That little boy was naturally indispensable to please his parents for a beating, and the way of education at that time was like this. My nose now bleeds at every turn, also thanks to my father's powerful slap.

However, beating the children could not bring back the dirt from the well, and the villagers could not do without the water from the well every day. The children beat and scolded, and the water in the well had to be cleaned up by adults.

Dozens of families came to the well with buckets and cans and scooped water from the well. Since the wellhead is quite small, it is inconvenient to have more people. Bucket to bucket, spoon to spoon, jar to jar are all bumping and clanging, so lively.

However, because of the small wellhead, the water level dropped quickly, and after a while, people crawled at the wellhead and couldn't reach the water surface. So, people set up a simple tripod on the wellhead, and a pulley was hung from the tripod to lift the water from the bucket. At that time, almost all people used heavy wooden barrels, and few people used iron buckets, and even if there were iron buckets, they were reluctant to use them on ordinary occasions, so as long as a turning head or granite was added to the bottom of the bucket, the bucket would not float on the surface of the water and not sink.

Everyone took turns lifting water from buckets with a stone pressed on the bottom of the bucket, and the water level in the well continued to drop rapidly. After two or three hours, the rope on the pulley was not long enough. However, it takes several minutes for the person who is carrying the water to run out of the wellhead to pull the bucket to the surface. You can see how deep this little well is. The elderly people said that since they were born, they had never seen the water from this well dry, and even when the paddy fields of Hunan Province were dry and cracked like dead bark during the great drought, and the rice dried up and died, the well still had a continuous source of water, sweet and transparent. It was this well that saved hundreds of lives living nearby. Therefore, some old people said that this well is not an ordinary well, but a passage to the Dragon Palace of Dongting Lake.

I can't believe this statement, although we live in Yueyang, we have never seen the famous Dongting Lake before we went to high school, let alone the Dragon Palace. Although I later saw Dongting Lake, the Dongting Lake, which was claimed to be 800 miles, has become 400 miles that has shrunk by half, and it is muddy and turbid, and the stinking waves are monstrous. And the water in this small well is clean, sweet and refreshing, how can it be such Dongting Lake water?

However, the old people said that this well is connected to the Dragon Palace of Dongting Lake, and they may have their own reasons. The next thing is a little bit closer to the idea of this direction.

The rope has been lengthened, but the lengthened part doesn't seem to be needed. Because the person pulling the rope can't put it down anymore when his hand pinched the knot between the two ropes, the bucket has already hit the water. A dull "clang" came from the well. Although the progress of lifting water has slowed down a lot because of the length of the lifting rope, the buckets are lifted up one by one, and the buckets of water are gradually lifted out.

Strangely, the person pulling the rope still lowered the rope and put it where the two ropes were knotted, and heard a disappointing "clang" sound. The water hung out endlessly, but the water level in the well didn't seem to drop a bit.

"Damn, I saw that this well was so small, I thought that I wouldn't be able to dry the water in one afternoon, but now the sun is going down, and the water is still bottomless!" The man pulling the rope gasped. Don't look at the small buckets of water, people can't stand it after a long time, and the person pulling the rope has changed several handles.

The sun on the side of the mountain seemed to hear the words of the man pulling the rope, and sank into the other side of the mountain at a faster speed, and even the sunset was earlier than usual. The people who carried the water and pulled the rope were already tired, and even the children who were standing by and watching felt that their feet were sore, and they went home in a huff. However, the water level in the well did not go down at all, and the knotting of the two ropes still stopped at the same height.

After some discussion, everyone decided to put it down and go back to rest today, and then continue to do it tomorrow. It is impossible to give up, because many people's lives are inseparable from it, washing rice, washing vegetables, drinking water, making tea, washing face and bathing are all indispensable. But everyone was too tired to do it, and as soon as the proposal came out, everyone went home. The moon has come out, and the cool moonlight hits everyone, sending them to their respective doorsteps when they are tired.

What happened that night, no one knows, maybe only the moon that night saw all the changes.

The next morning, when everyone rushed to the wellhead again, the muddy water rose to the wellhead, and it was as calm as a ploughed paddy field. I don't know if you have ever seen a ploughed field in the countryside, the turbidity of the water is different, and the water and the particles are not compatible. Water is water, particles are particles, and if you look a little closer, the water is still clear and bright, and the particles are tumbling and rushing in the clear water.

That morning, everyone saw such water. No one knows where these dirty particles come from. This phenomenon can only be seen in the pond after the rain, but the moon was bright the night before, and no rain came.

Everyone looked at each other, helpless. Everyone has only seen this well clear and slightly "waved" since they were born, and they have never seen this well become like this.

"As I said, this well is connected to the Dragon Palace of Dongting Lake, so you can't do it." An old man rubbed his chin and beard and said, "You are going to scoop up the well water now, and you will anger the dragon king of Dongting Lake." The dragon king didn't give us good water, and deliberately made the water of this well muddy. ”

Everyone heard him, but no one pretended not to hear, and did not say anything against or in favor of him.

In this way, the life of the people of the village left the small well overnight. In desperation, some families paid for artisans to build private groundwater wells. Others, on the other hand, walk long distances to get water from the creek and put it at home for a few days before making it a domestic water. Sometimes, when they need it urgently, but there is no water, some people will take the water from the pond or even the water from the paddy field, and then hold their stomachs and hum in pain for several days.

Later, a girl from a distant land married here, and she saw the pain of the water and knew the story of the little well, so she commissioned a stonemason to carve some strange runes into a stone the size of a fist.

It turned out that she was the daughter of a Taoist family and learned some knowledge of charms from her father.

One night on the full moon of the fifteenth month, she brought all the people in the village to the well. They followed her and said some greetings, and then, with a wave of her hand, she threw the stone with the rune carved into the well.

"Boom", the stone sank into the well, and the well water splashed up, wetting her pants.