“Xiang Nan, isn’t your elder brother’s family going to take Mother away? Hurry up and carry Mother over.”
Zhao Xiangnan, who had been given the order, nodded and hurried into the house.
Wan Cunhua only heard half of what Zhao Xiaocao said before watching helplessly as Cheng Shi practically dragged her daughter away.
This summer has been unusually long and hot.
Moreover, due to the hot weather, the village uses far more water than usual, no matter how much they try to conserve it.
Every morning, the village committee's well is filled with villagers drawing water.
Zhao Tingzhang was here punctually every day, ensuring that each household received water according to the number of people in their household.
One person gets one ladle of water a day, no more.
But on this day, after Zhao Dahai, who was in charge of fetching water, had fetched three buckets of water, the fourth bucket he fetched was filled with mud.
The water was black and completely unfit for consumption.
"Oh no, the well water has dried up!" Zhao Dahai's expression changed.
"What?" Zhao Tingzhang quickly stepped forward and peered into the well.
He disbelievingly took the wooden bucket from Zhao Dahai and threw it in.
The rope swayed twice, and when it was pulled up again, it was full of silt.
The little water that remained was terribly murky.
"It's over, there's no water left!" Zhao Tingzhang walked down the steps, trembling.
Upon hearing this, the villagers in line behind all turned pale and panicked.
"No water, Chief! We're doomed! How are we supposed to survive?!"
"It snowed for so long before the New Year, how come there's so little groundwater? What a disaster year!"
"What are we going to do? I heard that other villages have been suffering from drought for a long time, and half of the people in one village have died of thirst."
Zhao Tingzhang plopped down on the stone stool next to him and took two deep drags on his pipe.
He calmed down, but the unsuspecting villagers panicked.
Everyone was arguing and complaining.
Someone in the crowd shouted, "Without water, we'll all die! I'll take this little bit of dirty water, saving lives is the priority!"
As he spoke, the man rushed forward and pushed Zhao Dahai aside.
Zhao Dahai staggered a couple of steps and almost fell to the ground.
"Damn it..." Zhao Dahai cursed angrily and went up to hit him.
Seeing that some people were grabbing water, everyone rushed over to grab some as well.
A wooden bucket used for drawing water crashed to the ground with a loud bang as so many people pulled at it.
The wooden barrel was broken into pieces.
Alright, now nobody can fetch water.
Everyone stood there stunned, and began to blame each other.
Zhao, the village head, stood up from the stone stool and shouted, "Alright! There's always a way out. Our Changfeng Village is blessed by our ancestors. It's not time for that yet!"
What does that mean? Everyone looked at Zhao Tingzhang, puzzled.
Zhao, the village head, took another deep breath and confessed, "Not long ago, I led a few people and found water in Langshan. There's plenty of water there; it's enough to feed dozens of our villages."
"What? Wolf Mountain?"
Everyone looked grim; they didn't have a good impression of Wolf Mountain.
Legend has it that it was a place where people ate each other.
"What? Anyone who's afraid of dying can choose not to fetch water. But if you run out of water at home, don't come looking for me, the village head."
[Author's Note]: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, my darlings!
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