A Tale of Two Cities Supporting Xinjiang

During the evening debriefing meeting, Ding Xuemin summarized the past few days: "The simulated transportation exposed quality control loopholes, which were promptly addressed."

Your livestreaming sales techniques have improved, but you still need to be more familiar with the product specifications.

Most importantly, pond management wasn't disrupted; that's the fundamental point.

He placed the water quality monitoring report on the table: "All indicators are normal, and the crabs are actively feeding."

Remember, online sales are the icing on the cake; proper pond management is the real icing on the cake.

If the brocade isn't good, no matter how beautiful the embroidery is, it's all for naught.

Batur solemnly accepted the report, "I understand, Director Ding. We will not put the cart before the horse."

It was late at night, but the warehouse lights were still on.

Batur was organizing his notes for the day, adding the key quality control points that Abujiang had mentioned one by one into the process manual.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from Abujiang: "I suddenly remembered that during the live stream, we can put crabs of different grades together for comparison, so that customers can understand them more clearly."

The difference between premium and first-grade is immediately apparent when placed side by side.

Batur quickly replied, "Thank you, Brother Abujiang!"

This is a good idea, let's try it.

A little while later, Abujiang sent another message: "Also, I have an old recipe for crab vinegar at home. I'll bring it over for you to try tomorrow. When selling crabs online, you have to put thought into the free gifts too."

Batur looked at the screen and suddenly smiled.

He initially had to grit his teeth and bear the burden of rectification all by himself.

Now, Ding Xuemin is rigorously supervising, Abujiang is secretly helping, Xiao Chen and Xiao Li are desperately trying to keep up, and Aihemaiti is quietly supporting them.

This burden is finally no longer resting solely on his shoulders.

He opened the rectification plan and forcefully wrote four characters on the cover:

It's man-made.

The real test has only just begun after the greenhouse is completed.

Ding Xuemin knew better than anyone that no matter how advanced the equipment was, the key was whether people knew how to use it.

Without saying a word, he immediately started on-site training in the greenhouse.

A dozen or so employees stood around the brand-new automatic temperature control equipment, looking at the buttons and screens with a bit of trepidation.

"It may seem complicated, but it really boils down to two things: managing the daytime and guarding the nighttime."

Ding Xuemin patted the control box, her voice crisp: "During midday, if the thermometer climbs above 22 degrees Celsius, no matter how sunny it is, ventilate immediately!"

Don't worry about the warmth; crabs, like people, feel uncomfortable if they're kept cooped up.

He asked Wang Hao, the young employee in charge of the operation, to try it out.

The young man's hands were shaking a bit, so Ding Xuemin held his wrist and guided his fingers to press the ventilation button.

The humming sound of the fan starting up immediately filled the air.

"And at night?"

Aihemai asked the most questions; his pond was right next door and had been completed about ten days ago.

"The night is crucial."

Ding Xuemin brought up the temperature curve graph. "When the temperature drops below 18 degrees Celsius, the auxiliary heating will start automatically."

But we can't completely trust machines. We must personally measure and record the water and air temperatures three times a day, morning, noon, and night.

He took out a thick notebook and opened it to reveal tables: "See? Plotted as curves, you can tell at a glance how the temperature changes."

When the temperature is high, the crabs are more active and have a better appetite, so you should increase the amount of food you feed them.

When the temperature drops, they become lazy, so feed them less.

This is what they call "living off the weather," meaning raising crabs according to the temperature.

Someone muttered under their breath, "So meticulous, what a hassle..."

"trouble?"

Ding Xuemin, with her sharp ears, turned her head to look over and asked, "Would you like to have an extra ounce of meat on the crabs at the end of the year?"

Do you want to sell it for ten or twenty yuan more per unit?

What's the point of investing so much money in building greenhouses?

Isn't the goal simply to achieve meticulous management, produce high-quality goods, and sell them at high prices?

That was the truth, and no one said a word.

Aihemaiti was the first to respond.

He was already serious, and now he's even more determined to stay at the pond.

He would come to measure the water temperature before dawn, and while others rested at noon, he would go to ventilate the room. He would also worry about the heating equipment at night.

The notebook was filled with dense notes, and the curves were drawn meticulously.

