Chapter 24. Please address her respectfully as "Sister He".
New skirts have taken over the summer in Oros!
On the streets of Mosk, beautiful girls in colorful long dresses are everywhere, their long hair either loose, braided, or tied up, their skirts fluttering, like walking oil paintings.
Just like the craze for American jeans in Russia twenty years ago, the new trend today is fashionable skirts from China.
Look at the rich, vibrant colors; even after several washes, they remain as bright as ever. And look at the unprecedented three-dimensional tailoring; regardless of whether the wearer is thin or plump, it always makes them look tall and slender.
Not to mention the rich variety of patterns; all the textile factories in the entire alliance combined couldn't produce so many different fabrics.
Leather jackets and down jackets from Adidas are all out of fashion; what the market needs now are skirts, skirts from China!
All the clothing merchants from Mosk flocked to the Baikal Hotel, looking for a Chinese woman named He, a female trader.
"I want ten thousand dresses, no, twenty thousand!"
"Please ship the goods to me first, and I can offer a 50% deposit!"
"I'll arrange the railcars, I'll handle customs clearance and tax declaration. In short, you can leave everything to me except for shipping!"
"I can transfer the payment directly to Zhong Guo! Cash in US dollars!"
The Baikal Hotel had never seen so many Rus' merchants. They blocked the corridor outside He Changyi's room, anxiously awaiting an audience with the Queen of Zhongguo.
Meanwhile, the other Chinese resellers in the hotel were indignant.
"Hmph, it's obvious her business is doing well. It's just selling clothes, anyone can do that!"
"Women are women after all; they can come up with the idea of selling skirts. You tell me, which of us grown men would have thought that selling skirts could make so much money..."
“It’s not about making money or not. My family has been doing business with the Russians for generations, and none of them have done it like this. I just can’t stand how ostentatious she is!”
"Hey, don't be so skeptical. If you're so capable, try selling at that level. The Russians would be eager to buy it."
At that time, leather jackets were the most popular clothing in Eastern Europe. The demand was so high that it could support the foreign trade of Xidan and Yuezhou Village, and there was no need to worry about not being able to sell them.
Carrying a bag of leather jackets across the country, one could sell them all the way from Oros in the east to Yugoslavia in the west.
Other clothing items did not sell as well as leather jackets. Different countries have different style preferences, and there is a high possibility of unsold stock and losses.
Therefore, selling leather jackets carries the least risk compared to selling clothes that change with the seasons.
Some traders are quick-witted; despite their shrewdness, they haven't forgotten their original profession.
"Don't just buy dresses, check out my new sneakers too, real Nike, look at those swooshes, they're as cool as the three stripes!"
"Leather jacket on sale, genuine horsehide... What, you say it's pigskin? Hey, why are you so particular... Never mind the pigskin or horsehide, just tell me if you want it or not?"
Another person, carrying a bag, approached the Oros merchant like a thief, opened the bag to show him the goods inside, and whispered:
“I also have skirts here, the same as the ones that woman sells, both made in China… and I sell them much cheaper, only two thousand rubles each. If you buy a lot, the price is not a problem, we can discuss it…”
Some Rus' merchants, tempted by the low prices, actually bought goods from this man, only to discover something was wrong once they received the goods.
The dress was extremely poorly made; it would fade after being washed. The tailoring was even worse—just two pieces of fabric pieced together with a pair of shoulder straps. Even a supermodel with a slim waist and long legs would look like a beggar in it.
Such a low-quality dress, let alone two thousand rubles, might not even be worn by any girl even if it were given away for free.
After all, when your friends are wearing bright, beautiful, and form-fitting dresses, but you're wearing a burlap sack, who can stand that contrast?
When the deceived Russo merchants stormed in to settle accounts, the man who sold the skirts had already vanished without a trace.
Enraged, the Russo merchant immediately launched into a tirade of curses:
"I should have known sooner. Apart from He, you greedy bunch are not trustworthy at all!"
He Changyi wasn't the only speculator trying to get rich by riding on his coattails.
Someone, holding a genuine dress that they had somehow acquired, confidently assured the Oros merchant that he had the same dress as He Changyi, an identical dress, and even cheaper.
