Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Inside the room, everyone was fiddling with their new clothes, their faces beaming with satisfaction and joy.

With Wang An's keen eye for tailoring, the clothes and shoes he bought for everyone were naturally very well-fitting.

Furthermore, the styles of clothing and shoes in big cities are generally more novel or trendy than those in county towns, and they look quite beautiful.

After cuddling the two little ones affectionately for a while, Wang An handed them over to Mu Xueqing to look after. Then, Wang An led Mu Xueli and Wang Li to the house where Wang Dazhu and his wife lived.

After giving Mu Xueli and Wang Li 5 yuan each from the proceeds of the watch sale, Wang An asked them:

"Are you two staying at my place for dinner before you leave, or are you heading home soon?"

Mu Xueli spoke first:

"I'm not going to eat, I have to go home. It's been more than ten days since I've been home."

Wang Li also chimed in:

"I have to go home too, I won't eat dinner."

Wang An nodded and said:

"Alright, Fifth Brother, you drive my car to take your Brother Mu there, and then you drive home. When you have time, you can bring the car back to me."

Upon hearing this, Wang Li smiled broadly and said:

"Okay, Fourth Brother, hehehe."

Wang An also laughed and said:
"Alright, stop grinning like an idiot and let's go."

After Wang Li and Mu Xue left, Wang An counted the money in his purse and found that, including the 4,000 yuan from the sale of the watches that didn't work, the total was exactly 89,000 yuan.

In other words, Wang An sold those 24 expensive watches to the watch shop owner for a total of 185,000 yuan.

He received 89,000 yuan from selling the watch, 540,000 yuan in the sack, and 15,000 yuan from Han Xiaomin. Not counting the money in Wang An's pocket and his initial capital of 400,000 yuan, Wang An brought back a total of 244,000 yuan this time.

In this day and age, earning 24 yuan is extremely difficult.

However, most of Wang An's money was of dubious origin.

Even if it was money earned from dealing in bear bile and bezoar in order to retaliate against the supply and marketing cooperative, it would still fall under the category of speculation at that time, so Wang An dared not deposit this money in the bank.

Even when depositing money in the bank, Wang An only dared to deposit ten or twenty thousand; he would never dare to deposit more than that.

When they were panning for gold, Wu Dong and Zhang Shuya reminded Wang An not to deposit more than 9 yuan in the bank, because 1 yuan was a very sensitive number at that time.

Although Wang An had never dared to deposit money in the bank because of the complicated source of his money, he simply wanted to be cautious and not let anyone target him.

In fact, Wang An had no idea what the specific consequences would be.

After Zhang Shuya's explanation, Wang An realized that if Zhang Siyuan had more than 1 yuan in savings with unknown sources and it was exposed, Zhang Siyuan would definitely be punished.

And most importantly, Zhang Siyuan is also very likely to be executed.

That's why the saying that 1 yuan is an extremely sensitive number came about.

Therefore, although storing Wang An's cash is quite troublesome for many reasons, Wang An would never deposit it in a bank.

After checking the money and having a clear understanding of its contents, Wang An packed it up and placed it in the kangqin at the end of the kang.

That evening, Wang An left some money for his parents, kept a small portion of the remaining money for daily expenses, and stored the majority in a secret place in the house. This "secret place" was actually hidden in a crevices in the wall.

After the Wang family's house was completed, Wang Dazhu and his son Wang An built two separate small compartments with bricks and cement on the partition walls between the two rice and flour rooms in the back room, and on the wall of the easternmost storage room.

These two small cubicles don't take up much space; each is only about 2.5 meters long and 1.2 meters wide.

The reason why only two small rooms of this size were built, and why they were built separately, is to create a visual illusion. That is, unless you measure carefully inside and out with a ruler, you will not be able to find the existence of these two small rooms inside the rooms or in the corridor.

There's no other way; the only purpose of hiding things is to avoid being discovered. If everyone finds out, then what's the point of hiding them?
If a room exists, it must have a door; otherwise, people cannot enter.

However, there really were no doors to these two rooms. To get in, you had to climb up from the vent of the main room to the ceiling, then weave through the triangular beams to find the location of the small room. After lifting a ceiling panel that weighed over 30 kilograms, you would find a leather rope hanging on the wall and pull it up. Once the ladder was pulled up, you would climb down the ladder.

However, it is worth noting that you must find a rope and pull a ladder first, otherwise you will definitely get hurt if you just jump down like an idiot.

In general, getting in is quite a complicated process!

Even if Shi Qian, the Flea on the Drum from Water Margin, came here, he would probably have to study it for several days before he could possibly discover these two secret locations.

Of course, such secret locations are not only found in Wang An's house; they are also found in the house of Wang Dazhu and his wife.

As for Wang Anjia's gold, it was hidden in a rather scattered manner, and in rather unusual locations.

Yes, it's really bizarre. Apart from a portion in each of the four secret locations, the vast majority of Wang An's gold was buried next to the latrine's cesspool. It was buried there very casually, and Wang An would occasionally urinate on it when he was at home.

Wang An was worried that the gold would sink if buried in the ground and be difficult to find later, so he placed sand and stone slabs underneath it when burying the gold.

Anyway, gold won't rot or deteriorate when buried in the ground, so Wang An wasn't worried at all.

After returning from Yi Province, Wang An and his two companions rested at home for several days, and the year 83 arrived.

These past few nights, Wang An has been sleeping very soundly, waiting for the person who poisoned the poison to reappear so he can rush out and catch or kill him or them immediately.

Therefore, during his morning practice these past few days, Wang An specifically simulated how to rush out of the courtyard as quickly as possible if the poisoner came.

Wang An finally concluded that if he simply climbed over the wall, unlocked the main gate, and ran out through the gate, he would definitely not make it in time.

Furthermore, Wang An made a special modification to the two corners of the gate, which was to design two dog holes so that the dogs could jump out at any time even when the gate was locked.

Wang An believed that with the strength of his pack of dogs and wolves, they could definitely catch up with the poisoner, or at least buy him time to get out.

For this reason, Wang An repeatedly instructed Dahei, Xiaohei, and the other dogs that if anyone dared to throw meat or anything into their yard, they should rush out and bite them. He also repeatedly told the two disobedient lynxes to obey his instructions, both to discuss and to scare them.

There was nothing he could do. Those two lynxes were like two lords. He had to do whatever he wanted, depending on their mood. If they were in a bad mood, nothing he said mattered. They simply wouldn't listen to Wang An, and he really couldn't handle them.

The reason for instructing a pack of dogs, wolves, and lynxes to tear into the house was that Wang An's yard was too big. If they waited for Wang An to come out of the house and then run outside to catch him, it would take too long, and even with Wang An's running speed, it would be difficult for him to catch up.

Wang An had been preparing for several days, from 82 to 83, and everything was ready, but the poisoner never reappeared, leaving Wang An extremely anxious and restless.

However, there's no use in rushing things like this. Without any clues, all Wang An can do is wait.

Two more days passed, and the person who poisoned the plants still hadn't shown up. Wang An decided to take a trip to the mountains, mainly to relax.

If he doesn't go hunting to change his mood, Wang An is afraid he'll get sick from being cooped up.

So Wang An, Wang Li, Mu Xueli, and Huang Zhong, along with their dogs, two lynxes, and four eagles, drove a sled and headed straight for Qing Shi Gang.

That's right, it's the same bluestone hill where Wang An discovered the trail of the hanging sheep. The two golden eagles have grown up and are now capable of hunting the hanging sheep! (End of Chapter)