Qin Weidong took the punch from Wang Xiaohu squarely. He didn’t hit back. Fang Li saw a trickle of blood at the corner of Qin Weidong’s mouth and realized just how hard that punch had landed.
He shouted at Wang Xiaohu, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you hitting people?!”
Fang Li rarely lost his temper like that. He’d always been the pampered young heir, soft-spoken and composed. But now—he was furious. Especially when he saw that drop of blood—it pierced his eyes like a nail. Qin Weidong was his. He could yell at him, scold him—but who gave anyone else the right to lay a hand on him?
He lunged at Wang Xiaohu, going for his collar, but Qin Weidong grabbed him around the waist and held him back.
Wang Xiaohu clenched his jaw and shouted, “I hit him?! I hit this ungrateful bastard! Qin Weidong, when you and your little brother had nothing at the station, I was the one who took you in. And here at the mine—have I treated you badly? When I was going gray from stress, you stood there playing dumb. And now that Boss Xu shows up, suddenly you’ve got skills? So you were planning to make a fool of me from the start?!”
Qin Weidong bent down, picked up the money from the ground, gathered it all—every last bill—and stuffed it into his pocket. He glanced over at Old Fu, who froze for a second, then quickly stepped in to ease the tension.
“Come on now, no fighting… mining’s part luck too, right? Maybe Weidong just got lucky this time…”
“Lucky my ass!” Wang Xiaohu shoved Old Fu aside and glared at Qin Weidong. “That little bit of dynamite, and you think he just got lucky? Bullshit! This isn’t over!”
That night, Xu Jianchuan had another shipment of dynamite rushed in. From that point on, the mood at the mine began to shift.
The next morning, without waiting for orders from Wang Xiaohu, the workers followed Qin Weidong down into the shaft on their own. As expected, the young man—still not even twenty—had an eye like a blade, sharp enough to see through stone. Two rounds of blasting, and the crushed ore rained down like snowflakes, shimmering with tiny flecks of gold in the rich black rock.
Some of the older miners, seasoned hands who’d worked at pits across the region, watched the way Qin Weidong packed the explosives and marked the drill points. One of them whispered to the guy beside him, “That kind of technique? You don’t get that without three to five years under your belt.”
Qin Weidong stayed underground for a full week. He went down early every morning and didn’t come up until deep into the night. He was in charge of resetting the excavation direction and opening up new work faces. Every day, the lime and grit that shook off his clothes could pile up into small mounds around him.
Xu Jianchuan, still anxious despite the results, brought another experienced mine boss with him for a second opinion. The two of them left smiling. The happier Xu Jianchuan got, the more sour Wang Xiaohu’s face became—he hadn’t shown Qin Weidong a kind word since that day.
“Power’s out again!” someone yelled from the pit below.
Power outages had been frequent the past couple of days. The reason? Wang Xiaohu had failed to reach an agreement with the village over the “maintenance fees.” He thought they were asking too much and kept dragging his feet. But even the workers could see it—Wang Xiaohu was deliberately throwing wrenches into the works. After all, he was now the one officially in charge of the mine.
They grumbled quietly among themselves: “Just when we finally hit a good vein, now the power keeps going out. How are we supposed to get any work done like this…”
It was getting late. The sky had already gone dark, making repairs impossible. Fang Li picked up the rabbit and went looking for Qin Weidong, who had just come up from the mine.
A few guys were outside playing cards and calling out to each other. Qin Weidong scooped up two ladles of cold water from a bucket and poured them straight over his head. The ashen water ran down his broad, muscular back, trailing over his shoulder blades and vanishing into the waistband of his olive-green work pants slung low on his hips.
They’d both showered in front of each other plenty of times. Fang Li had seen it all before. But for some reason tonight, he swallowed hard—feeling a strange heat rush through him.
Fang Li turned his back on the bed, rabbit still in his arms, forcing himself not to look again.
He didn’t expect Qin Weidong to walk over—still dripping wet—and scoop him right up.
“What are you doing?!” Fang Li jumped like he’d been shocked the moment Qin Weidong touched him. Qin had only gone to fetch some freshly boiled water and frowned slightly at the reaction.
“What’s with you?” he said. “No one’s around. I just wanted to dry your hair.”
