He Chen | Not in the sticky time 1.

1.

As dawn approached, the rain had not stopped yet. The sound of rain was intermittent. I had just finished sorting out the materials that would be used after dawn and went to the balcony to smoke.

Because of the rain, the balcony was dark. The street lights on the village road not far away were covered with a layer of transparent mist. I pressed the cigarette butt on the half-man-high concrete wall enclosure beside the balcony and turned back to the room. There was no The light on the open laptop flickers.

On the screen are some information about a recent discovery of an epiphytic rhododendron growing in a fir forest.

On the road from Wachang Town to Wujiao Township.

Dozens of epiphytic rhododendrons blooming in large clumps of lush white flowers on the blackened trunk of a lightning-struck fir tree more than 20 meters high.

The white petals in the photo are covered with raindrops.

It should have been taken in the rain, I can't remember exactly.

b closed the computer and tried to sleep for a while before dawn. The two cats in the room took turns sneezing a few times. They slept in the corner of the bed, one big and one small, stacked together with their bellies on their backs.

 It was still raining outside and cold wind blew in from the window from time to time. I wrapped myself in the quilt and tucked my head under the pillow, trying to fall asleep before dawn.

In the room, B was breathing under the pillow with the sound of rain falling on leaves. His arms exposed outside the quilt were blown by the cold wind in the early morning. Time seemed to have stopped. B still had no sleepiness at all.

 

2.

b is a driver.

(During the summer and winter holidays when people travel together, B drives the red van that he borrowed money from J to buy, taking guests around Dali Prefecture. Most of the guests are introduced to B by J, who runs a private outdoor travel agency (different from traditional tour groups). Because the routes B takes can always perfectly avoid the crowds of Dali even during the busy summer vacation, and the places he goes to are not mysterious or difficult to reach. However, when B leads the team, it feels like

"Take the relatives who come from afar around and let them experience the beautiful and charming fragments of Dali in B's eyes"

There is also camping to spend a night in the wild with guests.

In the remaining time, B drove another white Isuzu pickup truck along the Lancang River to sell some sheets/quilt covers/stainless steel pots and bowls/and other daily necessities that were wholesaled from Guangzhou. Just like the vendors in each town of Dali who sell daily necessities at the market, when the goods are sold out, B will fill a truck with local fruits or vegetables in the nearby villages along the river, and then bring them back to Dali. Then, he will pack them together at the vegetable/fruit market in Xiaguan Development Zone and sell them to merchants in the market. The recycling prices of the merchants are relatively low, but B only wants to offset the freight back to Dali . In the next few days, B will stay at home to rest, and when a new batch of sheets and quilt covers from Guangzhou arrives at the logistics park, B will set off again. Except for the winter and summer vacations, B spends most of his time on the long thousands of kilometers of border along the Lancang River.)

All b did was to integrate the time of discovery of the azalea/the location and altitude of discovery/the surrounding vegetation and trees/the number of azaleas and their growing environment/and the photos.

It was presented at the Digital Biodiversity Atlas Conference in late December.

bThere is no need to do these.

 

3.

In May, B received a commission from C. The commission was for a survey team of alpine lichen species led by C. They set out from Chengdu, Wenchuan Lixian County, and arrived at Aba County. Then they followed the Mako River to the Mako River Forest Farm. After sending the team members to the farm, the work entrusted to B was completed.

(The Makho River Forest Area is the largest, most concentrated, highest-altitude, and largest original forest area at the source of the Dadu River in the Yangtze River Basin of Qinghai Province. In terms of topography, it is located in the transition zone from the Southwest Plateau to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The forest types and wild animals and plants have obvious southwestern characteristics. It is the area with the best ecological environment in the Sanjiangyuan area in southern Qinghai, and it is also the only place where many plants and animals are distributed in Qinghai.)

4.

One evening in late April, b was sleeping at home when he was awakened by a hurried knock on the door. b got up from the moisture-proof mat on the floor beside the bed and staggered out of the room. After opening the door, C stood at the door and was talking to the guest on the other end of the phone about confirming the time, place and weather.

