Varisi Bank, Moscow Head Office.
Just one week after opening, Vasily Bank welcomed a seven-day savings boom.
People in Moscow like to deposit money in Vasily Bank. Not only is the interest rate high, but there are also many kinds of goods that are not easy to find outside, such as chocolate, sausage, and milk. As long as you become a customer here, you can take one away.
Receptionist Borisova was walking briskly, serving cups of warm black tea to new customers. Although her footsteps had not been heard since the bank opened at eight o'clock, she was still full of energy and enthusiasm.
Borisova just graduated from university this year, but was assigned to work as a waitress in a hotel. Because she is beautiful, she is often harassed by her superiors and male colleagues. Once, she was almost raped by a drunk male colleague. If the man had not been drunk and not as strong as usual, she might have been raped by him.
The overall economic environment in Moscow is not good, and Borisova's family conditions are not good either. She can only grit her teeth and go to work every day in fear. She lives in infinite fear every day. She really wants to change jobs, but where can she go?
Half a month ago, she learned that Vasily Bank was recruiting, so she rushed over for an interview. Unexpectedly, she passed the interview and was hired as a receptionist here. Not only does she receive a monthly salary of 200 rubles, but she also receives a series of other benefits and bonuses.
In October 1989, when buying some Soviet revisionist-made goods in Moscow, you could still see "price tags" on the goods. There were various ways of marking them. The prices of clothing, shoes and hats were printed on a small piece of cloth sewn directly onto the items; the prices of tableware, such as plates, were written on the bottom, and the prices of knives and forks were engraved on the handles.
The most interesting thing is the glass cup. The words "12 kopecks" are actually fired on the bottom of the cup. The calcined prices seem to be a symbol of the Soviet revisionist economic system - it can never be changed.
At the end of 1990, the black market exchange rate of the US dollar to the ruble had risen to 1:19. The Kremlin was a little panicked and tried to curb the downward trend of the ruble. It took a series of measures, the most representative of which was that from February this year, large-denomination rubles would be declared invalid.
At 9 p.m. on February 21, a Moscow TV host announced to the public in a stern tone that from tomorrow, 50 and 100-denomination banknotes would be invalid, and people could exchange them for larger-denomination banknotes within a specified time.
However, the bank only accepts currency exchange from retirees, and each person can only exchange 100-ruble notes. Other personnel can only go to their work units to exchange large-denomination notes equivalent to one month's salary.
This tactic of diverting contradictions was quite effective. It dealt a heavy blow to those who hoarded large amounts of rubles and foreign exchange speculators, and enabled the Kremlin to get rid of the burden of 7 billion rubles.
Perhaps the currency exchange measure took effect, coupled with the price adjustment on April 1, the downward trend of the ruble has been curbed so far, and the exchange rate between the dollar and the ruble has stabilized at around 1:30. The TV station breathed a sigh of relief on behalf of the Soviet revisionist people.
Although prices have risen, a monthly salary of 200 rubles is still enough to live a very comfortable life, not to mention other benefits and bonuses.
Yes, bonuses, receptionists can also get bonuses.
Seeing that the depositors in need were already holding cups in their hands, Borisova put down the teapot and cups, picked up a stack of brochures from the table on the side, and walked straight towards an aunt wearing an expensive coat.
"Auntie, please learn about our bank's Sufen Fund. This fund specializes in investing in NIEs (Asian Tigers), which are the four countries and regions with the best economic development in Asia. The minimum investment is 1,000 rubles, and it guarantees at least 15% return every year." Borisova said, handing a brochure in her hand to the aunt.
"Girl, is it really that good?" the old lady asked as she took the brochure.
"Auntie, I'm not lying to you. Look here." Borisova pointed to an area in the brochure and said, "The Sufen Fund is so good, but it also has certain restrictions. Once you invest, there is a three-year lock-up period. You can only withdraw the investment funds after three years. If you want to withdraw early, our bank will not only not give you the promised returns, but also deduct 20% management fees every year."
“Is the interest in the first and second years also considered the principal?”
