red moscow

Chapter 2674: Traces of Existence

Anna became angry after being rejected. She turned over, turned her back to Sokov and ignored him.

After dawn, Sokov opened his eyes and found that there was no one beside him. Anna had left at some point.

It's no big deal if he's gone. Sokov didn't care about it at all.

The reason why he rejected Anna's request was that he didn't want a stranger to live in his rented house, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble. He did such a stupid thing the year he first came to Moscow. He had to go to St. Petersburg to investigate the market and needed to be away for half a month. A friend found him and said that his house lease had expired and hoped to stay with him for a while and move out when he came back. At that time, he didn't think too much and agreed to the other party's request.

Unexpectedly, on the third night in St. Petersburg, he received a call from his landlord.

The landlord said angrily on the phone: "Misha, I rented the house to you because you said you lived alone. But the police just called me and said that there were more than a dozen people living in your house, and it was very noisy. The neighbors couldn't stand it, so they called the police."

"What? There are more than a dozen people living in my house?" Sokov was stunned when he heard the landlord say that. "That's impossible. Is this a mistake?"

"How could I be wrong?" the landlord said angrily, "I am in the house I rented to you right now. I just counted and there are 14 people living in the house. Where are you? Come back immediately and explain this to me clearly."

Confused, Sokov could only smile and say to the landlord: "I'm still in St. Petersburg. Can I go back in two days?"

"No, I'll wait until tomorrow at most." The landlord said firmly, "If I don't see you tomorrow, I'll throw all your luggage out."

"Okay, okay." Sokov said helplessly, "I'm going to buy a train ticket now. I can be back in Moscow by noon tomorrow at the latest."

After finishing the call with the landlord, Sokov immediately called the friend who borrowed the house, but the friend didn't answer his call at all. Sokov knew that he was cheated by the other party, but he could only accept it. After all, he was a good person, and when something like this happened, he could only blame himself for his bad luck.

I bought the train ticket overnight and arrived back in Moscow the next morning.

Sokov didn't take time to rest and rushed directly to the landlord's house to find out what had happened.

When the landlord saw Sokov, he first scolded him and then took him to the rental house.

After entering the room, Sokov was stunned. He thought he had come to a warehouse. The suitcases piled up in the living room were piled from the ground to the ceiling. After a quick count, he found that there were at least more than twenty of them.

The sofa bed in the bedroom was also moved to the living room, with a quilt thrown on it, which meant someone was sleeping in the living room. The sheets and quilt covers that were originally in the closet were spread on the floor of the bedroom, which meant that everyone who lived here slept on the floor.

Sukov had to keep apologizing to the landlord, but the landlord refused to give in and extorted a thousand dollars in compensation before kicking Sukov out.

After this lesson, Sokov would refuse without hesitation any request from anyone to borrow his house. It was reasonable for him to refuse Anna's request.

Liuba arrived at around ten in the morning. After entering the house, she looked around and didn't see Anna, so she asked curiously, "Where's Anna?"

"go to work."

"How about it, are you satisfied with this house?"

"Not bad, very much to my liking."

"Since you are satisfied, let's go to the Housing Authority to handle the formalities." Liuba patted her bag and said, "I have brought all the documents with me."

"After the formalities are completed, how can I pay you?"

"Just transfer the money directly." Liuba said sympathetically: "Many people buy houses with cash. But if I ask you to pay in cash, you need to go to the bank to withdraw the money. After I receive the money, I have to go to the bank to deposit it again. It's too troublesome. It's better to transfer the money directly."

After discussing some details, the two went to the Housing Authority to handle the house transfer procedures.

After checking their IDs, the staff member who was in charge of the formalities suddenly looked at Liuba and asked, "Why don't you have a medical certificate from the mental hospital?"

Hearing the staff's question, not only Sokov was stunned, but Liuba was also puzzled and asked back: "I want to sell my house, why do I need to produce a certificate from a mental hospital?"

The staff patiently explained: "It has happened before that after the house was transferred, the original landlord regretted it and came to us to make trouble, saying that he didn't want to sell the house, but a family member was mentally ill and sold the house without his knowledge. After experiencing several similar incidents, we have issued relevant regulations here. Anyone who wants to sell a house must produce a medical examination certificate from a mental hospital when handling the transfer procedures."

“Are those who sell their houses and then regret it really mentally ill?”

"There may be some individuals who are mentally ill," the staff member said, shaking his head, "but most people use the money from selling their houses to drink. When the money is gone, they want to take back the house and sell it again so that they can have money to continue drinking."

  After listening to the staff's explanation, Sokov was stunned. He never expected that buying a house in Russia would face such risks. He couldn't help but glance at Liuba, thinking that she wouldn't drink too much and sell the house to him and then take it back later on the grounds that she was mentally ill when selling it.

Liuba looked at Sokov from the side, looking a little embarrassed. She knew very well that although she was not that kind of person, with this kind of precedent, Sokov would definitely have some concerns when buying a house.

Liuba turned to the staff and said, "Even if I go to the mental hospital now, by the time I get the report back, you will have already gone off work. How about this? I'll write you a letter of guarantee to guarantee that after the transfer of this house is completed, I will not take it back for any reason."

In response to Liuba's request, the staff member showed an embarrassment on his face: "This, I need to ask my superiors." After that, he picked up the mobile phone on the table, dialed a number, and spoke in a low voice.

After a while, the staff member put down the phone and said to Liuba, "Madam, our person in charge will be here soon. Please wait a moment."

