It only took An Songyu a single morning to finish handling everything.
At noon, she used her student card to have a long-missed lunch in the school cafeteria.
Compared with the flavors she remembered, what struck An Songyu even more was the price level of this time.
One meat dish, one vegetable dish, plus a free bowl of seaweed egg-drop soup, with plenty of white rice, cost only 4.5 yuan in total.
And in terms of taste, it wasn’t particularly bad either.
Of course, An Songyu had deliberately chosen the third cafeteria—the one she remembered most fondly.
It was just that the spicy diced chicken she most wanted to eat wasn’t there.
She didn’t know whether her memory was mistaken, or whether that Sichuan chef hadn’t yet come to work at South City University’s canteen.
Thinking about it carefully, An Songyu vaguely remembered that this dish indeed seemed to be available only shortly before she graduated.
Earlier on, the third cafeteria, which was built last, had actually encountered quite a few problems.
It was only after the school carried out rectifications that it became the most popular cafeteria among students.
With a slight sense of regret, she finished the meal.
Before the wave of junior students arrived in force, An Songyu hurried out of the school.
South City University was located in the central urban area of South City.
Not far after leaving the campus, the streets were already bustling and lively.
An Songyu wasn’t in a hurry to head back.
Aside from buying her friend the pastries she liked, she also deliberately brought some for Sister Xia and the colleague who had originally been off today, as a token of thanks.
In addition, An Songyu didn’t forget to buy extra, so she could share them with other coworkers to try.
Along the way, as she looked at South City—still far less developed compared to twenty years later—An Songyu couldn’t help but sigh repeatedly.
All things considered, An Songyu actually knew South City better than Shuncheng.
After all, according to the original course of events, after completing her three-month internship, she would have been lucky enough to enter South City Grand Hotel through campus recruitment, and then settle down and build her career in South City.
Thinking of this, An Songyu suddenly realized something.
After being reborn, she seemed not to have contacted her husband even once.
Upon reflection, he also seemed to be doing an internship at this time.
And the internship location was even in another city?
As for exactly where, after such a long time had passed, An Songyu couldn’t quite remember.
But thankfully, that realization allowed An Songyu to breathe a sigh of relief.
Thinking this, she couldn’t help but let out a self-mocking laugh.
With over twenty years of life experience behind her, An Songyu had long grown accustomed to such separations.
After all, from the moment Jian Ziyu chose that major, it meant that their future life together was destined to involve more separation than togetherness.
Over the course of those twenty years, An Songyu had grown depressed over this more than once.
She had even thought countless times that if she could start over, she would rather never have met him at all.
But now that she truly had the chance to start over,
An Songyu carefully examined her current feelings, and it seemed… that thought had completely disappeared?
Sitting on the coach back to Shuncheng,
An Songyu looked at the cityscape outside—still quite backward compared to twenty years later—and began to think very seriously.
Perhaps, if she started over once more, there might be other ways to keep the two of them from living such a life again.
By the time An Songyu got home, it was almost dinner time.
Seeing An Songyu come back carrying bag after bag, Bi Lizhu—who had been worrying about money lately—immediately showed displeasure on her face.
An Jianping, however, didn’t think too much about it. He had just spoken with Village Head Jiang Wenlin on the phone.
The matter of loans had already been looked into on his behalf.
It was just that the amount he could borrow was not satisfactory to An Jianping.
Before this, there had been no such precedents in the village.
Even the banks themselves were extremely cautious when handling such matters.
Jiang Wenlin asked An Jianping whether he wanted to proceed with the application.
If not, they could still try asking other banks or branch offices.
In addition, he also promised to continue inquiring about policy support and other preferential measures.
After all, those abandoned mulberry fields and fish ponds in Jiang Village were not only a major concern for Jiang Village, but also a source of trouble for many places across Rongdi and even Shuncheng as a whole.
If An Jianping truly could revive them through contracting, he would surely receive support from many parties.
Most importantly, not just in Jiang Village, but across all the other villages in Shuncheng, there were still very few people willing to contract such remote mulberry fields and fish ponds.
And among them, An Jianping himself was an employee of the silk-weaving factory.
In previous years, he had also consistently helped the village’s silkworm-rearing operations, which would likely give higher-level leaders even more confidence in him.
Such circumstances were, in fact, extremely advantageous for An Jianping.
But he knew his own situation well. When he first planned to return to the village, he hadn’t actually been aiming to truly develop this venture.
Yet now, not only had people begun placing hope in him, they were also running around on his behalf.
For a moment, An Jianping even felt the urge to reject Jiang Wenlin’s goodwill.
But upon thinking carefully, regardless of whether Jiang Wenlin would even accept such a refusal, did An Jianping himself truly want to turn it down now?
Looking at the worry on his father’s face—something he had never seen before—
An Songyu, who had just put down her things, felt doubt for the first time about whether her actions had been right.
“Then let’s really do it this way from now on,” Bi Lizhu said seriously as she looked at her husband.
An Songyu and the others were momentarily stunned, then quickly understood.
That’s right. They had only been thinking about whether what they were doing before the demolition was necessary.
They hadn’t thought at all about what would happen after the demolition.
No matter what their original intentions had been this time, if, over the next few months, they could prove that this endeavor truly had value, then after receiving the demolition compensation, not only could they continue with it, they wouldn’t have to worry about money like they were now.
“That’s true as well,” An Jianping said, looking at his uncharacteristically serious wife, feeling a sense of relief.
“If that’s the case, then even if the time is short, the mulberry fields and fish ponds in Jiang Village will still need to be well managed and properly operated,” An Songlin said seriously as he began to plan.
“That way, if we truly… continue doing this in the future, we’ll also have more experience.”
The two sisters nodded in agreement and began earnestly asking about Jiang Village’s situation.
In the family, only An Songlin and An Jianping had been back to Jiang Village recently.
Naturally, the two of them were the most familiar with its current conditions.
Even so, the sisters secretly decided that when they had their next break, they would definitely visit Jiang Village more often as well.
And when the next break finally came,
An Songyu stood in front of her family’s residential plot, staring in disbelief at the crowd of people vigorously wielding shovels and clearing the land.
“Ah-Yu, you’re off today?” Yuan Qionghua called out quickly as she came over from next door.
Hearing this, An Songyu hurriedly greeted her. “Auntie, you’re at home today?”
“Yes! Your family and your younger uncle’s family are both starting construction together, but there’s no one watching over your place.”
“So since I had some free time at home, I came over to help keep an eye on things.”
“Thank you, Auntie!” An Songyu quickly said her thanks.
(End of chapter)