Far away in Moscow

Chapter 164 The Big Liu in the Yellow House
Hu Yi turned his head to look, and saw a tall, middle-aged man walking slowly along the road, wearing a cotton coat and hat, with a large schoolbag on his shoulder, and he looked somewhat similar to Xiao Ma, the administrator of Building 10. Similarly, walking with a limp.

There are many Chinese people in Moscow, and it is indispensable to live here to deal with all kinds of Chinese people.So after a long time, everyone has become familiar with the ubiquity of Chinese compatriots, but it is inevitable that they will be a little closer when they meet fellow countrymen.When Hu Yi heard that the big man was from Shandong, and saw that he had a disability in his leg, he immediately felt a sense of sympathy.

"That man is Da Liu. I don't know his name. I only know that he is an unidentified black man. I can often see him selling newspapers in the market." Uncle Yu lowered his voice: "I heard that he has been in Moscow for many years. Oh, I used to be the boss of the market, so it's really miserable to be mixed up like this."

"Selling newspapers?" Hu Yi wanted to ask carefully, but when he saw that Liu had limped to the booth next to him, he immediately shut his mouth.

Da Liu was courteously greeting the owner of the box next door. Hu Yi peeked at him and saw that he was a little thin, with no expression in his eyes, and his face was a little haggard, but his appearance was neatly repaired, and his facial features were correct, his nose was straight and his mouth was square, presumably At the beginning, he was also a handsome man with a dignified appearance.

Although it is said that people should not be judged by their appearance, it is human instinct to judge people by their appearance.Hu Yi couldn't help feeling a little more fond of this fellow countryman, and couldn't help but stood up and walked up to meet him: "Brother, do you sell newspapers?"

When he spoke, he subconsciously brought out a little hometown accent. Da Liu was slightly taken aback, and took off the big schoolbag on his shoulder with a smile: "Yes, what do you want to buy?"

"have what?"

"Lu Xun's reference, Moscow Chinese News, China-Russia Times, are all up-to-date."

"Let's get one each." Hu Yi took out fifty rubles and handed them to him, casually said: "It's so cold today, let's go home early and rest as soon as we sell out."

"Yes, yes, thank you." Da Liu handed over newspapers, magazines and change with both hands, his voice trembling slightly: "The boss has not been here for a long time, right? I don't seem to have seen you before."

"I'm not the boss, I'm here to work." Hu Yi took the newspaper and casually flipped through it twice, then raised his head and smiled at Big Liu: "Brother is also from Shandong?"

He deliberately emphasized the word "also" in this sentence, which obviously has a close meaning.

"Yes." A look of sadness appeared on Da Liu's face, and he changed the topic in a low voice: "Do you like to read newspapers? I will leave a copy for you when a new newspaper comes."

Hu Yi hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said with a smile: "You don't need to save it for me. I don't like reading newspapers. The main reason is that staying here is quite boring. I just want to find something to read to relieve my boredom."

"Then do you like to read novels?" Da Liu put the bag on his shoulders again, and straightened the collar of his cotton coat: "I have a lot of novels at home, and they are rented out for ten rubles a day, with a deposit of one hundred."

"Okay!" Hu Yi said excitedly, "Where is your home? I'll pick out two books and have a look."

"Not far away, I live in Huanglou, you can come to me anytime." Da Liu smiled cautiously: "However, I have to go to a few places to deliver newspapers right now, and I won't be home until half an hour later."

"Yellow House? What is that place?"

"You don't know?" Da Liu Chi was stunned for a moment: "Then, I'll take you there later."

"Okay, I'll wait for you here."

"Okay, you are busy first."

Da Liu limped away.Hu Yi returned to the box and sat down, picked up a newspaper and spread it on his lap to read.

"Buying so many newspapers all at once, I'm very considerate of my fellow villagers." Uncle Yu was still squatting on the chair, holding his thermos with a smile: "You have a good heart."

"Hey, isn't it just a few newspapers? It's not easy to see that he has to deliver newspapers with a crippled leg." Hu Yi absently lowered his head and flipped through the newspapers in his hand, and handed the other two to Uncle Yu: "You Take it and see."

"I don't read newspapers." Uncle Yu unscrewed the lid of the cup and sipped two sips of tea: "I don't know much, reading newspapers is like reading a bible."

"Oh." Hu Yi withdrew his hand and smiled at him: "By the way, Uncle Yu, you just said that he was also the owner of the market before? How...how did he change his career to sell newspapers?"

"It's quite pitiful to say it, but he did everything by himself, so he can't blame others." Uncle Yu looked back and saw that Liu had gone far, so he sighed at Hu Yi: "I also listened to what others said. .Da Liu’s business was doing well before, and he made a lot of money. Later, he went to the casino with his friends, and lost all his money a few times, at least hundreds of thousands of dollars!”

