A Tale of Two Cities Supporting Xinjiang

The snow fell for three days and three nights, turning the entire Gobi Desert into a blinding white.

Li Chao stepped into the snow, which reached up to his calves.

He crouched down to inspect the insulated shed when he suddenly heard that half of the third shed on the east side had collapsed.

"Oh no!"

He rushed over and saw that the plastic tarpaulin was pressed tightly against the ground by the snow, and the branches of seven or eight saplings below had already bent into an arc shape.

Li Chao threw down the kettle in his hand and knelt down in the snow to start digging.

The snow was wet and heavy, and my frozen fingers couldn't muster any strength.

My rubber boots were already filled with snow water, and I could hear the sound of ice shards scraping against each other with every movement.

The lower half of my cotton-padded trousers froze into a hard shell, making a cracking sound when I bent my knees.

"Oh, Technician Li is still busy?"

Li Chao looked up and saw Musa standing on the slope with three or four people, all watching the commotion with their hands behind their backs.

"If you ask me, this is fate."

Musa shouted at the top of his lungs, "Even God won't let you grow it!"

"How much money did the village lose by running orchards before? You still won't give up!"

Someone nearby chimed in, "That's right, this heavy snow is retribution."

"Technician Li, stop messing around. If all the seedlings freeze to death, how will you explain it to Director Zhou?"

Li Chao gritted his teeth and continued to dig the snow with his hands.

"Moussa, you bastard!"

Suddenly, with a roar, Sima Yi Maimaiti rushed out from behind the crowd and stumbled to Li Chao's side.

"Are you blind?"

The old man pointed at Li Chao's red, swollen, and cracked hands, "Look, look at these hands."

They're paying out of their own pockets to do the work for us, guarding each sapling in the dead of winter. Their hands are frozen like this, yet they're still working tirelessly. Are you even speaking human language?

He turned to the retreating herdsmen and shouted, "Fellow villagers, let's put our consciences on our side."

What is Technician Li after?

If the seedlings survive, will the money go straight into his pocket?

He genuinely wanted to help us find a way to survive!

After saying that, the old man bent down and began to dig through the snow.

Despite being over seventy years old, he moved with remarkable agility.

There was silence for a few seconds, both on and off the slope.

"Done."

A young herdsman suddenly rushed over, wielding a shovel, shouting, "It's just snow!"

Count me in.

"Me too."

The sound of shovels clearing snow rose and fell, as more and more people poured in from all directions.

Some people cleared the snow off the roof, some straightened the bent supports, and some ran back to get new plastic sheeting.

Musa couldn't stand on the slope any longer. His face turned ashen, he spat, and turned and left with his men.

"The support structure here needs to be reinforced."

"Smooth out the plastic sheet, smooth it out!"

"Be careful not to touch the seedlings."

The shouts echoed through the snow.

Li Chao wiped the snow off his face and, in a hoarse voice, directed, "Save those sheds on the east side first! Turn the pillars to the left!"

As it was getting dark, the last insulated shed was repaired.

The herders who helped were all covered in snowmen, but they were all smiling.

Someone patted Li Chao's frozen cotton trousers: "Well done, Technician Li, you've made it through this hurdle."

After inspecting all the saplings one by one, Li Chao turned around and bowed deeply to everyone.

"Say nothing more, it's better for Miao to live than anything else."

Let's go, let's go home and warm ourselves by the fire!

Simayi Maimaiti was the last to leave. He patted the snow off Li Chao's hat and said, "Hurry back and change your clothes, boil some water and soak your feet."

Li Chao stood in the snow, looking at the saplings that had straightened up again in the greenhouse.

The wind was still blowing, and the snow was still falling, but he felt something inside him melt away, leaving him warm.

In early spring, as soon as the snow melted, tiny green shoots sprouted from the ground.

Li Chao squatted in the ground, his eyes almost touching the soil, staring at the newly sprouted buds. He took out his notebook, noted down the date and the number of buds, then got up to measure the length of the branches, took a few photos, and sent them to the branch.

"Researcher Lü, look, the buds of this batch of crabapple trees are sprouting well, but the few on the east side seem a bit weak..."

"Received, Li Chao. Continue to observe, and I'll send you a new pruning plan in a couple of days."

Li Chao spent almost the entire spring in the ground.

He would thin out the flowers if they were too dense; he would record which leaf was the wrong color; and when the temperature dropped at night, he would get up to check the insulation film.

When herders pass by, they often see him either crouching down in the bushes fiddling with something or taking pictures of the fruit with his phone.

Summer has passed, and the branches are laden with green fruit.

Li Chao became even busier, measuring sugar content, measuring fruit diameter, and observing coloring, sending stacks of data to the branch school.

