The two continued to wander around the flea market. Sokov didn't find anything for sale, but Xiao Ma took a fancy to two stainless steel wine bottles that looked like cannonballs at a stall.
Seeing that he wanted to buy this kind of hip flask, Sokov quickly reminded him: "If you only use it in Moscow after buying it, it doesn't matter. But if it doesn't work when you take it back home, it will be confiscated when you go through customs.
But you have to think about it."
"It's okay, it's okay." Xiao Ma felt very uncomfortable at this time. He finally came to the flea market. Whatever he wanted to buy, he was blocked. He couldn't come empty-handed, so he waved his hand and said carelessly:
"When you go back to your country and go through customs, if they want to confiscate it, just give it to them. It's no big deal."
Seeing Xiao Ma's self-righteous look, Sokov couldn't say anything else. He thought that it was your money to buy things anyway, it was none of my business, so he wisely kept his mouth shut and let the other party pay for it.
Come down and get two cannonball-shaped stainless steel wine bottles.
On the way back to the market, Xiao Ma suddenly asked: "Brother, what do you think of me opening my own store?"
After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help being stunned, and then asked: "Open your own store? Is it your own idea, or is it your uncle's idea?"
"Of course it's my own idea." Xiao Ma said: "I left my hometown and came to a foreign country. I don't want to work for others all my life. If I have the opportunity, I still want to be my own boss. That is no better than working."
"It's good to have dreams, but it also depends on the conditions for their realization." Sokov said euphemistically: "Opening a store in Moscow is not an easy task. For example, renting a store and stocking up on goods require a huge amount of money.
Expenditure. In addition, you also have to spend money for food, clothing, housing and transportation here. Every day when you open your eyes, you will find that you need to earn hundreds of dollars to break even. Do you think you can meet such conditions? "
"Since others can establish themselves in Moscow, I think I can too." Xiao Ma said confidently: "Brother, can you help me then?"
Sokov thought to himself, I'm not your father, why should I help you? Although he felt a little unhappy, he still pretended to be nonchalant and asked: "How can I help you?"
"You lend me a sum of money first, so I can rent a shop." Xiao Ma said, "Then introduce your cargo owners to me, so that I can get the goods I want from them. Of course, in the end,
It's good to sell goods on a consignment basis, the kind that you pay after you sell them. In this way, my store will be built."
After listening to Xiao Ma's weird remarks, Sokov was shocked on the outside and tender on the inside. He never dreamed that the other party actually regarded him as a traitor and wanted him to be his cash machine. Not only did he also want to make him
Introduce the owner of the cargo to him. This kind of idea cannot be thought of unless you have suffered from cerebral thrombosis for more than ten years.
"You want to go out to do business alone, does your uncle know?" For Lao Wu's sake, Sokov did not immediately fall out with Xiao Ma. Instead, he suppressed the anger in his heart and tried his best to say in a calm tone: "Old
Since Wu is your biological uncle, you should say what you just said to him."
"I told my uncle, but he didn't express his position at all." Xiao Ma said sideways: "Now in Moscow, apart from my uncle, the only person I know is you. If you don't help me, who can help me?"
Listening to the other party's natural remarks, Sokov felt that he could not save face for him, otherwise he would still want to open a dyeing workshop if you gave him three points of color.
"Let me make it clear that we are just neighbors and we are not familiar with each other." Sokov said with a straight face: "Although I usually talk and laugh with your uncle, we are in a competitive relationship. I support your business and offend him.
Not to mention, I have also cultivated a competitor for myself. Do you think my IQ is too low, so I will definitely agree to your request? "
When Xiao Ma saw that Sokov was angry, he didn't dare to say anything. He remained silent for the rest of the journey.
When they arrived at the market parking lot, Sokov said to Xiao Ma: "We're here, go back first, don't keep your uncle waiting."
"What about you?"
"I still have things to do. I'll go back after I'm done."
After the pony left, Sokov found an empty space and parked the car, then went to the store where Anna worked to find her.
