Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

Cui Ying picked up the bowl of porridge, blew on it, took a small sip, and felt the warmth slide down her throat, making her feel a little more relaxed.

She glanced at the porridge in the bowl, then at Chen Ping, her lips twitching slightly. "Aunt Li didn't say anything else, did she?"

"I told you, you weren't even afraid of wolves to save Xiaohe, you're so brave."

Cui Ying pursed her lips, didn't ask any further questions, and continued to drink her porridge.

After breakfast, Chen Ping told Cui Ying to rest in the dormitory, but Cui Ying refused.

"I only had a few stitches in my back, it's not like my leg is broken. The accounting office doesn't require moving anything, you can just sit."

She stood up, buttoned her coat, and tied her hair up, her movements much more efficient than last night.

Chen Ping knew her temper; he couldn't persuade her, so he stopped trying.

When they arrived at the front yard, Zhao Guosheng was standing by the flower bed with a jar in his hand. The rose bushes in the flower bed had bloomed two bright red flowers after last night's wind, still glistening with dew.

He saw Cui Ying walk in, paused for a moment, and then placed the jar on the edge of the flower bed.

"Xiao Cui, why are you out here? Go back and lie down. You're off today."

"Dean Zhao, I'm fine. I'm just lying in the dormitory anyway, so I might as well come to work." Cui Ying smiled, walked straight to the accounting office without stopping, and her ponytail swayed twice on her shoulder.

Zhao Guosheng watched her retreating figure, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He picked up his mug, took a sip of tea, and shook his head at Chen Ping, "Just like you, stubborn as a mule."

Chen Ping smiled and returned to his consultation room.

The patient hasn't arrived yet.

Chen Ping had just sat down behind the consultation table when Zhao Guosheng led a middle-aged man in his early fifties toward the consultation room.

The man was wearing a faded blue work uniform, with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing two sections of his arms tanned by the sun, and clutching a roll of blueprints in his hand.

Chen Ping recognized him: Old Sun, the foreman of the construction team that renovated the health center last time.

The two had dealt with each other a few times during the last renovation. Old Sun was a reliable worker who didn't mince words, and his quotes were fair.

Zhao Guosheng obviously thought so too, so this time he didn't even look for other companies and directly called Lao Sun over.

"Dr. Chen, Old Sun is here. You two can have a chat." Zhao Guosheng led Old Sun to the door of Chen Ping's clinic, while he himself stood aside holding a jar.

Chen Ping shook hands with Lao Sun and led him to the backyard.

The open space in the backyard is right next to the dormitory building. It had been idle for a long time, overgrown with weeds and piled with old bricks.

This land wasn't touched during the last renovation of the health center, and it's been sitting idle ever since.

"I plan to build a two-story building on this land. The first floor will be used as a consultation room and activity room, and the second floor will be used as an observation ward. The area doesn't need to be too big, about 200 square meters per floor will be enough, but the structure and water and electricity must be built according to the standards for medical buildings."

Chen Ping stood in the middle of the open space, used a twig to draw several lines on the ground, marking the locations of the functional areas one by one. "There are three consultation rooms and one large activity room that can accommodate at least fifteen people for group activities at the same time."

"There are four observation wards, each with its own bathroom. The ceiling height must be no less than 3.2 meters, and the windows must be large and bright enough to ensure adequate lighting and ventilation."

Old Sun measured the ground with a tape measure, then squatted down to examine the soil. He rubbed a handful of soil in his hand, nodded, and said, "The foundation is fine. This land has solid soil underneath, so we don't need to drive piles. We can just use a wide-foot foundation. Is it a brick-concrete structure or a frame structure? Frame structures are more expensive, but they're easier to modify if you want to add a structure later."

"The framework. Complete it in one go, leaving no future problems," Chen Ping said.

It's just a temporary two-story building now. If there's a need in the future, we'll need to add more floors, as two stories definitely won't be enough.

Old Sun took out a small notebook from his pocket, scribbled on it with a pencil for about five minutes, and then showed the notebook to Chen Ping.

"The cost of materials and processing fees: 350,000 yuan for brick-concrete construction and 420,000 yuan for frame construction. If you are in a hurry, I can call people to work overtime. Overtime pay is separate, not much, just 80 yuan more per person per day, and 50 yuan more if meals are provided."

Zhao Guosheng leaned over to glance at the budget, gasped, and secretly tugged at Chen Ping's sleeve, lowering his voice to say, "Dr. Chen, 420,000? Didn't you say 2 million would be enough?"

"This is only the beginning and a quarter of it is already gone. There are still renovations, equipment, tables and chairs to pay for, so take it easy."

Chen Ping didn't respond to that.

He had a clear understanding of the situation: this building wasn't built for himself, but for those children who had been labeled.

Once the building is completed, there's nothing more to discuss; if the building isn't built, all the talk is just empty words.

He tossed the branches aside, dusted his hands off, and said, "Just the framework. Can we get it on site tomorrow?"

Old Sun stuffed the notebook into his work pocket, grinned, revealing a set of teeth stained yellow from smoking, and said, "Alright, Dr. Chen is a straightforward person. I'll bring some people over first thing tomorrow morning to dig out the foundation."

"Okay!" Chen Ping reached out and shook hands with Lao Sun.

Old Sun walked away with a smile. In Siping Township, construction projects were mostly small jobs, but this two-story building was considered a big project.

"Dr. Chen, why don't you build a smaller building? It's so big, your two million might not be enough."

After Lao Sun left, Zhao Guosheng spoke to Chen Ping again.

"Dean, I've calculated it. Two million is no problem. The renovation doesn't need to be fancy; floor tiles and whitewashed walls won't cost much. Besides, the frame structure, including labor and materials, is only a little over a thousand per square meter, which isn't expensive." Chen Ping smiled and then returned to his consultation room.

Seeing this, Zhao Guosheng sighed, shook his head, and went back to his office.

The patients arrived one after another in the morning, just like usual.

Wang Tao called out commands in the corridor for those with back pain, leg pain, stomach discomfort, or colds and coughs, while Zhou Jie and Sun Xiaoyan took their temperatures and blood pressures. They coordinated much better than yesterday.

Chen Ping was seeing patients in the consultation room. After seeing a few patients, he stood up and left the consultation room while the previous patient went to the pharmacy to get medicine and the next patient had not yet come in.

He walked through the corridor to the door of the accounting office and glanced inside.

Cui Ying sat in front of the computer, an account book spread out in front of her, a pen in her hand, filling in numbers into the table.

She sat up straight, not daring to lean against the back of the chair, and her complexion was rosier than when she had just woken up in the morning.

On the windowsill next to me was a mug with a kitten printed on it, filled with steaming tea.

"Have you had any water?" Chen Ping asked, standing at the door.

Cui Ying looked up at him, her pen pausing on the paper. "I drank it. This is my second cup. Why did you come over? Don't you need to see the patient?"

"It's free right now." Chen Ping glanced at her again to make sure she wasn't feeling unwell, then turned and went back to the examination room.