Chapter 1

When my friend Andre came into my shop, I was talking to my friends in China about the recent forest fire outside Moscow. She learned about the fire in Moscow from domestic reports, mistakenly believing that the whole city was in a sea of fire and worried about my safety, so she specially called from China to learn about my recent situation.

I pointed to the empty chair next to him and motioned him to sit down until I finished calling. At the same time, he continued to tease his friends in China and said: "do you think that the person who wrote the song" 0.5 mile "once crossed here and saw that Moscow was surrounded by forest fires in the suburbs, and then wrote such classic lyrics as" let the red burn Moscow, and memory smear Leningrad "..."

Andre, a regular customer in my shop, saw that I was on the phone, but he didn't speak. He just nodded at me with a smile and threw a white cardboard box tightly wrapped with transparent tape on my desk. Also did not sit down, turned and walked to the water dispenser, took out a paper cup, began to drink cup after cup of water.

I stared at the carton in front of me and muttered, what's in the box Andre gave me? In this way, when chatting with friends on the phone, I can't help being distracted, and I didn't answer the question several times. Friends from the phone to hear my strange, concerned to ask if I have something to do? As I was eager to find out what was in Andre's box, I kept saying to my friend, "yes, I have something to do now. I'll call you another day." As soon as the other party said goodbye, I hung up immediately.

Andre came to me with a glass of water and sat down. While drinking water, he asked me vaguely in Chinese, "are you finished? What are you talking about with others? You'll be in high spirits. "

"My friend saw the news and said that the fire continued in Moscow. He thought the whole city was burning and worried about my safety, so he called to ask."

Andre drank up the water in the cup, flattened the paper cup and threw it into the garbage can nearby. Then he said solemnly, "you should tell your friends that the difference between us and barbecue now is that we only have a handful of cumin."

When I heard Andre say this, I was stunned at first, and then I burst out laughing. I didn't expect that he was so humorous. Moreover, the whole joke was spoken in Chinese with a little strange emphasis, which added to the comic effect of his speech.

After laughing, I picked up the carton Andre had just thrown on the table and weighed it in my hand. I felt that the weight was not too heavy. I asked him with a smile: "Andre, is this the fan you bought for me? Why is it so light?"

"Electric fan?" Andre's face froze when he heard the word. He scratched the back of his head and said with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry, don. I've failed to live up to your trust and have not been able to buy you an electric fan. " Maybe it was because I was afraid that I would blame him, and then he began to shirk his responsibility. "It's not because I didn't try my best, but because this year's weather is too hot, and the forest in the suburbs is on fire again, so that the electric fans that nobody bought in previous years have become hot sales. When I bought it for others at the beginning of last month, it cost more than 300 rubles. Now, less than a month later, the price has risen to more than 3000 rubles, which is a ten fold increase. At this price, there is no market. I've run all the supermarkets and shopping malls in the city during this period of time, and I haven't seen anyone selling electric fans. "

The weather in Moscow this year is very abnormal. It has been very hot since June. So far, it has been almost two months without rain. The long-term heat and drought have caused forest fires in the suburbs. Moscow, with its "city in the forest", is besieged by the burning forests around it. The city is surrounded by smoke every day. The residents of the city become the smoky barbecue on the grill. In this case, the air conditioner and electric fan, which were neglected in previous years, became a hot spot overnight.

Because the shops in our street sell leather clothes in winter, if the weather is too hot, the customers will not come to try on the clothes. Seeing the dismal business caused by the hot weather, the merchants once organized to go to the Jewish boss who managed the market, hoping that they would allow the merchants to install air conditioners on their own. But the boss of the market considered that if the large-scale installation of air conditioning, the existing transformer station will not be able to bear such a high load, frequent tripping will lead to a large area of power failure in the market. Therefore, he strictly stipulated that shops in the market are not allowed to install air conditioners.

