Chapter 136: Return

At this moment, a hatch on the Hope spacecraft has disappeared, and no one knows where it flew to.

It was an explosion caused by an accident.

There is no support from the Earth team - even if there is support, it will be useless.

The accident happened too quickly, and at this moment, the two-way communication delay between the Hope spacecraft and the Earth was as high as more than 20 minutes. Waiting for instructions from the Earth was too late.

Zhou Cheng could only choose to deal with it himself.

He tried his best to control the accident within an acceptable range, only losing one solar panel and one hatch, and there was no damage to other aspects.

At this moment, the location of the hatch has been covered with a layer of special plastic, which has trapped all the gases inside the spacecraft and prevented them from dissipating further.

Under the pressure of one atmosphere, the plastic bulges outward like a balloon.

Although it looks fragile and weak, fortunately, there is nothing in the space environment, and generally nothing can destroy it.

Communication had been restored by then. Zhou Cheng reported the accident and his handling of the situation to Earth in detail.

At this moment, almost everyone felt the chill released from their hearts.

Before the Hope spacecraft set sail, who could have imagined that such a malfunction would occur?

But it happened, and it led to such serious consequences that it almost ended the interstellar voyage that carried the only hope of human civilization.

"Even human civilization at its peak wasn't confident enough to land on Mercury, let alone us now.

Long before we set off, we had already made an assessment and believed that the success rate of the entire operation was only about 30%.

Fortunately, we were lucky enough not to suffer any greater losses due to this failure."

While people were feeling fear and worry, they also felt a sense of relief.

Zhou Cheng didn't care about those things.

After finishing the report to Earth, Zhou Cheng immediately sent some other things back.

It was sent to Liu Yu. The content was some photos of the starry sky taken by Zhou Cheng when he was sailing on the back of the sun.

After multiple extinction processes, a huge sun with greatly reduced brightness hung in the center of the sky. Around it, countless stars orbited.

One of the extremely bright stars was specially marked by Zhou Cheng.

That's the Earth.

"Look, isn't it beautiful?"

After a few minutes' delay, Liu Yu received the message.

During the several months of disconnection, Liu Yu was always waiting for Zhou Cheng's message.

She woke up from nightmares countless times and couldn't fall asleep again.

Now, Zhou Cheng's message finally arrived, and Liu Yu felt that the whole sky seemed to brighten up in an instant.

But… these words seem familiar.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Yu found the source of the familiarity.

It seemed that he had spoken to Zhou Cheng in the same way when he had taken a large ship to Antarctica for scientific research.

At that time, I had just survived a storm and was almost dead.

What have you experienced now during the past few months of disconnection?

But it was obvious that Zhou Cheng didn't want him to know those things at the moment, just like he didn't want him to know those things at the beginning.

Enduring the pain in his heart, Liu Yu replied with a tone full of joy and cheers: "So beautiful! You're out?"

"Yes, we finally circled the sun. The sun is really big."

"Haha, of course. When can you get to Earth?"

"Soon, in a few months, you'll be able to see me from Earth."

At this moment, the Hope spacecraft has completed the first phase of its voyage. In the second phase, it will return to the vicinity of the Earth, pass by it, and use the Earth's gravity to slow down again.

At that time, the closest distance between it and the Earth will be only about 1,500 kilometers.

If the visibility is good, you can see it even on the surface.

"Yeah, I'll be waiting for you!"

Time passed slowly. After a few long months, Liu Yu got up early in the morning.

After a quick wash and meal, she hurried out the door.

Several large boxes were already placed in the yard. Opening them revealed long light strips and many individual small LED light packages.

After taking out the light strips, Liu Yu moved the ladder with great effort and hung the light strips one by one along the wall of the courtyard.

Liu Yu bought a lot of light strips, so he could hang three or four on one wall, and still have more than half left.

Next, she climbed onto the roof and laid the light strips one by one on the roof like laying pipes.

After that, there are several trees in the courtyard.

Liu Yu wrapped the light strips densely around the tree, making them look like some festive items, densely packed.

Even after so much entanglement, she still hasn't stopped.

Pushing open the gate, she took the remaining light strips and planned to wrap them around the green plants and trees on the road.

Next to them was an elderly couple who looked to be around seventy years old.

At this moment they are also working on wrapping the light strips.

The old man climbed up the ladder and while winding the rope, he called out, "Old woman, bring some more, it's not enough."

Seeing Liu Yu coming out, the old man greeted him with a smile: "Ayu, you come and wrap the light strips too."

"Yes, Uncle Sun, it's too dangerous up there. Come down and I'll help you wrap it."

"fine."

The old man waved his arm vigorously: "This is nothing, back then, I was alone..."

His wife came out at this moment, carrying a bunch of lanterns, and interrupted him with a complaint: "You are already old, why do you keep talking about your youth?"

The old couple was arguing while wrapping strips of light around the tree.

Elsewhere, Liu Yu saw even more people busy at work. They also brought numerous high-intensity light strips, wrapping not only their own courtyards but also the walls, roofs, and even the courtyards. After laying them all out, they would go outside and wrap the trees and plants like him.

After wrapping it around and around, all the light strips in my hand were wrapped.

At this moment, the light strips on the trees and green plants in front of him were already densely packed, but when Liu Yu looked at them carefully, he always felt that there were still a little too few.

"Let's go buy some more."

She thought, "The World Government has been increasing the production and supply of light strips, LEDs, and other lighting fixtures recently. Stores should still have some."

Liu Yu drove the car and hurried towards the store.

Slowly moving along the road, no matter where Liu Yu drove, he could see large groups of people wrapped in light strips.

It seemed that at this moment, people from all over the city came out and joined in this work.