"Sister Ivanka?"

Upon returning from piloting the Apollo spaceship, Zhang Fan was unsure how to answer Yui's question.

Later, Yui cried alone in her room for a whole day.

When Zhang Fan told Katerina about what happened at the Martian south pole, Katerina didn't seem surprised, simply nodding: "That's definitely her style."

“I’ve never understood,” Zhang Fan said, looking at Katerina. “Ivanka did that to you, so why do you seem not to hate her at all? You know, when I first met you…”

Zhang Fan still remembers the angry golden-haired lion king's appearance in the filthy "Number 5" living pod.

"Hehehe." Katerina laughed. "Then why don't you ask me why she locked me up inside?"

"Why?" Zhang Fan asked, full of curiosity.

"According to the agreement between our countries, she and I will travel together to the space station to complete the 'final mission'."

"And I know that after the chip is inserted into the main computer, before we leave the orbital station, we will become the two most powerful women in the world!"

"We will control the destiny of all mankind!"

"This idea conjured up a demon from hell within me, and I urged Ivanka to also descend into hell, to become the embodiment of the demon together. But..."

"She refused. In order to rid me of the demon in my heart, she wanted to lock the demon in hell."

"Hehe, she really did it. You know what happened next, so I won't go into details."

"..."

Zhang Fan didn't know what to say.

"By the way, Katerina, I heard that Ivanka used to be a pilot of the B-4 stealth bomber?"

"Who's talking nonsense to you?"

"Oh, that's all right now."

Okay, this is the third time you've fooled me.

Zhang Fan looked up at the sky.

Zhang Fan, you must remember this lesson: the more beautiful a woman is, the less you should believe what she says.

She is gone, but life on Mars must go on.

...

The most noteworthy thing during this period was that humanity on Earth concentrated its efforts on a major undertaking.

They repaired the FAST spherical radio telescope, known as "Sky Eye," located deep in the mountains of southwest China, and modified its functions.

Now FAST is not only a "long-range eye" but also a "keen ear".

"This is thanks to the data you sent to the 'Phoenix' database," Liao Changtian said on the communication screen. "We discovered that the data transmitted by 'Phoenix' contained some other things, some things that we believe should not have existed on Earth originally."

"Or rather..." Liao Changtian continued, "These things originally existed on Earth as well, but with our level of basic science, we haven't reached the point where we can discover them yet."

“And ‘Phoenix’ accelerated this process.”

"So we can now achieve real-time communication?" Zhang Fan asked.

“Yes.” Liao Changtian nodded. “We originally thought it might take 100 years to achieve this, but in fact we only took less than 100 days.”

"However, due to Earth's rotation, our real-time communication time is only one hour," Liao Changtian said. "After one hour, the angle of FAST's spherical reflector will no longer be able to cover Mars."

"Only when Earth regains its satellite launch capability can we use relay satellites to achieve real-time communication around the clock. But I believe that day is not far away."

"My superiors only approve no more than 5 minutes of communication time per day, after all, I am using all of humanity's time to talk to you."

“The remaining time slots of FAST will be used to continue receiving data from ‘Phoenix,’ since the communication efficiency of the solar power plants in the Northwest is simply too low.” Liao Changtian paused for a moment and then said, “Is there anything you want to say to us, or to humanity?”

“Yes,” Zhang Fan said quietly. “Ivanka wants to say sorry to you.”

"..."

“She doesn’t need to apologize,” Liao Changtian said. “When she drove the Beetle to Rose, whatever she had done in the past, humanity had already forgiven her.”

"She saved the Bird's Nest, she saved the Phoenix, which is equivalent to saving the whole world."

“She doesn’t need to apologize, but I do.” Zhang Fan covered his forehead, not wanting anyone to see the tears blurring his vision, and could only hide his pain with a bitter smile. “Heh, Director Liao, can you give me a plan to apologize to her?”

"Can."

"Heh, so it really is impossible? Was I just being delusional...uh...hmm?"

Um! ! ! ! ! !

"Did I hear that right?" Zhang Fan was completely taken aback, standing up and staring at the communication screen. "You just said 'okay'?"

Yes, you heard me right.

"Don't think that just because we're more than 60 million kilometers apart, you can talk nonsense." Zhang Fan clenched his fist. "I don't like joking!"

"I never joke."