Because of this rigid regulation introduced by the market, merchants have to choose to buy electric fans. However, because the fans in the hands of the electrical appliance merchants in the market have already been sold out, the merchants who are in urgent need of electric fans will show their magic power: some people will go to other markets to buy them; Some entrusted people to bring them from home; Some businesses even ask their friends from other places to buy them in the local area, so that they can bring them when they come to Moscow.

There are several large shopping malls near my residence. I used to see shops selling electric fans in them. But when I went to buy it, I found that I didn't know when it would be out of stock. When I was worried, Andre, who often came to visit my shop, knew about it, patted his chest and assured me that he was familiar with the place, and he often drove around the city to buy an electric fan.

It is precisely because I understand the actual situation, so after listening to Andre's words, I didn't mean to blame him at all. In order not to make him feel guilty, I changed the subject in time. I held the carton higher in my hand and asked curiously, "Andre, what's in the box?"

Andre did not answer me immediately, but said mysteriously, "guess what."

"I can't guess." This one foot square box can hold countless things, so I didn't have the leisure to play guessing with him, so I simply said: "I can't guess, you just say what it is."

Andre's face was slightly disappointed when I refused to guess what was in the box. Seeing my plain expression, I had no choice but to say, "well, since you don't want to guess, I'll let you see what it is." With that, I picked up the paper cutter I inserted in the pen holder and cut the tape around the carton.

With the opening of the carton, the things inside revealed the true face of Lushan, which I could never think of even if I wanted to break my head. A helmet, a German helmet, to be exact, a German helmet made in World War II, now rusty, with an irregular bullet hole on the right.

I watched with tongue tied eyes as Andre took the helmet out of the box and held it in his hand, looking left and right. Seeing my surprised expression on my face, he asked triumphantly, "you didn't expect that there was a helmet in the box, did you?"

"I didn't expect it. I didn't expect it." I shook my head like a rattle, saying that I had never guessed what was in the box. Then I asked curiously, "Andre, what do you want to do with a broken German helmet?"

Andre carefully put the helmet into the box and rewound it with tape. While wrapping tape, he explained to me: "next month in Smolensk, there will be a war game organized by the military fans association to reproduce the scene of the battle of Smolensk between the Soviet army and the German army during the patriotic war. I'm playing the German side, so naturally I have to prepare German equipment. "

Thinking of the rusty helmet, I frowned: "Andre, you can buy a new one. Why do you want to buy such a shabby one?"

When I said this, Andre glanced at me with disdain, then said in a tone of teaching me, "restore history, do you understand what it means to restore history? Naturally, it means that in reproducing the fighting scenes of that year, both sides have to use the weapons and equipment of that year. Not only are the military uniforms, helmets and guns of both sides old-fashioned, but even the tanks and artillery were made during World War II. Although the helmet is dilapidated, when I went to the flea market to buy it today, the stall owner said that the owner of the helmet was shot and killed by his grandfather himself. If he didn't have to wait for money at home, he would not have sold such a commemorative thing. He asked for ten thousand rubles, but fortunately I would bargain, and at last I bought it for six thousand

Andre's face was full of pride when he said this, as if he had picked up a big bargain. I knew in my heart that he must have been dominated by the stall in the flea market, so I got up, went to the water dispenser, poured two glasses of water, handed him one, and then gently reminded him, "Andre, can such a broken helmet be used as a family heirloom? Are you not fooled by the stall owner? "

"No? What is deception? " Although Andre's Chinese is good, he can't understand this word with northeast characteristics.

"To cheat is to praise you repeatedly how good a thing is, and then sell it to you at a high price."

After listening to my explanation, Andre took a sip of water from his glass, then sat there with a dignified expression, silent, as if thinking about what I had just said to him. Seeing his expression, I couldn't help but worry. My heart said that he would not find that he had been cheated, so I ran back to the flea market to find someone else to return the goods, right?

After a pause, Andre didn't mention the helmet any more. He took another drink, pointed to the newspaper I had spread on the table, and asked casually, "is there anything in your newspaper? I saw in the title, "why is Moscow still written?" Although he speaks Chinese fluently, he doesn't know a few Chinese characters, just as my spoken Russian is OK, but I can't read Russian newspapers. Sometimes, we often read our own newspapers for each other.

