Red Moscow

After calling Anna, Sokov sat in the store in a daze holding his cell phone.

Khabarov is missing. If the survivors trapped underground are with him, they must know information about Khabarov.

If the police know that Khabarov is on the list of missing persons and are unwilling to expand the search scope due to the complex underground environment, should I, as Khabarov's friend, go deep underground to search for his whereabouts?

When he thought of venturing underground, Sokov remembered that his last time traveling was because he suddenly arrived in the 1940s in the dark underground fortifications after losing contact with his companions because he couldn't see the road clearly. If you really want to explore underground, you must first solve the lighting problem.

Thinking of this, Sokov stood up and said to Lena who was sitting in the store playing with her mobile phone: "Lena, I have to go out for something. If anyone comes to see me, just call me."

"Yeah, okay."

Sokov walked a few streets and came to the street selling daily necessities.

The lighting installed on the ceiling of this street looks like a will-o'-the-wisp because it has a low wattage and is seven or eight meters above the ground. Fortunately, the lights from the shops on both sides added some brightness to the street. Walking on this street, Sokov tried to slow down as much as possible to avoid being hit by someone who appeared out of nowhere.

Arriving at a stall outside a store selling lighting equipment, Sokov used the flashlight on his mobile phone to examine the products on it. When he saw the shopkeeper coming for business, he quickly walked out of the house and asked with a smile: "Friend, what do you want to buy?"

"I want to buy a high-intensity flashlight." Sokov told the other party what he wanted: "I am going to explore the forest with my friends, so I need a flashlight with high light intensity."

"There are some." The shopkeeper picked up a flashlight as thick as a child's arm from the stall and said to Sokov: "Friend, what do you think of this flashlight?"

"How's the brightness?"

Hearing Sokov's question, the shopkeeper quickly turned on his flashlight, and the huge beam of light suddenly illuminated the originally dark street as if it were daytime.

The shop owner swung the light beam up and down, and then asked: "Friend, how about this strong-light flashlight? Is the brightness satisfactory to you?"

"Satisfied, satisfied, very satisfied." After watching the store owner's demonstration, Sokov confirmed that the photo distance of this strong-light flashlight should be about thirty meters. It is perfect to bring such a flashlight when exploring underground. But that's it. So he asked: "What's the price?"

"3,000 rubles."

When he heard the price quoted by the other party, Sokov thought it was a bit expensive and asked: "It's too expensive. What's the cheapest price?"

"2,800 rubles, it can't be cheaper."

"How long can it be used after one charge?"

"This is a short model with four batteries inside." The shop owner said, "On one charge, the battery life is 8 to 16 hours."

Sokov thought for a while. If he wanted to explore deep underground, the battery life of 8 to 16 hours was a bit too short, so he continued to ask: "Is there anything longer?"

"Wait a minute." The shop owner turned around and entered his store, took out three cartons from inside, raised them one by one and introduced to Sokov: "This short model is equipped with eight batteries, and the battery life is 16~32 seconds hours; this is the long model with four batteries, the battery life is 12 to 24 hours; this is the long model with eight batteries, the battery life is 24 to 48 hours.”

After learning that there was a bright flashlight with a battery life of 24 to 48 hours, Sokov immediately pointed to the box and asked, "What's the price of this one?"

"5,000 rubles." The shop owner had just quoted the price. Perhaps he was worried that Sokov would find it too expensive, so he quickly added: "If you want to buy it with peace of mind, just give me 4,800."

Sokov thought for a while and then said to the shop owner: "I will buy a short model with four batteries and a long model with eight batteries. I will give you 7,000 rubles, okay?"

The shop owner turned around and took out his computer. After working on it for a long time, he found that the price the other party paid back was 600 rubles lower than his own quotation. When he was hesitating, he heard Sokov ask: "Boss, are you selling it? If not, I will leave."

"Sell, of course." The shop owner asked tentatively, "Are you sure you want these two flashlights?"

"Yes."

Seeing that Sokov confirmed that he wanted a short model with four batteries and a long model with eight batteries, the shop owner quickly took out the flashlight and demonstrated it to Sokov again to see the effect. He said: "Friend, my things have always been You’re a fool, if you take it back and find something wrong, you can always replace it.”

Sokov paid readily, carried the two boxes in plastic bags, and returned to his stall.

