The midsummer of the grasslands was truly a time when vegetation flourished abundantly and clouds stretched for thousands of miles.

But at the same time, there were swarms of mosquitoes like clouds—truly enough to bite someone to death—along with ultraviolet rays that would make your head dizzy under the scorching sun.

Workers began to suffer from heatstroke one after another, and the construction schedule started dragging on again. Zhao Yu was so anxious he got inflamed, developing large blisters all over his mouth.

I personally went to supervise the canteen, having them make the food more appetizing. They were making sour rice porridge, stewed sauerkraut, and plain mutton strips, and I had them add cold jelly noodles, sesame paste cold noodles, and spicy cabbage as well.

Watermelons and popsicles were sent to the construction site by the truckload.

Whatever stimulated appetite, we ate it; whatever cooled you down, we ate it. I was terrified the workers wouldn’t eat well, get dizzy-headed, and fall from the scaffolding. If there was a safety accident, we’d have to shut down.

But the construction schedule was still delayed.

The outsourced construction teams were mediocre to begin with, and on top of that, they constantly had the mindset of cutting corners. The things they produced failed inspection several times. Over time, the client’s supervisor’s face became as long as a donkey’s.

The schedule kept getting pushed back again and again.

Zhao Yu, who was already inflamed, became even more irritable. He took a megaphone and circled the construction site cursing people, directly saying, “If any bastard slacks off on me again, get the hell out!”

The atmosphere at the construction site fell into a tense焦灼 state for a while, with everyone running even when going to the bathroom.

I was no exception. Zhao Yu and I held several meetings, and in the end could only use the previous method—a zoned responsibility system. We selected a person in charge for each area, with someone specifically responsible for tallying how much work each person did daily, reporting layer by layer.

This eliminated slacking and laziness, but it also doubled our workload.

I was so busy my eyes went dark.

The only one at ease on the entire construction site was Ha Rina.

She and Qinglong had changed their dating location to our construction site. After Qinglong came to unload goods, she would come over, and the two kids would dangle their feet eating free watermelon.

In the midst of my busyness, I still had to throw a ball of paper at Qinglong’s head when he slipped his hand into Ha Rina’s clothes.

“I’m telling you! Before Ha Rina comes of age, if you dare mess around, I’ll castrate you!”

“Sis—”

Qinglong cried injustice, while Ha Rina laughed beside him.

Whenever this happened, my heart would miss Cheng Xia a little.

His treatment was going smoothly. The psychologist said he was very willing to open himself up, and his somatization symptoms were gradually decreasing.

Correspondingly, our contact also decreased.

During dinner yesterday, I called him and said, “The construction site is too busy this month, I probably can’t come back.”

“It’s fine, I’ll go check on Grandma for you.”

I was startled and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Playing basketball!” His voice was somewhat breathless, and someone nearby was calling his name. He said, “Coming!”

Then he said to me, “I’ll call you when I get home!”

Looking out from the canteen window, there was an endless grassland, above it layers of golden clouds rendered in gradations.

I gazed for a long time, swallowing down a moment of panic along with the lamb dumplings.

——

That night, I didn’t answer Cheng Xia’s call.

Because we had started working through the night.

Workers worked twelve-hour shifts, and supervisors rotated twenty-four hours. This wasn’t actually uncommon at construction sites, but we didn’t have enough workers, and with this kind of weather, I actually didn’t quite agree.

But Zhao Yu was very insistent: “The weather here is changeable, there’s going to be a heavy rainstorm in a couple days. If we don’t take advantage of the night to push more progress, what’s the point of this project! It’s like catching an egg in a door crack—totally screwed.”

I still wanted to say that the strings at a construction site couldn’t be pulled too tight; if too tight, everything would collapse at the slightest thing.

But then I thought again—how many projects had Zhao Yu done, and how many had I done? What qualifications did I have to direct him?

So I didn’t say anything more.

After high-intensity supervision and working through the night, the project progress visibly caught up.

Zhao Yu followed along the entire time, able to endure more than anyone, his two eyes like two bright gleaming red lanterns.

I couldn’t endure like he could. I always remembered what Cheng Xia told me—the more anxious and impatient you are, the more you need to live well.

Every day I found time to sleep five or six hours to keep my mind clear.

