The Man in the Well is an Encounter quest in Where Winds Meet that quietly unlocks near General's Shrine and then sends you back and forth between Qinghe and Blissful Retreat on a strict schedule. It is easy to miss, and just as easy to stall if you do not handle the timing correctly.
How to start Man in the Well (requirements and location)
The encounter lives in Qinghe, at the well near the entrance to General's Shrine. It will not be available during the day or in bad weather.
Step 1: Travel to the General's Shrine Boundary Stone in Qinghe, then walk northwest to the nearby well at the shrine entrance.
Step 2: Use the time mechanic to set the in-game clock to a cloudless night during the Zi hour (23:00–01:00). Both conditions matter: it has to be night, and the sky must be clear for the encounter to trigger reliably.
Step 3: Approach the well. When the encounter is active, you hear a voice from inside and get the prompt to interact. Choose the option to call into the well to meet Li Wa and formally start Man in the Well.
From this point on, nearly every interaction with Li Wa is locked to Zi hour and often to a specific day. If the well is silent, adjust the clock forward instead of waiting in real time.
First visit: talk to Li Wa and skip ahead in time
The opening conversation with Li Wa sets the pattern for the quest: short exchanges separated by long jumps in time.
Step 1: During Zi hour at the General's Shrine well, speak with Li Wa. He explains he is hiding and refuses to leave the well.
Step 2: When the dialog ends, open the time menu and move the clock forward to the day after tomorrow at Zi hour. This means skipping two full in-game days, then setting the time again to 23:00–01:00.
Step 3: Call into the well again at the new time to resume the conversation. Li Wa now asks for food.
Bring Braised Pork Belly Slices to the well
The first item Li Wa demands is a plate of Braised Pork Belly Slices.
Step 1: Travel to Heaven's Pier. Head to the marketplace and look for the food stall run by Yuan Xianxian.
Step 2: Interact with Yuan Xianxian and select the option for Braised Pork Belly Slices. This adds the quest item to your inventory.
Step 3: Fast travel back to General's Shrine and set the time to Zi hour again if needed.
Step 4: Inspect the well and choose the option to throw down the Braised Pork Belly. When prompted, submit the Braised Pork Belly Slices from your inventory to feed Li Wa.
Give Li Wa your old red clothes
Food is not enough; Li Wa now wants clothes and, symbolically, your freedom.
Step 1: Travel to Blissful Retreat and follow the quest marker to your small house.
Step 2: Inside the house, locate the low bench next to a pot of scrolls. Look underneath for a small box that intermittently glows.
Step 3: Interact with the box to obtain the old red clothes needed for the quest.
Step 4: Return to the General's Shrine well and set the time back to Zi hour.
Step 5: Investigate the well and select the option to throw down the red old clothes. Confirm the submission to deliver them to Li Wa.
Street Urchin encounter and fight
Handing over the clothes immediately pulls a second character into the story: the Street Urchin.
Step 1: After submitting the clothes, rotate the camera or turn your character away from the well. A Street Urchin spawns behind you.
Step 2: Talk to the Street Urchin. You can either give him 100 coins or refuse; the choice does not change the final outcome of the quest.
Step 3: Regardless of the dialogue choice, the encounter escalates into a fight. Defeat the Street Urchin like any standard enemy.
Step 4: When the fight ends, attempt to call into the well again. Li Wa does not answer this time, signaling the next phase.
Skip two days and return to the well
The quest now plays with longer gaps in time and hints of someone else listening to your exchanges with Li Wa.
Step 1: Open the time menu and push the clock forward to two in-game days later, at Zi hour.
Step 2: Call into the General's Shrine well again. Li Wa is back and proposes leaving the well, asking to meet at the well in Blissful Retreat on the following midnight.
Step 3: During this conversation you agree to bring a special bottle — your private stock of wine — to the meeting.
Talk to the Street Urchin again and wait for the second midnight
Before you skip ahead to the meeting, the quest quietly checks whether you have noticed someone eavesdropping.