I picked up the newspaper and said to him, "the news in the newspaper, even if I don't say it, you can guess that it's mainly about the forest fire in Moscow. Let me read a paragraph for you." After that, he took a drink from the water glass on the table, and then began to read: "Russia has recently experienced the most serious siege since 1942 when it defeated the German army - the siege of fire and smoke. On August 4, Moscow was shrouded in smoke, and the scene was extremely tragic. Looking around, the city in the forest looked as if it had just been bombed. In some places, the visibility was so low that people outside could only see their arms Doctors suggest that people stay at home and don't go out and close the doors and windows, but it's better to be cooked in the heat wave at home than to breathe harmful smoke outside... "

Hearing this, he suddenly raised his hand and interrupted me: "I heard a joke last night. I'll tell it to you."

"Come on, I'm all ears!" With that, I put down the newspaper in my hand.

"There is a couple who want to break up because of a quarrel. Later, they agreed to walk back to back for 100 steps and then turn back. If they could see each other, they would not break up; On the contrary, if they can't see it, they will break up. With that, they began to act. After two steps back to back, both men and women could not help but turn back. As a result, they broke up. "

Maybe the joke Andre told was too cold. After listening to it, I was still at a loss. "I don't understand," I asked, "why did they turn around after only two steps and then break up?"

Seeing that it didn't resonate with me, Andre's face showed a disappointed expression. He put on a serious face and explained to me: "love experts advise lovers in love not to play this kind of love game in fog, otherwise it will bring you lifelong regret." Then he burst out laughing.

I understood Andre's explanation immediately. In the place where the visibility can only see your own arm, two people walk two steps in the opposite direction, and it's really damned that they can see each other. Thinking of this, I couldn't help laughing.

After we finished laughing, he suddenly asked curiously, "by the way, when I came in, I seemed to hear you talking to your friends on the phone about burning Moscow and bloodstaining Leningrad. What's the matter?"

I can't laugh or cry when I hear about his curious baby. It seems that his Chinese level is not so good, even such a simple dialogue will be heard wrong. But since he asked about it, I had to explain it patiently: "Andre, you heard me wrong. What I'm talking about is not "burning Moscow and bloodstaining Leningrad," but two other lines: "let red burn Moscow and memory smear Leningrad.". My friend is a corn, so when I chat with her, I will talk about the lyrics of this song

"Corn, what is corn?" Asked Andre curiously.

"Corn," seeing his blank face, I took the opportunity to be popularized by him for entertainment: "she and I like the same singer, who sings very well, so she has a large group of fans. And these fans are collectively referred to as "corn."

"Fans, I understand that." Andre continued: "but I want to know what 'corn' is. We have this kind of plant in our country. How to say it in Russian?"

After hearing what he said, I realized that I was wrong. I thought he wanted to know why the fans called "corn". It turned out that he wanted to know what "corn" was. So, I quickly read out the word in Russian: "Gulu day!"

"What, what do you say?" Maybe I speak too fast, or the pronunciation is not standard, so Andre didn't hear clearly: "you say it again, how to read it?"

In order to let him hear clearly, and to confirm whether his pronunciation is standard, so I said again: "Gollum day!" After that, I saw that his expression did not change, so I charged twice, "Gollum day! Gollum day

Voice just fell, the door suddenly came an old lady's voice: "Hello, is it you want to buy corn?" I looked in the direction of the sound. I saw the old lady who was pushing a cart to sell boiled corn in the street. I thought that when I said the word corn aloud, she just passed by the door, so she stopped to ask.

Andre and I were stunned at the old lady's question, and then we all laughed. Seeing that the old lady was a little overwhelmed by our laughter, I went up to her and asked, "how do you sell corn?"

"Fifty rubles each." The old lady replied with a smile.

