The construction progress on the residential land in Jiang Village was indeed quite fast.
With the combined efforts of An Jianmin and Jiang Wenlin, several residential plots—even including the silkworm houses—were started simultaneously.
After two weeks, construction on the silkworm houses had long been completed and they were already usable.
As for the residential plots, the freshly finished foundations were plainly visible to Bi Lizhu.
An Songxiang was extremely nervous, repeatedly glancing at her father and elder brother up ahead, who appeared as though nothing was on their minds.
In her heart, she complained once again that her sister hadn’t been able to come along.
Yuan Qionghua, who had come with them, was also quietly observing her sister-in-law’s expression.
Ever since the third brother decided to return to Jiang Village and began building houses and tidying up the mulberry–fish ponds, this sister-in-law had only come by once.
But that time, the residential plots had just been allocated, and even the workers hadn’t all been arranged yet.
So unless someone mentioned it, it really wouldn’t have been clear whether she knew.
Judging from the second niece’s reaction last time, this matter was likely not hidden from just one or two people by the third brother.
Yuan Qionghua had always known her own situation well and believed she understood her sisters-in-law fairly clearly.
Yet these two families—who should ordinarily have been similar to hers, valuing sons more but not mistreating daughters—had suddenly pulled off such a move.
In contrast, it made her own family seem as though they were especially biased toward sons.
During those days, Yuan Qionghua had more than once observed her youngest sister-in-law, wanting to see whether she was truly willing about what her husband was doing.
But that woman had been rushing in and out every day, busy with the house-building work.
Not only was there nothing to observe—Yuan Qionghua hardly even saw her.
Now that she finally ran into her third sister-in-law, Yuan Qionghua simply didn’t believe she was entirely willing.
After all, she had always clearly seen this sister-in-law’s attitude toward the children.
Bi Lizhu was indeed shocked.
For a moment, she was even unable to fully react.
But once she did, the first thing she felt was not the shock that her two daughters also had residential land, but rather An Jianping’s concealment from her.
And in fact, she understood An Jianping even better than her daughters did.
He had talked constantly about contracting mulberry fields and fish ponds in the village, yet had never mentioned the residential land—still, he had managed to make such a huge affair of it.
So just how much mulberry field and fish pond land had he actually contracted?
And through what kind of means?
Yuan Qionghua waited a long time, yet didn’t see Bi Lizhu’s expression change.
Instead, when An Jianping and the others prepared to go inspect the mulberry fields, she followed without hesitation.
Yuan Qionghua sighed inwardly—sure enough, when it’s one’s own property, it’s different.
In the past, this sister-in-law from the city had returned to the village countless times.
But aside from the initial curiosity, she had practically never gone out like this again.
Today, without any prompting at all, she followed on her own.
Walking out of the village, the first thing they saw were well-maintained vegetable gardens and orchards.
Beyond that entire stretch were scattered flower fields.
Some still had flowers and shrubs growing.
Others were left with only pots of varying sizes—some still held poorly tended plants, while others were broken or empty.
There were also flower fields that had clearly been abandoned for a long time, overtaken by a mix of weeds and plants.
After passing through this area, they reached the mulberry–fish ponds and orchards.
Compared to the flower fields earlier, most of the land here hadn’t been left idle.
But once they got closer, it was clear that these mulberry fields, fish ponds, and orchards had all lacked careful management.
The weeds between the fields had grown back again and again.
The fruit trees and mulberry trees—once carefully tended—had clearly not been pruned for a long time and were growing wildly.
Around the various fish ponds, weeds flourished luxuriantly.
Some ponds were so overgrown their edges were almost invisible.
Anyone unfamiliar with the land would not only lose their bearings but might even fall in.
Yet among these mulberry fields, fish ponds, and orchards, there was one large area that stood out as completely different.
The mulberry trees there had obviously been lightly pruned.
Perhaps because the timing hadn’t been perfect, new shoots now grew together with older branches.
Between the rows of mulberry trees, most weeds had already been cleared away.
