Chapter 303

The men who were working all put down their tools and looked over at Li Wu and his group. Water had always been of paramount importance, and now that there was an issue with the water source, everyone became worried.

Under the shade, Fan Qian and his group stood up and walked over. He felt a sense of satisfaction. Finally, luck wasn’t entirely on Fan Jin’s side. Though having the herb workshop succeed wouldn’t harm him, he’d be happier if it failed.

Feng Da hung his head low, feeling guilty, “It’s all our fault. We must have brought bad luck to the master!”

Otherwise, how could it be that when they dug a canal from Ma Duck Lake back at the manor, they encountered a huge rock and wasted over a year’s work? Now, they encountered another huge rock here, making them do futile work again.

Hong Daniu and the others pursed their lips tightly, their faces full of self-blame. Back at the manor, they could say it was because the old master lacked virtue that they failed. But now, encountering the same problem with such a good master, it had to be their bad luck.

“Nonsense! The rock has been there for who knows how long. How can you blame yourselves for it? Let’s not panic. We’ll ask the old village chief for advice. Maybe he’ll know what to do,” Xu Laosan said disapprovingly.

“Yes, let’s ask my father first. Maybe he has a solution,” Li Wu quickly agreed. He added, “I’ll go bring my father over. It’s best if he comes to the mountain to take a look.”

“I’ll go with you to bring the village chief over!” Fan Xiaoliu threw down his hoe, wiped his hands, and quickly followed.

The people who had been working gathered around, asking questions in a flurry. Fan Jin took a glance at the crowd and then headed towards home.

Shuiqing had a shopping mall where she could buy various food and daily necessities, books, livestock feed, and medicinal herbs. Maybe there were instructions on dealing with large rocks too.

Fan Qian retreated a few steps, trying to contain his excitement. This was great. The village chief might be knowledgeable, but ultimately, he was just a farmer. What did he know about moving a huge rock? The villagers were overestimating him. They were bound to be disappointed.

When Shuiqing saw Fan Jin returning with a worried look, she asked, “Did something happen?”

Fan Jin nodded lightly and explained the situation as clearly and succinctly as possible: “The rock is horizontal, covered with weeds. When we cleared the weeds, they came out easily with their roots, indicating why that area couldn’t support trees. We found that the rock was quite large, both in area and thickness. Now we are stuck, unable to proceed.”

After explaining, he added, feeling inadequate, “I have read many books, yet I don’t know how to deal with a rock.”

Shuiqing wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault; such practical matters were not covered in the classical texts he studied. Instead, they might be found in works like “The Exploitation of the Works of Nature.”

Fan Jin was on the path of civil examinations, and his family didn’t own many books. It was normal for him not to know.

“I’ll go with you to take a look. I have an idea that might work.”

She recalled a history lesson about using fire to break rocks when building canals or reservoirs.

Fan Jin blinked his large eyes in surprise and then nodded. “Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

When they arrived at the herb workshop, the village chief had also just arrived. The men who were building the workshop had lost interest in their work and, surrounding the village chief, followed Xu Laosan up the mountain in a large group.

The mountain was not very high or steep, the kind that could be traversed in an hour. However, the village chief was elderly and soon became breathless. Fortunately, there were many strong men in the group, and someone stepped forward to carry him on their back.

Taking turns, they carried him until they reached the rock. Setting the village chief down, everyone crowded around to assess the situation.

Feng Da explained their predicament with a heavy heart. The men listened and also felt worried.

The rock was too large to dig around or move. What could they do?

“Should we carry water from the village to clean the medicinal herbs?” suggested one of the men.

Immediately, someone countered, “No way, no way. Putting aside whether the well can supply enough water, just think about the distance. It’s so far, and there’s a hill to climb. It’s one thing to walk there, but carrying buckets of water back and forth? How exhausting!

And it’s not just one trip; with so many medicinal herbs every day, think about how much water we’d need! The medicinal workshop is all women, they’d have to send several people just to fetch water.”

“At twenty wen a day per person wasted on fetching water, it’s not worth it.”

“What about digging a well then?”

“Sure, that’s an option, but who knows if we’ll hit water? This area’s high and the ground is hard. We don’t know how deep we’d have to dig to find water, or how much water we’d get. Will it be enough for the medicinal workshop?”

…

Listening to the back and forth ahead, Fan Qian’s heart bloomed with joy.

If it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t be so bad to suffer together.

As long as it wasn’t just his family having a hard time, that was enough.

The old village chief looked around, pondered for a while, then spoke up, “What if we build a channel with mud up there to divert water? Instead of from underground, we could get it from above the rocks.”

“That sounds good! I think it’s feasible!”

“As long as we can divert water, it doesn’t matter if it comes from underground or above.”

“Right, build up the mud higher and put bamboo tubes in it, it’ll work just the same!”

Many men’s faces lit up with smiles, feeling like there was a solution after all.

Fan Qian looked skeptical. Was this really going to solve everything?

Then Li Wu said, “We’ve considered this before, but we’re worried about wild animals knocking it over or summer storms washing it away. If we dig a trench underground, we wouldn’t have to worry about those things.”

“And since we’ve been digging underground so far, if we stop at the rocks here and don’t dig further, the terrain might be level, but we don’t know if the water will flow through.”

The previously excited crowd fell silent.

Feng Da’s head hung even lower.

The old boss couldn’t solve this problem before; it was really difficult, almost unsolvable. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have spent over a year struggling to fetch water.

The boss’s recent hardships were nothing compared to what lay ahead for the medicinal workshop. If they could exchange, they’d rather endure hardships to dig the channel.

But unfortunately, it wasn’t possible…

Fan Qian’s mouth curled up again, revealing his large yellow teeth.

A clear voice rang out, “I think we can use fire. Clear all the weeds and trees around, stack them on the rocks, and burn them until the rocks are red-hot. Then pour on ice-cold spring water. With the alternating heat and cold, the rocks will crack open.

Do it repeatedly, and not only will the rocks open up a path, but they’ll also protect the bamboo tubes without budging, making it the most sturdy solution.”