red moscow

Chapter 2679

The next morning on my way to work, I met Lena in the parking lot.

When Lena saw Anna getting out of Sokov's car, she said jokingly with a half-smile on her face: "Anna, no wonder I didn't see you go home last night. It seems you went to Misha's house. When are you going to marry him?"

Hearing Lena say this, Anna blushed, walked up to her and patted her twice, pretending to be angry and said, "You're annoying. You just talk nonsense all day long."

After the two of them joked for a while, Lena said to Sokov, "Misha, when I got off work yesterday, I told the security guards to pay special attention to my store to prevent anyone from vandalizing it."

Sokov knew very well that he was being targeted by the gang members, and that he would have to face a lot of things in the future. Even though the area where he opened the store was under the direct jurisdiction of the market owner, he had to be on guard against the other party's possible tricks. He nodded to Lena and said gratefully, "Well, you are thoughtful."

After sending Anna to the shop where she worked, Sokov and Lena walked towards their own shop.

But when I arrived at the store, I found several security guards standing there and the door of the store was sealed.

Seeing this, Sokov was a little surprised and hurried forward to ask, "What happened? Why did you close my shop?"

A security guard he knew came over and said to Sokov, "Misha, this is what happened. Last night in the middle of the night, someone poured gasoline into your store and was about to set it on fire when he was caught by the patrolling security guard."

  Upon learning that someone attempted to set fire last night, Sokov was shocked. He thought to himself that those gang members were too bold. Aren’t they afraid of offending the big boss of the market and being kicked out of the market?

"Misha," Lena said in surprise after hearing what the security guard said, "Someone poured gasoline into the store. Will the clothes be covered with gasoline?"

Sokov carefully observed the traces of gasoline, shook his head and said, "No. There is a glass door inside the rolling door. Even if the gasoline can penetrate the rolling door, it can't penetrate the glass door. After opening the door, just clean up the gasoline between the two doors."

After hearing what Sokov said, Lena felt relieved. She turned to the security guard and asked, "When can we open the door?"

"You have to wait a while." The security guard explained: "We have notified the police. After they come to inspect the scene, you can open the door."

Since they couldn't get in, Sokov and Lena stood at the door of the shop opposite and waited.

Other colleagues came to open the door and saw a number of security guards standing in front of Sokov's store and a seal on the door. They came over and asked what had happened. Sokov then told everyone what he knew.

After hearing this, everyone sighed for a while and then went about their own business.

After waiting for more than an hour, seven or eight policemen finally arrived. The team leader was actually a female police officer with the rank of major on her epaulettes.

After the female police officer talked to the security guard for a few words, she ordered people to start investigating the scene.

After a while, the female police officer, led by the security guard, came to Sokov and took out a red ID and flashed it: "I am Major Victoria from the 37th Branch. I have a few questions for you."

"Excuse me, Officer Victoria!"

Hearing Sokov speak such fluent Russian, the female police officer was stunned for a moment, then asked: "Judging from the results of our investigation, this should be an attempted arson. I wonder if you have made enemies with anyone recently?"

Sokov nodded and told the female police officer what happened yesterday. Finally, he said, "If you want to know more detailed information, you can ask the security guards. They were the ones who arrested the group of people who caused trouble yesterday."

After understanding the situation from the security guard, the female police officer went to the company's office in person to interrogate the two arson suspects who were caught by the security guard last night.

Seeing that the store couldn't be opened yet, Lena looked very bored, so she said to Sokov, "Misha, I'm going to sit in a nearby coffee shop for a while. Call me when the store can be opened." After taking two steps, she suddenly remembered something and quickly added, "By the way, Ada asked me to tell you that she will be on vacation starting today. She will come back during the peak season."

Seeing that Sokov's place was unable to open the door for a long time, his colleagues who had a good relationship with him came over to find out what was going on.

During the chat, they inevitably mentioned Mrs. Li, whose shop was closed yesterday because of arrears of rent: "Do you know? That Mrs. Li is a piece of shit!"

