Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 15

As Kuang Shouyi listened, he became a little confused. How did his seniority suddenly drop so rapidly? He had become the nephew of this little girl in front of him. Did he really have to call this little girl his aunt or maternal aunt?

Zhao Da'e didn't care about any of that. He took a sip of hot tea, spat out the tea leaves floating on top, and finally said, "These tea leaves are so-so, but the water isn't very good. It's not as sweet as the well water at home. This water is a bit bitter, and it tastes like tap water with that rusty smell."

Kuang Shouyi laughed and said, "There's nothing we can do. This isn't your hometown; we don't have well water, only tap water, so it doesn't taste very good. But that's all we can do. I don't really like the water here either, but what can we do? Are there places that sell water?"

“Selling water…” Zhao Da’e was stunned.

Back then, there was no bottled water; everyone drank tap water.

Tap water often tastes salty and bitter due to the presence of disinfectant, and often has a heavy rusty smell due to the pipes running continuously for years.

It tastes quite awful, but that's the only condition we have now. No matter what position you hold in the city or how much money you earn, you're still drinking tap water.

Zhao Da'e's eyes were practically gleaming; wasn't this a path to wealth?

The water comes from home, so there's no cost to the business. Once it's delivered to the city, it can be exchanged for money. It's practically a business with no upfront investment. The only question is whether it will sell well.

"Nephew, let me ask you something. If there were a place selling water, like the old well water from our rural hometown, would you buy it?"

Kuang Shouyi felt a chill run down his spine from being addressed as "nephew": "This...nephew, this..."

"I'll buy it, but it depends on the price. Many of my colleagues have also complained that the tap water doesn't taste good, but there's nothing we can do about it. However, if someone could really deliver some water, like the old well water from our rural area, it would taste sweet and clean, and there would be no limescale when boiling it. That would be great. But who would deliver water to us from so far away?"

"Hmm, let's discuss this in a few days. Nephew, can you make the decision about the money involved?" Zhao Da'e asked.

Kuang Shouyi said, "This is a job I can do, but I need to be reliable. Ideally, the best solution would be one that provides everyone with good water at affordable prices."

I usually find the taste of tea unpleasant. Sometimes when I go back to my hometown and drink water, it just doesn't taste the same. I remember there's a Kangxi Spring in Dongtaizi Village in our county; it's said that even Emperor Kangxi himself praised the water from that well.

Zhao Da'e was stunned: Holy crap! Isn't this the abandoned well behind my backyard?

Zhao Da'e actually knew that there was an abandoned well in the open space behind his yard. It hadn't been used for many years and had been abandoned for a long time. The well was a hot spring well, and water would gush out on its own in the winter when the weather got cold. People often used the area to get some water to wash clothes.

However, for the villagers of Dongtaizi Village, that well was of no use whatsoever.

Unexpectedly, it was the famous Kangxi Spring.

However, Zhao Da'e understood that even if Emperor Kangxi had drunk from that well, or even if Emperor Qin Shihuang had drunk from it, it wouldn't be worth much in Dongtaizi Village.

Is water valuable?

Not worth the money.

Zhao Da'e had made up his mind. Most importantly, that vacant lot belonged to his family. Cheng Jinxiang had cultivated a small vegetable garden there, which was considered reclaimed land. The village had tacitly accepted it, since no one else wanted it, and so they assumed that the land belonged to Cheng Jinxiang's vegetable garden.