Chapter 428: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
**Chapter 428: Mysterious New Year's Gifts and Debt Collection (1)**
On the thirtieth day of the month, before dawn, Mo Yan was already up. Li Xiu and her niece had risen even earlier, already washed and starting to prepare breakfast. After the family finished breakfast and cleaned up the dishes, Xin'er, Tang Xin, and Li Xiu began preparations for the New Year’s Eve dinner. This was the Mo family's first New Year since moving to Liuyang Village, and no one wanted any mistakes.
Mo Yan went to the storage room to record the gifts received over the past few days to keep track of social obligations. She had been at the shop when the gifts arrived yesterday, and hadn't had the chance to examine them closely. Now, looking at the piles of New Year's gifts, she felt like a wealthy farmer who had suddenly struck it rich.
It wasn’t that she was naive; the truth was, the gifts received far exceeded what she had given out, including many valuable items. If possible, she would have preferred to return all the expensive gifts.
"Various gemstones, a box, black pearls, a bushel... Twenty pieces of sable fur, two bear pelts, three tiger pelts. Hmm, I mustn't let Mao Tuan see the tiger pelts; he'd definitely be upset..."
As she counted the items, she mumbled to herself, then suddenly realized something was off: the gift lists from the Liu family, Yan Junyu, and the Han family had all arrived with the gifts. She had already checked them, so where did these extra valuable gifts come from?
Moreover, it wasn’t just gemstones, pearls, and animal pelts. There were also various precious medicinal herbs and even dozens of geographical records. These records covered descriptions of different provinces of the Da Chu, as well as surrounding smaller nations and foreign tribes—very comprehensive and rare.
Setting aside the thoughtfulness, just the sheer value of these items was comparable to the dowry of a wealthy family in the capital with several prosperous shops. Selling them off could ensure the Mo family’s comfort for many years.
Mo Yan marveled at the generosity of the gift-giver but felt no greed. She carefully compared the lists from the other families again, confirming that the extra gifts did not come from the Liu family, Yan Junyu, or the Han family. She suddenly had a hunch about who might have sent them.
She found Li Xiu and questioned her carefully, confirming that the extra gifts were delivered by five or six young men dressed as servants yesterday afternoon.
Li Xiu wasn’t very familiar with the Mo family's social connections and assumed they were friends Mo Qingze had made at the academy. She even asked which household they were from, but the young men had dodged the question. At the time, she didn’t think much of it, but seeing Mo Yan’s seriousness now, she started to feel uneasy.
“Yan girl, those people looked ordinary, but their behavior was strange! How should I put it? They walked so precisely, like they were measured. They didn’t seem like servants from a wealthy family…”
Li Xiu recalled the young men's behavior in detail, growing more anxious with each memory, fearing she had accepted something inappropriate and caused trouble for the family.
“Aunt Li, don’t worry. I just didn’t see the gift list, so I asked you to make sure we don’t mix up the givers.”
Mo Yan smiled and tried to comfort Li Xiu. She was almost certain who had sent the gifts now, and her emotions were very mixed.
No one but that person knew her dream of soaring like an eagle, exploring the vastness of the land… those dozens of geographical records were enough to immerse her for a long time!
It wasn’t long before Mo Qingze learned about the extremely valuable but unidentified New Year gifts at home. When he arrived at the storage room and saw the separately placed gifts, he couldn’t help but be amazed.
“Yan’er, do you know who sent these New Year gifts?”
Mo Yan’s turbulent emotions had calmed considerably. Worrying her father might overthink, she replied half-truthfully, “I guess Lord Xiao sent them. After all, we saved him twice before; it makes sense for him to send New Year gifts.”
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