Chapter 1823 The Secret of High Fertility Rate
In Xiao Peng's eyes, the so-called "Mecanica" is just finding joy in misery!
Norilsk experiences at least 280 of the 365 days a year in cold weather, and half of those days are subject to blizzards. People living here essentially commute between work and home. During a blizzard, you can see a fleet of twenty buses plowing through the snow, bringing workers to their workplaces—why so many buses? If one bus flips over or breaks down, all passengers can quickly transfer to the following bus.
In winter, children are only allowed to go out under certain conditions, otherwise they may be blown away by the wind as soon as they go out. It is normal for children to stay indoors for months.
What kind of entertainment can there be in such a place? Especially in winter, there is basically nothing.
Exercising in an indoor sports stadium counts as one, taking a sauna counts as one, and going to a theater to watch a movie or a musical counts as one...basically, that's it!
There are also entertainment places such as restaurants and bars here, but those places usually close when the wind and snow are too strong, and those who can brave the snowstorm to go to those places are true love!
The party that allowed them to attend despite the snowstorm was this "Mecanica". The official statement was "an opportunity to listen to new music in public". When Xiao Peng went there, he found that, well, it was just a large disco scene, or a place for dating.
Xiao Peng had always believed that the birth rate here was much higher than the Russian average because people there were well off, but upon arriving, he discovered that wasn't the case. After visiting the Mechanica location, he often saw strangers, a man and a woman, make eye contact and then disappear into some unknown corner.
No wonder the marriage rate here is low but the fertility rate remains high.
What's the most important reason for this? Norilsk offers excellent benefits to women.
About 60% of the people in this city serve their company, and most of them are miners. They face high-intensity work and harsh natural climate and living environment every day. If there were no women, they might mutiny.
Norilsk's government is essentially comprised of the top management of Norilsk Nickel. Their strategy to attract women is to offer a wide range of benefits. Female employees of Norilsk Nickel not only enjoy over 90 days off a year and retirement at 45, but also receive various fertility incentives. These include vacations, bonuses, free education for children, education subsidies, housing subsidies, food allowances, and more. Even women who don't work for the company, living in the city, enjoy better social welfare than the average person, encouraging them to have children. Having children typically earns more than working, and the more children you have, the better the benefits.
This is similar to the situation in the United States where some black families rely on having more children to receive welfare.
They do this to retain more women and, in turn, men. Gatherings like "Mechanica" are designed to provide opportunities for men and women to meet.
Xiao Peng was really pent up, and there were indeed many young and beautiful Russian girls here, but Xiao Peng was as honest as a quail hatching eggs. He didn't attack anyone and just drank with Terekhin. This made Terekhin depressed: "If you don't go find girls, I will! Why are you dragging me to drink?"
And why is Xiao Peng so naive here?
What’s more, he doesn’t want to put himself in a difficult position!
The first feeling Xiao Peng had when he arrived here was that he had traveled through time:
Have you ever seen a girl dancing in stretchy leggings? Have you ever seen someone dancing in black cotton socks with high heels or sandals? Let's put it this way: the most common outfit for women in bars is a "bragi."
Don't know what 'Braj' is?
If you look at domestic movies from the 1950s and 1960s, you will find that the most popular skirt for domestic women was the 'braji'.
To describe a "blagi" literally, it's a Soviet-style dress, typically featuring floral, plaid, or striped patterns, with loose short sleeves. More fashionable options might have puff sleeves, a simple round or shirt collar, and a belt around the waist to accentuate a woman's curves. Add to that the cheap perfume and unmistakable Soviet-influenced music that filled the venue, and Xiao Peng would have thought he'd been transported back to the 1950s or 1960s.
Such an isolated city has basically nothing to do with the word "fashion".
If it were just this, Xiao Peng could still bear it.
He was a little attracted by a girl he saw. The girl looked very similar to Hollywood actress Meg Ryan, who played Carol in the 1986 classic movie "Top Gun": she had fluffy short golden hair and was dressed in the style of that era - a white wide-band vest on the upper body, and a pair of khaki straight-leg pants underneath. The pants were pulled up hard, and the belt was almost tied to her belly button.
Women of that era liked to use this method to show off their long legs.
But this method is also effective. Paired with a pair of high heels, she does look slender. However, the trouser legs covered the uppers of her shoes, and Xiao Peng didn't know if she had big cotton socks on her feet.
Although Xiao Peng couldn't complain about her outfit, she was still pretty, right?
Beauty is justice!
So Xiao Peng naturally went up to her and started chatting her up: for Xiao Peng now, chatting her up in bars was just a thing he had done before.
As a result, Xiao Peng felt his scalp tingling as soon as the girl opened her mouth: there were at least five dirty words in every sentence she said!
Xiao Peng is no longer in the state where he can get along with any woman like he did in the past. Seeing a girl like this, he really wants to keep his distance from her. What makes Xiao Peng even more upset is that when Terekhin sees that Xiao Peng has a target, he winks at him and goes to find happiness on his own.
Isn't this like putting Xiao Peng on the fire rack?
What made Xiao Peng even more upset was that after Terekin told the girl that Xiao Peng lived in Daxia, the girl would not let Xiao Peng go. It was rare to see foreigners here. In the eyes of Norilsk people, "foreigners" were equivalent to "rich people."
Just when Xiao Peng didn't know what to do, someone came forward to rescue him.
"Zasosova? Why are you here?" Xiao Peng looked at Zasosova with a little surprise, because Terekin ordered that the female students were not allowed to come to such occasions - how could they go to the competition with a big belly?
Zasosova pulled Xiao Peng and said, "Xiao, hurry up and follow me while Terekhin is away!"
After saying that, he dragged Xiao Peng away from the "Mecanica" scene without saying anything else.
Xiao Peng didn't know what was going on, but he was eager to leave the scene as soon as possible, so he went to the cloakroom to get his coat and followed Zasosova away.
"What's going on?" Xiao Peng asked.
Zasosova blinked. "Xiao, you're staying at the Nickel Hotel, right?"
"Yes!" Xiao Peng nodded and said, "Any questions?"
"Is your room big?"
"ah?"
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