"The village chief is back."
"It's the village chief!"
"Village Chief, some villagers have not had water for two days. It is not an option to continue like this!"
As soon as the village chief returned to the village, a large group of people immediately surrounded him.
"Yes, village chief, is it possible that we really exchange food for water? Vincent, can you tell us what to do?"
The village chief raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "Folks, don't be anxious. I will give you an explanation in the next two days. Wen Sheng and Xiao Jiu have just come back, and we have to give them time to understand the situation."
Upon hearing the village chief's words, the villagers immediately dispersed and started talking around Gu Jiu and Gu Wensheng.
"Folks, I just got back here. I have to go back and see home first. Wait, I'll be back soon."
Gu Wensheng waved his way out of the crowd and headed home, laughing to death. Of course he would look at his own home first after finally coming back! There are still several fruits in the bag, and it would be bad if others saw it.
After Gu Zheqi left, Gu Jiu pulled Aunt Chen and asked about the dead people in the village.
"Hey, I say I died of thirst, but actually I died of hunger."
"What do you mean?" Gu Jiu looked at Aunt Chen and asked with some confusion.
Hearing this, Mrs. Chen raised her finger and pointed in the direction of the village.
"The one who died was the second woman from the village. How can people starve to death? When they are hungry, wouldn't grass roots and tree bark fill their stomachs? But when this second woman died, her stomach was so flat that only bones were left. The second woman went up again At this age, I am afraid that I have already planned to die to give my family a living."
Gu Jiu was silent.
The leaves are growing now, and the reason for eating without food is to make the people in my family drink more water. From this point of view, Gujiacun is really short of water to a certain extent.
"Is the well in the village completely broken?"
Gu Jiu thought about whether it was necessary to drill another well. Obviously, if it was completely cut off, it would mean that there was no underground water at this level, and there would be no need to waste time drilling a well.
"No."
The village chief came over and said: "The well in the village still has a little water, but it is very little. It can only bring up two or three liters of water a day. Not to mention the entire village, even a family, this is not enough. "
Gu Jiu nodded.
"What about the back mountain?"
Hearing this, the village chief sighed in disappointment: "No, we took people to search for it before. We even went to the foggy area, but we couldn't find the water source."
Gu Jiu nodded slowly, looked at the village chief and suggested: "Let everyone go back first. Walking back and forth will speed up the consumption of water in the body. Village chief, please accompany me to the back mountain to see if there is anything new." discovery."
"no problem."
The two left the crowd and walked towards the back mountain. As soon as they stepped into the back mountain, Gu Jiu realized something was wrong.
Big trees have a strong ability to draw water. It is understandable that they are growing vigorously under the current circumstances, but what about grass?
Gu Jiu lowered his head and traced the leaves with his fingertips.
"Xiaojiu, what's wrong?"
"The grass is not right. The well is almost dry now, but the plants with shallow roots in the back hill are still alive. Although the leaves are a little yellow, they are really still growing."
"Do you suspect that there is water in the back mountain?" The village chief looked at it and asked. Before Gu Jiu could speak, he shook his head: "But this is impossible. We have searched for this back mountain several times. There is no way. No water source in sight.”
"Plants are different from humans. When resources are scarce, they will hide what they need very secretly and cleverly."
Gu Jiu turned to look at the village chief and said: "Village Chief, I heard a storyteller say a few days ago: There is a place called the desert in this world. There is a sky full of yellow sand without a trace of land. Logically speaking, this kind of place is There can’t be plants, but guess what?”
"Not only are there vegetation there, there are even flowers blooming there - the Desert Kui flower."
"The storyteller said that the roots of this kind of flower store a lot of water, and the people living there rely on pounding the roots of the flowers to survive."
Hearing this, the village chief was a little shocked and asked: "Can a place like that still survive?"
Gu Jiu nodded: "So, I think our mountain must also hide a lot of water."
After hearing Gu Jiu's words, the village chief suddenly had hope again, and the steps he raised his legs became much brisker.
People are often like this. All they need is a hope, a hope that can support themselves to move forward.
The deeper you go, the less withered the surrounding plants become.
The higher the terrain, the higher the groundwater level. This is contrary to the fact that the well in Gujiacun does not produce water. Gu Jiu is more certain that there is a water source here.
But the two searched for more than four hours, but found nothing.
"Xiao Jiu, are you really sure there is water nearby?" the village chief asked, licking his chapped and bleeding lips.
"Yeah! I'm sure!"
She believes in science. Judging from the vegetation in this area, even if there is no exposed water source, the groundwater must be extremely rich. It is impossible that no trace can be found.
"Village chief, here it is. Let's continue looking after eating."
Gu Jiu glanced at the village chief's white and bloody lips, took out a sweet potato from the bag and handed it over.