The Russo merchants, eager to purchase goods, placed a small order with some skepticism. Before long, the middleman actually delivered the goods.
The Oros merchants were overjoyed after inspecting the goods; they were indeed exactly the same. They immediately placed another large order and urged him to deliver the goods as soon as possible.
The middleman stammered that the garment factories were currently fully booked and there was a waiting list, with a wait time of at least three months.
When the Oros merchants heard that it would take three months, they panicked. By then, it would be winter in Mosk, and who would need a summer dress?
The reseller also said that if a 10% deposit was paid, he would find a garment manufacturer to cut in line and deliver the goods within a month.
The Eros merchants considered that a 10% deposit was not much, especially since He Changyi required a deposit of more than 20%.
Since he had already cooperated with the black marketeer once and had a basic level of trust in him, he agreed.
However, after the deposit was paid, the middleman disappeared without a trace and never appeared at the Baikal Hotel again.
After similar scams occurred several times, the Oroqen merchants refused to trust the Chinese resellers who actively promoted their products, which also implicated some legitimate resellers.
Seeing that the skirts were selling well, they imported all kinds of skirts, T-shirts and shorts from their home country, intending to make a fortune during the summer in Oroqen.
Unexpectedly, the merchants of Oros now despise the middlemen in hotels, and are unwilling to buy even if the quality of the goods is above average.
"No, take your clothes away! I won't buy a single dress from you! Except for He, you're all liars!"
You have ruined your own reputation!
"I've learned enough lessons from the Chinese. You dump disposable goods on us and then take our rubles and dollars in return!"
"Get away from me! You bunch of untrustworthy bastards!"
For a time, He Changyi's place stood in stark contrast to the other speculators.
On one hand, the store is bustling with customers and demand exceeds supply; on the other hand, business is slow, goods are unsold, and customers are given the cold shoulder.
The middlemen were full of complaints, unable to eat the large chunks of fatty meat in front of them.
"I think that woman surnamed He did it on purpose! She only sells the best goods to the Russians, and now the Russians don't like our goods anymore. She's ruined everyone!"
The speaker was Lai Kangmei.
He already had a problem with He Changyi, and originally hoped that she would suffer a great misfortune in Oros, but unexpectedly her business got better and better, suppressing everyone else.
"Exactly! What do those Russians know? They've never seen anything good before. They can be easily appeased with a little something. Back when I first came to Russia, those Russians would rob anything they saw, they'd even buy my tattered sweater. But look at them now?"
"It's all that woman's fault. She's made the Russians so greedy that we can't sell our goods!"
Lai Kangmei said ominously:
"I think I'll teach her a lesson and show her who's in charge here!"
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent, looking at each other, none of them willing to step forward.
Lai Kangmei angrily said:
"A group of grown men like us are not afraid of a woman like her!"
Someone muttered:
"So you're the one who's going to get beaten up... If you want to go, go yourself. What kind of nonsense is this, inciting us to do this...?"
Lai Kangmei got anxious.
"What do you mean I instigated it? Weren't you all harmed by her? While she's still relatively new, let's nip this unhealthy trend in the bud, or will we still have a place to stand in Mosk in the future?!"
However, the resellers who are willing to spend five dollars a day to stay at the Baikal Hotel are not fools.
If you can't compete in business and you can't win in a fight, you've already lost both face and reputation. Who would want to walk right into someone's door and get slapped in the face repeatedly? I'm not a masochist.
Lai Kangmei still refused to give up, claiming that they outnumbered He Changyi and could overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
"If we all attack together, she can't possibly kill us, can she?"
Seeing that no one responded, he then said that he had hired the Russian mafia, who had knives and guns, and killing a little girl was no big deal.
After these words were spoken, everyone else looked at Lai Kangmei differently.
No matter how big the conflict is between everyone and He Changyi, it is still an internal conflict among the people. What kind of thing is it to bring in the Russians?
Doing business in Mosk already involves frequent extortion by gangs, and you're actually inviting trouble? Isn't that like inviting a wolf into your house?
What's the difference between this and saying "Sir, this way"?
If these gangsters are taking advantage of the situation and using the guise of helping others get away with things to stay in hotels, then they should just give up being middlemen and go home to take care of their kids!