Andre came over and looked at the steaming corn in the pot on the special cart behind the old lady. "It turns out that this thing, translated into Chinese, is corn. I finally learned a new word."

When Andre finished, I began to bargain with the old lady: "fifty is too expensive. Didn't you sell only 30 rubles last year? Well, can you sell it to me for forty roubles? "

After hearing this, the old lady shook her head like a rattle: "no, no, fifty rubles. It can't be cheap."

I have known for a long time that it is impossible to bargain for such things with a unified price. I just talk nonsense with the old lady when I am idle and bored. I took a hundred roubles out of my T-shirt pocket and handed it to him. I pretended to be generous and said, "since it can't be cheap, it's OK. Here's a hundred roubles. Pick me two good ones At last, he specially told him, "remember, sprinkle more salt on the corn. It's not delicious if the salt is less."

When Andre and I were eating a boiled corn full of salt, Andre suddenly stopped and asked me, "Hey, don, will you go straight home after we close today?"

"Well, that's for sure." As I continued to gnaw corn, I pointed to the occasional wisps of white smoke outside the door: "you see, there is smoke everywhere outside. People can't even open their eyes. It's not asking for trouble to stay outside, or it's safe to go home."

"Do you want to go swimming in the Moscow River and get some fresh air?"

When I heard Andre's proposal to go swimming, I couldn't help but feel a little moved. But seeing the smoke passing by the door, I gave up the idea. In such a bad environment, it's really boring to go swimming in the river.

"Forget it, I'd better not go." The main decision, I began to find reasons to shirk, "you see the smoke outside so big, the air good everywhere floating burning ash, I think the river must be floating thick soot."

"No, No. I just went there yesterday, and the river is very clear. " The first reason I put forward was overruled by him.

"Also," I continued to find a reason for not going: "besides, even if I want to go, I can't get into the water without swimming trunks."

"So you're worried about that." After listening to my second farfetched reason, Andre said, "it's OK. When I came, I just bought a dozen when I passed the swimsuit area. I'll give you two as a gift."

He is so well prepared that he can't refuse without proper reasons. Just as I was racking my brains to think about how to refuse him, he came close to my ear and said in a low voice, "where I usually go swimming, there is a celestial camp on the other side of the river. Every day, many beautiful girls are basking in the sun or swimming in the water."

"The beauty of the celestial camp." When he said that, my brother pig nature was exposed, and my saliva almost flowed down the corn in my hand. I quickly pulled a piece of paper, wiped my mouth, and threw it into the garbage can together with the corn that had not been eaten. I sat up straight and put on a serious look and said, "well, since you have invited me to swim again and again, I can't refuse your kindness, so as not to hurt your self-esteem. Do you think so? " Without waiting for his reply, I added to myself, "anyway, there is no business today. Let's go and close the door. Alas! The air here is so bad that we need to go to the river to get some fresh air. "

Due to the complicated steps of closing the door, I asked Andre where his private car was and asked him to wait for me in the parking lot. After I closed the door, I went to find him.

I closed the door, asked the security guard to sign, and turned on the alarm in the shop. Then I hurried to the parking lot to find Andre. Andre's 80% new black Mercedes Benz stands out in a pile of colorful old cars such as LADA and riguri. I can see his car from a long distance.

I quickly came to the side of the car, only to find that the door was closed, and Andre was not seen. Seeing this, my first reaction was, did I recognize the wrong car? For this reason, I specially went around to the front of the car and looked at the license plate. Yes, it's Andre's license plate number. I took out my cell phone and was about to call him and ask him where he had gone.

When I was dialing, I suddenly heard his voice calling me. I looked around, but I didn't see anyone. At this time, he was heard shouting in Russian: "look back, I'm behind you!"

I turned to see him squatting next to a medium-sized truck. He quickly walked over and asked him strangely, "what are you doing here instead of staying in your car?"

"Oh, forget it!" He said with a sad face: "as soon as I got into the car, I felt that it was as hot as a sauna. I almost got heatstroke. So I turned on the air conditioner and hid in this cool place. " Then he said to me, "don't stand foolishly. Come to a cool place for a while. When the temperature in the car drops, we'll go back to the car."

