Chapter 45 Two Wells
Because Dajin had many children to support, they didn't live a wealthy life. When Chen Zhaodi would borrow some water from Dajin family, she thought she should take something along for gratitude.
Mrs. Zhang, Dajin's wife, always kept a good touch with Wu family. When Mrs. Zhang heard the whole story that happened at the village entrance, she and Chen Zhaodi cursed Wang Guifang together and she also didn't forget to scoop some water from their urn to Chen Zhaodi.
When seeing sweet potatoes brought by Chen Zhaodi, she felt some embarrassed, "You're way too generous. We are good neighbors. You just borrow some water, so you don't have to bring these to us. Take them back."
However, Chen Zhaodi just put sweet potatoes on the chopping board, responded with her head shaking in disapproval, "No, I can't take them back. My mom told me to bring these to you. Please just accept these otherwise my mom will blame me when I'm back."
Mrs. Zhang had no choice but to take these sweet potatoes, and said, "Fine but remember do not bring anything here. If you need some water, feel free to come here. Later, I'll let Dajin fetch more water."
After expressing gratitude to Mrs. Zhang, Chen Zhaodi went back home, carrying a basin of water.
Both two families didn't expect that the matter of borrowing water leaked, and Wang Guifang knew it.
Wang stopped Yang Dajin when he planned to fetch some water.
Yang Dajin came back home, keeping cursing and scolding Wang Guifang. Knowing this, Wu family was totally exasperated by Wang Guifang.
This time, Wu Chuan went to the village head Yang Fugui's house in person.
Yang Fugui was smoking, sitting on a bluestone bar in the courtyard. He had a severe hunchback. The whole body was shrouded in the smoke he exhaled. His eyebrows were knitted together but nobody could know what he was thinking.
"Big bro Fugui." Wuchuan directly greeted Yang Fugui as soon as he entered.
Yang Fugui was six years older than him. When they were in childhood, Yang Fugui often took Wu Chuan and other kids to fish in the water. They two had a good friendship.
Hearing Wu Chuan's voice, Yang Fugui regained his sense and looked back, asked, "Wu Chuan? Why are you here? Does your family run out of water? There's still some water in my house, just take a bucket of water back."
Wu Chuan shook his head with an angry face, "Big bro Fugui, I came here not for this matter. Just now, my family borrowed a basin of water from Dajin home. But Wang Guifang knew it later and started to stop Dajin to fetch water as well. That's too awful! We can't let her have the whole village under her thumb with a packet of rat poison."
Yang Fugui smoked again and nodded, "I agree with you. She does really go too far. But you know, the whole villagers depend on this well, we can't excite her. If she poisons the well in the end, that means all of us have to walk another 2.5 km. every day to fetch water."
Wu Chuan nodded again, "Just keep patient. She can't guard that well all the time. Once she stays away from the watch, we just grab the rat poison from her hands and kick her out."
A decision was made when Yang Fugui exhaled the smoke heavily.
In view of public or personal concerns, Wang Guifang had to be kicked out as this mad woman dared to threaten to poison the well.
Temporarily, people were all safe as they knew what happened on the scene. What if Wang Guifang intended to poison the well secretly? If so, all the villagers' life would be in imminent danger.
After discussion, Wu Chuan and Yang Fugui decided to send the man of two families to take turns to keep an eye on Wang Guifang and her son. As long as they stayed away from the well, the rat poison would be snatched immediately.
The other side about Su Jiuyue, she carried a small bamboo basket, her hand holding Wu Xiyuan's hand and walked out of the mountain. She plucked the tall grass with a stick and asked, "Xiyuan, is there only one well in the village?"
In Su Jiuyue's memory, her birthplace Su Family Village had two wells.
Although Wu Xiyuan looked a bit silly, he just had a mental retardation and he did really know something.
Wu Xiyuan reached out to scratch the back of his head, seemly thinking hard, "Huh, I remember the village had two wells before. The other one was in grandpa's old yard but that well had dried up a long time ago."