The black marketeers stopped swearing and went back to their rooms, leaving Lai Kangmei fuming behind them.
"Hey, what do you mean by this?"
Someone patted Lai Kangmei on the shoulder.
"Old deadbeat, that's enough. We don't have that much of a grudge against He Changyi. Nobody's stupid. Don't try to use us as pawns."
Lai Kangmei was so embarrassed that her face turned red and white in turns, and she mumbled an explanation:
"I'm doing this for everyone's good..."
Although the anti-He Changyi alliance led by Lai Kangmei failed to be established, the scalpers in the hotel still intentionally or unintentionally ostracized He Changyi.
As a result, He Changyi was so busy that she didn't notice anything, which caused them to have a pointless argument.
One of the middlemen thought to himself, "This woman is too bold. Doesn't she realize that no one in the entire hotel except the front desk staff and waiters is paying attention to her?"
He Changyi really didn't care. Every time she came to Moscow, she was pressed for time and had a heavy workload, wishing she could split every minute in half.
She had to meet clients, sign contracts, take inventory, ship goods, exchange currency... and squeeze in visits to Grandma Vitalie whenever she could. She was so busy that she didn't have time to rest, and she traveled all over the streets and alleys of Mosk.
Oh, and when she has free time, she also goes shopping on the old Arbat Street in the city center.
This street is similar to a combination of Liulichang and Panjiayuan in Beijing. The street is neither long nor wide, with an old brick and stone pavement and old buildings with somewhat dark colors on both sides.
The roadside was lined with stalls, the most popular items being matryoshka dolls. There were matryoshka dolls with round, traditional-style country girls and those painted with portraits of past leaders of the alliance.
The leaders were layered one on top of another, from the founding leader to the first president of Russia, a total of five layers.
There were also stalls selling photos and souvenirs of the Tsarist family, with former White Army generals who had been overthrown now returning to the public eye as idols.
He Changyi was not interested in these obvious modern imitations, but rather in other items with greater historical and commemorative value.
She stopped at a stall piled high with red flags, award flags, medals, and party membership cards. The stall owner greeted her warmly:
"A party membership card costs ten dollars, a bravery medal costs five dollars... but this is the most expensive Vladimir Medal, which costs one hundred dollars!"
A disabled elderly man dressed in military uniform and wearing badges sat on the ground next to him, playing revolutionary songs on an old accordion.
"Break free from the chains of liberalism, abandon the bloody criminal regime..."
The foreign tourists watching cheered:
"No, that's outdated. We want to hear 'Don't Cry'!"
He Changyi walked over and placed a ten-dollar bill on the military cap in front of him.
The old man said to her:
"Glory belongs to the Alliance, Hurrah!"
Then, he changed to a different song.
"He was ordered to go to the western front, while she was to go in the other direction..."
He Changyi found illustrations of Pushkin's poetry at a stall located in the corner. The stall owner wore glasses and looked reserved and uneasy.
He Changyi pointed to the illustrations and asked him, "Anything else? I mean all of them."
The stall owner said in a low voice, "Five dollars..."
He Changyi agreed, adding, "I need something more complete, not just—"
She shook the page, which was clearly torn from a book.
The stall owner glanced at her quickly and said in a low voice, "I'll try my best, but it's difficult..."
He Changyi said, "If you have any books from Zhong Guo, I will buy them for twenty dollars each."
The stall owner murmured, "Yes, yes, those very old thread-bound books, and scrolls..."
He Changyi had noticed this stall owner long ago. He was probably a librarian who was secretly tearing out pages from rare books in the library to sell for money.
Actually, you can't blame him. After all, when the library can't even pay its monthly salary of 800 rubles, while he has a bunch of hungry children at home, the role of morality and law becomes negligible.
He Changyi bought a pair of ancestral earrings and a brooch set with emeralds at another stall. The old gold was not very pure due to the limited refining technology and had a light reddish hue.
The stall owner apologized, saying that the matching necklace and headdress had already been sold and could not be made into a set, but still hoped that she would treat the jewelry well.
"At least please don't melt them..."
When He Changyi left, he passed a doorway with a row of people standing on each side, selling items such as leather boots and fur hats.
Unless someone comes up to ask about the price, they just stand there silently, like breathing stone statues.