"What's going on? Tell me about it." Since he was free anyway, Sokov wanted to find some time to kill.

"Her daughter, you all remember her, right?"

"Remember, remember." Everyone nodded and urged, "She appears on this street every now and then, who doesn't know her?"

"This daughter was born when Mrs. Li was almost 40 years old. She doted on her daughter because she was old." The man continued, "She held her in her hands for fear of dropping her, and held her in her mouth for fear of melting her. She would find a way to satisfy her daughter's needs."

Sokov had an impression of Mrs. Li's daughter. She was average looking but very pretentious. She had just bought a new fruit machine a few days ago and was showing it off everywhere. When she saw a fruit vendor on the street using the same mobile phone as her, she went to Mrs. Li to have a big fight, saying, "Even the lowest class people in the market are using the same mobile phone as me. How can I be embarrassed!"

"Don't talk about her daughter anymore. Tell us what Old Lady Li did that angered the heavens and the people."

"I heard from my fellow villagers that Mrs. Li's daughter is having an affair with Wang Juntao's nephew. She told him that there are dozens of Chinese businessmen on our street. He would be tempted if he heard that. If we were included in the jurisdiction of their gang, they would earn millions of dollars a year. It would be a waste not to eat such a big piece of fat meat. So they asked the girl to tell Mrs. Li that as long as we can make people panic on our street, she can be exempted from three months of rent after taking over in the future."

Someone mentioned yesterday that the reason why Mrs. Li wanted the gang to control this street was to save three months' rent. I originally thought that this was just a person who was greedy for small gains, but I didn't expect that there was a conspiracy behind it.

After hearing what that person said, someone immediately agreed: "No wonder Mrs. Li came to my store a few days ago and said that we were bullied under the management of foreigners. We should organize ourselves, protest to the company boss, and strongly demand that Wang Juntao's gang take over this area. At that time, I thought she had good intentions, but after hearing what you said, I realized that this was her conspiracy."

"You can't judge a person by his appearance. I never thought that this old lady Li is so mean. If the gang really takes over our street, the cost of doing business will double. After working hard for a year, not only will we not make any money, we may even lose money."

As everyone was condemning Old Lady Li, Sokov was thinking to himself: They say that the business world is like a battlefield. When I am on a battlefield, at least I know who my enemies are. But in the business world, there are always villains who trip me up and stab me in the back. It is simply impossible to guard against them. If I hadn't caught Old Lady Li by mistake yesterday, I might have been sold out by her one day and had to help her count the money.

At this time, the company's second boss, Zahara Isaev, came over here with several security guards, following the female police officer.

Zahara's elder brother is God Isaev, the big boss of this market. Because he has many businesses under his name, he rarely comes to this market. Usually, his younger brother Zahara is in charge here. Since Zahara has come in person, the matter must be serious. The people who were chatting saw such a big scene and immediately dispersed, leaving Sokov alone standing there.

Zahara came to Sokov and asked directly: "Misha, we and the police officer just interrogated the two arson suspects. They said that they had a conflict with you and they came here to set the fire overnight in revenge. I want to ask you now, how do you plan to deal with them?"

Although Sokov knew that the two arsonists were just two minions under Wang Juntao, he still believed that they must not be let off easily. Otherwise, when others saw that the arsonists were fine, they would become more aggressive and intensify their efforts to deal with him.

"Zahara, I think we must not let them off easily." Sokov called the second boss' name and said seriously, "Think about it, if the security guards hadn't stopped them in time last night and the fire had really started, it might not just be my store that would have been burned, the whole street might have been burned. If it was windy again, it might have affected the two streets in front and behind, and you would have suffered huge economic losses."

Sokov's words moved Zahara. He had just told the female police officer that they would release the two men after a few days. But after hearing Sokov's words, he realized that he had thought too simply. If the fire last night really started, it would definitely spread to the entire street. According to the layout of the market, each commercial street was closely connected. If one street caught fire, it would definitely affect other streets. By then, his losses would be astronomical.

