After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

Ye Cheng bent down and picked up the shovel leaning against the pile of stones. The calluses on his palms rubbed against the wooden handle, making a dry, rough sound.

"Zhenzhen has finally managed to gain a foothold in Beicheng."

He said this without looking at anyone, his eyes fixed on a newly hewn stone slab at his feet.

"As the older brother, I can't be of much help, but I absolutely cannot hold her back."

He paused for a moment and planted the shovel on the ground.

"I can't let her be used against me over there because of me."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a hoarse voice drifted over from the other end of the quarry.

"My in-laws' nephew."

Zhao Dahai, with a pipe in his mouth, strolled over slowly, followed by seven or eight men from Dahe Village, all shirtless with hammer handles slung over their shoulders.

He tapped the ash off his pipe and said with a smile, "It's already the 28th, when are we all going to get paid?"

Ye Cheng turned around.

Zhao Dahai added, "Xiuxiu was just talking about it a couple of days ago, saying she wanted to buy a few feet of red cloth to make her wedding dress."

"Uncle, let's talk about the wages later when we sit down."

"What are we going to talk about later?"

Zhao Dahai gestured with his lips toward the surroundings.

"The brothers are all working here, so let's speak frankly. The dozen or so strong men in our Dahe Village are swinging sledgehammers every day, hoping to earn a few dollars at the end of the month to buy grain."

He tapped Ye Cheng's chest with the stick of his pipe.

"You said it yourself, working for you is guaranteed to be a good deal."

Gao Changzheng glanced at Ye Cheng, opened his mouth as if to speak up, but Ye Cheng stopped him with a look.

Ma Zhigang couldn't stop him: "Uncle Zhao, Brother Ye is having some trouble. The settlement payment from Beicheng is frozen, and the money won't be available for a while."

The smile on Zhao Dahai's lips slowly faded.

He took the pipe out of his mouth, squinted at Ma Zhigang, and then at Ye Cheng.

"Frozen?"

He smacked his lips.

"What does that mean? Are you saying I should work for free without getting paid?"

"It's not that we won't pay, it's just that the paperwork is stuck. The money will come in three months," Ye Cheng said. "I'll go to town in the next few days to try and find a solution. Everyone's wages will be paid in full."

"Find a way?" Zhao Dahai's voice rose a notch. "My dear nephew, that's the livelihood of dozens of people. The two villages reconciled because you paid them off readily at this event. Now that the money isn't coming in, how am I supposed to go back and explain this to the villagers?"

Hearing the commotion, the workers stopped what they were doing and gathered around.

"Boss Ye, what's going on? You can't pay the workers?" a young man from Heishan Village asked.

Zhao Dahai pointed his pipe at the tractor loaded with stones: "That big hospital in the city won't settle the bill, saying it'll take three months. Everyone, you can judge for yourselves."

The crowd erupted in chaos.

"No money for three months? What will the piglets eat then?"

"That's right, I left all the crops in the field to come here and smash stones."

"Boss Ye, it's not that we don't trust you, but we can't let our whole family go hungry while we work, can we?"

Ye Cheng stood in the middle of the crowd and raised one hand to press down.

"Listen to me, everyone."

The noise gradually subsided.

"The main hospital encountered procedural issues during the review process; they weren't intentionally trying to evade our payment. This stone is for building the hospital; it's a life-saving and meritorious undertaking, and we can't stop."

"Can accumulating good deeds put food on the table?" a burly, dark-skinned man from Dahe Village shouted.

Ye Cheng looked at the man and said, word by word, "I won't shortchange any of you. I'll sell everything I own to pay you your wages."

He reached out and patted the stone slabs on the tractor's trailer.

"But this truckload of stones will depart on time at dawn tomorrow, without delaying the construction schedule at the North City site by half a day."

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

Zhao Dahai tucked his pipe back into his waistband and snorted coldly.

"Alright. Boss Ye, I won't force you."

He turned around, took two steps, then stopped, turned his head to the side, and said a sentence.

"At the end of the month, I led the people from Dahe Village to the market to sit. If they saw money, they worked. If they didn't see money..."

