<h4>Chapter 166: Sol Two Hundred and Eighty-Two, Legend of Obasuteyama</h4>


    Trantor: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon


    ording to Tomcat, to survive the intense quake that would envelop the northern hemisphere of Mars, Tang Yue needed to dismantle Kunlun Station and break it down to its elements to roll with the punches. Once the quake was over, they could rebuild Kunlun Station.


    Tang Yue had never attempted to dismantle Kunlun Station before. This massive tent was indeed modr in design, the designers had racked their brains to reduce Kunlun Station’s weight and reduce theplexity involved. Otherwise, the astronauts from the seventhnding mission wouldn’t have been able to set it up with their hands alone.


    However, the engineers on Earth had probably never considered the problem of dismantling.


    Kunlun Station was going to be a permanent base that would sit there from the day it was built until the day it was abandoned. No one had expected to dismantle it.


    Tang Yue donned the Radiant Armor and headed out to circle around Kunlun Station. The Hab’s perimeter exceeded fifty meters and had vertical walls that were more than two meters tall. Printed on the hull were huge blue words: Kunlun Station. Further up was a dome that resembled an inverted wok. It was mostly made from ss fiber reinforced PEEKposite. It felt smooth and firm to the touch, and ording to the maintenance manual, the hull’s tensile strength was four to six times that of steel. However, its mass was only a tenth of thetter.


    The hull was the main structure of Kunlun Station. It was very thin, only a few millimeters thick. Yet, it was mostly thanks to this paperlike hull that Tang Yue could survive. The hull guaranteed Kunlun Station’s airtightness and shielded most radiation. It isted the harsh Martian environment outside, propping up the scientific research station with the aluminum alloy frame underneath its skin.


    The hull’s inner lining was made of thermal instion and airtight foam. If any dismantling was necessary, everything needed to be dismantled, leaving nothing untouched.


    “The batteries, OGS cab, and the water tank. These are the worst of all.” Tang Yue stood far away in the desert with a starry sky over his head. The sky had already darkened after simting an entire day. Time flew quickly with each failure. “How do we ensure that nothing bad happens to them?”


    Tomcat sat in its chair. “The batteries and OGS cab are rtively simple. After cutting the power, we will wrap them up and ce them inside the garage... As for the water tank, it’s best we dismantle it ahead of time and freeze it by cing it outside. Once it’s frozen into a block of ice, we don’t have to worry about it leaking.


    “The water tank won’t crack, right?”


    “The water tank has plenty of excess space inside. It will be fine,” Tomcat said. “In the past, Kunlun Station would be shut down in between missions, so the excess water in the tank would remain in a frozen state.


    “Then the tomatoes I’ve grown probably won’t live.”


    “I’m very sorry,” Tomcat said. “We’ll have difficulty surviving ourselves, so there’s no way we can find a way of protecting them. nts are just too fragile. Once they leave the protection of Kunlun Station, they will die. You can only give them have a meaningful death.


    “Cut them up and let them rot to be fertilizer. Let them provide nutrients for newborn seeds. I believe they will agree to it.”


    “There’s no world for the old,” Tomcat said. “Have you heard of the Japanese legend, Obasuteyama?”


    “What’s that?”


    “Legend has it that in a mountain vige in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture that due to poverty, it cannot support that many people. Aged vigers will be taken to the mountainside after their seventieth birthday and abandoned,” Tomcat exined. “Elderly women would be carried up the mountain by their children on a cold winter day, then left to die. That’s also why the mountain is called Obasuteyama, literally ‘the mountain for abandoning grandmother.’”


    “For real?” Tang Yue was rmed. He imagined that such an act in China which extolled the need for filial piety would be universally condemned.


    “In situations when resources for survival are limited, systematically abandoning the old and weak is a necessary measure that a group has to take,” Tomcat said. “Think about it. In the legend of Obasuteyama, most of the people are aged. They might volunteer to head up the mountain, leaving the resources they took up for newborn children. And when the children grow old, they too will volunteer to head up the mountain to open up a spot for the next generation.”


    Tang Yue fell silent for a few seconds.


    “What a tragic story.”


    He didn’t know if this was an extreme cold or extreme warming act, whether it was an act of extreme rationality or extreme emotion.


    “After this batch of tomatoes dies, the next batch of tomatoes will be born,” Tomcat said softly. “Every life is precious; only life can bring about life.”


    Tang Yue slumped down on the ground, looking at the dark, distant desert. The resplendent Milky Way was rising above a sand dune, spanning across the entire horizon. The ancients called it a road of milk, but Tang Yue felt that it was more like an irregr rift in the pitch-ck sky. It was like a bottomless abyss where countless stardust fell.


    It was very difficult to see such a starry sky on Earth. This made Tang Yue recall bonfire night back in Lop Nur. He and Old Wang had burned dried desert por and camelthorn and huddled around it for warmth. Based on Tomcat’s exnation, the night sky on Mars was very simr to Earth, but there were minute differences. For example, Mars’s celestial sphere didn’t have Pris forever hanging north.


    Tang Yue nced at the temperature reading. It was –20°C.


    Tomcat had opened the airlock’s hatch and walked out as well. In the cold, thin air, it shook its fur.


    It walked to Tang Yue’s side andy down on the sand, resting on its paw and crossing its hind leg.


    “Is the test done?” Tang Yue asked.


    “The eighteenth simtion. I seeded in getting Orion II to descend to 3,700 meters.” Tomcat nced into the sky. “Unfortunately, the workstation went on strike. I’m restarting it.”


    “Sess is at hand?”


    “Almost.” Tomcat leisurely shook its hind leg. “I’vebed Orion’s control program again and fixed 873 bugs. We will let itnd sessfully during tomorrow’s simtion.”


    “How much confidence do you have?”


    Tomcat gestured at the Milky Way.


    “Then, let’s wish us luck.” Tang Yue raised his fist.


    “May we have good luck.” Tomcat fist-bumped him.


    Tang Yuey down as well, leaning against Tomcat, using his arm to prop up his head. He subconsciously tried to search for where Earth once was, but it was still a deep, empty space.


    “Do you know what that star is?” Tomcat raised a w into the night sky.


    “I’ve no idea.”


    “You have probably been told before.”


    “I’ve forgotten.” Tang Yue was thick-skinned. “I might have, but you need to know how long it has been. I’ve long forgotten everything.”


    “That’s Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear constetion. That dipper-like star is Alpha Ursae Minoris. It’s moremonly known on Earth as Pris.” Tomcat pointed into the sky and said their names one after another. “The constetions on Earth can also be seen on Mars. This big cross is Cygnus. The very bright star is Deneb, and next to it is the Cephus constetion. There’s also Aquarius...”


    Mars didn’t have any light pollution or bright moons. Even the atmosphere was very thin, so on a clear night, the stars appeared extremely bright. Tang Yue could see more than three thousand stars simply with his naked eye. It felt as though the gods had poured diamonds onto velvet that emitted dazzling glimmers.


    “Penny for your thoughts?” Tomcat asked.


    “This world is beautiful,” Tang Yue said, “but it’s also very cold and harsh.”