Step 1: After the conversation with Li Wa, turn away from the well once more. The same Street Urchin is standing nearby again.
Step 2: Approach and speak with him. He makes it clear he overheard your secret plans with Li Wa.
Step 3: When the dialogue ends, move the clock forward again to the Zi hour of the next day — the night of your arranged meeting in Blissful Retreat.
Retrieve the Vintage Wine in Blissful Retreat
The last delivery item is a specific Vintage Wine stored in your house at Blissful Retreat.
Step 1: Travel back to your house in Blissful Retreat.
Step 2: Inside, look to the left side of the room near the window. On a shelf by the wall, you will see a glowing jar labeled Vintage Wine.
Step 3: Interact with the shelf and select the Vintage Wine to pick it up as a quest item.
Once you leave the house with the wine, the encounter starts moving fast. There is no additional time skip before the next scripted event.
Deal with the Beggar Boy outside your house
As soon as you step back into the street, a younger boy ties the Street Urchin directly into the meeting with Li Wa.
Step 1: Outside your house, approach the Beggar Boy who appears near the door.
Step 2: Speak with him. During the short scene he steals your Vintage Wine, smashes the jar, and pretends to collapse in front of you.
Step 3: A prompt appears asking you to stay near the Beggar Boy and wait for him to wake up. Remain within range until the on-screen timer bar empties.
Step 4: When the boy gets up, talk to him again. He admits he was faking and hints at an older brother, tying back to the Street Urchin.
Only after this exchange are you free to head to the meeting place at the well.
Investigate the corpse at the Blissful Retreat well
The final leg of Man in the Well takes you to a different well in Blissful Retreat, where the story resolves in a small investigative sequence.
Step 1: Follow the quest marker to the well inside Blissful Retreat — this is not the same well as General's Shrine.
Step 2: On arrival you find a headless corpse slumped against the well, dressed in your old red robe.
Step 3: Interact with the body three times in a row, targeting the key details:
- Examine the corpse itself.
- Examine the corpse's clothes.
- Examine the corpse's hand, which carries an identifying wound.
Step 4: After finishing with the body, look behind the well. Search the area around the rock and bamboo. Interact with the bamboo to the right of the rock to complete the last investigation objective.
Those environmental clues underline that the body is not Li Wa’s and that someone has walked away from the scene, leaving the staged corpse behind.
Man in the Well rewards
Once you finish the investigation at the Blissful Retreat well, Man in the Well ends and the rewards are granted automatically. The encounter pays out:
- Echo Jade x25
- Qinghe Exploration x25
- Enlightenment Points x100
- Character EXP x10,000
- Coin x10,000
These values represent the total earned across all steps of the encounter and the final completion bonus.
How the timing works and what to do if the quest will not appear
The most common point of friction with Man in the Well is getting it to start at all, and then keeping each stage moving without waiting around unnecessarily.
Step 1: To trigger the very first interaction, always combine three factors at the General's Shrine well: being in Qinghe, having a cloudless sky, and setting the time to Zi hour (23:00–01:00). If you approach and hear no voice, move the clock again rather than standing in place.
Step 2: If repeated attempts still give you silence, leave the immediate area and come back, or focus on clearing other Encounters before returning. Man in the Well behaves like a hidden encounter and can be sensitive to how many other side activities are active nearby.
Step 3: After the quest has started, do not worry about doing the intermediate chores in “real” time. Whenever Li Wa or the quest log refers to “tomorrow” or “two days later,” use the time menu to jump forward to the specified day and Zi hour.
Handled this way, the entire encounter compresses into roughly 10 minutes of actual playtime rather than a long idle wait between visits to the wells.
Once the corpse at Blissful Retreat is examined and the bamboo clue behind the well is inspected, Man in the Well is fully resolved. The story leaves Li Wa’s ultimate fate ambiguous on purpose, while quietly rewarding you with currency, experience, and a small pocket of Jianghu intrigue.
