They set the pump head aside first. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming both grinned when they saw the steel rods welded together.
"Come on, it's been ages since we sank a well. Let's see if we've lost our touch." Lu Yingming untied the steel rod from the bicycle, stood it upright, and walked to the edge of the pit.
Li Long parked his bicycle and followed. He saw that a narrow recess had been dug into one corner of the pit. It was deep, with water already seeping into it, though the water looked rather muddy.
Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming gripped the steel rod and drove it straight down into that little hole. One end had been sharpened, and it sank more than half a meter in that single thrust.
It went down quickly at first, but once they reached five or six meters, they could hear it striking pebbles as they drove it farther down. They had reached the gravel layer.
"Now the real work starts." Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming stopped what they were doing and leaned against the side of the pit. Each rolled a cigarette of Mohé Tobacco, and they smoked while recalling their past experiences sinking wells:
"The water table's pretty high around here. I remember sinking that well at the bank that year. The drill had to go down over ten meters before it reached the gravel layer, and that layer was a good seven or eight meters thick. It wore the drill bit blunt..."
"It's different in town. Sinking wells out here in the countryside is much easier," Li Jianguo said after taking a drag. "If you pick the right spot, you hardly have to get through any gravel before you hit water. Take that public well-what a good water source that