red moscow

Chapter 2698

Xiao Ma showed a look of astonishment on his face: "Will anyone buy such a shabby helmet?"

"I don't think anyone would buy it." Sokov told the other party confidently: "I have seen this helmet at least five years ago. Since it is still here today, it proves that no one wants to buy it."

"Are you sure this helmet is the one you saw five years ago?"

"Yes, I'm very sure." Sokov pointed his head with his hand and continued, "Look at the right side of the helmet. Is there a bullet hole? I don't think the stall owner can find two helmets with bullet holes in the same position."

Xiao Ma looked at the helmet carefully, nodded and said, "Yes, there is indeed a bullet hole on the right side of the helmet. It seems to be the same one you saw five years ago."

The two men left the stall selling military uniforms and continued walking forward.

This was Xiao Ma's first time at such a place, and he was curious about everything he saw, so he stopped in front of almost every stall to look at it for a while. Sokov had been here countless times, so naturally he had no interest in many things.

When the two stopped in front of a stall selling medals, the stall owner's eyes lit up, and he stood up and asked in stiff Chinese: "Friends, what do you need? See if there is anything you want here."

Hearing that the other party actually spoke Chinese, Xiao Ma was a little surprised and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Brother, how come they can speak Chinese?"

"That's normal. Most of the people who visit flea markets are Chinese. They are the main force of consumption." Sokov explained to Xiao Ma: "Think about it, if you were in a foreign country and heard a language you were familiar with, wouldn't you feel a sense of familiarity?"

"Yes, it is indeed so."

"As long as they make you feel familiar with them, the chances of you making a purchase are high, and they might even be able to sell you the goods on their stall at a high price."

"Really?" Xiao Ma said in disbelief, "Are the things they sell really that expensive?"

"Let me give you an example," Sokov said casually, "This flea market is usually open on Wednesdays and Sundays. But on Wednesdays, the people who come to the market are all manufacturers from nearby small cities who come here to sell their nesting dolls. Because it is a combination of wholesale and retail, the sales price is only one-third of that on Sundays."

"What, one third?" Xiao Ma was shocked again: "Is the price difference so big?"

While the two were talking in a babble, the stall owner could only worry because he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he didn't dare to urge them for fear that the two Gods of Wealth would just walk away.

After waiting for the two to finish talking, he asked cautiously, "What do you want to buy?"

Xiao Ma asked Sokov with some concern: "Brother, can the stall owner understand what we just said?"

"Don't worry, they don't understand what we are saying except for the few Chinese words we say to attract customers."

Xiao Ma nodded, picked up a Red Flag medal on the stall, and asked cautiously: "How much is this?"

When the stall owner saw that Xiao Ma was holding the Red Flag Medal, he showed joy on his face and gestured, "Here, 300."

Although Xiao Ma had only been in Moscow for a short time and his Russian was not very good, he could still understand the price the other party quoted: "300 rubles?"

“No, no, no,” the stall owner waved his hands and said, “Not 300 rubles, but 300 dollars.”

Sokov stared at the medal and easily recognized that it was not the real thing, but an old imitation. According to the current exchange rate of 1:60 between the US dollar and the ruble, this small medal would be sold for 18000 rubles. Not to mention a replica, even if it was the real thing, it would not be sold for so much money.

"Brother," Xiao Ma held the medal in his hand and looked at it over and over again. When he had finished looking at it, he looked up and asked Sokov, "What do you think of this price?"

Sokov did not answer his question immediately, but turned to the stall owner and asked: "Where is the awarding certificate for this medal?"

As a time traveler who had been to the Great Patriotic War, Sokov himself had won several Orders of the Red Banner. He naturally knew that in addition to the number on the back of each medal, there was also a certificate of award, which indicated who the medal was awarded to.

Hearing Sokov's question, the stall owner's face was full of embarrassment: "I accidentally lost the certificate of honor."

"I'm sorry, but we can't accept it without the certificate of award." Sokov took the medal from Xiao Ma's hand, gently put it back on the stall, and nodded to the stall owner: "I'm sorry to trouble you."

