The Witch of Xiangxi

Chapter 197
When Fang Chun brought Xia Xiangxi and Shi Wei to the water well in their village, he saw in the dark that the well platform was already as smooth and shiny as jade because of years of pumping water.

Xia Xiangxi bent down slightly, and looked at the dark mouth of the well. A gust of cold, seepage wind rushed up from the well.

Fang Chun shook the old-fashioned well wheel and put the bucket down.This well wheel is a coil of rope coiled on a swayable wooden shaft. When it is lowered, the rope on the wooden shaft is released like a kite, and the water from the underground shallow well is brought up. The bucket was filled with water, and then the wooden shaft was shaken round and round to wrap the rope around the wooden shaft, and the bucket filled with water was shaken up. Xia Xiangxi had seen such a water fetching tool when he was a child. When he was in elementary school, Even the rural areas have used the tap water provided by the motor-driven well in the village. Not only has the well disappeared, but even the wells that used to draw water have either dried up or been sealed.

Seeing this well wheel today, Xia Xiangxi felt nostalgic.She still remembers that the water drawn from the well in her hometown is sweet and delicious, icy cold, and iced watermelon is used in summer, which is many times sweeter than the fluorine-contaminated watermelon in the refrigerator!
Fang Chun lifted the bucket from the well and put it on the well platform. Xia Xiangxi scooped up the water and lit it with a flashlight first. The clear and bright water exuded a natural icy air.She took a sip first, and when the water touched the taste buds on her tongue, she immediately felt a sense of repulsion, and hurriedly spit the water out of her mouth.It's really hard to drink, with an indescribably strange taste!
Shi Wei also took a sip and said, "That's right, that's the taste!"

Only then did Xia Xiangxi believe that Fang Chun hadn't put a poisonous spell into Shi Wei's food.In addition, the unpalatable water reminded Xia Xiangxi of something. Ten years ago, when people did not pay as much attention to environmental pollution as they do now, there was a leather factory in their hometown that polluted the nearby groundwater. Even the polluted water has different degrees of disease.Xia Xiangxi began to think that the reason why everyone in the coffin village was sick was because of something wrong with the water quality?
It's just that if the water is polluted by industry, that's impossible. The place is isolated from the world, and people live a primitive way of life. Factory pollution is simply impossible.Is there any other reason besides that, let the water be polluted?
Xia Xiangxi was thinking about it, Shi Wei played with the well wheel for fun, and kept saying that it was fun, saying that if she hadn't seen it today, she would have forgotten that she had seen primitive water fetching tools when she was a child, and she would try it after she finished speaking. Bring up a bucket of water.Following her example, Shi Wei also lowered the rope hanging from the bucket in the same way that Fang Chun fetched water just now. She had never tried this method of fetching water before, and she didn't know that due to the gravitational force, the well would When rolling the wheel, you should go against the force and let down the rope wrapped around the wooden shaft in circles steadily. If you don’t control the force, the wooden shaft will be thrown into the air by the bucket, and it is easy for the wooden shaft to spin. The shaft hit the man's arm.

Fang Chun didn't know that the way of life in and out of the mountains was already different, and he thought that Shi Wei knew how to use such a well wheel, and when he found something wrong, it was too late to remind him.Shi Wei's hand was not only hit by the shaft handle of the well wheel, but also hit her chin by bending over her body. Shi Wei screamed, swayed her body, lost her balance and fell into the well.

Xia Xiangxi was quick-witted and quickly reached out to grab Shi Wei, but he didn't, and unfortunately she fell into the well with Shi Wei.

"Plop" and "Plop", Xia Xiangxi and Shi Wei fell into the well water and successfully replaced the frog at the bottom of the well.

At night, even the temperature of the water near the surface will drop to about zero, not to mention that the water below ten meters below the ground will not see sunlight at all during the day. It's as cold as falling into an ice hole in a freezing cold day.