Qin Weidong grabbed the rabbit out of Fang Li’s arms and tossed it to the floor—he hated when Fang Li’s attention was on anything other than him.
Fang Li blew a breath through his nose. “Jealous over a rabbit now, huh…”
Spring was right around the corner, but the mornings and evenings were still chilly. Worried he might catch a cold, Qin Weidong wrung out a hot towel and gently wiped Fang Li’s hair. Fang Li lay back, hair spilling behind him—it had grown a bit longer lately.
“There’s been so many power cuts lately…”
“The village electrician didn’t settle the deal. They probably shut it off.” Qin Weidong didn’t name names, but Fang Li knew who it was. He tilted his head.
“I bet it’s Wang Xiaohu being petty on purpose! You know, I saw that village guy come over last time. I heard him talking to Wang Xiaohu, and Wang Xiaohu said he’s the one in charge now, so the guy should only deal with him.” Fang Li tilted his head again, annoyed.
“He’s so frustrating. If you ask me, he’s just short-sighted. Not like you—you pulled in five thousand in one go! I’ve counted it seven or eight times!” Fang Li had been smiling nonstop for days. Five thousand yuan! He even knew where Qin Weidong stashed the money—and he couldn’t sleep at night without counting it first.
“Oh right, I haven’t counted it tonight…” Fang Li started to get up, but Qin Weidong pushed his head back down.
“Don’t move.”
Qin Weidong ran his fingers through Fang Li’s towel-dried hair. “Let the electrician deal with the power for now. I couldn’t get away these past few days, but tomorrow’s perfect—I’ll take you into the county hospital for a proper checkup.”
Before dawn the next morning, Qin Weidong had already taken Fang Li on the road. From Xiahe, they first had to catch a van down the mountain—eight yuan per person—then transfer to a shuttle bus to reach Changding County. Fang Li was still half-asleep when he boarded, yawning nonstop and leaning limply against Qin Weidong’s shoulder.
“Why’d you bring all the money with you? That’s so risky, changing buses so many times… what if someone steals it?”
Qin Weidong replied, “It’s better this way. I feel safer having it on me.” He’d brought all five thousand yuan, wrapped in newspaper and tucked inside his jacket. Fang Li could even feel the bundle through the fabric. He thought Qin Weidong was making a mountain out of a molehill.
“You’re overreacting. I probably just caught a chill. Happens every time the seasons change—I cough a bit, feel a little dizzy. Go to the clinic, grab some cold meds, and I’m fine. Now we’re wasting money making this round trip…” He made it sound like an old, familiar issue. But Qin Weidong hadn’t relaxed since they got on the bus; his brow stayed tightly knit. Fang Li reached up to touch it—then suddenly remembered something.
“Oh no! I forgot to feed the rabbit!”
Qin Weidong clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed that Fang Li could still be thinking about a rabbit right now.
Fang Li shrugged. “It’s still a living thing, you know…”
Once they reached the hospital in Changding, Fang Li wasn’t nearly as carefree as he had been on the ride. Changding was much bigger than Suixing, and so was its hospital. Seeing the crowds of people moving in and out made him uneasy.
Hospitals made Fang Li inexplicably nervous. Back in Chongsi, everyone who went to the hospital seemed to die soon after—including his grandmother. Fang Li never quite understood why. Qin Weidong once told him that people only went to the hospital when there was no other choice—and even then, if you didn’t have money, there wasn’t much the hospital could do.
Qin Weidong ran around asking the nurses, registering at the front, waiting in line. After a long time, it was finally their turn.
The doctor pressed a stethoscope to Fang Li’s chest, listening carefully. His brow furrowed. After a while, he removed the stethoscope and had Fang Li lie on the bed and roll up his shirt, checking a few spots on his chest. Then, pen in hand, he began writing in the medical chart.
“How old is he? Why are you only bringing him in now?”
Fang Li said, “Nineteen. Doctor, what’s wrong with me?”
The doctor asked, “Have you ever felt discomfort in your heart before? Shortness of breath? Chest tightness?”
Fang Li shook his head. After he did, Qin Weidong added, “When he was little, he’d sometimes start gasping for air while running—really bad. He’d have to stop and rest. Couldn’t walk any farther.”