"Yes, the Sufen Fund uses compound interest. Auntie, please come with me, we'll go over there and talk slowly." Borisova took the auntie to a private seat on the side and introduced it to her in detail.
The architectural layout of the Vasily Bank business hall is quite special. Its first floor is open, with an area of ​​420 square meters and a ceiling height of more than eight meters. In order to make more rational use of the space, a loft of about 160 square meters was built on the left side of the business hall. This area is closed. The first floor is the office for ordinary employees, and the second floor is sealed with one-way glass and is the office for managers.
Vasily Babanov's office is on the second floor. At this moment, he is standing in front of the glass window, looking at the bustling business hall below.
"The situation is very good. We can start opening branches right away, spread them all over the Soviet revisionist country as soon as possible, and vigorously absorb deposits..."
Vasily was thinking about his future arrangements when the phone on the table rang.
"Mr. Babanov."
"Hello, Ms. Eli."
When Vasily heard the other person's voice, he recognized it as Mrs. Taylor's personal bodyguard Eli.
"There's a man named Ivankov in Moscow. His nickname is Japan. In Copenhagen, one of his men named Chadov was shot dead by the boss's bodyguard in self-defense. Madam wants you to find someone to talk to him. It would be best if you can."
Eli didn't say what to do if they couldn't talk, and some things couldn't be said on the phone, but Vasily knew in his heart that if they couldn't talk, he should kill the other party.
"Okay, I'll arrange it as soon as possible."
Ulaanbaatar.
After Petrovsky hung up the phone, he called Wang Hu to his side and gave him some instructions. He then assembled a small team to rush to the airport and board a plane to Moscow.
Willem Island.
Nan Yi had consumed too much energy yesterday, and in order to avoid the opposite effect, he did not do any high-intensity training. Early in the morning, he and Helena lay naked on the water air mattress, basking in the sun.
Helena's long legs were hanging in the water, and her feet brought up lake water, splashing it on Nan Yi. Nan Yi stretched his legs to the side, touched Helena's air mattress and kicked it far away.
Helena and Nan Yi got into a fight, so she rowed the air mattress back and continued to pour water on him. Nan Yi kicked it away again, and Helena rowed back again, and this went on and on, over and over again.
After playing for dozens of times, Helena got bored and leaned her air mattress against Nan Yi's. She flipped over and landed on Nan Yi's air mattress. She flipped over again and turned into an octopus, tightly wrapping herself around Nan Yi's body.
"Adam, do you know a group of people?" Helena pinched her hair and teased Nan Yi's nose.
"I haven't heard of it. What is it?"
"A club, a club started by girls in our school."
"What is the purpose of this society?"
"Oppose this society that advocates love."
"So, the members of a group of people are very casual?"
Nan Yi was a little interested.
"Yes, they are more casual in that aspect. They don't need love or boyfriends."
"Them or us?"
"They, I just joined a group of people the night before you hired me."
"Oh, why are you telling me this?"
"Because I like you."
"What do you like about me? Black hair?"
Danes actually like their naturally black hair. It can also be said that a large proportion of Europeans and Americans like black hair, perhaps because most of them do not have it, just like some people like to dye their hair blonde.
“And the body.”
Helena said as she stroked Nan Yi's abdominal muscles.
"I'm sorry, I don't like you."
"Why?" Helena shouted in disbelief, "I'm not beautiful?"
"Beautiful, especially your long legs, are they 4 feet?"
"4.05 feet." Helena said proudly: "Considering my height, this thigh proportion is very good."
"Yes, it is very good."
While responding, Nan Yi muttered in his heart: "How can legs over 123cm long be bad?"
"If you think I'm beautiful, why don't you like me?"
"I have a wife, and I love her very much."
"Asshole."
Nan Yi's shameless words made Helena crazy. She hugged Nan Yi's chest, shook the air mattress, and fell into the water with Nan Yi.
After standing up her body, Helena grabbed Nan Yi's hand and climbed down until she reached Nan Yi's ankle, grabbed it tightly, and dragged Nan Yi to the bottom of the water.