Based on this data, Researcher Lü adjusted the fertilization and irrigation plans several times.

By August, the fruit began to color.

The crabapple blossoms are a bright, translucent red, while the Yueyang red has a purplish tinge.

On the day of the autumn harvest, the fields were crowded with people.

Li Chao picked a basket of ripe fruit, washed it, and shared it with everyone.

Simayi Maimaiti took a bite of the crabapple blossom and exclaimed, "Wow, it's sweet, with a hint of tartness. It's better than the ones I buy at the market."

"This Yueyang Red tea is absolutely amazing!"

A young herdsman chewed on a fruit, juice dripping from the corner of his mouth. "It's crisp and sweet, and the pit is small!"

Everyone ate one after another, enjoying the delicious food.

The children, their pockets stuffed with fruit, ran around laughing.

Just then, Aikber Miti squeezed into the crowd.

He picked up a Yueyanghong berry, weighed it in his hand, broke it open to examine the flesh, and suddenly chuckled, saying, "Technician Li, you're really something! This fruit is grown quite well!"

Li Chao glanced at him but didn't reply.

"Look, the fruit is good, but how to sell it is the problem."

Aikber Miti leaned closer and lowered his voice: "I know a few fruit wholesalers in the city, and I'm well-connected."

In this way, I will take the lead in helping you connect with sales channels and guarantee a good price.

"Well... the handling fee for this is 20% of the sales revenue. That's not much, is it?"

Li Chao wiped the fruit in his hands without even glancing at him. "No need, I'll figure out the sales myself."

Aikber Miti's smile froze. "You? You're an outsider, who do you know?"

"Don't let the fruit rot on the ground!"

Li Chao put the cleaned fruit into the basket, saying, "It won't rot, don't bother."

Aikber Miti's face darkened, and he sneered, "Fine, Li Chao, you've got guts. We'll see!"

After saying that, he turned and left, kicking the dirt high into the air.

Two days later, bad news arrived.

Li Chao then contacted several local supermarkets and e-commerce platforms.

The other party was quite interested at first, and agreed to come and see the goods to discuss the price.

But when the time comes, they either call to say "I'll think about it some more" or simply don't answer the phone.

He asked around and found out that Aikber Miti had already contacted these buyers, saying things like, "The fruit grown in the Gobi Desert looks good, but it tastes bland," "The management is poor, and the fruit is of different sizes," and "I heard that they used pesticides that they shouldn't have."

Li Chao slammed his fist on the table in anger, yelling, "That bastard!"

The fruit ripens day by day, and if it can't be sold, it will really rot in the ground.

Li Chao was so anxious that he developed blisters on his lips and couldn't sleep for nights on end.

That morning, Li Chao opened the door to the makeshift house and froze.

Three or four donkey carts and motorcycles were parked at the edge of the field, and Simayi Maimaiti was directing a dozen or so herdsmen to pick fruit.

Seeing Li Chao come out, he waved and said, "What are you still standing there for?"

Pack them up quickly!

My relative runs a small shop in the next town, and we agreed to send ten boxes over to try it out first!

"My uncle's family lives in the county town, so I'll bring a few boxes over there too."

"My son works on a construction team; he has many coworkers, so I asked them to help me sell them!"

It turns out that Simayi Maimaiti had already spread the word about Aikber's misdeeds.

The herders were outraged: "We've worked so hard to grow this fruit, and he's trying to sabotage it so we can't sell it?"

"Let's go sell them ourselves!"

One pass ten, ten pass a hundred.

Relatives and friends from nearby towns and villages all got involved.

The convenience store now sells "Jiulian Gobi Begonias," and construction workers take a bag home after get off work. Even long-distance truck drivers bring several boxes to give away.

The fruit is crisp and sweet, reasonably priced, and everyone who has tried it says it's delicious.

Word of mouth spread like wildfire, and orders kept coming in.

Li Chao and the herdsmen were busy picking and packing fruit during the day, and calculating accounts and shipping orders at night, keeping them extremely busy.

That's how the reputation of "Nine-Year Cold-Resistant Apples" was established.

One evening, Aikber wandered to the field again.

Watching truckloads of fruit being transported out, and seeing the herders bustling about chatting and laughing, he stood there for a long time before finally slinking away.

Li Chao was checking accounts with Sima Yi Maimaiti when he looked up and saw Aikber Miti's back. He said nothing and continued calculating.

"This truckload is heading to the provincial capital, thirty boxes in total. Payment will be received tomorrow."

Simayi Maimaiti took a puff of his cigarette, squinted and smiled, "Okay, let's continue picking tomorrow."