Though fresh spring grass kept sprouting, it was no longer overwhelming.
At the thick, sturdy bases of the mulberry trees lay piles of pond mud that had clearly been dredged only recently.
Along the nearby pond banks, most of the weeds had been cleared, finally revealing the true outlines of the ponds.
Some ponds were still drying, while others had already been refilled with water.
At a short distance, beside a much larger pond, stood a spacious silkworm house— a small portion built on the bank, but mostly elevated over the water.
Figures could be seen moving busily in and out inside.
Bi Lizhu looked up and happened to spot familiar figures.
“Dad? Mom?”
When Grandma An, Shi Youqin, heard the voice and turned around, she saw that almost the entire third son’s family had come.
The wrinkles on her face seemed to smooth out slightly at once.
An Jianping had clearly expected the two elders to be there and directly asked,
“Dad, Mom, how’s the silkworm house coming along?”
“Everything’s ready,” An Shunhe replied seriously, first nodding to his daughter-in-law.
“That’s good,” An Jianping said, then greeted the two people who came out behind them.
These two were the ones he had specifically hired to manage the silkworm house.
They were migrant workers from out of town.
Although they had raised silkworms in their hometown before, they weren’t especially professional.
So when the elderly couple saw that the third son’s family was really rebuilding silkworm houses, and often came by to take a look and help with some work,
An Jianping simply handed management of the silkworm house to the two elders.
He also told them that they were now responsible for teaching the two workers proper silkworm-raising techniques.
Once the silkworm house produced cocoons, the workers would also receive a share of the net profits.
For now, however, the silkworm house was still empty.
Although it had been finished for several days, the silkworm larvae had yet to hatch from their eggs.
After leaving that silkworm house, Bi Lizhu saw several more silkworm houses of varying sizes elsewhere.
This was, after all, a characteristic feature of mulberry-fish pond systems.
Of course, she also felt that this was likely An Jianping’s preparation for future demolition.
After walking through the entire mulberry and fish pond area, Bi Lizhu followed An Jianping and his son to the nearby orchards.
Unlike the mulberry fields, however, the orchards had not undergone fine management.
After all, it was already spring, and it was no longer an ideal season for extensive orchard maintenance.
Even so, some weeds had been cleared, and branches that had grown excessively were lightly trimmed.
Additionally, some pond mud had been piled beneath each fruit tree.
Clearly, while An Jianping intended to leave the orchards for now, he didn’t plan to let them go completely to waste.
As Bi Lizhu walked along, she noticed that the area of orchard land An Jianping had contracted was quite large.
The fruit trees were almost all at peak fruit-bearing age.
Because management had clearly been lacking for several years, the spacing between trees was somewhat unreasonable.
As for varieties, since these orchards had likely been planted early on, the trees weren’t arranged in large single-species sections.
Instead, each variety occupied a small patch, all combined into one large orchard.
Bi Lizhu roughly counted and discovered as many as five or six types of fruit trees.
This didn’t even include the papaya and banana trees planted along the edges.
This… was practically every common fruit tree found around Shuncheng!
At this time of year, most of the fruit trees were in bloom.
If this orchard weren’t located so far from the village, it likely wouldn’t have ended up in their hands.
On the way back, Bi Lizhu finally couldn’t help asking,
“How much did it cost in total to contract all these mulberry fields, fish ponds, and orchards?”
“It didn’t cost much,” An Jianping replied, a flicker of guilt passing through his eyes.
Bi Lizhu naturally didn’t believe him and continued questioning,
“This whole area must be several hundred mu, right? How much per mu?”
“There aren’t that many,” An Jianping denied flatly.
Bi Lizhu casually pointed toward the orchard behind them.
“I just counted the longan trees earlier—ten trees per row, ten rows in total.”
“The numbers of other fruit trees vary a bit, some more and some fewer, but averaged out, it should be about the same.”
“Shall I ask how many fruit trees can be planted on one mu of land?”
(End of chapter)