Volume 6: The Great Change Chapter 0889 Selling Jeans on the Gold Rush
Ignoring the vendor who was screaming and howling after being beaten, Nan Yi and his group continued to move between the stalls.
Some stalls are just a wire bed, while others are more "luxurious" and are converted from containers. One side of the container is dug out and a gate is installed to become the facade of the stall. The front half is used to hang goods and set up the stall, and the back half is used as a warehouse. The traders are accustomed to calling it a "clay jar", which is a very vivid name.
Nan Yi not only pays attention to the goods on the stalls, but also to the spirits of the vendors, to see if they are in good health and whether they are sick.
During the Soviet revisionist period, foreigners received free medical treatment in hospitals for minor illnesses, and were charged a reasonable fee for major illnesses. Now in the Russian era, the policy of free medical care has been inherited, and all Russian citizens can receive free medical treatment in hospitals, including foreigners. Russian hospitals play the role of angels who save lives and heal the wounded without asking for anything in return.
However, Nan Yi is aware of Russia's economic situation. Funding for the medical system will definitely be reduced. The hospital's free medical care for foreigners will not last long. After a while, it may switch to paid medical care, or it may simply stop providing medical services to foreigners.
Nan Yi prefers the latter. He has set his eyes on this big piece of fat meat. His purpose of coming to Ussuriysk this time is, firstly, to see the market situation of Chinese products, and secondly, to see the potential market of medical care.
Nowadays, too many people know that they can make money by coming to Russia to be profiteers. In the past few months, too many new profiteers have come here in droves. At the stalls in Beijing, one can often hear the topic of Russian profiteers.
"Coming to Russia to be a trader" has become a recognized model of getting rich quickly within a certain range. When everyone knows that a certain business is profitable, smart people should be prepared to withdraw at any time, or change their mindset to serve these gold diggers who come to Russia.
Just like Nan Yi's arrangement in Moscow, most of the business is serving the traders. In the field of selling goods, Nan's company in Russia is more like Levis selling jeans in the West, rather than personally going out to pan for gold.
This year, Haitang Trading's business scope has begun to expand, with more and more categories of products being sold. However, the newly added goods are no longer directly supplied to Russia, but to dealers. Haitang Trading serves as a supplier of goods to dealers, no longer earning huge spreads, but earning logistics fees and meager wholesale profits.
The international student business solves the problem of stranded students, Haitang Trading provides part of the supply of goods, Huaguolou provides a safe business premises, and the paging station provides communication guarantee. What the Nan family needs to do next is to solve the medical and logistics problems, which is the passenger and cargo charter flights that Nan Yi has already thought about.
Nan was anxious about what the speculator was anxious about, thought about what the speculator was thinking about, and worked hard for the speculator until his death.
After walking around the big market for a while, Nan Yi started walking around the street again, asking the Virgin Mary: "Is it convenient to make a phone call here?"
Mary: "It's very convenient. There are many public telephones on the street. They are almost everywhere, whether in the streets or alleys. Although they were laid in the 1940s and 1950s and have never been replaced, it does not affect their use."
Nan Yi: "Where's your home phone number?"
Our Lady: "The penetration rate is not very high. In Ussuriysk, less than 1% of households have a telephone."
Nan Yi: "Can the public phone here directly make long-distance calls within Russia?"
Our Lady: "No, you have to go to the telephone office to make the call."
"oh."
Nan Yi nodded, walked to a public telephone in his sight, picked up the phone that looked like an iron box, and listened to the busy tone coming from the receiver.
After hanging up the phone, Nan Yi continued walking forward. After that, he kept paying attention to the distribution of public telephones. There were indeed many public telephones in Ussuriysk, and they were distributed more densely, more than in Moscow. However, the penetration rate of household telephones in Moscow was relatively high, and the demand for public telephones was actually not that great.
After walking around the streets for an afternoon, Nan Yi came to a conclusion: Ussuriysk has the basic conditions for developing a paging station.
