After breakfast, once he had dropped Mingming and Haohao off at school, Li Long drove to the township as usual.
No one was in the cotton field yet, but preparations for the on-site meeting were already halfway done.
The cotton field lay beside the road, parallel to the asphalt road running from Dong to west, with a twenty-meter-wide tree plot between them.
Farm machinery usually entered from the western end of the field, where a dirt road cut through the trees into the field.
But for the on-site meeting, the eastern end was clearly more convenient, since the pump house, Filter Pool, and Main Pipe Road were all there.
Using the existing route would mean guiding the visiting leaders over from several hundred meters away to reach the edge of the field before beginning the tour. That was clearly unsuitable.
To make access easier, Principal Yang had consulted the township authorities and opened a road through the tree plot. They cut down seventeen or eighteen poplars as thick as the rim of a bowl, brought in several truckloads of yellow soil, and spread and packed it down to make a turnoff into the field.
A gateway-like frame had also been erected at the turnoff. A banner would be hung there when the time came, saying something like, "A warm welcome to all leaders visiting for inspection."
Li Long turned onto the new road and parked beside the field, then got out to inspect what had changed since he left yesterday.
The signs for the various facilities were ready, and the paths through the guided tour area had been laid.
It was still a little chilly at the edge of the field that morning, and dew lingered on some blades of grass.
Principal Yang and Professor Yang had not brought the