We're Going to Fight for It

Looking at the coarse grains, Liu Xiuyuan said, "I didn't expect Jiang Family Village to have so much grain hidden away. Why do they still insist on taking our grain?"

"Humans are inherently greedy. The atmosphere in Jiang Family Village is bad; they've already massacred people from several villages before."

Liu Xiuyuan frowned and said:

"There were indeed several villages around us before, Inkstone Pond River Village and Stone Hollow Village, but the people in those two villages have all disappeared."

I hadn't remembered until you mentioned it. I thought the people in these villages had all been relocated. Now that I think about it, it really is strange.

It must have been suppressed by the government.

Zhou Wanwan whispered:

"He must have been killed by the people of Jiang Family Village, if I hadn't discovered the problem in the river."

The people in our village drank the water from this river, and today, they will all die, just like everyone else.

Even if the authorities come, they won't be able to find any reason.

Liu Xiuyuan gritted his teeth and said, "These people are all crazy. How could they do such beastly things?"

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said:

"Move this grain to the back mountain first, then these people will definitely come into our village to search for grain."

If you can't find it, you'll be back soon.

Liu Xiuyuan led the people of Liu Family Village to transport all the grain back in oxcarts.

Zhou Wanwan kept a close eye on the people of Jiang Family Village, and soon the people of Jiang Family Village made a move.

At midnight, all the men gathered at the village entrance and marched towards Liu Family Village.

Zhou Wanwan then led the others into the Jiang Family Village.

The village chief's house was quite clean. An old woman was whipping several women, yelling, "Hurry up and get to work! You bunch of pigs! What are you good for? You're so slow, do you want to die?"

Zhou Wanwan sneered and threw the incense stick in her hand. Soon, these people fell to the ground.

Zhou Wanwan looked at the women and said, "They're all pitiful people. Let's take them with us when we leave!"

They stormed into the Jiang Family Jiang Family's house, which was indeed magnificent. Zhou Wanwan listened to the gardenias in the yard and exclaimed, "I smell so good! I'm the most pampered person in this family!"

"Tch... I'm the most popular person in this house. Master loves to stare at me in a daze," an orchid said loudly.

Gardenia scoffed coldly, "I know all of Master's secrets, do you know that?"

Lan Hua asked curiously, "What secret does the master hold?"

Gardenia gave a soft hum and said:

"The master told me everything. He said he gave a lot of money to Manniang, who was his childhood sweetheart, and he could never let her go."

Manniang's favorite flower was gardenia. He kept all his money hidden under the blue bricks beneath the stool in his study, and nobody knew about it.

Zhou Wanwan led her people directly into the study, and to her surprise, there were actually more than a dozen books in the study of the Jiang Family Village.

Zhou Qingyan put more than a dozen books into his basket, while Zhou Wanwan started digging at the blue bricks. Sure enough, the blue bricks were quickly pried up.

The blue brick was actually hollow inside, with a box underneath. Opening the box revealed eight silver ingots, each weighing ten taels.

There are 80 taels in total, and there is also a gold Yuanbao next to it, which should be worth five taels.

There were also many silver and gold jewelry pieces, all very ordinary ones. Zhou Wanwan put them all away.

The Jiang Family Village was indeed wealthy. Soon they went to the cellar, which contained more than forty bags of grain, as well as various vegetables and fruits.

They all took them back. The people from Jiang Family Village went to Liu Family Village, but they didn't see a single soul.

The villagers of Jiang Family Village muttered, "Where did they go? They've all been poisoned to death. Where did that person go?"

"Yeah, I think something's really weird today. The people in Liu Family Village are really poor; they don't have any food at all."

"Could it be that the authorities discovered it before we did?"

The Jiang Family Village returned with his troops, but upon arriving home, he discovered something was amiss: his wife was lying on the ground, and the other women in his house were nowhere to be found.

He kicked his wife and said, "You still have the leisure to sleep now? Where's the person you're supposed to be watching?"

The woman cried out a few times, "Oh dear, oh dear, I don't know either! How did I fall asleep? Where are those wretches? Where did they all go?"

The Jiang Family Village rushed into the study, opened the blue brick door, and saw a golden lump of poop inside.

He was so angry that he coughed up blood.

The situation was different in Liu Family Village. This time, they not only received a lot more grain, but also twenty machetes, ten bows and arrows, and two crossbows.

Zhou Wanwan looked at the weapons and said, "They're pretty good. Jiang Family Village is really something else; even their weapons are so sophisticated. Let's use them for now!"

Old Liu frowned and said, "I'm afraid Jiang Family Village won't let us off the hook, will they?"

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and said:

"Grandfather, even if we don't do this, they won't let us go. We might as well strike first."

They dared to poison us; they had no intention of giving us a chance to live. But we're determined to fight them for our lives.

Old Liu nodded and said:

"Yes, let's fight it out. Why should they have it easy?"

Our Liu Family Village isn't much worse off than Jiang Family Village, it's just that there's a problem with the water source now, and we can't use the water here..."

Zhou Wanwan thought for a moment and said, "We must dig our own well, and it must be a deep well."

"But this well is hard to drill! We've tried drilling wells before, but we never found any water."

Zhou Wanwan smiled faintly and said, "I can choose a good location for drilling the well. Let's try it first."

Zhou Wanwan searched the village and finally spotted an inconspicuous clump of iris under the Old Scholar Tree in the northwest corner.

Zhou Wanwan touched the iris grass and asked, "Is there a water source down here? What do you think if I want to dig a well here?"

Iris shook her head and said, "Why should I tell you? If we're digging a well, are you going to dig me up?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at it with a smile and said:

"That's not quite it. If you help me, I'll naturally help you too."

"We'll just keep you at home then, and you can choose a suitable place. What do you think?"

Iris shook her head and nodded, saying, "There is indeed a water source down there, but it's very deep. We need to dig a very, very long and very, very deep place."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "This is the kind of well I want to dig."

During droughts, when it doesn't rain, all the surface water dries up, and even the shallow groundwater slowly seeps away and evaporates.

Those shallow wells will soon run dry and become unusable.

But deep wells are different. When you dig deep enough, you can reach large underground water veins. This water layer is not affected by surface drought, and the water volume is large and stable.

No matter whether the drought lasts for three months or half a year, the water in the deep well will not dry up.

It's not only enough for the whole village to drink, but it can also be used to irrigate crops and feed livestock, enough to last through the entire dry season.