Before anyone else could answer, Meizi jumped in, "Oh my! Silly girl, of course they pump the water out with a water wheel. Some of the bigger ponds take several days!"
Zhang Huai glanced at her, his heart aching. 'She's never seen this kind of excitement before,' he thought, 'so of course she wouldn't know how they get the water out.' After hearing Meizi, he added, "It's not like they can pump it all out. The water's deeper in the middle of the pond, so they can't pump that part. But once most of the water is gone, all the able-bodied men in the village get into the pond. They use basins to bail out the rest of the water, catching fish and digging up mud as they go. Your brother and I will both be going in."
Juhua asked in surprise, "But isn't the water freezing? What if you get sick from the cold?"