"Wait a moment, friend." Seeing that the business that he had worked so hard to get was about to go to waste, the stall owner hurriedly said, "Wait a moment, I'll look for it and see if I can find it." After that, he took out a woven bag from under the table of the stall, opened it and began to search.

Xiao Ma didn't understand the conversation between Sokov and the stall owner. Seeing him rummaging around, he asked curiously, "Brother, what is he looking for?"

"The Order of the Red Banner is an unprecedented military award established in 1918. It is awarded to Soviet citizens who directly participated in combat and fought bravely and heroically." While the stall owner was looking for something, Sokov gave Xiao Ma some common knowledge about the Order of the Red Banner: "The medal is composed of two layers: white enamel as the base color, with a gold-cast hammer and sickle, and two golden wheat ears surrounding a red star. The outer background has a pattern of a 'black hammer' and a 'black sickle' crossed, torches and a red flag. The flag is engraved with: 'Proletarians of the world, unite', surrounded by two larger golden wheat ears. The abbreviation of the Soviet Union is written at the bottom of the badge: CCCP."

After listening to Sokov's popular science, Xiao Ma's face was full of admiration: "Brother, you know so much."

After a pause, he asked again: "Do you think the price of 300 US dollars is expensive?"

"More than 58 Orders of the Red Banner have been awarded, but this one doesn't look like one of those hundreds of thousands," Sokov said bluntly. "Would you spend a few hundred dollars to buy a replica?"

"Ah, it turned out to be fake." Xiao Ma now understood that if Sokov hadn't reminded him, he might have spent a huge amount of money to buy this worthless imitation. He quickly grabbed Sokov's hand and said, "Brother, let's go."

Sokov nodded and was about to leave, but the stall owner took out an old photo album from a woven bag, which attracted his attention.

He picked up the album and slowly flipped through it, finding that it was filled with yellowed black-and-white photos. The first was a family photo of a chubby young woman, a lieutenant of about the same age, and three children, two boys and one girl. Flipping further, it was either photos of the three children or photos of officers.

The young officer started out as a second lieutenant, but his rank increased as he went on. When the rank on his collar changed to the rank on his shoulder straps, he was already a captain.

When he was almost done flipping through the album, Sokov saw a photo that shocked him: it was a group photo of five or six people, with the officer wearing the rank of major on his shoulder straps. The person standing in the middle of the photo was himself, and the person standing on his left was Military Commissar Lunev. Seeing this photo, Sokov's facial muscles twitched violently. He never dreamed that he would see his own photo in an old album.

"Boss." In order to find out what was going on, Sokov felt it necessary to take the photos back and study them carefully. He raised the album in his hand and asked the boss as if nothing had happened: "How much do you sell this album for?"

The boss stopped searching, looked at Sokov and said, "My friend, the photos in the album are 200 rubles each. There are 76 photos in total, which is 15200 rubles. I see that you really want to buy them, so you only need to pay 15000 rubles."

Although Sokov wanted to buy the album, he thought the price was too high, so he shook his head and said, "I can only give you 1500 rubles at most."

"No, no," the stall owner shook his head after hearing Sokov's offer. "Although you can bargain, you can't bargain so much, cutting off nine-tenths of the price directly."

"Then I want to hear it. What's the lowest price you can sell it for?"

The stall owner thought for a moment, then said, "14000 rubles, take it if you want."

Sokov shook his head. "2000 rubles. If you don't sell it, I'll leave."

"No, no, the price you offer is too low. I can't sell it."

Sokov was also a businessman, so he knew that if the other party found out that he really wanted to buy this album, he would definitely not lower the price easily. He put the album on the table, shook his head, and said, "Since you don't want to sell it, I won't force you, so forget it."

After saying that, he called Xiao Ma and left the stall together.

Seeing that the business he had worked so hard to attract was about to go bankrupt, the stall owner became anxious and ran out of the stall and shouted to Sokov, "How about 12000 rubles?"

Sokov stopped and turned to the stall owner and said, "2500 rubles, this is the highest price I can offer."

"No, I can't sell it for 2500 rubles." The stall owner continued: "If you really want it, give me 10000 rubles."

Sokov shook his head, turned and walked away again.

The photo album was originally left behind by his neighbor after he moved away, and he got it without spending a single ruble. Sokov heard that the highest price he could offer was 2500 rubles, so after a brief thought, he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, "2500 is 2500, I'll sell it to you."

