12th March was the annual Arbor Day. Mo Bei City's Gao Ji High School had its own botanical activity.
Early that morning, the students and teachers who participated in the activity set off in a hurry.
Mo Bei had vast desert and desert land. Afforestation, sand control and ecological protection were the norm. Therefore, Arbor Day was taken very seriously. Therefore, there were 300 plus students in the group. They were mainly year 1 and year 2 students. Only a few representatives from the student council came for the third year.
"Students, afforestation is related to our future. Don't just plant trees on your phone, we need to do it in real life. If you have time, come and plant trees. Plant them one by one. Try to make our home clearer, the forest more lush and the mountains greener."
The students stood on this deserted land far away from the city and listened obediently to Headmaster Chui's speech.
Lee Yuhan was listening as well. This was the second time he felt the fear of being dominated by Headmaster Chui on Arbor Day. Headmaster Chui was not the kind of person with a potbelly. Due to his good temper, he was quite popular among the students. However, he loved to lecture.
After a long time, just as the students were about to fall asleep, Headmaster Chui finally finished his speech. He and the teachers led the students to work.
This piece of land was not a desert. There were some wild grasses but they were growing sparser by the day. The location to plant the trees had been marked by the people from the forestry department. The saplings were placed next to them. They only needed to dig out the soil with the shovel, plant the saplings and then fill in the soil.
"Students, planting trees is planting hope, planting trees is planting happiness." Headmaster Chui's middle-aged face was serious. He walked among the students as he lectured, "Planting trees is planting the future! Students, what are you waiting for? Do it! "
The people around them chuckled. Lee Yuhan and the others were the ones the principal called out. They weren't slacking off, they just hadn't started yet.
"Headmaster Chui, I thought you weren't done yet." Lee Yuhan sighed helplessly. The laughter grew louder.
Of course, Headmaster Chui could take this kind of joke. He passed the shovel to the boy. "That's all! Hurry up and dig. You. "
He Ziyi, Wang Jia Wei, and the others were all smiling at him. Lee Yuhan grabbed the shovel. As the new generation of the motherland, he was well-nourished from a young age. Although he was in his second year of high school, he had already grown to a height of 1.8 meters. Plus, he often played basketball, so he had the strength to dig.
The shovel plunged into the mud, and Lee Yuhan used his foot to step on the shovel to loosen the soil. Then, he shouted in encouragement as he dug up the soil.
It took a lot of effort, but it wasn't difficult at all!
"Good, keep digging." Headmaster Chui nodded with satisfaction. He walked away to inspect the other students.
When Lee Yuhan dug in for the second time, he felt that something was wrong … There was an inexplicable discomfort in his heart, as if there was something in the soil …
With the third shovel, he saw something in the mud next to his feet. "What … what kind of worm is that?"
"Huh?" Wang Jiawei also saw it, and his eyes widened. He Ziyi, the girl, screamed.
They saw that in the loosened mud pit, there were densely packed insect egg-like things. They were all pale yellow and could not move, burrowing into the mud.
"What's wrong?" Teacher Liang walked over. Headmaster Chui also turned back. Seeing this, the two adults frowned. There was something wrong with this piece of land. Headmaster Chui said, "These look like locust eggs … Teacher Liang, call Captain Luo and the rest over to take a look."
Headmaster Chui was from Mo Bei. He used to do farm work, so he knew a thing or two about it. But Captain Luo was from the Forestry Department, so he was more knowledgeable.
"There sure are quite a lot of them." Headmaster Chui grabbed the shovel to dig out some mud. They were all eggs.
Lee Yuhan's group looked around. More students gathered around. Should they call it Phecda?
Due to good governance, locust plagues had disappeared from many places. However, due to the complicated ecology of Mo Bei, there would be a certain amount of locust infestation every year. In other words, locust plagues happened every year. However, due to the efforts of many departments, it normally wouldn't reach the level of news.
Most of the students here had not come into contact with farmlands so they had not encountered locusts before. Looking at these eggs, they were disgusted.
"I have trypophobia …" A girl whimpered with disgust. Even though she was afraid, she still wanted to watch the drama unfold.
"What's there to be afraid of?" Headmaster Chui said grumpily, "We used to dig them out when we were young and roast them. They were so delicious."
The group groaned with disgust. But Lee Yuhan had a strange feeling. His throat swallowed …
At that moment, Teacher Liang returned with Captain Lin's group. Headmaster Chui moved away.
"Headmaster Chui, these are indeed locust eggs." Captain Luo recognized them immediately. "They should be Hairy Foot Horn Locusts."
"Hmm." Headmaster Chui used his phone to look up some information. He used this chance to educate the students, "Students, the female locust's ovipositor can reach twice its body length when it burrows into the soil. It can lay 100 eggs at a time. During the locust plagues, there are several thousand egg clusters per square metre. Based on the calculation of 50 eggs per egg cluster, there will be several hundred thousand eggs per square metre. One square metre! If they survive through the winter, they will come out in summer. That will be a big deal. "
Several hundred thousand locusts per square metre? The students were all tongue-tied.
"It's not that serious." Captain Roger's dark face smiled. "Not every egg can grow and hatch, and there aren't that many eggs usually. For this kind of Hairy Foot Horn Locusts, our normal population density is around 30 adult locusts per square metre. 100 adult locusts per square metre is already a lot. "
"Yes, yes." Headmaster Chui nodded humbly. "Students, did you hear that? Having locusts and having a locust plague are two different things."
"But if the locust infestation is too large and there is no control, a low population density will cause a locust plague." Captain Luo added like he was talking to Headmaster Chui. It made the students laugh. "Our Mo Bei City has several million mu of locust infestations every year, including the farmland and the surrounding farmland."
However, there had been no problems with this wasteland in the past few years. Captain Roger dug some holes in the surrounding ground with shovels to check. Fortunately, there were no eggs.
As if Lee Yuhan's shovel had hit the jackpot, the locust eggs were all concentrated in the 10 square metre area. Due to this, the tree-planting activity was temporarily suspended. Captain Luo's group needed to call the people from the agriculture department to do more soil inspection and spraying pesticides.
"Captain Luo!" Lee Yuhan chased after him and asked the question that had been bothering him, "How deep can the locust eggs be buried?"
"Very shallow, less than half a metre." Captain Luo answered. He was kind to students who were eager to learn.
"Oh …" Lee Yuhan still had a strange feeling when he heard that. The more he looked at the soil where the locust eggs were dug out, the more he felt that way.
He looked around him. It was a barren land … Would there be more at a deeper location?
That feeling of desire grew even stronger, causing Lee Yuhan to gulp down his saliva again.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
