"Thank you." Du Jianshan took the naan and tried to say in the Uyghur he had just learned, "Rehmat (thank you)."
Aygul's eyes widened in surprise, then she smiled and asked, "You can speak Uyghur?"
"I only know a little bit." Du Jianshan scratched his head and gave a simple, honest smile: "Hello, Yaximuses."
Several Uyghur members around laughed, and the atmosphere immediately became much more relaxed.
Aygul's eyes curved into crescents: "You learn very quickly."
Ma Jinbao watched coldly from a distance, his face gloomy.
He walked over and deliberately bumped into Du Jianshan: "Get to work! Stop flirting!"
Du Jianshan patted the crumbs off his hands, ignoring Ma Jinbao's provocation.
He noticed that Aygul frowned, but said nothing and turned to distribute food to the others.
The afternoon's work was even more arduous. The sun beat down on the earth like a furnace, and Du Jianshan's vest was completely soaked with sweat.
His palms burned with pain, but he gritted his teeth and persevered, digging the soil shovel by shovel.
In the afternoon, Aygul was in charge of the light work of sowing seeds. She walked lightly between the ridges of the field, like a butterfly.
Occasionally she would stop and use a gourd ladle to deliver water to the commune members who were working.
Every time she passed by Du Jianshan, she would linger a little longer.
"Have some water." When she came over for the third time, she handed Du Jianshan a rough porcelain bowl: "You city people aren't used to such heavy work."
Du Jianshan took the bowl and drank it all in one gulp. The water was cool and refreshing, with a hint of sweetness, as if some herbs had been added.
"What kind of water is this? It tastes so good," he asked curiously.
“This is snow chrysanthemum tea,” Ayiguli explained. “It’s made from snow chrysanthemums from the Tianshan Mountains, and it’s the best for relieving summer heat.”
Du Jianshan nodded and handed the bowl back to her.
Their fingers touched accidentally, and Aygul quickly withdrew her hand, a blush rising on her face.
“You…you work very hard,” she said softly. “Unlike some educated youth who are always lazy.”
Du Jianshan smiled and said, "We Northeasterners are honest and hardworking."
Time was of the essence. After a short rest, Du Jianshan picked up the excavator and started digging again.
Du Jianshan was wielding a shovel, his sweat dripping onto the soil with a "plop, plop" sound.
The sun in the Gobi Desert is extremely strong, making people's skin feel tight.
"Moo!"
A weak, mournful moo came from the grape trellis not far away.
"Oh no! Oh no!" An old commune member stamped his feet in panic, threw down his shovel, and ran over: "The cow! The cow is lying down!"
The workers swarmed around them in a flash.
Du Jianshan and Wang Tieniu quickly followed.
Several old oxen that had been pulling plows were now lying paralyzed on the side of the grape ditch.
His tongue was hanging down, he was breathing heavily, and white foam was dripping down the corners of his mouth.
His hind legs were weak and he tried to stand up, but after a few pushes, he fell down again with a "plop".
"What happened?" Captain Halikiz was so anxious that his beard stood on end as he circled the cow. "It was perfectly fine this morning!"
"Captain! He's probably overheating!" An older commune member with dark skin wiped his sweat. "This scorching sun is unbearable for humans, let alone oxen! Look at that tongue, it's turned cyanotic!"
"What should we do?" someone panicked. "Are we still going to plow the land? If we delay burying the vines, they'll all freeze to death in the winter!"
"Exactly! Without oxen to pull the plow, how long would it take to dig by hand?"
"Think of something quick, Captain!"
Everyone was talking at once, as anxious as ants on a hot pan.
Captain Halikiz was also at a loss. He squatted down, pried open the mouth of a cow to take a look, and then touched the burning hot cow's body. His brows furrowed into a knot: "It's heatstroke! We need to cool it down quickly! Go, Ayiguli! Quickly fetch a few buckets of cool water!"
Aygul responded and turned to run towards the well.
"Wait!" Du Jianshan pushed his way through the crowd.
He squatted down in front of the most listless cow, deftly pried open its eyelids to look at its pupils, and then touched the skin at the base of its ears and under its belly; it was burning hot.
He leaned closer and smelled the cow's breath; it had a sour, rotten smell.
"It's heat poison attacking the heart; it's a severe case of heatstroke," Du Jianshan concluded with certainty.
He looked up at Aygul and said, "Comrade Aygul, there's not enough cold water, you need a lot more!"
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