“This well became contaminated for some reason. In the past, my father fell sick after drinking the water from this well, so my grandmother sealed it up,” Xia Zhe said.
His father fell sick? This matched the timing that Grandpa Zhou mentioned! It seemed that the well was used to hide something.
“Then why don’t we clean up this well and use it again!” Qiao Mei said.
“No! This well is so deep. Besides, you’re pregnant now and drawing water from the well is such a tedious and heavy chore,” Xia Zhe said with a frown.
“If I can push away the stone slab on top of the well, why would it be difficult for me to draw water?” Qiao Mei looked at Xia Zhe in puzzlement.
Xia Zhe was instantly struck speechless. After thinking for a while, he said, “After our child is born, what if the child falls into the well? It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll just close it with the stone slab after they’re born. It’s not like I can’t lift it. Otherwise, we can install a pump so that I don’t have to draw water up,” Qiao Mei said.
“That won’t do either. My father fell sick after drinking the water from this well back then. What if there are still remnants of bacteria inside?” Xia Zhe said sternly.
However, his father’s illness back then was not real!
Qiao Mei looked at Xia Zhe helplessly. He was trying his best not to let her use this well.
After thinking about it, Xia Zhe was still worried. When he returned to the army, if Qiao Mei took advantage of the fact that he was not around to clean up the well and use it, he would not be able to come back and stop her.
No! He must fill up this well quickly!
Xia Zhe looked around for the shovel so that he could fill up the well now. He did not want to wait for even another second.
Qiao Mei also could tell what Xia Zhe wanted to do and hurriedly went to the side to pick up the shovel and hugged it.
“If you dare to fill up this well, I’ll fight it out with you!” Qiao Mei said huffily to Xia Zhe.
Xia Zhe looked at Qiao Mei, who was hugging the shovel and looking like an angry puffer fish, and did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“Alright, alright, alright. I won’t fill it in,” Xia Zhe said resignedly.
Qiao Mei also knew that Xia Zhe was doing this for the good of their children and her. It was not a bad thing that Xia Zhe liked his children enough to plan ahead for them.
“If we clean up this well and restore it, we can use it later to water the vegetable garden and the fruit trees. We can save so much money in this manner!” Qiao Mei said in a serious tone.
Xia Zhe rolled his eyes at Qiao Mei, thinking that she was spouting nonsense. He wondered out loud about not knowing who had spent 30 dollars on three flower pots at the antique market. The money spent on those flower pots was enough to pay for three to four years of running water.
“What do you know? You have to save when you should save and spend when you should spend!” Qiao Mei stood with her hands on her hips and holding the shovel next to her.
Xia Zhe shook his head resignedly. It seemed like Qiao Mei was determined to make use of this well.
“We can eventually put a lid over the well and lock it every time after use. Otherwise, we can use something that pumps water and just install a pipe. It’ll be very safe then,” Qiao Mei said.
“You can tell my elder brother about this when it’s time. He’s a professor and he knows people in this field. Let them look into what you want to do,” Xia Zhe said.
Qiao Mei pulled Xia Zhe over to the well and pointed to the bottom as she said, “Come and see if you can tell what this is?”
Qiao Mei had already quietly maneuvered the roots of the cherry tree to push the treasure box up. At this moment, a corner of the treasure box was already revealed.
Xia Zhe pulled Qiao Mei behind him and lowered his head to see what was in the well. He caught a glimpse of something golden.
“Do you think that’s some sort of treasure?” Qiao Mei whispered.
“Didn’t we agree to pretend not to see anything even if we did?” Xia Zhe said as he looked at Qiao Mei.
“But we can’t just leave it there. Since it’s already exposed, let’s quickly take it out and bury it somewhere else!” Qiao Mei asserted eloquently.
“You’re just a little money-grubber,” Xia Zhe said with a laugh.
Qiao Mei smiled sweetly and said, “Isn’t it only because I want to protect what grandmother left behind? Since it’s already exposed, let’s quickly take it out and hide it somewhere else!”
