novelraw Chapter 1504 - 1503: Hidden Difficulties
Chapter 1504 - 1503: Hidden Difficulties
Ling Feng was startled and turned around to look at them: "What did you say?"
"Nothing, nothing!" A young man quickly waved his hand.
"What do you mean nothing, I heard it all. You both want to take something from the ancient tomb and exchange it for money, isn’t it for yourselves?" Ling Feng squatted down to ask.
"No..."
One of the young men shook his head: "I want to get some money to drill two deep water wells for the village..."
Ling Feng: "...."
He didn’t expect the other party to say this, and after a moment’s pause, he asked: "Unexpectedly, you’re quite aware, aren’t you? You’re not doing it for yourself, but for the villagers?"
"This is our Lvliu Village’s secretary, Zhang Jinshan, I am the village committee member, Jin Ming, we are really not doing it for ourselves!" another young man said.
"Is that how it is?"
Ling Feng found it even more interesting upon hearing this.
So he stepped forward and pulled the two up: "The ground is cold, don’t lie there."
"Thank you, you’re a big shot from the Security Bureau, please don’t laugh at us," Zhang Jinshan said awkwardly.
Ling Feng chuckled: "Why would I laugh at you? I actually find you quite admirable!"
After speaking, he asked with curiosity: "By the way, isn’t Lvliu Village a demonstration base? How come you can’t afford to drill even a single well? Didn’t the higher-ups allocate funds to you?"
"You don’t know, the funds were allocated, and the wells were drilled. But our groundwater here is too deep. Previously, we drilled a well seventy meters deep, but after using it for more than a year it dried up. We can only drill deeper ones, but we can’t always ask for funds from above!" Zhang Jinshan said helplessly.
Ling Feng uttered an "oh" as night had already fallen, and he could barely make out the environment of Lvliu Village by the flickering lights from the opposite village.
This is just an ordinary village situated deep in the Loess Plateau, with some houses and a few scraggly willow trees, surrounded by nothing but yellow earth.
This place was nationally known for its water scarcity in the past.
Now having the chance to visit here in person, Ling Feng couldn’t believe such a situation still exists.
He thought for a moment, then turned to ask: "Secretary Zhang, how much does it cost to drill a deep well?"
"The seventy-meter well initially cost more than ten thousand, and now to drill deeper ones, it would be at least twenty or thirty thousand,"
Zhang Jinshan said awkwardly, cracking a wry smile: "But our village account only has over two hundred yuan."
"Uh..."
Ling Feng was speechless upon hearing this.
Over two hundred yuan, not even enough to cover the interest generated in Shiliu Village’s account for a day.
Sighing, he shook his head and said: "How about this, contact the well drilling team later, I’ll cover the cost for drilling these wells, let’s get deeper wells for the village as soon as possible!"
"Ah?"
Zhang Jinshan and Jin Ming were both stunned, completely taken aback.
They hadn’t expected Ling Feng to be willing to pay, two wells would cost tens of thousands!
In their eyes, this was a huge sum.
"Rest assured, I mean what I say, come, let me transfer fifty thousand yuan to you first!"
Ling Feng took out his phone and opened the payment app.
Zhang Jinshan, as if dreaming, trembled as he took out his phone and found the payment code.
Then, upon seeing the transaction amount, he almost dropped his phone!
"It’s real, it’s real!"
Zhang Jinshan shouted with joy directly.
Seeing his overjoyed face, Ling Feng felt a bittersweet emotion.
So after thinking for a moment, he continued to ask: "By the way, what is the village currently reliant on as its main source of income?"
"Labor work," Jin Ming replied.
"Labor work? What kind of work?" Ling Feng asked.
"Just finding work in Yin Province, doing anything, bricklaying, masonry, otherwise working in restaurants," Jin Ming said.
"Is there no sideline that the village can develop?" Ling Feng continued to ask.
"Without water, the crops we plant aren’t enough to last a year, what can we develop?" Jin Ming said with a bitter smile.
Ling Feng was speechless: "Isn’t there a lot of trees planted? Haven’t you planted any cash crops?"
Zhang Jinshan shook his head: "We planted trees to prevent soil erosion, they’re drought-resistant plants with no economic value, unless we sell the timber in the future, but now wood isn’t worth much."
"Alright."
Suddenly Ling Feng realized that drilling only two wells wouldn’t solve the problem.
So he pondered for a moment and then said: "How about this, tonight is not feasible, tomorrow let’s have a good talk to see if there’s anything we can develop."
"This..."
Both were stunned, completely caught off guard.
Ling Feng looked at them: "Rest assured, I have already helped several villages in the past, and they all walked the path to prosperity. Your Lvliu Village can definitely do it too!"
"That’s great, thank you so much!"
Both were overjoyed, they didn’t expect that their initial idea to steal something from the ancient tomb would end up unexpectedly meeting a benefactor!
Just as they were talking, the village lights flashed through a few car beams, then passed through the village entrance directly into the river valley below.
Seeing this, Ling Feng said: "Looks like the people from the Cultural Relics Bureau have arrived, you should go home first. Tonight they might start excavating the ancient tomb."
"Will they need manpower? I can go to the village to summon some people to help without charging!" Zhang Jinshan said.
Ling Feng was startled, thought for a moment, and said: "Alright, let’s talk about that later!"
That’s also their kind gesture, Ling Feng couldn’t refuse.
When Lin Yu brought a few people up the hillside, Ling Feng saw that they varied in age, there were five or six people in total, with many tools in hand, so he quickly went up to greet them.
After introductions, he learned that the leading person named Sun Hua was a well-known relics expert in the province. Upon hearing about the newly discovered ancient tomb in Lvliu Village, he rushed over with his students.
After exchanging greetings, Ling Feng said: "Professor Sun, this ancient tomb is buried very deep, around ten meters below the loess layer. How do you plan to excavate it?"
"I’ll take a look first."
Sun Hua said, stepping up to the crevice, gesturing downward with his flashlight.
Below was naturally pitch-black, the flashlight couldn’t reveal anything.
But the depth of the crevice could still be discerned, so Sun Hua pondered for a moment, turned back, and said to Ling Feng: "Director Ling, the depth is too great, combined with the nighttime environment, it’s clear that bringing in machinery for excavation won’t work, so let’s go down to check the situation first."
"Oh, can you go down there, Professor?"
Ling Feng, seeing that he was in his sixties, felt it might be beyond his physical capability.
To go down to the tomb chamber, he thought, might require rappelling, and felt Sun Hua might not manage it.
But unexpectedly, the elder chuckled: "Of course I can, I’m not worse off than you young folks!"
Saying this, he turned to have one of his students take out tools and fix several iron stakes into the ground.
Seeing that he was indeed about to descend using ropes, Ling Feng quickly said: "How about this, I’ll go down first, and then you can follow to be safer."