roccoschili Chapter 41: Well Water
Chapter 41: Well Water
The man with glasses was the first to come to his senses. He glanced at the wellhead and then turned to Master Ma.
"Mr. Ma, how deep is your well?"
"At least eight meters." Master Ma placed the half-splashed tea vat on the stone table.
"How many years have they been fighting?"
"It was here when I moved in, at least fifty years ago. My neighbor, Old Zhao, said that the well existed before the liberation."
King Glasses squatted down beside the well, tilted his head to look down, then sniffed it closely. Without saying a word, he stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.
"Teacher Wang, have you finished your assessment?" Cheng Xiaojin interjected.
The man with glasses glanced at him.
"The assessment is complete, and I've said everything I needed to say. I'll be flying to Penang within seven days, and the conclusions will be what I just mentioned."
I remember the favor.
King Glasses nodded, picked up his tool bag, walked to the gate of the courtyard, paused for a moment, but did not turn around.
"The smell from the bottom of this well is off today. It's so hot, and this fumes aren't coming out. It's not the water pipes."
After saying that, he left the courtyard.
After the footsteps faded into the distance, Cheng Xiaojin turned to look at Master Ma.
Grandpa Ma had already stood beside the well, bent over, one hand supporting himself on the stone slab at the edge of the well, and the other hand flipping the enamel mug lid over and placing it on the stone slab at the well opening. He listened intently for more than ten seconds.
"Master Ma?"
"Don't speak."
Cheng Xiaojin shut up.
After listening for a while, Master Ma picked up the jar lid, turned it over, and looked at the bottom.
A thin layer of moisture clung to the bottom of the lid, but the moisture was the wrong color, tinged with gray.
He rubbed it with his finger and held it under his nose to smell it, his brow furrowing so deeply it could trap a mosquito.
Tieguai Li poked half his head out from the back gate.
"What happened? I heard a noise behind me."
"Come and take a look."
Tieguai Li walked over, leaning on the wall, squatted down next to the well, and smelled it as well.
"It smells metallic, and there's this strange, indescribable smell, and it's chilly..."
"Old Li, did you ever dig a deep well when you were in the army?"
"We did it. In Qinghai, at an altitude of over 3,000 meters, when we hit a depth of 20 meters, a stream of black water came out. Later, the old platoon leader said that there was an underground river flowing down there, and the water contained sulfides."
"There is no underground river at the bottom of this well."
Master Ma straightened up and wiped the lid of the jar on his pants.
"I've lived here for almost twenty years, and the water from this well has been clear all year round and has never had any strange smell."
"Where did this smell come from today?"
Master Ma didn't answer Tieguai Li; his gaze fell on Cheng Xiaojin's face.
"Go back first, and come find me tomorrow."
"Master Ma, what exactly...?"
"tomorrow."
Cheng Xiaojin wanted to ask more questions, but Master Ma's expression was very serious.
The next morning, Cheng Xiaojingang set up his stall at Panjiayuan, and Zhao Defa came over from next door with a look on his face as if it were New Year's Day.
"Jinzi, do you know what happened to those three old wells in the East District?"
"What's wrong?"
"The water has changed color. It's not cloudy, but a grayish color, and it smells like rust. The water vendors have been complaining about it all morning."
Cheng Xiaojin's hand stopped on the stall cloth.
"Have all three of you changed?"
"Yes, Old Wang from the management office said he's never seen anything like this before. Miao Daqing has already called the municipal maintenance team."
Cheng Xiaojin arranged the items on the stall and walked to the nearest well in the East District.
Seven or eight stall owners were gathered around the well, and Miao Daqing, wearing his ever-present gray short-sleeved shirt, was taking pictures with his phone.
Cheng Xiaojin squeezed in and peeked into the well.
The water surface was definitely not right; it wasn't normal turbidity. It was a dark gray with a metallic sheen, and a thin, oily film floated on the surface, shimmering with colorful rings when the sunlight shone on it.
The rusty smell was very obvious.
"Director Miao, have you found out what the cause is?"
Miao Daqing put his phone in his pocket and shook his head.
"The municipal workers said they'd come in the afternoon. They suspect it's a leak from aging underground water pipes. The pipe network in this area was laid in the 1980s, so it's normal for them to rust through."
At noon, the municipal maintenance team arrived in two vehicles with six people. They drove around the eastern district with a detector, dug up two sections of road, and found that the pipes were old but not broken or leaking.
The team leader was a middle-aged man in his forties. He squatted down next to the well, took a water sample, and shook his head.
"The pipeline network is fine. Take the water sample back and have it tested. It's probably a problem with the groundwater layer, and it has nothing to do with your market."
Cheng Xiaojin stood at a distance and watched, without going over.
I feel increasingly uneasy.
At 1:30 p.m., cracks appeared in the cement floor of Zone C.
It was as thin as a hair, extending out from under a stall and winding for about three meters.
Cheng Xiaojin was dragged there by Zhou Banxian.
"Crouch down and put your hand over the crack."
Cheng Xiaojin squatted down, his right palm facing down, about three inches above the crack.
It's cold.
In the sweltering summer heat, the ground was scorching hot from the sun, but a cool breeze seeped out from the cracks, and the difference in temperature could be clearly felt in the palm of one's hand.
"What's going on?"
Zhou Banxian didn't answer. He took out an unlit cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and squinted at the crack.
