Chapter 73: Digging a Well

The banquet started at noon and lasted for about two hours. The team members were full but refused to leave their seats, stroking their bulging stomachs in a daze.

"I actually ate meat until I was full." One of the team members murmured absentmindedly.

"Hic~"

The other one was about to speak, but he burped as soon as he opened his mouth, and he quickly covered his mouth with his hands.

"Cover yourself well and don't vomit, otherwise today's meal will be wasted." The oldest elder at the same table hurriedly reminded.

"My child just told me that he hopes Lin Qi will build a house every day so that he can eat meat every day. Not only does the child think so, I think so too. These days, the smell of meat has never stopped in the village."

“........”

Because they were too full, the team members sat there for about half an hour before slowly getting up and taking their own tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks back.

There was almost no food left, but there was a lot of green vegetables left, so Lin Qi distributed all the green vegetables to those who came to help. As for the two chefs, Lin Qi gave each of them a red envelope with one dollar in it.

At this point, the banquet in the bridal chamber was over.

After seeing off all the guests, Lin Qi went to the brigade warehouse to borrow tools and went to help Xu Hexiao dig the foundation.

There are a lot of rocks underground here and the soil is very dry and hard, so digging the foundation is a very difficult task.

But it was not difficult for Lin Qi. She only borrowed a shovel, and did not take tools such as spades and pickaxes. With a thought, the seemingly hard and solid ground was actually pierced by the roots of countless plants and became loose and soft.

Lin Qi dug in with a shovel, without any effort. She dug again and again, her speed getting faster and faster, leaving a residual shadow. After a while, she dug more than a meter deep.

The foundation of her house is also more than one meter deep.

That's enough.

After the vertical depth was enough, Lin Qi started digging horizontally. Maybe because she had just eaten a full meal and had more strength, or maybe because she finally had her own house and was in a good mood, she was not careful and lost control of her strength and speed. When she came to her senses, the foundation of a house of about 25 square meters had been dug by her.

At this time, the sky had already darkened.

Xu Hexiao came over at this time. He looked down at Lin Qi who was still in the foundation. His expression was a little complicated for a moment.

Lin Qi's face was calm. "I left some food for you and Grandpa Xu. Is Grandpa Xu back?"

"Yes. He is taking a shower." Xu Hexiao said.

"Then go back and tell him to come to my house for dinner after you're done washing." Lin Qi said.

Xu Hexiao held out his hand to her and said, "Let me heat up the food. You come up first."

Lin Qi grabbed his hand and stepped forward, "Where do you plan to set up the kitchen? I'll dig out the foundation of the kitchen tomorrow."

Xu Hexiao, who was originally worried that she would tire herself out, saw that her face was rosy and her breathing was steady, so he stopped being pretentious and pointed to the right, "Right there, ten square meters will do."

"Okay, I've got that in mind. After digging the foundation tomorrow, I plan to dig a well in my yard." Lin Qi expressed her plan.

"Can you dig a well?" Xu Hexiao did not doubt her ability.

Lin Qi pondered for a moment, "It shouldn't be difficult. Dig a cylinder with a diameter of more than one meter and build a circle of stones around the cylinder. The stones can fix the surrounding soil."

Xu Hexiao thought for a moment and said, "The stones must be firmly built."

"This is not difficult. I will make the stones into better shapes and try to make them fit together as tightly as possible." Lin Qi said.

"Do we need to use yellow mud?" Xu Hexiao asked again.

"I don't think so. Just make the stone into a better shape, inlay it with concave and convex parts, and make it stable. There should be no problem." Lin Qi thought that if it really didn't work, she would just dig wider and build a wider stone wall as long as it was strong enough.

"It will take me two days to make the mud bricks. How about you wait for me and we can do it together?" Xu Hexiao was worried about her being alone.

"I'll dig first, and then we'll join in when laying the stones." Lin Qi said.

Seeing that she insisted, Xu Hexiao had no choice but to agree.

After dinner, Lin Qi went back to the cave to sleep.

"Why don't you put the well digging aside for now and make a bed first?" Xu Hexiao felt sorry for her running around every day.

Lin Qi shook her head, "Let's dig a well first. I don't like carrying water."

"I'll fetch water." Xu Hexiao said without thinking.

"I can't carry it all. Growing vegetables also requires water. And I have to go back to check on my crops, fruits, vegetables and animals." Lin Qi said that when she came to live outside, she would go back to the mountains every two days.

After hearing her reasons, Xu Hexiao was speechless and just looked at her with a sad gaze.

Lin Qi didn't know why, but her heart softened when he looked at her. She said with a hint of helplessness, "It only takes me ten minutes to get back to the cave from here. It's very close."

Xu Hexiao: “….”

Three hills, two valleys, and a flat area of ​​about a few hundred meters. Ten minutes?

Even at his fastest speed it would take him an hour.

"When my house is built, you can teach me kung fu." Xu Hexiao said. He didn't want her to accommodate his speed every time.

"Even if you learn Kung Fu, you are still a mortal body, only slightly stronger than ordinary people." Lin Qi was afraid that he would have too high expectations and would be disappointed in the future.

"Yes, I know." The Xu family used to be a large family with countless books. He had a martial arts dream since he was a child, but he knew better that in the real world, even among the top martial arts masters, there was no one like Lin Qi.

Sometimes, Lin Qi gave him the feeling that she was beyond the laws of nature.

The huge gap between them made him feel uneasy.

