"Teacher Jiao, what are you going to eat tonight?" A tall, thin man in his early 30s wearing a large apron stood heartlessly at the kitchen door and asked.

At this time, there was a fat man squatting on the stove in the kitchen who looked more than 200 pounds, with a black face, and was stuffing dry grass into the stove, and then quickly picked up a bamboo tube, one end to the stove, the other end against his mouth, and took care of his cheeks, and blew into the stove. As he kept blowing. Streams of gray-white smoke quickly rose from the stove, mixed with sparkling straw ashes, and kept flying towards the fat man's greasy and sweaty face, and the moment the block touched the skin, the spark went out.

The still thin man stood at the door leaning against the door frame, holding back a smile, and said loudly into the kitchen without reluctance: "I said that you are a university professor from Shanghai, why don't you teach in the school anymore, what are you doing in this big Gobi Desert?" Deserted, what do you have to study in that biology? Teacher Jiao, Professor Jiao, you can't make this fire today, and the two of us will gnaw on the cool nest again tonight! ”

The big fat man said unhurriedly, "Do you think I want to gnaw on the head of the cool nest?" Dear mother, Allah at that time, who knew that the environment in the northwest was so bad. However, for the research and development of biological sciences in New China, I still swallow this bitterness, I am also a member of the motherland, which can be drunk and dream of death in the gentle township! Comrade Sima Nanyi, is it true that Nong said that Allah said? ”

The thin man, who couldn't hold back, laughed and said: "Teacher Jiao, as a member of our new China, you have indeed contributed to the motherland, last month you and a female camel lived in the shed for a night, and the next day the female camel gave birth to two baby camels, half a month earlier than the due date you showed you, I don't know that I think you are a stable woman!" Last year, the sheep on our farm were collectively sick, you went to Lop Nur, picked some unknown reeds and saline water at night and boiled a pot of soup, and cured more than 100 sheep. ”

Sima Nanyi added, "Our Milan farm is indeed not comparable to the climate and living environment of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and it is considered an area with poor conditions and environment in the country. But Mr. Jiao, you have been here since 1951, I really haven't seen that your old man has been affected by the harsh environment and living conditions, and in the past three years, from your height of 180 and weight from 130 catties to 200 catties, it is estimated that you can be called a miracle in the socialist camp. ”

"Comrade Sima Nanyi, I have also studied the problem you mentioned, and it may be because the silicate content in the water we drink is nearly 100 times higher than that in other parts of China." Jiao Shou said.

"Tall, you big-headed ghost! Big brother, big brother, I am also an aspiring young man who has studied at the University of Heidelberg, even if it is hundreds of times higher, it crystallizes when it is boiled. Otherwise, your old man would have drunk a delicate, smooth, and crystal clear crystal person, and he could still be sold abroad to earn some foreign exchange for the country. Sima Nanyi said disdainfully.

At this time, he seemed to remember something, and hurried back to their dormitory, and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall, it was already May 13, 1953. Sima Nanyi ran back to the kitchen, and at this time Jiao Shou had already lit the fire, and the water in the large iron pot with a width of one meter and two meters on the stove was already boiling, and the heat was churning out of the pot.

Jiao Shou quickly scooped the boiling water into the thermos with a big gourd, and after pouring 5 thermos water, there was still water left in the pot, he put a bowl in the center of the pot, and then put a cover curtain made of sorghum poles on it, put a few big nests on it, and covered the pot.

"That's it!" Jiao Shou said excitedly.

"Don't just eat. Teacher Jiao, you said that Luo Gang and their supply team have been gone for more than 40 days, so they will return to our Milan farm soon, right? Sima Nanyi said to Jiao Shou.

"It's Di, look at it, I pinched my fingers and counted until today, I've been gone for 41 days, almost tonight or tomorrow night, I'm going to come back to Di." This morning, I went out to hunt a few wild ducks, intending to make up for him. Jiao Shou said unhurriedly.

"However, seeing the blood-burning sunset tonight, I'm afraid that the black storm is coming, and the wind season in the desert Gobi Desert will kill people, I'm really worried about them." Sima Nanyi frowned, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the sky in the distance and said.

