Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Song Chao planned to clean out the storage room in his house, paint the walls pink, put a small table there, and turn it into Niu Niu's art studio.

In another month and a half, I'll have saved enough money for the aluminum alloy balcony. In another six months, I'll have saved enough for the entire house renovation.

I'll invite my parents-in-law over for a meal then, so they can see that I, Song Chao, haven't let their daughter down.

He felt that life was becoming more and more hopeful.

When they reached the steel bar processing area, foreman Lao Zhou called out to him, "Song Chao! We need this batch of steel bars urgently. They must be processed before six o'clock tomorrow morning. You'll have to work overtime and finish it tonight. I'll pay you double."

"Okay! Alright!" Song Chao immediately responded, his voice filled with obvious excitement.

Double the wages.

He quickly did the math—double pay, working until dawn tonight, he could earn over two hundred yuan more, enough to buy Niu Niu two more boxes of milk, plus the money he'd saved from strawberries, maybe even a can of formula.

This is enough for Niu Niu to drink for half a month.

He put on gloves, picked up the hook, and squatted down to skillfully tie up the steel bars.

The hook deftly flips between the fingers, wrapping the wire around once, twisting it twice, and tying a knot—the movements are fluid and graceful.

He's been in this line of work for almost ten years, and his speed in tying steel bars is the fastest on the entire construction site. Old Zhou always calls him the "Steel Bar King".

The steel bars were icy cold to the touch, and the late autumn night wind blew into the work shed, cutting his face like a knife. He zipped his work clothes up all the way, hunched his shoulders, but his hands didn't slow down at all.

My mind is filled with images of going home next month—Niu Niu rushing into his arms and calling him "Daddy," her little arms wrapped around his neck, refusing to let go;

Yuan Qiao was heating up food in the kitchen, her apron smelling of cooking oil. She turned around and smiled at him.

The family of three sat at the rickety old dining table to eat, and Niu Niu chattered on about the fun things that happened at kindergarten while she ate.

These images, like little suns, warmed him from head to toe.

He worked incredibly fast, his hooks flying up and down, the sound of steel bars colliding crisp and pleasant.

One, two, three steel bars—the steel cages piled higher and higher around him, the wires twisted tightly and closely, each one neatly tied, with absolutely no corner-cutting.

He has a bottom line: houses are for people to live in; if the steel reinforcement isn't strong enough, the building will collapse and people will die. He can work overtime, stay up all night, and squat on the construction site in sub-zero temperatures with his hands frozen red, but he absolutely cannot be sloppy.

This is a matter of life and death.

Halfway through the work, his coworker Xiao Zhao nudged his arm: "Song Chao, look over there, the developer's car is here."

Song Chao looked up and saw a black sedan driving in at the construction site entrance.

The car body was polished to a shine, but the tires splashed mud as they rolled over the uneven muddy ground of the construction site, dirtying the paint on the car doors.

The car window rolled down, revealing the face of a fat man wearing a gold chain.

That's the developer, Mr. Zhang, whose real name is Zhang Jinshan. He rarely comes to the construction site. Big bosses like him only cut the ribbon at the groundbreaking ceremony or take a picture when the building is topped out. They never step into the construction site at other times.

I don't know what's wrong with me today, I came here in the middle of the night.

Zhang Jinshan's gaze swept across the construction site, first looking at the newly poured foundation, then at the steel reinforcement cages piled up beside it. Finally, it landed on Song Chao, a cryptic smile playing on his lips.

The smile was so faint that Song Chao almost thought it was his imagination.

He didn't pay attention and continued tying the steel bars with his head down.

He had no connection with big shots like Zhang Jinshan. One was a real estate developer with tens of millions in assets, and he had a driver and secretary; the other was a lowly laborer on a construction site, earning less than two hundred yuan a day.

There is an entire world between them.

He only needs to do his job well and get paid, that's enough for him.

Zhang Jinshan glanced at him for a few seconds, then turned and whispered something to a tall, thin man wearing glasses next to him. The tall, thin man immediately took out his phone and wrote it down, glancing at Song Chao with a look in his eyes that Song Chao couldn't understand.

Zhang Jinshan's car didn't leave; instead, it was parked next to the workers' shed.

The tall, thin man got out of the car and walked through the mud to the steel bar processing area, where he waved to foreman Lao Zhou.

Old Zhou quickly took off his gloves, jogged over, and listened to the tall, thin man say a few words.

Then Lao Zhou's expression changed.

He glanced at Song Chao subconsciously, opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he just nodded.

The Song Dynasty did not pay attention to these things.

He was concentrating intently on securing the last steel bar, his mind racing with thoughts of buying his wife a new scarf next month to surprise her when he went home.

------

The autumn night wind, carrying dust from the construction site, stung Song Chao's face.

He squatted on the ground, tying steel bars without stopping. His fingertips were already frozen stiff, and he had to use extra force to twist the steel wire every time.

The gloves were worn through long ago, and the index finger and thumb of the right hand were exposed, frozen to a purplish-red color, with rust and cement residue under the fingernails.

The other workers had already taken refuge in the workers' shed to avoid the wind.

Old Liu was curled up in bed scrolling through his phone, Xiao Zhao made himself a bowl of instant noodles for a late-night snack, and the others were playing cards around the electric heater, their laughter audible even through the corrugated iron walls of the shed.

Only Song Chao remained squatting in the cold wind for almost three hours.

The temptation of double wages is too great.

With an extra two hundred yuan, we'll have enough for Niu Niu's milk, and we can also add a little more money to buy Yuan Qiao a scarf, enough to buy a thicker wool one.

Last time, he saw a maroon wool scarf in a shop window, priced at 120 yuan. He stood outside the window for several minutes, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to buy it.

I must buy it when I go back this time.

Yuan Qiao had been wearing that old scarf for three years. The fur was worn down and the edges were frayed. She couldn't bear to replace it and always said, "I can still wear it."

Song Chao knew perfectly well that it wasn't that she didn't want to change, but that she was reluctant to spend the money.

That's just how she is; she always thinks of him and Niu Niu first, and she never buys herself anything decent.

Therefore, he must earn more.

If Yuan Qiao saves even a little more money for the family, she will suffer less injustice.

Old Zhou stood not far away, smoking. The embers of his cigarette glowed and faded in the darkness. His gaze kept falling on Song Chao's back, and his furrowed brows never relaxed.

He had worked with Song Chao for almost five years and knew that the guy was an honest man.

He never cuts corners when working. Others tie steel bars quickly, sometimes leaving out a couple of wires to get away with it, since no one can tell once the concrete is poured.

The Song Dynasty did not do such things.

Every steel bar he tied was neatly bound with three iron wires, twisted tightly and closely. Old Zhou had worked on construction sites for twenty years and had never seen many people as honest as him.

His family was poor, and he had to shoulder the burden entirely on his own.

My wife stays home to take care of our child, who is only three and a half years old. Both sets of parents are getting old and we have to go to the hospital from time to time.