Bracelet

It was already past noon, the sun hanging high in the sky. But the well had been dug deep enough that nothing could be seen at the bottom, leaving only an oil lamp brought down into the shaft to provide light. No resolve could be seen on Zhang Xiaohua's face in the wavering glow. After pondering for a moment, he raised his hoe and dug in one direction. "Clang, clang..." The sounds rang out without end. He tried several other directions, with the same result. What was he supposed to do now? It truly seemed he had reached the end of the road, with mountains before him and rivers cut off behind.

Zhang Xiaohua felt a little like giving up. He should go back up first and wait until the well mouth had been widened before taking another look. But his mother had not brought lunch yet. Should he dig a little from below first? As he thought, Zhang Xiaohua did not stop. Starting from the wall before him at waist height, he picked a direction and dug forward. Suddenly, he heard another "clang." Xiaohua's heart gave a jolt. Another rock? But when he swung his hoe again, there was no sound at all. Zhang Xiaohua found it strange, but did not think much of it. Maybe it was just a small pebble. As long as it was not a huge boulder, that was fine. After digging forward about one step, Zhang Xiaohua tried digging downward again, hoping not to hear that hateful sound. The result did not comfort him much: beneath that step in this direction was also solid rock.

Just as Zhang Xiaohua was about to rest and switch directions, Zhang Xiaolong's voice came from above. "Xiaohua, hurry up and eat. Mother brought lunch." Zhang Xiaolong pulled Zhang Xiaohua up from the well. Seeing the look on his face, he did not ask any further questions. He merely brought him food and watched as he wolfed it down. Then he comforted him, "It's all right, Xiaohua. If this spot won't work, we'll choose another. The hillside is so big—there must be somewhere we can dig a well."

After eating, Zhang Xiaohua's complexion visibly improved, and the gloom seemed to have lifted from him. Watching the well diggers head back down, he smiled at Zhang Xiaolong. "I understand, Big Brother. I'll go up to the fields and take a look, then come back later." Zhang Xiaolong patted Zhang Xiaohua's shoulder without saying anything, then left with the empty bamboo basket.

Zhang Xiaohua carried his hoe up the hillside and reached the edge of his neat little plot of land. He set the hoe aside and sat on the ridge, staring helplessly at the field that could not be watered. He wondered whether he would have to carry water over from the river himself in the future. When his eyes fell on the hoe, he noticed a clump of mud stuck to it, likely brought up from the bottom of the well while digging. Zhang Xiaohua rubbed it with his foot, but could not dislodge it. He picked up the hoe and cleaned away the mud with his hand, only to discover that a round object had somehow slipped over the hoe and was wedged tightly in place. Tilting his head, Zhang Xiaohua thought about it. That "clang" in the well must have been when the hoe struck this ring. No wonder there had been no sound afterward—it had gotten caught on the hoe. Zhang Xiaohua tried to remove the ring. He pried at it with a branch and gently tapped it with a stone, but neither worked. If he smashed it hard against a stone ledge, he might be able to knock it off, but he might also shatter it. He could not exactly take this thing down the well with him to dig, either. Zhang Xiaohua was at his wits' end again. Finally, he steeled himself and struck the hoe against a stone ledge with half his strength. With a clang, the ring neither broke nor came off. So Zhang Xiaohua put all his strength into it and struck it several more times. At last, he managed to knock it loose. That inexplicable ring had not broken at all. It seemed very sturdy.

Zhang Xiaohua picked up the ring and wiped the mud off with his clothes. Only then did he see clearly that it should be a bracelet, about two fingers wide, pitch-black, flat, without any patterns, and made of some unknown material. Just as Zhang Xiaohua was about to inspect it closely, Zhang Xiaolong's delighted voice drifted up from the foot of the slope. "Xiaohua, come quickly! There's hope!" Zhang Xiaohua sprang up with joy. He did not have time to inspect the bracelet he had found, so he stuffed it into his clothes, grabbed his hoe, and raced down the hill. He did not notice at all how weightless the bracelet had felt in his hand.

