Chapter 321: Urban Card-Drawing System (27)

Sipping her coffee contentedly, Xie Yang looked around. After nearly half a year of improvements, the apartment building had been voted "Most Beautiful Home" by the community—

The lobby not only had a bar counter but also featured a lounge area with a reading corner:

Comfortable sofa chairs, exquisite solid wood tea tables, and fresh flowers placed on the tables, replaced every two or three days—not bought, but grown by the logistics staff themselves.

The exterior facade of the entire apartment building was surrounded by greenery, forming a garden-style vertical landscape.

The surrounding green belt had also been adjusted to feature seasonal flowers, providing colorful greenery all year round, with double-petaled flowers interspersed among them, beautiful and unique.

The Canteen had also expanded its storefront; it was no longer called the employee canteen but was renamed the apartment canteen. The variety of meals available for tenants to choose from was greater than before, yet the prices remained much lower than market rates.

The high-quality, affordable food was unanimously praised by the tenants, who wished they could rent here for a long, long time.

When street Cadres brought district-level and municipal-level leaders to inspect people's livelihoods at the grassroots level, this was their first stop.

If it weren't for the fact that all her room types were fully rented out—leaving no vacant rooms except for the two lounges reserved for Wu Jie and herself on the first floor—the community and street offices might have even wanted to arrange for peers sent from other provinces and cities for study and inspection to stay here.

Other hotels might hang plaques like "Most Popular Hotel on the Reputation List" or "Top Ten Quality Hotels" in their lobbies, but the plaques hanging in the lobby of her apartment building were "Community Most Beautiful Apartment," "Street Civilized Apartment"...

Just like that, during the two days Xie Yang was holding down the fort, the local street office sent over another plaque—"Characteristic Apartment Pace-setter."

The community leaders felt honored, accompanied the street Cadres to deliver this plaque, took group photos, distributed prizes, and even said they would recommend it to the district to participate in the "Creating Civilization, Establishing New Trends—District Top Ten Safe and Harmonious Apartments" evaluation activity.

Xie Yang: "..."

How should she put it? She truly never expected things to develop this way.

Whether or not she could be rated as one of the district's top ten apartments, she really didn't care.

But seeing how much the street and community valued it, she couldn't drag her feet either.

So, she sent a large red envelope in the property management group, mobilizing the staff to strengthen fire safety, address sanitary blind spots, and improve greening and environmental protection, so the apartment building could welcome the district's inspection with its cleanest, most beautiful face.

Then, she sent an even larger red envelope in the tenant group to notify them, as the busy activity of the property staff would inevitably disturb some tenants who lived by night and slept by day.

The tenants' hands went soft from grabbing red envelopes, and they simultaneously promised to cooperate with the property's work.

【Manager Xie, don't you worry! We all treat the apartment as our home; how could we not cooperate with something that's good for our home!】

【Manager Xie, I just want to know, if we get rated as one of the district's top ten apartments, will our rent go up?】

Xie Yang: 【Rest assured! I keep my word; I said no increase for a year, so there won't be one! After a year, old tenants will get a discount on renewals!】

【Manager Xie is generous!】

A whole bunch of sycophantic flattery followed.

Xie Yang twitched her lips, thinking to herself that it wasn't easy; she hadn't even put this much effort into coaxing her old man.

But thinking of that conflict, she casually scattered another large red envelope.

At this moment, the red envelopes were no longer just ordinary red envelopes; they were peace talismans to avoid disaster!

Sure enough, under her tactful explanation and the "corrosion" (no, the apology) of a massive wave of red envelope rain, the tenants' attitude toward her and the property staff couldn't have been better; let alone conflicts, there wasn't even a single complaint of dissatisfaction.

Tenants and property staff were as harmonious as one family, working together to strive for the "District Top Ten Apartments."

Having safely passed the life-threatening conflict from the original world, Xie Yang let out a long sigh of relief.

But soon, her heart tightened again.

Because the day of the major fire from the original world, which claimed the life of a firefighter, was fast approaching.

Xie Yang took Wu Jie and moved to the large flat on Wanfu Street.

It was like clearing a dungeon in a game; after solving one, another came along.

In the original world, the fire occurred at eight or nine in the evening, exactly when the Walking Street had the highest volume of tourists.

Therefore, every day after dinner, Xie Yang would take Wu Jie for a walk on the Walking Street, her eyes never leaving her own few prime shops, just in case a fire broke out inevitably, so she could discover the fire and report it immediately.

"Fire!"

That evening, after dinner, Xie Yang went downstairs for a walk as usual. She hadn't walked far when she heard someone shouting that there was a fire.

Without a second thought, she ran toward the few prime shops under her name.

As it turned out, after running there, she found the shops were perfectly fine, customers were coming and going, and the shops were operating normally—where was there any sign of a fire?

Seeing passersby standing on tiptoe and looking at the street alley opposite, she realized it was a residential building in the back alley of Wanfu Street that was on fire.

A tenant had been illegally using an extension cord in the hallway to charge an electric scooter, and the battery suddenly exploded, triggering the fire. In this season, the weather was dry and the air parched, so the fire spread instantly; before it could be extinguished, it had reached the second floor and was visibly leaping toward the third.

Because of the location, this cluster of residential buildings consisted of old, dilapidated, small units slated for demolition, with anti-theft cages installed on the windows; once trapped inside, there was no way to jump to escape.

"The police have already been called, but the pedestrian flow on the Walking Street is too heavy; I'm afraid the fire trucks won't be able to drive fast."

"Quick, count the heads! Has everyone who was at home escaped?"

The hallway monitor, still shaken, looked around calmly:

"Feng Ayi, stop crying for a moment. The things in the house are dead objects; it's already a blessing that people are safe. Let's count the heads first; the firefighters will definitely ask when they arrive."

"Our family is all down here. Wang, where is your granddaughter? I saw her come home earlier; did she come down?"

"What? My Qiaoqiao is at home? What do I do now! Her parents are still working overtime at the office... Oh my, this is going to be the death of me..."

Wang Laotou's lips trembled with fear. He looked up to see the fire already reaching the third floor, and his face turned deathly pale.

"This is trouble... With a fire this big, even if the firefighters arrive, they won't have any way to help, right?"

"How can the firefighters have no way? Aren't they here to put out fires and save people? My Qiaoqiao is still upstairs, she must be saved! She must be saved! Otherwise, how can I answer to my son and daughter-in-law! Waa..."

"Make way! Make way!"

Xie Yang grabbed a fire hose from one of her shops and rushed toward the burning residential building, connecting the nozzle to the hose as she ran, then notified Wu Jie to open the water valve.

Wu Jie never expected her employer to be so desperate; she was a step too slow to stop her and was filled with regret, but she could only listen to Xie Yang, open the water valve first, and then rush over to help.

Xie Yang didn't need her help; once the hose and nozzle were locked tight, the water surged out from the nozzle, and she calmly began to fight the fire while holding the hose.

The residents, who had been anxiously trying to figure out how to save people, were dumbfounded: "..."

Good heavens! Whose daughter is this? She's so strong!

Some of them had used fire hoses before, and the pressure was immense.