"Xiao Hong, my health must be related to the water and soil here. The water here is especially sweet. Ever since I came to your house, I've been able to eat half a bowl more at every meal. Eating seafood every day must be good too. No wonder seafood is so expensive; it's really nourishing!"

"The soil and water are good, so you can stay here. Dad, don't worry, you won't be idle. You'll be busy soon. You forgot that the design company is coming to see the site tomorrow. They'll produce the blueprints quickly after they've seen them. Once the blueprints are done, we'll have to build the house. You'll have to keep an eye on things for me. I don't know as much as you do, so you'll have to take care of the house."

"I have no problem leaving the house to your dad. I've helped build quite a few houses, I know all about it. But Xiaohong, when did you buy such a big piece of land? Weren't you and Xiaoyun talking about buying a house in Beijing? Why didn't you end up buying it?"

"It's done. Isn't land cheap in the village? Look how good the soil and water are here. It would be great to buy a piece of land, build a house, and retire here. But the village insists on giving us a large plot, requiring us to build a hotel to comply with the policy from above before they will approve the land."

I'm thinking, since it's so cheap now, if the price goes up later, wouldn't I be able to make a profit? It's an investment, better than putting money in the bank. If you like it here, you can even retire here when you're old—isn't that great?

After hearing Chen Hong's explanation, the old father was relieved. In his mind, buying a house and land was not considered wasteful.

From then on, Dad diligently oversaw the construction of Chen Hong's house, making the construction workers work like oxen every day.

The next morning, two architects from the design company arrived. My father greeted them even more warmly than Chen Hong, and they first went to inspect the terrain of the building site. Afterwards, he consulted Chen Hong's suggestions and prepared to go back and produce the blueprints.

Chen Hong wanted a two-story building at the front, intended for entertaining tourists in the future. It should have a separate dining area and a large kitchen to facilitate dining for tourists and entertaining guests. The guest rooms should also be divided into single rooms, double rooms, and family rooms.

The villa behind will be three stories high, with a simple European style exterior and a courtyard, with a building area of ​​550 square meters. It needs to meet all the living needs of a family, including a large living room, a large kitchen, an entertainment and leisure room, a small study, a storage room, a large balcony, and each bedroom should have a separate walk-in closet and a bathroom.

They also requested the construction of a 100-square-meter underground storage room.

According to Chen Hong's requirements, the villa alone will cost approximately 300,000 yuan. This includes a 4,000 yuan design fee, all material costs, and labor costs. The hotel in front will cost 200,000 yuan. The exact price will be discussed before construction begins, but the fluctuation range will not be large, at most 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.

Chen Hong could add or change her ideas before construction began, but once the final draft was completed, it couldn't be altered. Her company had its own construction team, capable of providing clients with a one-stop service from construction to decoration, so Chen Hong opted to have them handle everything.

After the architectural drawings were finalized, the decoration matters were discussed. A contract was signed and a deposit of 20,000 yuan was paid. Chen Hong just waited for the drawings to be finalized. Everything else was handled by their company, and Chen Hong stopped worrying about it.

After the company people left, the old man said to Chen Hong, "If this were in our hometown, it would cost at most 350,000 yuan. This price is too high."

Chen Hong knew that the old man was worried about the money. "Dad, we can build a house here for 200,000 yuan, but we have to buy the materials ourselves, hire workers on a daily basis, provide meals, and we can't design it well ourselves. Our family members have to be at the construction site every day to keep an eye on it."

"Once the house is finished, the whole family will be financially ruined. That's why people say you have a grudge against someone and encourage them to build a house! If we outsourced everything, our lives would be so much easier. I could earn it back in three to five days of work. We don't have time to spend all our time building houses!"

Dad was immediately amused by Chen Hong's words: "I've realized that you've come up with too many twisted arguments now! Besides, what people say is: 'If you're not on good terms with someone, advise them to build a house.' You've even distorted the old saying."

The old man smiled even more broadly, thinking that his daughter could now earn more money than he had ever earned in his entire life!

Chen Hong went out to sea again in the afternoon when she had nothing to do. She only cast two nets and did not return to port until it was completely dark. On the way, she took out a large box of expensive fish from her space.

Zhang Baiqiang was overjoyed. He paid over 110,000 yuan for his goods alone, and Liu Quantian paid over 30,000 yuan. Together, the two of them helped Chen Hong earn 150,000 yuan.

I transferred today's wages to Uncle Erhu and gave him two bass to take with him. Uncle Village Chief caught some fish today, so I won't give him any.

When Chen Hong got home and saw her father and Yu Yang preparing to cook porridge, she quickly chased the two of them out of the kitchen, deciding that she should do the cooking herself!

Last time I came home late, Dad cooked a pot of rice porridge. It was so sticky and difficult to eat, I couldn't even pick it up with my fingers. Everyone in the house—chickens, ducks, dogs, and even people—got involved, and it lasted for four whole meals. Chen Hong was really sick of it.

Upon opening the rice cooker lid, Chen Hong noticed that she had indeed added too much rice. She poured out three bowls of water from the pot and decided to cook it as rice instead. Since she couldn't eat it tonight, she would make fried rice with eggs for tomorrow morning.

I stir-fried beef with green peppers, made spicy crab, and cold green beans with minced garlic. I also braised the fish my dad caught today, and finally made a seafood soup.