Jiao Shou didn't raise his head, and said disdainfully: "You're worried about a fart!" Brother Luo Gang, the road you have walked in this life and crossed the bridge is more than the sand you eat in the Gobi Desert with strong winds. It's really that the emperor is not in a hurry to die eunuchs. I didn't go to prepare the dishes and chopsticks, but I brought the wild vegetables I dug up yesterday and started the meal! ”

Ancient Milan was an ancient oasis city south of the Taklamakan Desert, located at the intersection of Lop Nur and the Altyn Mountains on the Silk Road. At one time, it was a busy trading center on the Southern Silk Road and an important passage into and out of Central Asia. In order to avoid crossing this "Great Desert" ("Taklamakan means Uyghur word" and also known as the "Sea of Death") and the Tarim Basin, caravans often choose to bypass the north and south sides of Milan. Ancient Milan was an important base for the Central Dynasty to run the Western Regions at that time. According to historical records, in the Western Han Dynasty, this place was the Yixun City of Loulan Kingdom in the Western Regions. In the fourth year of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty (77 BC), King Shanshan, that is, the king of the ancient Loulan Kingdom, Wei Tu Qi, wrote to Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, requesting the Han Dynasty to send a general to lead the soldiers to this place to accumulate grain, highlighting the prestige of the Han Dynasty, in order to pacify the princes of the Quartet, and Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty immediately sent a Sima and a total of more than 40 officials to garrison troops in Yixun Tuntian.

In ancient times, the famous monks Fa Xian and Xuanzang both stayed in Milan to study Buddhism. Xuanzang's life in Milan is integrated into mythology. The legend of the daughter country in "Journey to the West" is in Milan, where the local river used to be called the Zimu River, and the legend says that whether it is a young girl or an old woman with a sixtieth birthday, as long as she drinks a scoop of water from the Zimu River, she can give birth to a baby within a few days.

But on a cloudy evening in the middle of the 7th century, all the inhabitants of the ancient city of Milan mysteriously disappeared along with a black sandstorm. When the world found the ancient city of Milan again, it was already the 19th century.

Milan Farm was founded in 1950 and is located in Milan Town, Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The newly built Milan farm is to provide a long-term and stable living environment for the staff excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Milan, and the second is to establish a natural science research station on the higher terrain along the coast of Lop Nur for the study of Lop Nur and the Gobi desert flora and fauna. Milan Farm is said to be a "farm", but it is not, there are only two rows of one-story red brick houses, each row has 20 rooms, each room is the same layout, inside and outside the suite, about 70-90 square meters. In addition, it is the courtyard wall made of brick houses surrounded by 2 kilometers of red bricks, there are many low houses under the courtyard wall, which are divided into toilets, demolition houses, washrooms, water rooms, and kitchens in turn.

However, due to climatic reasons and the imperfection of excavation and protection facilities, the underground structure of the ancient city of Milan was not excavated, but only all the surface remains found in preliminary research. However, all kinds of mysterious, undiscovered animals and plants abound in Lop Nur, so in 1955, only 6 students from Shanghai and Beijing returned from overseas were sent by the state to Milan farms for long-term animal and plant reliability. Jiao Shou and Sima Nanyi were the two most important people in this expedition team, while the others were transferred to Golmud Hospital for recuperation because their bodies were extremely unsuitable for the local environment. However, Jiao Shou and Sima Nanyi quickly adapted to the harsh environment of Lop Nur, and although the two of them were highly educated students who returned from studying abroad, they were not useless "scholars".

Let's not talk about anything else, let's talk about Jiao Shou's grandfather first. Jiao Shou's grandfather's name was Jiao Zongren, the word 嵟, the official worship was the second product, and he was the last governor of Liangjiang in the late Qing Dynasty. The Governor of Liangjiang was one of the nine highest-ranking feudal ministers of the Qing Dynasty, in charge of the military and civilian affairs of Jiangsu (including present-day Shanghai), Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. Jiao Zongren has three sons under his knees, the eldest Jiao Yitong, the second Jiao Yishun, the third Jiao Yida, after the Xinhai Revolution, only his three sons with the family's wealth, and the power in the Liangjiang area, opened a foreign firm in Shanghai, Jiao Shou's father Jiao Yida is mainly responsible for the affairs of the foreign bank, and the other two uncles are old in Nanjing because of their old age. It's strange to say that Jiao Zongren's three sons, adding up to a total of 18 aunts, gave birth to 17 daughters, and the whole family prayed to God and Buddha, but it was ineffective. Suddenly, one day there came to the family a wandering old Taoist, a bowl of hot tea, the family will offer, when the old Taoist left, a black jade gourd to Jiao Yida, instructed that this water is the spring of the daughter country, you say that this jade gourd at noon, placed in the courtyard to gather the sun in the sun for seven days, that is, exposed to the sun for 7 days, take the spring water in the treasure bottle, and give birth to a son immediately. But this son can't follow other businesses, and he can't do things that hurt nature and reason, but he can only save people with clever hands and live in the apricot forest, otherwise he will die. A year later, the 18th grandson of the Jiao family was born, that is, Jiao Shou.

Jiao Shou has been favored since he was a child, and he is really a unique seedling, but Jiao Yida did not forget the advice of the wandering Taoist, from the age of 5, he took him to visit famous doctors to learn art, and at the age of 15, Jiao Shou was sent to the University of Heidelberg in Germany to study Western medicine. And the spring of the daughter country in the black jade gourd that Jiao Shou's mother drank was a spring in Milan.