next day
The most pressing issue in the past two years, marked by severe drought, is the availability of drinking water.
There used to be a river outside the village that irrigated the fields, but since there hasn't been much rain since last year, it has long since dried up and cracked, revealing the dry riverbed.
As a result, grain production in the fields was greatly reduced, and villagers could only rely on digging wild vegetables in the mountains to fill their stomachs and barely make ends meet.
Fortunately, the old well in the village remains calm year after year.
The villagers get their drinking water from there; it's clean and sweet.
People from other villages are quite envious.
The village head of Ning'an Village was a wise man. At the beginning of the year, he locked up the well and made people line up to draw water every day, fearing that some fools would use up all the water in the well for their own crops.
They were also afraid that people from other villages would become envious; if someone put medicine in the only well they had for drinking water, their village would be doomed!
Of all the other villagers, only Kuali Zheng seemed to have the insight, and no one objected.
Early in the morning, Liu Junlan carried his two large wooden buckets toward the ancient well.
On a clear early summer morning, the air was still slightly misty.
The women from various households, who were queuing to fetch water, had already started chatting in twos and threes.
Zhang Cuihong has a loud voice, and she's especially enthusiastic when she talks about gossip.
"What was Sister Liu thinking? There are already seven people in her family, and she still took in a little girl?" The villagers were all talking at once.
"Of course! I tried to persuade her yesterday too... Tell me, if she didn't have a son, it would be fine to take a boy home to carry on the family line, but what use is a little girl?"
Zhang Cuihong felt that she had meant well in stopping Liu Junlan yesterday, but Liu Junlan disliked her, which was a real waste of her kindness. She was feeling very wronged and decided to give him a good complaint today.
“This girl is no match for the family line; she’s just a money-loser! I think Sister Liu’s family must have some wealth, otherwise, who in our family would be willing to raise a money-loser? If it weren’t for the upright atmosphere in our village, I’m afraid even a biological money-loser wouldn’t be able to survive.”
"In my opinion, could it be to become a child bride?"
This idea immediately sparked everyone's thinking, and the discussion grew increasingly noisy, with everyone agreeing that the statement made sense.
Liu Junlan has four grandsons, so it won't be easy for them to find wives in the future.
Others, who didn't care about others' affairs and only cared about their own interests, said: "I don't care what their family is thinking. There are seven people in their family, which is already a lot. Now there's another mouth to feed. How are they going to pay for the water they fetch?"
The village head of Ning'an Village was fair and just, and everyone, regardless of age or gender, received the same amount of water.
Now that there's an extra person in Liu Junlan's family, wouldn't the water allocated to her family be even more?
Upon hearing this, the women who had been chatting animatedly fell silent.
That's right!
Originally, Liu Junlan had only picked up ten or a hundred worthless people to his home. They were just there to watch the show; they wouldn't eat his food, and it was none of his business.
The moment the topic of water came up, everyone felt as if that portion of water came from their own homes, and for a moment they felt a pang of regret.
So when they saw Liu Junlan carrying two huge wooden buckets over, one of the women couldn't help but ask, "Sister Liu, did your family really pick up a worthless piece of trash?"
Liu Junlan found the words "money-losing good" grating.
"I picked up my granddaughter, not a worthless burden." Liu Junlan slammed the bucket on the ground and looked at them expressionlessly.
"Alright, let's not talk about anything else, but about the water... you really need to explain this to us. The water in this well is allocated to everyone in our village! There's not much to begin with, and now you've taken a little girl back with you. Doesn't that mean you're taking up our village's water? You have to give us an explanation!" The woman's voice was harsh as she raised her chin and looked at Liu Junlan.
Liu Junlan was taller and had an even stronger presence than her. "The water in the village is a gift from God, not from you. I saved a life, and I expect an explanation from you?"
"Sister Liu, so you're saying you're determined to steal our village's water to feed that little money-loser?" the woman said, somewhat exasperated.
Zhang Cuihong had always gotten along well with Liu Junlan, so she thought she would try to persuade him.
But she also felt a little guilty, since she was the one who started the conversation.
"Stop arguing, everyone. We need the village head to give us a fair opinion on this matter." He looked around and saw the village head being helped over by his grandson, so he quickly called out.
Zhang Cuihong quickly recounted what had just happened, but she skillfully concealed her role in it.
"Don't be angry," the village head said with a smile, "I think what the Liu family said makes a lot of sense. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Besides, how much water can a three-year-old child use? Even if we add one more person's usage, our ancient well certainly won't say anything."
But the others were unhappy, especially the woman who was yelling at Liu Junlan, who said, "Village head, what you're saying isn't right, is it? If one more person uses more water, there will definitely be less water in the well. If that little girl really uses less water, then let her family pay for it themselves, and don't draw more water from our village!"
"Why is it that their family built a seven-story pagoda to save people, while we villagers have to come up with water?"
It looked like the group was about to start arguing again.
Rumble—
Suddenly, a thunderclap exploded in the sky.
Everyone was startled by the thunder.
Tick-tock—
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