On the way back to the hotel, the Virgin Mary suddenly said to Nan Yi: "Sir, wait until we get to the hotel. I have to leave to take care of something."
"What's the matter?" Nan Yi asked.
"Da Bifan has a cooperating painter in Ussuriysk named Tekachenko. His paintings are very popular in the European and American markets. But some time ago, Tekachenko's works that were not obtained through Da Bifan's channels appeared in New York. They were replicas, and Da Bifan had exactly the same ones."
“Isn’t it a fake painting?”
"No, Dabifan has contacted Tekachenko to confirm that it is an authentic work, painted by Tekachenko himself. According to Tekachenko, a group of Vietnamese bought his paintings from him at a low price, and he had to sell them, so he copied his own works. Tonight is the day the Vietnamese agreed to go to Tekachenko to get the paintings."
Nan Yi stroked his chin and asked, "Do you know the price of Tekachenko's paintings?"
The Virgin Mary said, "I don't know, but according to the information provided by Dabifan, they are buying Tekachenko's paintings for a minimum price of $1,500."
Since Dabifan could buy the painting for $1,500, it is conceivable that Katchenko's painting has great market potential and has been recognized by quite a number of art collectors. It is very likely to bring Dabifan huge returns in the future.
So, Nan Yi nodded and said, "Do you have anyone who can use subsonic bullets?"
Installing a silencer on a gun does not truly silence the sound. It just shortens the distance the sound of the gunfire travels. The sound of the gunfire can still be clearly heard at close range. To achieve a meaningful silencing effect, the gun must be specially made and use subsonic bullets.
"There are AS silent assault rifles and the latest 9A-91."
Nan Yi frowned, "Don't use 9A-91. It has just been released and there are not a limited number of leaks. It will be easy to trace it back to us. Also, if you can talk, talk. Try not to take action."
"clear."
The Virgin Mary has no hope of solving the problem through talks. If she wants to solve the problem once and for all, she can only send those Vietnamese people down. This time it is a cross-company commission, so the matter must be done beautifully and the Cossack Action Team must not lose face.
Nan Yi and his group returned to the hotel, and the Virgin Mary left alone.
Arriving at a base of the Cossack Action Group, the Virgin Mary put down her registered pistol and hid the silent weapons that other team members had prepared for her on the table one by one. She put the AS silent assault rifle into a backpack, and placed the pocket crossbow, spring arrows, and military dagger in a convenient place for her.
After getting the equipment and checking it to make sure it was correct, Our Lady took two team members out and got into a car. After driving for a while, she made a call at a public phone on the roadside.
After the call, the car continued driving forward and soon arrived at the Ussuriysk Art Union, not far from the Ussuriysk Hotel, which is also located on Nekrasova Street.
The Virgin Mary got off the car and walked into the gate of the Ussuriysk Art Union. She then greeted the security guards who were wearing bulletproof vests and holding AK-74Us in their hands. As they greeted each other enthusiastically, two packs of cigarettes flew out of the Virgin Mary's hands, drew an arc and fell into the hands of the security guards.
After waving to the security guard, the Virgin Mary continued to walk inside. Along the way, no matter if it was the handyman repairing the pipe, the painter who was still painting in the studio, or the teller in the oil painting exhibition room, they all greeted the Virgin Mary cordially, and from time to time the Virgin Mary would throw out two packs of cigarettes.
When they arrived at the staircase of a building, the Virgin Mary had just finished smoking a cigarette and went straight up to the second floor with her men, stopping in front of a closed office door at the corner of the corridor.
The Virgin Mary walked forward and knocked gently on the door. After a while, she heard the sound of light and thin footsteps coming from inside.
The door opened, and an old man in his early sixties carefully poked half of his head out of the door. Seeing that it was the Virgin Mary, he was overjoyed. He jumped out like a child, hugged the Virgin Mary tightly, and murmured: "Hello, Yuri!"
