Chapter 1812 'Enjoying Solitude'
Dudinka is the capital of the Taimyr Autonomous Region, located on the right bank of the Yeseni River. It has a port, a railway and an airport. 85% of the population of the entire Taimyr Autonomous Region lives in that city.
Xiao Peng now realized that humans are definitely social animals, and he loves being in a crowd. If he were to be with a group of strangers—or a group of strange men at that? He would really go crazy!
He now particularly admires those navy soldiers who lived in stilt houses back then. They stared at each other every day facing such harsh living conditions. Aren't they crazy?
Nowadays, people in the city all say, "Life is too noisy, I want to enjoy solitude." Anyone who says this is definitely mentally ill and is just complaining for no reason. There are people who can truly enjoy solitude, but they are really not many!
Having a cell phone and a computer, how could you call that lonely? Really try it here. There's no internet, no cell phone, and even if there were a TV, there would only be three Russian-language TV stations: one news channel, another that broadcast all sorts of old Russian TV shows, and another entertainment channel whose entertainment Xiao Peng couldn't understand.
Why do Russians love literature? Besides reading, Xiao Peng can't think of anything else to do there!
Xiao Peng is not one of those people who "enjoy solitude". If he really is that kind of person, how can he make money? What a psychopath!
He is about to collapse while flying in the sky!
With the Y-5B's crappy speed, it would take over four hours to reach Dudinka! Furthermore, the plane didn't have any autopilot function. Xiao Peng almost trapped himself in the act of flying.
And... it's so damn cold! Although the Y-5B has heaters, it's no different from not having any in such extreme cold. The temperature inside the plane is only about 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. Sitting here without moving is not an easy task!
But he was lucky, as the weather was relatively good after a storm. Otherwise, he would not dare to fly so far.
"Hmm?" Xiao Peng suddenly noticed a thick smoke behind him on the right. Is the forest on fire?
No, that smoke from the gas over there is straight and black. This doesn't look like a forest fire. Xiao Peng turned the plane and flew over.
He flew not far before he discovered a road on the other side of the forest. In the middle of the road, he saw a car burning fiercely. He then looked again and saw several people desperately waving to Xiao Peng.
"What's going on?" Xiao Peng lowered his altitude to observe. They were several young people, probably around 20 years old. No, there seemed to be one who was older. Seeing him shouting and yelling,
Xiao Peng lowered his altitude and waved to them, signaling them to clear the road, then landed directly on the highway. He didn't turn off the engine, just like a car, turning off the engine in such a temperature is not a wise thing to do.
Xiao Peng opened the cabin door and waved to them to hurry over. After they boarded the plane, Xiao Peng started the engine again and took off. There were seven of them in total, five men and two women. Aside from one who was probably in his fifties, the others were probably under twenty. Each of them carried a travel bag.
They thanked Xiao Peng in various ways, and Xiao Peng handed them a headset: In this plane, communication really depends on shouting. It is basically impossible for a group of soldiers to sit in a transport plane and chat quietly like in the movies!
Why do pilots wear headphones? The noise is unbearable! The noise of the Y-5 is even more unbearable!
After the older man put on the headphones, he said something that Xiao Peng couldn't understand.
"You don't speak Russian?" Xiao Peng asked.
"Uh?" The older man switched to fluent Russian and said, "I'm taking care of you. I speak Yakut. You're not Yakut, are you Nenets?"
The Taimyr Autonomous Region borders the Sakha Republic to the east, where the majority of the population is the Yakuts, who are all of the yellow race. They are closely related to the Evenki and Oroqen peoples, and they speak Yakut, a Turkic language.
He suspected that he was a Yakut because the Yakuts were more secular than the Nenets, and more of them accepted modern life.
Xiao Peng pointed to the passenger seat's bag and said, "Open my bag. There are instant milk tea cups inside. There's a water heater behind my seat. Make each of you a cup to warm yourself up—and make one for me too. By the way, I'm from Daxia, not Russia."
The man didn't hesitate and opened Xiao Peng's bag, which contained several paper cups. He opened the lid, opened the milk tea bag inside, and poured the milk tea into the cup. He then made a cup with hot water and handed it to a young man next to him, motioning him to make a cup for everyone. Finally, when everyone had a cup, he came to the cockpit with two cups, put Xiao Peng's bag on the ground, and sat down in the co-pilot seat. He handed Xiao Peng a cup, took a sip of the milk tea in his hand, and sighed, "Huh, I'm alive again!"
Xiao Peng was not angry at his impoliteness: Many Russians are like this. If they are not polite to you, you should not be polite to them.
The middle-aged man extended his hand to Xiao Peng and said, "Dmitri Anatolyevich Terekin, just call me Terekin. Thank you for saving us."
Xiao Peng shook hands with him: "Xiao Peng. Just call me Xiao." He took a sip of milk tea and said: "What's going on with you guys?"
The middle-aged man said, "We're from the Norilsk branch of the Spazaganova Club, and we're heading back to Norilsk. Our car broke down on the way, and just when we were desperate, we saw your plane—we could hear it from so far away! We set our car on fire to warn you. Luckily, you saw it; if you hadn't, we'd be dead! Haha, thank God, he didn't abandon us!"
As he spoke, he made the sign of the Orthodox cross on his chest.
Although both believe in God, Catholics and Orthodox use their fingers to make the sign of the cross differently. Catholics naturally bend their right hand, put the thumb, index finger and middle finger together, and use the middle finger to touch the forehead, chest, left and right shoulders, and then both hands; while Orthodox use up and down, right and left, and their gestures are slightly different. Either they spread their fingers out to make the sign of the cross with four fingers, or they pinch five fingers together to make the sign of the cross.
After hearing this, Xiao Peng pointed at his nose and said, "Terekin, I saved you. Why are you thanking God?"
After hearing this, Terekhin didn't get angry, but laughed: "It was God who brought us together, wasn't it?"
Xiao Peng gave a thumbs-up. "You win. What club were you talking about? What is this 'Spartaganova'?"
But when Terekhin heard Xiao Peng say that, he got anxious: "You haven't even heard of 'Spazhaganova'? Are you still a man?"
Xiao Peng didn't know what to say. I've never heard of 'Spartaganova', so how can that mean I'm not a man?
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