Chapter 3: Gift Giving
2020, January 6th.
The new year arrived under the windy atmosphere of the entire apartment, and the way the residents now greeted each other when they went out was completely "Which one of the two yuans do you think will survive?"
The majority of the existing residents prefer Mo Yuan to survive. After all, Mo Yuan was a typical good old man, almost always responding to the requests of the residents, and had been exhaustively exploring all kinds of blood word quests to survive, saving the lives of many people. If Mo Yuan could survive, the hope of many people living would be much higher.
On January 6th, the residents even started to gather early in the morning to pay a group visit to Mo Yuan's house to warm up to him, some people gave him some kind of amulet enlightened by monks, some people begged him for some kind of upper sign for him to carry, and some people gave him a pendant of a Buddha statue brought from Thailand. On Qin Ziyuan's side, there were not many people to offer courtesy, because everyone knew that Qin Ziyuan was a person who looked down on tenants with low blood counts in his bones and would not take their lives seriously.
Mo Yuan looked at the gifts from these people and were all a bit teary-eyed. However, his character was too good and after excusing himself, he still accepted it. He knew that if he didn't accept it, these people would be uneasy in their hearts. If he wanted to accept it, he had to accept it all, otherwise he would be treated by them as if he had some kind of affinity in his status in Mo Yuan's heart, and that would be bad.
"Mo Yuan." Finally a whole bunch of gift givers had sent their gifts, and it was Dong Xie's and Dong Ning's turn. Honestly, Dong Xie had no intention of following the trend, but with so many people coming over to send things, if he, a next-door neighbor, or a resident that Mo Yuan had personally approved of, made no statement, it would be a bit too much to say in terms of human feelings.
However, he purposely chose a time when all the other gift-givers had left, before he purposely went over. After all, he didn't want people to obviously realize that his gift was particularly valuable, and that people's hearts were too dangerous not to be guarded against.
He had specifically spent money on a fine piece of Hetian jade to give to Mo Yuan. One must know that the birthday gift he had previously prepared for Ning was not this precious.
"Mo Yuan, this piece of Hetian jade, you can bring it with you to ward off evil spirits. Do not excuse yourself, this jade is nothing compared to a human life, not to mention that the money spent is from the apartment, it's all for nothing anyway."
It was important to realize that although money was inexhaustible within the apartment, good jade might not be something that could be bought with money. Dong Xie was able to buy it, but he still relied on his aunt's doorstep. Although Mo Yuan wasn't exactly a person who knew jade particularly well, but looking at the color of this piece of jade, as well as its touch, he realized that it was mostly real.
"Dong Xie, this ……" Mo Yuan knew that the value of this jade was not comparable to the previous items, and quickly said, "How can this be! No merit, no reward!"
Dong Xie also knew that he would definitely be seen as an outlier for giving such a gift. However, he also knew that the situation was special now. Mo Yuan must survive to keep a check on Qin Ziyuan. Now, he still decided to fall to Mo Yuan's side, although Mo Yuan did not have the deterrent power like Qin Ziyuan, after all, the hearts of most of the residents were still on Mo Yuan's side.
Dong Xie thought to himself, "What I want is for you to receive rewards without merit. Mo Yuan, unlike Qin Ziyuan, was a very humane person, and having him owe him a favor was of great value. He immediately stretched out his hand for Mo Yuan to hold the piece of jade and said, "Mr. Mo, there is no need to say more, a piece of jade is something out of body for me, if you don't accept it, it shows that you don't consider me as a friend."
This kind of condescending words were of no use to Qin Ziyuan's ass, but it was very popular to Mo Yuan. Qin Ziyuan pursued the use of violence to overpower others, but Mo Yuan had never thought of establishing a superior/subordinate relationship with any of the occupants, and was treating everyone as a friend. Of course, Dong Xie also felt that this mentality was a bit too naive, but he greatly admired Mo Yuan's behavior. He asked himself that if he were himself, he would not be able to do what Mo Yuan did.
Mo Yuan looked at the jade in front of him, where he did not know Dong Xie's mind. Looking and him and Dong Ning, he knew that this brother and sister, all they were looking for was just survival. And now that Mo Yuan will probably die in this bloodletter, the residents are extremely worried about him. And as the saying goes, it's hard to send charcoal in the snow, and showing kindness to Mo Yuan doesn't offend Qin Ziyuan, if Mo Yuan survives, no matter if there's any relationship with these amulets, Buddha pendants or even the Hetian jade that wards off evil spirits, his character like this will surely be willing to oblige.
"Mr. Mo …… please be sure to survive."
Dong Xie's words were completely from his heart.
Mo Yuan gripped the jade in his hand tightly, he knew that Dong Xie would not be at ease unless he received this gift. After all, so many people in front of him came to send gifts and he didn't return them, if he didn't accept Dong Xie's alone, he would definitely have thoughts in his heart.
"Let's put it this way, how much did you spend, I'll give you the money ……"
"Mr. Mo, it's nothing more than the money taken out of the apartment's safe, why divide it into what's yours and mine?"
"This ……" Mo Yuan couldn't really refute it for a while, Dong Xie was indeed right.
"Alright!" Mo Yuan gripped the Hetian jade in his hand tightly and said, "I hope to take your good advice. As long as I don't die, I …… will definitely try my best to help some more residents survive. Definitely …… will."
Dong Qi always felt that Mo Yuan was a person with a story. However, it was a taboo to make shallow conversation, so it was inconvenient for him to ask anything more.
Night, finally came.
This time, the occupants of the execution of the Blood Character had a combined total of four people, exactly the same number as the number of people being protected. While almost everyone's attention was on Mo Yuan and Qin Ziyuan, the other two occupants were almost already being treated as dead. Those other two occupants, one was called Lin Xuan and the other was called Chen Fu. The two of them, Lin Xuan and Chen Fu, were both occupants who had lived through three Blood Characters. It was important to realize that within the entire apartment, the vast majority of the residents had only survived one to two bloodletters, and there were only seven residents who had survived more than three bloodletters in total!
Lin Xuan and Chen Fu were definitely very powerful residents, only that Mo Yuan and Qin Ziyuan shone more brightly in comparison. The seven tenants who had more than three bloodletters, there were three others, one of which was the last of the triumvirate, Nie Han, who had lived through four bloodletters just like Mo Yuan and Qin Ziyuan, while the last two had also lived through three bloodletters. Therefore, the four people who were the occupants of the Blood Character this time could all be said to be the top of the pyramid within the apartment.
The person in charge of driving was Mo Yuan, and since he had to go protect four more people this time, he chose a more spacious van. After all four people got into the car, the residents in the apartment watched them go out of the neighborhood in unison.
The life and death of these four people would, tomorrow, fully change the overall pattern of the apartment! And Dong Xie knew that once the worst situation developed, in order to protect Ning, he was forced to put up a fight!