After Wang An drove away from Li's Pharmacy, he headed straight back to the guesthouse.
He had no choice; there were still over 500,000 in cash at the guesthouse. How could Wang An possibly feel at ease?
Although he had only been gone for about an hour and a half, and the Public Security guesthouse at this time didn't accept anyone outside the public security system, the safety issue was generally reassuring.
But for anyone, once money left their sight, feelings of worry and anxiety would involuntarily arise.
Returning to the room, Wang An had Mu Xueli and Wang Li dump all the money from yesterday's and today's sales onto the floor.
Looking at this massive pile of cash, the corners of the three men's mouths couldn't help but curl upward, all of them feeling a sense of "How am I so rich!"
At this time, the highest denomination was 10 yuan, known as a "Big Unity" bill.
A stack of Big Unity bills was 1,000 yuan, weighing approximately two liang and two qian.
A bundle of Big Unity bills was 10,000 yuan, weighing approximately two jin and two liang.
A "bundle" referred to ten stacks of Big Unity bills tied together with rope, with the sides left exposed for easy identification. Finally, the bank would apply sealing strips, embossed stamps, and official seals at the rope intersections and knots.
Therefore, as long as the sealing strips and knots remained undisturbed, a bundle of Big Unity bills could usually be used directly for transactions.
Of course, someone with deep suspicions would tear it completely open and inspect every stack, or even every single bill, one by one.
The money used for the transaction between Li's Pharmacy and Wang An's group consisted of these 10,000-yuan bundles taken directly from the bank.
During the transaction, although Wang An hadn't unpacked every bundle to check, he had randomly opened a few and meticulously inspected the ropes, sealing strips, embossed stamps, and official seals on each bundle.
While Li's Pharmacy, given its scale and reputation, would normally be above such things as mixing in fake bills, Wang An's suspicious nature drove him to perform these checks in full view of everyone.
As the old saying goes, "Silver in front, money in face"—meaning verify it right then and there. Wang An was absolutely meticulous when verifying the authenticity of the bundled cash.
Bundles and stacks of Big Unity bills were spread casually across the floor. With a face full of smiles, Wang An said to Mu Xueli and Wang Li
"Come on, let's split the money first. We've been hustling for nearly a year; it won't do if we don't see the cash, hahahaha..."
For some reason, Wang An loved the feeling of splitting money the most. Watching the cash be distributed bill by bill, stack by stack, or bundle by bundle into their respective hands brought a sense of satisfaction and pride that was absolutely unparalleled.
Pausing for a moment, Wang An pulled out a small notebook, looked at it, and said
"Yesterday was 542,130 yuan, and today was 324,530 yuan. Added together, that's..."
He paused to do the math, then announced
"A total of 866,660 yuan."
Looking at this number, Wang An froze for a moment, blinked his eyes, and said in astonishment
"Holy shit! Look at this number, it's actually pretty lucky! Everything is a 6 except for the 8."
Wang Li and Mu Xueli were also stunned, and then they burst into laughter along with Wang An.
After the laughter subsided, Wang An began sliding bundles of Big Unity bills toward the two men, saying
"First, let's take out our principal. You two take 90,000 each, and I'll take 400,000."
As he spoke, Wang An took nine bundles for each of them from the pile and stacked forty bundles in front of himself.
In an instant, more than half of the bundled cash in the pile was gone.
However, Wang An didn't stop; he continued splitting the money as he spoke
"Now we split that 280,000. You two get 84,000 each, and I get 112,000."
After splitting the 280,000, only 6,660 yuan remained in the pile.
After a brief thought, Wang An tossed two more stacks of Big Unity bills to Mu Xueli and Wang Li respectively, and swept the remaining 2,660 yuan into his own pile.
With this, all the money earned from collecting bear gall, ox gallstones, musk, and other items over the past year was fully distributed.
Wang Li and Mu Xueli each made a net profit of 86,000 yuan, while Wang An made a net profit of over 114,600 yuan.
Immediately after, Wang An brought out the money he had just exchanged from the bank and said
"The money has been exchanged back, so let's keep splitting. Once we're done, we're done."
Just as Wang An was about to distribute the money, he heard Mu Xueli and Wang Li say almost simultaneously
"Brother-in-law (Fourth Brother), you still owe us a hundred each from a couple of days ago."
Although the three of them were together every day, they were quite clear about financial matters. No one cared about a few dozen yuan, but as soon as the amount exceeded a hundred, they would generally remind each other.
Hearing this, Wang An didn't make a fuss. He nodded and said
"I remember we exchanged a total of over 8,100 yuan, so giving you two another 2,330 yuan each should be right..."
After splitting the money, the three of them each packed the unbundled and stacked cash into separate gunny sacks, while the loose change was put into their shoulder bags.
Including the money split previously at Kaiyuan, Wang Li and Mu Xueli each had 196,000 yuan in their sacks, weighing over 40 jin. Wang An's sack was even more exaggerated, containing 540,000 yuan and weighing about 120 jin.
It was no exaggeration to say that if someone wanted to steal Wang An's money without tearing the sack, anyone with poor physique or strength would find it impossible.
Of course, the money in their respective sacks was essentially all the money the three of them possessed up to this point.
Looking at their sacks, Wang An asked Wang Li and Mu Xueli with a smile
"What's the plan? Do you two still want to go find Tao Wenjing and Yuan Hongmei?"
Wang Li spoke hesitantly
"I want to, but what do we do with this money? I feel like I won't be at ease no matter where I put it."
Mu Xueli also looked conflicted. He clearly wanted to go fool around with Tao Wenjing before returning to DJ County, because his wife, Li Xiuhong, was pregnant, and he hadn't done "that" with a woman in a long time.
But wanting a woman was one thing; the safety of the money was the top priority, which is why Mu Xueli was so conflicted.
Looking at the longing for women on his two younger brothers' faces, Wang An couldn't help but think of his previous life in the "fence," and those 30-plus years of celibacy.
The feeling of that stifling frustration was beyond words. Saying "a sow is better than Diaochan" might be an exaggeration, but it was absolutely miserable.
In fact, it was precisely because of this that Wang An had poured all his attention into various labor reform tasks, learning almost every craft available during work.
There was no other way; if he didn't distract his energy and attention, the urge to measure the depth of a hole in the wall would haunt his mind like a nightmare.
As for the "five-finger girl" technique, that was truly useless. Not only did it fail to solve the root problem, but it actually made one more anxious and restless.
Thus, Wang An thought for a moment and said
"I remember Han Xiaomin's warehouses are quite large. How about we drive the car straight into her warehouse and lock it, then lock the main gate? What do you two think?"