Chapter 83 Ask a Question (Revised)

After learning about Ivan's deeds from Professor Liu, He Changyi had an idea and wanted to recruit him back to China.

After all, when it comes to understanding the T-80 tank, apart from the tank designers, it is this old worker who has spent years in the maintenance workshop, personally disassembling every bolt, every gear, and every steel plate.

With the assistance of old Ivan, I believe we can definitely speed up the pace of disassembly, analysis, and reverse engineering, and develop a third-generation tank belonging to China based on the T-80 as soon as possible.

Before the official operation, He Changyi asked Yan Zhengchuan, "Second Brother, would you mind bringing one more person back to China?"

Yan Zhengchuan retorted, "Who? One of your employees or a bodyguard? Is this person reliable?"

He Changyi said slowly, "Is it reliable? Theoretically, it should be reliable. However—"

She drawled, "This person doesn't have an ID card, so you'll have to take him to get one. Otherwise, he can't stay in China for long with just a passport."

Yan Zhengchuan stared at He Changyi suspiciously. "Who exactly are you talking about? Why are you bringing up ID cards? Could it be some Russian?"

He even thought of Alexei!

Seeing that his second brother's expression had changed, He Changyi stopped being mysterious and said frankly, "It's Professor Liu's teacher Ivan, whom he met before. I want him to come back to China with you. He is a T-80 maintenance technician. Bringing him back to China will be much more useful than just bringing a metal-shelled tank back."

Yan Zhengchuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, it wasn't Alexei, otherwise he really would have had a hard time resisting throwing the kid off the plane.

But—Professor Ivan?

"Will he come?" Before He Changyi could answer, Yan Zhengchuan shook his head. "I don't think he'd be willing to come back to China with us."

Even if a veteran Bolshevik like Ivan the Elder were having a hard time in his homeland, he would not easily abandon his country, because it was the place of his faith.

He Changyi was full of fighting spirit!

"It's not up to him whether he wants to or not. At worst, we can just knock him out, put him in a sack, and get him into the country. Does he have any room to refuse?"

Yan Zhengchuan glared at her angrily, "You better behave yourself! You're a citizen of Zhongguo, not a lawless gangster!"

He Changyi had already cheerfully pushed open the door and left, leaving behind the words: "Don't worry, second brother, I will make Teacher Ivan 'voluntarily' come to Zhongguo."

Yan Zhengchuan chased after it, but only saw the jeep's taillights flash by the street corner and disappear.

He grabbed his coat, flagged down a taxi, and chased after them.

Kidnapping?

How could she even think of that!

Even Liu Bei honestly visited Zhuge Liang's thatched cottage three times. When have you ever seen him bring Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to the cottage, banging on the door and shouting, "Zhuge Liang, stop pretending! I know you're home, so open the door!"

There is no mention of Zhao Zilong taking the Crouching Dragon hostage on horseback amidst the chaos of battle, leading him through seven battles in and out of Longzhong.

Yan Zhengyue is simply playing the piano haphazardly!

Yan Zhengchuan urged the taxi driver in broken Emei dialect to drive to the military factory in Kovrov. The driver, with a full beard, glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

"A military factory?" the driver asked. "You're going to a military factory?"

Yan Zhengchuan was still angry and didn't react for a moment. "Quick, I have something urgent to tell you!"

Seeing that the car still wasn't moving, he assumed the driver was trying to extort money from Joe, since this was quite common in Oslo these days. He was in a hurry to leave and didn't have time to argue with the other party, so he simply slapped a US dollar bill on the dashboard.

Unexpectedly, the driver threw the US dollars at Yan Zhengchuan's face, opened the driver's side door, went around to the passenger side, pulled open the door, and dragged Yan Zhengchuan out!

"Get out! You damn spy!"

Yan Zhengchuan reached out and ripped the banknotes off his face, about to angrily demand an explanation from the driver, but after hearing what the driver said, he was left speechless.

"I'm not a spy, I'm just going to find someone..."

The driver had already returned to the driver's seat, glared at him fiercely, and slammed the car door shut.

"Who would want to work in a military factory besides a spy? Get out of Emirates! If I ever see you again, I'll send you to the KGB!"

After saying that, the driver stepped on the gas, the taxi spewed out a pungent exhaust fumes, and swaggered away.

Yan Zhengchuan: ...Heaven above, he is more wronged than Dou E!

Helpless, Yan Zhengchuan went to flag down a car again. This time he learned his lesson and only said he wanted to go to Kovrov.

However, even without mentioning the military factory, the taxi drivers still looked at him with suspicion, and some even wanted to lure Yan Zhengchuan into their cars first, then take him to the countryside and beat him up to vent their anger.

Seeing that the other person's expression was not right, Yan Zhengchuan refused to get in the car first.

After this happened repeatedly, Yan Zhengchuan became even more troubled.

This is troublesome. Is he just going to watch helplessly as the former alliance expert is knocked unconscious, stuffed into a sack, and taken back to China in the first month of the lunar calendar?

It's not that it's impossible, the main problem is that not everyone at the airport or on the flight crew is blind (...).

Or maybe he should go out and buy two bottles of vodka, get old Ivan drunk, and then board the plane. After all, the people of Estonia are used to seeing drunkards on the street corners, so one more drunk passenger wouldn't be unusual.

