Arian didn't look any further, turned around and struggled to close the wooden door, and then the howling of the wind and snow subsided. He turned around and saw the huntress beside the stove, who was already adding firewood to the weak flame without his need to remind her. The temperature in the room, which had dropped immediately after opening the door, began to gradually warm up.
"...Are you from the town?"
The answer that should have been confirmed at the first glance, old Arrian still asked as he approached the huntress by the fire.
It was so authentic. This girl's Russian was even more Muscovite than Muscovite, which made him doubt his initial guess.
"Ah, yes. My mother is a tailor in the town, and my father works as a worker in Moscow. Every year we come back to see my mother and grandma."
"I just said... I don't think you sound like someone from this town." Old Aryan was relieved when he heard the word Moscow, and looked at the young huntress as if she was seeing something new.
Moscow...the capital of the motherland, a place called paradise. Even though the town rarely sees a few outsiders in a year, he didn't expect that an old guy living in the suburbs would meet someone from the capital of the motherland!
The huntress quickly rubbed her hands by the stove, pulled down the collar that covered half of her face and looked up at old Alian, "Thank you so much, uncle, for opening the door and lending a helping hand, otherwise I would have been buried outside by this snowstorm. I will definitely bring something to thank you when I go back to town!"
"No matter where it is, people from the same town should help each other." Old Arian looked at this girl who was about 25 years old and could be his daughter. His eyes became much kinder. He waved his hand and bent down to lift the stove in front of the stove. He filled the teapot with a cup of hot milk on the table and handed it over.
"But girl, you are really careless. You dared to run out to hunt when there was such an obvious signal of the coming blizzard. You are still so far away. This place is quite far away from the town. You should have planned to go back when you came out. It’s time.”
"I don't have enough experience. My hunting hobby was cultivated in the town when I was a child. When I grew up, I went to Moscow. There are few people there who hunt like us." The huntress looked a little embarrassed, but she turned her head. Looking at the layout of the wooden house, his eyes immediately lit up when he saw the bear heads hanging on the wall and the fur-wrapped sofa seats. "Uncle, are you a professional hunter? The kind who only make a living by hunting. I thought the hunter There are not many pure hunters left in the world!”
"It's not much. After having the original work of the motherland, the situation in the town has improved a lot, and there are a lot of new things. But an old guy like me is still used to the old life, and I always feel a little uneasy in the new environment. "Old Arian sat on the seat with the reindeer leather bag and picked up a bottle of vodka. His tone was a bit sad and sighing, "The motherland is very powerful. Even in a place like this, the motherland can bring us magical things... The changes are too great. It’s big. (The geography of Verkhoyansk is about the same as the Daliang Mountains in Sichuan, and it is extremely poor)”
"Are there big changes in the town?" The female hunter shook her head, "Compared to the outside world, my town is actually no different from before. The outside world is changing rapidly, and Americans have rushed out of the earth and are on the moon. Leah."
"Americans? Go to the moon?" Old Arian opened his eyes wide, "How is this possible? Girl, I know you came back from outside, but you can't talk nonsense! Don't think that I am easy to deceive because I am old! "
"It's true, uncle, I didn't lie to you. The Americans really succeeded and sent a man to the moon. And this was twenty years ago."
"What about the motherland? Have Americans gone to the motherland?"
"We... didn't." The huntress scratched her head.
"Nonsense! The Americans have gone up, why can't we go up?" Old Arian shook his head in disbelief, "I heard that the motherland is still at war with the Americans! They want to blow up the United States with bombs... Is that why the Americans are here? Escaped to the moon?"
"..." The huntress didn't know what to say for a moment. She didn't expect that this old hunter from a remote country still had patriotic aspirations... But it's normal, as long as he is a Soviet person, he would There is a strong Soviet plot, which is the support and strong pride of the glorious Soviet era. This enthusiasm will not dissipate much even in the corners of the world.
only...
The huntress looked at old Aryan and sighed without saying what she should say. Instead, she changed the subject, "How long have you lived here? Have you always been alone? Where is the child?"
"He is working hard outside." The old hunter paused and took a sip from the bottle of vodka. His face illuminated by the stove became a little more rosy. "When he was young, he went to Moscow with a group of young people to make a living. In the past few years, I will come back, but later it was said that I had a new family in Moscow and I didn’t come back, which is good.”
The huntress scratched her head, feeling that she had brought up a bad topic, "Why don't you live in the town? Although there are many new things in the town, it is convenient, right? The neighbors are all helpful. I see that you are not too young. There will probably be more and more inconvenient things in life in the future (she noticed the gauze on old Arian’s left hand).”
"I don't have any plans for the moment." Old Arian glanced at the dim blue snowstorm outside the window, and seemed to think of the firewood and hunting traps that had not been brought in. He sighed, "Oh, but it is true that people cannot accept old age... But when you go to town, there aren’t that many prey to hunt. I’ve been alone here for more than ten years, so I’m used to it.”
Valley
"Are you the only one living here, old man? Is there anyone else?"
