Although the area around Persimmon Bay belongs to the warm temperate monsoon climate, it is located inland, far from the ocean, and the east and south are blocked by the two major mountain ranges of Taihang and Zhongtiao respectively.

The main source of drinking water here is groundwater, i.e. well water. The wells here are generally more than ten zhang deep, just like the "old well" in the movie.

The well is completely excavated manually, and the wall of the well is a color of loess, only in the place close to the bottom of the well, soaked in water all the year round, it is protected layer by layer with the "well swirl" made of willow wood to prevent the wall from soaking soft and collapsing.

The wellhead is made of a large thick stone slab to cut a round hole and insert it. The rope marks on the wellhead record the vicissitudes of the villagers.

Under the old locust tree, on the high well platform, the thick wooden axle of the bowl is horizontally erected on two erected stone piers; the wooden axle is pressed with a stone at one end, and the other end is tied to a roller; the thick well rope is wrapped around the roller and tied to a willow pot at the other end.

The farmer shook off his arms and shook his wheel, and the willow pot stirred up the well water from the bottom of the well more than ten zhang deep, grabbed the willow pot and poured it into the rectangular stone trough. Scoop up a scoop of water from the well and drink it, it's sweet and silky, and it's better than a drink.

As for other water, it mainly relies on ponds and patios (patios, the name of the persimmon bay area, look the same as wells, but not deep, that is, deep, can not draw groundwater, used to store rainwater, some like water cellars). Every village here has a pond and every house has a patio.

When it rains heavily, the water in the alleys flows to the ponds. The pond is rammed with loess bottom, brick and stone bank, surrounded by willows, shrub revetment, white ducks playing, and frogs have a pleasant sound. The eldest girl and the little daughter-in-law are talking and laughing, waving a mallet and washing colorful clothes, which can be regarded as a scene of a quiet village.

The rains here are concentrated in the summer for more than a year, especially in July and August. In the scorching summer, the heat is unbearable, and the clouds in the sky turn from white to gray, from gray to black, from less to more gathered, when suddenly the wind is fierce, lightning and thunder, and the rain is like a note. The rain washed the bare high cliffs and earthen ridges and rolled down, hitting the deep ravines and gullies, and rushing into the river.

In winter, persimmon bay is bitterly cold and windy, and there will be a few knee-deep snowfalls. If it snows heavily overnight, it will be difficult to open the door the next day. After the snow, the sky is clear, and the sun of the whole sky is reflected through the white snow, shining close to your eyes. Building snowmen and having snowball fights is a great fun for adults and children.

Children are the hope of the bankers and the support of their retirement. However, uncontrolled natural fertility has also brought about population expansion and resource strain.

Persimmon Bay, where the rain was okay, was only more than 20 years old, and now the population of Yunling has doubled, and it takes half a day to queue up to stir up a load of water, and the original two old wells in the village are no longer enough for the whole village to eat, so Yunling has to consider it separately. Of course, this is a matter for brigades or squads, and the croppers can only complain.

At the beginning of the 11th lunar month of this year, it snowed for the first time since the beginning of winter. On the tenth day of the first month, Qingxi meets the temple fair. When she got up in the morning, Ye Zi told her mother-in-law and husband that she would go to the meeting and buy some radish, cabbage, mustard greens, etc., so that she could come back with sauerkraut and fried mulberry vegetables.

The sun just came out, and Ye asked her mother-in-law to take care of the child, so she put on a headscarf and gloves, and rode a bicycle on the road.

The leaves on the side of the road have long since fallen, the ditches and ridges are yellow, and the snow at the roots of the weir can still be seen. The wheat seedlings on the side of the road were frozen to a dark blue, and a puff of dust was blown from time to time on the bumpy dirt road.

Ye rode against the northwest wind, wiped a handful of water snot hanging on the tip of his nose from time to time, and went straight to Qingxi. It's going to be winter, and the people of the village have to prepare some things for the winter, and there are more people at the temple fair.

Just when he was about to buy vegetables, Ye Zi met his sister-in-law. So, the two of them picked and picked some vegetables at the stall together. Then the hairpin said, "Let's go and sit on the wall for a while, rest, the sun is good there, and there is no wind." ”

"Hmm. Do you still drink mutton soup? "I don't drink it. Yezi, I want to tell you something. "Oh, let's go sit down for a while. ”

After sitting down, the hairpin briefly told her sister-in-law about Xian'er that night. Then he said a little angrily: "Yezi, the forehead is kind." He told Xian'er that it was dark, and it was too late for Sensei to talk to people, so let's close the door earlier. "That's right. ”

"But do you guess how the fairy of the other family replied?" "What did she say?" "People say, ah, dare to do the baby is not in the house, you just spy on her?"

"What did you hear her say? "The hell. "That's it, kindness is regarded as a donkey's liver and lungs. "I don't know what to do, just that. "That's it, let's say in our hearts, Dowa is not here, let's take care of the passport, and Sensei made her suffer, but it turned out to be a big deal." What is this called? I get angry when I mention it. ”

Listening to her sister-in-law's story, Ye Zi didn't know what to say, so she had to listen carefully, and said a few words of comfort such as "Xian'er is not sensible" and "Sensei is generally knowledgeable with her", and then they dispersed.

