The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

"Your form needs to be stamped in the building next door first before we can process it here."

The person behind the counter pushed a stack of documents back, speaking very politely with a smile on their face.

He Wei was stunned for a moment.

"The building next door? They said on the phone yesterday that everything could be done here in one stop."

Yesterday is yesterday.

The man shrugged. "The colleague in charge of stamping is off today."

Lin Che stood half a step behind He Wei without saying a word.

This is the third place I've visited this morning.

They checked into a hotel in the city last night and left at eight o'clock this morning, with Old Ao leading the way, intending to first complete the local registration for the mining exploration.

The first window was in an old building constructed in the last century. The elevator was broken, so they climbed four floors.

When I got to the front of the line, the clerk looked through the documents for a long time and said that an English translation was missing.

He Wei immediately wanted to find a translator, but the other party waved her hand, saying that the translation had to be done by a qualified agency, and the one on the street corner would be fine.

The group went downstairs, found the small shop with the sign, and waited for forty minutes before they could retrieve the translated documents.

I went back to get the translation, and the clerk looked at it again and said that the translation still needed to be notarized and authenticated locally.

He Wei took out the certification documents she had brought from China and handed them over.

The clerk shook his head, saying that domestic stamps didn't count; it had to be a Kenyan stamp.

After finally getting the certification done, I ran to the third window, only to find that the person stamping the documents was on break.

He Wei put the documents back into the file bag, her movements still swift, but her fingers paused for half a second as she flipped through the documents.

"We completed this certification before departing from China."

She lowered her voice, "The local seal they wanted wasn't mentioned at all in the authorization letter."

Lin Che hummed in response but didn't answer.

Old Ao then came over, rubbed his hands together, and looked embarrassed.

"Mr. Lin, that's how it is here. There are many rules, and the people handling things are scattered."

He smiled apologetically, "Don't worry, it's just a stamp. I know someone here."

As he spoke, he took out his phone, turned to the side, and made a call in the local dialect, speaking quickly and loudly.

When he came back after he finished playing, his smile was even wider.

"Alright, I'll take you to him at three o'clock this afternoon. It'll only take half an hour."

Lin Che glanced at the clock on the wall, then looked out the window.

The sun outside the window had climbed directly overhead, and the shadows of people on the street had shrunk into small groups.

"Then this afternoon."

He said.

Stepping outside, a wave of heat hit me, a stark contrast to yesterday's rain.

Yesterday it was damp, cold and sticky, but today as soon as the sun came out, all the moisture on the ground evaporated, making it stuffy and hard to breathe.

Old Ao led them to a small restaurant on the street corner, saying they should eat something first so they would have energy in the afternoon.

The restaurant was small, with a few wooden tables and faded paintings hanging on the walls.

The proprietress brought out a pot of stewed meat that was so tender it was almost falling apart, along with a large lump of white, pasty stuff.

"This is called black curry, it's made from cornmeal, and you eat it with meat."

Old Ao expertly tore off a piece with his hands, dipped it in the broth, and said, "You guys try it. We don't use chopsticks here; we eat with our hands."

He Wei glanced at the empty table beside her, then at the lump of black curry, and hesitated for a moment.

She still used a tissue to pad her finger, tore off a small piece, dipped it in very little water, and slowly put it into her mouth.

His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly for a moment, then relaxed.

Lin Che didn't hesitate and tore off a piece like Old Ao did and put it in his mouth.

The taste wasn't great, it was sticky, but it was filling.

During lunch, Old Ao started talking about what happened that afternoon.

"The person who stamped the document is my cousin's classmate; I know him."

As he ate, he said, "When doing business here, whether you know people or not makes a huge difference."

He Wei put down the food in her hand and wrote a line in her notebook.

"Mr. Ao."

She called to him, "I've made a list of the windows I've visited and the steps that caused me to get stuck these past two days."

She turned the notebook around and said, "Could you take a look and tell me which ones are the regular ones and which ones were added on short notice?"

