Chapter 923: Still Not Found

At this moment, Sun Nian's peach-blossom eyes were shimmering with moisture.

If Wang An were to describe Sun Nian using a line from a crosstalk routine he had heard in his previous life back in the village, it would be

"Brows like spring mountains, eyes like autumn waters; every glance and flicker of the brow speaks of a myriad of seductive charms, more eloquent than flowers, more fragrant than jade."

He remembered that Wang An had already been over 60 years old at the time, but when he heard those words, a young girl seemed to appear before his eyes, and the depths of his soul had been violently stirred.

It truly fit the old saying, "Men are boys until the day they die."

To be honest, the last time Wang An had seen this kind of look in Sun Nian's eyes was when he and Sun Nian were fooling around on the kang.

Wang An believed that at this moment, any man who saw Sun Nian would undoubtedly be deeply seduced by her.

Yes, seduced—completely hooked.

To put it bluntly, when this woman Sun Nian decided to be flirtatious, she was exactly like the fox spirits described in the *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*; she was simply too damn captivating.

If Zhang Shuya hadn't been right there, Wang An would have done whatever it took to have a go at Sun Nian, a very "deep" exchange of ideas.

Unfortunately, the conditions didn't allow it, which was truly a bit tragic.

Wang An smugly straightened his clothes, then said to Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian with great pride

"Can't be helped. I'm a natural clothes-hanger; everything I wear looks damn good, hahahaha..."

Rarely, Zhang Shuya didn't shoot him down. Instead, she said with a smile

"Then why is there a pair of shoes left? Put on the leather shoes too. It's a good chance to see if they fit; if they don't, you can hurry to logistics and exchange them for another pair."

Wang An thought she was right, so he took off his cloth shoes and put on the leather ones.

After stomping around a few times, Wang An said to Zhang Shuya in surprise

"As expected of my foster parents' eldest sister! You even know my shoe size. You're definitely my real big sister!"

As he spoke, Wang An gave Zhang Shuya a thumbs-up.

By the standards of this era, Wang An's feet were legitimately huge, as he wore a size 45.

Fortunately, since Wang An was quite tall, his large feet didn't look overly exaggerated.

Hearing Wang An's attempt to get close to her, Zhang Shuya gave him a smiling roll of her eyes without taking the bait. She looked at the leather shoes on his feet and said

"Leather shoes are meant to dress a person up. They're good, as long as they fit."

What Wang An didn't know was that the leather shoes Zhang Shuya gave him weren't standard issue; Zhang Shuya had requested them for him separately.

Normally, the shoes issued to auxiliary security personnel were ordinary yellow rubber shoes, and only two pairs were issued per year.

To put it harshly, he was just a temporary worker; how could they possibly issue him leather shoes?

One had to realize that leather shoes in this era were not cheap at all. With Wang An's pitiful salary of 12 yuan and 50 cents, he couldn't even afford a single pair.

It couldn't be helped; that was the reality.

After packing the autumn clothes and the clothes and shoes he had taken off into a bag, the three of them briefly discussed the case. Wang An and Sun Nian then planned to leave the Public Security Bureau and head back to Xing'an Township.

Before leaving, Wang An suddenly asked Sun Nian

"Big Sister, in Wei Cheng's courtyard, we searched out a fair amount of grain—all kinds of it, probably about thirty to forty thousand catties. Once that stuff is brought back, how is it usually handled?"

The reason Wang An asked was that he felt that with so much grain, especially with various miscellaneous grains and beans, the Public Security Bureau would eventually have to convert it into money to hand over to the national treasury.

Therefore, if possible, Wang An wanted to buy a portion of that grain.

Mainly, there were simply too many livestock at Wang An's house. Regardless of the animal, they wouldn't grow well if fed only grass without feed; livestock not fed grain were not only frail but also very prone to illness.

Hearing Wang An's inquiry, Zhang Shuya immediately understood what he meant. She thought for a moment and said

"What's wrong? Not enough grain at home again? You want to buy some?"

Wang An nodded, complaining slightly

"Yeah. Not counting the sheep and deer, there are 11 animals just counting the mules and donkeys. My dad is reluctant to sell them and wants to keep them all. Every day, a huge amount of grain goes into feeding those animals, and the key is that grain coupons aren't exactly cheap right now."

To be honest, Wang An didn't know what Wang Dazhu and his wife were thinking.

The house now had not only a four-wheel vehicle but also a walk-behind tractor. In terms of farm work, anything a mule or horse could do could be done by these two motorized vehicles.

Crucially, in terms of speed and efficiency, the motorized vehicles were faster and better. Therefore, for Wang An's family, keeping so many mules and horses was actually useless.

Especially that donkey; after buying it, aside from producing a donkey foal, it was practically useless—even for turning a millstone, it was considered too slow.

Zhang Shuya couldn't help but laugh at Wang An's complaints. After thinking it over, she said to him

"Anyway, that grain has to be weighed and hauled back regardless. How about this: I'll have someone from logistics go with you. Once you decide how much grain you want, just give the money directly to him. Oh, and don't forget to have him give you a receipt."

Wang An said with a grin

"That would be great, hehehe..."

For both Wang An and Zhang Shuya, doing things by the book was actually the best approach.

It wasn't a huge amount of money; it really wasn't worth playing tricks over this.

And so, under Zhang Shuya's arrangement, two sidecar motorcycles and Wang An's sidecar set off together toward Xing'an Township.

When Wang An, Sun Nian, and the others returned to the courtyard, Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou were still leading a group of "capped brothers" in their search.

However, it was obvious that Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou were still empty-handed.

Perhaps inspired by the clay statues and the wall clock, Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou had searched the courtyard very thoroughly.

Not only had they dug through everything in the house, including the stoves, but they had also searched the ceilings and the hollows under the kangs.

According to Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou, they had even dug up the area around the manure pit in the backyard with iron shovels.

Unfortunately, it was possible that Wei Cheng simply had no money, or perhaps his money wasn't in this courtyard at all.

In any case, the money Wei Cheng had hidden remained unfound.

Wang An scanned the entire courtyard, including the already-searched backyard. In his heart, he truly admired that old rascal Wei Cheng; with so many people unable to find the money, the old guy was damn good at hiding things!

No wonder Captain Zhou said he shouldn't be called a Pixiu, but a "grey dog."

After Sun Nian and Wang An arrived, Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou stopped their search and turned to help Sun Nian and the logistics personnel move the grain.

*** *Thanks to "Book Friend 20250304195027219" for the tip, thank you, thank you!* *Thanks to "Hongyun Dangtou-dd" for the tip, thank you, thank you!*

(End of Chapter)