Chapter 63

“Do you think they still remember us out there?”

“They remember. We just spoke on the phone the day before yesterday.”

…

As the whole country focused on the disaster in Longbei, in a wooden cabin in Heihe Liaoning, Zhou Hai and Wang Xiangdong sat by the fire, anxiously looking out the window. Changluo Township, located in the northern part of Heihe Province, is mainly dry and sandy. The soil quality here is poor, and since 2950, it has been a key area for Longbei’s protective forests.

The Changluo Township protective forest focuses on wind prevention and sand fixation. After seventy years of effort, it now covers 70,000 acres, with a total of 123,000 trees planted. Zhou Hai and Wang Xiangdong are two of the forest guards in Changluo Township. Since the snowfall in Longbei, they have been trapped in their mountain cabin. The snow stopped eight days ago, but the road from the highway to the mountain was completely blocked. They contacted the Forestry Bureau the day before yesterday. The Bureau was arranging for rescue vehicles, but when they would arrive… was unclear.

“Sigh,” Wang Xiangdong picked up the landline and dialed the phone, but there was a constant busy tone. The phone line down the mountain had been cut off by the heavy snow yesterday morning.

“I’ve written my will. If something happens, give the house in the town to my daughter.”

Wang Xiangdong, 47 years old, had worked in Changluo Township for 27 years. He divorced five years ago, and his ex-wife and daughter now worked in the city. Perhaps because of the dangerous situation over the past half month, he wasn’t optimistic about the possibility of rescue or escape.

“I’ve already told you, they are arranging for a rescue vehicle,” Zhou Hai couldn’t stand his pessimism. He pulled an old-fashioned radio out of the cabinet. The radio emitted a crackling sound—

“On December 23, Longxia began mobilizing autumn reserve supplies for the disaster-stricken areas of Liaohai, Heihe, and seven other provinces.”

“On December 24, Fengshan Farm, Longxia Tech, Longyun Plastics, and 27 other companies donated 2 billion…”

“Longbei Jinghe Jinglong Highway has been fully cleared, and materials from Longnan are being transported.”

…

“That’s good.” The radio broadcast felt like a shot of adrenaline, and the two of them gradually regained their sense of hope.

Today is the 25th. The lowest temperature in the protective forest is minus 52 degrees. After listening to the radio, Zhou Hai and Wang Xiangdong put on their cotton coats and went outside. The protective cabin is located on the side of a mountain in Changluo Township, at an altitude of 1,200 meters. In the past, they could see half of the protective forest just by stepping outside, but now, all they could see in front of them was a vast expanse of white snow.

The snow outside is two feet deep. Worried about stepping into a hole, they can only move around the cabin.

At 3 p.m., Zhou Hai looked at the clouds, then gazed at the pristine snow and said, “There’s a lot of frost damage in many places now. I wonder if our forest has been affected…”

“These are all over ten-year-old mature trees. They should be fine.”

Wang Xiangdong was confident. They had just heard on the radio that many areas in Longbei had suffered cold damage and frost, but those were mostly younger trees like linden and locust trees. The trees they planted were snow cedars, known for their cold and frost resistance.

“Yeah,” Zhou Hai nodded. Now the protective forest is covered in snow, and since they don’t know the condition of the ground, he doesn’t dare to walk over and check, but these trees are tall and straight, so they should be fine.

The temperature outside is too cold, so the two of them went back into the cabin.

On the morning of the 26th, the temperature in the protective forest dropped to minus 57 degrees. Wrapped in large gray cotton coats, neither of them dared to move far from the fire. Wang Xiangdong took out the radio. He wanted to listen to the broadcast again, but after two crackling sounds, it went silent.

“It’s broken.” Wang Xiangdong shook the radio.

Zhou Hai glanced at it. “Out of battery.”

They both fell asleep next to the fire, and the next morning, Zhou Hai grabbed a flowered bed sheet from the bed, threw it on the roof of the cabin. The bed sheet was their only means of signaling for the rescue team.

They had been waiting for the rescue team, but by the 28th, there was still no sign.

“Do you think anyone will come?” Wang Xiangdong asked, looking at the fire. Before the snow disaster, they had received evacuation orders, but because the protective forest needed guarding, they reported to the Bureau and stayed in the cabin. They had thought this was just an ordinary snow disaster, not expecting the situation to be so severe…

“They will come,” Zhou Hai said again. Though he said so, he wasn’t as sure inside.

Half an hour later, the two of them shook the bed sheet on the roof again. This was the only way they could communicate with the outside world.

On the morning of the 29th, just as Zhou Hai had woken up, he heard a rustling sound outside. He opened the door, and there were two black police dogs. A firefighter was holding the dogs. When he saw Zhou Hai, he seemed relieved. “Comrades Zhou Hai and Wang Xiangdong?”

“Yes.” Zhou Hai finally relaxed.

Three hours later, the two of them were carried down the mountain. They had been surviving in low temperatures for the past few days. If it weren’t for their will to survive, they didn’t know if they could have made it through.

“The road from Changluo Township to the mountain was completely blocked. The snow was too thick, and the clearing work took some time,” the Forestry Bureau director said with some lingering fear at the Longluo Township Health Clinic at 3 p.m. The clinic had just completed a full body check-up, and although they were weak, their mental state was relatively good.

“Thank you,” Zhou Hai thanked him sincerely.

