Chapter 173: A Spring Emerges on the Hill
If one were to name the most joyful event in the village lately—aside from every household top-dressing their fields and looking forward to a bumper harvest this year—it was undoubtedly that the Wen family had begun hiring workers once again.
Compared to the previous two times, an exceptionally large number of villagers turned up to sign up. After all, everyone knew by now that the Wen family’s work was manageable and the compensation was decent. Crucially, they provided food! Even if it was just one meal, it was guaranteed to feature proper pieces of meat, and everyone could always count on a good, hearty portion from the communal pot.
However, clearing the barren hill this time didn’t require that many hands. In the end, after a rigorous screening process, they only selected twenty men, most of whom had helped build the house or dig the fish ponds before.
Old Man Wen handed the management of the fields over to the second uncle, taking charge of supervising the reclamation of the barren hill himself.
Clearing a barren hill was a far cry from farming the fields. Though not a massive mountain, the hill was by no means short. It was completely overgrown with wild weeds and choked with a chaotic tangle of trees. Not only did they have to clear the brush and fell the trees, but they also had to terrace the flatter sections into arable plots.
Aside from spending the first two days holed up in his study working out the layout for the hill, Wen Xiuyi had been dragged up by Old Man Wen to toil alongside the rest. Of the three Wen brothers, not a single one had managed to escape.
After a few days of this, Wen Xiuyi felt as though his old bones were on the verge of snapping. Yet, seeing everyone else working with absolute fervor, he didn’t dare slack off too much. After all, slacking off meant facing the sole of Old Man Wen’s shoe.
“Scholar Wen, here to help out again?”
On this particular day, Wen Xiuyi trudged up the hill carrying a hoe as usual, with a medicinal patch Wen Yao had bought for him firmly stuck to his shoulder.
He had barely set foot on the slope when someone called out a greeting.
Catching sight of his current attire and feeling the newly formed calluses on his hands, Wen Xiuyi couldn’t help but wonder if the title “Scholar Wen” even applied to him anymore.
“Ah, yes.” How could he not come? The old man was watching him from not too far away.
Glancing at the large boulders partially buried in the dirt ahead of him, he knew their task for the day was to level this specific section and see if they could remove these stones.
Wen Xiuyi let out a deep sigh, resigning himself to his fate as he began to swing his hoe.
Once the wild weeds in this patch were cleared, the rest of the work would be simpler. The villagers were actually quite considerate of Wen Xiuyi; since he was the employer, they had assigned him to the area right next to the boulders, which had the fewest weeds.
Everything was going smoothly at first. But just as he finished his patch and prepared to loop around the other side of the boulders to continue, he failed to watch his step. His foot caught directly on a protruding rock, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.
“Oh, careful, Scholar Wen!” The workers nearby cried out in alarm, quickly rushing over to check on him.
Seeing a crowd gathering, Old Man Wen hurried over from a short distance away. He was just about to bark a reprimand at whoever was slacking off when he spotted his eldest son sitting on the ground, caked in mud, with a massive lump already swelling up on his forehead.
“What happened here?” Old Man Wen grew intensely anxious. His eldest son’s brain was incredibly sharp and useful now; it absolutely couldn’t afford to be damaged.
“How did such a massive lump form so fast? Quick, quick, stop working for now and go get it looked at.” Old Man Wen reached out to pull Wen Xiuyi up.
Wen Xiuyi remained seated on the ground, his head ringing loudly. It took him a good while to recover himself, and when he reached up to feel his forehead—sure enough, a huge bump.
He shook his head. “Father, I’m fine. I just need to sit here and catch my breath for a moment.”
Looking at the sharp tip of the rock that protruded barely ten centimeters out of the ground, Wen Xiuyi felt a surge of profound resentment. It hurt like absolute hell.
Seeing that his speech and faculties seemed perfectly normal, Old Man Wen finally let out a sigh of relief, though a trace of worry lingered.
“You should head home first,” Old Man Wen urged.