Coincidentally, just as Ye Zi was about to go back, he accidentally saw Qingping's martial arts wife taking a little girl to look at something in front of the stall. Ye Zi involuntarily ran over and dragged the back of the martial wife's placket and accosted: "Old sister-in-law, let's meet too." ”

"Oh, it's you. The martial wife's wife replied back. "You still recognize it, don't you?" "Why don't you recognize it, Yezi." "It's been years. Ye Zi said with a smile. "Yes. ”

"What are you going to buy?" "Oh, I grabbed medicine for her father, go shopping." "What's wrong?" "People are depressed. "Hey, this is your daughter?" "Well, my daughter. Hurry up and call your aunt. I saw the little girl wearing a pink turban, showing a red face, looking at the leaves, but she didn't squeak.

"Don't shout, don't shout, it's all so big. Ye Zi smiled and touched the little girl, and took out a few sugar eggs from the small bag to stuff for the child. "My aunt gave it, take it. The martial wife said.

The little girl embarrassedly hid beside Wu's mother, half-pushed and half-took the sugar egg on the spot, and looked at the leaves with watery eyes, but still didn't squeak.

"How old are you?" asked Ye Zi, touching the little girl's face. The little girl kept her head down and did not squeak. "Seven years old. The martial wife looked at her daughter and replied.

"What's your name?" The wife of the martial arts family motioned to her daughter. The little girl remained shy. "It's called Gua'er. The martial wife's wife sued Ye Zi. "Oh, that's a good name. "The wife of the martial artist didn't say anything. "Oh, then you two will turn around again, forehead back. "Hmm. And they dispersed.

It's almost noon, and the sun brings warmth in the cold wind, and people feel much more comfortable. Birds flew from tree to tree, and there was a chirping sound. Under the sun, there are a few missing persimmons hanging on the bare persimmon tree, which are red and beautiful.

There were still bumps all the way, and the leaf bike brought half a pocket of vegetables, but it didn't feel difficult to ride, and it seemed to be a little easier.

On the twentieth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, it was the day of the meeting in Qingxi, and Ye Zi had nothing to do, but he rushed to the meeting again. Coincidentally, I met Qingping's Xing family's daughter-in-law at the meeting.

As soon as they met, Ye Zi couldn't help but talk about meeting the mother and daughter of the Wu family that day, but the daughter-in-law of the Xing family seemed to have something on her mind, so she just smiled and listened to what Ye Zi said, so she diverted the topic.

As for the further situation of the Wu family's mother and daughter, the Xing family's daughter-in-law did not say a word. Although Ye Zi didn't say it, he was inexplicably a little lost in his heart.

After returning home, in her spare time, Ye Zi remembered the encounter with the mother and daughter of the martial family from time to time, the red face and watery eyes of the little girl of the martial family often appeared in front of her, she didn't know what was going on, but she didn't show it in front of her family at all. The team's manure delivery and Pingtian were arranged tightly, and they went to work at sky-high prices, and Ye Zi gradually became indifferent to this matter. I'll leave that aside for now.

It was also when the fields were leveling in Nangouli that the team invited an old man from Liuwan who could look at the water veins. First, a well location was selected at the place where the ditch turned from south to west and was close to the mountain water trough (the name of the drainage canal on the ditch in the area of Persimmon Bay), and then it was excavated manually.

First, they dug with a pickaxe and shovel, and brought up the soil one by one. When they dug more than one person deep, they set up a roller and began to stir up the earth basket by basket. It's just that this first well was dug two zhang deep, but there was still no water, so I had to give up backfilling.

After some selection, the second well was selected at the place where the ditch turned from east to north and was close to the mountain water trough, and it was fought again, and finally saw the water when it was more than two zhang deep.

As he continued to dig down, he used a well made of willow wood to protect the wall layer by layer. You also said that the water quality of this well is not bad, sweet and silky, and the water output is quite large, enough to be eight or nine feet deep, and the villagers are very happy.

Later, the village hurriedly bought submersible pumps, pressurized pumps, diesel engines and water pipes from the county seat, and built a house-sized pool with bricks, cement and steel bars on the cliff mouth near the edge of Nangou ditch.

A banner was also made of cement on the outer wall of the pool, and a row of eye-catching characters were engraved on the sun: "Don't forget the people who dig the well, and don't forget the happiness ***." As soon as the faucet was twisted, a load of water was quickly carried home, and the villagers liked to call it tap water. Of course, that's another story.

In the twenties of the lunar month, when the New Year was approaching, Dowa and the others came back from Xishan. Who knew that that night, Xian'er cried and cried, and her words leaked out of her brother and sister-in-law's intention to frame her.

As soon as she heard this, Dowa became angry, but it was not good to tear her face and quarrel with her brother and sister-in-law. So, he made a special trip to the county seat and sued his parents, saying that his sister-in-law made something out of nothing and ruined his family's style.

Needless to say, when the new year was sent to Qiangen'er, Wu's mother counted her eldest son. Gen'er was originally a good heart, but she was bitten back by Duowa's wife, and she was very angry, but she couldn't talk back to her parents, so she ate Coptis dumbly and put it in her heart.

What made Gen'er even more angry was that later Xian'er sued the hairpin to the branch secretary, saying that the hairpin framed him. And the branch secretary also talked to the hairpin like a dog, which was a warning.

Gen'er and his wife were so angry that they trembled, but they had no evidence, and they were even more afraid of embarrassing the Wu family, so they swallowed this anger. From then on, the brother and the concubine had a knot in their hearts and stopped talking to each other.

During the Spring Festival, Wu's parents did not return to Liuwan. Ye Zi and his wife led the dog baby and Xing'er to the county seat to celebrate the New Year with their parents, and then came to Liuwan to see her brother and sister-in-law and younger brother's family. But Ye Zi didn't say a word about the matter with the brothers, in fact, she didn't have the heart to care about this at the moment, and was thinking about another thing.