"So that's what's going on." Hu Yi raised his lips, his affection for Da Liu disappeared a bit, replaced by a trace of contempt: "The person who can lose all the money in business is not counted in his heart. "

"It's not unusual. There are many such people. They go to the casino just to win money. Once they lose too much, they will easily lose their minds and their eyes will turn red." Uncle Yu swallowed with a serious face: " The last time Liu went to the casino was like this, when he lost his capital, he bet his own goods and asked someone to borrow money to make up for it, and then went to the casino to borrow money after losing, and finally lost everything."

"Oh? Lost the borrowed money?" Hu Yi frowned curiously: "Then what happened next?"

"It was miserable afterwards. He tried to commit suicide by jumping off the casino floor while no one was paying attention, but he failed and broke a leg."

"What about the money owed? Have you paid it off?"

"Who knows, the one in Moscow must have been paid off." Uncle Yu looked up and thought for a moment: "But his family borrowed money from all over the country to help him pay off the debt, and finally sold the property and didn't pay it off, so we had to follow Hiding here."

"Poor people must have something to hate." Hu Yi rolled up the newspaper and patted it lightly on his legs a few times, shaking his head and sighing: "But seeing how he has fallen to this state now, there are more pitiful things. "

The two sighed for a while, and saw Da Liu limping back to the box from a distance: "Boss, how many books shall I take you to pick?"

"I've said it before, I'm not the boss, you can just call me Xiao Hu." Hu Yi got up and smiled at him: "Let's go."

Da Liu lived in a solitary low tube building nearby, which was named "Yellow Building" because the building was painted yellow.It is difficult for this kind of small building to attract attention in the urban area, but it is particularly conspicuous in a market full of containers.

The yellow building is surrounded by small vendors selling vegetables and daily necessities. The residents in the building come from various countries, and Chinese and Vietnamese account for a large proportion.Most of them are black households without legal status. They seldom leave the market on weekdays and cannot engage in legitimate jobs. They can only do various businesses in the building.

As soon as he entered the building, Hu Yi frowned slightly.This is probably the building with the worst environment he has seen in Moscow. The walls and floors are greasy, and many kinds of unpleasant smells are mixed in the corridors, among which the most offensive smell is the lingering smell of public toilets.

This is still the case in the cold winter months, if it is summer, one can imagine the pungent feeling in the building.

"This place...seems a little...a little..." He tried his best to cover his mouth and nose as if nothing had happened, and didn't know how to speak for a while.

"The conditions are not so good, I'll make you laugh." Da Liu smiled apologetically: "This place is relatively cheap, and it's not convenient for people like us to live outside the market."

Hu Yi said "Hey" with a half-smile: "It's nothing, it's just that the environment is not good."

"Yes, yes, there is no way, let's make do with it." Da Liu quickly walked a few steps, and reached out to Hu Yi in front of a room: "Here we are, this is here."

The room is not too big, and it is divided into different areas by cloth curtains. It seems that more than one person lives there, but no one else is there now.Da Liu bent down and dragged out several large cardboard boxes from under his bed: "Here, you can pick and choose, and take the ones you like."

The box was full of books, Hu Yi dragged a small stool and sat by the bed, and began to carefully select the boxes one by one.

The book binding and paper in the first box were of poor quality, and the printing was crude.The eclectic title of the book and the explicit pictures on the cover are all trying to provoke the readers' nerves, making it easy for people to guess the contents at a glance.

These books must have been frequently borrowed and passed around, and each one had yellowed pages, curled corners, and faded covers.Hu Yi casually opened a few books and flipped through them. The book uses a lot of paragraphs to try its best to provocate, but the text is weak and boring.

Most of the second box contained martial arts novels he was familiar with. The authors were almost all Jin Yong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng, Wen Ruian and their imitators. It is uneven like a car accident, and there are a few even simple thread-bound books.

I have read all fifteen of Jin Yong's novels, Hu Yi, and most of Gu Long's. I have also tried to read the works of Liang Yusheng and Wen Rui'an, but it was difficult to read them.There were a few books of Qiong Yao stuffed beside the box, he wouldn't look straight at that kind of stuff.

The third box was full of magazines, large and small, most of which were the very appetizing street stall literature sold at train stations or trains in the past. , unsolved mysteries, etc.There are also a few popular periodicals such as Story Club, Reader, Youth Digest, Science Fiction World, Football Club, etc., but the dates are relatively old.

Hu Yi picked up a few magazines with relish and read them for a while, then moved the small stool and sat in front of the fourth box.

It also contains novels. Except for a few classic classics, the titles of other modern novels are relatively literary and not as grounded as the other boxes of books. Therefore, the appearance is almost brand new, and it is obvious that no one has been interested in it for a long time.

Hu Yi endured the strange smell that came into the room from the corridor from time to time, sat on the stool and patiently picked out the books for more than ten minutes, and finally chose two books and shook them in his hand: "These two books, I took it."

(End of this chapter)