That Time Loan

The novel "That Time Loan" is about the four and a half years I spent doing private lending in the garage of my community from March 2015 to September 2019. According to the judicial interpretation at the time, if the interest rate does not exceed four times the bank's benchmark interest rate, it is legal. During those days, 475 people came to borrow money from me, of which 198 debts totaling RMB 8.98 Million were unrecoverable. Seeing that my business was doing well, three neighbors stuffed coffin books into my pocket, saying they wanted to make a little fortune with me. I stopped him, tried hard to stop him, but didn't stop him. Later, I couldn't get my money back, the three neighbors' dreams of getting rich were shattered, and the coffins they smashed in were gone. I was prosecuted and executed. After suffering from cancer, taking sleeping pills, and sleeping for fifty-two hours, the Lord of Hell kicked me back. I understand: it's not that I have a big destiny, it's that I need to live and work hard to pay off my debts. I replaced the "Investment Cooperation Agreement" in their hands with an "IOU" and decided: I don't want the money owed to me; I will pay back what I owe. So, I sat in that ten-square-meter storage room and spent three and a half years writing those days into a 660,000-word book called "That Time Loan". This is not a book about "private lending", but a book about "how dignity collapses" and "how people should live with their own debts." Those who come to borrow money ultimately mortgage their dignity, secrets, family affection, and even their entire lives to Brother Hao. This is a realistic group portrait written in a non-fictional style. It is a wordless monument erected for the souls trapped in that specific "time loan".