Chapter 230 Chen Xueming's Gift
As the birthday party drew to a close and everyone was preparing to leave, Chen Xueming suddenly shouted from the other end of the video call: "Wait! There's one more thing!"
Lin Mo looked up, watching Chen Xueming on the screen.
Chen Xueming's expression was somewhat mysterious: "Old Lin, that Mars globe from earlier was the first gift. There's a second one."
Li Xiao leaned in curiously: "There's more? Engineer Chen, you certainly kept that well hidden!"
Chen Xueming chuckled and brought a small box into the camera's view. The box was small, about the size of a palm, and wrapped in kraft paper, looking quite simple.
"What is this?" Lin Mo asked.
Chen Xueming said: "Open it up and you'll see."
Lin Mo took the box—Zhao Gang had taken it out of the package; it had indeed arrived together with Chen Xueming's Mars globe, but he had only opened the large one earlier, leaving this small one untouched.
He tore open the kraft paper and lifted the lid.
Inside was a small glass bottle, about the height of a palm and the thickness of a thumb, sealed with a cork. The bottle was filled with dark red sand that shimmered with a faint reddish-brown luster under the light.
Lin Mo was stunned.
Li Xiao leaned in to look: "What is this? Dirt?"
Chen Xueming laughed on the other end of the video call: "Yes, dirt. But not ordinary dirt."
He paused, his voice carrying a hint of pride: "This is something I specially ordered online—a Mars soil simulant sample."
The conference room fell silent for a second.
Zhao Gang frowned: "Mars soil? Where would you get Mars soil on Earth?"
Chen Xueming explained: "It's not real Mars soil; it's a simulant. There is a place on Earth called the Atacama Desert in South America, which is the most Mars-like place on Earth. The soil composition, color, and texture there are highly similar to the data sent back by Mars probes."
He pointed to the small bottle: "This bottle of soil was collected from the Atacama Desert. The seller said they analyzed it with professional equipment, and compared to the Spirit rover data released by NASA, it has a similarity of over 95%."
Li Xiao's eyes widened: "There are places like that?"
Chen Xueming nodded: "Yes. And not just the Atacama. The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica and the Rio Tinto mining area in Spain are all known as 'Mars analog sites.' When scientists study Mars, they sometimes go to these places to conduct experiments."
Lin Mo looked at the small bottle, remaining silent for a long time.
The dark red sand lay quietly in the glass bottle. It looked extremely ordinary, no different from the sand on the Gobi Desert.
But Chen Xueming's words gave this bottle of soil a different meaning.
The most Mars-like place. A Mars soil simulant sample.
Lin Mo recalled the photos sent back by Mars probes—red wastelands, massive canyons, extinct volcanoes, dried-up riverbeds. He had seen those images countless times.
But he had never imagined that one day, he would hold a bottle of "Mars soil" in his own hands.
Although it wasn't real, it was already very close.
Chen Xueming said on the other end of the video: "Old Lin, I know your goals. The space elevator, the lunar base, the Mars outpost. We have just taken the first step now, and we still have a long way to go before reaching Mars. But I thought, we could bring a little bit of 'Mars' to our side first."
His voice was somewhat low, but very earnest: "Keep this bottle of soil in your office. When we finally land on Mars one day, you can return it to me yourself. By then, it will be a historical artifact—the earliest 'Mars sample' in the history of human Mars exploration."
The conference room was extremely quiet.
Li Xiao's eyes turned red. Zhao Gang turned his head away and blinked hard. Section Chief Wu took off his reading glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.
Lin Mo looked at the small bottle, at the dark red sand inside, and suddenly felt an indescribable emotion welling up in his heart.
There was touched emotion, ambition, anticipation, and a trace of faint sorrow.
He looked up at Chen Xueming on the screen: "Xueming, thank you."
Chen Xueming laughed: "What are you thanking me for? Didn't we agree to walk this path together?"
Lin Mo nodded and carefully placed the small bottle on the table, lining it up with the other three gifts.
The Mars globe represented the goal. The signed notebook represented the team. The military knife represented protection. And this bottle of Mars soil represented—the first step.
Although it was only a small step, it had already begun.
After the meeting adjourned, Lin Mo sat alone in his office, staring at the four gifts.
The Mars globe stood silently, its dark red surface shimmering with a faint luster under the light. The Mars soil lay quietly, the color almost exactly the same as that on the Mars globe.
He picked up the small bottle and held it up to the light.
The dark red sand was fine and light, as if it could be blown away by the wind at any moment.
He thought of the Atacama Desert.
That place, he had only seen in documentaries—the driest place on Earth, where some areas hadn't seen rain in four hundred years. The soil there was as barren as Mars, and its landscape was as desolate as Mars.
But there, at least there was air, sunlight, and people who could stand there to collect a bottle of soil and mail it to the Gobi Desert on the other side of the Earth.
And what about Mars? There was nothing on Mars. No air, no water, no life. Only eternal desolation and silence.
But one day, someone would stand there.
Standing there, looking at Earth—that small blue dot flickering in the night sky.
Who would that person be? He didn't know.
But he knew that person would definitely go up from this space elevator.
He put down the small bottle, picked up a pen, and wrote a line on a sticky note: "When we land on Mars, this bottle of soil will be an artifact."
Then he stuck the note onto the bottle.
The next morning, Li Xiao pushed the door open, saw the note on the bottle of soil, and was stunned.
"Senior Brother, did you write this?"
Lin Mo nodded.
Li Xiao smiled: "Then I'll have to take a good look when the time comes. To see how we go from this one small bottle of soil to the real Mars."
Lin Mo looked at her: "Do you believe we can make it there?"
Li Xiao said: "I do. You're here, Chen Xueming is there, Brother Zhao is here, everyone is here. Why wouldn't we make it?"
Lin Mo smiled but didn't say anything.
Li Xiao walked to the window and pointed at the Gobi Desert outside: "Senior Brother, look."
Lin Mo walked over and looked in the direction she was pointing.
The Gobi Desert was desolate, nothing but sand and rocks, rocks and sand.
Li Xiao said: "There was nothing here before either. And now? There is an Artificial Sun, Carbon Nanotubes, and blueprints for a space elevator. Four years, creating something from nothing."
She turned her head and looked at Lin Mo: "No matter how far away Mars is, can it be further than creating something from nothing?"
Lin Mo was stunned for a moment, then smiled.
"You're right."
That evening, Lin Mo sent a message to Chen Xueming: "I put that bottle of soil on the table. Looking at it every day reminds me."
Chen Xueming replied quickly: "That's good. Old Lin, I have an idea."
"Tell me."
"When we actually land on Mars, I want to take that bottle of soil, along with the one from the Atacama Desert, and scatter them both on Mars. The soil from both sides, combined together. Earth's 'Mars' and the real Mars, finally meeting."
Lin Mo looked at the message and remained silent for a long time.
Then he replied: "Okay. I'll be waiting."
Outside the window, the starry sky over the Gobi Desert was still brilliant.
In the low sky to the southeast, that faint star was still flickering.
But this time, Lin Mo's gaze did not fall there.
He looked in another direction—the direction of Mars.
It was also flickering, brighter and redder than that faint star.
Like a red eye, in the depths of the universe, quietly gazing at Earth. Gazing at this space elevator. Gazing at this group of people. Gazing at that small bottle of soil.
Lin Mo whispered: "Wait for us. We'll be there soon."