fifty meters in front of Kunlun Station,” Tang Yue replied. “If an accident happens, fifty-one meters from Kunlun Station.”

“I can walk that fifty meters,” Mai Dong said. “It’s only 0.38 G.”

“We have enough manpower. Why do we need to get you to walk over? You should lie down when you should. Why stand on ceremony?” Tang Yue crawled up to tighten the screws. “Lass, you’ve been through so much, don’t you deserve a break?”

“It was harder on you guys.”

“We’re fine. I’m a man after all. As for Tomcat… It’s a male cat.” Tang Yue held a screwdriver in his mouth and received a wrench from Tomcat, using it as a hammer by slamming it against the steel rod.

“What day and age is it? Why do you still have such male chauvinistic views? Why should man be the one to prop up the world? Don’t you know that modern people prefer fair and gentle young men? Especially women. They like men who slowly twist a bottle cap together with them, saying things like ‘I’m not twisting open the cap, but your heart,’” Tomcat said. “As for those grease monkeys, mechanics who can finish off an aircraft carrier with a hammer, the picture on their wedding certificate will simply be taken with a wrench.”

“But none of them have survived,” Tang Yue said. “Only I’ve lived to this day. The facts have proven that a grease monkey is tenacious when it comes to living.”

“That’s why your wedding photos will have to be taken with a wrench.”

“Impossible.” Tang Yue sneered. “Why would I have a wedding photo with a wrench? It fails to meet my standards of aesthetics. Even if I were to take one, I’d take something that looks good, such as an electric screwdriver…”

“Take it with me,” Mai Dong suddenly said out of the blue.

Tang Yue and Tomcat were taken aback.

“Lass… What did you just say?”

“I’m talking about the wedding photo. If you wish, you can take it with me. Don’t I look prettier than an electric screwdriver?” The girl giggled softly. “Of course, if you find an electric screwdriver more suitable, I don’t mind. But that way, I’d become the last woman in the world to be rejected…”

“Miss Mai Dong, for your safety, please immediately take back those words of yours. What you just said is very dangerous. This will activate a bachelor’s hunger mode that has laid hidden and dormant for years,” Tomcat warned in all seriousness. “This might result in a dangerous outcome that’s beyond control. It will severely threaten your physical and mental wellbeing.”

“That’s too dangerous.” Mai Dong burst out in laughter. “But I’ve already said it. What do I do?”

“I suggest immediately raising the DEFCON level to DEFCON 1. According to the Kunlun Station Astronaut Safety Protective Act, as long as you authorize me, I, as Station Commander, will disarm Tang Yue who has a latent risk in a manner that doesn’t harm him…”

“What are you saying? Tomcat, what nonsense is that?” Tang Yue slammed the metal frame with the screwdriver in hand. “What do you mean to activate a bachelor’s hidden and dormant mode? Am I such a person? I’m telling you, Tomcat, I, Tang Yue, am well-known to be a gentleman. I’ve never spit, and I frequently help grannies cross the road. When I pick up cash, I hand it to the police. Apart from not daring to help elders who fall down in unmonitored 1 places, what good deed have I never done before?

“I’m a person with principles. Whatever I do needs to follow my values in life,” Tang Yue said. “Otherwise, wouldn’t all those years of studying be for nothing?”

Tomcat rolled its eyes, its meaning evident.

In front of Miss Mai Dong, all those years of studying were for nothing. You have perverted thoughts, but you lack the guts to act on them.

Even if Mai Dong really landed, Tang Yue wouldn’t dare do anything indecent. This had nothing to do with principles or morals, but a pressing problem about survival. From a most rational point of view, with the conditions of survival placed before them, it was destined that Mai Dong and Tang Yue had no means of reproducing a species. Not only were they unable to procreate, but even the most basic pregnancy might also become a lethal killer. Kunlun Station lacked the necessary medical facilities. If Mai Dong really got pregnant, it might very well lead to both mother and child dying.

They couldn’t have kids, nor did they dare to.

There was no way to rear one anyway.

This was something Tang Yue knew very well. Therefore, he didn’t truly have any improper thoughts, nor did he dare to have any improper thoughts. To be such a gentleman, perhaps even the man of eminent virtue in ancient times, Liuxia Hui, was inferior to him.

They were not Adam and Eve, but two survivors that had reached the end of the road.

“Tang Yue, you haven’t answered my question,” Mai Dong said.

Tang Yue was taken aback.

“What question?”

“Who’s prettier, me or the electric screwdriver?” Mai Dong asked.

Tang Yue scratched his head. As a person who had dedicated his life to the grand industry of machinery and electronics, his answer should have been an unhesitant: You with a screwdriver in hand.

Without a chick, what use was a screwdriver?

“How should a wedding photo be taken? Just a picture taken together? Is taking a wedding photo equivalent to being married? What’s the process? Is a ring needed?” Tang Yue asked Tomcat in a seemingly calm manner as he suppressed his voice. He knew nothing about such matters. “Do they need my identity and proof of residence? Do I need to hold my identification card in hand? Do I need to get approval from the Bureau of Civil Affairs? But where do you have one now? Is it not legally valid if approval from the Bureau of Civil Affairs isn’t received? If there’s no legal validity, does it still count? Also, isn’t such a development too fast?”

“If you find the development too fast, you can always take the picture with me,” Tomcat said. “I have no qualms about that.”

“Tang Yue, Mr. Cat,” Mai Dong whispered.

“Yes?” Tang Yue and Tomcat looked up.

The girl looked at the distant land through the window and said in an empty tone, “I seem to be one step closer to you.”

Footnotes:

Ch 205 Footnote 1In China, there are cases of unscrupulous elderly deliberately falling down and demand compensation from anyone who comes to help. In this case, closed-circuit cameras will show that it’s a clear case of racketeering.