Nan Yi slapped the water with his hands to prevent Helena from succeeding.
After a moment of stalemate, Nan Yi felt Helena push his ankle, and her men should dive towards the bottom of the lake.
After thinking for a moment, Nan Yi guessed that she went to the bottom of the lake to grab mud, so he used his hands and feet and fluttered to the broken bridge. He jumped hard, grabbed the bridge with both hands, stretched it, lifted his left foot and hung it on the bridge. He climbed up and ran barefoot for a while. He guessed that he was out of Helena's attack range, so Nan Yi stood still and waited for Helena to surface.
Sure enough, Helena surfaced after a while, with her right hand still clenched tightly. She looked around and saw Nan Yi standing on the shore. She raised her right hand and a handful of mud, stones and sand flew towards Nan Yi.
A spent force could not penetrate the silk cloth of Lu; the farthest stone that could fly fell to the ground three meters away from Nan Yi.
Seeing that she missed, Helena cursed "bastard" again.
Nan Yi chuckled, patted his butt, and walked into the villa barefoot.
After washing up in the bathroom and putting on clothes in the bedroom, Nan Yi went down to the basement study, turned on the computer and checked today's emails.
Guo Min from G2B sent an email saying that the poppy plantation has been approved by the Aristide government and the company will establish a plantation in the Peace Port area of ​​Haiti.
In the 1990s, influenza entered its peak period, with influenza outbreaks occurring from time to time in every corner of the world. However, cold medicines had reached a bottleneck, and it was not feasible to innovate and develop new drugs to suppress existing cold medicines. After market analysis, Guo Min set his sights on cough syrups.
The most important ingredient in cough syrup is codeine, which needs to be extracted from poppy shells. A pharmaceutical company that needs poppies cannot go to the Golden Triangle to import them. Applying for legal cultivation is the only way. Haiti, a relatively chaotic country where presidents change faster than clothes, is a good choice.
Nan Yi thought for a moment and replied to Guo Min's email - develop two versions. One for the Asian, European and North American markets, the taste should be hard to swallow and not greasy, so that the user has the correct understanding that he is taking medicine; the version for Africa and South America, with market development as the premise, the taste can be blended to be excellent.
The second email was sent by Erlanger to the National Intelligence and Policy Committee, with a copy to him. It was about the situation of the hepatitis C specific drug DAA. In the email, Erlanger stated that there was no possibility of developing a "hepatitis C specific drug with reduced efficacy" within three years, and it was not even predictable.
What this means is that there is no difference between developing this kind of drug and other drugs. You have to start from scratch, and whether the development can be successful depends entirely on God.
Nan Yi knew very well that the Third Biopharmaceutical Institute was very resistant to the secondary research and development of DAA, especially the leader Erlanger, who had complaints. If it weren't for the resistance, the evaluation report should have come out long ago.
Sighing slightly, Nan Yi replied to the email and let the Intelligence Committee make the decision on its own.
A group with only one voice is prone to fall into ruin, but if there are too many voices, the same thing will inevitably happen, and different people will have different ideas. In addition to personal interests, people who engage in drug research naturally have certain emotional pursuits. Without certain emotions, who can persist in the boring research life?
"It seems that it is necessary to establish another biopharmaceutical research institute with strong R&D capabilities as a supplement to the Third Biopharmaceutical Research Institute." Nan Yi stroked his chin and thought, "If it is placed in the mainland, if the research institute is not well controlled, it will easily become a base for posting papers..."
The matter was not very urgent, so Nan Yi put aside his thoughts for the moment, dealt with several other emails, and walked towards the living room on the first floor.
As soon as he walked back to the living room, he saw a ball of black flying towards his face. There was no way to avoid it, so Nan Yi subconsciously turned his head. With a "pop", a ball of mud exploded on his cheek, and his hair, eyes, ears, and neck were all affected.
A loud laugh was heard, followed by a series of hurried footsteps moving away from the living room.