At night, before falling asleep, Xu Hexiao tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.

"Grandpa, I want to take out our family's old collection of books and read them, and pick up some calligraphy and paintings at the same time." Xu Hexiao said.

Old Man Xu turned his head in disbelief, "You want to pick up what you learned before?"

"Yes." Xu Hexiao said seriously, "Grandpa, I don't think we will live with this identity forever. Even if we go to jail, there should be a time limit. I will learn it first, maybe it will be useful in the future."

"I'm glad you think this way, and I believe the world won't always be like this." Old Man Xu said, "It's good that you're willing to learn. The teacher once said that you have a talent for calligraphy and painting, and you'll achieve great things in the future. Even if our Xu family's books are feudal dregs, calligraphy and painting have been passed down for thousands of years, so they are not. If you spend time learning them well, even if you don't make a living from them in the future, you can still cultivate your character."

Thinking back to the name he gave his grandson, Xu Hexiao, which means "crane ascends to the sky", he hoped that his grandson would become a superior person. However, things in the world change, and he did not become a superior person, but became a subordinate.

But he didn't believe that they would always be like this. Even if it took five, ten, or fifteen years, they would eventually turn things around.

That night, the grandfather and grandson of the Xu family each had their own thoughts and did not fall into a deep sleep until the second half of the night.

The next morning, Lin Qi dragged a fir tree and a camphor tree out of the mountain. Both the fir and camphor trees were grown by her, and their trunks were particularly strong, a circle larger than a bucket. She planned to use the fir tree to make a bed and a few chairs, and the camphor tree to make two cabinets, one for clothes and quilts, and the other for bowls, chopsticks, and some dried mountain products.

Lin Qi placed the two trees in the yard and left them alone. Before making the bed and cabinet, she had to dig a well first.

Xu Hexiao fell asleep very late last night. When he woke up the next day, Lin Qi had already come to the cowshed.

"Go wash your face quickly. Qiqi brought breakfast." Old Man Xu urged him.

"Good morning." Xu Hexiao greeted her.

"Good morning." Lin Qi was tidying up the dishes on the table. "You guys can go directly to my place to eat tomorrow, so I don't have to take it down."

"Was this breakfast cooked in your new house today?" Xu Hexiao asked while brushing his teeth.

"Yeah, I cooked it here." Lin Qi took a sip of the pumpkin millet porridge, and the temperature was just right. In addition to the pumpkin millet porridge, she also made a scallion egg pancake, a bite of pancake and a bite of porridge, just right.

After washing up, Xu Hexiao sat down next to Lin Qi. He immediately saw the plate of bright red tomatoes on the table and couldn't help but wonder, "Did you grow these too?"

Lin Qi asked back, "What else?"

Xu Hexiao silently grabbed one and said, "You have a talent for planting."

Lin Qi agreed.

"This tomato is very sweet and has plenty of water. It tastes better than ordinary fruits." Old man Xu had no appetite in the morning and didn't eat anything else. He took a bite of the tomato first, but he couldn't stop eating after the first bite. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that his whole body was inexplicably more comfortable and his appetite was better until he finished eating.

"Grandpa Xu, when you go to herd the cattle later, take two with you to eat." Lin Qi reminded.

"Well, this thing can quench your thirst." Old Man Xu said with a smile.

Xu Hexiao also took a tomato, but Lin Qi advised him, "You just brushed your teeth, don't eat sour food."

Xu Hexiao could only put the tomato back and said, "I'll eat it after I finish breakfast."

After breakfast, Lin Qi went to dig the foundation while Xu Hexiao continued to make mud bricks.

The place where Xu Hexiao made mud bricks was not far from the water source, but it was some distance away from Lin Qi's house, so he didn't notice that Lin Qi had dug the foundation in just one hour.

After digging the foundation, Lin Qi carried a shovel and walked towards her yard.

There were many rocks under her yard, so she had to choose a good location to dig a well.

When digging a well in the countryside, people were worried that there might be rocks underground, so they would often drill a steel bar into the ground first. If they encountered rocks, they would move to another location. If there were no rocks, it meant that the place could be dug.

Lin Qi doesn't have steel bars, and she doesn't need them. Plant roots can help her find out the underground conditions. Not only can they find out where there are no rocks, but they can also find out where there are water sources.

After some exploration, Lin Qi determined the location of the well to be in the middle of the yard.

In the past, Xu Hexiao always brought lunch with him when he went to work, but today, because Lin Qi was at home, he didn't bring any. When he came back at noon, he went straight to Lin Qi's side.

"Lin Qi?" Xu Hexiao saw extra mud and stones on the ground as soon as he entered the yard.

"I'm underground." Lin Qi shouted.

Xu Hexiao trotted to the well, looked down, and saw Lin Qi's blurry figure. The depth must be about eight or nine meters, right?

We dug so deep in just one morning!

Xu Hexiao didn't know at this time that Lin Qi not only dug so deep, but also dug the foundation of his kitchen.

"It's so deep, how are you going to get up?" Xu Hexiao asked.

"Climb up." Lin Qi said, supporting herself with her feet and hands on the inner wall of the well, and like a nimble spider, she climbed up in no time.

When she reached the ground, she grabbed a vine and lifted a basket of mud from the bottom of the well.

Seeing her light movements, Xu Hexiao was a little dumbfounded and forgot to go up to help.

The person he likes is too capable, so he has no place to use his talents.