The fool has become a spirit, and she can speak

Wan Lianxing waved his hand and said, "No need to be lavish on me. I'm not here to sightsee, eat and have fun. My purpose is to solve the predicament of your Mochun County. Food and drink are secondary. Not to mention that you treat me with hot tea, I, Wan Lianxing, would not feel neglected even if you give me a ladle of cold water." As he spoke, Wan Lianxing picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. He was also a man who had seen the world and drunk all kinds of tea. He couldn't tell what kind of tea this bowl of tea from Chen Gongxiang's house was, and he couldn't even taste it. He thought to himself, this couldn't be tea brewed with water used to wash the pot.

Shang Xi was a little thirsty on the way, so she picked up the hot tea and tried to take a sip. This tea was not ordinary, it was very difficult to drink. This tea was not even as delicious as the worst tea foam. Was there something wrong with the tea or the water? Shang Xi was puzzled.

Children are more direct and don't like to be suspicious like adults. Cheng Youning smacked the strange taste in his mouth and said, "Mr. Chen, what does this tea taste like? Why is it weirder than river water?"

Chen Gongxiang said: "Young Master, this is not the problem with the tea. The water here is not good. It tastes very bad. It has been stagnant all night and still tastes like mud soup."

Shang Xi picked up the tea and tasted it again. It tasted exactly like what Chen Gongxiang had described. It tasted like the mud soup in a stinky ditch, far worse than the water in big rivers.

“Is this well water?”

"This is lake water, pulled back from the lake."

Shang Xi said: "I saw there is a well in your yard, why don't you drink the well water?"

"That's a dry well. They left it there when they dug halfway and it didn't produce any water."

"The county magistrate's family all eats lake water, what about the common people?"

Chen Gongxiang said: "We have been drinking water from the lake for generations, and have been drinking it for decades. This year, thanks to the Lord's prayer for rain, there is enough water in the lake. Otherwise, we would have been forced to move out of Mochun County."

"Is there no well here?"

"Yes, there are several wells in this city, but none of them produce water."

"If the well doesn't produce water, why don't you dig another well?"

"You don't know, the problem lies in the terrain. In other counties, water is found after digging more than 60 feet, but here there are large boulders 60 to 70 feet underground. No swords, guns, axes or hammers can do anything to these rocks. After chiseling away one layer, there is another layer underneath. In the end, we had no choice but to stop digging wells."

"Could it be that we chose the wrong location? I hired people to dig wells, but some strata just don't produce water." Shang Xi didn't believe that such a large county could not dig a few wells.

Wan Lianxing said, "Shang Xi, why don't you go to Mochun County first?"

Shang Xi said, "My Lord, you think too highly of me. I can't help you. I only know the basics. I can't tell what's underneath these dozens of meters. We must ask someone who knows how to dig a well. It takes several months to dig a well. If there's no water, all the work will be wasted."

Wan Lianxing said, "We have to try. Just as Magistrate Chen said, even if there is rock underneath the ground, we have to drill through it and get the water out."

"My Lord, I thought the same thing at first. I dug the well in my yard for three years but still couldn't get through the stone."

Wan Lianxing said, "Isn't that a hard stone? Let me take a look."

Wan Lianxing stood up, and everyone followed suit.

The rim of the well at Chen Gongxiang's home was made of stone bricks and was more than three feet high. Cheng Youning stood on tiptoe and looked down. It was a pitch-black hole and he could not see anything. He shouted "ah" into the well, and the echo reverberated from deep below the well.

Wan Lianxing said, "Find a rope. I'll go down and take a look."

Chen Gongxiang thought Wan Lianxing wanted to take a look inside the courtyard out of curiosity, but he never thought that Wan Lianxing wanted to go down to see what was going on. Chen Gongxiang was determined not to agree, "My Lord, this well is more than seventy feet deep. My Lord is so precious that you cannot go down into the well."

Cheng Feng also said, "I'll go down and take a look for my uncle."

Wan Lianxing said, "I have heard a lot of strange things in the world, but I have never seen a layer of ground that does not allow the people to drink water. I came here to solve the water problem in Mochun County. Since I am here, I want to see everything related to water with my own eyes."

No one could persuade him, so they had to find a bundle of ropes. Cheng Feng grabbed the ropes and said, "I'll go down first to find out what's going on, and then my uncle will go down."

Wan Lianxing grabbed Cheng Feng's shoulders and pushed him to the back. "No need for any of you to say anything. I can go down alone."

Wan Lianxing really had some skills. He put one hand on the rope and floated down along it lightly. Chen Gongxiang felt nervous, fearing that something might happen to Wan Lianxing.

"My Lord, did you fall in?" Chen Gongxiang leaned on the edge of the well and shouted into the well, "My Lord, are you okay? How deep are you?"

Wan Lianxing's muffled voice came from the bottom of the well, "I'm at the bottom."

"My Lord, just take a look and come up, it's dangerous."

After a while, Wan Lianxing's voice was not heard. "The Marquis didn't faint at the bottom of the well, did he?"

Just when everyone was getting anxious, the rope shook and everyone worked together to pull the person up.

Wan Lianxing stamped the mud off his shoes, and the people around him patted the hem of his clothes. Then he placed the two stones in his hand on the edge of the well. "It's exactly as County Magistrate Chen said. The stones are really hard and can't be pried open with a dagger. So I picked up two pieces."

Chen Gongxiang echoed, "I'm not lying, right? There are all these rocks down there, which are very difficult to deal with."

Shang Xi picked up the stone and looked at it and said, "Will other wells in the county also encounter this kind of stone when they dig to the bottom?"

Chen Gongxiang said: "It is this stone. It would be fine if it was an ordinary rock."

Shang Xi said, "I'll go down to the well and take a look."

When everyone heard that she was going down the well, it was even more unbelievable than when they heard that Wan Lianxing was going down the well.

"In my opinion, Madam Cheng, please don't go down. It's dangerous. I have never heard of a woman going down a well."

Shang Xi said: "It's okay, as long as there are no rats down there."

Wan Lianxing said, "There is no mouse, you can go down."

Cheng Feng disagreed, "It's more than seventy feet deep, and it's very dark inside. This is not a joke. You must be scared."

"This is the fire starter I used just now. Take it." Wan Lianxing took out a fire starter from his waist and handed it to Shang Xi.

Cheng Feng snatched her hand away, "Uncle, Shang Xi is timid, don't let her go down."

Wan Lianxing said: "What are you afraid of? If she gets into danger, I'll go down and save her."

"Uncle!"

Shang Xi reached out and snatched the fire starter from Cheng Feng's hand, then said to Chen Gongxiang beside her: "Mr. Chen, please find me two candles." Cheng Feng was right, she was indeed afraid of the dark and timid.

Chen Gongxiang said: "Is it okay for a woman to go down the well?"

Shang Xi smiled and said, "Okay, I'll definitely do it."