My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 175 Five Hundred Thousand

In Russian, "he," "she," and "it" have different spellings and pronunciations. However, the declension of "he" and "it" is the same except when they are used as the subject.

Native Russian speakers can distinguish between the two pronouns in conversation through subtle changes in pronunciation and intonation, but foreigners like Hu Yi are not yet able to do so.

Furthermore, Russians don't strictly adhere to the use of pronouns when referring to animals, so regardless of whether Natasha said "he" or "it," Hu Yi only heard "he," naturally leading him to assume Misha was a boy.

"My son? How could that be?" Natasha laughed so hard she bent over. "Look, Anton, I have neither a son nor a daughter. Why would you think that?"

"Misha sounds like a child's name." The Shar Pei always looked gloomy, but in Hu Yi's eyes, it seemed especially adorable. He couldn't help but pat Misha's head: "If it were to be your son, I wouldn't mind at all, I'd welcome it very much."

"I found Misha in a park when I first arrived in Moscow," Natasha said with a smile. "In fact, she's like my son."

"He's my son now!" Anna emerged from behind the bar, tossing a few slices of beef to Misha. "Look at our Misha, isn't she adorable!"

"Misha, you're so lucky!" Hu Yi patted Misha's bottom and said to Natasha, "Let's go to the market."

"Okay." Natasha got up and put on her coat, then suddenly wrapped her arms around Hu Yi's neck: "Anton, before you met Misha, you thought he was my biological child, right?"

"Yeah, it was a misunderstanding." Hu Yi smiled sheepishly. "I almost had a heart attack just now."

"But you still agreed to take care of him with me?" Natasha gazed at Hu Yi with deep affection. "You're so wonderful, so sweet and kind."

"Because I love you, I definitely can't let you be sad!" Hu Yi gently kissed her: "However, apart from Misha, all our other children in the future must be born to both of us."

"Of course!"

"Oh, a man and a woman, deeply in love and full of hope for the future." Anna smiled and squatted down next to Misha. "You two can go to the market without worry. I'll take care of Misha."

Hu Yi arrived at the market a little later than usual today. He opened the boxes first and arranged for the customers waiting at the door to pick up their goods, while Natasha went to choose her own pants.

There was an open cargo bag in the box. Natasha rummaged through it for a while, then shook her head and said, "There are quite a few similar ones in the store. I want to buy some other styles to take back with me."

"Other styles? Okay, come with me." Hu Yi couldn't open other packages just because Natasha bought a few bundles of pants. He was going to collect payments anyway, so he would take her to the customer's place to pick some out.

Fu Jiahui and other shop owners who source goods from within China are the main suppliers in the market, and their customers are primarily engaged in wholesale business. They buy goods in bulk from suppliers, then sell most of them in bundles, while also keeping some at their own retail stalls.

Wholesale in bundles doesn't add much to the price, and since customers are familiar with Hu Yi, they were all very attentive and generous when they saw him bringing his stunningly beautiful girlfriend to buy pants. They only charged a few hundred rubles more per bundle than the purchase price and even rounded down the difference.

After wandering around the old Sun District for a while, Natasha bought four bundles of trousers and some trinkets that she thought could fetch a good price, while Hu Yi also received more than 500,000 rubles in payment.

Fifty thousand rubles in cash sounds like a lot at first glance; if it were in RMB, it would need a bag or a box to carry it. But at that time, the largest denomination of ruble was one thousand, and the banknotes were relatively narrow, so five hundred thousand rubles was just five small bundles. Hu Yi could easily carry them in his hand with a sturdy medium-sized plastic bag, and he could also help Natasha carry a few bundles of trousers.

"Alright, that concludes today's shopping." Natasha followed Hu Yi contentedly. "I'll go back and give the pants to Anna, then I'll go to the Kangaroo Supermarket to buy Misha some new dog food. Yevgeny brought half a bag of dog food that it hadn't finished eating, but that brand is too high-end; I need to let it gradually get used to cheaper food."

"Wouldn't that be inappropriate? Misha didn't come back to you to live a hard life. I think we can afford to feed her well." Hu Yi stopped, took out his wallet, hesitated for a moment, then pulled out two thousand rubles and handed them to Natasha: "Here, consider this... consider this Misha's... dog food fund. Take it and buy her some good food."

"Oh dear, Anton," Natasha smiled at him. "You don't understand, Misha has a big appetite, and I don't want it to add to your burden."

"Oh, I make a lot of money now, do you think I'd be eaten out of house and home by a little dog?" Hu Yi stuffed the money into her pocket without further ado, changing the subject: "Are you planning to let Misha live in the internet cafe?"

"No, I'll spend the day at the internet cafe and bring her back to my room at night." