If a person is completely paralyzed, bedridden, kept alive by a ventilator, able to move only one finger and one toe - what can he still do?

In Muer Town, Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, Li Xiataught himself physics, chemistry, computer programming, mechanics, agronomy and medicine, and built a smart farm and an "intensive care unit" together with his mother. How did something that sounds unbelievable actually happen?

He taught himself computer programming

On a small farm in Muer Town, four greenhouses stand in neat rows; celery on the hydroponic racks is lush and upright, and nutrient solution flows through the pipes from time to time.

In a container not far from the greenhouses, Li Xia lies on his bed, watching the data returned by the sensors on the screen above him. When he needs to adjust greenhouse temperature, humidity or nutrient concentration, he moves his left thumb and right middle toe - with that faint strength he controls the running of this "smart farm".

Work that cannot be automated, Li Xia "remote-controls" his mother Wu Dimei to carry out.The step-by-step building of the entire smart farm and "intensive care unit" is hard to believe.

From childhood on, his mother was always Li Xia's warmest support. At five, Li Xia - who kept falling when he walked - was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. His mother took him from doctor to doctor, but the disease could not be controlled; by fifth grade, with movement already very difficult, Li Xia dropped out of school.

At first, Li Xia stayed at home watching TV to pass the time. Later, a discarded physics and chemistry textbook from a high-school student next door rekindled his interest in learning.“"My introduction to circuits and electronics started with that book." says Li Xia.

Of all the subjects he explored, Li Xiahe was most interested in physics and computing. Although the family was poor, Wu Dimei still scraped together money for a computer and got an internet card - this became Li Xia's window on the world.He learned to use Word, Excel, Photoshop, Pr, AE and other software, and even learned to build BBS forums and blogs on servers.

At 25, Li Xia began encountering programming in forums, which sparked a strong interest."I bought an Arduino microcontroller sensor kit with all kinds of sensors for experiments. At the time I used a soil moisture sensor to build an automatic balcony watering system."

Online, Li Xia worked in customer service, managed forums and tried being a blogger.But as he grew older his condition kept worsening: first he lost the ability to walk, then he could not care for himself, and even eating and breathing became difficult.In 2020, Li Xia fell into a coma; doctors performed a tracheotomy and told his family he did not have long to live.

"I felt terribly bored and helpless. I could do nothing every day, trapped in this hospital bed like a soulless corpse. Later I thought I should do something myself," Li Xia recalls.

Supporting her son's modern farming dream 

the mother becomes a "super technician"

In early 2021, Li Xia happened to learn about soilless cultivation, and a bold idea took shape in his mind: combine IoT technology with modern agriculture, and let his knowledge "bear fruit".

His idea won the full support of his mother and sister. He began looking up information and writing programs on the computer, first experimenting with hydroponic vegetables on the balcony. After that succeeded, his sister Li Qian resigned and rented land; mother and sister helped Li Xia hire workers and put up the greenhouses.

Before building the greenhouses, Li Xia prepared thoroughly. He bought books on soilless cultivation, scanned them into PDFs and studied them bit by bit, consulted all kinds of written and video materials, and learned from greenhouse manufacturers.After fixing the greenhouse specifications, he told the dimensions and the custom functions needed to the manufacturer.

Then, using one finger and one toe with a simulated keyboard, Li Xia completed the entire smart control system of the farm.“"I used C language. The whole farm's main control system was written by me bit by bit, using microcontroller programs to control all the farm's machinery."

The hands-on work was done by Wu Dimei following her son's instructions. At first the coordination was not smooth - Wu Dimei could hardly understand her son's thinking. "If the first attempt is wrong, we take it apart and do it a second, even a third time, until we get it right," Li Xia says.

Through constant trial and error, Wu Dimei - who once did not even know what a circuit was - gradually became a "super technician": soldering control boards, running network cables, connecting circuits, maintaining farm equipment... under her son's guidance she is almost "capable of anything"."Whether it is circuits, broadband, water pumps or sprayers, I am the one who maintains them when something goes wrong." says Wu Dimei.

Under Li Xia's direction, Wu Dimei also "hand-built" a remote-control cart for collecting parcels. This remote-control parcel cart was converted from Li Xia's old wheelchair; he next plans to add a 4G camera, "transmitting images from a distance over the 4G network, so I can communicate with the parcel station in real time."

His sister Li Qian became the family's "economic pillar". To support her brother's farm she once resigned to help; because the farm could not make money in the short term, Li Qian went back to work to support the household. Eight years younger than Li Xia, she got a driver's license as soon as she came of age and took her brother on trips.

"My brother is extremely smart and very capable in practice. His willpower is extraordinary - really beyond ordinary people. However long his life is, he wants to do something, not to waste the time he has," Li Qian says.

Neighbors lend a warm hand 

opening up the vegetable market

Li Xia's tenacity and love of life have moved many people around him. His neighbors Ran Hongying and her husband, new farmers who have run businesses for over a decade, took the initiative to connect him with large supermarkets to solve the problem of selling his vegetables.

"Looking at the greenhouse Li Xia designed from a professional farmer's point of view - the ventilation, the hydroponic mixing, the shading system - it is all very professional." says Ran Hongying. 

                                                                                  

After media coverage and help from warm-hearted people, a supermarket purchasing team visited the site and has become a regular buyer of Li Xia's farm vegetables. The supermarket's vegetable category buyer Zhao Liang says that Li Xiathe hydroponic vegetables produced by the smart farm are of good quality, and pesticide residues and other tests all pass, it is just that the daily supply is relatively small.

At harvest time, nearby villagers and the families of other patients come to help voluntarily. With everyone's help, Li Xia's farm has got on track and started making money.He also plans to try aeroponics, growing cherry tomatoes, Shanghai greens and other varieties to enrich the farm's product range.

Besides the smart farm, Li Xia has another dream. He plans to buy a motorhome, "fit all my medical equipment into it, and travel around the country with my mother to see the sights."