Chapter Twelve Contractual Relationships and Household Registration

"Uncle Lin, could I go and see the locations of those mulberry fields, fish ponds, and flower fields in the village that haven't been contracted out yet?" An Jianping made the request directly.

Jiang Wenlin was slightly stunned, looking at An Jianping with some disbelief.

An Jianping chuckled self-deprecatingly: "Uncle Lin, it was indeed me who called my brother a while ago to ask him to help with the land for our house."

"I regretted making that call in the afternoon."

"Uncle Lin, as you probably know, my eldest son is now of marriageable age."

"That boy is ambitious and hardworking, and the girl has a good personality and is also talented."

"That's why our family wanted to treat her better, so we planned to prepare a wedding house for the young couple when they got married."

"We didn't really like the other houses because we felt that the houses would probably get taller and taller in the future, and it would be inconvenient without an elevator."

"After looking around, the only apartment building with elevators currently for sale in Rongdi is a residential complex that is under construction."

“It’s that price…” An Jianping couldn’t help but gasp in pain as he spoke.

“Even if my family emptied their pockets, we still couldn’t raise that amount of money. So, in a moment of madness, I thought of those two homesteads in the village.”

"But then I thought, even if these two plots of land were actually sold, it would be difficult to raise the money."

Jiang Wenlin seemed to realize something.

No wonder, even the village's most capable leader had to find a way to raise money.

Although Jiang Wenlin wasn't very clear about the specific prices of elevator apartments in the city.

Many families in Kejiang Village have become wealthy over the years.

Not many people are buying houses in the city.

There are quite a few people who are concerned about housing prices in the city.

I heard that this year, even the cheapest houses in Rongdi area cost over a thousand yuan per square meter.

If it's a family, they'd need to buy at least several dozen square meters.

That would cost at least fifty or sixty thousand.

With that money, you could build two or three nice two-story houses in the village.

"So what do you want now?" Jiang Wenlin thought and thought, but couldn't figure out what the matter of buying a house had to do with the village's contracting.

"It wasn't until we needed money at home this time that we realized how little we had. With our fixed salaries, my husband and I are really at a loss."

"I was thinking, should I do what the other people in the village do and contract some land to start a business?"

"That's right, my family doesn't live in the village, so there are some things I don't know."

Jiang Wenlin was still a little confused, and he subconsciously asked:

"So, you're not planning to buy this house?"

An Jianping sighed deeply: "Whether we buy it or not, it's a difficult situation!"

“That’s true!” Jiang Wenlin nodded in agreement.

Even if this were in his hands, just thinking about it would be a worry.

But he truly deserves to be called the earliest capable person in Jiangcun!

The couple raised their three children and sent them to school for many years.

But there's actually quite a bit of savings left?

They really feel that this money is not enough to buy a house in the city.

Planning to develop some business in the village seems like a pretty good idea?

Thinking about it this way, Jiang Wenlin forgot what he originally wanted to say to An Jianping.

He stood up and led An Jianping out of the village committee.

The two chatted as they walked along a street in the village.

This street is the most densely populated area of ​​houses in the entire Jiangcun village, filled with all kinds of shops.

This street exists.

Not to mention the villagers of Jiangcun, even the guests who come and go from Jiangcun can almost solve all their daily necessities.

However, many of their businesses are unique.

Even in small supermarkets and grocery stores, the variety of choices is not as extensive as in the city.

Today is Sunday, and there are noticeably more strangers on the streets.

However, most of the shops were not busy.

When they saw Jiang Wenlin and An Jianping together, whether they knew them well or not, they would greet them from afar.

An Jianping greeted people while carefully observing them.

The strangers appearing on this street include those riding motorcycles or cars, and some are even rare to see in cars.

But most people got off the bus at the village entrance and walked over.

These people are not all going to the same destination.

However, a closer look reveals that their destinations are mostly farmhouses or places where they can pick vegetables.

The two quickly crossed the entire street until they could see An Jianping's plot of land.

Jiang Wenlin then realized:

The reason he specifically called An Jianping was not to take him to see the areas in the village that hadn't been contracted out.

"Jianping, if you really don't plan to sell your family's land, how about... I have someone demolish these earthen walls?"

Jiang Wenlin looked at the few unsightly earthen walls with a rather complicated expression.

Nowadays in Jiangcun, not every family lives in a multi-story building.

An Jianping's family is the only one in the entire Jiangcun village whose house is in such a dilapidated state.

In particular, the industries that Jiangcun has developed now are mainly agritainment.

This is a place where guests come and go from time to time.

Having such a dilapidated old house is really embarrassing for the village.

An Jianping glanced at the captain and finally understood why he had made more than one phone call.

However, he did not agree to the captain's suggestion.

If his idea is implemented, the earthen wall will naturally not be a problem.

Jiang Wenlin felt somewhat helpless.

Seeing that An Jianping had already walked quite a distance, he could only continue to follow.

Next, the two left the area around the village and drove around it for a long time.

He visited almost all the mulberry fields, fish ponds, flower fields, and even orchards in the village that had not been contracted out.

In summary, after these years of neglect...

The mulberry trees in the mulberry field, though unmanaged, look quite different from their original neat and easy-to-harvest appearance.

However, it can still be cleaned up in a short time.

Other areas, whether fishponds, flower fields, or even orchards, have been almost completely abandoned.

The flower fields, in particular, are now mostly empty.

But there are fishponds and orchards.

Even though it's temporarily unmanaged, it looks exceptionally desolate.

But occasionally you can spot fish at the bottom of the water.

And even without anyone specifically managing them, most of the fruit trees are still alive.

That's right, if you really want to make use of them, it's not just a matter of spending time and effort.

Jiang Wenlin had been carefully observing An Jianping's expression the whole way.

But you couldn't tell anything else from his face.

He seemed rather distressed about the mulberry-dike-fishponds that he had once devoted a lot of effort to.

It's a pity that it has been wasted over the years.

Let alone the mulberry-dike-fishpond system, even the mulberry groves and fishponds have long been abandoned.

We circled back to the village committee from another direction.

After the two sat down again in the village chief's office, An Jianping didn't beat around the bush and asked Jiang Wenlin directly:

"Uncle Lin, if I contract some mulberry fields and fish ponds in the village, I can also move my whole family's household registration back here."

"Can our family get another plot of land for homesteading?"

"What?" Jiang Wenlin looked at An Jianping, somewhat unable to react.

He could understand the sentence before that.

But why are people who recently wanted to sell their homestead land asking about it again?

An Jianping seemed to have seen through Jiang Wenlin's thoughts, and explained with a rather helpless expression:

"Uncle Lin, you don't know, our eldest son is getting married soon."

"And there's the second child who's always been studying in the south of the city."

"She graduated from university this year, and her boyfriend is a classmate she's been dating since high school."

"Judging from their expressions, it seems like they're thinking of getting married right after graduation."

"I wanted to move the village's homestead this time because I was thinking that I might have to hold another wedding in the second half of the year."