Yuri is the Russian name for the Virgin Mary. Other names include Andrei, Sergei, and Vasily. Just like Zhang Wei and Xiao Ming, if you shout these names on the streets of Russia, countless people will look at you. It is very common.
There is no special story behind the fact that Our Lady has such a Russian name. It's just that in Russia, it is not possible to have no Russian name. A word like "yuan" which sounds more like Chinese is very difficult to say in Russian.
Traders who have been doing business in Russia for a long time will also give themselves Russian names for the sake of convenience. Some of them are just like real Russians and follow the naming habits here, making a long and ugly name that takes more than three seconds to say.
After entering the room, the old Russian man pulled the Virgin Mary to a corner of the room and sat down, "Yuri, where have you been all these years?"
"Tkachenko, after I resigned, I still lived here, but moved to another city."
The Virgin Mary first served in the Far Eastern Military Region. After retiring, he worked as a militiaman in Ussuriysk, just like the local police in China. He worked at the security point next to the Art Union, so he was very familiar with the people here.
"What kind of job are you doing now?" Tekachenko asked.
"My job now is to help others solve their problems, Tekachenko. I came here today to help you solve your problem."
Tekachenko was stunned. "Vietnamese?"
“Yes, Vietnamese.”
After the Virgin Mary and Tekachenko had their conversation, after a while, there was another knock on Tekachenko's office door, very loudly, without any rhythm or order, and the knocker was rude, manic and impolite.
When Tekachenko heard the knock on the door, his expression immediately became nervous. The Virgin Mary said "hush" to him, waved her hand, and asked the two team members to hide. After a while, he signaled Tekachenko to open the door.
The door was opened, and four Vietnamese guys walked in carelessly. As soon as they entered the room, they surrounded Tekachenko, ignoring the presence of the Virgin Mary. One of them asked, "Tekachenko, where is the painting we want?"
“Yes, all the paintings are here.”
Tekachenko smiled flatteringly, ran to the corner, took out a pile of oil paintings that had been prepared long ago, and handed them to the Vietnamese man who was in the lead.
The Vietnamese took the paintings and carefully checked them one by one. When he saw that there was nothing wrong, he handed the paintings to an accomplice and took out a few dollars from his pocket and stuffed them into Tekachenko's hand, saying, "There are 11 paintings in total, 100 dollars each, that's 1,100 dollars, keep it."
Then, without even looking at the Virgin Mary, they turned around and prepared to leave.
Swish, puff, bang, bang, after a series of subtle sounds, there were four loud thumps of a heavy object falling to the ground.
Three footsteps sounded closely, converging in the same direction. One team member leaned against the door vigilantly to listen to the movement outside; another team member pointed his assault rifle carefully at the four suspected corpses on the ground; the Virgin Mary squatted down and stretched out her hand, tentatively touched the necks of the four Vietnamese boys, nodded, and confirmed that they were all dead.
The office fell into silence!
About three minutes later, there was another knock on the door, this time the knock was light and rhythmic.
The door was opened, and two men wearing white masks walked in. Without saying a word, they just nodded to the Virgin Mary.
The Virgin nodded in response, then walked over to Tekachenko and hugged him, "Tkachenko, I'm leaving first. I hope your achievements will surpass Repin."
Tekachenko choked up, exerted force with both hands, and hugged the Virgin Mary tightly.
After the three Virgin Marys left, one of them, wearing a white mask, took out an instrument and shone it everywhere around the corpse. Another one opened a small box, revealing a wide variety of knives inside, including boning knives and boning knives. He put the box aside, then opened a bag and took out a thick plastic film folded into a square.
He took out a lot of things one by one, and finally took out a Walkman, pressed the play button, and the prelude of "Song of the Defenders of Moscow" immediately came out from the loudspeaker...
Nan Yi doesn't have any artistic talent, but he thinks that he and artists are the same kind of people and share common characteristics. Some artists get inspiration through promiscuous relationships between men and women, and he is the same. By interacting with women, he can grasp business ideas one by one.
