On the radio, Venkart's voice continued.

"Guys, I know this news is a bit of a surprise, but you don't have to worry about it. We discovered the anomaly at Camp in the Plains of Asidalia about a month ago through satellite photos, and then after a month of hard work, we finally got in touch with Pang and Watney. In the course of their communication with Earth, they have repeatedly emphasized that this incident was just an accident, that there is nothing wrong with what you did, and that they do not blame you. And you don't know it, Watney and Pong also planted potatoes on Mars, and now, they are the first humans to carry out agricultural activities on an alien planet, or rather, they are the pioneers of human colonization of Mars. ”

"At present, the Ares Project Command has developed a complete rescue plan, and we will do whatever it takes to rescue Ponne and Watney, so please rest assured, it won't be long before you can see Pong and Watney on Earth. And if you have anything you want to say to Pong and Watney, you can send it to Houston and I will relay it to you! ”

Soon, Friedrich, Beck, and Gross also came to the gravity module.

"What about Colonel Lewis?"

Baker asked Haruko Kitagawa Dao.

"I'm here!"

At some point, Colonel Lewis, whose eyes were slightly red, returned to the gravity module, she looked at her teammates softly, and said, "Guys, let's discuss how to write letters to Pang and Watney!" ”

……

Mars, Asidaria Plain, half past nine in the evening Martian time.

In the perching cabin, Pang Xuelin lay at the head of his bed, leisurely listening to a jazz CD that Watney had found from Colonel Lewis's personal belongings.

Watney sat in front of the computer, chatting with the expert support team a few minutes away.

Of course, most of the time, what they talk about is some nonsense.

Since connecting with Earth, Project Ares' command has never been more controlling, from Pang Xuelin and Watney's overall plan for the next few years, to the nutritional mix of every meal.

For example, after Pang Xuelin and Watney noticed that the water flow rate of the water circulation system had decreased to a certain extent, they thought that the water circulation system was blocked, and they were ready to repair it themselves, find the blocked pipe, and clean it up.

After 10 hours of discussion, the committee of experts rejected the proposal of Pang Xuelin and Watney.

They believe that this kind of work can only be done by professionals, and that the water circulation system is still usable, and there is no need to risk breaking the water circulation system to repair it.

So Pang Xuelin and Watney happily put their advice behind them, and spent a day disassembling the water circulation system, finding the blockages, cleaning them, and then reassembling them back without any problems at all.

Of course, the team of experts did not fail to come up with some effective recommendations.

For example, the fine management of crops increases the carbon dioxide content of the planting cabin, thereby increasing the amount of organic matter synthesized.

Another example is the use of oxygenators to fill all the liquid oxygen storage tanks in case of a crisis, not enough oxygen, etc.

During this time, Pang Xuelin and Watney also relaxed, and now they have done almost everything they can, and then they just need to wait patiently for the first season of potatoes to be harvested.

With the advice of a team of experts, most of the time, they stay in the perch, reducing the number of EVAs and thus reducing the consumption of carbon dioxide absorbers.

Originally, in order to survive, the two of them were busy every day, but now that they are all at ease, Pang Xuelin actually feels a little uncomfortable.

As he listened to the music, he wondered if it was time to find a suitable research topic for himself.

Just as he was thinking about it, Watney in front of the computer suddenly shouted: "Pong, come here, Lewis they wrote us an email, which was just forwarded by Houston!" ”

Pang Xuelin hurriedly got up from the bed and came behind Watney.

Watney opened the email and read it.

"Dear Pong, Watney, it's good to hear that you're still alive. Really, really, each of us was very happy. I now regret that I should not have given up on you in the first place, and that I should have taken full responsibility for your situation. Now Sergei, Haruko Kitagawa, Beck, Gross, and Friedrich are all by my side, they miss you very much, and the entire crew of the Hermes will be there to help you whenever you need it, and I hope we have a place to help you. Project Ares Command has told us that they have a practical rescue plan, and I'm sure you and Pong will be able to survive Mars with our own wits. When you return to Earth, I invite you to drink. —Lewis and all members of the Hermes. “

"Pong, let's send Lewis an email back to them too!"

Pang Xuelin smiled: "Of course! ”

Soon, Pang Xuelin and Watney drafted a new email and replied back.

"Hello Colonel Lewis and dear teammates, it's great to hear from you again, Pang and I are doing well in the plains of Ashidaria, and the space in the roosting pod is much more comfortable without you. It was just an accident, and we were unlucky to get to where we are now. Colonel Lewis gave the right order, and it was a decision to take responsibility for the safety of other people's lives. May all of you return home safely, and look forward to having a drink with you when you return to Earth. —Pang Xuelin, Watney. ”

……

As time passed, Pang Xuelin and Watney's life on Mars began to become boring and monotonous.

Every morning, Watney would go into the pod to test the air composition in the pod, loosen the soil for the potatoes, test the moisture of the soil, and decide whether to increase the moisture content of the soil.

Sometimes, he also adds some newly processed natural fertilizer to the soil.

Pang Xuelin checked the operation of the various systems in the perching module, recorded log data, sent it back to Earth, and performed regular maintenance on some equipment according to the recommendations of the expert committee.

It has been more than three months since Pang Xuelin entered the Martian world, and the potatoes in the planting cabin have grown to twenty or thirty centimeters tall, and they will be harvested in another half a month.

When they sent the photos of the potatoes back to Earth, it caused a huge sensation.

For this reason, Watney had to cooperate with the Ares Project Command to give a lesson on Martian botany to the children on Earth.

Pang Xuelin didn't have so much to do, and after recording and maintaining every day, there were still five or six hours left to arrange freely, so he found a new topic for himself - to prove the ABC conjecture.

The ABC conjecture is an important conjecture in the field of number theory, which was proposed by Joseph Oesterlé and David Masser in 1985, so it is also known as the Oesterlé–Masser conjecture.

The mathematician Goldfield once said, "The ABC conjecture is the most important of the unsolved problems of the Diophantine equations!" ”

In 2007, French mathematician Lucien Szpiro (whose main areas of research are number theory, arithmetic algebraic geometry, and commutative algebra) attempted to overcome this conjecture, but was later proven wrong.

In August 2012, Shinichi Mochizuki, a mathematician at Kyoto University in Japan, published a paper of more than 500 pages, introducing his comprehensive generalization of Tayhimüller's theory, and claiming that this theory could be used to prove several famous conjectures, including the ABC conjecture, but this obscure theory was not recognized by the mathematical community.

Pang Xuelin once read Shinichi Mochizuki's paper during his doctoral studies, but he didn't understand it.

According to his mentor, Tao Zhexuan, the proof-of-concept part of Shinichi Mochizuki is too complicated, and the first 300 pages of the paper are almost all about building a new mathematical system, which can only be applied in a very small number of fields such as the ABC conjecture.

In contrast to Shinichi Mochizuki, Zhang and Perelman gave a concise "proof of concept" at the beginning of their paper, and the methods they developed could be quickly applied to the corresponding fields, obtaining some interesting new non-trivial results, or giving new proofs of some existing non-trivial conclusions.

Therefore, this move to complicate a simple problem is usually a mistake.

Pang Xuelin naturally did not think to prove the ABC conjecture in one breath, if in terms of difficulty alone, this conjecture is not much simpler than the BSD conjecture.

He just wanted to have some fun for himself, after all, life on Mars was too boring and boring.