Chapter 160 Privileges
The girl who suddenly appeared in front of him was Kaya, whom Yuri had met once on the train. This lively and outgoing girl left a good impression on Yuri. However, after returning to Moscow for so long, he had never thought of going to see her.
Yuri didn't know how to answer Kaya's question. He couldn't just say he was busy with work. Most importantly, he had forgotten where the other person lived.
Fortunately, Kaya was so excited that she obviously didn't want him to give an answer. The little girl excitedly stepped forward, put her arm around his, and continued to chatter: "Oliya and I went to look for you, but your residence was guarded by soldiers, so we couldn't get in. If I hadn't met you today, I'm afraid it would be difficult for us to meet again."
"Really? Those guys didn't tell me," Yuri smiled, infected by the little girl's lively mood, and he echoed.
"Are you talking about the guards?" Kaya wrinkled her nose and said, "Those guys are so annoying. They have stern faces and no expression at all. I mentioned your name, and they actually suspected me. Later, they went home and investigated us."
Yuri smiled. After all, he was the Minister of Operations and one of the few people who could be close to Stalin. It would be strange if the Internal Security Bureau did not investigate two strange girls whose identities came to his door.
"By the way, what are you doing at Jim's Department Store? Buying things for the holidays? Where are your guards? Shouldn't they be doing these things?" Kaya asked another series of questions.
"They are all on holiday too," Yuri said with a smile, "so I came here to look around on my own."
"Oh, so you are not busy with your work now?" Kaya's eyes lit up and she said quickly, "That's great. Can I invite you to my house now? You know, it's boring for Olya and I to be alone in Moscow now."
"Where are your parents?" Yuri asked curiously. It seemed that Kaya had said last time that she lived alone with Olya.
"We have never seen our mother," Kaya said, without showing any sadness on her face. She simply replied, "When the war broke out, our father went to Minsk. We still don't know if he is still alive."
"Oh, sorry," Yuri said, a little embarrassed.
"It doesn't matter. Olya and I don't like our father. He always drinks and always loses his temper," Kaya said, waving her hand with an indifferent expression.
While they were talking, they passed by a shelf selling bread. Kaya stopped, fumbled and took out a small red cloth bag. While counting the money, she said, "He has been away from Moscow for such a long time. Olya and I are living more comfortably."
When shopping with a girl, you should never let her spend money. Yuri took out his ration card and handed it to her first.
The salesperson was a typical fat Russian lady. It was probably the first time she saw someone using a general's ration card to buy something here. She was stunned for a moment, then turned around and ran away.
"What's going on?" Kaya asked in surprise, "I wanted to buy some bread."
"Just use my ration card," Yuri said with a smile, "I haven't used this month's ration yet, so I guess I need to verify it."
The fat lady was gone for nearly five minutes before she came back panting with a middle-aged man wearing a gray military uniform, blue pants, and a red armband on his arm.
"Comrade General, I am Vasily from the Residential Supply Department, Vasily Yegorovich. I am very happy to serve you," the middle-aged man ran to Yuri and wanted to salute, but he raised his hand halfway and then put it down again, and said nervously.
"I need some black bread," Yuri said, pointing to the bread on the shelf.
"Oh, of course, black bread," the middle-aged man pushed the fat lady aside, stepped forward, and personally selected a whole loaf of black bread for Yuri, wrapped it in brown paper, tied it with a carrying rope, and handed it to Kaya, saying, "However, Comrade General, the rations that serve you are on the second floor. There are more items there. I wonder if you are interested in going over to take a look?"
Yuri didn't care. He hadn't dealt with these things on his own for a long time.
Turning his head to look at Kaya, the little girl was obviously very interested in the place , and her big eyes were full of aggressiveness.
"Okay then, we can go over and take a look." Yuri nodded after taking the ration certificate returned by the middle-aged man.
"Please allow me to lead the way for you," the middle-aged man walked around the container in a servile manner, slightly bent over and led the way for Yuri in front.
"It turns out that those legends outside are true. The military really has a special rationing office," Kaya said in a low voice as she walked beside Yuri.
