War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 752 Dongfanghong Grocery Store
Seeing that there were less than two days left before Christmas for Europeans and Americans, Wei Ran also received 28 euros in cash from Kajik for selling demantoids.

The money seems to be a lot, but it is all those who picked the remaining demantoids in exchange for. Now, there are less than 30 left in Sui Sui's hand, and after all, those stones have not been cut, can In exchange for so much money, it has exceeded Wei Ran's expectations.

As for the diamonds that were sent to Kajik earlier, don’t even think about it in a short time. If you want to cut and polish those stones, it will probably take until summer. It will also take a long time to sell them, even if those stones are sold It is estimated that most of the money will be spent on those young mothers in the small town of Tula.

After calculating the money at hand, he settled the final payment to Lao Li, the contractor next door, and bought a set of equipment for the coffee shop by the way.Now the only thing left in the safe is less than 20 euros in cash, and less than 30 gemstones in Sui Sui's hands that will not be moved for a short time.

"Why is the money spent less and less?"

Wei Ran muttered nonsense to himself, took two stacks and threw them into the food box as an emergency, kicked another stack in his pocket, and planned to wait until the salary of this month was paid to sister Kajianka first.

Although he spends money to make money like running water, in the past few months, Sui Sui has also made a lot of money, but Wei Ran has never asked, and usually what to do for refueling, grocery shopping, daily necessities, and even shopping. He has never spent money on such things as a plane ticket.

Looking for an opportunity to give the money to one of the Katenka sisters, Sui Sui also made various preparations for going to Chita to watch the excitement.

A group of six people, plus two little foxes in cotton-padded jackets with large patterns and a dog with bare buttocks, headed for the airport in an armored commercial vehicle driven by sisters Katenka.

At noon that day, their flight landed smoothly at Chita Airport.For the six people, one dog and two big-eared foxes, it was the first time for them to come to this city, which is less than 500 kilometers away from the Chinese border.

Even, since the new regulations came into power a few years ago, the time zone here has been consistent with the time of China's imperial capital - just like hundreds of years ago, before the Nerchinsk Treaty came into force, this place belonged to China.

It's a pity that today, more than [-] years later, all that can be seen here are the onion-top church with Russian style and the concrete building with Soviet style.Of course, there are all kinds of gossip and horror stories about the "Chita Zombie" by the girls in the rented business van.

The fact that I have to admit is that although the fierce man sitting in the top spot in Russia looks down on Lenin, even a considerable part of the ordinary people are not too cold about Lenin, so that many cities overthrow the Soviet Union The statue of Lenin erected in the era.

But even so, most of the more prosperous sections of Russian cities are still named after Lenin.In addition, the statue of Lenin in the city of Chita is still erected on the square named after him, and it is a must-see point for tourists who come to Chita.

Wei Ran and the others also made a special trip to Lenin Square to take a few group photos, and then followed the address given on the metal book to search all the way, and finally stopped at a roadside that seemed to be a bustling street.

Without getting out of the car at all, everyone saw the name of the shop in Russian and traditional Chinese characters on the huge wooden signboard hanging on the door of a shop that looked like a grocery store on the roadside——Dongfanghong Grocery Store: Mainly selling all kinds of small Chinese commodities , and provide services such as Chinese tour guides and drivers.

"This is different from the Chinese characters I've seen before." An Feiya, who was in charge of driving, said blankly, "The Chinese characters we are learning don't seem to have so many physical structures."

"That's a good description." Sui Sui opened the door of the car and was the first to get out, dumbfounded. "But these are also Chinese characters."

"Is there a difference between uppercase and lowercase letters?" Anfisa, who had opened the car door and stood beside Sui Sui, thought she had found the correct answer.

"Almost." Wei Ran responded, and tied his dog Beria to the back of the seat, allowing him to watch over the two little foxes locked in the cage. The third one came out filled with various perfumes. smelly compartment.

Anfeiya shrugged, and then pushed open the door of the driver's cab.When Lola took her sister Korava out of the car.One man and five women are a strange combination that looks like tourists but doesn't seem to be tourists. While discussing the difference between traditional and simplified characters, they pushed open the glass door and walked into this small shop with two floor-to-ceiling windows.

Amidst the crisp and melodious sound of wind chimes, what Wei Ran first felt was the unique smell of Huaxia flue-cured tobacco that got into his nose.

Immediately afterwards, he noticed that on the sofa chair by the counter, there was a middle-aged Asian aunt with a full head and a cigarette in her mouth, who looked very much like a renter, watching a certain epic story on TV. Chinese TV series.

"You can take what you want to buy. The shopping basket is on the shelf in the corner."

The hot-haired old aunt looked back at Wei Ran and the others. After a short pause, she switched to Chinese with a strong smell of stubble and added, "If you bring a Chinese passport, Auntie will give you a [-]% discount."

"Okay, let's take a stroll." Wei Ran responded in his native dialect, and at the same time winked at Suisui.

