Wu Dong looked into Wang An's eyes, appearing unable to open his mouth, so he simply spread his five fingers and held up a palm.
The moment Wang An saw Wu Dong's gesture, he understood instantly, though his brow couldn't help but twitch several times.
Because Wu Dong's gesture clearly meant 50,000 yuan.
A GAZ brought in through official channels, with an exterior that wasn't even that great; the price when it arrived might not have even reached 20,000, yet the price they dared to sell it for after use was actually as high as 50,000 yuan. Holy shit! That's just too damn predatory!
No wonder a Santana could be priced at over 200,000 three years later; it was probably the work of these kinds of people.
One had to realize that in this era, a sum of 50,000 yuan was practically an astronomical figure, so even Wang An hesitated to some extent.
The key was that a car truly didn't have much practical use for Wang An.
However, thinking about how Mu Xueqing was about to give birth and that the flesh and blood of his two lifetimes was about to descend upon this world, Wang An sucked in his teeth hard and finally decided to buy it.
Mainly, the distance from Wang An's home to the county seat was a full 30-plus li, and Mu Xueqing's due date was in winter. Under these circumstances, whether it was a sidecar, a four-wheeler, or a horse-drawn sledge, it would take a significant amount of time to get there.
Going to the hospital was barely manageable since adults have strong cold resistance, but no matter how thickly a newborn baby is wrapped, they can be frozen through in a Northeast winter.
Therefore, even if it was just for the child, Wang An decided he had to buy the car—mainly because Wang An wasn't short on money.
After hesitating for a moment, Wang An continued to act the part and said with a smile
"Fine, 50,000 it is. The money is no problem. By the way, does the car have a heater?"
Cars of this era basically didn't have the concept of heaters or air conditioning. Not only were those two missing, but there wasn't even power steering; driving for a day could exhaust a person to death.
But precisely because of this, drivers of this era had very powerful arms.
Seeing Wang An hesitate, Wu Dong teased him
"And here I thought 50,000 yuan was nothing to you anymore, hahahaha... You're not that loaded after all, hahaha..."
After teasing Wang An, Wu Dong laughed happily.
Wang An said very honestly
"Look at what you're saying. I haven't even earned 50,000 yuan from my hard work this past year. A single car costs 50,000, so of course I have to think it over."
Mainly, in Wang An's view, windfalls couldn't be counted, because the reason windfalls are called windfalls is that they aren't the result of labor.
Wu Dong stopped laughing and said
"Actually, that car really does have a heater. You won't even feel the cold while driving in the winter."
Wang An nodded and asked
"Then when can I start driving it?"
Truth be told, having a car of his own in this era gave Wang An a bit of anticipation.
Wu Dong thought for a while and said
"The day after tomorrow. I shouldn't have anything going on the day after tomorrow afternoon, so I'll get this sorted for you. By the way, prepare the money in advance, okay? There's no credit for this stuff, and my face doesn't carry that much weight."
Wang An placed the last bag of rice on the back seat of the vehicle and said
"Oh, I definitely won't forget the money. Also, Brother Wu, you don't want any white flour? This white flour is great; everything made with it tastes delicious."
Following Wu Dong's request, Wang An and Wu Dong had loaded four bags—meaning 200 jin of rice—into Wu Dong's car. As for Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian's, Wang An planned to deliver them personally.
After Wang An finished speaking, Wu Dong shook his head
"Forget the white flour. I can't tell the difference with that stuff; I reckon it's all the same."
Wang An retied the ropes on the four-wheeler, then remembered to ask
"Brother Wu, I brought back the chainsaw I took from you. Can you swap it for another one for me?"
Wu Dong was stunned upon hearing this and said with disbelief
"What happened to this one? Is it broken?"
Wang An replied
"No, this one is fine. I just thought you might be doing an inventory check, so I returned this one and wanted to swap it for another to use."
Unexpectedly, Wu Dong waved his hand
"If it's not broken, why swap it? Just keep using it. If my unit needs it later, I'll come find you. Inventory checks are nothing; who knows, they might have forgotten about it, and by then they'll just report it as damaged."
It had to be said that Wu Dong's connections were truly impressive; he could borrow a chainsaw and not even worry about something as major as an inventory check.
While the two were talking, a middle-aged man suddenly ran out from the courtyard and called out to Wu Dong
"Minister Wu, the meeting is about to start."
Wu Dong looked back and answered
"Yeah, I got it. I'm heading back now."
Turning back, Wu Dong said to Wang An
"Don't forget the day after tomorrow afternoon. I won't keep you any longer; I'm actually quite busy."
Wang An waved his hand and said
"Yeah, go get busy. I'm leaving now too."
After bidding farewell to Wu Dong, Wang An went to the Public Security Bureau again. However, Sun Nian had gone on a mission, and the Chief, Zhang Shuya, was still extremely busy. He wondered why Sun Xianghuo had been able to be so leisurely when he was the Chief.
Truth be told, it was likely because Zhang Shuya was too diligent, handling many things personally; it would be strange if she weren't busy.
Thus, Wang An simply left a bag of rice and a bag of white flour for Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian respectively, then drove away.
Passing through the market, Wang An noticed someone selling mutton, so he bought two jin of mutton and five jin of mutton spine, then drove toward Fang Xiu'e's house.
At this time, Fang Xiu'e was not home, and today was not her day off. After arriving at her house, Wang An found the spare key hidden under a rock outside the main gate. After opening the gate, he drove the four-wheeler directly into the courtyard.
Next, Wang An found the house key under a brick in the storage room, opened the door, and began lighting the fire to cook and stew the bones.
Both places where the keys were kept had been told to Wang An by Fang Xiu'e, so that if Wang An came over while she wasn't off work, he could enter the house directly.
The reason the keys were kept separately was that Fang Xiu'e said if the main gate key were discovered, a thief still wouldn't be able to enter the house.
He remembered that when Fang Xiu'e said this, Wang An had laughed for a long time. Mainly, in the eyes of someone like Wang An, locks were essentially ornaments—things that keep out the honest but not the dishonest.
To be perfectly honest, as long as Wang An was given a piece of iron wire, picking a lock was simply too easy.
Even without that skill, prying a lock open wasn't a difficult task for anyone; three hits with a hammer and a normal lock would be smashed to pieces.
Of course, this referred to visible locks; for hidden locks, tools were still required.
(End of Chapter)