There are as many recipes for herbal balm as there are families, but Li Yao’s version was one she had perfected through trial and error. For any mosquito bite or insect sting, a mere dab provided instant relief. The only drawback was its appearance—it lacked the aesthetic appeal of a polished product. Yet, if she could solve that, she would have yet another lucrative venture on her hands. Now that she had handed off the daily operations of the stall to the boys, she finally had the time to experiment.
However, she hadn’t even risen from her bed when Wang Xiaosi burst into the bedroom, breathless and frantic. “Mother! Big Brother is in a fight!”
“Who? Where?”
“It’s Zhu Yougui! By the well!”
Riverbend Village had seven wells in total. As the drought worsened, six of them had run dry, leaving only one to supply water for the entire village of over a thousand people. Even that last well was dwindling, so every morning before heading to the market, Dazhuang made sure to haul enough water to store for the day.
Their business’s success had already stirred up plenty of jealousy, and after Li Yao had humiliated Zhu Yougui the day before, he seized this opportunity to block Dazhuang from taking extra water. Without water, they couldn’t make their braised dishes, and Li Yao couldn’t wash. Dazhuang wasn’t about to back down. A few heated words were exchanged, and soon the two were scuffling. Fortunately, there were many others at the well, and they were quickly pulled apart.
By the time Li Yao arrived, a large crowd had gathered, and even the village head had come to intervene. Though Dazhuang hadn’t come off worse, Li Yao couldn’t abide the thought of someone like Zhu Yougui bullying her son.
“Zhu Yougui,” she said, her voice sharp enough to cut, “is your skin itching for a beating?”
Zhu Yougui still felt the lingering terror of the thrashing he’d received the day before, but today he felt he stood on the side of justice, and with the villagers backing him, he steeled himself.
“I’m just speaking for what’s fair,” Zhu Yougui retorted. “There’s only so much water in this well. If your family uses more, others get less. Wouldn’t everyone agree?”
Emboldened by their numbers and unafraid of Li Yao’s temper, the villagers began to chime in.
“The well belongs to the whole village! We can’t let your family hog it when others don’t even have enough to cook!”
“The water level is dropping every day. If this keeps up, the rest of us won’t even have water to drink.”
“So what if we use a little extra water?”
Before Li Yao could even open her mouth, Granny Wang stepped forward, hands planted firmly on her hips. “I see what’s going on here! You’re all just green with envy because Dazhuang’s mother is making money! If you had the talent to run a decent business, you could use the whole well for all I care!”
Granny Wang’s defense was utterly unreasonable, and the fact that she was speaking up for her daughter-in-law caught Li Yao by surprise.
“Old Woman Xue, don’t stir up trouble here! The village head is here—let him judge the matter fairly!”
Wang Jiafu, the village head, had been losing sleep over this for days. The last well was visibly drying up. If it truly ran empty one day, how would a village this large survive?
“This well water,” the village head decided, “should be shared equally among everyone.”
The crowd let out a collective sigh of relief, silently commending the village head for his impartiality and lack of fear toward a notorious shrew. But after he finished, he glanced nervously at Li Yao. He felt uneasy. Typically, if Li Yao encountered such a setback, she would be wailing and throwing a tantrum—she was the type who would actually threaten to hang herself at someone’s doorstep if she didn’t get her way. But today, Li Yao was eerily quiet, which made him suspect she was preparing some massive counter-offensive.
“Well then, Dazhuang’s mother,” the village head asked cautiously, “what is your opinion?”
“I refuse.”
I knew it, the village head thought. This woman isn’t the type to swallow a loss!
“But this well water…”
“If you won’t let me use the well water, fine—I won’t use it,” Li Yao announced loudly. “But when this well eventually runs dry, don’t you dare come asking to take water from my family’s well.”
The crowd stared at one another, confused, taking a long moment to process her meaning.
“You intend to dig your own well?”
In this era, digging a well was no small feat. It required an experienced elder to divine the location, and even then, there was no guarantee of finding water. It was said that when Riverbend Village was first established, they had tested over twenty sites before successfully striking the seven wells that provided water. For Li Yao to claim she could dig her own well now seemed like sheer fantasy.
“Every well in this village was dug until it struck the red bedrock,” the village head noted. “If these wells are dry, digging anywhere else will be fruitless.”
Li Yao didn’t know anything about red bedrock. She only knew that Riverbend Village stood at the foot of a massive mountain range; they might lack many things, but they would certainly not lack groundwater. If they couldn’t find water, it was simply because their method of digging was wrong. If one dug deep enough, one could find water even in the middle of a desert. But there was no use arguing now.
“Let’s go home,” Li Yao commanded. “From today on, we aren’t going to the market. We’re digging a well.”
“Understood!”
Though they didn’t know where she found such confidence, the boys knew one thing: obeying their mother was the right thing to do.
They chose a vacant plot next to their courtyard for the well. The elevation was slightly higher there, meaning they might have to dig a few meters deeper, but it was closer to the house, making it more convenient in the long run. Dazhuang took on the role of the primary digger, while his three brothers helped haul the mud. Within half a day, they had already dug more than two meters deep.
At that depth, hauling the mud out became difficult, so Li Yao set up a tall tripod over the opening. By rigging a long pole as a lever, they were able to hoist the mud up with ease. As for the braised dishes, they kept what they had prepared for themselves, though Li Yao didn’t forget to have Wang Er deliver a bowl to the old man at the Academy gate to inform him that they would be taking a break for a few days. They had taken the man’s money, and it was their duty to honor the commitment; that was the essence of integrity.
Through their combined efforts, they had dug over three meters by the end of the first day—a truly impressive pace. However, just as they were about to pack up, Dazhuang accidentally smashed his toe with a heavy stone.
“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt,” Dazhuang insisted. “I’ll sleep it off and be good as new by morning.”
The toes are connected to the heart. His nail was shattered—how could it not hurt? Li Yao cleaned the wound thoroughly and applied a poultice of herbs to stop the bleeding and reduce the swelling.
“You are resting tomorrow.”
“But Mother, the well isn’t finished yet…”
“Is your health more important than the well, or is the well more important? I said rest, so you rest!” Li Yao said firmly. “There’s no rush to dig this well. It won’t be too late to continue once your foot is healed.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Back at the old family estate, Zhou returned with half a basket of wild greens and immediately told Granny Wang about Dazhuang’s injury.
“Is the injury serious?” Granny Wang asked quickly.
“I don’t know,” Zhou replied. “But he certainly won’t be able to continue digging for a few days.”
“Smashed his foot? I think he did it on purpose to get out of work!” Third Sister-in-law Shen chimed in, seizing the opportunity. “He must have realized they couldn’t strike water after making such bold claims in front of the whole village, and now he’s just looking for an excuse to back down.”
“If you don’t have anything worth saying, nobody will think you’re a mute! Get back to chopping grass!”
After snapping at Shen, Granny Wang turned to her husband, who had just returned from outside. “Old man, you’re going over tomorrow to help them dig that well.”
“That plot of theirs… I don’t think they’ll strike water there…”
“If I tell you to go, you go! Why all this useless chatter?” Granny Wang scolded. “If you dig, there’s a chance for water. If you don’t dig, you’ll never see a drop in your entire life! You’ve lived this long, and you don’t even understand that much?”
“Alright, alright, don’t get worked up. I’ll go, won’t I?”
The old man sat on the threshold and let out a silent sigh. In this family, the women were simply too overbearing. He had spent his whole life under his wife’s thumb; their second and third sons were both henpecked, and their eldest son—rest his soul—hadn’t even dared to breathe loudly in front of Dazhuang’s mother while he was alive.