After realizing this, he turned to the female police officer and said, "Officer, I think Misha is right. Such arsonists should not be let off lightly and must be severely punished."

"Okay!" The female police officer nodded and said, "Since you also advocate severe punishment, we will send him to the detention center as soon as possible and file a lawsuit within a week."

"Officer Victoria," Sokov asked tentatively, "If this really goes to court, how many years will they be sentenced to?"

The female police officer glanced at Sokov and said truthfully: "According to relevant laws, they will be sentenced to 11 to 15 years. After serving their sentences, they will be deported."

Knowing that the arsonists would serve more than ten years in prison and would be deported after being released, Sokov felt more at ease. At least he didn't have to worry about these people coming to seek revenge on him after they were released. As for escaping from prison, that was simply impossible. They couldn't get out without serving their entire sentences.

After the police left, the security guard also tore off the seal on the door. Zahara said to Sokov: "Misha, you can open the door now."

Sokov called Lena and asked her to come and open the door.

When I opened the rolling door, I saw that there was indeed a lot of residual gasoline between the two doors.

As Sokov was thinking about how to clean up, a cleaner came over with two buckets, one filled with sand and the other with detergent.

Zahara ordered the other party, "Clean up the gasoline here." After that, he turned and left.

The cleaner sprinkled sand on the non-volatile gasoline with a small shovel, and after confirming that all the gasoline was covered by the sand, he carefully shoveled the sand with gasoline into the bucket with the shovel. After doing all this, he used a rag dipped in detergent to clean the floor.

Although the job was arranged by the second boss himself, Sokov still quietly put two hundred-ruble bills into the cleaner's hand when he left. After thanking Sokov, the cleaner left happily with the two buckets.

After everything in the store returned to normal, Lena said unhappily, "What bad luck! I wasted half a day for nothing."

"It's okay, it's okay." Sokov said generously, "It's the off-season anyway. Even if we open in the morning, there may not be any business. Anyway, the biggest hidden danger has been eliminated. I can travel without any worries in a few days."

“Travel, where to travel?”

"Didn't I tell you two days ago that we were going to Sochi?" Sokov reminded him, "Did you forget?"

"Yes, yes, yes, you told me about this, but I forgot." Lena asked curiously, "When will we set off?"

"I have some things to do these days, and the earliest I can do it is next week." When Sokov said this, he also gave Lena a reassurance: "I will cover all your expenses for this trip."

"really?"

"of course it's true."

Sokov was returning home from get off work and was parking his car downstairs when he unexpectedly saw the female police officer Victoria whom he had met in the morning. She was now in plain clothes, taking bags of food and daily necessities out of the car and placing them on the ground next to the car.

"Officer Victoria." Seeing that the man had a lot of stuff and couldn't take it all at once, Sokov closed the car door, walked over and asked politely, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Hearing someone talking behind her, Victoria turned her head and saw that it was Sokov. She asked in surprise, "Why are you here?"

Sokov pointed to the building behind him and said, "I live here. I didn't expect that we are neighbors."

Victoria frowned slightly: "I basically know everyone in this building, why have I never seen you before?"

"I just moved here two days ago." Sokov was worried that the other party would not believe him, so he took the initiative to say, "The original owner of the house I live in was called Liuba."

When Victoria heard Sokov say Liuba's name, her expression became relaxed: "Oh, so you live in Liuba's house."

"Yes, it's the Liuba family."

After confirming that the other person was her neighbor, Victoria put down her guard. She pointed at the bags on the ground and said politely, "Then please help me carry a few bags upstairs."

Sokov walked over and picked up most of the plastic bags, leaving only two bags for Victoria. He also said euphemistically: "I'll trouble you to open the door and press the elevator button later."

Victoria smiled slightly, thinking that this new neighbor was very interesting. He was obviously helping her, but when he said this, it seemed as if he owed her a favor. She walked to the iron gate and pressed the password. When the door opened, she did not enter immediately, but held the door open to let Sokov go in first.

(End of this chapter)