As soon as Anna finished her work, she saw Sokov walking in from outside and asked curiously: "Misha, did you just come back from outside?"
"Yes." Sokov nodded and replied, "Just came back from the flea market."
"What are you doing at the flea market?"
"The neighbor across the street asked me to take his nephew there to learn more about it."
"Did you buy anything?" Anna continued: "In the past few years, the things sold in the flea market have become more and more boring, so I don't go there anymore."
Sokov sat with Anna for a while, and after he calmed down, he slowly returned to his shop.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he sat down, Lao Wu ran over from the opposite side and said to Sokov: "Xiao Lin, I asked you to take my nephew to the flea market. How can I let him come back with useless things?"
"You mean those two wine bottles that look like cannonballs?"
"Well, that's right, those two wine bottles." Lao Wu said with an unhappy face: "You are also Lao Mo. You should know that you can't take such things back with you when you go through customs.
Confiscated."
"Yes, I know." Sokov nodded and said bluntly: "When he wanted to buy it, I tried to persuade him, but he wouldn't listen. What can I do?"
"But he told me that you asked him to buy it."
"Lao Wu, you and I have known each other for more than a year or two. You should know very well what kind of person I am." Sokov didn't want to take the blame for that pony, so he told Lao Wu what happened at that time.
He asked again: "I don't even look at this weird-looking hip flask. How could I persuade your nephew to buy it?"
When Lao Wu heard this, he realized that what Sokov said made sense. He couldn't lie to himself about such a trivial matter, so he said nonchalantly: "Then I'll go back and ask him."
When Lao Wu returned to his shop, Liena came over and asked curiously: "Misha, what are you talking about? I see that the boss opposite seems very unhappy."
Seeing that Lena was curious about this matter, Sokov repeated the conversation to her and finally said: "I would have known better not to take him to the flea market, otherwise I would not have caused such a thing. What a bad luck.
"
"Misha, I think your luck has been bad lately." Lena said, "Just think about how long it has been since Victory Day, and so many things have happened. Otherwise, you would have
Come with me to the church tonight, light a candle and pray, then bring back some holy water and sprinkle it in the store, maybe you can get rid of the bad luck."
Regarding Lena's proposal, Sokov thought about it for a while, but shook his head and refused: "Forget it, I don't believe in these things. If you think holy water can get rid of bad luck, then please go to the church and ask for some holy water."
"Okay, I'll go to church right after get off work."
After returning home in the evening, Anna saw the photo album Sokov brought back and asked with some surprise: "Misha, why did you buy an old photo album?"
Naturally, Sokov would not tell Anna that he saw himself in the photo in the album, but said perfunctorily: "I saw this is a photo album of a military family, and I couldn't help but want to buy it back and take a look."
"I don't know how much it cost?"
"2500 rubles."
"It's a bit too expensive." Anna said: "There are old photo albums like this sold in the flea markets in small cities in the suburbs. They usually cost three hundred to five hundred rubles each. If you want it, I will take it to you.
Go buy it.”
"No need." The reason Sokov bought this photo album was because he saw himself in it. Hearing Anna's words at this moment, he quickly shook his head and said: "I just bought one on a whim, and occasionally bought it and took a look at it.
Don’t buy any more.”
"I'm going to cook." Anna said, "I'll call you after it's done."
"Okay." Sokov agreed and entered the study with an old photo album.
He sat at the desk, opened the photo album, and turned to the photo of himself.
In this group photo of five people, except for himself and Lunev, he didn't know the remaining three at all. He tried hard to remember which army he had taken this photo when he inspected it.
?
However, after thinking for a long time, he still couldn't think of any valuable clues. The only thing he could be sure of was that this photo should have been taken when he was the commander of the 27th Group Army.
Sokov closed the photo album, leaned back, leaned his head on the back of the chair, and began to think in his mind, "At first I thought that time travel was just a dream, but now more and more information shows that
I did participate in the Great Patriotic War that year, and became a general because of my outstanding military exploits."
While he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard someone calling his name: "Misha, Misha!"