The difference is that Nan Yi is not as free and easy as those artists who just throw things away after playing, pull up their pants, and who the hell still knows who you are? You even believe what they say in bed. Nan Yi has a conscience and doesn't fart.
The Ussuriysk Art Union is a palace of art. We were leaving in the afternoon, so Nan Yi rushed over early in the morning, intending to use Art brand shower gel to wash off the smell of money on his body, to be clean and to be a good person.
Arriving at the entrance of the Art Union, Nan Yi saw at first sight a tall girl who was suspected to be Chinese and was at least 184 cm tall standing there. When he got closer, he found that the color of her eyes was wrong. She was not Chinese, but probably a foreigner.
Nan Yi heard a kind of name for various Russians. He didn't know where it came from, but it was quite interesting.
Generally speaking, all Russians are referred to as Laomaozi; the offspring of Russians and Chinese are Ermaozi; the offspring of Ermaozi and Chinese are Sanmaozi, and so on. The offspring of Simaozi and Chinese are called "Wumaozi" without the "zi".
Because the Koreans in Russia have obvious Chinese characteristics, they are also called Ermaozi. The girl in front of Nan Yi should be the offspring of the Korean and Russian ethnic groups. Because she is wearing unique Korean accessories, it is difficult to say whether she is Ermaozi or Sanmaozi, so she is simply classified as Ermaowu.
After looking at the girl a few more times, Nan Yi walked into the gate of the Art Alliance.
We arrived in front of a studio and, with the owner's permission, entered to have a look. It was a typical studio, with a small room filled with various oil painting supplies and decoration supplies such as paints, cloth, and wood, and even woodworking tools such as planes, axes, and saws.
It can be seen that the owner of this studio is a versatile person. Not only does he paint by himself, but he also carefully makes the picture frames.
After visiting the small room, Nan Yi came to the studio. Except for the blank spaces around the door and windows, almost all the walls were covered with oil paintings. They were divided into areas by age, ranging from twenty to fifty years old. Works from each period were arranged from left to right.
There were even more paintings piled and leaning on the ground and in the corners. Nan Yi made a rough estimate and found that there were about 2,500 paintings.
Nan Yi found it very interesting, so he started looking at paintings when he was most immature, from the age of twenty to forty. He felt that he could understand them less and less. The paintings when he was twenty gave him the feeling that they were so damn lifelike, people were people, trees were trees, the sky was the sky, the earth was the earth, and everything seemed real. When he reached the late stage of his thirty-year-old period, he could only see various blocks of color stacked on top of each other.
Nan Yi tried to use the age of the owner, the painter, to infer the world situation when he was in his thirties and the influence of the Soviet revisionist society on him, in order to interpret the hidden meaning of the painting, but... he got nothing. He just couldn't understand it.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. Nan Yi tried to sketch out beautiful sentences in his mind to praise the painting. Surprisingly, he finally sketched them out in multiple languages.
Nodding in his heart, Nan Yi knew how to praise an expensive painting that he couldn't understand next time.
With patience, Nan Yi slowly and leisurely looked at all the paintings on the wall. Finally, he left a few flattering words to his owner and turned to go to another painter's studio.
"You're crazy. Leaving behind more than 2,000 paintings, how can others hype you up? If the paintings are sold for tens of millions of dollars, does that mean your net worth will be 25 billion dollars?"
Henri Monet of Da Pivin once reported to Nan Yi that he had signed a contract with a talented painter in his thirties, whose works were collected in the Da Pivin Art Exhibition Hall, half of which were for sale and half for collection. He slowly pushed up the prices of the painter's paintings, just waiting for the painter to burp one day so that the prices of some paintings could be pushed to tens of millions.
It won't be long before the talented painter dies. In order to find inspiration, the talented painter started taking drugs a few years ago. His body has been hollowed out and he may fall down at any time and never get up again.
In order to gild the reputation of this talented painter, Dabifan did a lot of charity work in his name. Now he is just waiting for the moment of his real death to come, and then he will help him make up a decent way to die.
