Chapter 20 Unexpected Gains
Gu Yanzhi sorted through the items and put what he thought was useful on the handcart. The large stack of newspapers took up too much space, so he left them in their original place. He would decide whether to take them with him based on the final situation of the supplies collected.
"Xiao Song, Xiao Gu"
"Hey, Sister Li, just a moment, I'll be right there."
Sister Li from another office called out in their direction. The office building wasn't very big; the two rooms furthest apart were only about ten meters apart. Gu Yanzhi and the other two put down their things and headed towards Sister Li's room.
Sister Li and Xiao Lin formed a small team, and their room happened to be the property manager's office.
The desks, chairs, filing cabinets, bookshelves, and other furniture inside were indeed made of solid wood, and Xiaolin had dragged them together. On the desks were several cans of tea, coffee, some chocolate biscuits and other snacks to stave off hunger, as well as other things they found that they thought they could take with them.
Sister Li took all the books off the bookshelf and piled them neatly to the side, it seems she was only planning to decide whether to take them with her at the last minute.
Right now, Sister Li and Xiao Lin are examining a safe. Sister Li called Gu Yanzhi over for the same reason.
They only had two axes in total, one belonging to Gu Yanzhi and the other to Uncle Zhuang. The office building wasn't big, so they could call either of them, but Sister Li directly called Gu Yanzhi, who was closer to them.
"Xiao Gu, give me the axe, I'll split this in half."
"Let me do it," Gu Yanzhi said, handing over the axe. Xiao Lin took it first and chopped it down on the safe.
"bump"
"bump"
The two axe blows missed their mark, landing instead on the wooden floor beside them and creating a hole. Looking at Xiaolin, his ears began to turn red; he seemed quite embarrassed.
"Let me do it. Don't let my frail appearance fool you, Sister Li. I used to work on construction sites when I was young. I've done all sorts of jobs, and I'm incredibly strong," Sister Li laughed, patted Xiao Lin on the shoulder, took the axe from him, and said.
This made Kobayashi even more famous.
Sister Li was indeed very capable; she took the axe and cleaved it open in one go. Moreover, fearing damage to the contents, Sister Li deliberately aimed at one side of the safe, and her aim was superb—the contents of the safe remained intact.
Once the safe was opened, the rest was simple: two more blows of the axe into the opening, and the safe was completely open.
"Holy crap!!" When the door was opened, the jewelry and gold inside tumbled to the ground, shocking everyone.
"What's wrong?"
"Wow!"
"My goodness!"
The intellectual couple who were passing by heard the noise and peeked out. They were also shocked to see all the jewelry and gold on the ground. The intellectual, who was from Sichuan, even started speaking in his local dialect.
Upon closer inspection, the jewelry and gold appeared to be quite valuable, but upon even closer inspection, the safe was completely empty except for the jewelry.
The safe in the property management office contained no contracts or seals, but a pair of jewelry pieces. This made Gu Yanzhi think to himself, "This property management manager doesn't seem like an honest person."
Everyone was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and picked up the scattered jewelry and put it together.
"I'll go call them, let's just split it up." No one objected; they all nodded in agreement with Gu Yanzhi's suggestion.
There's a lot of jewelry here, so to avoid any unforeseen complications and mutual suspicion, it's best to divide it up directly. The trust they've worked so hard to build shouldn't be ruined by this petty, uncertain gain.
"Why don't you, Xiao Gu, divide it up? You're probably the most knowledgeable person here," Uncle Zhang suggested when everyone was present and they were discussing how to distribute it.
Most of these people came from humble backgrounds and could only be considered moderately wealthy or middle-class families. They lacked cultural background and experience, and apart from gold, they didn't understand or know the quality of the other items.
Gu Yanzhi and the other two are clearly different; they are children raised in wealthy families, and they look like they lack these things, so they wouldn't do anything selfish.
"How about this? I also enjoy collecting these things. I'll give a rough estimate for everything except gold, and then we can convert it into gold for everyone. I'm not a professional, so my estimate might not be accurate. Besides, jewelry has a higher appreciation potential, and to avoid any price discrepancies, our family won't participate in this distribution."
Gu Yanzhi thought for a moment. These jewelry pieces could be used to upgrade the space. In the apocalypse, jewelry was even harder to find than gold, so why not take this opportunity to replace them directly?
Everyone agreed with Gu Yanzhi's plan. They were afraid of being cheated if they took out these jewels and didn't understand them, so it would be easier to just exchange them for gold.
However, no one agreed that Gu Yanzhi's family should not participate in the distribution. Gu Yanzhi's suggestion was well-intentioned, and for them to agree would be considered immature. Moreover, the potential for appreciation was only relevant in a peaceful environment. In an apocalyptic world, who could say for sure whether the value would appreciate or depreciate? In everyone's eyes, Gu Yanzhi was taking a great risk by doing this.
In general, gold was considered the most valuable and readily traded commodity during times of chaos.
After some back and forth, Gu Yanzhi finally agreed that her family should take 70% of their share, and the remaining 30% would be divided equally among everyone as her subsidy.
The converted gold was distributed directly to everyone present, but Gu Yanzhi then suggested that each family choose one piece to keep as a keepsake and memento. She had clearly noticed the longing in the eyes of the girls present.
Although the property manager may be greedy, he has good taste and his collection of jewelry is exquisite, making it hard for the girls present to resist his charm.
Especially the three young girls, Zhang Qian, Yin Meng, and Liu Sisi, originally planned to ask Sister Yan Zhi/Sister Gu privately if they could exchange one for another to keep as a souvenir after they were divided up. Unexpectedly, Sister Yan Zhi/Sister Gu noticed their desire and took the initiative to offer it, which moved them deeply.
It has to be said that even the well-informed Sister Li was tempted by Gu Yanzhi's suggestion. Although she had worked hard all these years and finally managed to build up her own small company, she had used all the money she earned to buy the house that was flooded before. She still couldn't afford a piece of jewelry that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan.
There were a total of 20 pieces of jewelry and 3 kilograms of gold. After deducting the jewelry that each family took, Gu Yanzhi still needed to compensate everyone with about 15 kilograms of gold.
Gu Yanzhi made up an excuse, saying that before the rainstorm, she had just planned to donate a golden Buddha statue to Pudu Temple and had taken a lot of gold home, which she could then distribute to everyone.
Gu Yanzhi's actions made her family even more mysterious in everyone's eyes. Her swift killing had already made everyone speculate and imagine more about her background and abilities.
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