Chapter 421 He's No Longer Afraid: The Third Relapse
A day later, Ivanov met with the president.
It wasn't in the Kremlin, but at Villa No. 9 Gorky, a residence allocated to the president by the government.
The use of the word "public" nowadays often gives people the illusion of traveling back to the Soviet Union, but even the president who dismantled the Soviet Union himself didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with the word "public."
Summer is the most beautiful season in Moscow, and June is the most enchanting month of the year.
The sunlight was so bright and so generous, it was almost extravagant.
It warmed the lawn of the presidential villa, turning it into a giant velvet carpet spread out in the woods.
Ivanov knew he should look for other, more suitable, and more original metaphors. But he had been a poor student in school, and writing essays was his biggest headache; he only knew how to use clichéd metaphors.
Fortunately, the clichéd metaphors do not detract from the beauty of Moscow in June.
The fluffy seeds of dandelions floated gently in the sunlight, and the leaves of the poplar trees shone brightly, each one looking like it was flowing with gold.
When the wind blows, even the rustling sound carries a sense of warmth—this is the season Russians cherish most after a long, cold winter, when even the air is filled with a lazy atmosphere.
The president basked in the sunlight, looking languid, like a silent old ox.
When he saw Ivanov, a teasing smile appeared on his face. Good heavens, he and his fiancée, this young couple is really interesting.
But perhaps because he felt he was an elder and needed to make small talk before speaking, he very carefully chose to start with the weather: "The sun is shining, isn't it? Ivan, it's a great time to sunbathe."
Ivanov nodded and sat down on the chair next to him as if he were an outsider: "This is the most comfortable time to sunbathe."
Then the president asked curiously, "Miss Wang, does your fiancée also like to sunbathe?"
Ivanov shook his head: "No, her skin is different from ours, it's very thin, and even with sunscreen, she gets sunburned easily. She doesn't really block out the sun, but she doesn't actively sunbathe either."
"Oh, oh, oh." The president nodded as if he understood. "She's definitely different from the women in Moscow."
He paused, his gaze falling on the distant birch forest, his tone as light as the wind, "After all, this is the first time I've ever heard of a woman arguing and making a fuss, insisting on pushing a man to become an official."
Good heavens, his family was a land of women, his wife and daughters occupied his entire life. Yet, he couldn't imagine either of them being capable of such a thing.
Ivanov's face flushed red instantly, probably because the sun was so bright that he almost turned into a red-hot fireball.
He awkwardly touched his nose and whispered, "No, sir, it's a misunderstanding. Actually, I want to be the vice prime minister. My wife was just standing up for me and advocating for me."
The president's smile became increasingly sarcastic: "God, Ivan, my lad, you've found yourself a great general."
Ivanov was so embarrassed he wanted to disappear into a hole. He stammered, "The king thinks I can't win an argument with others."
The president burst into laughter: "That's right, her mouth is too sharp; who can argue with her?"
Every time Wang Xiao silenced someone with her words, he felt an indescribable regret. It was a pity she wasn't his official; otherwise, she could definitely hold her own against those damned Americans and Europeans.
See, Ivan wanted to be deputy prime minister, and she managed to wrest it from Berezovsky's hands.
The president smiled and nodded: "So, why do you want to be the deputy prime minister?"
He considered himself good at judging people, but he hadn't realized before that Ivan had such political ambitions.
“Because I want to get into industry,” Ivanov took a deep breath, the sun burning his back so intensely it almost hurt his skin. “But I suddenly realized that without power, many things simply can’t be done. Policies, funding, talent… relying on myself alone is like building a house on sand. Just running around with paperwork can waste all the time I’ve planned.
He shook his head and said, "No, this won't do. Russia doesn't have enough time to waste."
The president's grandchildren are almost ready for college. Seeing Ivanov's tolerance towards the younger generation, he nodded and asked with interest, "So, what are you planning to do next?"
“Rural development,” Ivanov explained. “Yesterday I consulted Mr. Nemtsov about the rural natural gas conversion project.”
Nemtsov was a powerful local government official promoted by the president, and the president was well aware of his performance.
What he did in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast was indeed very effective.
The president tapped his fingers lightly on his knee, as if pondering: "That's good, it warms up people's homes. But aren't you going to develop industry and build cities? Why are you eyeing the countryside?"
Ivanov took a deep breath and looked earnestly at the president: "Because Russia needs a way out, and the countryside is our last resort."
His voice trailed off, and the sun moved behind the birch trees, making the sunlight seem to dim as well.
"The king's bodyguards said that the Chinese army still has abacus teams. They said that in case of war and all the modern equipment is destroyed, the abacus can still be used."
