The phone rang at 2:17 in the afternoon.
The elderly Director Li Changgeng was sitting in his new office on a chair still smelling of plastic wrap, squinting at the newly hung "Guandu Hospital Development Plan Map" on the wall. Sunlight slanted in through the floor-to-ceiling window, gilding his graying hair with a pale golden color. Outside the window, there weren't many patients waiting in the outpatient hall; Li Min was auscultating a child having an asthma attack in examination room number three.
The phone rang urgently.
The elderly director stretched out his hand to answer; the voice on the other end was from Zhou Daping, the village branch secretary of Chalu Village, hoarse and trembling as if something had gripped his throat:
