Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 862 - 585: Facing the Flood Peak, Sleeping Beside the Yangtze River!_2
Master Xi mentioned a few days ago that the Yangtze River’s annual sediment transport is about 520 million tons.
What does it mean to lose 520 million tons of sediment in a year? How much of it is washed into the sea from upstream by the river? It’s conceivable that the lakes that once regulated floods might now only handle a fraction of that capacity.
Yao Lirong heard this and was silently shocked, worrying whether the dikes along the river could withstand the flood peak test. Master Xu, standing with his back to the river wind, lit a cigarette and reminded, "Master Xi hasn’t been resting well these past days. Let’s enter the command cabin later and let him sleep a bit more."
"Oh, okay."
"Actually, the leadership intended to assign another colleague to board the ship with me, hoping that Master Xi could rest well and stay with Master Liu from the Yangtze River Committee Design Institute at the anti-flood command. But Master Xi said that 001 was borrowed from Salted Fish and that we were all brought back by him, so he insisted on boarding the ship with us."
"Master Xi is really something, it’s not really necessary."
"Surveying the flood peak involves certain risks, and he’s just not at ease." Master Xu took a few more puffs on his cigarette, thought for a while, and laughed: "His character is... pretty straightforward, he likes research and isn’t very keen on interacting with leadership, maybe he feels it’s quieter on the ship than onshore."
Yao Lirong asked instinctively, "Pretty straightforward character?"
"Otherwise, why would a professor-level senior engineer like him head to the Yangtze River Tail?"
Master Xu asked back, sighing, "I was assigned there, but he’s different. He had many choices. Originally, he was doing well at the design institute, but when he heard the Yangtze River Water Bureau was short on staff, and since his research needed practical studies downstream, he volunteered to be transferred."
The Yangtze River Delta’s economy is more developed than the Yangtze’s middle reaches, but Hanwu is the provincial capital, you know.
Moreover, the Yangtze River Water Bureau isn’t in a big city, not even in downtown Shuzhou, but a small town by the river in Shuzhou, where conditions are not as good as in Hanwu.
Researchers are all like this, their personalities tend to be peculiar.
Linghai Water Resources Bureau’s Chief Engineer Master Chen has the same bad temper; leaders don’t like him but can’t do without him.
While Yao Lirong was feeling sentimental, "Land God" Xiao Chen was standing at the stern in the shade, watching the distant Hanwu Three Towns and chatting idly with Zhu Baogen.
"Uncle Zhu, Xiao Yu’s family might be in that tallest building we saw this morning."
"It can’t be such a coincidence."
"He told me his residential area has the tallest residential building in Hanwu, he even needs to take the elevator to get home! Because it’s so tall, if he doesn’t take the elevator, climbing with his legs would wear them out! Uncle Zhu, have you ever taken an elevator?"
"Who hasn’t taken an elevator? The Port Supervision Department has elevators, and I’ve been on them several times. But I wasn’t really sitting, just standing inside." Zhu Baogen laughed, pondering a bit, and said: "Besides going on straight-up elevators, I’ve also been on those slanted elevators."
"What’s a slanted elevator?" Xiao Chen was puzzled.
"It’s an elevator with stairs, and it’s called an escalator."
"I’ve seen escalators too, Wenfeng Mall has them."
"I went on the day Wenfeng Mall opened. I didn’t want to go, but going meant spending money, Xiao Bin insisted on dragging me there. So crowded, people jammed together, elevators on every floor with nothing blocking the sides. When I got to the sixth floor, I didn’t dare to look down."
Compared to Linghai’s Wenfeng Mall, which opened last year, Xiao Chen was more interested in Xiao Yu’s home in Hanwu, muttering: "Actually, after refueling and filling up on water, we could’ve gone ashore. It’s my fault for not thinking to ask Master Yao to call Xiao Yu and ask where he lives. If we knew, maybe we could’ve visited his home, met his parents, and seen Little Crocodile."
Mentioning Old Liang and Little Crocodile, Zhu Baogen shared the sentiment, sighing, "Xiao Yu and Yu Zhen had two wedding banquets, first in their hometown, then in Hanwu. When they came back to Hanwu, they invited many people, even invited me, hoping I could visit Hanwu for a few days."
"Uncle Zhu, you’ve been to Hanwu!"
"I’ve been there once, but not for Xiao Yu and Yu Zhen’s wedding banquet; I was there to receive Yangtze Police 110, Yangtze Police 111, and Binjiang Police 002."
"Was it the time for escorting the submarine?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn’t you go to Xiao Yu and Yu Zhen’s wedding banquet? They invited you, and it’s not like you’d have to spend money!"
"It’s not about the money."
Zhu Baogen fell silent for a moment, looking at his hands: "You know what I used to do, attending weddings wouldn’t seem right. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t go to their banquet at the Linghai Hotel."
He used to deal with dead bodies, going to a wedding banquet didn’t seem suitable.
Xiao Chen understood, thought for a moment, then asked, "Last time you came to receive new ships, you waited in Hanwu for several days. Xiao Yu hadn’t been transferred back to his hometown yet, didn’t he ask you to visit his home?"
"He did, I didn’t go."
"Why not?"
"We arrived on 001, couldn’t leave the boat unattended, I had to keep an eye on it."
"If it were me, I’d definitely go."
"There will always be opportunities."
As they talked, Master Xu and Yao Lirong approached, curiously asking what they were chatting about.
Xiao Chen pointed to the increasingly distant Hanwu Three Towns, bringing up how Xiao Yu’s parents and son are in Hanwu and how they wanted to visit but couldn’t.
What surprised Xiao Chen and Zhu Baogen was Master Xu pointing towards Hanwu, seriously saying, "It’s not that I don’t want you to go ashore, mainly because the dikes are under strict control, and getting back on board after going ashore would be troublesome."
"What do you mean by strict control on the dikes?"
"Except for flood control and rescue personnel, entering the dikes without permission is not allowed."
"People can’t go on the dikes to see how high the river is?"
"No, they can’t."
"Why not?"
"For safety reasons."
"Worried someone might fall into the river?"
"That’s one reason, but mainly to prevent sabotage by criminals."
Xiao Chen was shocked, "Who would sabotage the dikes? Are the dikes that easy to sabotage?"
Master Xu pulled out his cigarette pack again, handed one to Old Zhu, and said in a low voice, "Looks like you don’t follow the news much. There are many bad people in this world, some are rotten to the core! On February 14th this year, two bastards planted a bomb on a bus, and when it was on the Yangtze River Bridge, they detonated it, killing over a dozen passengers and injuring more than twenty."
Zhu Baogen suddenly remembered this, exclaiming, "I remember, Salted Fish and Han Ning told me. After the explosion, even our Binjiang Changhang Bureau was on high alert, during that time, everyone going to the dock for a boat had to open their bags for inspection to check for dangerous items or explosives!"
Xiao Chen turned again to look at the ever-distant Hanwu, fearfully saying, "Then it makes sense to be strict; if there are still bad people and they blow up the dikes, what then."
