Chapter Four: River Village

Standing at the spacious front desk, An Songyu maintained her standard smile while taking the opportunity, with no guests around, to greet the shift supervisor for the day.

Supervisor Sister Xia was in her thirties and a person who strictly adhered to principles.

Although An Songyu had arrived just in time for her shift, she was not late.

Thus, she did not say much.

After exchanging greetings, An Songyu sat down in front of the two computers.

She recalled that, whether at this hotel or in the many others where she had worked over the past ten to twenty years, her duties at the front desk always involved handling check-ins and check-outs for guests.

This was an advantage she had as a genuine hotel management student.

But precisely because she studied hotel management...

As the clock approached three in the afternoon, An Songyu was already so busy that she had no time to think beyond her work.

Meanwhile, in Jiang Village, An Jianping was knocking on his younger brother’s door.

Jiang Village was not a large village.

In total, there were only twenty-four households.

Yet they were divided among three surnames.

Among them, the Jiang and An families were the dominant surnames in the village.

The remaining Zhu family had only one household.

Strictly speaking, the Zhu family descended from a son-in-law who had married into the Jiang family and, with the father-in-law’s permission, carried the original surname passed down to his youngest son.

Now, they had already reached four generations living under one roof.

But until the village was relocated, they had never split the household.

If counting the population, the Jiang family, which was older than the An family in Jiang Village, actually had more people.

However, since the An family had split earlier, occupying four households, they naturally became the surname with the most households in the entire village.

An Jianmin, An Jianping’s younger uncle, was now known in the village as a capable man.

An Jianping knocked for a while without hearing a response, only the barking of dogs, and guessed that his brother and sister-in-law might not be home.

After some thought, An Jianping went to the small convenience store next door.

“Uncle Liu, where are my younger brother and his wife?”

An Shunkang, who was watching TV while minding the store, squinted at him and took a moment to recognize him.

“Oh, it’s Jianping? You’re looking for Jianmin? He should have gone to the village party secretary’s place!”

He couldn’t help but step out of the convenience store and asked,

“Jianping, I heard from Jianmin that they’re planning to repair the old houses at their place and your parents’ place soon. How about you?”

“You’ve got two plots of homestead land, but one of the houses doesn’t even have a roof anymore.”

“In a couple of years, that earthen wall will probably collapse.”

“The other plot is just overgrown with grass. So why did you bother to divide that piece of land in the first place?”

An Jianping gave an awkward smile.

Before he could respond, An Shunkang suddenly lowered his voice and asked,

“Jianping, I heard from your elder brother this morning that you might be thinking of giving up your homestead land in the village?”

“Jianping, don’t get confused!”

“Your household registration was transferred out long ago, so it’s no surprise you got that homestead land.”

“The plot for your eldest son was specially granted because you had some influence at the silk factory, ensuring the village’s yearly silkworm cocoons had a place to go.”

“Otherwise, your eldest son’s household registration hasn’t even been in the village for a single day, so he wouldn’t qualify for homestead land.”

“Look around the village now; whose family doesn’t have a two-story house?”

“Your old house is even more rundown than your parents’.”

“In this day and age, in a village as close to the city as ours, where else can you still see earthen walls?”

An Shunkang’s words were not in the least exaggerated.

Shuncheng had a clear geographical advantage, being no more than a half-hour drive from the provincial capital of the southern province.

Even Shuncheng itself had well-developed streets under its jurisdiction.

Otherwise, it would not be directly administered by the southern province’s government as a county-level city district.

Though Jiang Village was not in the central street area of Shuncheng, it was one of the best-developed streets outside the central district.

It was separated from the city center by only the wide Jiang River.

Jiang Village was less than half an hour’s drive from Rongdi Street.

Since the reform and opening-up, the people of Jiang Village had moved from growing vegetables and flowers to silkworm ponds and fish tanks.

Now, rural fruit picking was thriving and lively.

In the village, every household had built new homes, and even the smallest and oldest little buildings were at least two stories tall.

For a household like An Jianping’s to have empty homestead land and another plot with only a few remaining earthen walls...

The elder had not outright criticized him like some of the Jiang family members in the village, who found it shameful.

An Jianping understood the elder’s goodwill and did not say much.

After chatting casually with the elder, seeing no sign of life at An Jianmin’s house, he prepared to go straight to the village party secretary’s home.

As he walked through the village, An Jianping took the rare opportunity to observe carefully.

Overall, Jiang Village’s development was quite impressive.

From the village entrance, the scattered ten or so households along the road almost formed a street.

Most daily necessities could be met without leaving the village.

At the end of the street was the small convenience store run by Uncle Liu.

Next door to it was An Jianmin’s house.

Though neighbors, the distance between the two households was not close.

An Jianping mainly ran a fruit shop, but he also owned a vast orchard in Jiang Village.

The entrance to the orchard was on the other side of his house.

So, aside from Uncle Liu, who was nearest, other households nearby were not far.

Continuing further into the village, An Jianping soon reached one of his two homestead plots.

One of these was adjacent to his parents’ and brother’s homes.

His house was the closest to the village entrance, and from his current vantage point, the homes seemed to rise progressively higher.

His own plot was now reduced to a few earthen walls hidden among shrubs and tall wild grass.

Next to his was his parents’ old brick and tile courtyard.

Though only one story and clearly weathered by time, compared to his plot, it didn’t seem so shabby.

Following that was the house built years ago by the eldest brother.

It was the earliest two-story building in Jiang Village.

Further back was the new house built a few years ago by the fourth brother.

It was one of the taller buildings in Jiang Village, five stories in all, primarily to serve their family-run guesthouse.

Behind their homes lay vast orchards, vegetable gardens, and fish ponds — the family’s hard-earned assets over the years.

Beyond these households was the village party secretary’s home, not far away.

Though the village bore the Jiang surname, for a long time, no village officials came from the An family.

But in recent years, as the An family’s development surpassed the Jiang family’s, the first university-educated party secretary had emerged from the Jiang clan.

Before An Jianping could reach the party secretary’s home, he spotted two familiar figures not far ahead.