At that time, the country called on the youth "to go to the most difficult revolutionary places and the greatest parts of the motherland." Influenced by the Yimeng Old Area, 17-year-old Li Zhenhua responded to the call, left the gates of Nanjing Normal School, and went to the remote and impoverished Yimeng Old Area to support.

Upon entering Yiyuan, there was a detour. Because he came from the city and was young, the authorities worried Li Zhenhua would not adapt to the harsh conditions and assigned him to Weifang instead. But with the rashness of youth, Li Zhenhua pointed at the map and requested to go to the mountain-heavy, harsh Yiyuan Mountain Hanwang Primary School. Li Zhenhua told reporters:

"When I actually arrived at Hanwang Village, I found the local area so poor, it was hard to even find a tile, there wasn't even a square meter of mud ground."

After staying in the county town for a day, Li Zhenhua set out the next day with luggage towards Hanwang Village, 110 li away. There were no roads then, no buses, it took several days of climbing hills and crossing ridges, until he was too exhausted to move further. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, when Li Zhenhua finally arrived at Hanwang, the village's elder secretary led the whole village to greet him at the entrance.

When he entered the makeshift classroom, converted from a dilapidated temple, Li Zhenhua was stunned. The windows had no glass, the doors were half-fallen, wind came in from everywhere, and small stones were scattered across the floor. "The village is so poor, big stones are desks, small stones are stools," sighed the elder secretary, "there's already been no teaching for half a year since we couldn't invite a teacher."

Due to the absence of a teacher for half a year, when the class started the next day, the students were eager to attend. As the sun just peeked over the mountains, 38 students sat in the room, the oldest was already a father of three, the youngest was only 7, villagers surrounded the classroom from outside the windows.

For the support mission, Li Zhenhua's family especially tailored him a Zhongshan suit. The villagers had never seen machine-woven fabrics, and as soon as Li Zhenhua entered, they commented he looked like a foreigner. In nervous tension, he mustered the courage to teach, but his southern accent provoked bouts of laughter and whispers. The lesson was a failure, and Li Zhenhua felt very sad inside. The first time away from home, at night, lying in a frequented room with loose doors, listening to wolves howl, he felt so scared and homesick that tears rolled down nonstop. Sometimes he would dream about being home as soon as he dozed off but, upon opening his eyes, he found himself all alone.

"Looking back now, I honestly don't know how I managed to get through it all."

Still soaking in his heartache, Li Zhenhua was awakened by the food from the villagers. It was pancakes made of leaves and husks mixed with sweet potato flour, with an outer layer looking much like cowhide. Feeling the villagers' 'refinement', he unwrapped it, only to find the pancake entirely empty inside. It was still warm and only then did he realize that was the meal.

Li Zhenhua ate it piece by piece, barely managing to swallow, dipping it into bitter bean soup to finally finish one. "After finishing one, I said I was full, but indeed I was thinking, how much I'd like a proper meal." At that time, Li Zhenhua's heart felt like it was being pricked, unsure of how to handle the upcoming classes, even less knowing how to swallow those blackened sweet potato pancakes and husk buns he had never seen before.

Li Zhenhua and the kids together. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Could never step back to city life again

Ideals and reality are like a pair of twins; fulfilling ideals requires countless trials. Without finding spiritual support, no matter how wonderful the ideals might be, they might never come true.

Facing language and life challenges, relying on the fiery passion for the poor mountainous land, Li Zhenhua's heart wavered: "This is a place anyone can stay, even for a day it's worth staying."

Initially, coming to the Yimeng Mountain Area, Li Zhenhua did not consider staying a lifetime. At that time, he thought of returning in three or five years. Once he decided to return, he was worried about how to respond to questions, making him disheartened. "Back then, I thought of a compromise, if I could stay for five days, then I'd stay for three, just one day more so that upon return, there'd be slightly less ridicule."

Within six months, amongst the over 40 students from the same school who came to support Yiyuan, 37 had successively returned, but Li Zhenhua had gradually distanced himself from thoughts of leaving the Yimeng Mountain Area. In the jubilant crowd of the village, there was particularly thin and weak, which touched Li Zhenhua's heart. When he returned, he brought an old loom, spun cotton into thread using a spinning wheel, wove it on a wooden loom into fabric, made cotton-padded jackets, pants, and had straw and reeds wrapped inside shoes to keep warm.

"When I held them in my hands, tears fell. It felt like seeing my mother again."

