I am a Big Player
Chapter 267 - 265. Survival Diary of a Poor Village (Fifth Update)_1

Chapter 267: 265. Survival Diary of a Poor Village (Fifth Update)_1

Elder Zhou left, and the members of the Qinghe Club sat in the dormitory, feeling a bit worried.

Their initial fervor, that rush of blood when they arrived, vowing to stand their ground on the last watch, had gradually subsided. In reality, most of the successful people rely not merely on passion and momentum, but on an exceptionally strong will.

Although the dormitory was a newly built school building, because it was new, it was still a bit damp inside.

It was mid-January, and it was so cold that everyone kept their hands in their pockets, unwilling to take them out. Liu Bing flipped through the stored items in the dormitory: just a bit of rice and flour, and some vegetable leaves...

Having rice and flour meant they wouldn’t starve, and right next to the school building was a communal kitchen with two large stoves supporting two big pots, which also required burning wood.

Next to the stove were some basic condiments—oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Ren He was quite satisfied with this; at least they had these things, so the meals wouldn’t be tasteless. Whether they were delicious was another matter.

Ren He did know how to cook, but he had no intention of doing so. Otherwise, how could this bunch consider themselves to be suffering? Suffering has to be all-encompassing. By cooking for themselves, they could appreciate how hard it is for their parents to prepare meals every day, so in the future, they should stop being picky eaters.

Some kids really don’t know how blessed they are; they give their parents the cold shoulder when the food made is not to their liking, not realizing whose bad habits these are and never considering the effort of cooking a meal for their parents.

What Ren He had laid out for them was simple: have three meals a day on time, cook for themselves, and if they didn’t eat, they’d go hungry. They were not allowed to go out and buy things, and they couldn’t even if they wanted to, since the entire village didn’t have a proper convenience store. Usually, when villagers needed daily necessities, whoever went out would bring something back for everyone.

Besides, these few had not a penny in their hands; even if they wanted to buy something, they couldn’t afford it...

In the afternoon, when everyone was getting ready to cook, they found out... there was no water...

This was a real problem; how could they cook without water? Everyone was dumbfounded. Ren He said, "Today, Jiang Haoyang and I will fetch water, the day after tomorrow, it’ll be Liu Bing and Li Yifan. Since Liu Jiamin is a girl, she doesn’t have to fetch water. We’ll take turns fetching water every two days."

"Alright," Liu Bing and Li Yifan said happily upon hearing they didn’t have to fetch water today: "Today Jiang Haoyang will go with you."

The equipment for fetching water consisted of four iron buckets, each the size of a trash can, plus two carrying poles. These iron buckets were made of a single layer of iron sheet and were actually a bit lighter than wooden ones.

Ren He led Jiang Haoyang out the door. Jiang Haoyang’s face was grim. As Ren He left, he turned his head and instructed, "But you two aren’t off the hook either. Go gather some firewood. First, we need to cook, and second, we need it to keep warm at night. Remember to collect a good amount, tie it up with a rope, and carry it back."

"Got it," Liu Bing and Li Yifan said emphatically.

It wasn’t dark yet, and after asking the villagers where the well was, Ren He led Jiang Haoyang along the narrow dirt road to the east. However, after walking for nearly half an hour, they hadn’t reached the place, and Jiang Haoyang was starting to feel irritated: "How much farther do we have?"

The well was more than ten miles away. Elder Zhou had told him that this well was jointly funded by three nearby villages, so it had to be located in the middle of these three villages. The well was built out of necessity; a well over a hundred meters deep would normally require a high-pressure water pump and a pressure switch, but there was no electricity here, so how could they use a high-pressure pump? Thus, they had to fetch water manually.

In fact, many people can’t even imagine there being such deep wells that require manual water drawing, yet this is the reality.

Deep water wells are actually quite common, with some in the desert going down hundreds of meters.

Ten kilometers, if it were on flat ground, the two of them might have already arrived, but this was a mountain path, so it took the two of them almost two hours to finally get there!

When Jiang Haoyang arrived at the site, he was already a bit overexerted, sweating profusely in the dead of winter. If he had to carry the water back, wouldn’t he die on the way?

However, when he saw the well, he was somewhat dumbfounded: a narrow well topped with a rotatable wooden axle, the rope coiled around it again and again. That wooden axle was probably twice as thick as an adult’s arm, but the rope that hung the bucket was as thick as two people’s waists. Such a long hemp rope one could only imagine how deep the well was!

This was the most primitive manifestation of poverty; the villagers here had to fetch water like this every day, then walk 20 kilometers back and forth. How could they afford to use water for baths? It was for survival.

Jiang Haoyang now understood why those children who gathered around them were so dirty—it was impossible for them to be clean.

After arriving here, Jiang Haoyang’s view of the world was constantly being overturned, and not just his—Liu Bing, Li Yifan, Liu Jiamin, and even Ren He himself were experiencing this. His perspectives on life, values, and the world were being tumultuously assaulted by this rugged, primitive world.

This was a process of reshaping their worldviews, a process in which everyone would suffer immensely, yet when they walked out from here, they would be the better elites.

It was only then that they would truly understand what hardship meant, and not just whine about trivial discomforts; they would also realize how joyful it could be to help others. Not to be selfish and only consider oneself, because, as it turned out, those who were too selfish usually didn’t end well.

Ren He hoped that each member of the Qinghe Club would not only possess the intelligence typical of No.4 Middle School but also the spirit and perseverance to struggle for their dreams in the face of severe hardships.

Ren He slowly lowered the bucket into the well, and it took several minutes for it to reach the water’s surface. He first let the bucket float on the water, then, pulling the rope, tilted and overturned the bucket to let the water slowly flow into it.

More than a hundred meters deep, one couldn’t see anything below; it all relied on feeling.

The next step was pulling up, and a full bucket of water was retrieved.

Jiang Haoyang, intrigued, volunteered to give it a try, only to find that even with all his might, he could barely lift the bucket a quarter of the way from the water’s surface. What had seemed like a simple task of fetching water from the well was so difficult! He could hardly imagine how the villagers managed to live like this!

By the third and fourth buckets, Ren He glanced at Jiang Haoyang and said, "I’ll give you less, so you don’t collapse on the way back."

Walking ten li was exhausting enough, let alone carrying two buckets of water back—it was likely Jiang Haoyang would indeed die on the road.

And so, in the end, Ren He filled each of Jiang Haoyang’s buckets only a quarter full, leaving Jiang Haoyang incredibly touched: "Brother, you truly are my brother!" Now he realized just how hard it was to even drink water here, and Jiang Haoyang was eagerly looking forward to the day Liu Bing and Li Yifan would fetch water...

However, Jiang Haoyang suddenly realized that carrying just a quarter of the water almost wore him out like a dog—or rather, worse than a dog...

Meanwhile, Ren He, carrying two full buckets, was walking as if nothing was the matter, with absolute ease!

My goodness, what kind of physical strength is this?!

...

This Chapter is an extra for the Silver Alliance’s Sea Spirit Garment.