Chapter 342 341 The Unsolved Mystery of Chencun Reservoir

Chen Zongqing is the reservoir manager of Chencun. He is in his fifties and is about to retire.

Fortunately, reservoir management is not a difficult job. On weekdays, I just take time to inspect the reservoir to see if the water level exceeds the standard, or to observe whether the water body is polluted.

When the flood season comes, just activate the gate of the reservoir station, open the drainage outlet, increase the drainage volume, and stabilize the water level within the warning range.

No one could do such an easy job in the early years because the wages were very low.

Until the economy developed in recent years, subsidies and benefits continued to increase, and An County began to pay attention to water resource protection, the job of a reservoir manager has risen to about 3,000 yuan.

There is no need to go to work every day, but only a few times a month. It is equivalent to earning living expenses while lying down. Some old men and women in the village express their envy.

But don't think this job is easy. Whenever there is wind, rain or typhoon, Chen Zongqing becomes very busy.

Since there had just been a heavy rain and the summer flood season was relatively long, Chen Zongqing specially bought a raincoat and went up to the reservoir overnight despite the heavy rain.

Seeing that none of the instruments in the reservoir management room set off alarms, Chen Zongqing breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that he had been a little too careful.

After all, the Chencun Reservoir has been built for more than half a century without any major problems.

There is only a graceful stream, which pours water little by little upstream of the reservoir.

"The gates were obviously sealed last night!" Chen Zongqing's eyes widened and his mouth opened.

"Yes, Director Zhou! I came here for inspection at around 8 o'clock last night, and everything was fine before I left. When we came together this morning, the reservoir has changed like this. It's really weird."

At this time, several staff who went down to the bottom of the reservoir to check the situation had climbed up with the water samples and biological samples they had just collected.

"You mean a meteorite fell into the reservoir last night?" Director Zhou glared at his glasses and hurriedly followed several staff members to the bottom of the reservoir again.

"It shouldn't be! If there really was such a powerful meteorite, this reservoir would have been blown up long ago." Director Zhou pursed his dry lips and glanced at the intact dam. He felt that he had returned to the countryside this time.

We really encountered a problem.

He was afraid that some blind village kid was causing mischief and sneaked into the management room to drain the water in the reservoir overnight. If that was the case, all the crops in the villages below the reservoir would be flooded.

"Because the meteorite fell and evaporated all the water in the reservoir area?"

"Are the fish jumping?" Chen Zongqing muttered in his heart. It had just rained and the ground was muddy. Coupled with the damp and cold air, he didn't take the news to heart and went down to the reservoir early.

The lock on the door was not moved and the door was closed properly.

Along the edge of the giant crater, you can see traces of layers stacked up like waves, as if there is a high-temperature object in the center that releases a large amount of heat source to the outside.

"Meteorite?!"

Only when the sluice is opened and the water is released every few years to clean up the garbage and silt at the bottom of the reservoir, villagers from all over the country are attracted to go fishing in the reservoir.

"And look at this peak displacement, even if the gate is fully opened, it will not be drained like this after being left open all night." A technician touched the machine and shook his head.

"Why did the water drain out?"

"What's the sound?"

Although the Chencun Reservoir does not directly supply drinking water to the waterworks, it is used for crop irrigation in several nearby villages and some factories use this water source.

Even if it can be fully stored, it will take ten days and a half, unless there are a few more heavy rains like last night.

"It's raining a lot. It's better to stay a little longer." Chen Zongqing thought like this, and stayed in the management room and used his mobile phone to pass the time.

When he thought of this, Chen Zongqing hurriedly ran to the management room to take a look.

So, after investigating the scene for a while, Director Zhou dialed the phone number of the county leader.

But facing such a large reservoir area, the water from the mountain streams is simply not enough to store it!

"We also found a lot of signs of boiling water on the shore. Look at these dead fish and aquatic plants. It looks like they have been boiled."

But when Chen Zongqing came to check again the next morning, he was dumbfounded!

The water in such a large reservoir dried up completely overnight!

Dead fish were everywhere, turning their bellies in the mud. The bottom of the reservoir was cracked, as if it had suffered a severe drought that had not been seen in decades. The dry land and even the silt in the reservoir had turned into sand.

"Old Chen, you said the reservoir was fine last night, but it dried up overnight?"

Once the reservoir area dries up, it will not only cause damage to the environment, but also affect the economic benefits of the villagers, which is a top priority for the staff of the Water Affairs Bureau.

"No! Director, the gates in this reservoir area are all old-fashioned mechanical switches. If the motor doesn't start, it won't start at all."

After walking through a large area of ​​dry mud, everyone saw a sight they would never forget!

I saw a huge sunken pit in the center of the bottom of the reservoir, with a diameter of more than a hundred meters wide.

"Xiao Liu, is the gate data normal? Is there any record of short circuit opening?" Director Zhou asked with a frown.

Before going out, he paid special attention to the water level. After all, it was his duty.

But when Chen Zongqing spent a few minutes walking slowly to the temple at the exit of the reservoir, an extremely loud "plop" came from the reservoir area behind.

One of the men wearing glasses wiped his sweat and reported while panting: "Director! There is a deep pit in the library, as if it was struck by a meteorite!"

Besides, after such a big thing happened, he, an administrator with a salary of 3,000 yuan, could not hold on. Many villagers who got up early in the morning were already watching the excitement on the dam.

With the popularity of smartphones, middle-aged rural people like him have become obsessed with watching short videos.

So, without saying a word, Chen Zongqing hurriedly dialed the county water bureau and asked the bureau to send someone down to take a look at what happened to the Chencun Reservoir.

When the rain gradually stopped, Chen Zongqing turned off the power switch in the management room, folded his raincoat and planned to go down the mountain.

Even though the heat source has disappeared, Director Zhou and others standing by the pit can still feel a bit of heat.

Looking at the dry scene in the reservoir, Chen Zongqing knew that this matter could never be hidden.

"What's going on?"

Seeing that he was confused, Director Zhou asked several technicians who came with him to check all the machines in the management room.

…

The gates inside are also closed, but the monitoring system facing the reservoir area seemed to have suffered some electromagnetic interference last night. Now it has completely failed and turned into a screen of snowflakes.

"It really looks like it was struck by a meteorite!"

Director Zhou, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, immediately walked around the reservoir after getting off the car, and called Chen Zongqing to ask a few questions.

After the news was reported to the public, the county even sent experts from the cultural relics and geology departments to inspect it.

Coupled with the good repair of rural roads and the urgent report from the reservoir administrator, an office director from the Water Conservancy Bureau quickly drove over from the county town with his people.

After searching the entire reservoir area, the experts were depressed because they couldn't find even half of the meteorite fragments!

Instead, dozens of carcasses of scavengers and bearded catfish, considered invasive species, were found in the dried-up reservoir. They were probably released into the reservoir deliberately by pilgrims offering incense at some temple.

After struggling like this for several days, the mystery of the drying up of the reservoir has still not been solved. On the contrary, the staff of the Water Conservancy Bureau who came to investigate gave a stern verbal warning to the monks of the small temple next door that the village spent millions to build, to prevent it from happening.

They then encouraged believers to throw some strange things into the reservoir.

When the reservoir was filled with water and restored to its previous appearance, the incident finally came to an end and became a joke among villagers in several nearby villages after dinner.

How many issues should I take to get closer to science?

Second update~
Chapter completed!