When Zhang Xiaohua reached the foot of the slope, he saw smiles on Zhang Xiaolong and Xiaohu's faces, along with Zhang Cai's somewhat bitter expression. After Zhang Xiaolong explained, he learned that the bottom of the well was not one solid layer of rock, and the rock was not too large either. As long as they widened the well mouth, they could get it out. But it would have to be widened by at least three steps. A wider opening meant more earth to dig, more time, and naturally more money to pay the workers. Still, at least they did not have to choose a new location and start another well, nor would they have to carry water over to irrigate the fields. It was still a decent outcome. Seeing how happy the three children were, Zhang Cai alone worried silently. He only hoped they would not run into more rocks like this later. If this happened a few more times, they might as well stop digging the well altogether.

The afternoon's work was simple enough. Based on the size of the rock, the diggers measured the well mouth again, planned how to widen it, and began digging anew. After this little disturbance, everyone returned to work in an orderly fashion.

That night, after returning home and finishing dinner, Zhang Xiaohua did not think of the bracelet in his clothes before climbing onto the kang to sleep. Only while undressing did it fall out, reminding him of it. But after a day of hard labor, he was truly exhausted. Without thinking further, he casually stuffed it beneath his pillow and fell into a deep sleep.

That night, everything in the Zhang household was as it had always been. The oil lamp was extinguished early, while the wind rattled the wicker gate without cease. The dead grass on the mud walls was blown up and waved feebly. Only moonlight shone down from the sky, spilling through the window onto the battered table and bedding. Everyone had entered the land of dreams. In the quiet night, only snores rose and fell one after another.

The only difference was Zhang Xiaohua. No, it should have been Zhang Xiaohua's dream! His dreams no longer held braised pork belly. Instead, his sight was filled with flickering lights! Like breathing, radiance expanded and contracted, flashing and pulsing.

The next morning, when the first ray of the rising sun shone upon Zhang Xiaohua's face, he opened his eyes. He looked around in confusion and found no flickering things, only then realizing that all that flashing had been a dream. He shook his head with a self-mocking smile and prepared to go back to sleep. But then he discovered that, despite listening to his two brothers snore, he could no longer fall asleep. He was brimming with energy. Left with no choice, he got up and dressed.

When Zhang Xiaohua came into the courtyard, he saw his mother cooking at the stove in the yard. He went to draw water from the well in the corner to wash his face. Guo Sufi found it strange to see him come out and said, "Xiaohua, why are you up so early? You worked all day yesterday. Sleep a little longer—there's still time before work starts."

As he drew water, Zhang Xiaohua said, "I'm not sleeping, Mother. I'm not tired. Look, I've recovered already. I'm bursting with strength now. One swing of my hoe and I could smash that rock to pieces." As he spoke, he set down the washbasin and even made a hoeing motion.

Guo Sufi smiled. "All right, all right. Good Xiaohua, you've grown up. You're the pillar holding up this family, just like your father."

Blushing, Zhang Xiaohua said, "Mother, I'm already this grown up. Don't call me good anymore. It sounds so embarrassing."

As they spoke, Zhang Cai returned from outside with a bundle of vegetables in his hand. "Who's grown up? Why is Xiaohua up so early? Not going to sleep a little longer?" He handed the vegetables to Zhang Xiaohua's mother and said, "The weeds in the vegetable garden have grown a bit. We'll have to pull them when we have time. We've been busy with the well these past days—don't let our vegetables grow wild."

Taking the vegetables, Guo Sufi said, "We were talking about your son. Today's the first time he's gotten up so early. He'll be a fine worker in the future."

Guo Sufi continued preparing the family meal, while Zhang Cai went inside. After Zhang Xiaohua washed his face, he had nothing to do, so he walked out of the courtyard.

Though it was still early and winter was fast approaching, farmers could never sit idle. Many people in the village were already moving about. Some drove ducks and geese toward the river, some carried grass back from the river to feed chickens and pigs, and others had already shouldered their hoes in preparation to head into the fields. Walking along the village path, Zhang Xiaohua felt different from usual that day. He could not say exactly what was different, only that he felt full of vigor, as if he had strength that could never be used up, as if every inch of his body held power. But he did not dwell on it, merely assuming he had slept well the night before. By the time Zhang Xiaohua returned home, everyone had begun eating. He hurriedly finished his meal, then followed his father and brothers back to continue digging the well.

