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

The town's credit union was next to the supply and marketing cooperative, consisting of two whitewashed bungalows with a peeling wooden sign hanging at the door.

Ye Chengtian left home before dawn, riding his old bicycle with a chain that was half a turn loose. It took him more than forty minutes to get there, bumping along the mountain road.

The credit union had just opened when a middle-aged woman wearing reading glasses sat behind the counter, pouring water from a thermos into an enamel mug. She didn't even look up when she saw Ye Cheng push the door open.

What kind of service do you need?

"Comrade, I'd like to apply for a loan."

The woman in the reading glasses put down the thermos and then looked him up and down.

Ye Cheng wore a clean blue cotton jacket today, and his hair was rinsed with water, but the stone powder under his fingernails could not be washed off no matter how hard he washed, and the calluses on his palms were as hard as sandpaper.

"How much should I borrow?"

"two thousand."

"So many? What are the loan purposes?"

"Pay wages. I run a quarry in Heishan Village, employing more than forty people, and I need to settle accounts at the end of the month."

The woman with reading glasses pulled a form from a drawer and pushed it over.

"Fill this out. Do you have any collateral?"

Ye Cheng took out a kraft paper envelope from his bag and laid out the contents one by one on the counter: the supply contract, the acceptance form stamped by the provincial construction company, and the quarry's business license.

"This is the supply contract I signed with the provincial construction company. Eight truckloads of stone have already been delivered, and the acceptance forms are all here. The money is temporarily frozen due to the settlement in Beicheng, but it will be released after the audit is completed."

The woman with the reading glasses picked up the contract, flipped through it, and then looked at the official seal on the acceptance form.

"The provincial construction company? Supplying stone to the General Hospital of the Military Region?"

"right."

"Why is the settlement payment frozen?"

Ye Cheng opened his mouth, unsure how to explain. He couldn't very well say that someone was sabotaging him.

"It's just going through an audit process."

The woman with reading glasses put down the contract and adjusted her glasses.

"Here's the thing. In your case, the collateral is the supply contract and accounts receivable, but the accounts receivable are currently frozen, so we can't assess them through the normal process."

Ye Chengxin sank down a little.

"What should we do then?"

"It needs to be reported to the county credit union for approval. Our town's credit union doesn't have that authority."

"How long will it take to submit the report?"

The woman with the reading glasses took a sip of water and spoke slowly.

"If things go smoothly, it will take ten days to half a month. If things go slowly, it could take up to a month. The county credit union has a lot of backlogged loan applications, so we have to wait in line."

Ye Cheng clenched his fingers on the counter.

Ten days to half a month. The day after tomorrow is the end of the month.

"Comrade, is there a faster way? I have more than forty people waiting for their wages, and every household is counting on this to buy food."

The woman in the reading glasses glanced at him and shook her head.

"Young man, I understand your difficulties. But loan approval has a process, and as a teller in a small town, I can't bypass the county credit union. Fill out the form and submit it first, and I'll send it over for you today. Every day counts."

Ye Cheng looked down at the blank form and began to fill it in carefully with a ballpoint pen from the counter. He wrote slowly and was unsure how to fill in some of the boxes, but the woman with the reading glasses was patient and guided him through each item one by one.

After filling it out, Ye Cheng handed the form over with both hands.

"Thank you for your help, comrade."

The woman with reading glasses took the form and tucked it into a brown paper file folder.

"Leave your address, and I'll have someone send you a message once it's approved."

Ye Cheng gave the address of Heishan Village, stood there for a while, then decided there was no point in standing there any longer, and turned to leave.

Pushing open the door of the credit union, Ye Cheng saw that the sun was already high in the sky. He hopped on his bicycle, pedaled twice, and then stopped.

He turned his head to look at the closed door of the credit union, and pursed his lips.

Ten days to half a month.

The workers couldn't wait that long.

He got on his bike and rode back along the mountain road he had come from. The chain was loose, making it difficult to pedal, and he had to push it uphill. The sun beat down on his back, and sweat soaked a large patch of his blue cloth jacket.

At noon on the same day.

Ma Zhigang walked from the construction site on the other side of the bridge to the brigade headquarters, shook off the dust from his clothes, and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 12:15.

He hesitated for a moment, then walked to the old-fashioned hand-cranked telephone, took out the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, on which Gu Zheng's phone number was written.

He dialed the number for the family compound first.

The phone rang more than a dozen times, but no one answered.

He hung up the phone, sat down on the threshold of the brigade headquarters, and lit a cigarette.

He took two puffs and then put out the cigarette.

"Call again tonight? No, definitely not tonight. What if Dr. Ye takes the call?" Ye Cheng would definitely twist his head.

Ma Zhigang looked at the note over and over again, and finally stuffed it back into his pocket.

Wait a little longer. Call again tomorrow at noon. Gu Zheng can't be away from home every day.

He stood up, dusted himself off, and walked towards the other side of the bridge.

Under the sun, the stone piers of the South Bridge Abutment had been built up to the third layer. Zhao Shanhe, shirtless, stood on the scaffolding, carrying a stone slab upwards. Seeing Ma Zhigang approaching, he shouted at him.

"Mr. Ma! How thick should the grout be poured into the cracks of this stone?"

Ma Zhigang looked up and glanced at it.

"Two centimeters. I told you yesterday, didn't you?"

"I didn't forget, I just wanted to confirm." Zhao Shanhe chuckled. "We have to be careful when we do this job, otherwise if the bridge collapses, we'll be letting Dr. Ye down."

Ma Zhigang didn't reply. He stood by the bridge pier and watched the construction for a while, his mind racing with thoughts about something.

He absolutely has to get through to Gu Zheng on that phone tomorrow.

In the evening, Ye Cheng rode his bicycle back to the quarry.

Ma Zhigang was organizing blueprints in the material shed when he heard the sound of wheels rolling over gravel and looked up.

"Brother Ye, how is it?"

Ye Cheng leaned his bicycle against the pile of stones, walked over and sat on a stone slab, unscrewed the water bottle and took two sips of cool boiled water.

"We'll have to wait. It will take at least ten days to half a month for the county credit union to approve it."

Ma Zhigang stopped holding the pencil.

"Ten days..."

Ye Cheng screwed the lid on the kettle and placed it next to his knees.

"Zhigang, how much grain is left in the field?"

Ma Zhigang went through the accounts in his mind.

"We still have three bags of flour left from the last trip to town, two sacks of potatoes, and a small half-full jar of pickled vegetables. If we eat them sparingly, it'll last us five or six days."

"Five or six days," Ye Cheng repeated.

He watched the last few figures of workers finishing their work on the pile of rubble in the distance. The sun was already hanging on the mountaintop, turning the entire quarry into a bright orange-red.

"It'll have to do. Let the people who are doing the work eat first."

Ma Zhigang put down the pencil.

"Brother Ye, there's something I want to tell you."

Ye Cheng looked at him.

Ma Zhigang opened his mouth, then swallowed it back down.

"What's up?"

"...It's nothing. The progress on the other side of the bridge is going smoothly, and we should be able to finish the south abutment tomorrow."

Ye Cheng nodded, stood up, and patted the dust off his trousers.

"Let's go back to the village. We have to get up early tomorrow."

The two walked one after the other down the dirt road leading out of the mountains. Ma Zhigang followed behind, feeling the note in his pocket, clenching his fingers, then relaxing them.