"You're not kidding?" Zhang Fan stared into Liao Changtian's eyes on the communication screen. "I just asked you a question, and you already came up with a solution. You're not kidding, are you?"

"No, no, no, you're wrong." Liao Changtian shook his head. "It's not a plan that we just came up with."

"no?"

“No. In fact…” Liao Changtian said very seriously, “This plan was already implemented when the ‘Nuwa Mending the Sky-Plan B’ was implemented.”

"Or rather, this is a 'supplementary plan' for Nuwa patching up the sky, but this supplementary plan has only been written up to the beginning, and we haven't thought about the follow-up yet."

"Could you tell me more about this supplementary plan?"

“Okay.” Liao Changtian picked up a toy car model from the side. Upon closer inspection, it looked just like the “Beetle.” “First of all, as the most robust structure of the ‘Beetle,’ its spherical troop compartment can withstand water pressure of more than 3,000 meters. Even if the rest of the parts are damaged, the troop compartment can still maintain its complete structure and function.”

"Secondly, the titanium alloy drill bit of the 'Beetle' will generate extremely high internal temperatures when it is working. If it cannot be cooled down in time by the surface ice water, it will easily burn the key internal components. Therefore, it is necessary to add coolant inside."

"However, there are not many coolant liquids available on Mars, so the 'Beetle' design we gave you originally used the same liquid nitrogen mixture as the hibernation chamber."

"Third, the biggest enemy of human cryopreservation is the ice crystals formed by water at low temperatures—ice crystals can pierce the cell walls and cause irreversible damage to the human body. Therefore, a certain amount of special antifreeze must be injected before human cryopreservation."

"This special antifreeze will solidify the water inside the body, but it will not freeze. Medically, this process is called 'vitrification'."

"Fourth, besides being a Martian astronaut, Ivanka is also a medical doctor with the medical technology of cryopreservation. And on the Apollo spacecraft..."

“There is such a special cryoprotectant. As a medical doctor, it is perfectly reasonable for me to carry some medical supplies with me.”

"That concludes the current phase of the supplementary plan. Do you have any further questions?"

"..."

"Why didn't Ivanka tell me this?" Zhang Fan couldn't believe it.

"If she told you, would you let her implement Plan B?" Liao Changtian asked.

“No.” Zhang Fan remained silent. If he knew all this, he would have implemented Plan B himself.

"And what about the rest?" Zhang Fan continued to press, "The content after the supplementary plan."

"That's all."

"That's it?" Zhang Fan's eyes widened. "What do you mean by 'gone'?"

“Gone means gone.” Liao Changtian nodded seriously. “With our capabilities at the time, we could only write the plan up to this point. We didn’t know how to continue. Even Ivanka didn’t know what the final outcome would be.”

"But you just said it was okay..."

"Because the situation is different now." Liao Changtian's eyes began to shine. "Now we possess the 'Phoenix,' and under its guidance, humanity will complete the 'Phoenix Nirvana,' rising from the ashes. The future Blue Star will be a world we cannot even imagine now!"

"Then tell me, what should I do?"

"First of all, you have to realize that 3,000 meters below the ice layer is a distance that would have been unattainable even on Earth before the New Era."

"Secondly, the 'Beetle's' crew capsule is, after all, just a crew capsule, and it is very different from a real hibernation pod. Even if we rescue Ivanka, waking her up would be a huge medical undertaking, and we don't even know if we can wake her up."

"Third, with the current materials and technology of the 'Bird's Nest,' building a 1,000-meter deep-sea submersible is already the limit. On Mars, at a depth of 1,000 meters, the difficulty increases by an order of magnitude for every 100 meters of depth. What you need is a submersible capable of freely navigating depths of over 3,000 meters..."

"Due to time constraints, I won't go into these preliminary issues; I'll just get straight to the results."

"Therefore, in order to make the subsequent implementation of the supplementary plan possible, you must first establish a complete industrial system on Mars, including equipment manufacturing, energy development, medical technology, and marine exploration..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Zhang Fan was exasperated. "Can you describe what you just said in simple terms?"

"Have you ever played 'Red Alert'?" Liao Changtian asked.

"That idle sandbox game? I've played it." Zhang Fan nodded; Red Alert 4 was still on his game disc.

"That's pretty much what you'll be doing in the future."