Red Moscow

  Chapter 192 Officer Store

  Sokov walked out of the General Staff, stood on an unfamiliar street, looked around, and then walked in the direction he came from. When I came here, I had a special car to take me here; if I want to go home, I can only find a way by myself.

  In his later life, Sokov never worried about getting lost. Even if he was in a strange place, if he wanted to take a taxi, he just had to stand on the side of the road and take a taxi, and those drivers would send him to the designated location. When he came to a nearby street, he saw vehicles passing by from time to time, including military vehicles and cars, so he imitated what later generations did, with his arms at a 45-degree angle to his body, his fingers spread out and his palms down, standing in a standing position. Take a taxi on the side of the road.

   In Russia in later generations, taxis are rare, so all vehicles, including police cars and ambulances, can become temporary taxis because there are few regular taxis. The driver saw someone taking a taxi on the side of the road, and stopped to ask a few words. If you are on the way, you can negotiate a price and take it with you, which is similar to Huaxia's ride-hailing; if the price is not agreed, just send the car away and wait for the next car. There is no refusal to board, and there is no such thing as a black car.

But Sokov miscalculated. He forgot that this is the Soviet Union in the 1940s, not Moscow in the 21st century. There are very few privately owned vehicles. Vehicles driving on the street have their own tasks. How could they stop at random? Come down and pick up an officer standing by the road.

   Seeing a lot of vehicles shuttle back and forth, but none of them stopped, Sokov couldn't help muttering in his heart: What's going on, why didn't the car stop?

   Just when he was puzzled, a crisp voice suddenly sounded behind him: "Comrade commander, what are you doing here?"

  Sokov turned his head and saw that it was a young girl in a long black woolen coat and a white wool cap. She was looking up and down at herself with curious eyes. Seeing that the person who asked him was a young and beautiful girl, Sokov quickly replied with a smile on his face, "I'm taking a taxi!"

   "Taxi?!" The girl tilted her head and looked behind Sokov, and then said, "But, Comrade Commander, there are no taxis on this road at all. How do you take a taxi?"

  Sokov pointed at the cars passing through the street and said, "Those cars can also be used as taxis."

  Hearing what Sokov said, the girl couldn't help but chuckle, and forced a smile to say: "Comrade Commander, what did you just say? Can these cars on the street be used as taxis?"

  After being reminded by the girl, Sokov immediately thought that he was in Moscow in 1942, not Moscow in 2017. Apart from the pitifully few taxis, there were no vehicles that could serve as taxis. He smiled awkwardly at the girl, and then asked, "Girl, I want to go back to Lenin Avenue, do you know how to get there?"

  The girl didn't answer Sokov's question directly, but spit out a name from her mouth: "Annie."

  Sokov couldn't help being taken aback, and asked, "What did you say?"

   "My name is Annie." The girl said generously, "I don't know how to call you?"

"My name is Mikhail, and my surname is Sokov." Sokov replied with a smile, "You can call me Mikhail or Sokov, or you can call me by my nickname like a friend: Misha !"

"Then I'll call you Misha." Annie said to Sokov: "Since the outbreak of the war, there has been no taxi in the city. If you want to go back to Lenin Avenue, my advice to you is Go back by bus or subway."

   "Annie," Sokov called the other person's name, and asked politely, "Do you know any nearby places? Is there a bus stop or a subway station?"

"The subway station is about two streets away from here," Annie said with a sweet smile on her face, "as for the bus station, turn right at the intersection in front and you will see that the trams there can pass by Lenin Main Street." She paused for a moment, then continued, "If you don't object, follow me, I happen to be going in that direction too."

  Since someone was willing to act as a guide for him, Sokov naturally wished for it, so he followed Annie to the bus stop. There were a lot of people waiting for the bus here, and the long line was sent a long way, and the two stood at the end of the line.

   "Misha, where is your army stationed?" As soon as Annie said that, she saw Sokov's expression become serious. She immediately realized that her question had misunderstood Sokov, and quickly added: "If it involves confidentiality, you don't need to tell me."

