It took over an hour to move all the boxes onto the spaceship.
They ascended and returned to the beach.
There was a small clearing by the beach, dotted with scattered plastic fragments.
Jiang Ye decided to start planting immediately, hoping to grow some crops to eat as soon as possible. For days, their meals had consisted of fish and seaweed, and no matter how tasty, it was making them nauseous.
Cen Yemeng, in particular, had secretly gone out to vomit several times at night. It might have been a normal pregnancy reaction, or perhaps the diet was simply too monotonous.
She never complained, always smiling and saying her food was delicious.
The more understanding his wife was, the more Jiang Ye's heart ached.
The first step in clearing the land was to dig out all the plastic pieces.
Jiang Ye certainly didn't want plastic particles in his fruits and vegetables.
Without proper tools, he had to carry a sack in one hand and a shovel in the other, digging into the ground.
He painstakingly removed the plastic, piece by piece.
As night fell, Jiang Ye finally cleared a patch of land, a square of two hundred by two hundred meters.
The robot dog, which had been resting and recharging by the sea, was now fully charged and trotted over, wagging its tail.
"Master, what are you doing?"
"Farming," Jiang Ye said, sitting on the sack to rest.
"But you can't farm here," the robot dog said, sniffing the soil.
"Why not?" Jiang Ye was taken aback.
"The soil on this planet is toxic, filled with perchlorates," the robot dog explained, wagging its tail. "These are salts and acids of perchlorate ions (clo4-). They originate from the various garbage scattered across the planet, and over time, they've entered all the soil through the water cycle. Planting crops in this soil is impossible; seeds will die as soon as they sprout."
Jiang Ye was stunned.
The soil here... was poisonous?
What a disaster. He had finally managed to get a sack of seeds, and now he couldn't plant them? Was he supposed to make bean soup?
"Don't be sad, Master, there's a way we can try," the robot dog added.
"Don't scare me like that!" Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief. "What way?"
"As the old saying goes, when life gives you clo4-, make oxygen!" the robot dog chirped. "There's a perchlorate reduction catalyst that can convert perchlorates into oxygen and remove their toxicity, creating fertile soil suitable for planting."
"Where can I find that catalyst?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Some space engines might have it. You could try looking in that crashed spaceship. If you're lucky, you might find some," the robot dog said.
Jiang Ye looked up at the stars.
"It's getting late, and I need to accompany my wife to sleep. I'll go first thing tomorrow."
"Okay, Master!"
...
After drinking fish soup in the morning, Jiang Ye took the spaceship to the crash site.
Cen Yemeng didn't accompany him; she stayed home to process the newly caught fish.
The night fishing lines and fish traps yielded hundreds of fish, big and small, every other night, their eyes staring blankly, awaiting their fate.
At eight in the morning, the spaceship landed.
Jiang Ye, accompanied by the robot dog, entered the crashed spaceship.
After a whole night, a layer of dust had settled inside the ship, the bloodstains had turned black, and the bodies were beginning to decompose.
"You go look for that catalyst, and I'll bury these people," Jiang Ye sighed. "It's best to be buried in the earth. What kind of end is it to die in the wilderness?"
"Okay, Master." The robot dog crawled towards the rear of the spaceship.
Jiang Ye, carrying his shovel, dug pits in the ground next to the spaceship. It had rained the previous day, so the soil was soft and easy to dig.
Just as he finished the first burial pit, the robot dog emerged, its tail wagging enthusiastically.
"I found the catalyst! There's about ten pounds of it!"
"That much?" Jiang Ye was surprised. He patted the dog's head. "Good job. I'll bury the people first."
The robot dog was clever and began digging burial pits in the nearby open ground as well.
It was quite fast at digging, its motors humming, scattering wet soil.
Half an hour later, nine burial pits were dug.
They weren't deep, just enough to hold a person. Given the limited conditions, a grand funeral was impossible.
Jiang Ye climbed into the spaceship wreckage and began dragging out the bodies.
The charred bodies were curled up. He had to force them straight with some effort before covering them with soil.
The bodies with broken spines were also straightened for burial.
The bodies with severed heads presented a bit of a challenge – it was difficult to tell which head belonged to which body.
Jiang Ye had to hold a head and compare skin tones with the bodies, checking the thickness of the necks to determine the head's owner before burying them together.
"It wasn't easy for you all. You died gloriously for the cause of humanity. If I ever have the chance to return to human society, I will definitely report your deeds and ensure you are recognized as martyrs," Jiang Ye said, bowing his head twice. "Conditions are limited, so I have no wine or paper money. I can only wish you a safe journey!"
After a lengthy monologue, Jiang Ye finally stood up and entered the spaceship wreckage.
Normally, he wouldn't have gone through all this; he would have just buried them and been done with it.
But now, being alone on an uninhabited planet, Jiang Ye's mindset had changed significantly. He felt a sense of shared sorrow, like a rabbit dying and a fox mourning.
The robot dog led him into the engine wreckage, pried open a protective plate, and pointed to a layer of black, cinder-like material inside.
"This is the perchlorate reduction catalyst. You can scrape it out with a shovel and put it in the sack," it said.
Jiang Ye dug with his shovel. The catalyst felt like brick, and it was quite strenuous.
He shoveled the scraped catalyst into the sack he had brought. It weighed about ten pounds in total.
He took the spaceship back to the beach.
The method for amending the soil was simple: mix the catalyst with the soil and keep turning it.
Jiang Ye poured the contents of the sack onto the ground as he walked, scattering it everywhere.
"Robot dog, this patch of land is yours. Keep turning the soil until it's ready for planting," Jiang Ye instructed. "Go for it!"
The robot dog, without complaint, immediately began digging with its paws.
Jiang Ye returned to the spaceship to process fish with Cen Yemeng.
"The fish with a lot of internal organs can't be used, but we can put them in the soil as fertilizer," Cen Yemeng suggested.
"No, the internal organs have too much plastic and metal particles," Jiang Ye shook his head. "The soil on this planet is fertile enough. We'll plant after the purification is complete."
They worked all day.
All the fish were processed, and they gained another fifty pounds of fish meat, which was dried on the beach.
Jiang Ye removed the fish traps and night fishing lines, ceasing fishing for the time being.
The robot dog was still diligently digging, turning the soil over and over.
Jiang Ye went over with his shovel to help. The entire area was now riddled with holes, looking as if it had been bombed.
Many bubbles could be seen, slowly emerging from the loose soil.
"The toxicity has decreased by 60%," the robot dog reported. "If I turn it over two more times, it should be about right."
"Good work," Jiang Ye said. "If I remember correctly, catalysts aren't consumed in reactions, right?"
"That's correct. The original ten pounds of catalyst are still ten pounds; they've just been dispersed."
"Then I'll clear another plot for vegetables. Once this land is purified, you can take the soil containing the catalyst over to purify the second plot," Jiang Ye commanded.
"Yes, Master." The robot dog was remarkably diligent.