When that tallest building was mentioned, the others hadn’t been there before, so they naturally had no impression of it.
Only An Songlin suddenly understood.
After all, in the entire new district, the only completely sealed-off construction site at the moment was that one.
And although the buildings there were clearly not yet finished, you could already see how tall they were going to be.
“In addition, the main development focus of Shuncheng for the past two years has been exactly that new district.”
“In other areas, there are scattered industrial parks going up, but there aren’t many garment factories.”
“If we exclude the locations and everything else…”
“Then A-Yu’s speculation really has no problem at all.”
“Then…” Bi Lizhu swallowed, unable to believe it as she stammered:
“So that… that means…”
“It means that the demolition news is very likely to be true,” An Jianping replied, still holding on to a bit of caution.
“So now, what I want to discuss with you is… what we should do next.”
“These past few days, I’ve talked it over with Jianmin.”
“As of now, there are still several fish ponds, mulberry fields, and flower fields in our village that haven’t been contracted out.”
“Besides that, our family still has two pieces of homestead land lying idle.”
“Based on the information we’ve gathered so far, while we can be sure demolition will happen, we still can’t pinpoint exactly when.”
“But that’s fine. The time in between can let us make fuller preparations.”
“What I want to ask now is: in your hearts, what suggestions and plans do you have for this matter?”
As he spoke, An Jianping’s gaze landed mainly on his eldest son and his wife.
It wasn’t that he didn’t value his two daughters’ opinions.
It was just that when it came to the girls, he actually already had some ideas in mind—he just needed to settle things for his eldest son first before he could bring them up.
An Songlin forced himself to suppress the excitement in his heart. After drawing in a long breath, he said:
“Dad, Mom, last Sunday I took A-Ying back to the village.”
“This past week, I’ve been bringing it up with her in a roundabout way.”
At this point, An Songlin felt a bit embarrassed.
Because whether the demolition news was true or not,
It really wasn’t something he could lay out clearly in front of his fiancée.
So he said, “I was thinking, even if there were no demolition rumors… our family could still do what the other villagers are doing—build orchards, vegetable plots, fish ponds and so on…”
“Let people from the city come picking.”
“But since all of us in the family are working in the city, we’re not very suited to doing things the same way as the others in the village.”
“So what I’m thinking is, why don’t we just turn our two pieces of homestead land into something like an inn?”
“Unlike the other villagers, we wouldn’t focus on feeding and entertaining people—we’d only provide accommodation.”
“As for the orchard, vegetable plots, and even the fish ponds, we can hire people to help manage them.”
“Right now, it’s true that it’s not easy to find people like that in our village.”
“But if we look for migrant workers from outside, it actually won’t be hard.”
“Most of the people who come out to work nowadays are born in the countryside anyway.”
“And what does Xiao Xuan think now?” An Jianping asked in a low voice.
They all understood what he meant.
At present, the savings the entire An family could really mobilize were basically the money originally prepared to buy a new house for the young couple.
Right now, housing prices in Shuncheng ranged from 1,200 to 2,500 per square meter.
And since the An family had fairly long-term vision and planned to buy one of the newest elevator apartment units, the price naturally wasn’t low.
For a 90-square-meter apartment, they needed to prepare over two hundred thousand yuan.
Given that the couple’s combined monthly salary was not even five hundred yuan, even if the parents emptied out all their savings, they still couldn’t scrape together enough.
That was why the couple had set their sights on the two pieces of homestead land in the village.
An Songlin shook his head first, then continued:
“As for buying the apartment, I actually haven’t brought it up directly yet.”
“But when it comes to starting a business back in the village, I feel like A-Ying is already thinking about it.”
“She said she wants to go back to the village again tomorrow on her day off.”
“She brought that up herself?” Bi Lizhu frowned, asking skeptically.
An Songlin nodded firmly.
“It’s not going to be that easy to sort out,” An Jianping sighed softly.
He had a thousand thoughts in his heart, but to put them into practice, everything still came back to that one word: money.
And unfortunately, the money they currently had simply could not be moved lightly.
An Songlin pressed his lips together and said:
“Dad, I think… I want to talk to A-Ying first and see if we can, for now, not buy the apartment.”
As he spoke, he nervously licked his lips.
If the demolition really did happen,
Then this decision of his could change the fate of the entire family.
But the problem was, both families had already discussed the wedding date long ago.
Now, there were less than two months left until the wedding.
And when the date had been chosen back then, it had been their side who had proactively promised to prepare a home for the young couple.
If they backed out now, with the wedding right around the corner,
If that conversation didn’t go well,
It wouldn’t just affect the timing of the wedding—
Even the relationship the two of them had built over the years might suffer a blow they couldn’t bear.
But An Songlin also understood very clearly.
This was something only he could bring up. If he didn’t, it wasn’t as if the others in the family could do it in his place.
His words plunged the whole family into silence.
Only Bi Lizhu reacted instinctively, wanting to object.
But the moment she opened her mouth, she swallowed the words back down.
Because now that the demolition news was in the picture,
Those two pieces of homestead land back home could absolutely no longer be sold.
And without the money from selling them,
With the savings the couple had now, even if the parents emptied out everything, they still wouldn’t have enough for the apartment they’d had their eye on.
Yet over these past days, after the two families studied the matter together, that apartment—though no deposit had been paid—was basically as good as decided.
For a moment, Bi Lizhu couldn’t help turning to look at her second daughter.
Feeling her mother’s gaze, An Songyu also lifted her head.
When she saw the complicated look in Bi Lizhu’s eyes, she couldn’t help secretly sighing.
She knew her mother was somewhat blaming her.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe the news her daughter had brought home,
But the current situation meant that, in Bi Lizhu’s eyes, this would bring no small turbulence to her son.
And besides, the demolition news… could not be ruled out as possibly false either.
With another twenty years of life experience behind her,
An Songyu was no longer the girl who would be deeply hurt by this kind of look.
But facing it again, her heart still felt uncomfortable.
Sure enough, in her mother’s heart,
Son and daughters had never been something to weigh on the same scale.
An Jianping didn’t notice the silent exchange between mother and daughter.
He looked earnestly at his son and said:
“Songlin, whether or not we buy the apartment now is no longer just a matter between you and Xiao Xuan as a couple.”
(End of chapter)