Over the next two days, they stayed at the hospital. According to the news, the blizzard in Longbei had passed, and 70% of the region had seen large-scale snowmelt. This snow, which had been melting since the 15th, was the largest snowmelt in Longbei in fifty years. Over these two days, Wang Xiangdong’s ex-wife brought their daughter to visit. The little girl, ten years old, burst into tears as soon as she saw Wang Xiangdong, and Wang Xiangdong cried uncontrollably as well.

On the morning of the 31st, Zhou Hai was finally discharged from the hospital.

As soon as he was discharged, he went straight to the Changluo Township protective forest. The trees were now half uncovered, and some workers from the Forestry Bureau were shaking the snow off. As the snow fell away, the needles of the trees looked even greener.

Zhou Hai walked over. A worker saw him and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Recovered, came to have a look.”

Zhou Hai looked around and touched the nearest purple linden tree. “Are the trees okay?”

The worker sighed. “They’re not going to survive.”

Zhou Hai was stunned.

The staff crouched down and pointed to the tree roots: “These roots, from the outside to the inside, are all rotting.”

Zhou Hai gently touched them. The bark at the base immediately fell off, and it was unnaturally dark black…

“Put on gloves. These acidic snowflakes are corrosive,” the staff member handed Zhou Hai a mask and gloves.

Zhou Hai followed the staff deeper into the mountain. Along the way, nearly every tree they saw was dead. In addition to this, they found many dead black rabbit and snow marten bodies. These animals are frost-resistant, but after being wrapped in acidic snow for a month, they couldn’t survive.

At first, Zhou Hai couldn’t bear to look, but gradually, he became numb. By 2 p.m., the group reached an open spot halfway up the mountain. There were circles of white stones, and in the middle of the stones were half-meter-high saplings. All the saplings were leaning and collapsed together. After inspecting, the staff member said, “They’re dead.”

Zhou Hai flipped over a card from behind one of the saplings: A201.

This was the walnut tree sapling planted last year. He and Wang Xiangdong had helped transport these saplings. Now, at 3 p.m., as he looked at the fallen saplings, he felt lost for a moment.

Over the next two days, Zhou Hai followed the staff to inspect the forest. The damage to Changluo Township’s planted forest reached 72%, with more than half of the trees completely dead. The rest wouldn’t survive past January. On the way back, the group found a black bear cub in a snow hole. The cub was on the brink of death, and nearby was the frozen body of its mother. The Forestry Bureau handled the situation efficiently and took it to the rescue center.

[Longxia Agricultural Department: Longbei snow disaster damaged 2.12 million square kilometers of planting area, 730,000 square kilometers of protective forest, with direct economic losses of 210 billion… ] On January 7, 3029, the Longxia Agricultural Department released a report on the Longbei disaster, one of the most severe disasters at the end of 3028.

“I’ve been following the Longbei disaster news, it’s so hard.”

“We’ve been eating boiled oil lettuce for half a month, there’s no more vegetables.”

“It’s snowing in the northwest and northern Mongolia.”

…

Netizens were deeply distressed. Since the snow in Longbei stopped, they had been hoping for a miracle, but the protective forest had largely fallen, the planting base suffered frost damage, and the acidic rain had caused widespread corrosion… Longbei’s situation was even worse than they had imagined.

On January 3, snow fell in the northwest and northern Mongolia, marking the nationwide disaster zones.

“Seven dairy enterprises in Mongolia’s new province have stopped production.”

“The ones near our area stopped earlier, and now there’s a shortage of feed.”

“Does this mean there will be no more lambs…”

…

With the blizzard in Longbei, the most direct feeling nationwide was: there were no supplies. In the past, when supplies were scarce, people could still buy yogurt and zucchini. Now, with the Longbei blizzard, even basic supplies had become luxuries.

On January 5, Longxia announced twenty-five provisional subsidies, mainly for: 1. Infant dairy product production. 2. Pharmaceutical raw material production. 3. Vegetable planting… In addition to financial subsidies, Longxia would also provide corresponding loans and research support.

During these special times, people could understand the national policy. But the food crisis, vegetable crisis, and planting crisis… felt like mountains weighing down on everyone.

“We haven’t starved yet, we still have wheat, corn, oil, lettuce,” a netizen encouraged themselves.

According to foreign reports, this cold wave is global, and many countries are experiencing shortages of supplies and rapid temperature drops. Places like Natal well were not hit by the Harma Storm, but this year’s winter is so cold that some farming and ranching areas have also suffered significant losses.

Polar countries have encountered cold waves, while some equatorial countries are experiencing rising sea levels… Global weather is becoming abnormal.

Amid this global crisis, on January 8, the Shuilan Union officially announced: the global acid rain crisis is now fully widespread.

“Sigh.” Longxia netizens had no thoughts on this announcement.

The acid rain crisis is an established fact, and it will not change its nature due to the Shuilan Union’s statement. What they need is not just a name for the acid rain but a way to change it…

At the same time as the national mood was low, on January 10, the Longxia Agricultural Department: On the night of January 9, 3029, the Longxia Agricultural Research Institute announced that they had developed an experimental lettuce seed resistant to acidic rain, based on gene research from acid rain.

“Lettuce seeds?” Netizens were stunned. After the preliminary work with Longfeng 001 and Zhongzhi 002 seeds, netizens were excited but managed to stay calm.

“Did it succeed?”

“It succeeded!”

Unlike the calmness of the netizens, the Fengshan Agricultural Research Institute was in a state of excitement. Although it was a lettuce seed, it was a self-developed seed based on prior data and research on seed genetics, since they didn’t have systematic lettuce seeds on the farm. Now that the lettuce seed had been developed, it also indicated that the research institute could develop other similar seeds even if the farm didn’t have a complete range of seed varieties!