Fuxi woke when the light came through the window.
She slept in the house at the eastern end of the village. She had slept there since she was a child. The bed was a mat on the floor with a cotton blanket. The blanket was old.
She walked to the well.
The air was cold. She could see her breath. The steam from the well rose in a straight column. It was the only warm thing in the square at this hour.
She drew water and drank. The water was warm. It was always warm. It tasted of stone and something clean she had no word for. She had drunk from it every morning of her life. Everyone in the village did.
The warmth was the first thing she remembered. Before her mother's face. Before her name.
She sat on the stone rim and waited.
Grandmother Liu came out first. She started the cook fire. The smoke went straight up. She put water on for rice. The water was from the well.
Old Wei came next. He carried a stone under one arm. He went to the northern terraces. He set the stone down and looked at the wall. He picked the stone up and turned it. He set it in a different place. He did this many times. This is what he did every morning.
Tao and Mingzhu came out together. Mingzhu was pregnant. Her belly showed under her shirt. Tao carried both hoes. At the path to the fields he stopped and adjusted her shawl at the shoulder. Mingzhu pushed his hand away. Then she pulled it back. She held it. They walked to the fields.
Desheng ran past the well. He had stones in both hands. He went to the north wall and put them on the ground in a row.
He picked the first one up. He held it. He turned it in his fingers. He threw it.
It hit the wall high up and cracked it.
He picked another stone. The cultivator woman had shown him something two days ago. She had put her hand on his throwing arm and moved it differently. Now his throws went farther. He threw for a long time.
Children came to the well after breakfast. Four of them. They sat on the ground near the rim.
They played a counting game. They counted the stones around the well. Fourteen. They counted birds on the eastern roof. Three, then five, then three again. A bird left. Two. They counted clouds.
There was no winner. They counted until they stopped.
Fuxi watched them. She did not play. She had never played the game. She watched them count.
An ant crossed the rim of the well. It carried a piece of grain larger than its head. It went to the edge and stopped. It turned and went the other way. It did not fall.
Lian came to the stream with her laundry. Three children followed her. Two went into the water. The third sat on a rock. Lian beat the clothes on the flat stone. She was singing. Fuxi could hear it from the well.
Uncle Bao came to the square. He sat outside the blacksmith's. He started talking about a fish. Fuxi had heard the story before. The fish was larger this time.
The sun moved across the square. Shadows shifted from west to east. The well steam was not visible in the afternoon heat.
The cultivators came after midday.
They put metal poles in the ground around the rim. Six poles. They connected them with silver thread. The thread hummed when they pulled it tight.
The man with the clipboard stood at the edge. He wrote slowly. He frowned at what he wrote.
The woman with the instruments knelt at the southern pole. She checked her readings. She looked at them for a long time. She checked them again.
Two cultivators talked by the eastern pole. They talked quietly. One of them looked at the well. The other looked at the village.
The water moved.
A ripple from the center. It went to the edges and stopped. Small.
The men at the poles did not see it. The man with the clipboard did not see it. The woman was looking at her instruments.
Fuxi saw it.
She watched the water. It settled. It went still.
She stayed at the well until the evening meal.
Grandmother Liu made stew. She gave Fuxi a bowl. Fuxi ate it. The mushrooms were good.
The cultivators ate at the eastern side of the square. They talked quietly. The leader looked at the well three times during the meal.
Fuxi looked at the well too. The water was still.
She went to bed. The blanket was warm enough.
She did not tell anyone about the ripple.