A Tale of Two Cities Supporting Xinjiang

Li Chao's eyes were full of sincerity. The staff hesitated for a long time, but finally softened. "I'll go and ask my supervisor again."

"Thank you, comrade, thank you so much."

Fortunately, the leaders were understanding and made a special exception to allow him to copy documents in the archives.

Upon receiving the permit, Li Chao didn't dare to delay for a moment and plunged into the archives room.

The meteorological data from the past ten years were neatly stacked by year and month on the table, and it was indeed higher than Li Chao's shoulder.

He first calmed himself down, sorted the materials by year, made notes in his notebook, and then began to copy them down stroke by stroke, starting from the earliest year.

Temperature, precipitation, wind speed, sunshine duration, as well as the timing and specific data of extreme weather events such as rainstorms, snowstorms, and high temperatures—every single number is related to the survival of the seedlings and the rhythm of planting, and is the core support for the project.

Li Chao stared intently at the handwriting on the file, his pen moving swiftly across the paper, afraid of missing a single decimal point.

At first, I could keep up with the pace, but by three or four in the afternoon, my wrists started to ache and swell, and my eyes started to blur when I stared at the dense numbers for a long time.

He stopped writing, rubbed his sore wrists vigorously, and then took a mint out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth.

Then he got up, went to the tap, washed his face with cold water, sat back down at the table, and gripped his pen tightly again.

As darkness fell, only the warm yellow light from the overhead incandescent bulbs remained in the archives.

At this moment, a staff member came in and urged, "Don't push yourself too hard. If you really can't finish copying, come back tomorrow."

"It's okay, I'll copy it a little longer."

"Copying as much information as possible is beneficial; the sooner we complete the data, the sooner the project can move forward."

After saying that, he lowered his head and buried himself in the documents again.

They copied it until the wee hours of the morning.

Li Chao couldn't hold on any longer, so he lay down on the table and dozed off for a while.

He hadn't slept long when he suddenly woke up, rubbed his eyes, and picked up his pen again to catch up on his work.

After working non-stop for two days and nights, Li Chao finally finished copying all the necessary meteorological data.

Carrying the completed documents, Li Chao arrived at Researcher Ma's office door again and knocked three times.

"Enter."

Researcher Ma was staring intently at the documents, completely absorbed in his work.

Li Chao stood quietly at the door and waited until Researcher Ma finished correcting a page and raised his hand to turn to the next page, at which point he caught a glimpse of Li Chao out of the corner of his eye.

"It's you? What brings you here again?"

Li Chao took two steps forward and said respectfully, "Hello, Researcher Ma."

Last time you mentioned that my data was missing nearly ten years of meteorological data, which I have now completed. I also compared this data with the experience of veteran herders, and I'm bringing you the revised data today to review.

Researcher Ma took the materials handed to him by Li Chao. The clear table of contents, the neat handwriting, and the dense yet well-organized annotations immediately caught his eye.

"You really completed these data?"

Researcher Ma has been engaged in agricultural research for over twenty years and knows all too well how difficult it is to obtain the archived data from the meteorological bureau.

The amount of meteorological data from the past ten years is staggering. It would take at least ten days to half a month to copy it all down. How did you manage to do it?

"Yes, I spent two days and two nights at the meteorological bureau collecting data. I checked every set of data to ensure that the data matched the actual situation and wouldn't affect the subsequent planning."

Researcher Ma stopped talking, lowered his head, and began to carefully review the document.

I spent more than half an hour looking at it.

Finally, Researcher Ma stopped turning the pages and placed the documents on the table.

"You're a tough guy, you're more resilient than I thought."

Researcher Ma's tone softened considerably, and he pointed to the chair opposite him, "Sit down."

Instead of directly asking whether the data was acceptable, Researcher Ma asked, "Why are you so persistent about this project?"

Did the herders of Jiulian trust you from the beginning?

"Distrust".

Li Chao nodded frankly, "They think I'm young and inexperienced, and they're afraid I'll mess things up."

But I know how difficult things are for them, and I want to do something for them.

Researcher Ma picked up the documents, turned to the data comparison page, and looked at them more carefully.

After a while, he looked up at Li Chao and slowly said, "Put the documents here, I'll take a closer look."

"Okay, thank you, Researcher Ma!"

As Li Chao walked out of the office, he couldn't help but glance back. Researcher Ma was already engrossed in the documents again. He clenched his fist and silently prayed: Just a little longer. As long as Researcher Ma approves, I can take the plan back to Jiulian and change the herders' minds with concrete actions.

But after waiting for two days, there was still no news from Researcher Ma.

Li Chao was extremely anxious. If this dragged on any longer, they would definitely miss the spring planting window, and all their previous efforts would be in vain. Having no other choice, he had to go back to their shop again.

To his surprise, not long after he left, Researcher Ma had several more urgent projects to attend to and forgot about the matter.

When Researcher Ma saw Li Chao again, a headache was clearly visible on his face.

Li Chao didn't dare to delay and quickly handed over his newly prepared materials. He also took the initiative to analyze with Researcher Ma the key reasons for the failure of the last trial planting: "Professor Ma, the failure last time was mainly due to inadequate insulation and wind protection, and it had little to do with the seedlings themselves."

Researcher Lü also accompanied Researcher Ma as he reviewed the materials.

Researcher Lü watched the most attentively. At first, he frowned deeply and his eyes were full of doubt, clearly not taking the young man's proposal to heart.

But as he turned the pages, his brows gradually relaxed, and the doubt in his eyes slowly dissipated, replaced by increasingly obvious approval.

Turning to the last few pages, Researcher Lü stopped what he was doing, looked up at Li Chao, pointed to an improvement plan highlighted in the document, and asked with a hint of inquiry, "Was your layered cold-weather protection plan specifically designed to take into account the strong winds in Jiulian during winter?"

"Yes, Teacher Lü."

The winds in Jiulian are particularly strong in winter. Last time we tried planting seedlings, the ordinary frost protection film we used was torn in several places by the strong winds, and most of the seedlings in the greenhouse froze and died. I think that was the main reason for the failure.

Li Chao quickly added: "So this time I specially designed a three-layer cold-proof structure. The outermost layer is a sturdy windproof net to keep the strong winds out first."

A thick layer of insulation cotton is laid in the middle to lock in the temperature inside the shed;

The innermost layer is covered with another layer of mulch, which can both retain moisture and further insulate against heat.

This system can withstand the strong winds of Jiulian while ensuring the temperature needed for crop growth.

"Not only did I take precautions against the cold, but I also went to the weather station to consult with experts and got the snowfall data for Jiulian over the past ten years."

Based on this data, I designed a drainage ditch around the perimeter of the frost-protection greenhouse. The width and depth have been calculated, so that melted snow can drain away promptly and won't accumulate next to the greenhouse, damaging the crop roots.

After listening, Researcher Lü nodded in agreement and did not press Li Chao further. Instead, he gave a wink to several core researchers beside him, calling them together in a small circle to discuss the matter in hushed tones.

The group huddled close together, speaking in hushed tones. Li Chao, standing still, could only catch snippets of phrases like "the plan is quite detailed," "it's very well thought out," and "the risks are manageable."