Persistence pays off. The results were visible in less than two weeks.

That morning, as soon as Aihemaiti scattered the bait, the water surface immediately churned up with a dense spray of water.

Crabs surged forward eagerly, waving their claws with boundless energy.

Wang Hao, who was passing by the neighboring pond, came over to take a look and was astonished, his eyes widening. "Brother Aihemaiti, your crabs... how come they're so much more active than mine?"

The difference becomes even more obvious when you catch a few and compare them.

The crabs in Aihemaiti Pond have shiny carapaces, feel heavy in your hand, and are very aggressive; the crabs in other ponds are also good, but they are obviously not as lively and are smaller.

The news spread.

After get off work, several employees did not rush to leave, but gathered at the edge of Aihemaiti's pond.

"Old Ai, how did you do it? Teach me a thing or two." Old Wang offered him a cigarette.

Aihemaiti waved his hand, refusing to take it, and smiled憨厚ly: "I just did it exactly as Technician Ding said, without daring to be careless at all. Look at this notebook of mine—"

He opened his notebook, and everyone gathered around.

The graph clearly showed the daily temperature changes, and below it were notes on how to adjust the amount of feed: if the temperature rose by 0.5 degrees, he would add half a pound of feed.

One night when the temperature dropped sharply, he not only turned on the heater, but also deliberately reduced the amount of food he fed the next morning.

"I also ventilated the room, so why didn't it work as well as yours?" someone asked, puzzled.

"Are you ventilating your home properly?"

Aihemai asked: "When the temperature reaches 22 degrees Celsius at noon, I will turn on the fan after a maximum of ten minutes."

Sometimes the sun is strong and the temperature rises quickly, so I simply stay inside the shed and keep an eye on things.

Even at night, I set the heater to 18 degrees Celsius for automatic heating, but I still get up to check on it every two hours, just in case something goes wrong.

Someone clicked their tongue in surprise: "Aren't you going to sleep?"

"I'm trying to sleep, but I can't sleep soundly because I'm thinking about this."

Aihemaiti rubbed his rough hands. "We've invested so much money, the crabs are a gold mine."

If you treat it carelessly, it will treat you carelessly; only if you treat it like a treasure will it make you proud.

These words resonated with everyone.

They've all invested their life savings; who wouldn't want to raise them well?

Starting the next day, Aihemaiti's pond became a demonstration site.

Ding Xuemin simply organized everyone to take turns coming to the site to learn.

Aihmaiti shared everything without reservation, revealing how to observe the crabs' condition, how to fine-tune the feeding based on the curve, and even how to judge whether the fan was operating normally by listening to the sound of it.

"Old Ai, your ability to locate sounds is amazing!" Wang Hao was the most enthusiastic learner.

"Machines are inanimate, but people are alive."

Aihmaiti pointed to his ear, "You get used to it, and if something sounds off, you get a chill down your spine."

When it comes to raising livestock, it all comes down to dedication.

The atmosphere inside the shed subtly changed.

In the past, everyone managed their own ponds, but now they visit each other more often.

They compared whose notebook recorded the most details, whose temperature curve was the smoothest, and whose crabs ate the most enthusiastically.

Someone discovered a ventilation trick and immediately shared it with everyone; someone figured out a way to save electricity with heating equipment and shared it without reservation.

Ding Xuemin saw this and was pleased. But he also knew that this was just the beginning.

That evening, he left Aihemaiti behind and looked at the data on the monitoring screen: "The results are there, but the pressure is also greater."

You're the benchmark now; everyone's watching.

Next, we need to keep a close eye on the crabs' molting period; temperature, feeding, and water quality—every step must be precisely controlled.

"I know."

Aihemaiti nodded emphatically, his gaze falling on the shimmering surface of his pond. "Just as you said, meticulous management isn't a passing fad; it has to be done every day, every month."

Now that we've started, we have to see it through to the end.

It was late at night, and a cold wind was howling outside the greenhouse.

Inside the shed, the temperature control equipment operates quietly, and the water murmurs softly as the crabs grow peacefully in the warm water.

The logbook lay open on the table, the temperature curve for tomorrow still waiting to be filled out.

And the more distant future is slowly unfolding along these precise curves.