Chapter 156 He Will Definitely Do It
Xu Yu kept his word. Within two days, he went to the clinic to get a bag of medicine to relax the muscles and promote blood circulation. He supervised Sang Zhixia to soak her feet on time before going to bed every day.
His massage technique became more and more skillful. Although Sang Zhixia felt very uncomfortable every time, she benefited greatly after resisting in vain. The discomfort in her legs was relieved, and she could fall asleep as if she had taken drugs as long as she fell on the bed. She even rarely dreamed.
Her legs no longer hurt and she slept well. Sang Zhixia immediately listed the pile of to-do items on hand and completed them one by one. When she came to her senses, the waterwheel, a rare object that few people had seen, had completed the preliminary preparations and began to be built in full swing.
It's just that the details are slightly different from what I expected at the beginning.
There are a total of 123 households in the village. Under the mobilization of the village chief and the promotion of Red Heart, 63 households finally decided to participate in the construction of the waterwheel.
There were too many people who wanted to get involved and share a piece of the pie. The village chief thought about it for a night and then went to the Xu family in person to discuss with the old man. In the end, it was decided that everyone should share the cost of building the waterwheel and contribute money and effort together.
The old man was pleased to see this happen, and the village chief repeatedly emphasized: "It was your family's idea, but the villagers followed your family voluntarily. Regardless of whether this thing can achieve the effect we imagined after it is built, no one will dare to complain."
The village chief was a man of integrity and knew the villagers' thoughts best. He did not just make promises verbally, but also asked the old man to write a voluntary letter of commitment, and asked the villagers who were willing to participate to put their fingerprints on it one by one, completely eliminating the possibility of any disturbances in the future because of this matter.
If it weren't for the letter of commitment not to cause trouble and the village chief going door to door to collect the cost on the spot and not allowing anyone to default on it, I'm afraid there would be even more people coming on the day of the official start of construction.
But even so, most of the villagers gathered at the riverbank that day, and there were voices of expectation or doubt everywhere.
When the mulberry branches grew in summer, Uncle Xu stood on the gravel on the riverbank and shouted until his face turned red.
"Is everything set up down there? Are you sure it won't get washed away?"
The person who was floating up and down in the water raised his hands amid the splashing sound: "It's OK!"
"The pillars are driven so deep and weighed down with huge rocks weighing hundreds of kilograms. They definitely can't be moved even during the flood season, let alone now!"
Uncle Xu rubbed his hands and shouted excitedly, then walked to the riverbed in the gurgling water and asked people around to pull up the waterwheel that was lying on the riverbed and put it into the water.
The waterwheel was placed flat on the water surface. When it arrived at the fixed place, Uncle Xu personally took the hammer and worked with several skilled carpenters to connect and fix it.
The last wedge was hammered in, and the man with the hemp rope tied around his waist shouted, "Can we pull now?"
Uncle Xu confirmed it one last time with a serious expression, then raised his hand to wipe the water off his face and said, "Pull!"
"One, two! One, two!"
"rise!"
The huge wooden waterwheel that was constantly swaying due to the river water was pulled up by everyone together, and its entire outline was revealed on the fixed frame.
But that’s not enough.
The people who had already carried the ladder rushed into the water, placed the ladder on the waterwheel to borrow some strength, and seven or eight people stood below to hold it together to ensure that the ladder would not be washed away by the water.
But when he looked up, Wu Changgui couldn't help but curse in a low voice.
"Uncle Xu, this ladder isn't high enough. We can't climb up!"
In order for the waterwheel to rotate smoothly, some connection steps cannot be completed on flat ground and must be pulled upright in the riverbed.
But now the ladder is shorter.
Wu Changgui's mind flashed through many ideas of climbing up, and he couldn't help cursing, "If I had known earlier, I should have tied a rope up there first, so I could just climb up along the rope now!"
The ladder in the water was unstable to begin with, and it was difficult to climb up as it kept floating around. Now that it was as high as a wall, how could I get up?
The village chief was so anxious that he grabbed his hair and said, "Even if I tie him up with a rope, it won't work!"
