The mountains in the afternoon were still cold, but Zhang Xiaohua's enthusiasm remained high. However, the progress of the reclamation in the afternoon was not as smooth as in the morning. There were many rocks on the wasteland, and many of them were buried in the ground. It was not easy to dig up the earth and pry up large stones. When the sun set and twilight approached, Zhang Xiaohua had only moved a few rocks by the time sunset approached. His hands were injured first, and his "tiger mouth" was cracked. In the cold wind, it felt painfully raw.
After all, he was still a young man.
Looking back at the wasteland where he had been busy all day, although he was reluctant to leave, Zhang Xiaohua carried his hoe and water jug and walked back home. It was getting late, and if he didn't leave, his daddy and elder brother would come looking for him, and his grandmother would be worried.
There was a distance between the wasteland and home; otherwise, his mother wouldn't have to bring him lunch at noon. Walking on the rugged mountain road back home, although Zhang Xiaohua had no strength left, he was in high spirits. The progress of reclamation was slow, which was what Daddy had reminded him earlier. If the land could be reorganized in a few days, people in the village would have long cultivated on the mountainside. This was just the beginning, and there would be more detailed farming later, planting, watering, and so on. Suddenly, Xiaohua realized something: watering! Yes, the slope was so high, so far from the river in the village, how was he supposed to get the water here? Why hadn't he thought of this sooner? What should he do? As soon as he thought of this, Zhang Xiaohua's face was immediately filled with worry, and he couldn't help but quicken his pace, running home. How could a child's heart hide his emotions?
When he arrived at the entrance of the village, it was already dark, and there were still many children playing in the village. Seeing Xiaohua carrying a hoe, some familiar villagers stopped him and asked about his reclamation. Xiaohua answered them all. It seemed that reclaiming the land on the mountain slope was also a matter of concern for the villagers without enough food. However, Xiaohua was very absent-minded, and everyone thought he was tired, so they didn't ask too many questions. Xiaohua then rushed home.
Zhang Xiaohua's home was at the south end of the village. From a feng shui perspective, it was located in a downwind and downstream area. However, the area was not small, and under Zhang Cai's efforts, there was even a small courtyard. The courtyard wall was not high, built with yellow mud bricks, and could be seen from the outside. From a distance, Zhang Xiaohua saw his grandmother leaning on her cane through the wicker gate. Since her eyesight was poor, she seldom went out. Now, leaning on the fence gate, she must be worrying about her youngest grandson. Hearing the approaching footsteps, her face showed a smile; her eyes were blankly staring at Zhang Xiaohua's direction, but her tone was unusually kind: "Xiaohua, you're back! Are you tired today?"
Zhang Xiaohua hurriedly took a few steps, entered the gate, put down his hoe and water jug, held his grandmother's arm, and quickly replied: "Not tired, Grandma. Haven't I done farm work before?"
Grandmother happily held Zhang Xiaohua's hand and said, "Our Xiaohua is already an adult, and grandma has forgotten!" Her hand accidentally touched the cracked "tiger mouth" on Zhang Xiaohua's hand, causing him to inhale from the pain. Although he didn't cry out, his grandmother heard it and loudly called out: "Xiao Cai, come quickly and look at the child."
Zhang Xiaohua's father had just returned home and was washing up in the yard. He heard his mother-in-law's voice, sensed something was up, and examined carefully, saying: "It's okay, Mom, Xiaohua was working too hard, and his hand is cracked. It will heal in a few days."
Grandmother suggested: "Or should we go to old Mr. Chen's place in the village to get some medicine for the child?"
Guo Sufei came out of the house with some things just then, casually telling Xiaohua's grandmother: "No need, Mom. Xiaohu used some last time, and there is some left. When Xiaohua sleeps tonight, I'll apply some, and it should be better tomorrow. Mom, you should go back to the room now, it's cold outside, and the wind is picking up. I will bring you dinner later. Xiaohua, quickly help your grandma back into the room."
Zhang Xiaohua carefully escorted his grandmother back to her room, temporarily putting his anxieties about watering behind him.
After dinner, his parents were weaving baskets under the dim oil lamp, and the three Xiaohua brothers were helping them. Now Zhang Cai asked about Zhang Xiaohua's reclamation situation. Xiaohua explained everything, and Zhang Cai said: "Indeed, you are slow on your own. Wait for Xiaohu to finish helping Xiaolong with the land on the other side of the river, and he can help you."
Zhang Xiaolong also said: "Don't worry, Xiaohua, once we're done, Dad and I will go help you, we will finish before winter."
Zhang Xiaohua said: "Why would I worry? Daddy said that reclamation needs to be meticulous, slow is fine, as long as it's done well. When we grow crops later, they will grow well." He recalled the watering issue at this point and hurriedly asked his dad: "Daddy, I just thought about this on the way back: the slope is so high and there's no spring nearby. How do we water the crops?"
Zhang Cai stopped his work and said: "It's hard to believe you thought of that. What do you think you should do?"
Zhang Xiaohua looked at his two brothers for help and said: "Our fields all have water carried to them, but the slope is far and high, so carrying water won't work, right?"
Zhang Cai smiled and said: "Xiaohua, what's behind our slope land?"
Zhang Xiaohua thought for a moment and said: "Isn't there a deep pit behind it?"
"Yes, that's it. It's a small mountain depression where three slopes meet. We can dig a well there. Then, we'll make a small path from the well to the fields so that we can both drink water and irrigate the fields." Zhang Cai said confidently."It seems you've planned this for a long time." Guo Sufei smiled and praised her husband.