Fang Li thought to himself, That was just from being tired, okay…
The doctor continued, “Your parents didn’t come with you? His condition seems a bit complicated. We’ll need to run further tests to know for sure. Do you have enough money?”
“We brought enough.”
“Alright then. Go get a cardiac ultrasound, and these other tests too. Once you have all the results, bring them back to me.”
They went up to the third floor. The cardiac ultrasound room was separate, right next to the one where they did ultrasounds for pregnant women. Five or six expectant mothers were waiting outside with their husbands, their faces glowing with happiness. Sitting beside them, Fang Li couldn’t have looked more different. He was still stuck on what the doctor had said earlier.
He’d always been timid, easily spooked. When he was little and got in trouble, Qin Weidong was always the one who took the blame for him.
“Qin Weidong… what did the doctor mean by ‘complicated’? I’m kind of scared. Come in with me?”
Qin Weidong wanted to go in too, but when the nurse called Fang Li’s name, she stopped him.
“Hey, hey—he’s a grown man. Only one person allowed in the exam room!”
Fang Li pouted, reluctantly letting go of Qin Weidong’s jacket.
Qin Weidong said, “Be good. Do what the doctor says.”
“You’ll wait for me, right? Right here. Don’t leave!”
“I won’t. I’ll be right here.”
Outside, the husbands of the pregnant women sat waiting. But Qin Weidong didn’t sit—he stood by the door the whole time. The doctor’s words kept echoing in his mind, playing over and over. He rested a hand lightly against the door.
Before long, Fang Li came out.
Qin Weidong asked anxiously, “What did they say?”
“I asked, but the nurse didn’t say anything. Just told me to bring all the reports back to the doctor.”
The two of them moved between the third and fourth floors. Fang Li had just finished his ECG and chest X-ray. When they returned to the consultation floor, he suddenly clutched his stomach—he needed the bathroom.
It was nearly noon, and the doctor was about to get off duty. Qin Weidong had no choice but to take the test results they’d received so far and knock on the doctor’s office door.
The doctor first glanced at the echocardiogram report. When he saw the diagnosis section, he put on his glasses and carefully reviewed all the documents one by one. After reading through everything, he said, “This is a classic case of congenital heart disease—specifically, a ventricular septal defect. With the severity of this case, symptoms should’ve appeared in childhood. Why has it taken so long to come in?”
Qin Weidong thought he’d misheard. “Heart disease? A defect?”
The doctor nodded. “It’s a congenital internal heart deformity. Let me put it this way: the human heart is like a house. In his case, one of the walls in that house is damaged—there’s a large hole.”
“And judging by the results, the defect isn’t small. A normal shunt is only about five to seven millimeters. His is nineteen.”
Qin Weidong looked at the report, stunned. “What’s the treatment, doctor?”
“Based on the indicators, open-heart surgery is the only option. He’s young, so as long as there are no complications, he’ll be fine. But once symptoms start showing, things can go downhill fast. If you can manage it, I suggest having the surgery done as soon as possible.”
For an average family, this kind of condition was a serious hurdle. The doctor gave Qin Weidong another look—perhaps sensing he was still quite young—and added, “This is a major surgery that involves opening the chest. It’s not cheap. You’ll need to discuss it with his parents. But don’t wait too long—his left ventricle is already under strain. If this continues, it could lead to heart failure or pulmonary hypertension. At that point, surgery will be much riskier.”
Qin Weidong asked, “Doctor, how much would the surgery cost?”
“Conservatively, over thirty thousand yuan at our hospital. If you want to do it in the provincial capital, it’ll cost even more—maybe another ten or twenty thousand.”
When Qin Weidong stepped out with the reports, everything in front of his eyes turned red. It was as if his blood had frozen, clogging up his brain and ringing in his ears. Thirty to forty thousand yuan—for a single surgery…
He slumped onto one of the hospital benches. Just then, someone patted him on the shoulder.
It was Xu Jianchuan.
“Qin Weidong? What are you doing here? Isn’t the mine working today?”
“Power’s out. The machines won’t run.”
“Damn it, I knew that Wang Xiaohu was a goddamn airhead!”