After five or six minutes, he stood up abruptly and said, "it should be almost now." With that, he quickly walked to the car, opened the door and went in. After a while, the front passenger's window fell down, and he pointed out his head to greet me, "get in the car!"

Driving, Andre said that the swimming area is not far from the market, only ten kilometers, at most half an hour. Leaving the market, I found that the smog outside was thicker and the visibility was less than 20 meters. Because of this, the traffic seems congested. But after more than an hour, our car is still moving slowly in the long traffic flow.

Seeing my anxious face, Andre comforted me and said, "don't worry. Drive another two kilometers or so. There's a parking lot in front of us. Then we'll park there and walk to the river."

When I heard him say that, I felt a little more at ease. On such a hot day, sitting in the car exposed to the sun, even if there is air conditioning, there is also the possibility of heatstroke. If I have to drive for a few more hours, I'd rather get out of the car and walk. At least there are many roadside trees to shade me. When I was thinking about it, I caught a glimpse of a tank on the left side of the road, which was very old at first sight. It was driving close to the side of the road with our car.

I was about to ask Andre to look at the tank that suddenly appeared. Unexpectedly, it was very fast. After a moment, it disappeared in the thick smoke. Seeing this scene, I couldn't help shivering. I raised my hand and patted Andre on the shoulder. I pointed to the direction where the tank disappeared and asked nervously, "Andre, do you see the tank on the side of the road?"

"Tank?" Andre looked in the direction of my finger, and then said with disapproval, "Oh, you mean the tank sculpture on the roadside in front of me. It's a meritorious tank who participated in the patriotic war. But now there is too much smoke and low visibility. We can't see where we are now. "

"No, not sculpture." I tried my best to put forward my hand and explain: "it's a real tank. I can see it very clearly. It should be T-34. I was driving by the side of the road just now. I drove very fast. In a twinkling of an eye, it disappeared in the thick fog."

Andre looked me up and down and said with a smile, "don, you don't feel dizzy. You think a truck is a tank."

Listening to what he said, I can't explain any more. I can only mutter to myself in my heart. Maybe I'm really confused by the heat, so it's totally possible for me to be dazzled for a moment.

Our car drove two or three hundred meters forward again. Andre coughed, looked at me, pointed out the window and said, "now look at the left side of the road. When you just had an illusion, did you see this sculpture?"

I looked in the direction of his fingers. There was a tank in the green belt on the side of the road. The back half of the tank was deeply sunk into the ground. The front half of the tank was high and cocked up, and the long gun barrel pointed to the sky. Judging from the old and new degree of green paint on the car body, it should be that maintenance has just been carried out.

The car continued to drive for more than half an hour. After taking a long breath, Andre turned to me and said, "thank God, we're here at last. When I get into the parking lot, we'll walk to the river

Andre takes a travel bag out of the trunk and locks the car. He took me through a dense grove to the swimming area by the river. I stood at the edge of the woods, watching the swarms of people standing or sitting or lying on the grass. I couldn't help asking Andre curiously, "why is this river a lawn, not a beach?"

"There's a beach." Andre pointed across the river and said, "the location of the celestial camp over there is the beach; On this side, it's always just grass. "

I looked across the river and saw a golden beach across from Moscow. Because of the heavy smoke on the river, we can only vaguely see the beach opposite, which is also densely packed with people. As for whether or not we wear swimsuits, we can't see clearly.

When I looked around, I found that there was no other building except a few sheds selling things, so I couldn't help asking Andre, "Oh, man, where are we going to change our clothes?"

Andre pointed to the side and said impatiently, "it's here. The forest is a natural dressing room." Said, he threw a pair of swimming trunks to me, he began to deftly undress, but also a force to urge me to move faster. Although there are many trees around me, it's a public place after all. It's really embarrassing for me to change my clothes in full view of the public. While hesitating, I caught a glimpse of some young girls nearby. They took off their clothes and put on their three-point swimsuits. Then they ran out of the woods talking and laughing. Seeing that other girls are so generous and natural, can't I even compare with them? So I took off my clothes and put on my swimming trunks.