Yuri smiled and said nothing.
To a certain extent, the special rationing system within the Soviet system did not start in the past two years, but it reached a certain level in the past two years. The main reason for this was the war and American aid.
The war caused an abnormal shortage of some non-essential commodities, and the American aid included many of these items, such as skim milk, chocolate, fresh fruit, high-end tobacco and alcohol, imported meat, etc. The quantity of these items was not large, and they were not enough to be supplied freely. If they were supplied in limited quantities, it would cause more unnecessary trouble, so they were all included in the special rationing catalog.
Following the middle-aged man up to the second floor, through a corridor leading to the west, and after being checked by two Internal Guard soldiers, Yuri took Kaya into the so-called special rationing area.
Compared to other places in the department store, this distribution office converted from a large warehouse is like a luxury goods store. Rows of shelves are filled with tin cans with English labels, fresh oranges, apples, grapes and other non-seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as desserts, chocolates, cigarettes and the like with English labels.
Yuri, who had seen many large supermarkets in his previous life, was naturally immune to such places. He even felt that the temperature here was a little low and didn't want to stay here any longer. But Kaya was different. Many of the things displayed here were things she had only heard of but had never seen in person. She was like a Cinderella who had just come to the city, staring with a pair of big eyes, looking at this and that, thinking everything was new and wanting everything. She wanted to reach out and touch them, but was afraid of breaking them. Her uneasy and leisurely expression really made people feel a little pitiful.
"These are Issyk grapes shipped from Kazakhstan. It took a lot of effort to preserve them," Vasily played the role of a shopping guide very well. He saw that Yuri was not interested in these things, so the main target of the introduction was set on Kaya.
Picking up a small bunch of grapes, he introduced them to Kaya: "This kind of grape is produced in the southern region of Kazakhstan, where there is plenty of sunlight, so the grapes are large, juicy and sweet."
As he said this, he handed the grapes to Kaya, indicating that she could taste it.
Kaya leaned back slightly nervously, holding her breath, and looked straight at Yuri's face with wide eyes.
"Try it and see if it suits your taste. If possible, take some with you." Yuri said with a smile.
Kaya let out a long sigh and carefully stretched out her hands. When she was about to take the grapes, perhaps because she saw the pure water droplets condensed on the grapes, she retracted her hands, hid them behind her back, and wiped her palms vigorously on the hem of her clothes...
"These are Abolt apples, shipped from Almaty..."
"These are sweet pomegranates from Iran. There aren't many left at the ration office..."
"This chocolate is very good. It is said to be from Switzerland and contains hazelnuts..."
…
After a round, Kaya's bag was full, and Yuri was holding two large food bags. These things were free, and Yuri only needed to sign the bill.
After coming out of the department store, Kaya was still in a daze. It was not until she got into Yuri's car that she let out a sigh of relief, got rid of the nervousness, and began to chatter about how she had seen something somewhere before but had never tasted it.
Yaroslavl Road is located in the northeast of Moscow city. This highway leads to Mytishchi. The south side of the entire road is covered with large jungles. In the near future, this place will be planned into a park, which will later become the famous Losiney Ostrov National Park.
The place where the two sisters Kaya live is on this road, close to the Severyanin subway station. It is a residential building in a workers' village that was built not very long ago. The building is quite new, but it is next to the railway line, so the noise is quite loud.
The architectural style of the residential building is very similar to that of the tube-shaped building, with a corridor connecting more than a dozen households. Each household has a one-bedroom apartment with a living room, the kitchen is on the balcony, and the bathroom is shared.
"...Oliya went to the dance troupe early this morning. She had a solo dance at the May Day party," Kaya said as she opened the door of her room while standing in the corridor. "But she will definitely come back in the evening. We can give her a surprise..."
As he was talking, the door opened, revealing a small, cramped living room. There was nothing furnished, not even a sofa. There was a wooden double bed in the corner, with some colorful and exaggerated clothes scattered on it. They were obviously dance costumes for performances.
However, Yuri didn't notice these things. The first thing he looked at was the almost half-naked girl standing on the right side of the living room.
