red moscow

Chapter 2673 Buying a House

Following Anna's guidance, Sokov parked the car next to an old stone building.

When getting off the car, Sokov looked up at the building in front of him, thinking that he had seen this kind of stone building built with stone slabs during the war. It was much stronger than ordinary brick-concrete houses, and even if it was hit by a few shells, the damage would be limited.

Anna took Sokov's hand and came to the door of one of the units. She took out her cell phone and dialed: "Lyuba, we're here. What's the password to your front door?"

According to the code provided by Liuba, the big iron gate was opened, and Anna walked in again holding Sokov's hand.

After Sokov entered the door, he saw a hall of more than 50 square meters, with four elevators on both sides. There was also a duty room of several square meters near the door, where a chubby auntie was sitting.

Seeing the two people come in, the aunt immediately stuck her head out and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"Lyuba," Anna answered. "I'm a friend of Lyuba's. I came here just to see her."

"Oh, looking for Liuba." The fat lady said, "Her house is on the fifth floor."

At this time, the four elevator doors opened at the same time. Anna pulled Sokov into one of the elevators and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

The elevator reached the fifth floor. Anna looked around first, and after confirming the direction, she pulled Sokov to a leather-covered security door and rang the doorbell next to it.

The door opened, and a girl of the same age as Anna appeared at the door. After seeing Anna, she immediately opened her arms and gave Anna a warm hug.

After the hug, she saw Sokov standing next to her, and asked Anna curiously: "Anna, who is he?"

"He's my friend Misha." Anna introduced the two: "Misha, this is the Lyuba I mentioned to you."

"Hello, Lyuba!"

"Hello, Misha!"

After saying hello, Liuba took the two people into her home.

After entering, Sokov looked at the house carefully.

The living room is about 30 to 40 square meters, with sofas, coffee tables and dining tables. On the left side of the door are the toilet, bathroom and kitchen. There is also a short corridor with several rooms inside.

Liuba led Sokov and Anna into the corridor and came to the door of a room. She pointed inside and said, "This is my father's study. Take a look to see if there are any books you need. I will throw the remaining books into the garbage. Take your time to look. I'm in the living room. If you need anything, just call me."

Sokov walked into the study and saw a bookshelf to the right that reached the ceiling. It was filled with densely packed books, at least thousands of volumes. Next to the bookshelf was an antique desk with a lot of books and a lamp with a lampshade. In other corners of the house, there were also bundles of books.

Sokov, who loves books like his life, was overjoyed to see so many books in the room. But his joy only lasted for a moment, and his expression became gloomy again, because there were too many books here. Even if he could move them all, how many could he move? Moreover, if he moved them back to his own residence, there would be no room for so many books.

Sokov said nothing, but returned to the corridor and inspected two more rooms, both bedrooms, complete with furnished suites and four-poster beds with hangings.

Anna saw Sokov looking around in the room and couldn't help asking curiously, "Misha, what are you looking at?"

"Anna, do you think this place is closer to the market, or where I live is closer to the market?"

"Of course it's here." Anna said without hesitation: "There's a subway station across the street. I can walk much less every day when I go to get off work."

Since the location here is better than the house he rented, Sokov naturally had bold ideas in his mind.

He put his arm around Anna's shoulders, pulled her body towards him, and then leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Anna, go ask your friend how much she plans to sell the house for?"

Hearing Sokov say this, Anna widened her eyes in surprise: "Do you want to buy it?"

"You ask about the price first. I want to see if it's suitable. If it's suitable, I will definitely buy it directly."

"Well, I'll go ask Liuba."

Anna walked into the living room, called Liuba, and asked in a low voice how much she planned to sell the house for.

A few minutes later, Anna came over with Liuba's arm in hand and said to Sokov, "Misha, Liuba said she plans to sell this house for 600 million rubles. If you really want to buy it, she can sell it at a lower price."