He didn't finish his sentence, took a puff of his pipe, and slowly walked away.

The workers dispersed, whispering amongst themselves, and the sound of hammers began to ring out again, albeit sporadically, but with far less energy than before.

Gao Changzheng stood aside, looking at Ye Cheng, feeling a tightness in his chest.

"Boss Ye, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart."

Gao Changzheng lowered his voice.

"Something's not right. I've worked on construction sites for over 20 years, and a normal audit would never freeze a supplier's money when the foundation is being laid."

He took a step closer to Ye Cheng.

"Someone is sabotaging us behind the scenes."

Ye Cheng didn't reply, and instead wiped the stone powder off his hands with a towel.

Gao Changzheng continued, "You can't take this alone. You have to let Dr. Ye know."

"no."

Ye Cheng's tone turned serious.

"Zhenzhen is so busy in Beicheng that she doesn't even have time to eat a hot meal. We absolutely can't bother her with this kind of trivial matter."

Gao Changzheng grew anxious: "Boss Ye, you're just being stubborn. They're clearly targeting your sister. If you take the blame, what's coming will still come."

"We'll talk about it when we get here." Ye Cheng draped the towel back over his shoulder. "Right now, the most important thing is to pay the workers. I'll go to the credit union in town tomorrow and ask if I can borrow some working capital to cover the shortfall, using the supply contract as collateral."

Ma Zhigang, standing nearby, grew anxious: "Brother Ye, this is clearly aimed at her. Someone wants to cut off her escape route. Can you handle it alone?"

"Even if you can't bear it, you have to bear it."

Ye Cheng bent down, picked up the shovel, and patted the dirt off it.

"Professor Gao, when you first came to inspect the stones, you complained that my place was too small and my equipment was too outdated, didn't you?"

Gao Changzheng was taken aback: "That was at the very beginning..."

"Later, you tested it three times and said that the hardness of my stone was the best in Qingyun County." Ye Cheng looked at him. "How did that stone come about? It was carved out of the mountain by me and my brothers, hammer blow by hammer blow. Every single one of them passed your ruler and your instruments."

He shouldered the shovel.

"I, Ye Cheng, don't have many things I'm proud of in my life. One is these hands, and the other is this life. Zhenzhen is out there treating people and saving lives, and I'm back up keeping this family stable for her. I'm not afraid of anyone investigating, because I haven't done anything wrong."

Gao Changzheng watched his retreating figure, his lips pressed into a thin line.

Ye Cheng took two steps and then stopped, without turning his head.

"Professor Gao, please pass on a message to the brothers on the construction site. Tell them that not a single stone from Ye Cheng will be missing, and not a day will be late."

He carried his shovel into the pile of rubble and mingled with the silent workers nearby, making it impossible to tell who was the boss and who was the laborer.

Gao Changzheng glanced at Ma Zhigang.

Ma Zhigang understood what he meant and gently shook his head.

Ye Cheng forbade them to speak, and neither of them wanted to overstep the bounds of this honest man.

Gao Changzheng spat on the ground, cursed, and turned to get into the Liberation truck.

The engine sputtered and churned.

He rolled down the car window and shouted to Ma Zhigang, "Keep an eye on things here. If anything happens, send a message to the construction site."

"Engineer Gao," Ma Zhigang took two steps after him, gripping the car door frame, "You've seen Brother Ye yourself; he's honest and stubborn. But his wife isn't even married yet, and you know Zhao Dahai—he changes his mind faster than flipping a book. If we really can't raise that money by the end of the month…"

"So don't just stare at the bridge, kid." Gao Changzheng tightened the steering wheel. "Open your eyes wider."

The truck kicked up a cloud of dust as it bumped its way up the dirt road leading out of the mountains.

Ma Zhigang stood still and pulled his straw hat up over his face.

As the sun began to set, the sound of Ye Cheng grumbling and urging the workers to drink water could be heard from the pile of rubble.

Ma Zhigang put his hands in his pockets and found a crumpled piece of paper with Gu Zheng's phone number written on it.

Brother Ye told him not to tell Doctor Ye, but he agreed.

But Gu Zheng hadn't promised anyone.