He sighed, "That's the Chinese for you. No matter what they do, they always think about the worst-case scenario first, and then plan step by step. No matter how bad things get, they won't panic."
The president laughed abruptly. Perhaps it wasn't because of joy or happiness that he smiled, but simply because he couldn't find a more suitable expression.
He smiled and nodded, "Indeed, it's remarkable that they haven't collapsed after fighting for so many years."
He was the gravedigger of the Soviet Union; he single-handedly destroyed it.
The core reason why the Soviet Union was able to be so easily dismantled was that the Soviet Union itself had major problems. The wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam brought it down.
If it were China, from 1949 to the present, there have been few years of peace and quiet. While fighting the Korean War, we were also fighting the French and aiding Vietnam, fighting against both the United States and the Soviet Union. Domestically, we were also suppressing bandits and quelling the rebellion in Tibet. The fighting continued until 1990, when things finally calmed down a bit.
That's only a small part. Even though it had such a big falling out with the US this year and didn't even have an aircraft carrier, it didn't stop it from still wanting to fight the US aircraft carrier.
Slavs are inherently inclined to admire the strong. Even though the president, as a neighbor, does not wish to have a powerful neighbor, he has to admit that the Chinese spirit of "if you're not convinced, you should fight" is indeed admirable.
What's most impressive is that, despite its continued existence, its regime hasn't fallen apart; on the contrary, it seems to have become even more united.
Perhaps what Ivan meant by having planned ahead, anticipating the worst-case scenario, and having contingency plans in place is their ultimate trump card.
Ivan looked up at the president, his eyes showing the stubbornness of a young man, but also a calmness beyond his years: "Our reforms are too risky, and everyone's patience is wearing thin. What if... I mean what if, we fail again? Russia cannot descend into chaos. The countryside must be our last refuge, a place where everyone has food to eat and a place to stay."
The president fell silent.
He knew he had no right to accuse the people of lacking patience; in fact, he himself was almost losing patience.
From March until now, he has suffered from insomnia every time he gives a campaign speech.
Because he can't help but ask himself, can he really do everything he promised?
He has made enough promises to the people, but how many have he actually fulfilled?
Will he be scorned because he is a faithless liar?
The June sun was so bright that it made him think of a saying: There are two things in this world that can never be looked at directly: sunlight and the human heart.
One's own heart is more unbearable to look at than the sunlight.
The president avoided the sun, tilted his head, and asked Ivanov, "What about industry? Aren't you going to take care of industry? Didn't you want to develop industry?"
"We must find ways to preserve the large factories and heavy industries in the city. As for the rest of the small and light industries..."
Ivanov sighed. "Let them develop on their own. With too many people engaged in agriculture, some will automatically switch to service industries and commerce."
He cited China again as an example, saying, "Back then, a large number of people in China went to the countryside, and then small-scale industries sprang up in the countryside. The carriers of these small-scale industries—community and brigade enterprises—were the predecessors of China's township and village enterprises."
Seeing that the president was just listening without reacting, Ivanov started to drop bombshells, "And township and village enterprises, in my personal opinion, are the most successful and important part of China's economic reform."
He emphasized, "China State-owned Enterprises Group (CSOE) started its enterprise reform in the early 1980s, but I think it was almost a failure. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken more than a decade to reform, and now it's still focusing on large enterprises and letting go of small ones. Its essence is that the state can't support it anymore, so it has to give up small and medium-sized enterprises. It's hard to say how long large state-owned enterprises can be protected."
These words cheered the president up considerably.
That's just human nature. When you're down on your luck, you want others to be just as unlucky as you, or even worse, so you can feel psychologically balanced.
China has long been regarded as a model of socialist economic reform and its only successful example.
As it turned out, their performance wasn't particularly outstanding.
Unfortunately, the next second, Ivanov pulled the president back to reality: "I think the most successful aspect of China's economic reform is the decentralization. Township and village enterprises were places they didn't manage at all; they grew completely spontaneously and wildly among the people. It was precisely this lack of oversight that directly broke through the strict and rigid restrictions of the planned economy. Nobody told them what to do; they were genuine products of adapting to market demands, which is why they are so resilient."
Ivanov sighed, "It is precisely because we lack such enterprises that the country has fallen into a shortage of daily necessities when state-owned enterprises can no longer sustain themselves. So we must make up for this deficiency."
Sunlight filtered through the birch forest, casting bright dappled patterns on the president's face, which danced gently in the summer breeze.
The president remained silent for a long time, his eyelids even closing slightly.