Wiping the corner of his eyes, Nan Yi saw a white flower crossing the gate of the villa and running straight towards the lake.
"You little bitch, you have a strong desire for revenge."
Cursing inwardly, Nan Yi went to the bathroom to clean up, then walked around the house, found an air pump, tinkered with it a few times, and transformed it into a water gun. He added some fountain pen ink to the water to serve as bullets, and rushed out to take revenge with the gun in hand.
…
While Nan Yi was shooting ink around with a water gun, Scarlett was entertaining Hilson Morgan of the Morgan family and Nicholas Oppenheimer, nicknamed Nick, of the Oppenheimer family at Scarlett Manor.
There is no need to say much about the Morgan family. The cooperation between Nan and Morgan is already quite in-depth. The Oppenheimer family is relatively less well-known, but it is also a very powerful family.
Oppenheimer is a traditional Jewish surname. In 1880, Ernst Oppenheimer was born into a lower-class Jewish family in Germany. He had an older brother, Bernard, who was fourteen years older than him.
The brothers' father, Edward, was a small cigar businessman whose monthly income was barely enough to cover the basic expenses of a family of four.
At the beginning of the 20th century, an alluring story attracted many European lower classes to South Africa.
It is said that a shepherd boy in South Africa picked up a beautiful stone on the roadside. Later, the boy exchanged the stone for a caravan, 10 cows and 500 fat sheep. The stone was the 83.5-carat Star of South Africa. Its price continued to rise in the days that followed.
This legendary story inspired people's fantasy of getting rich with diamonds, and Ernst was one of them.
Ernst Oppenheimer followed his brother to London at the age of 16 and was employed by a diamond distribution company to sort diamonds. He was paid 1 pound a week.
Soon, Ernst's unique talent began to emerge; he seemed to have a natural ability to tell which rough diamonds could be processed into first-class diamonds.
In the era when there were no machine appraisals, such eyesight was a treasure in the jewelry industry, and his talent was valued by his boss. At the age of 22, Ernst was selected as a company representative and sent to Kimberley, South Africa, specifically responsible for purchasing loose diamonds for the company.
In 1906, after four years in South Africa, Ernst returned to London and married his brother Bernard's sister-in-law, Mary, the 19-year-old daughter of Pollack, chairman of the London Stock Exchange.
Mary was beautiful and talented. For the sake of her husband's career, she resolutely gave up her studies at Cambridge and came to South Africa with Ernst.
Soon, they had two lovely sons, Harry and Frank. With his unique background of being born in Germany and raised in England, Ernst's diamond trade in South Africa was very successful.
Later, the British and German colonial power in South Africa was reversed, and the risk Ernst took paid off hundreds of times.
Relying on his friendship with the Germans, he not only kept his business in Kimberley, but was even elected mayor of Kimberley in 1912, and was re-elected for three terms, eventually representing Kimberley in the South African Parliament.
However, politics was not his forte and he never succeeded in entering the South African cabinet.
Taking advantage of his position as mayor of Kimberley, Ernst began to build his own business empire in 1917. He used his position as mayor to get to know members of the JP Morgan family, who were well-known in the financial industry at the time, and successfully persuaded them to invest 1 million pounds to jointly establish the "Anglo American South Africa" ​​to engage in gold mining business.
Then, having established his foothold in gold mining, Ernst set his sights on diamonds. The outbreak of the First World War brought Ernst huge opportunities.
The Germans' diamond mine was restricted area occupied by the South African army and could not be operated. Ernst took his shares in Anglo American to negotiate with the Germans to buy the diamond mine. The Germans did not know whether the South African army would withdraw, so they sold a rich mine to Ernst, with whom they had a good relationship, at a very low price.
At this point, the Oppenheimer family owned its first diamond mine - the Oppenheimer Unified Diamond Mine.
The war ended soon, and in order to achieve monopoly, De Beers, which controlled the major diamond mines at the time, had to come to Ernst to negotiate. Ernst agreed to form an alliance with De Beers, but on the condition that he obtained De Beers shares and joined the board of directors.