Li Zhenhua recalled how, known for his reluctance towards pancakes, villagers themselves ate bran and pickles but gave him their better meals. Whose hen had laid an egg would have originally exchanged it for firewood and salt, but the villagers would place it in his hands.

"Every time I received an egg laden with warmth, my heart felt unspeakably touched."

"Supporting cultural education here, one can never leave."

Li Zhenhua recalled that during the Menglianggu Campaign, the village volunteered 72 young men to carry wounded soldiers, gave all their oats and shoes to support the frontline, all to support the revolution wholeheartedly. "Every family gave the most precious lives for the revolution; could it fear these small difficulties?" The simplicity of the Yimeng God and villagers melted Li Zhenhua's heart, he could no longer take steps back home, knowing he had found his path.

Pouring everything into students

Li Zhenhua was determined to use knowledge to change the impoverished mountainous region's landscape. Therefore, for 68 years, he steadfastly committed to one thing: studying hard. From then on, he taught during the day and gave extra lessons walking five or six li to students every evening. In order to improve teaching conditions, he used a wooden frame, old newspapers to make a globe, drawing meridians and parallels to discuss geography with students, pointing out where is the Western Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Europe, Asia; creating models with wood, cloth, and ping pong balls to explain solar and lunar eclipses.

Hanwang Primary School was located deep in the mountains, sometimes students suddenly fell ill, Li Zhenhua would carry them over the mountain for treatment; when the river swelled, he would wait early by the riverbank, carrying each student across one by one to school, and then back at dismissal time.

Through wholehearted dedication, students' achievements soared. In 1955, the enrollment rate of the county's other schools was ten to one, but all eight of his graduating students advanced to middle school, causing a sensation in the county.

In 1982, Li Zhenhua was transferred to work in Yiyuan County. It was a newly established special school, where the students were all those who failed their county-level junior high school entrance exams. Against this background, Li Zhenhua proposed a motto — "pour all onto students". Teachers were very motivated for the students. Among the first batch of students, Liu Yang (pseudonym) was particularly troubled, policemen at the station were used to him causing trouble. One time, Li Zhenhua found Liu Yang had a bad cold, immediately went home to make him an egg noodle bowl, making Liu Yang so touched that he wept, never acting up again, and ultimately enrolling in college.

Nobody would have guessed, out of 108 students with an average score of 28.6, 78 entered key high schools after three years, 26 among them getting admitted to vocational schools, creating a sensation in society. The county immediately renamed Chengguan Second Middle School to Yiyuan County Experimental Middle School. From then on, the Experimental Middle School has been the best school in Yiyuan.

Back then, one could only fill in three choices, influenced by Li Zhenhua, sixty to seventy percent of the students chose normal schools and ultimately became (text abruptly ends on this topic)...

Extinct for 10,000 years, scientists are now in the process of 'resurrecting' the mammoth 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

According to reports, this 'resurrection' plan does not aim to recreate a real mammoth but to fabricate embryos carrying mammoth DNA, creating a hybrid progeny of elephants and mammoths. In an interview, Church explained: "Our goal is to create a cold-resistant elephant, both looking and behaving like a mammoth. It's not about deceiving people but because we want an animal functionally similar to mammoths — able to enjoy life in climates as cold as minus 40°C, doing what both elephants and mammoths did, especially knocking down trees."

By comparing the genomes extracted from the permafrost mammoths and Asian elephants, researchers have identified specific genes responsible for mammoth hair, insulating fat layers, and other cold climate adaptations. Subsequently, they extracted skin cells from Asian elephants and embarked on re-editing them into multifunctional stem cells carrying mammoth DNA.

Eventually, these embryos will be birthed through surrogate mother elephants or artificial wombs. Colossal hopes to quickly raise a large herd of mammoths by developing artificial wombs; if all goes well, researchers will welcome the first litter of babies in six years.

'Resurrecting' mammoths step-by-step illustration

Reportedly, the project's goal is to aid in the conservation of Asian elephants by bestowing them with traits allowing them to thrive in the area referred to as 'Pleistocene Park'

[Rumor has it that since Uncle Wang next door subscribed to the official version, his back doesn't ache, his legs don't hurt, his arms are strong again, and he can jump five floors without getting tired. Every other day he signs up a new eighteen-year-old girlfriend.]

[What are you waiting for?]

[Hurry, join the official family and enjoy the warmth of home.]