The next few days passed peacefully. The well mouth was widened, the rock was dug out from the bottom, and the well grew deeper and deeper. When the stone was unearthed, it looked quite flat and felt cool to the touch. Zhang Xiaohua had his two brothers move it beneath a tree at the edge of the field, intending to use it as a bed to rest on between bouts of work in summer. As for the bracelet, Zhang Xiaohua had cast it completely from his mind. It lay beneath the bedding by his pillow, forgotten cleanly and thoroughly. Only, his dreams had long since replaced braised pork belly with flickering lights, though he had not realized it.

Several more days passed, yet the well still did not produce water. Zhang Cai began to worry. Winter was close at hand, and the soil would soon freeze. Though the bottom of the well would not freeze, the work was no longer going as smoothly as before. That evening, after dinner, the family had gathered to do farm work. Zhang Cai frowned as he discussed with Guo Sufi that if no water came from the well after a few more days, they would likely have to stop and wait until spring. At that moment, Guo Sufi said,

"Children's father, do you know Mr. Wu's family in the neighboring village also got a plot of land on the southern hillside?"

Zhang Cai said, "I didn't know that. But I did hear that a well was being dug on South Slope."

Guo Sufi said, "That's the well Mr. Wu's family is digging. Just like ours, it's for irrigating their fields. Today, when I went to pull grass by the river for the chickens, I ran into the wife from Guo Quan's household at the village entrance. Didn't her sister-in-law marry Mr. Wu's brother? Guess what she told me?"

"What did she say? Could it be that the well has already produced water?" Zhang Cai asked in surprise. "Didn't they start later than us? Water already, this quickly?"

"You only think about water. This is something even stranger than finding water!" Guo Sufi said irritably.

"Eh? What is it?" Not only Zhang Cai, but the curiosity of the Zhang family's three brothers was also hooked.

"They dug up a small broken chest while digging the well!" Guo Sufi continued. "When the chest was dug out of the well, it was broken open by a hoe, revealing what was inside. Though it was covered in mud, they could still see the pearls and agates within! Tell me, why didn't we have such good luck? We started digging before they did, yet all we dug up was a broken rock as big as a bed."

As the family sighed over Mr. Wu's family's fortune, Zhang Xiaohua finally remembered that he too had dug something out of the well. Excitedly, he said, "Father, Mother, I dug up a treasure from the well too." Under his family's urging and eager gazes, he took out the forgotten bracelet from beneath his bedding.

Zhang Cai took it and inspected it carefully beneath the oil lamp. It was a pitch-black, flat thing made of some unknown material. Rather than calling it a bracelet, it would be more fitting to call it an iron ring. Unable to make heads or tails of it, he handed it to Guo Sufi. She took it, weighed it in her hand first, then rubbed it with her fingers for a while. "It's so light. It doesn't seem to be made of jade, and it has no patterns. It's probably not jewelry. It looks like some child's toy. Xiaohua, keep it and play with it." Zhang Xiaohua accepted it dejectedly and passed it to his two brothers, as though failing to dig up pearls and agates was somehow his fault.

The bracelet made a round through his two brothers' hands before being passed back to Zhang Xiaohua. It seemed no one was interested in the ugly thing, so Xiaohua could only tuck it back into his clothes.

Guo Sufi went on, "Sigh, if it really were a nice piece of jewelry, we could keep it. When spring comes and we arrange a match for your eldest brother, it could serve as a betrothal gift."

That reignited the family's spirits. After spring, Zhang Xiaolong would be twenty, and it would be time to find a girl and settle his marriage. The family began discussing girls one by one according to their own impressions, going over each of them with Zhang Xiaolong. Even when the oil lamp was put out, they were still not satisfied. But for the next day's well digging and farm work, they could only climb onto the kang and go to sleep.

Before sleeping, Zhang Xiaohua took the bracelet from his clothes. Just as he was about to put it beneath the bedding again, another thought came to him. Mr. Wu had dug up a treasure from the ground. Mine is a treasure too. I have to keep it safe. But where should he put it? After thinking it over, he slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. By sheer coincidence, it fit snugly against his wrist. When he waved his arm, it did not slide up or down at all. Zhang Xiaohua secretly rejoiced. It was simply made to measure for him.

Until he fell completely asleep, he never considered that if it fit his wrist so perfectly, without even a gap, how had he managed to slip it over his hand? Not to mention that the braised pork belly in his nightly dreams had long since vanished, leaving only endless flickering lights in his mind.