  When Sokov heard Annie ask him where the troops were, the first thought that popped into his mind: Could it be that this woman is a German spy, and she chatted with me to spy on the military situation? But after hearing what Anne said later, I felt that the other party might just want to chat with me, so I replied vaguely: "The army is in the suburbs, and I came to the city for vacation."

  A tram stopped in the middle of the road, only a few people left the line and walked towards the tram. Anne gave Sokov a hand and said to him, "Misha, the car is here, let's get in."

  After the two got on the bus, a bloated middle-aged woman said to them, "Please buy a ticket!"

   Sokov touched his pocket. Fortunately, Yakov saved a lot of money for himself some time ago, otherwise he couldn't even get the money for the ticket today, and it would be really shameful. He took out two five-kopeck pieces and handed them to the conductor. The conductor took the coins and put them in the canvas bag he was carrying, then tore off two tickets from the rolled up ticket and stuffed them to Sokov.

  Sokov and Annie came to the rear of the car and just saw that there were two empty seats, so they sat down unceremoniously. Sokov asked Annie: "Annie, where do you work?"

   "I work in a hospital." Anne replied, "The hospital is on Lenin Avenue."

  Hearing that Annie was working in the hospital on Lenin Avenue, Sokov thought to himself: Could it be such a coincidence, she and Tonya are colleagues? Thinking of this, he tentatively asked, "Annie, is there a surgeon named Tonya in your hospital?"

   "That's right, there is a surgeon named Tonya." Annie nodded vigorously, and then asked curiously, "Do you know Tonya?"

  Sokov thought that someone in the hospital had seen him and Tonya go out, even if he denied it, Annie would know the truth, so he might as well tell the truth: "We have dealt with each other before, and even had dinner together."

   "Are you going to get married?" Just as Sokov finished speaking, Anne asked out of the blue.

"Married?!" Sukov was taken aback by Annie's words, and he replied in a panic: "I have dealt with Tonya once, and had dinner once, so it's too early to talk about getting married now." Yet?"

"Misha, have you forgotten, is it during the war?" The expression on Annie's face suddenly became serious, "I just accompanied a girlfriend to the marriage registration office to go through the formalities, you know she and the lieutenant officer How long have you known each other?" Without waiting for Sokov to answer, she asked herself and said, "It's only five hours since I met you and registered your marriage."

   "Five hours?" Sokov was also stunned by such a lightning-fast marriage. He didn't expect that in the 1940s of the Soviet Union, there would be a group of flash marriages.

"The officer was about to go to the battlefield. While drinking coffee in the coffee shop, I met my girlfriend, who was the waiter there. The two chatted for a while, and felt that they had a good chat, so they decided to register at the marriage registry. My My girlfriend felt that there should be someone close to me for such a grand event, so she called me." Annie looked out the window and said to herself: "After completing the registration procedures, the officer sent his allowance card I handed it to my girlfriend, saying that I can receive his allowance every month; even if he sacrifices, my girlfriend can also receive a pension..." At this point, she took advantage of Sukov not paying attention, and raised her hand to erase tears on his cheeks.

  The car stopped, a group of people got out of the car, and another group of people came up. A man in his thirties wearing a peaked cap and overalls of a machinery factory squeezed into the vicinity of Sokov with two children, a boy and a girl. Seeing that the boy was only three or four years old, Sokov felt embarrassed to continue sitting still, so he stood up and offered his seat to the boy.

   After thanking Sokov, the man in overalls did not let his son sit down, but let the seven or eight-year-old daughter sit down. Seeing his sister sitting down, the little boy continued to stand with his father. He curled his mouth and began to cry. The man turned his face hard and began to teach him: "You are a man, and your sister is a little girl. It is only natural for a man to take care of a little girl. Why are you crying?"

The little boy who was reprimanded by his father stopped crying, raised his hand to wipe away the tears on his face, and raised his head to his father: "I remember, I am a man, and my sister is a little girl. A man should take care of the little girl." Immediately after the boy said these words, the passengers around him laughed in good faith.