Lena saw Sokov coming in with two cardboard boxes, and she came over and asked curiously: "Misha, what did you buy?"

"Strong light flashlight." Sokov took out a short flashlight, demonstrated the effect to Lena, and then said: "We are going to Sochi in a while. With a flashlight like this, it will be more convenient to go somewhere at night. "He didn't say that he bought this flashlight and planned to use it when exploring underground, so that Anna and Lena would not worry about themselves.

When Lena heard what Sokov said, she also nodded: "Misha, you are very thoughtful. After dark, the beach of the Black Sea is full of darkness. It is very useful to bring such a strong flashlight. Convenient.”

While the two were talking, Xiao Ma, who was opposite, saw the flashlight in Sokov's hand and ran over curiously and asked: "Brother, why did you buy this flashlight?" According to his idea, the city was brightly lit, so The flashlight seems useless.

"We're going to Sochi in a while." Sokov felt that there were some things he needed to tell Xiao Ma clearly, lest he always want him to drive him to St. Petersburg: "It's a resort on the Black Sea coast. At night , it’s pitch dark on the beach, it would be more convenient to have a flashlight for lighting.”

When Xiao Ma heard that Sokov said he was going to Sochi, he couldn't help but feel a little itchy. But then I thought about it, I wanted to go to St. Petersburg, and I had to talk to my uncle Lao Wu for a long time before he reluctantly agreed. But the trip came to nothing when Sokov refused to drive him to St. Petersburg. Since St. Petersburg is not possible, it would be good to go to Sochi. At least when I return to China in the future, I can brag about it while chatting with friends after tea and dinner.

"Brother, when you go to Sochi, can you take me with you?" Xiao Ma asked tentatively.

"No, it's not convenient for you to go." Sokov didn't want to have too much interaction with Xiao Ma, so he decisively refused: "They are all foreigners, and you don't understand Russian. If you go along, there won't even be anyone to talk to. , what’s the point.”

"Brother, don't you want to go too?" Xiao Ma said with a playful smile, "With you here, don't I have someone to talk to?"

"I can't be by your side all the time." Sokov shook his head and said, "You'd better wait until you have the opportunity to talk about it in the future."

When Xiao Ma was about to say something, a man suddenly walked in from outside and said to Sokov: "Xiao Lin, are you free now?"

Sokov turned around and saw that it was his friend Dayuan. He nodded quickly and said, "I'm free. What can I do?"

"It's like this. There's a meeting at Korolev's place today, and I want to go over there and see if I can catch something."

Korolev is a small city northeast of Moscow. There are market days a few days a week. Local residents set up stalls to sell old goods, which is equivalent to a small flea market. At this moment, when he heard that Dayuan was going to pick up the leak, Sokov nodded and said, "Okay, let's set off now."

Before leaving, Sokov specifically told Lena: "Lena, I have to leave beforehand. When it's time to get off work, you can just close the door and leave."

"Okay, Misha, I get it."

When Sokov drove Dayuan along the Grand Ring Road in the direction of Korolev, he casually asked: "Have you found anything good recently?"

"I found a piece of blue and white porcelain last month." Dayuan said proudly: "It only cost 80,000 rubles. If I take it back, it will be doubled at least dozens of times."

Sokov didn't believe Dayuan's statement at all. After all, today is no different than when the Soviet Union first took over, and everything sold on the street is genuine. Nowadays, it is more difficult to find valuable genuine goods than to find a needle in a haystack. The so-called antiques that Dayuan bought were basically all fakes. Even if one or two pieces were genuine, their actual value was far lower than his purchase value. Even so, Dayuan still enjoys it. As long as he knows which small city around Moscow has a fair, he will rush there to join in the fun.

But since the other party spent his own money, even if he was eye-catching when buying antiques, it was his own business and had nothing to do with him. All he can do is act as a driver and deliver him to the place he specified.

Just at this moment, he encountered a red light. Seeing that there were more than 110 seconds left on the light, Sokov asked curiously: "What does the blue and white porcelain you bought look like? Do you have any photos?"

"There are some." Dayuan nodded, took out his mobile phone, opened the photo album, found the photo of "blue and white porcelain", and handed it to Sokov: "Look, this is the blue and white porcelain I bought."