The village chief looked at the sweet potatoes handed over and was a little flattered for a moment. He was short of water now, so this was a good thing! It’s both filling and hydrating!
"Village Chief, you rest here for a while, I'll go over there and have a look."
"Be careful, don't miss the mark."
Don't miss the mark...
The village chief's words gave Gu Jiu a reminder. Yes, they had always been afraid of suddenly falling into the air and falling into an unknown depth of the valley, but what if the water was under these miscellaneous leaves and branches?
Gu Jiu walked to the edge of the valley, cleaning up the withered and accumulated branches while trying to find a strong point to go down and take a look.
As it rained, Gu Jiu suddenly found that the surrounding soil had become moist.
"Xiaojiu, Xiaojiu! Where are you?"
Hearing the village chief's voice, Gu Jiu responded quickly: "Village Chief, I'm here, down below!"
After a while, the village chief's voice came from above, and a small stone rolled down from Gu Jiu's side. "Xiao Jiu, are you down here? Have you seen that jujube-sized round stone?" ?”
"Saw."
"That's fine, just wait. The village chief will go back to the village and pull you up with the rope. Don't move around. There are too many dead branches here. If you get hurt, it will be troublesome."
"Wait a moment!"
Hearing that the village chief was about to leave, Gu Jiu quickly called him.
"Village Chief, I came down by myself. Look to the right. I tied the rope to the big tree in advance before I came down. If something happens later, I can follow the rope and come up again. Even if I can't borrow the strength, you can too. Pull me up."
Upon hearing this, the village chief looked to the right and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the rope on the big tree.
"Xiao Jiu, it's too dangerous to see anything down here. You come up first. The village chief has lived so many years longer than you and is more experienced than you."
"Need not."
Gu Jiu grinded the soil in his palms and walked down, holding on to the tangled weeds growing on the valley slope.
In a highly tense situation, Gu Jiu didn't know how long she had been climbing down. However, the village chief's voice would come after a while to confirm whether anything happened to her.
"This is water!"
Gu Jiu drew his palm across the rock on the side and looked at the moisture in his hand and said excitedly.
Just as he was about to go over and check further, there was resistance from the rope around his waist. Gu Jiu pulled hard, but the rope didn't move at all.
"Xiao Jiu, did something happen?"
The village chief asked nervously as he watched the rope being stretched.
"No, the rope ends."
"Then I'll pull you up."
"good."
With the help of the village chief's slow pull on the rope, Gu Jiu climbed up easily.
"Come on, are you hurt?" the village chief said as he took away the dead leaves from Gu Jiu's head.
"No."
Gu Jiu shook his head: "Village Chief, there is definitely something down here. Let's go back to the village and get a longer rope."
As he spoke, Gu Jiu rolled up the rope hastily, stuffed it into the bag, and pulled the village chief down the mountain.
…
"Village chief, it's not good. Come and take a look. There is no water in the well now!"
As soon as the two of them came down the mountain, five or six villagers gathered around them in a hurry and pulled the village chief towards the well.
"As promised, the villagers will fetch water every six hours, but now the villagers have been waiting at the well for more than an hour and haven't seen a drop of water!"
When Gu Jiu and the village chief arrived, people were already crowding around the well. They all lowered their heads and sighed, and some even kowtowed to the well.
"We haven't done anything harmful to God, so why won't God let us go? Why is it that our Gujia Village was the first to be cut off from water supply!"
The village chief said nothing, walked to the well, and fell into silence looking at the well that was completely dry.
Gu Wensheng suddenly appeared out of nowhere: "Folks, ancient books record that those who understand current affairs are heroes. Now that this situation has arisen, we must make changes in time."
After hearing Gu Wensheng's words, everyone raised their heads.
"Wen Sheng, what do you think we should do? Everyone listens to you!"
"Go to town."
After hearing this, everyone's newly raised hopes suddenly dropped again.
"Well, Vincent, we are going to the city, where should we stay? Things in this city must be more expensive!"
"That's right, Vincent, the folks don't have much money. It's a problem to eat and sleep in the city. If something happens, they will die in a foreign country."
Gu Wensheng smiled, and said like a mysterious master coming down to earth to guide all living beings: "There are many opportunities in this city. Anyway, all the children in the family have to take the exams. Sooner or later, they will have to go to the city. They should go two years earlier." So what?"
"Wen Sheng, do you mean you can help everyone find a job?" one of the villagers asked excitedly.
Gu Wensheng nodded: "To be honest, I met the big boss in the city. If you go and sign up for me, I will give you at least ten coppers a day!"
Ten!
That’s three hundred a month!
"Wen Sheng, are there any other conditions? Can Auntie go?" Aunt Chen looked at Gu Wensheng and asked excitedly.