"No." Old Arian put down the bottle of wine and stood up, went to the table and picked up the knife to cut the fish that he had not cut before. He did not forget that he had not eaten dinner yet. "Are you hungry after hunting outside? Eat something? This morning? The fish I just caught is fresh.”
"Is it raw fish? I haven't had this bite for a long time." The huntress put down the cup, rubbed her leather gloves and walked to the table with excitement. Old Alian looked sideways and saw the girl's simple and straightforward expression and couldn't help but smile. "You can't eat such fresh fish in Moscow. Many people from the motherland have to come to us every winter to drag fish meat back to Moscow to sell."
"Old man, your hand is injured, let me cut it." The female hunter licked her tongue and went to take the dagger excitedly. The old hunter handed it over without thinking, and the dagger twirled in the girl's hand. Holding the frozen crucian carp standing upright with his left hand, he cut it with his right hand, quickly and steadily.
"Young people have steady hands. I think you are also very steady when holding a bow, right? Your father taught you this?" Old Arian couldn't help but admired that in today's world, there are fewer and fewer pure hunters. Young people with such qualifications are still women. Babies are simply a rarity.
"Self-taught. No one in my family knows how to hunt. When I was a child, I loved running around in the town. Even when the weather was minus 50 degrees, I would run outside. Chasing rabbits and fishing in ice pits were my favorite activities. Bows and arrows and so on. Just think about it and you'll get it."
"Didn't you catch any rabbits when you went out this time?" Old Alian saw that the female hunter came to her cabin empty-handed.
"I caught them. There were three or four of them. They were so fat. They were all hanging on me before. But when the snowstorm came, I was afraid that they would be too heavy to run fast, so I lost them all. I can still tell the difference between a full meal and a full meal. ." The female hunter quickly cut the fish rolls for two people with her knife, and a 2-pound crucian carp was almost hollowed out on both sides.
Old Arian brought bread slices with sauce, put the fish rolls on the bread slices, spread the local sauce, salt and onions, and handed it to the huntress. The huntress didn't show up, put down the knife in her hand, wiped her hands, and stretched her head. He went over and took the bread in his mouth, "Do you have any more vodka? I don't feel good drinking milk. It's cold, so I'd better drink to warm up."
"Wine? Can you please drink alone? Go to the kang." Aryan immediately became happy when he heard that the huntress asked for wine. He walked to the kang with the plate of fish rolls in his hand, walked to the edge of the kang and opened it. A piece of cloth, underneath were three stacks of vodka in wooden boxes. At first glance, it looked like there were no less than forty or fifty bottles.
"It's all Red Label Vodka!?" The huntress was a little overjoyed and got into the bed like nothing else.
"They are all red brand, produced in Moscow, just like this one. Every year when people from the motherland come, I will exchange fish and rabbits for wine." Old Arian sat on the kang in high spirits and took a bottle to the huntress, "Home. Even though I don’t have anything, I definitely have enough wine! I’m sure I’ll be as drunk as you were in Moscow!”
"That's a great feeling. I haven't had such a good drink in a long time." The female hunter unscrewed the cap and unscrewed the bottle. She took one sip and was so happy that she slapped her thighs. She also stuffed a piece of frozen fish into her mouth and chewed it. Seeing this appearance, the hunter couldn't help but smile.
"By the way, girl, let me ask you something."
"Is this something about Moscow? I asked casually, how can I be considered half-connected to the Soviet Union?"
Soviet Union? The old hunter didn't understand this sentence, but it didn't stop him from asking, "Is it profitable to be a winery in Moscow?"
"Wineries? Wineries always make money. People in the motherland are all drunkards. You don't know, old man. The drinking there is even worse than here. When you get high, you squat and dance the Cossack dance..."
"Is it making money? That's good... that's good..." After getting the answer, the old man nodded thoughtfully and continued to drink. After a while, he asked, "How much money can people who open wineries earn?" How many houses should I buy in Moscow?”
"It depends on whether the boss is evil-minded. If he mixes water into the wine for a few more years, maybe the Kremlin can buy it." The huntress said hehey, but then she suddenly thought of something and scratched her head, "Old man. ..Your son opens a winery in Moscow?”
"Maybe..." Aryan drank wine and ate meat, "I remember that Petrov used to bring me wine when he came back. It was this brand of vodka. He said that he had found a stable job in Moscow and would be promoted soon. Tell me not to worry, I think I will just work in the winery."
"But the world is in a recession now." The female hunter hesitated before deciding, "Although there should be no problem with opening a winery, the income will still be hit, and the market is not as good as before."
"Is it because of the United States?" Aryan touched his chest and asked in a low voice, "I heard that we have been at war with them."
"There was no real fight. It was called a cold war. The situation inside was very complicated, and... let's forget about it." The huntress blinked her eyes, "Old man, let me tell you what I saw in Moscow. Do you know the changes outside? Now there are special bars for the elderly in Moscow, places to drink. All the old ladies who are your age and have no spouses like to drink there..."
Aryan choked with a puff, and looked up at the huntress with a flushed face, "What are you talking nonsense about, little girl? Where is Moscow in the motherland... That is the capital, how could there be such... strange things? thing."