(C is a friend that B met in Chengdu several years ago. At first, he worked as a chef in a hotel in Tongmai Town. Later, after he got married, he returned to Chengdu and started driving for tourists. The itinerary is at least one week long and starts from Chengdu. Most of the routes are around the Tibetan areas in western Sichuan, western Yunnan and southern Qinghai. Although this is said, in fact, most of the guests who booked are also taking the routes that are often taken by people or are more popular on social platforms. )

C entered the room and sat on the sofa in the living room and continued to make a phone call.

B walked through the living room to the bathroom. After coming out of the bathroom, B saw that the kitchen window was covered with pink clouds. Large chunks of clouds were parked outside the window.

C is still on the phone in the living room

The sound of conversation came out from the living room window.

Fine and fragmented

The clouds outside the window are getting thicker

The clouds turned into pink plaster

The clouds have become more three-dimensional 

b stared blankly at the clouds outside the window.

The day is coming to an end.

Now B doesn't know the work that his friend will entrust to him after hanging up the phone.

At this time,

All b could think about was how to spend this long and quiet night.

 

5.

In the days that followed, the team members arrived in Chengdu one after another. Chengdu in early May was already like midsummer. The sidewalks were filled with red plastic chairs in the evening. People sat on the chairs and sweated. The sweat on their foreheads became the unit used to measure time.

Some imperceptible moments of time passing by.

The night before departure, B invited the team members to meet at Leshan Bobo Chicken downstairs from his home. During the meal, B and them confirmed the departure time tomorrow morning and the problems they might encounter on the road.

( Just last week, a serious landslide occurred on the road from Aba County to Makho River Forest Farm. Almost 5 kilometers of asphalt road was half buried by the mountain. )

bWhile everyone was picking up the cooked vegetables and various parts of the chicken from the cold pot of red oil on the table,

When talking about the sentence "The possible problem is that there is no way to reach the forest farm."

Several people were still talking about their imaginations of going into the Mako River forest area to collect. Their voices were full of yearning.

Then all movement on the table stopped.

B paused for more than ten seconds after he finished speaking. Before a few people could raise questions, B stared at the cold pot of red oil and continued

"The itinerary will go on as usual. I will pick you up at the hotel at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. We will head towards Aba. We can reach the landslide area before sunset. If we cannot reach the Mako River Forest Farm due to the landslide, we will return to stay at the Gelug Monastery in Aba County that night. There is also a forest behind the mountain where the monks live. We will reach the fern and lung moss there. There are a lot of them in this season.

The next morning you can also conduct a species survey on plateau lichens.

After that, we will go from Jinchuan to Danba and then to Ganzi. If you are willing, I will take you to Muli Tibetan and Yi Autonomous County, which is located at the border of Yunnan and Sichuan. There is a large area of ​​highland fir forest there. Although it is geographically different from the Ma Ke River Forest Farm, this is the only way to continue your investigation without interrupting it."

B drank the Coke on the table in one gulp and continued.

"Regarding the fees, we will still follow what C and you agreed to pay, and only the part that goes to the Mako River Forest Farm will be paid.

You can just share the gas fee to Wujiao Town. I was going back to Dali and I was going to Lijiazui to give something to a lama I met before.

There is a Yellow Sect temple over there that is more than 300 years old. Most of the lamas in the temple are Mongolians.

Last spring, when I passed by there, it snowed heavily and my car slipped and fell into the roadside drainage ditch. A few lamas helped me lift the car up and I stayed there for a few days.

Not long ago, they called me and asked me to bring a few masks they made for the Spring Festival to Gaosheng Bridge in Chengdu if I came back from Chengdu, so that they could be used in the "Gedong Festival" ritual performance after the autumn harvest.

On the way to Wujiao, there is a large dense fir forest. I dropped you off in Wujiao Township. There is a hotel run by Mongolians there. You can stay there. We will continue the survey of plateau lichen species in the forests around the valley.

After finishing the investigation, you can ask the hotel owner to help you find a car to Lijiang.

It takes less than an hour from Wujiao Township to Yongning Town, and then four or five hours along the tourist road from Lugu Lake to Lijiang to reach Lijiang Airport."

"But it's all up to you. If you decide to withdraw, just contact C and ask him to refund you. If you decide to continue, we'll set off together tomorrow morning."