He Changyi took a taxi back to the Baikal Hotel and encountered two other traders staying at the hotel when he got out of the taxi.
When they saw He Changyi, they snorted loudly and turned their heads away, looking as if they disdained to associate with her.
He Changyi didn't care at all. Today she not only received two beautiful pieces of jewelry, but she would also receive ancient books from the Zhong Kingdom that had been lost overseas when she went there next time. This was even more exciting than winning the lottery.
Just as the group was walking toward the hotel one after the other, a burly, fat policeman suddenly stopped them.
"(Ego language) Show me your passports!"
He Changyi's visa was valid, so she naturally handed her passport to the fat policeman.
The chubby policeman looked at her with some surprise, and took a beat later before taking the passport.
The other two traders were in a panic.
"What do we do? Those Russians are trying to extort money from us again!"
"Didn't they say the hotel owner had very strong connections with the police? Why are they investigating us?"
"Who knows if they haven't paid enough protection money and are deliberately causing trouble..."
"How much money do you have with you? I have all the cash for today's goods on me!"
"Sigh, me too... If we don't give enough red envelopes, won't they take us all to the police station and confiscate all the money?"
"Hurry, hurry, get the money ready quickly. He'll leave on his own once he's fed..."
The two traders were speaking in Chinese. He Changyi glanced at them and became wary.
The chubby policeman examined the passport several times but couldn't find anything wrong, his round face turning into a long one.
He glared at He Changyi and said unhappily:
"Your passport is in problem! I'm going to fine you 10,000 rubles!"
He Changyi asked him in Emei language:
"What's the problem?"
Upon hearing that He Changyi could speak Emei, the fat policeman stared in astonishment, and even the two uneasy traders next to him looked over in surprise.
He Changyi asked again.
“If there is a problem with my passport, you should first explain where the problem lies, instead of directly imposing a fine, which is not in accordance with the law.”
The chubby policeman hesitated for a moment. He was used to bullying the weak and was a little unaccustomed to encountering a tough opponent for the first time.
"Uh, uh... I guess your visa has expired?"
Even he himself didn't believe what he said.
He Changyi said, "My passport shows that my visa still has three months left before it expires, so I think it's still valid."
The fat policeman cheated, stuffing his passport into his pocket and reaching out to He Changyi for money.
He Changyi wouldn't tolerate him.
When she first arrived in Oros and couldn't even speak Oros fluently, she wasn't extorted by the train station police. Now that she's been here longer and speaks Oros fluently like a local, she's even less likely to be intimidated.
She had already learned the situation from what the middleman had said. Since the hotel owner had already paid protection money, there was no reason for the guests to have to pay a second time.
"Is the Baikal Hotel under your jurisdiction? Were your actions approved by your superiors? Were the fines you received paid to the police station?"
He asked three questions in a row, making the fat policeman keep wiping his sweat.
This woman from Zhongguo not only speaks Emei, but also asks the right questions, hitting the nail on the head and directly addressing his sore spots.
The fat policeman was short of money lately, so he deliberately came to the Baikal Hotel when no one was around to earn some extra cash.
The hotel owner regularly pays protection money to the police station. In theory, the police are not only not allowed to check the guests, but they are also required to tip off the hotel if there is any inspection operation, so that the hotel can hide unidentified guests and valuables in advance.
If the bureau chief finds out that he secretly came to the Baikal Hotel to extort money from the guests, wouldn't he grind him up and make him into sausages?
He Changyi stretched out his hand with a righteous indignation:
"My passport!"
The chubby policeman reluctantly took his passport out of his pocket and handed it to her, then turned and walked away dejectedly.
The two speculators watching were stunned.
How did the man surnamed He get his passport back without spending a single penny?
She only spoke a few words in Ethnic language before the corrupt policeman left on his own, without even checking their visas!
The shocked traders couldn't help but observe He Changyi with a completely new perspective.
It should be noted that most of the middlemen's Ethnic language skills are quite poor; they only know a few phrases for selling goods and understand nothing else.
They lack the motivation to learn; instead of spending money on language classes or struggling with vocabulary in Ethnic languages, they'd rather play a few more rounds of cards.
In addition, many of these traders are undocumented, either without passports or with expired visas, making them "illegal" in Moscow.
