Chapter 3

At eighteen, I was assigned to the Mars Energy Maintenance Division.

My monthly salary was 3,600 credits.

After housing, oxygen, water, transportation, and everything else, I had 217 left each month.

After working for a year, I used my savings to buy a tiny bag of wheat flour.

Fourteen grams, imported directly from Earth.

My fingers trembled as I opened the package.

The place of origin was printed on it:

“Earth, Asia Agricultural Zone, Wheat Cultivation District Seven.”

I hid it under my pillow and breathed in the scent of flour.

I hadn’t bought it to make savory flatbread.

That would also require sauce, oil, scallions, sesame seeds, and other ingredients I couldn’t yet afford.

I simply wanted to own something that people on Earth owned, even if it was only one thing.

Then I could pretend that I lived on Earth too.

That tiny wish brought disaster down on me.

When Mom found what was under my pillow, she immediately demanded,

“Xiaoba, what did you buy flour for?”

“Are you planning to go to Earth?”

“No, Mom. I only wanted—”

She cut me off.

“Now that you have a job, do you think you can leave me?”

“Buying flour is only the first step, isn’t it?”

“What comes next? Saving for a ticket? Applying for Earth residency? Abandoning me here all alone?”

I took a deep breath.

“Mom, can you please stop doing this every time? I never said I was leaving you.”

Her face flushed scarlet.

“Doing what?”

“I worked myself to the bone raising you. What have I done?”

“Have you forgotten that you were never supposed to exist?”

That again.

I’d heard it for nineteen years. My ears had practically grown calluses.

But this time, I answered back.

“Mom, sometimes I wish you hadn’t made that decision.”

Mom was quiet for a moment. Then she laughed until tears came.

“Xiaoba, your mother ought to teach you just how hard life can be.”

The next morning, a supervisor from Human Resources came to see me.

“Chen Xiaoba, we’ve received a report concerning you.”

“Have you recently experienced any longing for Earth?”

I clenched my hands. “No.”

His face was expressionless.

“The report came from a highly credible source.”

“A woman very close to you.”

I said nothing, but my heart sank.

The supervisor continued gravely,

“You should know that positions in Energy Maintenance require a high degree of stability.”

“We don’t need an employee prone to psychological disturbance.”

“But my performance has always been rated Class A.”

“Your ability isn’t the problem.”

“Your psychological suitability is. You yearn for Earth.”

“Mars needs stable workers with low emotional volatility.”

“Your fantasies will keep expanding until they become an inclination to travel to Earth.”

“Energy Maintenance cannot assume that risk.”

It was absurd.

I had studied so many pipeline schematics and memorized so many failure models for this job. It had taken everything I had to get here.

And now they said I couldn’t be trusted.

All because my mother told them I longed for savory flatbread?

The supervisor slid an electronic document toward me.

“Notice of Termination.”

A line of red text appeared beneath it.

“Transfer to Basic Services Holding Area recommended.”

I stared at the words—Basic Services Holding Area.

It was the place every adult on Mars dreaded hearing about.

Once you went in, you could do little but temp work. You were practically no different from an unskilled person.

I don’t remember how I left Energy Maintenance.

My colleagues stood beside their workstations, watching me with pity.

They must have known already—

I had spent nineteen years climbing from the daughter of unskilled persons to a place in Energy Maintenance.

And now, because of my mother, I was right back where I’d started.