After their exertions and a wash, Gu Xiaoxia lay beside Li Long and asked softly:
"Have you finished the work? Do you need to go again tomorrow?"
"Another half day." Li Long held her as he spoke. "I forgot about cement for the hand pumps yesterday. They work now, but both families have children. If they start playing around, those pump platforms probably won't last long. I'm planning to buy a bag of cement tomorrow and go plaster and reinforce them. I can be back before noon. After that, there's nothing else to do."
"Mm, you should." Gu Xiaoxia had grown up in the countryside too. Naturally, she knew that if a household had a hand pump and a few children, that pump would probably never get a moment's peace all year round.
When children came home thirsty from school or playing, they would never think of going indoors to pour themselves water. They would head straight for the pump, block the spout with one hand, and work the handle with the other. Once the water came up, they would release the handle, leave a tiny gap in the hand blocking the spout, and lean in to drink slowly.
Sometimes, one pipeful of water would let several children take turns drinking. They felt it tasted much better than the tea at home.
To children, getting water out of a hand pump was a magical process, so even when they were not thirsty, they could not resist trying it. Unless a rural pump platform was made of concrete, frequent damage was inevitable.
"After those two colleagues of mine left our house that day, they kept praising this and that about our place for days. Sister Tao told me today that she wants to bring her child over this weekend to see