Sokov returned to the stall, opened the photo album again and flipped through it. After confirming that it was the one he had just looked at, he took out 2500 rubles and handed it to the other party.

"Brother, why did you buy this album?" Xiao Ma asked in confusion as the two continued to walk forward: "It's almost 50 US dollars."

"I just want to understand the lives of ordinary Russians." Sokov naturally would not tell Xiao Ma that he saw himself in a photo in the album. Instead, he said perfunctorily: "The album can give me a partial understanding of the situation."

"Oh, so it's still like this." Xiao Ma nodded, not quite understanding, and asked, "Brother, where are we going next?"

The flea market is divided into two sides, the lower side is where the most tourists are, and the slope has much fewer people. Sokov pointed to the stairs not far away and said, "Let's go up there and see if we can buy anything rare."

The goods on the slope are mainly oil paintings and copper tableware and silver candlesticks from each household. There are not many things to buy. Sokov brought the pony up there just to broaden his horizons and see what kind of things the Russian flea market has.

After climbing the slope, the pony was immediately attracted by a row of oil paintings hanging on the wooden wall in front of him. These paintings depicted either forests, grasslands or villages, which were very consistent with the style of Russian oil paintings. The pony stood in front of a painting of a birch forest and looked at it repeatedly, as if he had discovered something new.

He looked at it for a long time before turning around and asking Sokov who was standing next to him: "Brother, do you think there are any world famous paintings among these oil paintings?"

Sokov was amused by his words: "Why are you laughing? How can there be famous paintings in such a place? If you want to see famous paintings, you can go to the Tretyakov Gallery, which is one of the most famous galleries in Moscow. There are thousands of world famous paintings there."

"Besides the place you mentioned, where else can I see famous paintings?"

"There are also the State Russian Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Moscow Museum of Natural History, all of which have thousands of world-famous paintings," said Sokov, pointing to the paintings hanging on the wooden walls. "These are the losers."

"No, I think the painting is pretty good."

"Come closer and take a look." Sokov asked Xiao Ma to get closer to the painting, then pointed at the surface of the painting and said, "Except for a few bumps on the surface of your painting, is most of it smooth?"

Xiao Ma watched it carefully for a long time, nodded slowly and said, "Yes, the surface is indeed very smooth in most places. What is the reason?"

"The reason is very simple," said Sokov. "Because the paintings in front of you are basically electronically sprayed, so that a large number of paintings can be mass-produced in a short period of time. In order to confuse people who want to buy paintings, they use oil paint pens to paint some areas, so that the original spray painting becomes a hand-painted painting, and the selling price will increase by ten or twenty times."

"Oh my God." Xiao Ma was shocked after hearing this: "I wanted to buy one to take back home, but after hearing what you said, I don't dare to buy it anymore."

"Just look at these paintings, there's no need to buy them." Sokov said to Xiao Ma, "A spray painting sells for forty or fifty yuan in China, but you spend thousands of yuan to buy it here. Aren't you being taken advantage of?"

"Brother, you really know a lot." Xiao Ma said thankfully, "Luckily I followed you out today, otherwise I don't know how much money I would have wasted."

"But there is a place in Moscow that specializes in selling oil paintings." Sokov continued, "You can buy good oil paintings there, even old paintings from over a hundred years ago, but the procedures for taking them out of the country are a bit troublesome."

"What? I need to go through the formalities to bring an oil painting back to my country?"

"Of course." Sokov had helped others with the export formalities for oil paintings, so he naturally understood the relevant procedures: "You must first take a photo of the painting, and then take the photo to the Tretyakov Gallery's appraisal department for appraisal. They will confirm that the painting you are going to take out of the country is not a precious Russian national treasure. Only then will they issue a certificate allowing the painting to be exported. After arriving at the customs, you must hand the certificate to the customs officers for careful verification. Only after they confirm that it is correct will they allow the painting to be exported."

After hearing Sokov's story, Xiao Ma couldn't help but back out: "I never thought that buying an oil painting and bringing it back to China would require such cumbersome procedures. Forget it, I won't buy this oil painting."

(End of this chapter)