Old Ao peeked out and picked out a few.

"This, this is normal, it can't be escaped."

He pointed and said, "These two points depend on the person on duty that day."

He Wei nodded and circled the two lines.

She wrote a few more lines, then paused her pen on the paper.

"Based on the situation in the past two days, there are three additional steps that have been temporarily added just for the filing process."

She closed her notebook and turned to Lin Che, "There will only be more steps involved in obtaining the survey permit and land use permit later on."

"I need to list out every possible obstacle in advance to avoid being caught off guard later."

"Let's go."

Lin Che said, "I'd rather list more."

"Okay, I'll put together a list of compliance risks later."

He Wei responded and put the notebook back into her bag.

Lin Che didn't interrupt, he just listened and mentally processed these fragmented thoughts.

When he handles matters in China, he always has a clear understanding of the procedures and key points, and he knows exactly how long each step should take.

At this point, nodes seem to become less effective.

“On our side,” Old Ao said slowly, tearing apart a piece of curry, “you can’t just look at the flowcharts on the wall.”

He tapped the table with his soup-stained fingers.

"Flowcharts are just flowcharts; getting things done depends on the people involved."

He counted on his fingers, "Today this person is in a good mood and finishes in half a day, tomorrow it'll be someone else and they can drag it out for a week."

Lin Che listened without saying anything, but simply remembered what he said.

He used to trust procedures the most because procedures are rigid, can be calculated, and can be planned in advance.

Upon arriving in Narobi, the process suddenly became dynamic, with a complex web of personal connections that he couldn't yet fully comprehend.

After dinner, with some time to spare before three o'clock, Lao Ao suggested going back to the hotel to rest.

The car got stuck in traffic again on its way back to the city.

Lin Che leaned back in his chair, watching the slow-moving traffic outside the window.

"Old Ao."

He suddenly spoke up, "You said you can finish it in 3:30, is that reliable?"

Old Ao glanced at him in the rearview mirror and grinned.

"Mr. Lin, here, half an hour could be an hour, and an hour could be an afternoon."

He gestured, "Time seems to stretch out in Narobi."

Lin Che was amused by his words, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

He recalled the arrangements he had made for China before leaving home, each and every one meticulously scheduled.

It seems that this clock, like the watch, needs to be reset here as well.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Old Ao led them to the place where the stamp was to be issued.

The man was found; he was a rather amiable middle-aged man who nodded repeatedly after Old Ao spoke a few words in the local dialect.

But when it comes to actually doing it, it's not like that at all.

The man pulled out a thick register and flipped through the pages, looking for an empty number.

He stopped halfway through and said that today's slots were all booked, so he would have to use tomorrow's.

Old Ao leaned over and talked for a while. The man thought for a moment, crossed out an old, invalid number, and made room for it.

Before stamping, the man had to copy the filing information carefully, stroke by stroke. If he misspelled a single letter, the whole thing was void and he had to start over.

Lin Che stood to the side and watched without urging him.

By the time the stamp was finally placed on the paper, the clock on the wall had already ticked from three to past four.

He Wei carefully put away the stamped document and breathed a sigh of relief.

After I finished my business and came out, the sky darkened again, and it looked like there would be another rain in the evening.

On the way back to the hotel, Old Ao seemed to remember something, turned around and said something.

"By the way, Mr. Lin, someone is coming tomorrow."

"Who?"

He Wei asked first.

"The people sent down from above to accompany you."

Old Ao said it casually, "Your project is jointly supervised, and according to the rules, someone has to be there to oversee it."

He paused, then added.

"Starting tomorrow, he will be present wherever you go, what you do, and who you meet, and he will have to record it all."

The car fell silent for a moment.

He Wei turned her head and glanced at Lin Che.

Lin Che happened to be looking over as well.

Neither of them asked any further questions; the arrangement was clearly stated in the contract, and asking wouldn't have made a difference.

But Lin Che knew in his heart that from tomorrow onwards, every single thing he did on this land would be watched by someone who would write it down.