Chapter 312: Finding a Spring
Wan Ersao hurried to pack things for Wan Laoer.
I've been away for half a month, and I don't know what the climate is like in the city. Is it warmer than here?
Wan Er's wife packed all the clothes, thick and thin, for Wan Laoer, and also took a hundred taels of money, which she sewed onto his inner clothes.
He also gave him some loose change for his journey.
These are all the family’s belongings, they are the dividends that Wan Sansao and her family brought back before the New Year.
After Wan Laoer left, there were no adult men in the house, and the women never went out of the house.
In the afternoon, the village chief came to the Wan family.
"Aunt, Jin Zhu told me today that your family is looking for temporary workers to open up wasteland. I set the wage at ten cents a day. The wages here are low, and you don't have to leave home to go far, so ten cents is fair to me. If you think it's suitable, I will start to let people pass on the message. If you have any ideas, you can also tell me."
"It's a good fit. How can I not trust the village chief to do his job? This is enough for the wages. I don't mind having too many people. As long as it can be opened in two or three days and turned over and dried a few times, it won't delay the spring ploughing."
The wages offered by Jinniu were a few cents lower than what Old Lady Wan had expected. She remembered that the wages for hard labor outside the border seemed to be fifteen or eighteen cents a day.
But the wages are really not expensive, and her family can afford it.
"Village head, there are only a few women in our family now. The second daughter-in-law is busy all the time and has no time to rest. The fourth daughter-in-law is taking care of the children. I am old and can't help much. Only the third daughter is at home and he doesn't know how to cook. How about this? My family won't provide lunch. If each person adds three cents, he can buy three big steamed buns."
"That's even better. Let them bring their own lunch from home. You don't have to prepare lunch for them. Let them bring their own tools."
"Thank you very much, Village Chief. Let's do it."
After Old Lady Wan sent the village chief away, she finally felt relieved.
In the evening, the third son Wan came back driving the ox cart. When Mrs. Wan saw her third son coming back, she felt relieved. Although her third son was not as good at farming as her second son, he had worked hard in the fields after all, and he was a man, so she could be assigned to deal with those temporary workers.
As soon as the village chief sent out the news that the Wan family was looking for people to help with the reclamation in the afternoon, dozens of people came to sign up. Within an hour, all the people were recruited. The village chief did not recruit all of them, but carefully selected fifteen of them. These fifteen people are usually hardworking, capable and honest people, and the village chief trusts their character.
Early the next morning, Wan Laosan brought the money directly to the village chief, and he also went to the fields with them. He had cows at home, so they could clear the land much faster than people. Wan Laosan also worked and ate with the team. On the one hand, he was there to supervise these people from slacking off, and on the other hand, he could give them a spur as the boss.
Zhu's father and son arrived at noon. The weather was good today, so they came in an ox cart, and arrived earlier than yesterday.
"Big sister, are you at home?"
Zhu Pengguang knocked on the door and shouted into the yard.
"Hey, they're here." When Wan Ersao heard the voice, she quickly looked through the crack in the door and found that it was Zhu Pengguang and his son, so she quickly opened the door.
"Brother Zhu, Uncle Zhu, you are here, come in quickly."
Zhu Pengguang parked the ox cart, got off the cart with his father, and moved all the tools for digging the well into the yard.
The first thing Old Man Zhu did when he entered the yard was to check whether there were any changes on the beans he had sown yesterday.
Finally, I was surprised to find that two beans were swollen, and the one next to the chicken coop was the most swollen.
"It's rare, really rare. I didn't expect that there is such a water source in Shizi Village. It's better than the collective water source at the entrance of your village. I looked through the notes handed down by my ancestors, which recorded the digging process of the well in your Shizi Village. It was really not easy. There are not many places where we can dig out water here. I didn't expect that there is a water source in your yard. This is a great thing."
You have to know that water supply at the border is a headache for every household. The situation in Shizi Village is not the worst. Those people living in more remote mountain areas can only collect dew and rainwater and store them for use slowly, which is even more difficult than their situation in Shizi Village.
When Mrs. Wan heard what Old Man Zhu said, her face was full of smiles.
"That's really God's blessing. Since there's water, can we start the construction today?"
It was only when Old Lady Wan came to the border that she realized how difficult it was to dig a well. Every time she dug a foot deep, she would hit rocks. Unlike inside the border, in their Yangliu Village, they could dig water anywhere and getting water was not a problem at all. As long as the family was well-off, they could afford to dig a well.
"Yes, we will start the work today. If everything goes well, it will be finished in three to five days. However, your family still needs to prepare stones. After I dig out the water, I will build up the side of the well with stones to prevent it from collapsing and muddying the water."
"I know about this, Brother Zhu, don't worry, I will ask my third son to go get some stones in a while. There are so many stones in our Shizi Village, so just pick some up."
Mrs. Wan was right.
Then Old Man Zhu took out a bag of food and handed it to Old Lady Wan, saying, "Sister, this is the lunch for me and my son. Please heat it up for us when you cook lunch. We are old and cannot eat cold food like the young people. We cannot stand it here."
Old Man Zhu patted his belly as he spoke.
Old Lady Wan quickly took it and agreed, "We are old, and the things here are also old. We need to be more careful. I will take it to the kitchen and tell my second daughter-in-law about it."
Old Man Zhu was very well-behaved. Wherever he went to work, he would ask his son to prepare lunch in advance so as not to take advantage of his employer, because lunch was already included in the two taels of silver and the employer did not have to worry about the meal.
For three consecutive days, the Zhu father and son came at the Chen hour and left at the You hour. When they came, the host had already had breakfast, and when they left, the host had not yet had dinner. Even Old Lady Wan admired the character of the Zhu father and son.
Anyway, when it comes to digging a well, it's a contractor job and the pay is not calculated by the day. As long as we can dig out water, it's fine.
Finally, on the morning of the fourth day, good news came.
"Dad, water is coming out, there seems to be a spring below—"
It took three and a half days to dig a well five meters deep, which shows how many stones there are underneath. But it was still going smoothly. Although there were stones, it was much smoother than the well at the entrance of their village because there were no particularly large stones and no stone crushing was needed.
Old man Zhu pulled his son out of the well.
"It's out of the water? It's much faster than I expected. I thought it would take another day to get out of the water."
Old Man Zhu also had an excited smile on his face. He felt relieved now that his family's business was saved.
The happiest people were Mrs. Wan Er and Old Lady Wan.
"Oh, is water really coming out?" Wan Ersao quickly handed over two bowls of water to quench their thirst.
"There is water coming out, and it's quite a lot, but I have to quickly build up the well wall, otherwise the bottom of the well will be submerged soon, and it will be troublesome to work."
Old Man Zhu was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Is the water so high?"
Zhu Pengguang nodded: "Yes, Dad, it seems that we have dug a spring. The water is flowing out. I have been digging wells at the border for so many years, but I have never seen such a scene. It is really an eye-opener."
Zhu Pengguang drank the last sip of water, handed the bowl to Wan Ersao and said with a smile: "This water is not as sweet as the water from your well."
Wan Ersao was stunned for a moment before she understood what Zhu Pengguang meant, and she felt even happier.
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