"Well, Dad, when are we going to dig the well?" Zhang Xiaohua asked eagerly.
"Once the land is leveled, before the winter and before the ground freezes, we'll invite people from the neighboring village who know how to dig wells to help us get started!" Zhang Cai finished speaking and started working.
Receiving a satisfactory answer, Zhang Xiaohua was finally relieved and the family continued their work. After a while, Zhang Xiaohua evidently became very tired, and his eyes were blurry. Guo Sufei, feeling pity for her, let him go to bed first. Zhang Xiaohua agreed and walked woodenly to the heated brick bed he shared with his two brothers, threw himself into the worn quilt, and slept deeply, not even realizing when his mother applied medicine to his hands at night.
A busy day came to a hurried end like this.
In the following days, Zhang Xiaohua endured his impatience and only focused on leveling his land, without worrying about watering the fields anymore. That evening, after Zhang Xiaohua had cleared the weeds and crushed the large clumps of soil, he prepared to go home. On the way, he couldn't hold back any longer and started thinking about when the well could be dug. When he turned around the hillside and saw several wooden frames erected in the deep recesses below, he hurried over and took a closer look. Sure enough, at the bottom of the pit, a round platform had been flattened, with a ring-shaped wooden board on top, surrounded by six long wooden poles. Zhang Xiaohua rejoiced so much that he almost jumped up before running down the slope to the wood structure. At this moment, no one was there, probably resting after setting up the framework. Zhang Xiaohua patted here and touched there, wondering how could these brackets alone create a deep well? As he was wondering, someone called out to him from above:
"Xiaohua, where are you?" The voice was that of Second Brother Xiaohu. Xiaohua quickly responded:
"I'm here, Second Brother, come and see, we're preparing to dig the well."
Zhang Xiaohu also slid down the slope and grabbed Zhang Xiaohua, saying, "It's fine, I know; I helped move these things with Big Brother in the afternoon. Big Brother said he wanted to surprise you, so he didn't tell you. Right now, mom and dad are waiting for you to come back. Let's go."
The two brothers hurried home, running all the way.
A table with food was already prepared in the small house, and beside it sat their father and big brother, yet there were no unfamiliar faces. Zhang Xiaohua couldn't help but ask: "Dad, where are the well-diggers?" Zhang Cai, with a smile, replied, "They've all gone back. We don't have much money, so we agreed to provide only lunch but not dinner. And, our family has to help out too, so we can give them less wages." Zhang Xiaohua nodded in agreement and went out to help his mother with dinner.
After dinner, Zhang Cai assigned tasks to everyone in the family. The three Zhang Xiaohua brothers would, of course, help on site. Xiaohua's mother was responsible for cooking and delivering food, while Zhang Cai would buy materials and find helpers, etc. In short, except for Xiaohua's grandmother, the whole family had to work. Grandmother, of course, had to watch the house and feed the chickens, which also kept her busy.
The next morning, Zhang Xiaohua woke up early and urged his two brothers, who slept on the same heated brick bed, to go digging the well. However, Xiaohua's mother insisted that they eat something before leaving, saying that their father had already gone ahead, and they had agreed on the time with others. Going too early, when no one else was around and when the three of them didn't know how to dig a well, would be pointless. Zhang Xiaohua could only hold back his impatience to eat breakfast with them. By the time they reached the slope, the sun had already risen.
Seeing several people already busy in the pit, Zhang Cai hurriedly called them over to help, moving some of the stones and dirt that had been dug up to the side. And so, everyone started working in full swing.
After several days of hard work, Zhang Xiaohua found that digging the well was quite a simple task, as long as you find a spot, set up the frame and start digging. However, finding the right location and ensuring that the dug area doesn't collapse requires experience, like the wooden frame, which is essential, otherwise, how would people and soil get out as the digging went deeper? As for the location, it was Zhang Cai's luck that the place they had chosen at home, just because it was close to the field, did not necessarily have water. The well-digger searched the entire mountainside before finally settling on that spot, saying there might be a spring underneath, and if they dug it out, sweet mountain spring water would be more suitable for drinking than irrigating fields. Zhang Cai dismissed these words as mere chatter, as the pit was too far from home to carry water, how could they carry several buckets back for cooking every day?
The days of well-digging passed one by one, and the well was getting deeper, but the difficulties increased as well. As they dug from several low-lying hillsides, many stones were occasionally dug out, but fortunately, none of them was too big, and neither did they encounter a large area of stones, or the well would have to be abandoned.
A few more days passed, and Zhang Cai's luck seemed to have run out, as the well-digging finally encountered significant trouble.
That noon, Zhang Xiaohua went down to the well, swung his pickaxe and started digging, only to strike what seemed to be a hard rock on his first try, numbing his hand. Based on past experience, Zhang Xiaohua tried again at a relatively distant spot, and with another hit came the same sound as before, seemingly the same rock. Zhang Xiaohua couldn't help feeling a bit panicked, so he tried several more times around the edge of the well, all hitting rocks. He then pulled the rope tied around his waist, asking to be pulled up, and with a solemn face, told his father what had happened. Zhang Cai and the well-digger both went down to take a look and returned in silence. The well-digger discussed with Zhang Cai, asking the others to rest and come back to help after lunch while they would confirm whether it was a large rock or a layer of rocks.
Seeing everyone dispersing and sitting on the ground to rest, only Zhang Xiaohua stared at the unfinished well, feeling uneasy. He was afraid that a layer of rocks would make it impossible to dig further, and the efforts of these past days would have been in vain. Zhang Xiaohua asked Zhang Xiaolong to lower him back into the well once more, where he began digging again with an indomitable spirit.