After saying this, B got up and went to the bar to pay the bill, then squatted at the door of the store to smoke. A warm breeze blew through the alley in front of B.

There were not many people in the alley.

Summer came quietly at this moment.

 

6.

At this time, B was squatting on the roadside at the intersection of Huguo Road and Yeyu Road, waiting for his friend to enter the mediation room but never come out. It was afternoon and the light shone through the yellow leaves onto B's body. B was a little bored and was also worried about the outcome of the mediation in the house. He rubbed the cigarette butt that had been smoked to the end in the cracks of the sidewalk tiles.

b stuffed the cigarette butt into a hole in the brick joint under his feet, then took out his phone and checked the public account and found a message about cooling down.

"Under the control of the East Siberian cold vortex, many places in the Lena River Basin have experienced extreme cold below -55 degrees Celsius. The temperature in Oymyakon has dropped to -57.6 degrees Celsius, and in other places it has been measured at -58.7 degrees Celsius, approaching the local low temperature record since the new century."

b has been back to Dali from Chengdu for half a year.

Summer vacation is over. Usually at this time, B would have been driving his Isuzu pickup truck full of daily necessities through the dense forests on both sides of the Lancang River Gorge from Lincang to Pu'er.

Normally, B would stay in Simaogang Town for a few more days. It was a relatively large town on this section of the Lancang River. During the day, B drove his car to the town and stopped at the only traffic light in the town to sell daily necessities.

In the evening, I bought two bags of sticky rice and a large piece of roasted pork belly or ribs from the barbecue stall nearby, drove to an open space by the river, ate dinner by the river, and then pitched the tent on the beach in the open space to spend the night.

When the "Yiyi Festival" is approaching, B will take a boat across the river at the ferry in the town. After crossing the river, he will drive along the river and arrive at Nuozadu Town soon. Nuozadu Town is the largest town in Lancang County. The nearby mountains are full of villages of the Wa, Yi, Hani, Lahu, Dai and Bulang ethnic groups. In the early days of October, the town is very lively, which is a good time to sell. B will also purchase some passion fruit/dragon fruit to fill the empty part of the carriage and sell them to fruit vendors in Xiaguan after returning to Dali.

7.

bI went to Baishi Creek several times recently. I passed through a small field of broad beans and yellow corn stalks and some tombstones covered with gray lichens from Sanyang Village, which is not far from Baishi Creek. It is also a place I often pass by in July and August. In addition to the increasingly gorgeous winter cherry blossoms, there are only purple stem lichens all over the mountain, which still retain the green vitality as in summer. The stones in the creek that were submerged in summer are slowly emerging from the water. Yellow and moist moss leaves fall into the motionless puddles. The creek water becomes turbid and I no longer have the desire to drink it. bI carefully follow the creek upwards. There are many collapsed tree trunks in the valley. The tree trunks fall randomly into the creek. bI did not reach the waterfall where I would stop almost every day during the rainy season.

b. Cross the stream and go up the mountain at the entrance to the Eight Immortals Temple

Passing the stone temple, we arrived at the flat land beside the stream where we camped in July and August.

It's much more desolate there now than during the rainy season.

Then B continued to go up to the last dam of Baishi Creek, where there was a wider valley with gravel all over the ground and no water on the river beach.

On the other side of the valley there is a path leading up the hillside.

After going up the mountain along the road, you can see the end of the dam platform

There is a huge rock there

It is larger than the stone covered with stainless steel plates at the lower reaches of Baishi Creek and is hidden in the dense woods beside the valley.

The ravine becomes a canyon further back.

Further in the distance is the top of Sanyang Peak, which I see every time I park my car.

8.

As winter was about to pass, Dali began to show signs of winter.

The continuous rain covered the mountain peaks with thick white snow.

The winter in Dali is not the same as in B's memory.

But this should be due to b memory.

Now B is squatting beside the charcoal basin next to the bar in the store

Roasting with friends

B's face was burned

b thought

I haven't been to Baishixi for a while.

Above the canyon behind the boulder

Neat secondary pine forest

The branches are covered with white pictures.

b also thought

When I went to Xipo last month, I saw the Lotus Peak covered with snow.

b seems to have found

The reason why time is no longer sticky.