In desperation, De Beers, or the Rothschild family behind it, agreed.
In 1926, Ernst mortgaged all his belongings and merged with De Beers Diamond Company by exchanging equity.
After World War II, the US economy prospered unprecedentedly, and diamonds became a luxury item that people competed to buy. The large amount of stockpiled diamonds brought Ernst a fortune of $1.4 billion.
Soon, Ernst began to serve as the chairman of De Beers and became a figure with great influence in the South African diamond industry. At the same time, Ernst, who was already the diamond king and the largest gold producer in South Africa, also expanded his business to copper mines, coal mines, platinum mines, explosives and agriculture.
At 52, he was one of South Africa's wealthiest and most powerful industrialists.
During World War I, the ship Ernst was on was sunk by a German submarine and he was rescued by the British Army. This incident, combined with the purchase of German diamond mines, was recorded in his book of wartime heroics.
After World War I, King George V of England personally awarded Ernst a knighthood, making him one of the few Jews with the title of knight. This identity enabled him to enter the upper class of South African society and gave him a close relationship with the then South African President Jan Smythe.
Although he was Jewish, he regarded South Africa as his homeland and spent a lot of money to support Smythe's anti-apartheid policies.
Ernst died in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1957. Although he was born Jewish, he converted to Christianity as an adult and was buried in St. George's Church.
After Ernst's death, his entire inheritance was given to his son Harry Oppenheimer, including assets worth $180 million and a diamond empire that accounted for 80% of the world's diamond production. From then on, Harry became the new generation of diamond king.
Harry Oppenheimer was born in Kimberley in 1908 and studied at Oxford University. His unique family and educational background made him silent, low-key and well-mannered throughout his life. Compared with his brother Frank who died in a drowning accident in his youth, Harry was undoubtedly lucky.
When he was young, Harry was a soldier. In 1939, South Africa declared war on Germany. Harry's unit encountered Rommel's army in the desert of North Africa. Fortunately, he not only walked out of the desert alive, but also married the young and beautiful female lieutenant Britt in 1943.
During the 25 years that Harry served as chairman of Anglo American, the Oppenheimer family's diamond empire entered its heyday. Anglo American almost dominated South Africa's diamond, gold and platinum industries and the entire business community. Anglo American Gold and Anglo American Platinum were the world's largest gold and platinum producers respectively.
By 1973, the Oppenheimer family's output accounted for 10% of South Africa's GDP, and its exports accounted for 30% of South Africa's total exports, making it a country within a country.
Like his father, Harry is well aware of the strategy of "scarcity makes things valuable".
Ernst once said: "Common sense teaches us that the only way to increase the value of diamonds is to make them scarce, that is, to produce fewer of them."
In fact, the price of diamonds in the world has always been controlled by the Oppenheimer family. No one dared to bargain. At one point, the father and son even ordered the closure of all diamond mines owned by the company, causing the world's diamond production to drop from 22 million carats per year to less than 14,000 carats between 1930 and 1933.
The business strategy of controlling production caused De Beers' diamond reserves to soar. By 1937, the inventory had reached 40 million carats, enough to sell for 20 years.
When the Oppenheimer family's diamond empire was at its peak, the empire controlled more than 90% of the world's diamond production. Every five weeks, Harry would convene a meeting with important distributors and distribute a box of top-quality diamonds to the dealers after the meeting. After receiving the diamonds, the distributors would disperse, waiting for the next call.
However, the diamond kingdom's influence on the South African economy began to make Africans uneasy, and many even began to criticize the Oppenheimer family business for exploiting black people and in fact supporting the apartheid system.
Harry was deeply moved by this. As a member of parliament, he has been unremittingly supporting the anti-apartheid struggle, and his family has also provided more educational and employment opportunities for black people.
Harry and Bridget have a son and a daughter. Their daughter Mary is beautiful and dignified. She loves all kinds of famous horses, but lacks talent in business. Her extremely luxurious wedding scene shocked the whole of Johannesburg. In order to see the once-in-a-century grand scene, the crowd even rioted and dozens of people were injured.