While waiting for the person in charge to arrive, Liuba took the initiative to say to Sokov: "Misha, don't worry, I really want to sell this house. After the transfer is completed, you don't have to worry that I will take the house back for any reason. I am not that kind of person." Ten minutes later, a man walked in from outside, followed by a woman in a dark blue uniform.

Seeing the two people appear, the staff sitting behind the desk quickly stood up to greet them and said a few words to them.

Soon, the staff came over with the man and said to Sokov and Liuba: "This is the leader of our Housing Authority. He will handle your transfer procedures."

The leader stepped forward and shook hands with Sokov, and asked politely, "Sir, are you looking to buy a house?"

"Yes."

"According to our regulations, in order to protect the buyer, the seller cannot go through the transfer procedures without a certificate from a mental hospital." The leader pointed to the woman following behind him and said, "She is from the notary office. As long as she notarizes your transaction, you can go through the transfer procedures even without a certificate from a mental hospital."

With the help of the notary office, Sokov and Liuba began to formally handle the transfer procedures. After the transfer, the notary office issued a notarial certificate to ensure that the transaction was real and valid.

After paying the transaction fee and notarization fee, the staff of the Housing Authority handed Sokov a pick-up slip, which stated that he should come here to collect the property certificate in ten days.

After Sokov and Liuba walked out of the door of the Housing Authority, he suddenly remembered something and asked hurriedly: "Liuba, I saw that your father left some reading notes, but they don't seem to be complete. I wonder if there are any other places?"

"I'm planning to sell my house, so I packed two boxes of documents and moved them back to my home a few days ago." Liuba said, "If you want them, you can come with me to get them."

Sokov guessed that there might be something of interest in the information Liuba took away, and nodded quickly and said, "Yes, Liuba, I do want to see that information."

In this way, Sokov drove Liuba to Liuba's residence in the east of the city.

After entering the room, Liuba pointed to two large cardboard boxes piled in a corner of the living room and said to Sokov: "Misha, those two boxes are the information I brought back. If you want them, just move them away."

After thanking the other party, Sokov went forward and carried down two heavy cardboard boxes in two batches and stuffed them into the trunk of the car.

After returning to his new home, Sokov couldn't wait to open the cardboard box and began to look for useful information.

The first box was filled with notebooks for lesson preparation. Sokov spent two or three hours flipping through them, but found that there was no useful information. So he opened the second box and started searching.

The hard cover on the top of the cardboard box is a diary.

Seeing that it was a diary, Sokov's breathing became rapid. He patiently turned the pages one by one, trying to find useful information from it.

This diary began to be recorded on New Year's Day 2005. Sokov quickly read through the contents of the first four months but gained nothing.

He sighed softly and continued looking down.

When he saw the diary entry for May 9, he was stunned by the contents: "... Today I went to visit the War Memorial in Victory Square alone. When I walked to the exhibition hall of the deeds of generals, I unexpectedly saw a completely unfamiliar face in a photo. There were four people in the photo. Zhukov, Rokossovsky and Konev were called the marshals of the troika. I definitely knew them. But the young general standing next to Marshal Rokossovsky was someone I had never seen before.

I carefully looked at the annotations below, which read: From left to right are Marshal Konev, Marshal Zhukov, Marshal Rokossovsky and General Sokov.

After reading it, I felt fooled. There is no such surname as "Sokov" in Russia. Moreover, I know all the famous generals who emerged in the Great Patriotic War, but I have never heard of General Sokov.

I immediately went to find the staff of the memorial hall and told them that there was something wrong with one of the photos, and a person who did not exist in history appeared on it. But when they followed me to the photo, the four people in the photo had strangely become three people, and the inexplicable General Sokov had disappeared without a trace.

After the staff saw the photo clearly, they criticized me and said that I was old and my eyes were blurry and I couldn't even see how many people were in the photo. Oh my God, I can assure him that I did see four people in the photo. But I don't know what happened. When the staff arrived, there were only three people left in the photo.

When I got home, I thought about the debate that my student had with me in class. He also mentioned a fictitious General Sokov, saying that this person played a huge role in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk. At that time, I thought he was talking nonsense, but at this moment, I had to calm down and think about it. Maybe he was right. Something must have happened beyond our cognition, which caused the history we were familiar with to deviate. "

  Sokov closed his notebook and tried to think whether he had taken a photo with the Troika. Even if he had taken a photo, he was only a general when he traveled back to the present. How could Liuba's father regard him as a general in the photo?

He continued to take things out of the cardboard box. On the top were notebooks and diaries for lesson preparation, and on the bottom were various books, including professional books, novels and essays.

When there were only a few books left at the bottom of the box, Sokov's hand stopped because he saw the familiar cover. Although it was yellowed, he recognized it at a glance. This was the book he wrote, "The Dawns Here Are Quiet."

After taking two deep breaths and calming down, Sokov grabbed the book, slowly took it out of the box, and looked at it carefully. Yes, the author's name on the cover was indeed "M.M. Sokov".

After seeing the words on the cover clearly, Sokov's hands holding the book began to tremble. Yes, this was the book he wrote in that era. This meant that he did not have a long dream, but he really traveled to the Great Patriotic War and participated in that tragic war.

"Misha, Misha!" A woman's voice rang out in the room: "Wake up quickly!"

Sokov was immediately frightened because he was the only one in the study. How could a female voice suddenly come out?

He turned his head and looked around, and suddenly saw the familiar figure of Asia in a dressing mirror placed on the wall. She was anxiously calling his name.

"Ashia!" Sokov called the other person's name, stood up and rushed towards the dressing mirror, shouting, "Is that you?"

But when Sokov came to the dressing mirror, the figure in the mirror disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed, making Sokov unsure whether he really saw Asia or it was an illusion?