Chapter 20: Digging a Well
This trip was quite rewarding!
Most of the herbs she collected were transplanted into the space, and a small part was sold for money. She decided to teach herself medicine, so that if there was a headache or fever in her family, she could treat it.
There are many books on medicine in the mall, and there is one called "The Inheritance of the Divine Doctor", but it is extremely expensive, costing 10,000 yuan! Shen Ruoqing only has more than 6,000 yuan on him now, and cannot afford this "The Inheritance of the Divine Doctor" for the time being. He only spent a few hundred yuan to buy a few ordinary introductory books.
There are many good things in the mall, such as strength pills, beauty pills, physical enhancement liquid, and even secret recipes for having children, etc. These secret recipes are not cheap, and the cheapest secret recipe for having children costs 500 yuan.
Shen Ruoqing couldn't use these things for the time being. She had wanted to buy the strength pill before, but it cost 5,000 yuan, and Shen Ruoqing felt it was not cost-effective. Besides, after taking the physical enhancement liquid, Shen Ruoqing felt that her strength had increased a little, so she had no intention of buying the strength pill again.
It was almost time, so Shen Ruoqing dug some wild vegetables and put them in the bamboo basket, ready to go down the mountain.
On the way down the mountain, Shen Ruoqing occasionally saw one or two pheasants flying by, but she didn't know how to hunt and couldn't catch them at all.
Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any large animals and we got down the mountain safely.
"Miss Ruoqing, you're out digging wild vegetables again."
"Yes, Auntie. Although we have received new grain, the vegetables my family gets are few, so we have to make do with the wild vegetables we dig up."
"Ruoqing girl, I heard that the policy has been liberalized and now private plots are allowed. Then your mother can open up more land at home and grow some vegetables, so that you don't have to run around to dig wild vegetables every day."
The higher-ups allow people to keep private plots? That’s really good news.
Shen Ruoqing thanked the aunt and walked quickly back home.
"Mom, I heard that the higher-ups allow private plots now!"
"Yes, I was asking the third brother to go to the captain's place to queue up to get the seeds." Old Mrs. Ji had received the news a long time ago and sent Shen Xiangxi to queue up to get the seeds early in the morning.
Shen Ruoqing nodded and took out the wild vegetables.
"My dear, we have enough food at home now, so don't go digging wild vegetables. You've become so tanned these days." Old Mrs. Ji felt a little distressed.
Did you get tanned? I always put on sunscreen.
Shen Ruoqing said, "Mom, don't think that this motherwort is a wild vegetable, but it is also a medicinal herb. Last time I asked the purchasing station in the county, they also buy this motherwort, 30 cents per pound, but they want it dried and sun-dried."
"30 cents a pound! Let Erya and Sanya go with you to dig tomorrow."
Shen Xiangxi brought back seeds, but only seeds of cabbage, radish, tomato, potato and pepper, and he also brought some bad news.
"The river in the brigade has dried up. From now on, every household will have to ration their water intake."
"What should we do? The rice has just been planted. Our family's private plot also needs watering."
"The captain is very worried now. We can't just rely on the well in the village. Otherwise, we can only carry water from the next village for irrigation."
"Mom, let's dig a well, otherwise we won't be able to grow vegetables."
Shen Ruoqing asked again to dig a well. She tried using the detection function and found that there was a water flow at a depth of 20 meters in the Shen family's yard.
This time everyone was silent for a while.
“Even if we hire a well digger, he may not be able to dig out water.”
"Don't worry about it. I have a way to get water out."
"What can you do?"
"I read in a book that there are places where you can get water. This place in our yard happens to be a depression. The book says that this place is the easiest to get water."
"Will this work?"
Finally, the old lady agreed to dig a well.
Shen Xiangdong and his brothers knew that the family was rich. Shen Dahai was crushed to death while mining, and the construction site paid 800 yuan in compensation, which was absolutely not to be used. I didn't expect that Old Lady Ji would use the money to dig a well. Shen Ruoqing didn't know that there was such money, she just thought that Old Lady Ji wanted to exchange the small yellow croaker for money.
The plan to dig a foreign well was thus decided, and Shen Xiangdong went to ask for the price.
Nowadays, more people are digging wells, but these days, many people have wasted their money and cannot get water. However, this has not prevented the price of digging wells from rising. In the past, the cheapest well only cost 40 yuan, but now the cheapest one costs 55 yuan, and if it is far away, you have to pay 5 yuan for the travel fee. The deeper the well, the higher the price. If you want to dig a deep well, it will cost at least 100 yuan, which is enough to build two more houses.
A few days later.
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The three well digging workers entered Dashitou Village in a ox cart.
Shen Ruoqing was very happy and took out some Big Rooster cigarettes and asked Shen Xiangdong to distribute them to the well diggers.
When several well diggers saw the smoke, they immediately had a better impression of Shen Xiangdong's family.
"Master, we want to dig a deep well. The deeper the better, because we want better water quality, but we're also afraid it won't be enough. What do you think is the best way to dig it?"
Shen Ruoqing spoke.
Although the well diggers were a little annoyed by the fact that it was a girl who spoke, they still answered, "For a deep well, it must be at least 20 meters deep to ensure the water quality. Of course, it would be better if it could be more than 30 meters deep. In general, the deeper the water, the better the water quality. However, we can only dig a well of 35 meters at most. We can't dig deeper than that because we don't have a well gun that long. And for a well deeper than 15 meters, we have to pay an extra dollar per meter. After all, it's not easy to dig."
"Then let's dig to the deepest, thirty-five meters." After saying that, Shen Ruoqing looked at Old Lady Ji.
Old Lady Ji also nodded: "Then I'll trouble you, Master."
"No problem, but let's be frank. Whether water comes out in the end or not, we will still collect the money. Even if there is no water, your family still has to pay for it. We are not responsible, we are only responsible for digging the well."
"We all know the rules, please pay more attention to it. You can have lunch at my house, and take your time. There's no rush."
When they heard that they had lunch at noon, they were naturally very happy. After all, every household had insufficient food these days, and even when they went out to dig wells, they had to bring their own dry food. It had been a long time since they had dug wells, so they ate outside.
Several well diggers arrived at the location designated by Shen Ruoqing and started working. At this time, digging a well actually means using a well gun to dig into the ground little by little. The well gun is like a Luoyang shovel, shoveling out the soil from the ground section by section until water comes out. Overall, it is a miracle of great strength, and it all depends on manpower.
The people who came had rich experience in well digging. Although there were only three of them, they each had their own responsibilities. Two people were responsible for taking soil, and one was responsible for adjusting the length of accessories. The three of them worked very skillfully together.
(End of this chapter)