Just as Ivanov was wondering if he had fallen asleep, he suddenly opened his eyes and mumbled, "Would you like some tea? I heard you don't drink coffee much anymore, and you drink more tea."
Ivanov's ears turned red; he had indeed taken a liking to tea lately, and had even started drinking jasmine tea.
He remembered that when he first met Wang Xiao, she didn't smell of jasmine. It must have been because she drank a lot of jasmine tea that her body smelled so good.
Ivanov, who had always been somewhat self-conscious about his body odor, decided to follow suit. He decided to alternate between drinking rose tea and jasmine tea, hoping that one day he would also smell fragrant.
However, as a man, he certainly couldn't tell the truth in front of the president, so he cleverly decided to change his tune: "Freshly ground coffee takes too much time, while tea can be made simply by pouring hot water over it."
The president nodded: "Yes, we have no time to waste."
Despite saying that, he still went back to the villa with great enthusiasm to get his own small table for drinking tea and a complete tea set.
"Let's bask in the sun and drink tea; this is how afternoon tea should be enjoyed."
The president personally carried a table and a chair to the lawn, looked around, and finally selected a flat lawn.
"Let's go there, the sun there is so nice."
Ivanov assisted him, carrying a set of brass tea utensils that gleamed in the sun.
But as soon as the small table was placed down and the chairs touched the lawn, and their bottoms had barely touched the chairs, there was a "plop" sound, and they sank half a meter in, along with the chairs. The table tilted, and the tea spilled out.
Ivanov and the president were caught off guard and almost lay half-reclined on the grass, looking quite disheveled.
The guards and others around were startled and hurriedly tried to help the person up.
Tatiana ran over when she heard the commotion, and couldn't help but laugh when she saw her father and the guest looking disheveled.
The president, a doting father to his daughter, could only manage a helpless wry smile: "Tatiana, what have you done to the lawn now?"
The family is obsessed with gardening, planting this one minute and doing that the next, except for her youngest daughter.
Tatiana, trying not to laugh, explained, "I turned over the lawn, but I forgot to level this part."
The president was truly exasperated, his tone almost pleading: "God, why are you making the lawn? We'll be leaving someday."
Ivanov glanced at the president instinctively, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
This is the residence arranged for the president by the state. His statement that he will leave one day means that he did not intend to stay in office indefinitely.
Perhaps in other countries, this would be taken for granted.
But this is Russia, the country that inherited the greatest legacy of the Soviet Union.
What was the most distinctive characteristic of Soviet leaders? They were those who worked until their dying breath.
Apart from Khrushchev, who was forcibly overthrown, all the Soviet leaders held power until their last breath.
You can interpret it as their willingness to dedicate themselves to the country until their last breath, or you can understand it as the taste of power being so wonderful that those who have tasted it will never let go.
Clearly, the president in front of him was willing to let go.
He was still muttering complaints about his youngest daughter: "Why bother with all this trouble?"
Tatiana still smiled: "So what? Let them stay here, they'll grow on their own."
The president seemed to pause for a moment before nodding: "Yes, they will grow on their own."
The president is always surrounded by a large group of people, even when he is at home.
So while they were chatting, their large group of friends had already found a suitable place for them to drink tea, and rearranged the table, chairs, and tea set.
The president sat down, picked up his black tea, and smiled at Ivanov: "It seems that China is your trump card."
Ivanov shook his head and said honestly, "No, I just lack sufficient experience. I managed a factory for two years, I found spare parts for the Lada factory, helped organize production, and I built a small factory on a farm to produce down jackets and shoes. That's all my industrial experience. Apart from that, I'm most familiar with street factories and township enterprises in China. I can't lie to you."
The president laughed again: "You're a really honest lad."
It's so rare to see young people who love to talk big but are willing to do real work.
"So, do you want to run for president?" The president suddenly changed the subject. "I mean, the next term or the term after that."
Ivanov shook his head: "No, I probably won't. I should be getting married in five years, and my bride can only be the Queen. I won't marry anyone else but her."
The president nodded in understanding.
He came from a simple farming family and believed that one should have a conscience.
Indeed, it would be difficult to find someone who would be better than the King for Ivan.
But Wang is Chinese, and voters will find it hard to accept that their first lady is a foreigner.
But if Ivan were to abandon the king in order to take a seat in the Kremlin, then the president would certainly despise him—a person without conscience is bound to have no principles, and no matter how nice he sounds now, he will inevitably turn his back on him in the future.
The president nodded again, affirming, "She is a good girl."
Then he stood up, as if to look around, but suddenly, he slumped back down.
Ivanov had assumed he was going to sit on the lawn and talk to him, and sitting on the warm lawn under the sun was actually quite comfortable.
