Chapter Sixteen: The Fourth Building Plot?

Yuan Qionghua waved her hand dismissively, not paying it much mind.

If anything, she should have felt more ashamed.

A few days ago, when the third brother’s family suddenly began such a grand construction project, she did have some thoughts.

After all, not too long ago, the third brother had even called, asking her husband Jian Guo to help inquire about the transfer of residential land rights.

At that time, as elder siblings and sisters-in-law, they kept the matter close to their hearts.

They went to the village to ask around even before eating breakfast.

After much effort, they finally gathered some information.

Then the third brother called back, saying that the residential land would no longer be transferred!

This left their couple in an awkward position both inside and out.

But later on, Jian Guo not only didn’t mind at all, he was actually quite happy and eager to help arrange things.

Yuan Qionghua found it a bit hard to understand.

Yet over the years, Jian Guo had developed a clear understanding.

Compared to other families in the village, their life hadn’t been bad at all.

Much of that was thanks to the efforts of the third brother and the youngest sibling.

Not to mention the early days when the third brother moved to the city, and the profits they had gained.

Even in recent years, with so many orchards left uncultivated and no one willing to lease them, it was precisely because the fruit vendors kept driving down the prices they offered for the village’s produce.

But their family, leveraging the youngest sibling’s fruit shop, never had to worry about selling the orchard’s fruits.

And the capital and courage to open that fruit shop initially were also tied to the third brother’s family.

In short, knowing their own capabilities and having capable relatives and friends to lend a hand was truly an advantage.

Because of this, Yuan Qionghua spent several days listening to Jian Guo’s nagging.

Though it made her recall the events of those years and recognize that her feelings were somewhat unfair, she also felt a bit weary.

Just as it happened, with the third brother’s family visiting frequently, she took the opportunity to get closer to them.

She wanted Jian Guo to know that she had long since put those unpleasant thoughts behind her.

An Songyu, however, was unaware of all this.

She only learned through her aunt that their family had built not just one or two, but a full four residential plots in the village!

“So…” An Songyu looked at her aunt with some confusion.

For a moment, she truly wasn’t sure how to describe her feelings.

Seeing her niece’s reaction, Yuan Qionghua was surprised.

“Why, Ah Yu, didn’t your father tell you that this time, in order to return to the village to lease mulberry fields and fish ponds, he secured a residential plot for both you and your sister?”

An Songyu pursed her lips and instinctively shook her head.

Yuan Qionghua was stunned and muttered under her breath, “Your parents really do care about you all!”

She meant no exaggeration.

In their entire Jiang village, very few families had ever applied specifically for their daughters’ residential land.

In the southern province, even with family planning policies, true only-child families were mostly urban households where both parents worked.

For rural families like theirs, it was common to have two or more children.

The preference for sons over daughters was an unavoidable reality, not only in small villages like Jiang but even in towns like Rongdi.

Yuan Qionghua didn’t consider herself a harsh mother.

But achieving the level of fairness toward sons and daughters that the third brother’s family displayed was something she found difficult.

After all, applying for a residential plot wasn’t that hard.

But according to village regulations, if the landowner’s household registration moved away, the ownership of the land would become an issue.

Some plots could be retained.

But only a handful of households in the entire village enjoyed that privilege.

And those few had made significant contributions to the village.

Most others, once their registration moved away, would have to return the land to the village.

Of course, those cases usually involved families who had prospered in the village before settling in the city.

The houses left behind in the village were generally in poor condition, worsening over time.

As for families applying for residential plots for their daughters, these were mostly special circumstances.

For example, some parents, out of affection, had already arranged a match for their daughters in the village.

Others had no sons at all and had decided to keep their daughters at home to marry in husbands.

Such families were neither models Yuan Qionghua aspired to emulate nor cared to learn from.

An Songyu had long since stopped pondering these matters.

She had originally thought that by moving their household registration back to the village, her father was treating her and her sister fairly.

After all, the village had two residential plots.

One was already designated solely for An Songlin.

Knowing full well that demolition was likely, these two plots would certainly be built upon.

Even though the family had agreed to take out a loan to buy a new house for them, An Songyu didn’t think this fact would change.

Thus, she had assumed she and her sister would register on one of the other plots with their parents.

If demolition came, perhaps the compensation from that plot would be shared with them.

But she never expected that, without their knowledge, their father had also applied for separate residential plots for the two of them.

Following her aunt, An Songyu looked at the four plots of land already under construction, lined up side by side.

Her emotions were so complex that words could hardly express them.

It was as if after twenty years of effort, she could finally accept her mother’s obvious favoritism—and now she was freed from it in this moment.

“That smaller one next door is your uncle’s,” Yuan Qionghua said with an even more complicated expression, pointing to the four plots.

An Songyu was puzzled.

If she recalled correctly, her uncle’s plot for their cousin had already been approved.

Moreover, to facilitate nearby care, that plot was near the fish ponds their family had leased.

The fish ponds An Jianmin leased weren’t the unevenly sized ponds typical of the village’s post-Sangji fish ponds.

They were among the earliest and largest in Jiang village.

In the past two years, besides fish farming, they had begun allowing fishing.

At first, with few guests, lack of accommodation wasn’t an issue.

But now that agritourism in Jiang village had grown bustling, more visitors came to fish in their ponds.

In addition to longtime fishing enthusiasts, many visitors who initially came just for picking fruit and leisure had also come.

The demand for lodging had increased.

So An Jianmin had long planned to apply for a residential plot in his son’s name there.

Construction was to begin this year.

An Songyu’s expression was too obvious.

Yuan Qionghua pursed her lips slightly and said, “That’s not for your cousin, but your uncle saw your family leasing quite a few mulberry fields and fish ponds and decided to lease some too.”

“So he took the opportunity to apply for a residential plot for your cousin.”

“I heard that several houses in your family were built by your father, intended to be passed down to you all.”

“And your uncle is following suit.”