However, this passionate marriage disappeared after a few years.
Mary fell in love with her horse trainer. Despite her family's strong opposition, Mary secretly held a wedding with the trainer in Swaziland, Africa. But this wedding (her second marriage) also failed to bring her lasting happiness.
Soon, people witnessed Mary's third wedding.
Compared to his sister Mary's emotional ups and downs, Nicholas's growth experience was low-key. Following family tradition, he went to the famous Harrow School in the UK to attend secondary school. After graduation, he chose the most prestigious Christ Church College at Oxford University to study the oldest major in political philosophy and economics, which is exactly the same as his father Harry.
After graduating from Oxford University, Nick joined the family business, first working at the bottom and then as his father's personal assistant.
When Harry retired from De Beers in 1984, he was faced with a situation where large mines were being discovered in Russia, Australia and other places and the monopoly position of the Oppenheimer Diamond Kingdom was in jeopardy. It was during this period that Nam entered De Beers and became one of its shareholders.
To put it simply, the Morgan family is a friendly partner of the Oppenheimer family and a major shareholder of Anglo American. Because of the relationship with De Beers, the relationship between the Rothschild, Morgan, Oppenheimer and Nan family is connected.
Last year, Nelson, who had spent 27 years in prison, was released unconditionally. After his release from prison, he, who had devoted his life to the struggle against racial discrimination, lived an ascetic life. Every month, he would hold a banquet at the villa of his old friend Harry Oppenheimer, inviting business people and the Congress Party, which was responsible for the national economy, to conduct various secret negotiations and share his experience in asceticism.
At the banquet, people drank bitter wine (Lafite 1982), the food was raw (caviar) and cooked in large quantities (premium steaks). Most of the businessmen attending the meeting were British Americans. In order to improve the conditions of black people in South Africa, they donated generously and were not afraid of the threat of the Boers' guns.
Nan Yi and Scarlett can get together because they share the common belief of "dedicating their lives to the rise of black people". Wherever black people are oppressed, there will be Nan's figure. Nan's eternal purpose is "everything for Africa, everything for black people."
Nicholas Oppenheimer: "The mines belong to the Oppenheimer family, and we will not give up."
Hilson Morgan: "Banking, insurance."
"We eat the leftovers from biopharmaceuticals, banks, and insurance companies," Scarlett said.
"Can."
"agree."
It is very easy to divide the interests among the three families, as each family has its own field of immersion. Although the Nan family covets South Africa's banks and insurance, Nan Yi and Scarlett are very clear that the Nan family is not good enough when facing the Morgan family. Moreover, they have to pay attention to the principle of first come first served. The Morgan family has been operating in South Africa for decades. Scarlett, who is civilized and polite, naturally knows how to be humble.
After seeing off the two guests, Scarlett immediately connected with Nan Yi.
"Helena, right?"
"Um."
"Long legs, right?"
"Um."
"Have you had a good time these days?"
"Don't try to trick me, just get down to business."
"I'm talking about business now. Is there anything special about Helena that would allow me to accept her?"
"At this point, no."
"Hmm, the plane will take off in an hour at most. Time is tight. The coffin we found is a little short. We can just cut off her thighs to make it fit."
Although Nan Yi couldn't see Scarlett's face, he could guess that she must be smiling with her lips but not her eyes.
"Okay, I'll pay attention next time."
"I hope what you said is true. I don't want to hear the name Helena anymore."
"OK."
After hearing Nan Yi's promise, Scarlett started to talk business: "I will fly to Johannesburg in the middle of the month. Who do you think I should meet?"
"The Nelsons?"
"uh-huh."
“Dlamini.”
"Just like I thought, Dlamini is the only one worth approaching among the second generation of the Nelson family." Scarlett said, "I am optimistic about her. She will definitely start from scratch and become the de facto richest person in South Africa."
"No, she should be a rich second-generation." Nan Yi retorted.
