Chapter 3: Mother's Keepsake

  Mo Shaokun's home is located in a small alley on Wenchui Road in Nanxing District, Anping City.

  After Grandma Wang was hospitalized with a serious illness, the small courtyard was transferred to his name. In his previous life, he lived here for more than 30 years until he moved out of the yard during the demolition in 2007.

  It's early evening now, and the air still retains a hint of heat. Under an old tree at the entrance of the alley, a group of people are gathered chatting and cooling off.

  "Ah, Xiao Kun, what's going on..."

  "Did you fight with him?"

  “……”

  Mo Shaokun's appearance when he returned scared everyone. These elders were all old residents of the alley and had been watching him grow up since childhood. The neighbors had a good impression of him, on one hand because they felt sorry for him and sympathized with him, on the other hand because he was worthy of their admiration, having been a model figure used by the neighbors to educate their own children since young.

  "Grandpa Sun, Uncle Feng, Uncle Wang..."

  Mo Shaokun politely greeted everyone, and in response to the crowd's concerned inquiries, he roughly explained what had happened. As for these old neighbors, there was nothing good to hide from them. From childhood to adulthood, he often went to their homes to eat, and many of the old neighbors laughed that he was an honorary member of their own family.

  "You kid, how can you be so careless? Alright, go back and rest first, I'll ask your Uncle Baoqiang to stew a chicken for you to nourish yourself." said the oldest grandson, Sun Dage, puffing on his dry tobacco pipe.

  Mo Shaokun felt warm in his heart, and after thanking everyone, he returned to his home located at the deepest part of the alley.

  The vermilion gate had long since faded due to time, and he slowly opened the large gate by taking out the key from the door beam.

  The small courtyard is not big, the lush grapevine almost covers the entire yard. A path about 1.5 meters wide, made of red bricks, extends from the front gate to the inside. The two sides of the path were originally vegetable fields, but since Grandma Wang's death, they have been abandoned and are now overgrown with weeds.

  A two-story small building stands at the end of the corridor, with grayish-white walls that have long been worn out, and on which still faintly remain his childhood scribbles.

  Looking at the familiar scene in front of him, Mo Shaokun felt an unparalleled sense of calmness. His eyes were filled with nostalgic colors, as if he was reminiscing about the past moments spent here.

  The first floor of the small building, apart from the living room and kitchen, also has a bedroom. That was Wang Nainai's room before. After all, she was old and it wasn't easy for her to go up and down stairs. Since Wang Nainai passed away, Mo Shaokun moved downstairs to live.

  The room is just like the one in memory, with a desk, a wooden bed and a wardrobe. Mo Shaokun renovated the whole house in 2002, but at this time the house still retains its most original appearance, which is also his deepest impression.

  After washing up, Mo Shao Kun lay on his back in bed, putting his hands behind his head and staring blankly at the ceiling.

  He was not unfamiliar with rebirth at all, in his previous life he had seen similar scenes countless times in movies and TV shows, every time he just laughed it off, he never believed that there would be such a thing as rebirth in this world, but now it was happening to him in reality.

  Since heaven has given him this opportunity, Mo Shaokun will naturally seize it firmly. The regrets of the past life will be made up for one by one in this life, and everything that was missed in the past life must be cherished in this life!

  He took a deep breath and rubbed his somewhat numb face, starting to ponder his current situation.

  When Grandma Wang passed away, she left him this small courtyard and a few thousand dollars, which was her lifelong savings. In the eyes of many people, this amount of money is nothing, but for an elderly person living alone, it is all the family property that has been accumulated through frugal eating and saving.

  For the past two years, Mo Shaokun has been living on this small amount of savings. Now his entire family's assets are only around 1,000 yuan, which is not even enough to cover a year's worth of tuition and other expenses. He must think of a way to make money as soon as possible, otherwise he will miss the opportunity to attend university just like in his previous life.

  As a reborn person, making money is actually not a difficult task for him. To say the least, just the stock market fluctuations in 1994 would have allowed him to make a fortune.

  Mo Shaokun, although not a seasoned investor, had indeed studied the Chinese stock market carefully when preparing for his company's IPO. Since 1993, the Chinese stock market has been on a downward trend, from over 1,500 points to 325 points in July 1994! Immediately after that, the government introduced policies to rescue the market, and within just one month, the stock market surged to 1,050 points!

  This is a great opportunity to buy on the dip, but the problem is that he doesn't have any money to invest in stocks right now. With only a thousand or so yuan in savings, it's really not enough. It's already June, how can he get some money to invest in stocks by July when the market is at its lowest?

  Bet on the ball? The 1994 US World Cup was a series of upsets, which might have been a good way to go, but unfortunately, at that time, the domestic betting industry was not as prosperous as it would be in later years. Although some coastal cities had already quietly started betting on football, inland cities like Anping were still far behind. Not to mention whether there were any, even if there were, he didn't have a way in. You can't just grab someone on the street and ask them to bet on the ball, can you?

  Suddenly, Mo Shao Kun seemed to have thought of something. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he flipped over and got up from the bed, pulling out an old leather suitcase from under the bed.

  He patted the thick dust on top and Mo Shaokun hastily pulled open the zipper to rummage inside.

  This leather bag was all that his mother had left him, apart from some clothes, just a few yellowed old photos and an ancient wooden box.

  Mo Shao Kun quickly stood up, holding a small wooden box the size of his palm in both hands. His face was complex and seemed to be hesitating, but after a moment, he gritted his teeth and opened the box.

  Inside the box is inlaid with red velvet, and a piece of ancient jade carving about two fingers wide, half a finger thick and one finger long lies quietly in the center of the box.

  Mao Shaokun had never taken the jade carving seriously, only keeping it with him because it was his mother's keepsake. But on a certain day in 2009, he discovered that the jade carving was worth a fortune!

  That day, a business partner came to visit at home. In Moshaokun's study, the friend fell in love with this jade carving at first sight. After careful consideration, the friend wanted to buy it for millions of dollars, but unfortunately, Moshaokun was not short of money at that time. Moreover, this was his mother's heirloom, how could he possibly sell it?

  Regretting that the deal didn't go through, he casually chatted with Mo Shaokun about his own views on this piece of jade. This is a very good quality, extremely fine He Tianyu carving, its shape is a typical Han Dynasty dragon shape, the craftsmanship is not common, the hand feels delicate and warm, inside there are blood lines like the meridians of a jade dragon expanding.

  Although this friend has seen countless antique jade carvings handled by experts, he has never seen such a high-quality ancient jade.

  The dragon shape has special significance in Chinese culture as a symbol of imperial power, and he even suspects that this ancient jade may have been a personal item of an emperor. Unfortunately, judging from the shape, this jade carving should be a pair, lacking the other half, which greatly reduces its value.

  If there were other options, Muo Shuokun would never have thought of hitting this ancient jade, but he really had no other way.

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