Anne quickly stood up from her seat and let the worker's father sit down with his son in his arms. She squeezed to Sukov's side and whispered: "It's so interesting, it's the first time I've seen such a child." educating children."

  After the tram stopped at another five or six stops, Annie said to Sokov, "We'll get off at the next stop, and we'll be able to walk one street to Lenin Avenue."

  After the two got off at the station, Sokov looked at the surrounding environment. He had never been here before. If it wasn't for Annie, the guide, he would definitely get lost. After the two walked along the street for a while, Annie looked at the long queue on the side of the road, sighed, and said, "Damn, there are so many people queuing up, and I don't know if they can still buy things after get off work." .”

  Sokov looked in the direction of the queue and saw that it was a food store, and he could smell the aroma of bread coming from it from a long distance away. But if you want to buy bread, you have to wait in line for at least an hour or two.

  He was disappointed when he suddenly saw a shop in front of him. Looking in through the closed glass door, there was a wide variety of goods inside, but no one was in line. He quickly pointed to the shop and asked Annie, "Look, Annie, there is another shop there, why is there no one in line?"

  Annie turned her head to look at Sokov, with a resentful expression on her face: "Misha, are you kidding me?"

   "Why did I tease you?" Sokov asked puzzled.

  Annie pointed at the store with her hand and said, "That's an officer's shopping store. Except for officers, even ordinary soldiers are not qualified to buy things, let alone ordinary people like me."

Hearing that it was a store that could only be shopped by military officers, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little bit dumbfounded. Although he lived on Lenin Avenue for several days, he didn't know there was such a place at all, so that every time he bought something , have to queue for a long time. Regardless of the people queuing or selling things, no one told themselves that there were special military officer shopping stores.

"Let's go, let's go there to buy something." Sokov took Anne's hand, quickly crossed the deserted street, and came to the military officer's shopping store. He pushed open the two closed glass doors and walked in. .

   There are no customers in the store except the salesperson. Hearing someone coming in from the outside, several salesmen standing behind the counter chatting, all turned their eyes over in unison. When they saw clearly that it was a young major and a young girl who came in, they stopped talking and walked back to the counter they were in charge of.

  Sokov took Annie's hand and came to a counter selling smoked ham. He smiled and asked the salesperson standing behind the counter: "Comrade salesperson, are there any restrictions on shopping here?"

   After quickly scanning Sokov's collar badge, the salesperson replied, "Comrade Commander, according to your level, the upper limit for each commodity is four kilograms, and the upper limit for canned food is five."

   "I understand, thank you!" After expressing his thanks to the salesperson, Sokov pointed to the smoked ham on the counter and said, "Give me four kilograms of this first!"

   Then, Sokov bought another four kilograms of flour, four kilograms of barley, two kilograms of sugar, five cans of pickled tomatoes, five cans of pickled cucumbers, and five cans of pickled mushrooms. If it wasn't because he couldn't hold it, he would definitely buy more things. In order to make Annie happy, he even bought two pieces of chocolate, which are hardly seen in the world, and stuffed them into Annie's hands.

   When paying the bill, Sokov thought that with so many things, the price must not be cheap. Unexpectedly, after the calculation, it was less than two rubles. After hearing the price, he looked at the store accountant and asked, "Comrade accountant, is the price correct?"

The accountant thought that Sokov felt that the things were too expensive, so he quickly recalculated, and after confirming that it was correct, he kindly reminded Sokov: "Comrade commander, it is a war period, and the prices of many commodities have increased. Please rest assured, I have calculated it, and there is no problem with the price."

  The accountant didn't know that Sokov didn't think it was too expensive, but too cheap. If it was decades later, if such a small amount of money fell on the ground, I would not even bother to bend down to pick it up, but at this time, it would be a considerable expense. He paid the bill readily, and said to the salesperson at the counter: "Comrade salesperson, please divide these things into two when packing. Okay?"

  (end of this chapter)