For example, if someone worked hard to complete a posthumous work, and then died in front of the canvas by vomiting blood, the blood would spray onto the painting, splashing out a flower of life. This mouthful of blood would be worth at least tens of millions of dollars.
In fact, Nan Yi did not spend half a day at the Art Alliance, only two hours, and then he left and went to several places where Chinese people doing business were concentrated, including the Huaguo City which was very lively at night. This kind of entertainment venue can be found everywhere in Russia. Passing by the door, Nan Yi met a middle-aged couple in their fifties who set up a shoe repair stall in the corner of a building.
The Far East is now flooded with Chinese people, and small businesses specializing in serving the Chinese have also moved in, including shoe repairmen, laundry and hemming shops, restaurants, snack stands, and so on.
At the entrance of a small park, Nan Yi bought a leek box and a fried eggplant box from a snack stand, and then bought an Uzbek mutton bun from the stall next door. The appearance was exactly the same as the leek box, but the filling was different.
After buying some delicious food, he sat on a bench at the entrance of the park and ate slowly. A policeman with a baton hanging on his waist saw Nan Yi and wanted to come up to check his passport, but when he saw the bodyguards surrounding him, he changed his mind, pretended not to see him, and turned around to stop another Chinese citizen.
The Chinese citizen who was stopped looked panicked. The police saw that they had stopped him correctly. After taking his passport, they found that it was indeed unqualified and he had overstayed. No doubt, he was fined.
Fines are the means by which police in many countries now punish violators. Russia checks passports here, and some countries like to catch gamblers. Not only can they confiscate gambling money, but they can also impose a fine. This is a good way to generate revenue. In order to generate revenue, cross-jurisdictional gamblers are often caught. Whoever is caught owns the money.
In order to evade arrest, the owners of the casinos and gamblers tried every possible means. They would set up a table in a cave or even in a grave. Those with a little capital would get a minibus and set up a mobile gambling hall in it.
Shacks on construction sites, grass huts over fish ponds, cow sheds, pig pens, etc., all kinds of places you can think of can become gambling venues for gamblers. It is hard for people who don't know to imagine that a group of gamblers would smell the smell of pigs, sit next to pig manure, and gamble on a game with a chance of winning or losing thousands or even tens of thousands. It is really hard for them.
Two Russian girls holding beer bottles in their hands originally wanted to sit on the chairs, but when they saw Nan Yi and his group of people there, they missed the chairs and continued forward, stopping beside a big tree. They leaned against the tree, chatting and drinking, laughing from time to time.
When Nan Yi finished eating the leek dumplings and was about to eat the mutton buns, a man in his thirties hesitated for a while and walked straight towards Nan Yi.
"Hello, are you Chinese?"
The man passed the risk assessment and was placed with Nan Yi.
After taking a bite of the mutton bun, Nan Yi raised his head and said vaguely, "What's the matter?"
As he spoke, Nan Yi took a look at the man. He didn't look like a businessman, and he couldn't tell what he did specifically.
"My name is Yang Shu. I just came from China. I'm unfamiliar with the place. I came here to get to know you so that I can take care of you in the future."
Yang Shu's words made Nan Yi laugh secretly. Any normal person would not take the initiative to get close to him, unless they were blind and could not see the dozen bodyguards around him, or they had ulterior motives.
"Hello, Comrade Yang Shu. I am the chief of the First Deception Unit directly under the War Department of the Siberian Column of the 1087th Bureau of the Revolutionary Export Committee. My disguised identity is James Bond, codename 007, and my slogan is Liberate the World, Freedom Belongs to the People."
Nan Yi's words were out of the ordinary, which made Yang Shu slightly stunned. He didn't know how to continue. He came to Ussuriysk this time to interview the gang so that he could complete his long-planned work. Seeing that these people didn't look like people doing legitimate business, he approached them to chat. Who knows what the other party is up to?
Seeing Yang Shu's surprise, Nan Yi smiled slightly and patted the seat of the bench. "Sit down, Comrade Yang. If you have anything to say, just say it directly. Don't beat around the bush. I can't stay here for long."
