Chapter Twenty-One: Around Fifty Thousand

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An Jianping hadn’t expected his wife to observe so carefully. He had intended to gloss over the matter with a brief explanation.

But then he saw a rare seriousness in her eyes.

The words he had originally prepared to say suddenly escaped him.

Glancing around to make sure no one else was nearby, An Jianping could only confess honestly, “The total contract fee was about fifty thousand.”

“About fifty thousand?” Bi Lizhu found it hard to believe.

Judging by the area she had just seen, there was no way it could cost that much.

“There wasn’t much spent on the mulberry fields and fish ponds; no one has been willing to take those over for years,” he explained.

“I agreed to contract four hundred acres at fifty yuan per acre, which only comes to about twenty thousand,” An Jianping spoke with unusual care.

It wasn’t arrogance on his part.

Nearby, in Lin Village, during the relocation two years ago, even short-term crops like rice paddies and vegetable fields were compensated at over five hundred yuan per acre.

Fruit trees were compensated by the individual tree.

Heard that the village chief’s long-standing longan trees were compensated at two thousand yuan apiece.

But Lin Village had always been primarily focused on grain cultivation; large orchards were rare, so An Jianping had no reference point.

“As for the fruit trees over here, apart from some papayas and bananas at the edges, they’ve been planted for nearly ten years.”

“Most are in full bearing, so the contract price is higher—eighty yuan per acre.”

“In total, four hundred acres were contracted for thirty-two thousand.”

“So altogether, it comes to exactly fifty-two thousand.”

Fifty-two thousand was acceptable, but...

Bi Lizhu looked at An Jianping suspiciously. “Where did you get that much money?”

“Didn’t you apply for homestead land for Ayu and Axiang? How much would it cost to build four houses together?”

“Well, about forty thousand per house,” An Jianping’s tone dropped even further.

He feared that if his wife probed further, she would discover that he had taken out loans applying for his two daughters.

That would surely upset her far more than just knowing he had applied for homestead land and built houses for his daughters!

This was why An Jianping had not hesitated at all today and had directly brought Bi Lizhu into the village.

Since the houses under construction couldn’t be hidden anyway, it was better she saw them when she was supposed to.

Only, An Jianping hadn’t expected his wife’s mindset to be so different from their daughters’.

Though Bi Lizhu’s face looked grim as she surveyed the houses under construction, she didn’t turn away in anger.

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Instead, she continued to follow him, inspecting every mulberry field and orchard.

All the matters An Jianping hadn’t yet figured out how to explain were laid bare.

Bi Lizhu truly noticed something was off about her husband’s expression.

After all, she knew their family’s financial standing well.

Just these four houses had nearly depleted their savings.

What remained was reserved for the down payment on their son’s new home.

Before today, An Jianping should never have touched that money.

So where did the funds come from to contract those mulberry fish ponds and orchards?

“Well... I took out a loan,” An Jianping admitted, his guilt mounting.

At that moment, it wasn’t only Bi Lizhu watching him closely—An Songlin and An Songxiang were also observing him intently, waiting for a fuller explanation.

“Well...” An Jianping cast a subtle glance at his future daughter-in-law, signaling his wife to stop asking.

Bi Lizhu pressed her lips together, forcing herself to restrain her urgency.

After leaving Jiang Village, An Songlin first took Xuan Ying home.

On the way, Xuan Ying anxiously asked, “Songlin, uncle… isn’t he being a bit too reckless?”

She wasn’t unaware that the money they had saved to buy a house outright was being used for the development of Jiang Village.

But now hearing that her future father-in-law had not only invested that money but also taken out loans, Xuan Ying felt uneasy.

An Songlin thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t think so.”

“I just heard from grandpa and grandma that in about a week, the silkworm eggs will hatch.”

“Silkworms only need about forty days before they can be harvested.”

“Four cycles can be raised in a year.”

“Each cycle, per acre, can generate around one to two thousand yuan in income.”

“There are plenty of mulberry fields here, even those unmanaged ones can still provide leaves to feed the silkworms.”

“Unmanaged mulberry fields just have better leaf growth and are easier to harvest.”

“It’s just that I don’t know how large the silkworm houses my dad built are.”

“One to two thousand yuan per acre per season?” Xuan Ying widened her eyes in disbelief.

Earlier, Uncle An said he contracted four hundred acres of mulberry fields.

So, that would mean...

“That’s not quite how it works,” An Songlin said with amusement, gently tapping his fiancée’s forehead. Her greediness was rather endearing.

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“Not to mention the investment in building the silkworm houses and managing the mulberry fields and fish ponds.”

“Even among the four hundred acres contracted, not all are mulberry fields.”

“In our village, the mulberry fish ponds are contracted together, and pure mulberry groves might be less than half.”

“It depends on the locations my dad chose, which we couldn’t inspect more closely today.”

“But even if it’s only half, and considering the investment in building silkworm houses and managing mulberry fields, the money will be recouped quickly.”

Xuan Ying felt no matter how she calculated it, there was no way to lose money.

“So why has no one in your village raised silkworms recently?”

“Because it’s too hard!” An Songlin rubbed the top of his fiancée’s head helplessly.

It wasn’t as simple as she thought.

He explained further, “Don’t be fooled by their size—the silkworms eat a lot.”

“They’re manageable when small, but at their biggest, a single silkworm can consume over two hundred catties of mulberry leaves in a day.”

“If one acre of mulberry trees can support five or six silkworms, imagine how many leaves must be harvested daily.”

Xuan Ying roughly calculated and swallowed, “At least a thousand catties?”

Xuan Ying had never picked mulberry leaves before.

But just imagining the weight, with her own strength, she would likely be unable to carry that amount from the fields to the silkworm house from dawn till dusk.

No wonder the income was hard-earned!

It was no surprise that Jiang Village’s many mulberry fields had ultimately been left idle.

However, after An Songlin’s explanation, Xuan Ying no longer thought her future father-in-law’s loan and contract were reckless.

Still, she wondered how he intended to manage it all.

And Songlin, last night, heard from his future father that even if the down payment for their marital home was invested, it would be registered under Songlin’s name.

He wasn’t sure whether Songlin would have to manage all this.

After today, Xuan Ying thought it over and decided not to tell her family.

She couldn’t yet fully judge whether the contracted mulberry fields, orchards, and silkworm farming would ultimately yield sufficient returns.

But recalling her initial worries, Xuan Ying felt she didn’t understand the situation well enough to alleviate her family’s concerns.

It was better not to let them worry unnecessarily.