Sokov took a look and saw that it was a dark blue vase with "Yongzheng Year of the Qing Dynasty" written in black ink on the bottom of the vase. Although Sokov didn't know anything about antiques, he could tell at a glance that this so-called blue and white porcelain was fake, and it was the product of some small domestic workshop. He didn't even want to make it old, so he sold it directly to Moscow to fool foreigners. Unexpectedly, the foreigner did not fool him, but Dayuan became the unjust one and bought the fake vase for more than a thousand US dollars.

However, this kind of thing should be seen through but not revealed. Sokov just smiled and said casually: "This vase is quite well preserved. It looks like it was just fired."

But Dayuan did not hear what Sokov said, and instead said with a smile: "Yes, I really liked this vase when I saw it, and I finally bought the vase after haggling with the boss for a long time on the price. "

After leaving the city, we soon entered the city of Korolev.

Under Dayuan's guidance, Sokov quickly arrived at the market.

After finding a place to park the car, the two entered the market and started picking up the missing items.

Sokov knows that places like this are still filled with countless fakes. If you want to find out, you must not only have good vision, but also have good luck. But I don't seem to have either of these, so after arriving here today, I just walked around with Dayuan to gain experience.

Not long after the two of them walked around, Dayuan took a fancy to a very unique bracelet on one of the stalls. He picked it up and looked at it, and then said to Sokov: "Xiao Lin, you saw it. This is authentic cloisonné. An enamel bracelet has a history of at least two hundred years and can be sold for at least 150,000 to 200,000 Chinese national coins when returned to China.”

Sokof looked at the bracelet and saw that it should have been produced last week. However, he couldn't help but say, "Yes, you are right."

"Friend!" Dayuan took the bracelet and asked the stall owner, "How much is this bracelet?"

The elderly stall owner looked up at Dayuan and said, "Twenty-five thousand rubles."

Dayuan calculated it in his mind and found that it was about 2,500 Chinese yuan. He thought it was a little expensive, so he asked tentatively, "Can it be cheaper?"

"No." The old stall owner shook his head and said, "I never reduce the price of the things I sell!"

Sokof saw that the other party was unwilling to reduce the price, so he quickly pulled Dayuan away and said, "Since he is unwilling to reduce the price, let's go somewhere else. Look." Da Yuan was dragged forward by Sokov, but he looked back at the bracelet on the stall from time to time, and said to Sokov in a worried tone: "Xiao Lin, I'm worried that someone will buy the bracelet after we leave." "Don't worry, no one will want the bracelet except you." Sokov said with a smile: "Didn't you see the other goods on his stall? There is basically a layer of dust on the surface, which means that no one buys his things." "Really?" Da Yuan asked in a suspicious tone: "I was so busy looking at the bracelet that I didn't notice the other goods." The two continued to stroll in the market, but Da Yuan kept thinking about the bracelet just now, worried that it would be bought by someone while he was away. Therefore, not long after walking, Da Yuan stopped and said to Sokov: "Xiao Lin, I thought about it carefully. Even if I buy it at the price the old man quoted, I can earn 70 to 80 times more by bringing it back home."

After this calculation, Da Yuan made up his mind. He grabbed Sokov's hand and said decisively: "Let's go, let's go back and buy the bracelet. If it is really bought by someone, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight."

Seeing Da Yuan so persistent, Sokov couldn't persuade him anymore and could only follow him back.

Soon, the two came to the old man's stall. Seeing that the bracelet was still there, Da Yuan grabbed the bracelet and carefully examined it, then handed it to the old man: "Please wrap it up for me."

The old man took the bracelet, wrapped it with old newspaper, and then put it in a red box.

Da Yuan watched the old man put the bracelet together, then took out five 5,000-ruble bills from his pocket and handed them over: "Here, this is the money to buy the bracelet."

The old man did not reach out to take it, but looked at Da Yuan and said: "The bracelet costs 50,000 rubles, and you only have 25,000 here."

"What?!" Da Yuan widened his eyes and said in surprise: "Didn't you just say that this bracelet costs 25,000 rubles? How come it has become 50,000 in a blink of an eye? Isn't this just raising the price?"

But after hearing this, the old man said with a normal expression: "My bracelet only costs 50,000 rubles. If you want to buy it, buy it. If you don't want to buy it, get out."

Seeing the old man so arrogant, Da Yuan was ready to argue with him, but Sokov dragged him away: "Forget it, don't argue with such a person who doesn't keep his word. Even if you win the argument, what's the point."