Yang Shu sat down as he was told, weighed his thoughts in his mind, and said his true thoughts with some reservations, "I'm a reporter, and I want to know more about the Caibao Gang. I saw that such a large group of you gathered together, it might be related to the Caibao Gang, so I came over to say hello."
"Comrade Yang, you are wrong. We are not only decent people, but we also make a living in Ussuriysk. If you want to find out about the Caibao Gang, I suggest you go to the Ussuriysk Hotel and the big market. You will definitely be able to meet the people you want to meet in those two places."
Nan Yi said this while looking not far away. The girl whom he met at the Art League in the morning now appeared in his sight again, and judging from the way she was moving, she should be coming towards him.
Just as Nan Yi put his thoughts aside, the girl walked up to him and greeted him, "Hello, sir."
The girl was wearing a white dress and smiling. Under the warm but not scorching sunlight, she looked like a beautiful and pure angel.
Nan Yi gestured to the empty side of the bench. The girl was generous. Seeing Nan Yi's action, she sat down in front of him. She took out a cigarette box and lighter from her bag, took out a cigarette from the box skillfully, and lit it with a click. Then she asked, "I saw you at the Ussuriysk Art Union just now. Did you go to the exhibition?"
Yang Shu on the other side heard the girl's words and guessed what was going on. Since Nan Yi said that just now, he wouldn't be able to find out anything else here, so he might as well not disturb the beautiful beginning of a love story.
After talking to each other, Nan Yi watched Yang Shu leave, then turned to look at the girl.
The girl's smoking posture was very beautiful and not offensive, but Nan Yi always felt that there was a bit of performance in it. He changed his gaze, adding a bit of "sexiness", sweeping from the face to the neck, stopping five or six centimeters below, sweeping left and right, and continuing to move down, staying on the skirt for several seconds.
The girl saw Nan Yi's gaze, but was not annoyed. Instead, she smiled faintly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and said, "Most of the Chinese who come to Russia to do business have little culture and are not interested in art. I have never seen other Chinese people go to the Art Union. You are very special. I noticed you at the entrance of the Art Union."
Nan Yi grinned, and suddenly, he was full of interest in the girl in front of him. He was eager to see what color the girl's cheek would be after being slapped. Pink? Scarlet?
"Your Chinese is very good. Where did you learn it?"
The girl blew out a smoke ring, tilted her head, and pretended to be innocent. "When I was studying at Ussuriysk State Teachers College, I majored in Chinese. Not only can I speak Chinese, I also know a lot about China's history, culture, and customs."
"Great! My name is Ni Die, Die means bed-on-bed. What's yours?"
"Lilia."
"Lilia, lily, what a nice name."
Nan Yi shook hands with Lilia, and touched her to feel for calluses and took some tofu.
Nan Yi and Lilia continued to chat for a long time, talking about the differences between the customs of China and Russia, the differences between Eastern and Western concepts, and the differences between the national conditions of China and Russia.
From astronomy to geography, from things flying in the sky to things running on the ground, and then jumping into the water to talk about things swimming in the water, it covers everything and nothing is left unchallenged.
Nan Yi even told Lilia the modified scene of his first meeting with Sophie Marceau, including what happened in the room. Lilia did not get angry, but continued to listen to Nan Yi with relish.
At this point, Nan Yi was certain that Lilia's appearance in front of him definitely had ulterior motives, and it was not her intention to hook up with a rich man, but it was possible that she wanted to kidnap him, a rich man, and hold him hostage.
Nan Yi and the other person got along very well in the chat, as if they had the illusion that they had met too late. In a blink of an eye, they had been chatting for more than three hours and missed the lunch time.
It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Nan Yi "inadvertently" glanced at his watch and realized that it was a bit late. He looked around and found that there were no restaurants around. Nan Yi said, "Lilia, shall we find a place to eat?"
Lilia nodded in agreement without even a second's hesitation.