As Yan Zhengchuan successfully transformed himself from an opponent to an accomplice, He Changyi jumped out of the jeep and walked towards the contact person.

"As we discussed on the phone, I would like to meet Mr. Ivan. However—"

He Changyi lightly placed the gift into the palm of the person she was dealing with, who had been eagerly waiting for it to be opened.

"Before I actually meet him, I'd like to learn a few things about him. You won't let me down, will you?"

The contact person smiled broadly, "I guarantee you will know everything about old Ivan, even his sleep talking, I will tell you every single word!"

...Even sleep talking is recorded; this is truly a traditional skill of the elder brother, eavesdropping everywhere.

As the contact person recounted the story at length, the final piece of the puzzle about Ivan the Elder's life came together.

After being forced to halt his aid mission, Ivan Sr. returned to the Union with more than a thousand experts.

But going home isn't always a pleasant experience.

They underwent round after round of scrutiny, from their words and actions to their thoughts, and even their opinions of Jong-kook.

At the time, the two countries were engaged in a major debate, with both sides attacking each other. The alliance claimed that the experts they sent were living in poor conditions and were being monitored and followed, in order to smear Jong-guk for being ungrateful and breaking his promises.

To prove their point, the alliance leadership also asked experts to write anti-China articles and come forward as eyewitnesses to attack Zhong Guo.

Some experts wrote about it, but others refused to do so.

Among those who did not write were Ivan the Elder.

The contact person said, half-jokingly and half-complainingly, "He's a stubborn old fogey! Miss He, I have no personal grudge against Zhong Guo. In fact, I quite like Zhong Guo. Although your military equipment is poor, your fighting strength and tenacious will make up for it—sorry, I seem to have gone too far. Anyway, old Ivan not only caused trouble for himself, but also brought a lot of trouble to us. A pro-China technical expert? Ha, he's practically dancing ballet in a minefield!"

Old Ivan was just such an out-of-place old guy.

He was too upright, too idealistic, and too devoted to Bolshevism, believing that the Internationale would one day be realized.

But this actually brought him trouble, trouble that could ruin the rest of his life.

As the youngest technical expert, old Ivan had a bright future ahead of him; he would have climbed the technocratic path all the way to that white palace by the Mosk River.

But now it's all over.

His wings were broken, and he crashed down from the sky, landing in the mud, transforming from a promising young expert into a stubborn old mechanic.

More than thirty years, how fast time flies! More than half of his life has already passed.

The contact person said casually, "Old Ivan is already very lucky! If it were that steel leader of Georgia, he would probably have been locked up in the Gulag long ago, instead of being like this now. Look, he can even breathe freely!"

He Changyi fell into deep thought; it seemed the difficulty was much greater than she had imagined…

The contact was a cunning fellow. He lowered his voice and gave her advice: "Don't worry about old Ivan. Even if he fell into molten steel, his heart wouldn't melt. But it's different if it's his wife. She's old Ivan's Jenny, and she's seriously ill. For her, old Ivan would do anything. As long as she can live, he would even kneel down and polish Gorbachev's shoes!"

He Changyi didn't react much to these words, only slightly shifting his eyes.

"Let me see Mr. Ivan first; perhaps he has a different idea."

The person in charge subtly curled their lip.

I really don't understand. He's just an old worker, even more insignificant and useless than a bolt on the ground.

However, considering the gift in the envelope and the high-paying job, he was willing to be a little more attentive to his future boss.

After all, this is a market economy; those with more money call the shots, don't they?

When old Ivan sat down in front of He Changyi, she carefully examined the stern-faced old worker, from his gray hair and wrinkled face to his old work clothes covered in patches and oil.

He Changyi seemed lost in thought, but old Ivan couldn't bear the silence and spoke first:

"I know who you are, and I know what you want to do, but my answer is only one: no!"

After saying that, he got up to leave, but He Changyi suddenly asked in Emei, "Do you regret it?"

Old Ivan paused for a moment.

“If you hadn’t participated in the aid project for Zhong Guo, your life would be much better now; if you had written a few articles criticizing Zhong Guo after returning to China, you would have had a higher position.”

He Changyi asked him, "Will you regret it?"

Old Ivan didn't move, didn't turn around, and didn't look at her; his voice was stiff.

“No,” he said. “I never regret it.”

He Changyi took the initiative to walk over and said to old Ivan in a very gentle manner, "Please sit down. As a person of the country you have helped, I am very grateful for everything you have done. I just have a few questions."

Old Ivan's expression softened somewhat, but his tone remained somewhat stiff.

"Go ahead and ask. I still have work to do after you're done asking."

He Changyi asked him, "How were you doing when you were in Zhongguo?"

Old Ivan glanced at her in surprise. He had thought this beautiful Chinese girl would ask some classified questions about weapon parameters or military research, but he didn't expect her to bring up something from more than 30 years ago.

He Changyi asked again, and old Ivan simply said one word, "Okay."

He paused, then said:

"I have rarely had a better life than I have with Jong-kook."

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Author's Note: "[Black Society]" is not a typo, because writing "black society" would get me [censored] = =