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墨書 Inktalez
Zhou Liangzhang tried to intervene, but the county magistrate slapped him back, shouting, "Get out of the way! I won’t wade into this murky water!"
Once the sound of hooves faded away, the Mad Old Woman's spindle fell to the ground with a thud. Lin Dahe picked it up and noticed that the wooden surface was engraved with a pattern identical to that on the county magistrate's jade pendant. The system interface flashed wildly: [Key character association confirmed: The county magistrate was a former official of the Ministry of Revenue, transferred in the first year of Chongzhen.]
Suddenly, the one-armed veteran pulled Lin Dahe aside. "Look at the waterway!"
From deep within the tunnel came the sound of rushing water. The group rushed inside and saw that the last layer of rock was cracking, cool mist billowing out—an underground river! The Mad Old Woman's song was not nonsense; it contained a code documenting the hydrological veins!
"It's opened!" Cui Xiaoman cheered as she scooped up a pool of clear water, but then froze. "Why is there... blood in this water?"
Lin Dahe leaned closer and indeed saw several strands of blood floating in the clear stream. Following the source, he found the Mad Old Woman quietly leaning against the rock wall, fresh blood seeping from her mouth into the water. In her hand, she tightly clutched a half-bloodied copper plaque—perfectly matching the one held by the one-armed veteran.
"Yanzhou Guard... Relief Grain Official..." The veteran read aloud the combined title, tears glistening in his single eye. "She is the widow of the escort officer from back then!"
The Mad Old Woman's funeral was held on a morning filled with falling locust flowers. As the one-armed veteran placed the now-complete copper plaque into her coffin, Lin Dahe noticed remnants of rock dust still lodged under her fingernails—evidence of three days and nights spent digging without rest.
"The Dragon King is angry!" Aunt Ma’s sharp voice suddenly pierced through the mournful music. "Disturbing the dragon vein brings retribution!"
In the funeral procession, Aunt Wang stumbled suddenly, nearly toppling over the offerings she carried. Lin Dahe then realized that fewer villagers had come to help than expected.
After the ceremony ended, he walked to the village well and saw several women filling clay pots with murky water. The water level had dropped another three fingers since yesterday, and new cracks had appeared on the exposed part of the well wall.
"Seventh Uncle." Lin Dahe stopped an elderly man leaning on a cane. "Where are Li Zhuang's people? They promised to come help fix the water channel yesterday..."
Seventh Uncle thrust his cane heavily into the ground. "Zhou Liangzhang came by last night and said we’ve offended the Dragon King by digging this well." The old man lowered his voice. "Li Zhuang lost seventeen people to starvation during last year's drought; they believe in these things..."
The countdown on the system interface had reached [65:12:43], and less than a quarter of the underground waterway was completed. Lin Dahe squatted at the edge of the well, tracing his fingers over those cracks—wait a minute, these patterns seem systematic?
He sprinted home and dug out half a sheet of rice paper he hadn’t used last time, making an impression of the well wall’s patterns. Holding it up to sunlight, he was shocked to find that the winding cracks bore a striking resemblance to those engraved on the Mad Old Woman's spindle!
"This can’t be naturally formed..." Lin Dahe grabbed a bamboo tube and some cowhide and rushed back to the well.
The midday sun blazed down mercilessly. In front of a dozen villagers, Lin Dahe covered one end of the bamboo tube with cowhide and tightly bound it with twine to create a makeshift manometer. As he slowly submerged it into the well, he felt the cowhide slightly depress under water pressure, producing a "gurgle" echo from within.
"See that?" He pointed at the twine markings on the outside of the bamboo tube. "For every foot it drops, pressure decreases by three parts." He then gestured toward the west. "But over there in that newly dug exploratory pit, the water level is even higher than in this well!"
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