Mai Dong felt like he was about to die.

She had forced herself to sleep six times in the past ten hours, this was the seventh time she had been woken up hungry, and in the last two days Mai Dong had only eaten two sandwiches, three compressed biscuits, and two glasses of water, which were only the size of an adult's lunch, but Mai Dong had to divide them into six portions.

Her last compressed cookie had been eaten six hours earlier.

Mai Dong searched all the compartments of the United Space Station, opened every cabinet, and took a bite of everything that seemed to be edible—she was a Guangzhou girl after all, but the supplies on the United Space Station were so scarce that even Cantonese people could starve to death.

The girl was cowered in her sleeping bag, her eyes open and looking straight at the bulkhead overhead, her face pale and weak as a reed pole.

Mai Dong's bedroom is a small cubicle, not much larger than the bathroom, the sleeping bag is tied vertically to the bulkhead with nylon straps, and the door of the cubicle can be closed with a curtain.

The United Space Station was filled with loud noises all the time, as if there was a construction site next door, and Mai Dong couldn't keep it off with earplugs, so she had to tie styrofoam around her bedroom, surround it tightly, and stuff her head into a sleeping bag.

Mai Dong tried to close his eyes, and after a while, he opened them again.

She just couldn't sleep.

She was so hungry.

There had never been such a moment, Mai Dong felt so close to death, she looked at the rope and sticker on the bulkhead opposite, as if she had seen her end, if nothing else, she would die so silently and silently, in a corner that no one could reach, slowly turning into ashes and dry bones.

It's desperately depressing, as if you're locked in a cage and sinking into deep water, where no one in the universe can hear your cries for help.

A small Shiba Inu plush doll floated into the girl's field of vision, and Mai Dong pulled out his hand and grabbed the small toy.

She pinched the dog's head, rubbed it around, and laughed silently.

"If only you were a real puppy......"

Mai Dong said softly.

"Then I'll be able to eat you."

The harsh sunlight filtered through the crack in the curtain of the bedroom door, and the white pillar of light moved on the dark lining of the living quarters, and Mai Dong knew that the sun was rising again.

In fact, there is no day and night in the joint space station, the operation cycle of the space station is one hour and twenty minutes, that is to say, it can circle Mars in less than an hour and a half, and those who stay in the station can see the sun rise and set the next time, an earth day is twenty-four hours, and sixteen sunrises and sunsets can be seen on the joint space station.

So Mai Dong sleep relies on time planning, she sets an alarm clock for herself, goes to sleep at the specified time, and gets up to work when the alarm clock rings...... Mai Dong doesn't actually have much work to do, she is a botanical expert by profession, growing potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce in a small experimental module on the space station to study the growth of edible plants in microgravity.

Mai Dong got out of his sleeping bag, gently pushed the bulkhead, and floated out of the bedroom backwards, and then walked through the hatches of the cabins as if he were walking through a tunnel.

The United Space Station is clearly a claustrophobic and cramped place, but Mai Dong still feels empty when he is alone.

Mai Dong's fixed route, after getting up, first go to the experimental module to see the seeds in those petri dishes, and then go around in each functional module to check the functions of each module of the space station.

The Joint Space Station is similar to the ISS on Earth, it is a combined truss structure, and the largest part of the station is a 150-meter-long metal truss to which all the cabins and solar panels are attached. There are seven main modules on the Joint Space Station, and Mai Dong will walk around these functional modules to make sure they don't have any problems.

These chambers serve different purposes, carrying all kinds of sophisticated scientific equipment, but they are now all shut down, Mai Dong alone does not use a magnetic spectrometer or an X-ray analysis machine, and all power-hungry things are turned off to reduce energy consumption.

After walking around the entire Joint Space Station, Mai Dong finally returned to the core module, where he tried to contact the Kunlun station.

During the time when Kunlun Station lost contact, Mai Dong was really frightened, she called Tang Yue every once in a while, and even forgot to look for food.

Mai Dong glanced at the time, 3:16 a.m. on August 16, 2052 A.D.

Today is the day of the launch of the Eagle spacecraft.

The girl curled up in the core module, suspended in the cabin and slowly rotated, surrounded by dense meters and buttons, the crystal core module was the only cabin that could still maintain full functionality at this time, because the space station's system computer was here, and the communication system was also here.

Through the porthole, Mai Dong could see the magnificent surface of Mars outside, the huge brown-red planet occupied almost all of her vision, the slightly curved horizon divided the whole universe into two halves, one side was the dark night sky, the other side was the brown-yellow earth, the sun was gradually rising, and the thin atmosphere that illuminated the surface of Mars, like a brilliant diamond ring.

"This is the United Space Station, the 460th call to the Kunlun Station, Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Mao...... Please answer ...... received"

There was no response in the communication channel, and it seems that the sandstorm has not abated.

In that communication a few hours ago, the old cat told her that the Kunlun station below had been hit by a sandstorm, and that bad weather had interfered with the communication, and they were working to solve it, while also reassuring her that the Eagle spacecraft was ready to launch at any time, so that she could wait for supplies with peace of mind.

I don't know if they solved it.

Mai Dong rested his chin on his knees, his short black hair fluttering slowly under weightlessness, and all kinds of small bits and pieces floated around her.

"This is the United Space Station, the 461st call to Kunlun Station, Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, please answer ...... received"

"This is the United Space Station, the 462nd call Kunlun Station ......"

Mai Dong called mechanically over and over again, and the United Space Station was like a tiny radio station on an isolated island, surrounded on all sides by the boundless ocean of uninhabited oceans, but it was still tirelessly sending out messages in the hope that someone would receive the radio waves.

Just thinking about it makes me feel lonely.

This is probably the last radio station in the universe, and Mai Dong thinks that if the supply delivery plan fails, then she will set the radio system of the United Space Station to the maximum power, and when she dies, let it play Hisaishi's piano song "Summer" to the whole universe.

It's her favorite tune.

The Joint Space Station doesn't know how many more years it will be in orbit, so as long as it's still in orbit, let it keep playing, and let this warm and cheerful song become the background music of Mars and the entire universe.

If Mr. Tang Yue and Mr. Cat on Mars turn on the radio, they may still receive this music from space, maybe this will make their lives less boring.

That's nice.

Mai Dong laughed.