"It doesn't matter whether it's the first or second generation. What matters is our attitude. Do we want to have in-depth cooperation with the Nelson family?"
"Let's not have in-depth cooperation. Nelson is holding the banner of democracy. Once he gets the scepter, he won't have the chance to hand it over to his descendants. Besides, several major countries are eyeing South Africa, a piece of fat meat. It's enough for the Nelson family to have a few bites. If they want to monopolize it, they're courting death."
"Ahaha, it turns out that you, Adam, are not overwhelmed by the long legs... Adler, come and talk to your PaPa."
After a brief silence, Nan Yi heard Nan Youqiong's voice coming from the other end of the phone. The father and son talked for more than half an hour before reluctantly hanging up the phone.
Vasily was busy working at the bank in the morning, and at noon he made an appointment with Smolensky to have lunch at the Capital Hotel.
Nowadays, there are only two restaurants in Moscow where you can eat Chinese food. One is the Capital Hotel, and the other one has just opened near the Yaroslavl Railway Station in Moscow. The name of the restaurant is "Plum Blossom", and the owners seem to be an overseas Chinese couple.
As the name suggests, the Capital Hotel is closely related to the Chinese government. This is indeed the case. The hotel was opened during the honeymoon period in the 1950s and is an official cooperative industry between the two countries.
The Chinese restaurant of the Capital Hotel opened in 1958 and was very popular for more than 20 years. Thousands of Soviet revisionists and foreign guests tasted a lot of authentic Chinese food. In the late 1970s, due to some reasons, the exchange of goods was blocked, and the variety of Chinese food in the Capital Hotel suddenly decreased.
By 1983, only 13 of the 36 best-selling dishes in the Chinese restaurant remained. After 1985, the business of the Chinese restaurant in Beijing Hotel went from bad to worse.
In 1989, the Chinese restaurant of Beijing Hotel was reorganized and a joint venture was established with China, called "Beijing in Moscow". 15 Chinese chefs were recruited. The Chinese food of Beijing Hotel became very authentic, but for the locals, the overly authentic taste was not acceptable to them, and the business of the hotel's Chinese restaurant went from bad to worse.
When Vasily got off the car at the entrance of Beijing Hotel, he saw a lot of people queuing up. Judging from their ages, most of them were nostalgic people. You could also see a lot of yellow-skinned faces, who should be traders from China.
After scanning his face, Vasily entered the lobby of the Huadeng Hall in the Chinese restaurant without having to queue.
The Huadeng Hall is divided into a main hall and a small hall. The main hall is used to entertain ordinary guests, while the small hall is used to entertain distinguished guests, "Chinese traders". Chinese people like to have a lively atmosphere when eating, such as smoking, playing finger-guessing games, and taking off clothes, which is in sharp contrast to the quietness of the locals. In order to prevent guests from disturbing each other, the hotel simply opened a small hall for the traders.
In the small hall, you can make as much noise as you want, and the charges are not expensive, only about 50 US dollars per person. It is not easy to work hard in a foreign country, and the traders all know how to live frugally.
Vasily arrived first and asked the waiter to wait for him after ordering two cold dishes. He stood up and walked to the wall of the hall to admire the original works of famous artists hanging on the wall. Vasily did not understand landscape paintings, but when he looked at a bamboo painting on the wall he felt it was very charming.
If Nan Yi were here, he might not be able to understand the artistic conception of the painting, but he would definitely be able to recognize that the seal on the painting belonged to Zheng Banqiao.
"Mr. Babanov."
When Smolensky arrived, he glanced around the hall, saw Vasily admiring a painting by the wall, and walked straight up to him.
"This painting of bamboo can calm people's hearts, but I don't understand Chinese paintings and can't say what's good about it. Smolensky, do you know anything about Chinese paintings?" Vasily turned around and said.
"Mr. Babanov, I know nothing about Chinese paintings like you do. I know more about the Bible."
Smolensky had printed many Bibles, and he knew exactly which page each chapter and verse was on.
"Go sit down."
Vasily invited Smolensky to his seat.