Hearing this, the old aunt didn't say anything, she continued to look at the TV screen, and by the way muttered, "Why is this Xie Guangkun so useless?"

He and Sui Sui looked at each other, each of them took a slightly faded shopping basket, shuttled aimlessly between the shelves, and at the same time secretly searched for clues about "Su Wu".

In contrast, the rest of the girls, especially the Katenka sisters, can be regarded as letting themselves go. The twins, who have just received their salaries, have not finished browsing a shelf at all, and the shopping baskets in their hands are already full. All kinds of Chinese snacks that I have eaten but not eaten, and by the way, I also stuffed a lot of things that they think are delicious in the shopping basket that Lola is carrying.

If you ignore the ruble sign on the price tag, if you ignore the few people who also buy things in this store with baskets, there is really not much difference between this place and the small private supermarkets in some small counties in China. Electric fan rice cooker, as small as needles, threads, spicy sticks, soy sauce, fruit, canned tea, etc. can be described as everything.

It's just that if the price is converted into RMB, it will inevitably be much more expensive.But even so, it is far cheaper than the same Huaxia product that can be bought in Kazan.

Just as Wei Ran threw a bottle of canned yellow peaches into the shopping basket, the melodious sound of wind chimes came from behind again.Subconsciously looking back, it was a 24-year-old, fairly sturdy Asian boy, holding a tour guide flag in one hand, and pulling a blond girl who looked like she had just graduated from high school at most, and walked in. .

"Mom, what's for dinner?"

The young man put the tour guide flag on the table, and at the same time as he was asking questions, he took out a bottle of warm almond milk from the rice cooker without a lid, opened it, and handed it to the girl beside him, and then opened a bottle by himself .

"Your second uncle made dumplings, and they will probably deliver them later."

While the aunt was talking, she smiled and pulled the well-behaved little girl to the sofa and sat down. She took a plastic bag from the hanger next to her and took out a fluffy pink knitted scarf and a pair of pink scarves. The knitted gloves were handed to the girl, and she said with a smile in Russian, "Little Sasha, try it quickly, I just knitted it this morning."

"Boots are numb!"

The little girl responded in out-of-tune Chinese, and she didn't forget to give the old aunt a warm hug. Then she put on her gloves and scarf, and smiled and danced towards the young man, "Whew! Look! Mine! "

"Su," the young man grinned and corrected him in scattered Russian bilingually, "It's Su, not Shui!"

"I know, hey!" The girl with her hips crossed, looked at her scarf in a circle in the big mirror by the wall, and replied confidently.

"It's Sasha again," Sui Sui whispered into Wei Ran's ear, and then the two smiled one after another.

No way, this name is too popular among the Slavic peoples.Just the "Sasha" they both know, no matter if they are two-legged or four-legged, there must be eighty if not one hundred.

"Let Lola show her necklace" Wei Ran whispered into Sui Sui's ear.

Hearing this, Suisui gestured OK, changed the almost full shopping basket with Wei Ran, and went around the shelf to find Lola who was meeting a can of stinky tofu.

He conveniently put the can of stinky tofu into Lola's shopping basket. Sui Sui whispered into her ear and stuffed a few banknotes into her hand. The latter nodded immediately, stretched out his hand and pulled out the money from her neck. The shiny bullet casing necklace was pulled out and exposed.

When they were wandering among the shelves to kill time, the young man who just came in also took over the job of the cashier, but it was the little hairy girl who chatted with the old aunt about today's work.

After browsing every shelf in this small supermarket, everyone lined up with at least two full shopping baskets and started to check out.

"Huaxia people?" the young man in charge of the checkout asked in Chinese.

"Yes." Wei Ran nodded, and asked politely, "What's your brother's name?"

"Su Lie..." When the young man spoke, a trace of embarrassment inevitably appeared on his face.

"What?" Wei Ran was immediately amused, and Sui Sui next to him subconsciously said, "It's a tank."

"The name my grandfather gave me." Su Lie became more and more embarrassed. "You can call me Vasily. Have you brought your passport? Take a look and get [-]% off."

"Grandpa Ni is quite educated." Wei Ran deliberately diverted the conversation, and took out his passport by the way to show the other party a look.

"Isn't it?" Su Lie grinned honestly and asked while skillfully scanning the items in the shopping basket, "Pay with those beauties behind?"

Wei Ran looked behind him, took out a few banknotes and handed them to the other party, "I won't take advantage of you, come one by one."

"Exquisite!" The young man stopped insisting after giving him a thumbs-up, and began to skillfully give change after receiving the money.

Deliberately killing time, when only Lola was left at the end, Su Lie subconsciously glanced at Lola, but was stunned, and then asked, "Where did you get your pendant?"

"This?" Lola looked down at the pendant that was deliberately placed on the neckline, and shook the leather strap on it. "My grandfather left it to me, what's wrong?"

Su Lie was stunned, turned his head and shouted loudly, "Mom! Come here quickly! Come here and have a look!"

(End of this chapter)