If they are caught by the police, they will be deported back to their home country, and all their money and goods will be confiscated.
Therefore, when encountering the police, some traders feel extremely guilty and subconsciously resort to the same methods used in China, such as bribing officials, in an attempt to slip through the cracks.
Over time, the Russian police got used to the tastes and developed a habit of picking fights with Chinese people whenever they saw them, all in order to extort bribes.
The black marketeers were used to paying "tribute" to the police, regardless of whether their passports were problematic or not; they just wanted to pay to avoid trouble.
But He Changyi's actions today have broken their habitual way of thinking.
How can anyone escape being extorted by corrupt police officers?
Back at the hotel, the two traders couldn't help but tell the others what had happened that day.
"How could that be?! The Russian police are incredibly greedy; they wouldn't be satisfied without getting their money!"
"That's right. Last time, even though my visa was fine, they wouldn't give it to me and even drove me to the suburbs. In the end, I had no choice but to give them 20,000 rubles to settle the matter."
The two black marketeers were afraid the dealers wouldn't believe them, so they almost swore an oath on their ancestors for eighteen generations.
"How could what I saw with my own eyes be fake? He Changyi mumbled a few words in her tongue, and that Russian guy's expression changed. He handed her back her passport and left without even checking us!"
The other speculators were amazed.
"If it's true, this woman is quite capable..."
"You can't judge a book by its cover. I never expected such a pretty young girl to be so ruthless when it comes to getting things done."
"No wonder his business is so successful; he's even more capable than the average man."
"He Changyi can also speak Eros. She doesn't look like she's of mixed race, nor is she from the northeastern border. It seems she learned it herself after coming to Eros."
"Sigh, I'll be too embarrassed to scold her now. She's a girl who's so much better than us guys."
"What's her name? Changyi? We're not that close to her..."
A lively and joking scalper slammed his fist on the table.
"Let's call her Sister He! Who knows, if I run into the police someday, I might be able to count on Sister He to get me out of trouble!"
The others burst into laughter.
"You really have a problem expecting a woman to get you out of trouble!"
The man started off joking, but seeing that no one took it seriously, he couldn't help but become serious.
"Sister He shut down the police with just three sentences, isn't that amazing? Forget about her, if she could save my life, I'd call her Mom!"
The group of people were chatting with the door open, and their voices could be heard in the hallway.
He Changyi happened to be passing by and heard his words, so he walked to the door and knocked on the door with his finger.
"What mother or not? I don't have a son as big as you."
The man was so embarrassed that the person he was joking with heard him that he blushed bright red.
The others fell silent upon seeing He Changyi, exchanging awkward glances, unsure of what to say.
One shameless person dared to speak up:
"Sister He, what did you say to that policeman? He's willing to give up even the fat meat he had in his hands?"
He Changyi raised an eyebrow.
"Want to know?"
Everyone nodded frantically, like chickens pecking at rice.
He Changyi suddenly smiled brightly, her beauty radiant.
"Then keep thinking about it."
She left gracefully, leaving everyone in the room speechless and bewildered.
After a long pause, someone murmured:
"This girl is really something..."
A new wholesale market called "Bee" recently opened in the western part of Mosk, using abandoned shipping containers converted into stalls.
With Mayor Mosk as his backer, the beekeeper was protected by the police and gangs, who dared not collect protection money from him. In addition, the stall fees were quite cheap at the beginning of the business, and there was also a dedicated warehouse for storing goods. The customer traffic was considerable, and many traders rented stalls here.
Due to frequent robberies by taxi drivers, for safety reasons and for the convenience of transporting goods, the traders decided to charter cars to travel between hotels and markets.
At first, the vans successfully transported people and goods to the bee market, and gradually more and more scalpers began to hire them. On the busiest days, more than a dozen scalpers would compete for a single van.
Go to the market earlier, open for business earlier, and you can start selling and making money sooner.
However, on an ordinary morning, while He Changyi was still asleep, a sudden screech of brakes came from downstairs.
And even more horrific screams.
"Help! Murder!"
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Author's Note: I'm trying my best, but writing 10,000 words a day is still a tiny bit difficult [crying emoji]. I'll try to update more often, thank you all for your support~
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