"Let's go, let's find a secluded place to talk."
The two walked to the garbage station at the northernmost part of the market. It smelled terrible, but there was no one there.
"Uncle Zhou, what does it mean that the well water has changed color and cold air is emanating from the cracks in the ground?"
Zhou Banxian took the cigarette out of his mouth, tucked it between his fingers, and twirled it twice.
"The explanation can be broad or narrow. On a smaller scale, it could be attributed to seasonal anomalies caused by changes in groundwater levels; on a larger scale..."
Cheng Xiaojin swallowed hard. "To put it bluntly..."
"To put it more broadly, after the suppressing object was moved, the earth's veins and water outlets were no longer blocked, and the yin energy from underwater rose up through the gap."
"You mean it's related to the Zhenhai Railway?"
"I'm asking you, where was that piece of iron originally placed?"
"Under the foundation of an old house in Mancheng, Hebei."
Do you know what that location is called in Feng Shui?
Cheng Xiaojin shook his head.
"Water outlet pile location," Zhou Banxian said in a low voice.
"Every vein of earth has a node at the water outlet. A stabilizing object must be placed at the node to stabilize the water vein. If the stabilizing object is removed, the water outlet will leak."
"That piece of Zhenhai Iron has been suppressing the sea for six hundred years under that foundation. You dug it out, and now the water outlet is leaking."
"But that's the water outlet in Mancheng, Hebei. What does it have to do with the well in Beijing?"
"Have you forgotten what I told you?"
Zhou Banxian looked at him.
"Nine groups of Zhenhai Iron, one hundred and thirty-five pieces in total. Each group guards one branch, and all nine branches connect to one main vein. Where is the pulse point of this main vein?"
"Directly below the Forbidden City."
"Yes, you pulled out a stake from a branch vein. The vibration from the branch vein will be transmitted to the main vein through the underground water system. Once the main vein moves, all the water outlets along the line will be affected. Panjiayuan is less than four kilometers from the central axis, right at the end of the eastern branch vein."
Cheng Xiaojin's palms were sweaty.
"Then what should we do? Put the iron back?"
"Put it back? Do you know where the original pit was? Do you know the angle and depth for placing it? The pile anchor isn't just something you bury in the ground and call it a day."
At 3:30 p.m., Zhou, the security guard on the night shift, came to the management office to find Miao Daqing and said he needed to ask for leave.
Cheng Xiaojin was getting water from the tap next to the management office when he heard Lao Zhou's voice.
"Director Miao, I've been having the same dream for three nights in a row, I can't take it anymore."
"What kind of dream could warrant taking leave?"
"I dreamt that I was standing in water, waist-deep black water, and the water kept rising. No matter how I tried to move, I couldn't move. The more I tried to lift my feet, the more the water rose, until it reached my chest, my neck, and my mouth, and then I woke up."
After Lao Zhou finished speaking, another security guard, Xiao Zhang, chimed in.
"Director Miao, I did the same thing. It was different but similar. I dreamt that water was gushing up from cracks in the ground, covering the entire ground."
The third security guard didn't say anything, but his face was pale, clearly indicating that he hadn't slept well either.
Miao Daqing waved his hand impatiently.
"Alright, alright, stop with the feudal superstition stuff. It's normal for water pipes to age and the ground to crack when it gets hot. The repair team came by, didn't they? They took the water sample back for testing and said there was no problem."
"You guys should drink less, and don't look at your phones before bed so you won't have nightmares. Your leave is denied, go back to work."
Cheng Xiaojin carried the water bottle and walked back.
The security guard's dream swirled in his mind, but he couldn't come to any conclusion. He just felt that these things didn't quite add up, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
Mr. Ma arrived in the afternoon.
He was wearing a white polyester short-sleeved shirt and carrying a birdcage as he strolled around the market.
As he passed the three old wells that had changed color, he stopped for a while beside each one.
Cheng Xiaojin watched him from afar.
Grandpa Ma squatted down next to the second well, dipped a finger in the water, smelled it, stood up, and continued walking forward.
That evening, Master Ma summoned Cheng Xiaojin to the courtyard house.
Tieguai Li was also there, sitting on the steps, using a hex wrench to tighten a screw on his prosthetic leg.
The well in the courtyard now has a red cloth on its stone slab cover, with four blue bricks pressed down at the four corners of the cloth.
"Master Ma, what's wrong...?"
"Sit down first."
Master Ma sat in a rattan chair with a teacup on his lap.
"Do you remember where the Zhenhai Iron used to be located?"
"Under the foundation of an old house in Mancheng, Hebei."
"That location is called the water mouth position in feng shui. The Zhenhai Iron has been there for 600 years to suppress the earth's water veins."
"Hmm... Master Ma, this fortune teller Zhou also told me about it this afternoon."
"How much did he say?"
"They said that once the pile was removed, the water outlet leaked, and the vibration from the branch vein was transmitted to the main vein, affecting the water outlets along the line."
Master Ma nodded.
"He's right, but he didn't tell you the rest."
What's next?
Master Ma picked up the teacup, and the lid scraped against the rim of the cup, the sound not as crisp as usual.
"After the water outlet leaks, the things that have been suppressed by the suppressing object in the underground water veins for many years will rise up with the water."
"What is it?"
Tieguai Li stopped tightening the screws.
Mr. Ma lowered his voice, sounding much older.
"Yin Water Sha..."