After bidding farewell to the sisters Olga and Olena, Wei Ran walked to the street with his suitcase, hailed a taxi and immediately rushed to the airport.
Now nearly a week has passed in this half-month trip, but he still has two places that he has not visited. It would be a lie to say that he is not nervous at this time, and even he can foresee that,
Once the timeout expires, Teacher Dalia will definitely have countless tricks waiting for her.
Hurrying slowly to the airport, Wei Ran was almost called by the announcement to board the plane to Sochi.
It wasn't until the flight took off that he heaved a long sigh of relief and began to think about the possible connections behind the story of the bayan that Olga wanted to investigate. There is no doubt that the first person to suspect is Lenin.
Battle of Grad.
In the history courses he had studied, there were too many descriptions of this battle to defend the city that were more shocking than bloody.
The 872-day siege could only be compared to the defense of Murmansk further north.
But compared to Murmansk, which had endless supplies of materials, what filled Leningrad at that time was hunger and bombings in every corner.
In all descriptions of that war, words such as "famine", "the longest siege", "the most destructive", "the largest number of deaths" and even "genocide" inevitably appear.
At the same time, accompanying all this blood and cruelty, there is naturally the road to life on the ice that cannot be ignored.
Do you have the courage to enter that battlefield?
Wei Ran looked at the peaceful earth outside the window and asked himself, but after a long time he gave a negative answer. He had no courage, because hunger was far more cruel and unbearable than war.
But at the same time, he couldn't help but think of Konon, who he had become friends with in that hut in the snowstorm in Finland. He clearly remembered that the journalist who was blind in one eye was a survivor of the Battle of Leningrad.
Maybe we can meet Konon there? Will he recognize me? Probably not? After all, it was after the Battle of Leningrad, how could he remember it.
Wei Ran secretly sighed. The only thing he was thankful for was that at least he still had a choice and could refuse to enter certain battles that made him fearful.
In the midst of his thoughts, Wei Ran's flight landed smoothly at Sochi Airport. Following the address Dalia had recorded on her schedule, Wei Ran got into a taxi and arrived in a dusty way.
A resort close to the Black Sea coastline.
There is no need to inquire about the history of this resort. Just looking at the heavy Stalinist architecture, you will know that this resort most likely served as a sanatorium for executives during the Soviet era.
"The doorman... must be another old guy like Ivan..."
Wei Ran looked at the contact information on the schedule and muttered to himself, then took out his mobile phone and dialed the number on it. The waiting tone in the receiver only rang three times before he was connected, but there was no call.
Anyone speaks.
After clearing his throat, Wei Ran said, "I'm looking for the doorman."
"Who asked you to make this call?" asked the person on the other end of the phone. The person speaking was a man. His hoarse and thick bubbly voice made Wei Ran have the urge to arrange a tracheal intubation for the other person immediately.
"Dalia"
"Dalia? Darya from Kazan?"
"Yes" Wei Ran replied with a frown.
"So you are Victor?" The man on the other end of the phone paused and continued, "The young man standing at the entrance of the resort like a fool?"
"I'm Victor," Wei Ran replied patiently, pretending that he didn't hear the other person's last teasing sentence.
"Wait for me a few minutes"
Before Weiran could respond, a busy tone came from the receiver. Soon, a Mercedes-Benz SUV drove out of the resort and finally stopped beside him.
To Wei Ran's expectation, the person in the car was a bald man who looked to be 40 years old at most. As soon as he opened his mouth, Wei Ran immediately matched his number with the person on the phone.
"Get in the car" the man said while pointing to the co-pilot.
Hearing this, Wei Ran silently opened the door of the rear cab, threw the suitcase in, and then got into the car and sat in the passenger seat.
"Seat belt," the middle-aged man continued to remind in an unpleasant bubble voice.
After Wei Ran fastened his seat belt, the man stepped on the accelerator and drove the car steadily onto the main road.
"Stepan"
The middle-aged man driving the car took advantage of waiting at the red light and seriously extended his hand to Wei Ran, "Stepan Khlozov, I'm glad you came to Sochi."
"Victor"
Wei Ran shook hands with the other party quite uncomfortably. This bald man was not a strong man, but in addition to the impressive and unpleasant bubble sound, his eyes were also extremely sharp, which made him
I couldn't help but think of the concentration of the big white cat on Ivan's boat when he was catching waterfowl.
"Do you know why Dalia asked you to come here?" Stepan let go of Wei Ran's hand and asked while slowly stepping on the accelerator.
"I just said that I would come to see you, and only with your consent can I go see the next person. Other than that, I didn't say much else."
"Yeah" Stepan responded with his mouth closed, but fell into silence again. It wasn't until the coastline behind him had been completely blocked by various buildings, and only when dense broad-leaved forests began to appear on both sides of the road, that he again
He opened his mouth and asked, "Have you been to Sochi before?"
“Been here once”
Wei Ran responded in a calm tone, "Three or four years ago, as a tour guide, I took tourists here to play."
"ski?"
"Hot springs, winter theater," Wei Ran replied with a smile, "of course, and Comrade Stalin's green villa."
"Comrade Stalin? Comrade? Haha! That's a good word!" Stepan smiled nervously, "Now many people call him sir."
"Maybe it's because the people who call him sir are not too worried about him coming back to life." Wei Ran made a small but scary joke.
