Chapter 92: Vice Magistrate Zhang Comes to Inspect

In the days that followed, Su Xinghui accompanied several professors as they wandered through the mountains, spending two and a half days touring the hills beside Ye Zhugou, then proceeding to Qi Shu Ping, Hu Jia Ao, Tao Hua Cun, Lu Tou Shan, and other locations, where they made considerable gains.

Meng Hu Ling was a poor, sparsely populated area with only ten thousand people, yet it contained over a dozen villages and covered a vast area—the largest township in Shangjun County—its territory almost entirely mountainous; without the agricultural university providing Professor Rao and his team with a vehicle, visiting all these villages would have taken far more than a day or two.

Fortunately, Professor Rao and his team had long engaged in fieldwork and possessed excellent physical stamina; otherwise, most people would have been unable to endure such daily mountain climbing.

To accompany the professors, Su Xinghui had missed two more Sundays; during these days, Xue Qin and Lu Xiaoya frequently called him—Xue Qin even planned to visit Meng Hu Ling one Sunday, but he told her he had no time, so she did not come.

Xue Qin knew Su Xinghui was not lying; she had called him several times, and every time, the party and government office staff said he was out in the villages with the professors and not at the township.

Lu Xiaoya had no particular reason to call—she simply wanted to hear Su Xinghui's voice—but she failed to reach him several times; only after returning to the township government and hearing someone mention a girl named Lu had called for him did he call back.

To say Lu Xiaoya had nothing to do was incorrect; she was not satisfied with just one sketch—she wanted Su Xinghui to paint her a traditional Chinese ink painting and stamp it with his personal seal, so she could keep it as a keepsake.

Su Xinghui naturally agreed at once; Lu Xiaoya had helped him greatly, and if he could not fulfill such a simple request, it would be too ungracious.

To meet this request, Su Xinghui began carving his piece of Tianhuangdong stone into a personal seal; he planned to carve only two characters—"Xinghui"—but the seal knob would be more complex: following the stone's natural shape, he intended to carve a qilin, and perfecting this qilin would take far more than a day or two.

Because he had to accompany the professors daily, he could no longer visit Xia Zhu every day, so he assigned her numerous exercises to complete systematically, which would gradually improve her artistic cultivation.

Good news also came from Xia Zhu's home: Xia Shisheng had returned from Jiangcheng; after Yu Maode's meticulous acupuncture treatment, the hematoma pressing on his nerves had largely disappeared, and now he only needed to continue taking medicine at home and undergo prolonged rehabilitation training to fully restore his ability to walk normally.

Because of this, Xia Zhu came specifically to the township government to thank Su Xinghui, eager to express her gratitude—but Su Xinghui was not there, so she returned disappointed, though her gratitude for him was beyond words.

On the last day of August, a Monday, Zhang Kaishan came to Meng Hu Ling for an inspection.

Zhang Kaishan had delayed his visit to Meng Hu Ling until now because every July and August was the Yangtze River's flood season; Shangjun County lay backed against the Yangtze, and flood control duties were heavy every year; although this year's rainfall was not excessive and the flood situation was not critical, as vice-county magistrate, Zhang Kaishan still bore heavy flood control responsibilities.

Meng Hu Ling Township did not border the Yangtze River and thus was not a key flood control township; during these two months, county leaders typically did not come here—they all went to the townships along the Yangtze to guide flood control work.

By late August, the Yangtze's flood situation had largely subsided, allowing Zhang Kaishan to come to Meng Hu Ling; since Chen Hongfu and Su Xinghui had visited his home together last time, he had been closely following conditions in Meng Hu Ling.

Accompanying Zhang Kaishan to Meng Hu Ling were Director Cui Zimin of the County Agricultural Office and several other county staff members, including a correspondent from the regional party newspaper.

Because the county government had called the Meng Hu Ling township government the day before, specifying that Vice Magistrate Zhang wanted Su Xinghui to accompany him, Su Xinghui could no longer join the professors on their mountain trips, so he simply advised the professors to take a day off.

When Zhang Kaishan arrived at the Meng Hu Ling township government, Su Xinghui first introduced the professors' identities; Zhang Kaishan held great respect for these experts who had helped Meng Hu Ling prosper, and he repeatedly thanked them, deeply moving the professors.

Zhang Kaishan asked the professors about their survey findings; they said that though their survey was not yet complete, they had already discovered dozens of rare plants in the Meng Hu Ling region, including Southern Yew, Fragrant Tree, Silver Fir, Dawn Redwood, Calycanthus, Bald Cypress, Du Zhong, Magnolia officinalis, Bitternut Hickory, and Chinese Watercress.

As for economic crops, there were even more: they had discovered dozens of valuable medicinal herbs, as well as dozens of economic crops such as walnuts, chestnuts, tea oil, kiwifruit, hawthorn, tung oil tree, and lacquer tree.

They said Meng Hu Ling was a naturally endowed treasure trove of biological resources; if developed rationally, its economic potential was enormous, and all such industries would be pollution-free, making them ideal for Meng Hu Ling's development.