There is no such thing as a free resource (meaning "at no cost") from your neighbors.
And for buying, you don't care about the cards, just about the overall symbols.
If one neighbor has 2 brick symbols and the other has 1, you may buy a total of 3 bricks. If you only want to buy 1 or 2, you have to decide from which player.
And each resource costs 2$ (if you don't have an effect making it cheaper).
没有免费午餐,说明书英文版翻译的句子有歧义,意思就是说……你既可以从左边买,也可以从右边买……把这句话写那么拗口干啥我了个X……
如果左边生产1个,右边生产2个,那么你可以买3个,就这么简单的规则。是我们想复杂了。