"Fortunately, today's medicine is not developed enough." Stepan, who seemed to be easy to talk to, agreed, and then asked, "What do you think of this city?"
"to be honest?"
"Of course" Stepan nodded matter-of-factly.
“Nothing special to me”
Weiran lowered the car window slightly and said, "For Russians, this should be the first choice for vacation, right? Warm sunshine, golden beaches, various tropical fruits and a girl in a bikini that I haven't seen yet.
"
“Critical Chinese”
Stepan smiled and said, "There's really nothing special here, except that it's warmer and the girls don't hesitate to reveal their white thighs and part of their soft breasts."
Before Wei Ran could say anything, Stepan changed the topic and continued, "But if you need to smuggle something into Russia, or transport something out quietly, you can come here to see me at any time. Look at the red flag.
For the sake of the forest farm, you can get a limit of 100 kilograms per year. It doesn't matter whether it's gold or poison, or even a living person.
Of course, you must know what not to touch, so don’t think of trying anything too dangerous, otherwise you will sink into the Black Sea together with the things you want to smuggle.”
"What is this?" Wei Ran looked at the other party in confusion.
"A piece of cake"
Stepan said nonchalantly, "I will do whatever Dalia says. It has been like this all these years. Since she asked you to come here to find me, if she doesn't want me to kill you, she must be satisfied with you.
So I don’t mind giving you some small gifts, that’s all.”
"Can I know anything more?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.
"Let me think about it..."
Stepan drove the off-road vehicle silently through two intersections, and then continued, "If you need trouble in the future, as long as you can escape here, I can send you to a safe enough place to hide.
Hide.
On the contrary, if you need some help to solve some troubles, as long as it is not a fatal situation, I can support you with at least a dozen people, no problem. Of course, if there are casualties, you have to pay some pensions.
Finally, if it is not the above situation, the less we meet and the less contact we have, the better. That’s all, there seems to be nothing else I can tell you.”
"Is an exchange of equal value required?" Wei Ran asked directly. The other party told him so many things so straightforwardly, and he had to express his feelings. Even if he said what the other party said, he would most likely not need it.
“Can you send me a copy of that photo you found of the flag at the Capitol?”
Stepan asked with a hint of expectation, "I went to the Patriotic War Museum in Moscow to see it. Although the photo taken was not as good as the angle I posed for it later, it was still very shocking."
"Of course there is no problem with this kind of thing"
Wei Ran readily agreed, "I even brought the original negatives with me. If you can find the developing equipment, I can help you develop a few more pictures on site."
"That's best. We'll make arrangements after I take you to do the business." As Stepan spoke, he also speeded up the car slightly.
"Stepan, where are we going?" Wei Ran finally asked the question he wanted to ask before getting in the car.
"I'll take you to meet some friends, and I want you to perform for us." Stepan's tone became more expectant.
"Performance?" Wei Ran was stunned, "Perform what?"
"Joint Dislocation and Reduction"
Stepan said bluntly, "I heard from Sister Anna. It is said that it is completely different from our fighting skills. It is not even the Chinese fighting skills we are familiar with."
"Wait a minute." Wei Ran turned to look at each other, "You? Also, what is the 'Chinese fighting skills we are familiar with?' You..."
"Don't get me wrong, our two countries, of course, I'm talking about the Soviet Union and China, not Russia and China, although the relationship between Russia and China is currently quite good.
In short, the Soviet Union and China once had a long partnership, didn't they? Although they broke up and quarreled later, some of the technical exchanges left over from the partnership era will always remain part of it. That's what I said, we Familiar Chinese fighting skills."
"Your description is very strange."
Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded, took a deep breath and asked, "So let me guess, what am I going to perform this time? A drug dealer or a human trafficker? Or a smuggler? It can't be poaching, right?"
"It seems that your study life at Hongqi Forest Farm is very rich," Stepan joked with a smile.
"It's too rich," Wei Ran responded in a dumbfounded voice. He really didn't know whether he should be wary of this middle-aged uncle who seemed a little too familiar.
"I arranged a woman for you this time, a beautiful woman." Stepan said with a hint of evil humor.
"Woman?" Wei Ran frowned subconsciously.
"right"
Stepan nodded curtly, "A woman who relies on luring and forcing young girls to film pornographic movies or even surrogacy to make profits."
"What do you think this is? Sochi Superman? Sochi Spider-Man? Or Sochi Captain?"
"Whatever, but the nickname Captain Sochi sounds pretty good. I can think about getting a ridiculous shield to wear next time I see you. Maybe I need a blue tights."
Responding to Wei Ran's joke with a joke, Stepan continued to explain in a nonchalant tone, "I can't get an innocent person to use as your performance prop, right? Although I don't mind too much, Sister Anna reminded me , saying that you are a relatively clean scholar.
So in order to watch your performance, we spent a lot of effort to find the woman we just mentioned."
Wei Ran asked, dumbfounded, "So to put it simply, I'm here just to perform for you?"
"I just paid the performance fee"
Stepan lit a cigarette and then finally told the truth, "It's just that we don't want to embarrass you, otherwise you would have been tied up and thrown into the basement to starve."
"Look at how awesome you are all..." Wei Ran muttered to himself, but his face showed just the right amount of gratitude.