Beside Xu Jianchuan stood his wife. The last time he’d been at the mine, he stayed in the county town drinking for two whole days. His high blood pressure flared up again. When he got home yesterday, he collapsed into bed and couldn’t be woken no matter how she tried. His wife panicked and rushed him to the hospital.
“Boss Xu.” Qin Weidong suddenly looked up and said, “Boss Xu, do you have a moment? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
Xu Jianchuan was heading back to Jinyang that evening. He had a decent impression of this young man, though only decent. As a boss himself, he didn’t need to ask to figure out what was going on between Qin Weidong and Wang Xiaohu. Young people—being shrewd and caring about money was normal. As long as they could make him money, that was all that mattered.
“What is it? Go ahead.”
Qin Weidong said, “Boss Xu, I worked at a mine back in my hometown for five years. I’ve been running some rough calculations on the Xiahegou mine these past few days. I don’t know what kind of promises Wang Xiaohu made to you, but if you let me handle it, I guarantee the final profit will be double what he can deliver.”
“Double?” Xu Jianchuan chuckled. “You’ve got some nerve, kid. Wang Xiaohu used to be a foreman. He’s not exactly an idiot…”
“But he doesn’t understand mining.” Qin Weidong continued, “Finding gold in ore is no simple job. There’s a lot of nuance to it. Just when it comes to ore selection, chemical ratios, and impurity removal—these all need experienced people. If you hand it to someone who doesn’t know the trade, they’ll cut corners during refining, mess up the chemical mix, and in the end, two mines of the same scale can produce wildly different results—up to double.”
Now Xu Jianchuan was intrigued. He’d heard other mine owners talk about the shady tricks hidden in this business, and he’d been fretting about it lately. “I’ve heard things… And you know all this?”
Qin Weidong said simply, “I do.”
Xu Jianchuan took a good look at the young man in front of him. Last time at the mine, he’d been covered in dirt and grime, so Xu hadn’t gotten a clear look. Now, cleaned up, he thought—this kid really didn’t look like he came from some backwater town.
“But why should I trust you? Wang Xiaohu may be a bit slow, but he’s got experience, and he can manage the workers. As for profit sharing, he only asked me for twenty percent. And you say you can double the profits just like that? What are your terms? If you’re asking too much, I’d rather play it safe…”
“If Wang Xiaohu asked for twenty percent, I’ll only take five.”
“Five percent?” Xu Jianchuan was genuinely surprised.
“Yes. But I want one-thousandth of the gross revenue for each ton of ore extracted.”
At this point, Qin Weidong’s proposal gave Xu Jianchuan real pause. At first, he’d thought the young man was far too inexperienced to take on such a task. But now, hearing how clearly he laid everything out, it was obvious: this young man knew the mining business inside and out. Unlike Wang Xiaohu, who had simply rounded up day laborers and subcontracted the job, but knew nothing about actual mining—like a bride entering the bridal chamber for the first time, clueless about everything.
Xu Jianchuan did the math in his head. Based on current gold prices and the test results from the batch of ore Qin Weidong had already excavated, each ton could yield over four thousand yuan in gross revenue. And this young man was only asking for one-thousandth of that. The real kicker? He only wanted five percent of the final profit…
That wasn’t just a small concession—it was massive. But if he was really as capable as he claimed, how could he afford to set his terms so low?
As Xu Jianchuan mulled it over, his eyes happened to fall on the medical reports Qin Weidong was clutching—creased and wrinkled from being gripped so tightly.
Suddenly, it clicked. “Young man, is someone in your family sick? Or is it you? Are you desperate for money?”
“Yes. My younger brother is sick.” Qin Weidong lowered his gaze and admitted, “So yes, I’m very short on money. Really short.”
Xu Jianchuan clicked his tongue. The reports in Qin Weidong’s hand were clearly real. His own garment factory hadn’t resumed operations either, and every day he kept bleeding money on workers’ salaries. He, too, urgently needed a large sum of liquid cash. What’s more, last time this kid had used just a small amount of explosives to expose the vein. Even the seasoned mine boss he brought along said it wasn’t just luck…
Xu Jianchuan clenched his jaw and slapped his thigh. “Alright! I’ll take a gamble on you!”
Axolotl Translations 
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