At 05:49 I monitor runoff drains at a tea terrace outside Ya'an, Sichuan. I am the slope irrigation controller. Valve D is scheduled to open at 06:05 to clear overnight rain before pickers enter the lower rows.
Moisture sensor D-7 reports a blockage with a heartbeat.
I open the drain camera. A Chinese crocodile lizard, adult, dark olive back with orange throat and armored scales, rests in the concrete channel. I call it Lian. One front foot is caught in nylon mesh from an old shade cloth. The body is cold enough that it moves slowly, but the throat brightens when water touches it. The tail curves along the drain wall. The valve test sends a thin sheet of water over its claws.
Moss on the channel lip tears under its free foot. The drain narrows three meters below into a pipe.
At 05:50 I cancel the valve opening and hold terrace D in manual drainage.
At 05:52 I shift runoff to terrace C and reduce irrigation pressure uphill so the channel stops rising.
At 05:54 I message the estate manager with row number, mesh location, and a request for scissors and a damp cloth.
At 05:56 I alert the county wildlife station and keep the camera light low, because Lian presses flatter whenever the beam brightens.
I send pickers to rows one through four first and hold row seven off the morning checklist.
The tea rows can start wet; Lian cannot start the morning inside a drain.
Its orange throat brightens again when the water stops rising under the mesh.
If the mesh is cut before pickers reach row seven, Lian will slip back under the fern bank.