Andre, who had changed into swimming trunks, took the clothes I had changed and stuffed them into the travel bag he was carrying. Instead of rushing into the water, he took me through the crowd. When he came to an area with few people, he took out two large bath towels from his bag, spread them on the grass, and asked me to lie down and bask in the sun first.

Seeing this, I asked curiously, "Andre, why don't we go swimming yet?"

He sat on the bath towel, while applying sunscreen, he said slowly, "don't worry, don't worry. Look at the river now, all the ash floating on the water is plant ash. We'll go down when we sleep clean."

When I looked into the river, there was a layer of gray plant ash floating on the water. Almost all the people stayed on the shore, and there were few swimmers in the water. Seeing this, I can't help but cry bitterly. Even if the water is so dirty, I won't go down. Because I didn't know how long it would take for the river to become clear again, I lay on the towel on the grass and closed my eyes. Before long, I fell asleep unconsciously.

In my sleep, I felt as if someone was shaking my shoulder. At the same time, I heard a familiar voice: "don, don, wake up, wake up quickly." I opened my eyes vaguely and saw Andre squatting by calling me. I suddenly sat up and asked, "can I go into the water now?"

"Yes, the water is clean and ready to go into the water."

I haven't swam for many years. For the sake of safety, I only dared to swim in the shallow water near the shore for the first half hour. Andre knew that I was rarely useful. He was worried that I would be in danger, so he didn't dare to leave. He was probably ready to be my full-time lifeguard.

Swimming, he suddenly called me: "Hey, don, look, there are two beautiful young girls in the middle, who are swimming from the other bank. Let's go and say hello to them." Then, without waiting for me, he speeded up and swam towards the center of the river. Looking at his far away back, I secretly scolded in my heart: "lust, lust over friends." After scolding, he followed him and swam forward.

Although I swim to the front as hard as I can, I can't be compared with Andre, who doesn't swim for ten years. He had already swam to the side of the two girls and started talking and laughing loudly with others. But I was still 20 meters away, flapping desperately.

Seeing that I was only seven or eight meters away from the three, I suddenly heard the noise on the other side. The villains who were playing on the beach and in the woods were shouting like crazy. They rushed into the river in groups and swam towards us with their arms.

I stepped on the fake water and stopped at the same place. I was surprised to see the crowd swimming closer and closer. I didn't know what happened. At this moment, Andre, who was talking and laughing with the two girls, also stayed in the same place for a while, and then swam towards me with the girls, shouting something while swimming. Because of the uproar, I couldn't hear him at all, so I stayed where he was. It wasn't until he swam close to me that I realized what he was shouting was: "don, swim back. The woods are on fire over there. Swim back to the shore."

At this time, wisps of choking smoke have floated along the wind, I was startled. I quickly turned around and swam towards the shore with all my strength. Although I swim faster than I just did, more and more people overtake me from behind and play to the shore. When I stepped on the shore, I couldn't help but look back. I was scared out of my wits. I saw the fire rolling from the direction of quantity. The trees by the river are humid, and the smoke becomes more pungent and choking as soon as they burn. Although the fire is still far away, along with the beach and the river nearly 100 meters wide, the suffocating smell and rolling heat wave have come. The people who used to bask in the sun on the grass on the shore have already run out, and even Andre, who came ashore before me, has disappeared. The people who had just escaped from the other bank had turned into headless flies and didn't know where to run. The blazing fire and the choking smoke made everyone even more frightened. Like them, I had no brain and no thinking. The rest was just instinctive running. I ran to where there were so many people. I saw someone bump into me from behind when I was running into the woods where I had just changed. Under the huge impact, I couldn't help flying forward and bumping my head into a big tree. At the same time, I felt intense pain, and then I fainted.