That night, I also slept amidst the noise of construction.

Perhaps because I was too tired, when I woke up, I discovered over ten missed calls on my phone.

My heart sank heavily.

Just then, the phone rang again. It was Bao Long.

“What happened?” I asked while getting dressed.

“Boss.” The background was noisy, but his voice was strangely calm: “If… I’m gone, please help take care of my daughter.”

——

At 4:50 in the morning, I arrived at the accident scene.

It was a broken bridge deck, the twisted fracture like the jagged fangs of a giant beast.

The wreckage of one car still hung there, while the two cars in front had already vanished without a trace.

On my face, cool liquid slowly flowed down. Zhao Yu was right—it was raining.

The rain grew heavier and heavier, and I just stood in the rain, watching rescue personnel busily working in the water. Countless voices were shouting something, but I couldn’t hear anything anymore.

I could only see them pulling a person out from the mud.

A young, strong boy—Qinglong.

He had never been this pale white before, white like a jade baby, lying there silently and motionlessly. He would never again gallop spiritedly on the grasslands riding a white horse, nor would he ever call me “sis” with that cheeky grin.

He was dead.

——

“This kind of thing happens often, stop crying and whimpering.” Zhao Yu said: “We still have to keep pushing the schedule.”

We were currently in the city hospital, where Bao Long was being resuscitated.

This was the first time I didn’t respond to the leader’s words.

It was an old-style stone arch bridge with a load capacity of eight tons.

But the truck itself weighed twenty tons, plus severely overloaded cargo, a full sixty tons. The transport convoy’s three trucks passed over the bridge, and the bridge deck collapsed rapidly.

Qinglong’s truck immediately sank into the river water. In the spinning chaos, he didn’t even have time to open the car door to escape.

And Bao Long was in that truck. He had originally been accompanying the convoy on business, and the violent impact left him severely injured.

However, the experienced driver jumped from the vehicle with him and escaped.

The remaining people called the police, and with blood flowing continuously, Bao Long made his last phone call to me.

He didn’t have many friends, was divorced, and his daughter was in middle school. He was working desperately to earn money.

I couldn’t stand outside his emergency room and say this was nothing, that this was insignificant for the great project.

While Zhao Yu was still droning on instructing me about various aftermath matters.

Hai Lan, the other construction supervisor I had brought, suddenly said: “Mr. Zhao, do you people treat people as people?”

Zhao Yu stopped: “What did you say?”

“You big shots strategize up there, and for a project, it seems any sacrifice is worth it. Have you ever thought that we ants also have parents, also need to sleep, are also living lives!”

Hai Lan’s eyes were bloodshot as she shouted: “I’m fucking done!”

That string finally snapped after all.

——

Bao Long ultimately escaped mortal danger, but he obviously could no longer continue working.

Many people resigned like Hai Lan did. This was the largest-scale employee resignation event since S Construction was founded, and the entire project team nearly collapsed.

I really wanted to collapse too, but I couldn’t.

Zhao Yu convened everyone for a meeting to review this accident and formulate a new timeline.

I spoke: “This incident mainly has two problems. First, the Huhe Lu Bridge where the accident occurred is old, therefore has limited load capacity. Most convoys would choose the new bridge, yet the Weisheng convoy chose this bridge. Second, the cargo loaded was severely overloaded, three vehicles passing simultaneously, causing the accident…”

Before I finished speaking, the conference room door was violently opened.

Qinglong’s family members rushed in, emotionally tearing at Zhao Yu’s collar, crying and shouting Qinglong’s name in Mongolian.

Zhao Yu couldn’t dodge in time, and the entire conference room descended into chaos.

The disheveled Ha Rina woodenly walked to my side and said softly:

“They say if you people hadn’t been rushing the schedule like demanding someone’s life, Qinglong would never have gone onto that bridge.”

“You people killed Qinglong. You must pay with your lives.”

I looked at her icy eyes and felt a chill run through me.

Looking past Ha Rina, who stood like a wood carving or stone sculpture.

I saw outside the window, in the courtyard, a Cullinan was parked—clearly it had brought these people here.

That young master from Beicang Transportation was casually looking this way.

When our eyes met.

On that handsome face, a smile slowly emerged.