Sokov calculated in his mind that according to the latest exchange rate, 600 million rubles equaled 92000 US dollars. If he could buy it for 90000 US dollars, that would be the best.

He did not immediately bargain, but asked tentatively: "Lyuba, I really want to buy this house, what is your lowest price?"

Liuba looked at Anna, then turned her gaze to Sokov: "Misha, since you are Anna's friend, I won't make a random offer. How about 580 million rubles?"

Sokov calculated silently in his mind that the price was already lower than 90,000 US dollars. It would be unkind to bargain with others. After all, he spent money to buy not only this house, but also a room full of books. The value of those things is not cheap.

After thinking it through, Sokov nodded and said, "Okay, 580 million rubles. Liuba, when can we go through the transfer procedures?"

"It's so late today, the housing management department has already gone off work." Liuba said: "How about we go and handle the formalities tomorrow morning?"

"Okay." Sokov nodded and said, "I'll go to the bank and withdraw the money."

Although the house would not be transferred until tomorrow, Liuba asked Sokov and Anna to move in tonight. She would come directly to take them to the housing authority to handle the transfer procedures tomorrow.

After seeing Liuba off, Anna threw herself into Sokov's arms and said excitedly, "Misha, you are amazing. You can actually buy Liuba's house."

Sokov smiled faintly and said, "To be precise, the house will not truly belong to me until I pay off the house price tomorrow and complete the transfer procedures."

"They're almost the same." Anna said, "You have two bedrooms here, can you let me move in and live here?" Thinking of living in such a big house by himself, Sokov readily agreed to the other party's request: "As long as you are willing, you can move in anytime."

……

After the night's exercise, Anna fell into a deep sleep, but Sokov, who had just moved into the new home, was in a state of excitement. He got up from the bed, without even putting on his clothes, and wandered to the study. Sitting at the desk, he turned on the desk lamp and began to read the books and magazines on the table.

He soon discovered that in addition to books and magazines, there were actually several reading notes. He curiously opened one of them and carefully browsed the contents.

If it was before he entered the underground fortifications, he would definitely not be able to understand a lot of the words in the notebook. But after so many years in the war, he could read and write the handwritten words in the notebook freely.

The contents of the notebook were all Liuba's father's thoughts on reading. Although Sokov didn't necessarily agree with them, he just read them for entertainment.

After flipping through a few pages, Sokov was suddenly attracted by a passage.

It only said: "Today I went to a used bookstore and bought an old copy of "The Dawns Here Are Quiet". When I went home and read it, I found that the printing factory had made a serious mistake in printing. The author of this book should be Boris Vasilyev, but the author's name on it is M.M. Sokov..."

Sokov thought he was seeing things, so he rubbed his eyes hard and continued reading. On the notebook was written in black and white his last name in the dream, "Sokov". His breathing suddenly became rapid.

He continued to read and saw the following words in his notes: "When I called the used bookstore to ask why there was such a wrong book, the answer I got was that it was the printer's mistake and had nothing to do with them, and they firmly disagreed with my returning the book."

Sokov put down his notebook, stood up and looked at the bookshelf next to him. He wanted to find out whether the book with his name printed on it was on this bookshelf.

He clearly remembered that before he went to Vienna, he had given the manuscript of "An Ordinary Soldier" to Asia and asked her to pass it on to the publisher on his behalf. If Asia really did what he asked, then in addition to "The Dawns Here Are Quiet", there should be another book "An Ordinary Soldier" published by him at that time.

Thinking of this, he walked to the door, turned on the light in the study, moved the ladder, and began to search carefully on the bookshelf. He hoped that the books mentioned in the notebook could prove that he had indeed traveled to the Patriotic War period and even became a general because of his outstanding military exploits.

After an unknown amount of time, Sokov felt his eyes were blurry, but he still hadn't found the book "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" mentioned in the notebook. He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

He climbed down the ladder, came to the pile of bundled books in the corner, squatted down, and carefully checked whether there was the book he was looking for.