"If there are too few people going up, the food won't be cooked well. If there are too many people going up, I'm afraid the food will be ruined!"
The materials of the waterwheel are fine stuff carefully selected by experienced craftsmen. They will not rot even if soaked in water for decades or even hundreds of years. But the problem is that in order to make the waterwheel rotate more smoothly, the thickness of the wooden board cannot be too thick, otherwise the weight it can bear will inevitably be affected.
However, if the top, which is three stories high, is not repaired properly, the waterwheel will not be able to turn!
Seeing that it had fallen on the last step and hadn't closed yet, he was already pulling his hair and stamping his feet anxiously. Uncle Xu hurriedly drank the water in his mouth and said jokingly, "Don't worry, don't worry, it can be done!"
"Xu Yu!"
Xu Yu, who had been soaking in the water from the beginning and had hardly ever gotten up, poked his head out from under the water. Before he could say anything, a string of small bubbles appeared on the water surface.
Underwater fixation is the key. He was worried that something might go wrong, so he kept checking back and forth underwater.
Uncle Xu had been howling all morning and was completely exhausted. He pointed to a high place where his subordinates were anxious and said with heavy breathing, "You go."
"The locations where the wedges need to be hammered in are marked. You go in and hammer in the wedges, then close the valve in the middle."
This was something Uncle Xu and Xu Yu had agreed on early on, and he just nodded after hearing it.
Wu Changgui got anxious when he heard this: "How can he go up there alone? I'll go with him!"
Two other young men also shouted, "I'm going too!"
"I'm a good swimmer, I'm not afraid of falling!"
"Ouch, I can't fall."
Uncle Xu's face was filled with laughter and tears. He pointed at Xu Yu and smiled proudly: "My nephew is very capable. This little thing can't make him fall!"
"I'll get you the things you need. Xu Yu, come out and warm your hands and feet first."
Without waiting for Uncle Xu to climb onto the riverbank, Sang Zhixia waved to Xu Yu in the water.
Xu Yu seemed too lazy to touch the ground with his feet, so he slid through the shallow water, blowing bubbles.
Sang Zhixia reached out and pulled him up, then tied the cloth bag, which she had personally checked several times, around Xu Yu's waist.
"Uncle San has already made a big promise. You can't fall down at this critical moment and lose face for him."
After tying the last fixed knot, Sang Zhixia patted his thin waist which was soaked by water and said: "Go, be careful."
Xu Yu looked down, raised his eyebrows and chuckled, then turned around and waded back into the water.
The person holding on to the ladder was still struggling.
Wu Changgui frowned and said, "Xu Yu, when you climb up the waterwheel frame, be careful not to grab the thin stick. It's very slippery up there. Be careful."
As he spoke, he wanted to follow him, but Xu Yu smiled and said, "It's okay. I know my limits."
After he finished speaking, he stepped on the ladder and slid up. When he reached the top, everyone couldn't help but grit their teeth.
Xu Yu, like a swift skimming lightly over the water, jumped into the air with a touch of his toes on the corner of the ladder, grabbed the protruding corner of the waterwheel with one hand, twisted his waist sideways to shake off some water stains, and with a beautiful somersault, landed steadily in the highest center of the waterwheel.
The village chief's words were about to reach his lips, but were blocked by his tangled tongue.
Wu Changgui took a deep breath and his face turned red with excitement.
He recalled Xu Yu's agile hunting skills in the forest, slapped his thigh and said excitedly, "I had forgotten about this!"
"You're so skilled, what's there to be afraid of?!"
"It's all right! It's absolutely all right now!"
He shouted at the top of his voice, and unspeakable excitement spread everywhere with the wind. All Sang Zhixia could hear were trembling cheers.
She squinted her eyes and looked at the nimble figure walking as light as a swallow on the waterwheel that was too slippery to step on, and the corners of her mouth began to curl up uncontrollably.
It’s settled indeed.
With Xu Yu around, what could go wrong?
He promised to help him set up the waterwheel, and he would definitely do it.
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