Volume One, Chapter 10: The Academic Temperament

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It was impossible for Wang Xiquan to remain emotionally unmoved upon hearing the news, yet he fully understood the gravity of the negotiations. Thus, without verification, he naturally refrained from making any rash decisions.

It was noon, mealtime, but Wang Xiquan had no appetite. Clutching a stack of reports, he left the office building and, almost instinctively, headed toward the wind turbine testing field.

At that time, the testing field, like much of Dabancheng District, stretched out as a vast, barren wilderness.

Aside from the construction crews energetically working on infrastructure, only Ma Wenbin and a few students were conducting surveying and mapping tasks.

Due to night shifts, they seldom returned to the city and instead resided in temporary dormitories made of adobe and red bricks on the testing site.

In fact, Wang Xiquan hadn’t seen Ma Wenbin for nearly a week. Although they regularly sent updated materials, he was unaware of the exact conditions at the site.

Lost in thought, Wang quickened his pace but was suddenly struck by a fierce gust of wind sweeping across the open plain. Instinctively, he bent over, squinting against the wind while tightly clutching the documents in his hand.

Such gusts were common at Dabancheng, a notorious wind tunnel, and Wang was no stranger to them. He was well accustomed.

After braving the wind for several hundred meters, he turned into the crooked-neck tree alley leading to the testing field and leaned against the gnarled tree, finally managing to open his eyes.

Taking shelter from the wind, he faintly glimpsed the outline of the testing field. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned the magnificent future scene: hundreds of towering wind turbines standing tall, their blades spinning majestically against the wind. The furrow in his brow eased.

“Teacher Wang, what are you doing here? Didn’t you go eat?”

Behind him, the screeching brakes of a tractor sounded, followed by a familiar voice.

Wang turned to look and saw two young people seated one behind the other on the tractor, their faces wrapped tightly with felt hats and caps, only their eyes visible.

The one in front was none other than Ma Wenbin.

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“I just wanted to come check on how your work is going here. Once the turbines arrive, this place will be entirely transformed,” Wang Xiquan smiled.

“That’s great news. Lately, it’s just been endless chasing the wind and weather; I feel like these strange gusts are about to blow me into a new shape,” complained the young person behind Ma Wenbin.

Upon hearing this, Wang realized the speaker was a young woman.

The wind power research team had expanded considerably in the brief two weeks since Wang had initially selected the members, largely thanks to Ma Wenbin’s recruitment efforts.

Though Wang wasn’t familiar with every individual, he recognized most—but this girl was unfamiliar to him.

He managed a slightly embarrassed smile. “Look at you, a young lady talking like that. Our work with wind power revolves around dealing with the wind itself. We can’t just chase stars instead, can we?”

“You mean chasing celebrities? That’s different—that’s a hobby!”

The girl was about to retort but was sharply chided by Ma Wenbin: “Xiao Yan, how do you speak to Teacher Wang like that?”

“Ha ha, young people, it’s no big deal,” Wang Xiquan waved off the correction, suddenly recalling who she was.

Zhang Yan, daughter of Zhang Tingjun, the former director of the Xinjiang Institute of Geography, was a graduate student specializing in geographic information science at the New Earth Geography Department and considered a junior of Ma Wenbin.

It was likely that Ma Wenbin had persuaded her to join this project; Wang felt quietly pleased.

Zhang Tingjun was an old acquaintance of Wang Xiquan’s as well, a key researcher at the Water Conservancy Department. However, in recent years their work had little overlap, and since Zhang was responsible for geographic and ecological surveys across Xinjiang, he rarely appeared at the department, causing their relationship to become somewhat distant.

Since he had encountered a friend’s daughter here who had come to assist him, Wang naturally took the opportunity to offer some praise.

After some pleasantries, Wang adopted a serious tone: “It’s good you two came down just now. I just spoke with Director Yang Qifan from the Foreign Trade Department. He mentioned that several Danish company sales representatives will be coming to Xinjiang tomorrow. Since they are foreign companies, Director Yang wants us to hold a discussion beforehand. Also, my colleagues in the office who analyzed the quotations and specifications from these two companies suspect they might be hiding something in their pricing—possibly inflating it intentionally. Wenbin, what do you think?”

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“That can’t be. Teacher Wang, these two Danish companies were specifically selected by the Foreign Trade delegation during their overseas inspection. Not only are they supplying us, but many machines at the Badaling Wind Power Test Station come from them as well. They’re old clients, familiar faces. Could they really do such a thing?”

Ma Wenbin shrugged and countered, “Who told you this?”

Wang hesitated but then explained, “It was Maimaiti. After reading some foreign-language journal, he concluded this.”

Upon hearing this, Ma Wenbin fell silent for a long moment. Since the last ideological discussion, Ma’s opinion of this somewhat glib young man had plummeted, and in the days after, even when they met at the department, Ma wouldn’t initiate conversation.

Since Ma had been working at the test station for over half a month without hearing from Maimaiti, he nearly forgot about him. Now, hearing the name again, a trace of displeasure colored his tone: “Maimaiti again? I just don’t believe he’s that amazing—staying home and somehow always knowing the international trends?”

Hearing her senior’s words, Zhang Yan couldn’t help but speak up: “Senior, aren’t you a teacher? Haven’t you heard ‘there are treasures in books’? Nowadays, every university’s archives subscribe actively to domestic and foreign journals for research and reference.”

“Of course, I know that, but it requires a solid foundation of research and scholarship. Maimaiti isn’t the type to bury himself in the institute studying. How could he have grasped the international forefront twice in a row?” Ma Wenbin retorted.

In any case, he didn’t believe Maimaiti had such insight.

Knowing her senior’s temper, Zhang Yan gave up arguing and turned to Wang Xiquan: “Teacher Wang, who exactly is this technician named Maimaiti? Also, which foreign journal did he read? Maybe I’m familiar with it—I have been reading quite a few at the institute this past month.”

“Something like Wind… Pawol, or… something…”

“Windpower Monthly?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”