Crossing the Western Tianshan Mountains

They ate baked potatoes together.

After a while, Ye Minglang came with a pot of freshly cooked mutton bone soup in his hand. Gulinar followed behind him with a piece of naan in her hand.

They put down their things and went out.

Ling Fengxi put the mutton bone soup in the middle of the stove and let it continue to stew.

Break the naan into several pieces and bake them slowly on the stove.

Wu Yongjie said, "It's quite a feast today, isn't it? There's even someone to serve you. It's so comfortable."

Ling Fengxi didn't say anything. A moment later, Fang Ya arrived. On her plate were freshly roasted melon seeds, still hot. She placed the plate next to Wu Yongjie and said, "These are fresh melon seeds. They're grown by the herders themselves. I brought them here and roasted them myself on my own stove. They taste just right. So fragrant."

As she spoke, she grabbed a small handful and started eating. Seeing that Ling Fengxi didn't say anything and Wu Yongjie looked suspicious, she quickly slipped away.

Then Gulinar came in for the second time, carrying a large pot of boiled milk tea and a bowl filled with thick milk skin.

"This is the milk skin that my Apa personally made. It's really good. Pour the milk tea into the bowl, then use this spoon to scoop some of the milk skin into the milk tea. It smells really good."

He also said, "For this mutton soup, we use the best lamb leg with bones. You eat the meat and drink the soup. You can also dip the roasted naan in the soup. It's absolutely delicious."

Gulinar also went out.

Ling Fengxi had already served Wu Yongjie some soup and even thoughtfully soaked some naan in his bowl. "I heard from Doctor Fang that you've been sleeping so much these past two days that you've forgotten to eat. You're relying on waking up for a while and drinking some porridge to stay alive. Hurry and replenish your energy."

Wu Yongjie said, "Hey! I don't know what's going on, but the beds in this hospital are quite soft. I just don't feel comfortable sleeping there. But as soon as I get back to the dormitory, I feel like I slept well."

Wu Yongjie took a bite of meat, a mouthful of naan, and a sip of soup, then looked Ling Fengxi straight in the eye. "Tell me, what's the matter? I'm not used to you acting like this. I'm more used to you not notifying me directly when you have something to do, or having Ye Minglang send me a document, or just announcing it over the loudspeaker. I'm scared when you change your style. Just be frank and tell me quickly."

Ling Fengxi just grabbed a handful of melon seeds and ate them. Actually, he didn't know how to eat melon seeds very well. He just peeled them slowly with his fingers, and ate them one by one, which made Wu Yongjie's teeth growl.

Wu Yongjie grabbed a handful of melon seeds and put a small handful into his mouth at once. He stirred them with his tongue and teeth a few times, and when he spit them out, only the melon seed shells were left.

The spitting action was particularly rough, and with a "puff", many melon seed shells fell directly to the ground. Wu Yongjie stared at Ling Fengxi with an unfriendly and extremely disgusted look.

Ling Fengxi was stunned for a moment, silently placing the sunflower seeds in his palm back on the plate. He cleared his throat, then noticed Wu Yongjie staring at him intently. He said, "Well, my application for geophysical survey funding was unsuccessful. This means I can't provide the funding, so you guys have to figure it out on your own."

Wu Yongjie was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and ate the meat in big mouthfuls.

After a long while, he suddenly fished out the meat and held it in his mouth, then threw the soup and bowl to the ground. "Ling Fengxi, do you want to stop this project? If you don't want to do it anymore, just say so and we can go home! Is there any point in wasting time here?"

Ling Fengxi's face flushed, but he still insisted on saying the second half of the sentence, "With your company's capabilities, you can solve the problem yourself. Besides, this equipment can be used in your other projects in the future."

Wu Yongjie roared, "Get out!"

Ling Fengxi stood up, walked out, and closed the door for him.

At this time, Ye Minglang, Fang Ya, and Gulinar were actually outside the door. They saw that Ling Fengxi's eyes were full of despair. He ignored them and walked away. Ye Minglang followed closely behind him. Gulinar wanted to catch up, but was stopped by Ye Minglang.

Fang Ya said to Gulinar, "You go ahead and do your work. I'll take care of this."

Gulinar nodded and left the yard. Fang Ya returned to Wu Yongjie's door and knocked. Wu Yongjie yelled, "Get out! Get out!"

"Change the dressing." Fang Ya said.

After a while, I heard someone say, "Come in."

Fang Ya walked in and saw that the broken pieces of the bowl that had fallen on the ground had been swept into the trash can.

There was even a drag underground.

The milk tea and baked potatoes on the stove are still very tempting.

Fang Ya walked in and sat where Ling Fengxi had been. "This stove of yours was a clay stove that Ling Fengxi bought specially from the county. He even had someone bring the coal here. You know, open flames like this are not allowed in our dormitory area. It's too dangerous, but I made an exception for you."

"Are you trying to speak for him?" Wu Yongjie's face darkened. "You came here to deliver melon seeds today. Did you know what he was going to say? So you came here to help him?"

Fang Ya suddenly understood one of the reasons for Wu Yongjie's rage, but she simply nodded honestly. "Yes, I know Ling Fengxi's application failed, so he came to you today to convince you to let your engineering team undertake all subsequent geophysical surveys. I know this, and I really hope you can agree to this."

"Why would I agree to this? The project has barely made any profit at this point, and my workers are suffering."

"Because I don't want to leave Xitian Mountain now. Look how desolate it is here. If we leave, it will become even more desolate. We will also leave behind such a large pile of unfinished projects. How much hope did this tunnel originally carry? But if we leave like this, this tunnel will become a terrifying hole here, and maybe there will be a terrifying legend in the future.

I can't bear to leave Gulinar, and I can't bear to leave everything here. Unless the Western Tianshan Mountains are successfully crossed, everything here will undergo major changes. I am sure that they will get better and better, and then I can leave with peace of mind.

And, I know you think so too. If Wu Lao Hu gives up now, he won't be able to participate in similar projects in the future.

Wu Lao Hu's reputation in construction engineering will be ruined. Do you want this to happen?"

In fact, Wu Yongjie understood everything. Even if Fang Ya didn't say it, he would understand it, but he just wanted to listen. First, he wanted to hear Fang Ya's voice, and second, he needed others to give him some reasons and strength.

Instead of having to bear all the reasons and power by himself.

After a long while, he said, "Yaya, there is something I didn't tell you."

"what?"

"The day I returned to Xitianshan, the application I sent to the company headquarters was also rejected."

"What?! Then, then we..."