Turning his head to look in the direction of the sound, he unexpectedly found that two more figures appeared in the dressing mirror that had been silent for a long time. One was his wife Asiya, and the other was the one he had just seen in the photo.
Runev.
Sokov stood up and rushed to the full-length mirror, trying to confirm whether the people who appeared in the mirror were Asiya and Runev, but the images inside suddenly disappeared. If he hadn't heard the sound and seen the image just now, he would have
I thought I was hallucinating.
So far, the image in the mirror has appeared several times, but this is the first time Lunev appeared. Sokov began to guess: How could Lunev appear? Could it be that he also went to Vienna?
Just when he was puzzled, the cell phone on the table rang.
He got up and walked over, picked up the phone and saw that the call was from Victoria. He quickly answered the call: "Vika, is there something wrong with Lida?"
"No." Victoria said in a panic: "I called you just to ask if the police station over there called you to tell you the whereabouts of your friend?"
"No, so far, I haven't received any calls." Sokov sighed and said, "So it seems that the police still don't have any clues about them."
"Don't worry," Victoria comforted Sokov: "If the police have clues, they will notify you in time."
"Vika, you have been a police officer for so many years, have you ever encountered a similar case?" Sokov asked.
After hearing Sokov's question, Victoria was silent for a long time and then said: "Such a case of 12 people missing at once has never happened in Moscow. But it has happened in St. Petersburg."
When Sokov heard this, he immediately became interested and asked quickly: "Has the case been solved later?"
"Yes, the case was finally solved." Victoria said: "Eight people were missing at that time, three women and five men. The police also searched the area where they disappeared for a long time, but there were still no clues. Later,
A homeless man went to the police station to report a crime, saying that in an abandoned factory building where he lived, he would hear strange sounds coming from the ground every midnight. At first, the police did not pay enough attention to his report.
, On the contrary, they thought he had a mental problem and even planned to send him to a mental hospital."
From Victoria's story, Sokov immediately realized that the problem should lie in the building of the abandoned factory, and quickly asked: "Did the police later search the building of the abandoned factory?"
Victoria nodded and continued: "Later, several men and women who were camping lived in the abandoned factory building. They also heard the sounds coming from the ground. The voices were men and women, and they seemed to be screaming. They didn't dare to continue.
Stay here, leave quickly, and call the police at the nearby police station.
After the police received the security call again, they realized that there was something wrong in the abandoned factory building, so they mobilized manpower to search, accompanied by two police dogs. After several hours of searching, they finally found in a corner of the factory building.
An iron plate covered with debris was opened and a staircase leading down was found. The police went down to search and soon found a large iron door locked with an iron chain. After breaking the door lock, they found that the house
There are actually eight people inside, exactly the missing persons they are looking for."
"So, those missing people were imprisoned in the basement of the abandoned factory building?" Sokov asked tentatively: "If they hadn't been discovered by homeless people and campers, they might have died in the basement."
"Yes, it is indeed like this." Victoria said in a positive tone: "When these people were rescued, they were already very weak due to a long period of no water and food. They were sent to the hospital for nearly half a month of treatment before they managed to recover.
normal."
Sokov felt that the disappearance of Baharov and the others might have something to do with the case Victoria mentioned, and quickly asked: "Have these people disclosed to the police how they entered this basement? You know, here
It's dozens of kilometers away from where they disappeared."
"They said that while they were camping, they suddenly felt sleepy and fell asleep without knowing it. When they woke up, they found themselves locked in a dark basement. Because the big iron door was locked from the outside,
They had no tools and couldn't pry open the door. So they could only shout as hard as they could, hoping that people outside would hear them. Fortunately, they were lucky, and their shouts were eventually discovered by homeless people and campers, otherwise they would all die.
In that basement."
"Vika, I have an idea now." Sokov said cautiously: "Tell me, after Baharov and the others entered the Hovlin Hospital building, were they also stunned and then taken to some hidden place to be imprisoned?
Are you up?"
"Well, we can't rule out this possibility." Victoria said, "But this case is not our bureau's responsibility, and I can't interfere with other people's handling of the case."