After flipping through several bundles of books, I couldn't find my book, but I heard Anna's voice: "Misha, what are you doing here?"

Sokov looked up and saw Anna in her nightgown standing at the door looking at him. He quickly stood up and said, "I can't sleep. Come in and find some books to read."

Anna came over and put a nightgown in her hand on Sokov, and said with concern: "Misha, the heating in the room has been turned off. It's a bit cold at night. If you don't wear clothes, you will catch a cold."

Sokov held Anna's hand and said gratefully, "Anna, thank you for the clothes you brought me. You go and have a rest first. I'll read a book before going to bed."

After Anna left, Sokov gave up the idea of ​​looking for the book and continued to look through Liuba's father's notebook to see if he could find more clues about himself.

I quickly finished reading the first notebook, but found no other clues related to myself.

He put this book down and picked up another one.

This time, what I picked up was not a reading note, but a personal diary.

As Sokov was flipping through the pages, he suddenly found something that was relevant to him: "...In class, a student had an argument with me. He insisted that in the Battle of Kursk, the 27th Army commanded by a general named Sokov successfully defeated the German Totenkopf Division and the Imperial Division, saving our army from danger on the southern front of Kursk. My God, I don't know where this student saw this absurd content and even brought it to class to argue with me."

Sokov's heartbeat quickened. He didn't expect that someone would know about his achievements in the Battle of Kursk. He took a deep breath and continued to read. It said: "The student also said that General Sokov was also a hero in the Battle of Stalingrad. The 41st Guards Division under his command held Mamayev Kurgan, and the German army used all means but still failed to capture this small hill.

I took out a history book and told them solemnly that the troops defending Mamayev Kurgan were part of the 62nd Army under Chuikov’s command. They did not hold the high ground, but it was taken away by the Germans. But Chuikov knew the importance of the high ground, so he kept organizing his troops to launch a counterattack and tried to take the high ground back from the Germans. According to historical records, until the Germans surrendered, part of the Mamayev Kurgan position was under German occupation.

Seeing this, Sokov couldn't help but wonder, where did Liuba's father's students get the records about him? You know, according to his search over the past two days, he couldn't find any information about him. Could it be that the other party had a special search system?

Unfortunately, the records in Liuba's father's diary were very simple. He did not say the name of the student with whom he had the dispute or where he lived. Even if he wanted to find out the situation from the other party, he didn't know where to start.

After reading this diary, Sokov checked other reading notes and diaries, but could not find any information related to himself.

He sighed softly, turned off the desk lamp, walked into the bedroom in the dark, and lay down on the bed.

Although the noise was very quiet, it still woke up Anna who was sleeping next to him: "Misha, you don't want to read anymore?"

"No more watching." Sokov said, "Go to sleep quickly. You have to go to work when the sun rises."

"I've already texted my boss to ask for leave." Anna moved towards Sokov's seat and said, "I want to go with you to handle the transfer procedures."

Sokov closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep quickly, but the contents about himself in the diary made him very excited. He planned to continue searching the study when he was free one day to see if he could find any useful information.

"Misha, when does your original lease expire?"

Sokov opened his eyes and answered, "I rent a house on a monthly basis, and I just paid the rent before Victory Day. If I want to move out, I can do so at any time. I just need to tell the landlord, but he will definitely not return the deposit and the rent I just paid."

"If you want to move in, can you lend your house to my friend for a while?"

Sokov, who was a little sleepy at first, suddenly woke up after hearing what Anna said. He didn't want someone of unknown origin to live in the house he rented, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble: "Anna, who are you going to let live in my house?"

"It's just my best friend."

"No." Sokov refused very bluntly: "Anna, if it's you or Lena who wants to live in my house, I can agree, but I don't know anyone else at all, so it's definitely not okay to let them live in my rented house."

(End of this chapter)