But sitting was not the president's last action. After sitting down, he lay on his side on the grass in a contorted position.
In that instant, Ivanov realized that the president had suffered another heart attack.
The doctors were the first to rush to the scene.
From March until now, throughout the entire campaign, an entire medical team has been on standby at all times to save the president's life.
Ivanov wisely stepped aside; he didn't need to show off at this moment, rushing in to help with the rescue or anything like that would just be foolish and make things worse.
All he had to do was comfort the pale, panicked family members, such as the president's youngest daughter, Tatiana: "It's okay, God bless us, things will be alright."
Whether God blesses him or not is not that important, because Ivanov is not flustered at this moment.
He has survived three presidential heart attacks.
The first time, he was terrified and completely dumbfounded. It was Wang Xiao who accurately obtained the information and sent Punonin to the Kremlin to rescue him.
The second time, Wang Xiao was by his side, and the two of them were also uneasy.
The third time, which is now, seeing the president fall in front of him, Ivanov wasn't thinking about the end, but rather what to do next.
Punonin must take control of the situation, using force.
Thank goodness, the former Kremlin chief steward, Korzhakov, has been ousted by the president, and his faction has vanished as a result.
Defense Minister Grachev also resigned—on the very day the results of the first round of selections were announced.
Because the president needed to win over General Lebed, who had received 10.6% of the vote, and get him on his side, he dismissed Lebed's arch-rival, Grachev.
There aren't many people who can rival Punonin right now.
But resorting to force is always the worst option; a peaceful resolution is best if conditions allow.
However, the biggest obstacle to a peaceful resolution is likely Lebed.
How could someone who has run for president not have ambition? He came in third in the primaries, and now that the first-place president in the primaries is dead, as long as Lebed is still mentally sound, he will definitely demand to be replaced so that he can compete with Zyuganov, who came in second, in the presidential final in July.
At that point, the panicked oligarchs will surely turn against Bered and desperately support him. The president's old guard will also likely try every means to unite around Bered so that he can inherit the president's political legacy and win the election smoothly.
This is not in the interests of Ivanov and Wang Xiao, and he must prevent it from happening.
So what should we do next?
When he thought of this, Ivanov suddenly froze.
Look, he has already learned it. He has learned from Wang's example that one should not panic when facing a crisis.
The more panicked others are, the more calm and rational you need to be, seize the opportunity, and turn the tide.
If you were the king, what would you do in this situation?
Yes, they stirred up the waters, got everyone to jump out, and forced Lalebed to step down.
There were so many people who signed up for the presidential election, including Nemtsov, but he withdrew simply because he felt it was unnecessary to compete with the incumbent president.
There's also Moscow Mayor Luzhkov, who withdrew from the election because he chose to side with the incumbent president; otherwise, his popularity would have been quite high.
Yes, yes, he was indeed dedicated to driving outsiders out of Moscow, and theoretically speaking, he was very hated.
But the common people's thoughts are always simple. They believe that when he was in charge of Moscow, he would think about the interests of Moscow; so when he becomes the new Tsar of Russia, he will surely think about the interests of the whole of Russia.
When people are angry about injustice, it is often because they resent that the bright moon does not shine on them alone, that they are not the ones who are given preferential treatment.
If Lebed tries to rise to power by stepping over the corpse of the current president, Luzhkov will certainly not allow it.
With such a heavyweight figure involved, Lebed has nothing to fear.
He has been away from the army for so long, and the army he used to command doesn't even have his surname anymore, so they wouldn't risk their lives for him.
Ivanov quickly went through everything in his mind and got a general idea of what was going on.
At that moment, the doctor's voice came from the bedside: "Rest, the president needs rest. He can't travel anymore, he can't endure any more fatigue."
Ivanov's eyes instantly reddened. He ran to the front, knelt down in front of the president's bed, and apologized with tears in his eyes: "I'm sorry, we were too selfish, sir. We were afraid that Russia would fall apart, so we forced you to shoulder this heavy burden. We were selfish and greedy, we have been hiding in the back enjoying your protection."
The president was pale and looked extremely tired, but he did not wave Ivanov away. Instead, he sighed softly, "Don't feel guilty, my lad. This is my responsibility, a responsibility I must bear. Please take good care of Russia, never abandon it. It is our Russia, and we must take good care of it."
Ivanov wept bitterly, nodding frantically and saying, "It will be alright, Russia will get better, you will get better, we will all get better."
Look, why can't he walk into the White House? Everything can be learned, including thinking and socializing like a politician.
He was no longer afraid; he now believed he had the ability and the will to be the vice prime minister.
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[Let me see] Good morning!
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