A Tale of Two Cities Supporting Xinjiang

When the weather app on his phone popped up a glaring red alert, Li Chao was in the field adding soil to the last batch of saplings.

"Orange alert for sandstorm... Gusts may reach level 9 tonight and tomorrow..."

Li Chao threw down his shovel and ran toward the pile of materials.

The windbreak needs to be reinforced again.

He picked up the spare bamboo poles and thick hemp ropes, and inspected each support pole along the edge of the plot, re-nailing any loose ones and wrapping the joints with rope several times.

Busy until evening, he brought out the treasure that Researcher Lü had just sent a few days ago from the makeshift house, saying that it could monitor soil temperature and humidity in real time.

Following the instructions, he carefully buried the probe into the roots of the saplings in several key locations, and placed the main unit on the windowsill.

"Now we should have some confidence."

In the middle of the night, the gale, like a pack of mad beasts, roared and pounced.

The makeshift house creaked and rattled in the wind, and the windowpanes shook violently.

Outside, sand and stones flew everywhere, hitting the walls and roof with a crackling sound like hail.

Li Chao couldn't sleep at all, wrapped in a blanket, his mind preoccupied with the monitoring equipment.

As dawn broke and the wind subsided slightly, he rushed out.

The sight in the field made his heart sink.

Several monitoring probes that were just installed last night were knocked askew by sand and gravel, and even the wires were broken.

The computer screen on the windowsill was completely black, and no matter how I pressed it, nothing happened.

He quickly called Researcher Lü, but the signal was intermittent.

"Researcher Lü, the monitoring equipment... has all been destroyed by the sandstorm!"

"What?!"

Researcher Lü's voice also became urgent: "Li Chao, listen to me, after a sandstorm, there is often a sharp drop in temperature."

There is no real-time data available now, so you must manually monitor the ground temperature, especially the temperature around the roots of the seedlings.

Test every two hours; there is absolutely no room for carelessness.

Once the soil begins to freeze, the tree roots are in danger.

After hanging up the phone, Li Chao looked at the wrecked site and gritted his teeth. No equipment? Then use people!

He pulled out his old-fashioned metal thermometer and was about to leave when the door of the makeshift house, which was about to be blown apart by the wind, was pushed open.

Sima Yi Maimaiti entered, shivering with cold, his beard covered in frost.

"Technician Li, the wind is too strong, I'm worried, come and check it out."

"You've come at the perfect time, uncle."

The monitoring equipment broke down; now we have to rely on this.

He held up the thermometer. "Measure the ground temperature every two hours and keep an eye on it to make sure the tree roots don't freeze."

I'm afraid I can't keep an eye on everything by myself..."

"There's nothing we can't keep an eye on!"

Simayi Maimaiti took a thermometer from him and said, "I'll go with you."

These seedlings are the hope of our village; we can't just watch them freeze to death.

The two put on their thickest cotton coats, carried a lantern and a thermometer, and stepped into the icy, biting night.

The field was pitch black. They found several fixed monitoring points, dug away the topsoil, inserted the thermometers deep into the soil around the roots of the saplings, then curled up beside them, rubbing their hands and stamping their feet. After a few minutes, they took them out, carefully checked the readings by the light, and recorded them in their notebooks.

"Point 3, -1 degree Celsius."

"At point 7, it's -2 degrees Celsius... even lower than two hours ago."

The makeshift houses served as a temporary command post and refuge.

One person braved the cold wind to monitor the situation outside, while the other stayed inside, tending to the nearly burnt-out stove to warm themselves before taking over the shift.

In the middle of the night, my worst fears came true.

When it was Li Chao's turn to monitor, he noticed that the thermometer readings at several points had dropped sharply.

"Uncle Sima Yi Maimaiti, come and see!"

His voice changed: "Point 5, minus 5 degrees Celsius."

At point 8, the temperature is -6 degrees Celsius.

The soil...the soil feels hard to the touch.

Sima Yi rushed over, touched it with his hand, and his heart sank: "Oh no, it's starting to freeze."

We need to quickly lay down protective layers to keep the ground warm.

The two ran back to the makeshift house like madmen and dragged out some bundles of straw and old plastic film that they had prepared earlier.

There was no time for careful laying. They carried the straw and trudged through the mud to the areas with the lowest temperatures, spreading the straw directly on the soil around the base of the saplings, then covering it with a plastic film and securing the edges with clods of soil.

The wind was strong, and my hands were so frozen that they wouldn't obey my commands. The plastic film was being blown around wildly, and just when I managed to hold one side down, the other side would be torn off.

"This one over here is also failing."

"Give me another piece of plastic wrap."

……

As the sky finally began to lighten, the last piece of plastic sheeting was secured with clods of earth.

Li Chao and Sima Yi were so exhausted that they were almost collapsing. They sat back to back at the edge of the field, looking at the somewhat comical plot of land covered with straw and plastic film, but neither of them said anything about going back.

Just then, the sound of a car engine came from afar.

A pickup truck wobbled to the edge of the field. Zhou Mingyu jumped out of the passenger seat, followed by Xiao Wang from the agricultural technology station. The two of them unloaded a new box, along with several bundles of hay and insulation cotton, from the truck.

"Li Chao, I heard your equipment broke down."

Zhou Mingyu strode over and, seeing the two men's disheveled appearance and the hastily laid-out armor on the ground, paused for a moment before patting Li Chao heavily on the shoulder. "Good job, you didn't just sit around waiting."

"Director Zhou, what's wrong...?"

Li Chao tried to stand up, but his legs gave way and he almost sat back down.

"Researcher Lü called me and said you've gone blind here."

Zhou Mingyu directed Xiao Wang to move the new equipment down, saying, "This is a backup monitoring device urgently allocated by the agricultural technology station. It's durable, so install it quickly."

He then pointed to the hay and insulation materials, saying, "These are the cold-weather supplies prepared by the management committee. We thought you might need them, so we brought them all along!"

Looking at the new equipment and ample supplies, Li Chao's frozen face finally regained a glimmer of life. His nose suddenly stung with tears, and he quickly lowered his head and blinked hard.

"Don't just stand there!"

Zhou Mingyu rubbed his hands, which were red from the cold, and said, "Xiao Wang, help me install the new equipment."

Li Chao, Brother Sima Yi Maimaiti, you should come inside and warm up, and have some hot water.

We'll work on the remaining protective measures together.

We can definitely get through this!