Wen Xiuyi rubbed his head. He truly wanted nothing more than to head home and lie down right now, but casting a glance at that solitary rock sticking out, he worried it might trip someone else later.
Wen Xiuyi spoke up, “No rush, Father. Let’s dig this rock out first, lest someone else trips over it later.”
Old Man Wen looked down at the culprit and nodded. “We’ll deal with this first then. Are you really alright?”
“I’m fine, Father. My head is just a bit dizzy, I’ll be good after a short rest.” As Wen Xiuyi spoke, he gingerly patted his head, praying he hadn’t given himself a concussion. It was a stroke of luck that he had fallen toward the flatter ground and hit a smaller pebble. If he had plunged toward those large boulders instead, his skull would have split open like a melon.
Following Old Man Wen’s command, a few men immediately brought over their hoes and began digging around the rock, clearing away the soil to inspect its size. If it wasn’t too large, they would shatter it and haul it away. If they dug down half a meter and it was still solid stone, it meant the rock was connected to the bedrock of the mountain itself, in which case they could only chisel the top flat so it wouldn’t obstruct the path.
Fortunately, they reached the base of the rock after digging less than half a meter down.
The men fetched their tools and began to pry it free.
To the rhythmic cadence of their collective grunts, the rock gradually began to loosen.
“Watch out, don’t let it roll down the hill and hit anyone,” Old Man Wen warned, stepping well out of the rock’s potential path.
Since the rock was loose, the task became much simpler. To prevent it from rolling down the slope and injuring anyone, they needed to break it apart right then and there.
After another round of heavy, resounding strikes, the boulder shattered into countless fragments. The pieces were gradually cleared away, leaving only the task of shoveling the dug-up earth back into the hole.
“Huh? Look at this.” Suddenly, one of the men preparing to fill the hole called out.
Everyone gathered around to look. Inside the crater left by the boulder, the exposed soil was slowly growing damp.
Having lived a long life, Old Man Wen understood the signs instantly.
“Keep digging!”
As more and more earth was shoveled out, the soil became increasingly saturated until water became clearly visible.
Finally, as they dug closer to the massive rock face, the water welled up rapidly, quickly pooling at the bottom of the pit.
“We’ve dug up a mountain spring!” someone cried out in astonishment.
Old Man Wen looked on, equally stunned. Having lived here for so many years, he had never once heard of a spring existing on this barren hill behind the village. At most, a few trickles of water would flow down during the rainy season, only to vanish completely the moment the rains stopped.
For decades, it had never crossed anyone’s mind that there could be a perennial spring on this hill.
Old Man Wen grew visibly thrilled. With a mountain spring, could this hill still be considered barren? With a source of water, the entire mountain would come alive.
During the brief moments he spent lost in a daze, a significant amount of water had already accumulated in the pit.
“It’s highly likely that the boulder from earlier happened to be pressing right down on the eye of the spring. Now that we’ve removed the stone, the spring eye has opened up, letting the water break free,” someone remarked.
The crowd couldn’t help but turn their gazes toward Wen Xiuyi. This man had actually managed to trip himself into discovering a spring.
It was pure, unadulterated luck.
If this spring had been discovered earlier, this hill would never have been written off as barren land.
Before long, the news that Old Man Wen and the others had unearthed a mountain spring while removing a rock spread like wildfire across the slopes. Everyone ran over out of sheer curiosity to lay eyes on this sudden anomaly.
The pit was now filled with water that was crystal clear and cool to the touch. Driven by curiosity, someone scooped up a handful and took a sip. It was sweet, refreshing, and ice-cold. Taking a draft of it in this sweltering weather sent a wave of sheer invigoration through the entire body.
Strangely enough, the moment the water reached the brim of the pit, it ceased to overflow. Yet, the moment someone ladled some out, the spring would immediately begin to flow again until the pit was perfectly full once more, at which point it would stop.
The villagers clicked their tongues in wonder at the marvel. Even Wen Xiuyi, the former university professor, couldn’t offer a scientific explanation for the phenomenon. After all, he was just an agricultural specialist, not a geologist.
