Over there, Jason Brooks had already been cornered by Brian Cooper. He shouted, “If you can find a well location and hit water within 60 feet, I... I’ll drink all that water myself!”

“Drink a tenth of it. Leave the other nine-tenths—we still need to grow crops,” Brian Cooper replied calmly.

Chapter 003: The Well Location

“That scholar, don’t boast. We’ve already dug more than a dozen wells, and none of them have produced water. Do you really think you can find a spot and guarantee there’ll be water?” William Carter stepped forward and said to Brian Cooper.

William Carter spoke with a purpose. After all, Jason Brooks was a professional feng shui master; if they dug a well where he pointed and didn’t find water, at least there’d be an explanation. Brian Cooper was just a scholar. According to Mark Cooper, Brian Cooper was basically a bookworm, and maybe he was just making wild claims to escape punishment for assaulting an official. Naturally, William Carter couldn’t lower himself to beg Brian Cooper for advice on where to dig.

However, the exchange between Brian Cooper and Jason Brooks clearly showed that Jason Brooks was at a loss for words, which meant Brian Cooper did have some ability. In William Carter’s heart, he also hoped Brian Cooper might be able to solve his current predicament. Otherwise, after spending so much money and not getting a drop of water, he’d have no way to report back.

So, William Carter used this tactic of “playing hard to get,” waiting for Brian Cooper to speak up himself.

But the current Brian Cooper was no longer the bookworm he used to be. William Carter’s little schemes were nothing to him. After all, a county yamen clerk was just a minor official, not worth Brian Cooper’s time to outmaneuver.

Brian Cooper didn’t answer William Carter’s question. Instead, he pushed through the crowd and walked over to the well they were digging, leaned over to look inside, and asked, “How deep is this well?”

“Forty feet,” answered a well-digging worker nearby.

“Give me a torch. I’ll go down and take a look,” said Brian Cooper.

The worker glanced at William Carter, who was following behind Brian Cooper. William Carter waved his hand, signaling the worker to give Brian Cooper a torch. The worker lit a torch and handed it to Brian Cooper. Brian Cooper lifted his robe, took the torch, and stepped into the well’s basket.

“Brother Hao!” Grace Parker called out anxiously.

Brian Cooper smiled at her and said, “What’s there to be afraid of? I’m just going down to take a look.”

“But…” Grace Parker wasn’t sure if she should stop her brother. Seeing the curious looks on everyone’s faces, she didn’t say more and just whispered, “Be careful…”

For a modern geological expert like Brian Cooper, going down a well like this was routine. He’d been down wells hundreds of meters deep and didn’t consider this dangerous at all. He gestured to the two workers operating the winch, and they slowly lowered the basket.

Sitting in the basket, Brian Cooper held up the torch and examined the rock and sand layers on the well wall. If there was something he couldn’t figure out right away, he’d tug the rope to signal the people above to stop. After about ten minutes, he signaled from below to be pulled up. The situation underground was pretty much as he’d expected. This spot was indeed an anticline structure. His purpose in going down was to understand the thickness and possible direction of the rock layers.

“Well, scholar, what did you see?” William Carter couldn’t wait and hurried over to ask.

Brian Cooper shook his head. “Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed… Also, where are the other wells? I need to take a look at them too.”

The other dozen or so wells were scattered around the village. They were originally going to be filled in to prevent accidents, but everyone had been busy digging new wells, so filling them had been put off. Seeing the confidence in Brian Cooper’s demeanor, William Carter trusted him a bit more and instructed the well-digging workers to bring the winch, ropes, and basket to inspect the other dry wells with Brian Cooper.

Brian Cooper didn’t check every single well. After coming out of the fifth one, he looked up at the sky, muttered a few words, then pointed southeast and said, “From here, seven hundred paces.”

“What did you say? There’s water seven hundred paces away?” William Carter couldn’t help but tremble. He desperately wanted to believe Brian Cooper, because this meant his political career could be saved.

“Dig to sixty feet, and you’ll hit water… About four hundred dan per hour,” Brian Cooper said, helplessly converting ancient units. One dan was a hundred jin, so four hundred dan was forty thousand jin, or about twenty tons of water. By his estimate, a twenty-meter well at that spot would yield about 240 tons of water per day, which should be about right. Even with a 20% margin of error, no one would notice.

“You’re talking nonsense!” Jason Brooks finally exploded. Previously, Brian Cooper’s confident manner had actually intimidated him, making him think Brian Cooper might really have some special skill. But now, hearing Brian Cooper dare to state the water yield so precisely, he felt reassured—he was sure Brian Cooper was making it up. Throughout history, no matter how skilled a feng shui master, no one had ever dared to predict the exact hourly water yield. Being able to say whether there was water or not was already miraculous. For this young scholar to claim he could predict the amount of water was proof he didn’t understand well surveying at all—not even the basics.