In particular, both of them fell from a high place, with a lot of inertial force, and they both rushed into the depths of the water like torpedoes.Xia Xiangxi was so choked that she drank a few mouthfuls of well water that could freeze people's hearts. The instinct to survive, she hurriedly held her breath and turned over in the water, struggling to swim out of the water.Fortunately, she still held the flashlight in her hand and did not throw it away.Just like a dream, when they opened their eyes, they had already gone from the world to hell.

Shi Wei's water quality is better than Xia Xiangxi's, but she fell first, and Xia Xiangxi smashed the water behind her, making it take a long time for her to sink into the water. Fortunately, when Xia Xiangxi was trying to save her, she It has also drilled out of the water, spitting out a mouthful of water.

Fang Chun's panicked voice came from above, calling for them to grab the water rope, and he shook them up.Xia Xiangxi asked Shi Wei to hold onto the rope first, and that Fang Chun shook the well wheel, brought Shi Wei's body out of the water, and pulled her up little by little, but after a while, the rope loosened again, and Shi Wei fell straight into the well again. In the water, she choked on the water again, so angry that she cursed, her voice was amplified by the cylindrical body of the well water, and the murmur came back from the wall of the well, making the noisy people's ears hurt.

Fang Chun apologized directly at the top, saying that Shi Wei's body was too heavy for him to pull up alone, and asked Xia Xiangxi and Shi Wei to bear it for a while, and he immediately went back to the village to call for help.

"When he comes back, we'll be like ice cubes!" Shi Wei wailed.The water in this well was bleak and cold, and she and Xia Xiangxi were soaked from head to toe. The two of them were shivering from the cold, and their upper gums could not help "clacking" their lower gums.

Xia Xiangxi took a photo with a flashlight, and the well was only about one and a half meters in diameter at the top, but the water below was not only deep, but also more than ten meters wide, like a small swimming pool.

"It can't be done, my legs are so cold that they are about to tighten!" Shi Wei's voice trembled like a radio out of tune.

She is not feeling well, how can Xia Xiangxi feel better?Her hands and feet were already numb, and if she continued to endure, she was afraid that she would not have the strength to support her body to float out of the water. If she sank, it would be difficult to get up again, and she would lose her life here.

Xia Xiangxi is still relatively calm. If it is in the plains, the wells are dug by hand, so don't even imagine finding a second hole from the well.But this well is different. The well is like a gourd, with the upper part thinner and the lower part thicker.

Xia Xiangxi thought, maybe this is a natural water hole by chance?Looking at the stone wall again, it is covered with black and green wet moss, but there is a place that is smooth and shiny without wet moss.Xia Xiangxi's heart couldn't help but move.You must know that although this wet moss likes to grow in a dark and humid environment, it cannot survive without air bubbles in the water.The wall of the well is covered with wet moss all around, and there is one place where it didn't grow. Xia Xiangxi thinks that maybe that place was submerged by water before, and now that the water level has dropped, that place is exposed, and the wet moss has not had time to cover it. That place breeds.Or maybe that place is a place where water can come freely...

At this time, the flashlight had already begun to make poor contact due to soaking in water. It would light up for a while, and then go out of light for a while. Before the flashlight was completely scrapped, Xia Xiangxi swam to the stone wall where there was no wet moss, and the flashlight shone on the stone wall. Down below, Xia Xiangxi was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a hole, and it seemed that the water came through there.She hurriedly called Shi Wei to swim over, and the two of them were going to swim in through the hole to see if there was a living creature there.

Generally speaking, water flows to low places, and this well should be the place with the lowest water level. They can swim to the mouth of the cave, or find a shallow layer of water. The foothold is supported, even if it is soaked in water, it can save its life.

Because Xia Xiangxi wanted to swim, his hands could no longer leave the water. The flashlight was submerged in water again, making a harsh "sizzling" sound, and then died completely.Xia Xiangxi and Shi Wei's eyes suddenly became pitch black!
(End of this chapter)