In the book, the female supporting role dreams of being an idle fish

"What happened to the fourth family behind us?" It turned out that Jiang Wen had caught up.

"You're taking it back so soon? I see there's quite a few people queuing there. Is that well very close to the factory cafeteria kitchen well?"

"That well is the same as the kitchen. When they were digging the well, the master said the bigger it was, the faster it would go. So they started to widen it. It expanded to three meters because it's circular."

"So half was left in the kitchen, and half here. But to prevent anyone from stealing things from the factory through this well, the well was sealed. That means they can't go back and forth."

"These wells are usually only 70 to 80 centimeters in diameter, but can be 20 to 30 meters, or even 40 to 50 meters deep. So digging a cylindrical well like this on flat ground is incredibly difficult."

"Dig a well mainly involves getting soil. First, dig on the surface. The soil is easy to get, so use a shovel to dig it out. If you go deeper, use a basin or basket to collect the soil."

"As we dig deeper and deeper, we need to use a windlass to stir the water. They put the windlass they normally use to stir the water on the mouth of the newly dug well, wrap a rope around it, and tie a linen bag to the end of the rope. They lower it down into the well. The well diggers below fill the bag with soil, and then the people above crank the windlass, stirring the soil up bag by bag."

"Why use bags instead of baskets to lift the soil? There's a reason for this. The bag is soft, so if the rope breaks or the bag ruptures while lifting the soil, the bag could fall and hit the well digger on the head or back, but it wouldn't cause serious injury or a major accident."

"So, stirring the soil is a very careful job, mostly undertaken by older people. Those reckless young people are not allowed to touch it."

"Let's talk about the conditions for digging a well. First, the well mouth is not wide, so tall and strong people are not suitable. Therefore, those who dig wells are usually those with thin statures."

"Some professional well diggers are short, with hunched backs and a hunched appearance. This is the result of doing this job for a long time."

"Secondly, you need strength. The hoe used to dig a well is not the common hoe used for digging soil. It is a straight wooden stick with a straight iron cone attached to one end and a round stone attached to the other. Well diggers don't call it a hoe, but a 'badu'."

"When digging in such a small cylindrical tube, a hoe is completely useless, and this 'badu' is specially designed for well digging."

"The well digger sits huddled in the small shaft, gripping the handle with both hands and digging the earth up and down between his legs like driving a pile. All his strength is put into the stone on top of the handle. The bigger the stone, the deeper he digs, and the more earth he digs. Therefore, without a certain amount of strength, he can't even lift the handle, let alone dig up and down."

"Secondly, you need endurance. Sitting in a cylindrical shaft is incredibly uncomfortable. Wearing shorts, sitting cross-legged with your upper body bare, in a mud hole that's tens of meters deep and only fifty or sixty centimeters in diameter, you can't stretch your legs or feet, and you have nowhere to put your hands. It's like a hero with no place to use his skills. You can imagine how uncomfortable that is."

"Secondly, progress is extremely slow. Digging a well is the slowest job. In such a small area, you dig the soil with a badu, just like digging with your fingers, lumps at a time. When you've dug enough to fill a cloth bag, you call the people above you to lower the bag. Then you shovel the soil into the bag handful by handful, and then say 'OK,' and have the people above you stir the bag up. Then, use the badu again to dig, bit by bit. In this way, if you can dig three or four feet deep in a day, you're lucky."

"If you come across a stone basin, or a stone layer, it's even more troublesome. You have to use a small hammer and an iron chisel to hit it, and sometimes it takes several days to open it."

"So, it usually takes at least half a month to get water out of a well. If the well is deep or the rock layer is thick, it will take even longer, sometimes more than a month or even longer."

"The third is the stuffy heat. The well is so small, so deep underground, and the labor involved is strenuous. You can imagine how tough it is to sit there. So, after drilling for over an hour, the well diggers have to come up for air, drink some tea, smoke a pipe, and rest for a while before going back down again."

"When the people from the well came out, they used words like 'numbing and numb' and 'drenched in sweat' to describe it, but words felt pale in comparison."

"So, wells are usually dug in autumn and winter. Working in such conditions in the summer would suffocate people."

"Fourth, you must not be afraid of danger. When working in such a small space, any small object falling from above can cause unimaginable dangers."

"And the deeper they drill, the greater the danger. At that moment, everyone above and below the well was worried about the well being. The elderly at home wouldn't leave, but would sit on a stool at the well site, checking the rope on the windlass and tidying up things near the well, fearing that even the smallest thing would fall in."

"And so on, until one day the dry earth you've dug gradually turns into wet earth, the wet earth turns into muddy soil, and then the muddy soil turns into muddy water, and then water is pumped out!"

“This is the first step to getting the water out.”

"Only when muddy water appears at the bottom of the well can the well be considered to have achieved 'phased success'. At this point, the well-drilling work is temporarily stopped. The well-driller packs his tools and goes home or to dig another well."

"Before he left, he told us to lie down by the well whenever we had time and look down. When we saw water, we would lower our buckets and pump it out until the well was dry. Then, we would wait for water to seep in slowly, and then pump it out again when water appeared. Repeat this process until the well opened up and the water would flow. He would come back to clean the well ten days or half a month later."

"Well cleaning means clearing away the mud from underneath the well after it's dug."

"The process of dredging a well is the same as digging one. The digger carries an iron ladle and descends to the bottom of the well. Then, a wooden bucket is lowered from the top. The digger scoops the silt into the bucket, spoonful by spoonful, and the windlass stirs it up until it's all cleared. The well is then dug."

"The next day, clear, shining water will seep out of the well! This well will last for generations to come; this well water will be consumed by generations to come!"

"How do you know? Such details? Have you seen it?"

"Yes. I witnessed the digging of this well with my own eyes. The water we drank in the beginning was from the moat."

"Later, a technical guidance team from our big brother's side came over. They didn't want to drink the river water. We could only bring them water from the nearest well while we quickly invited the technicians to come and dig a well."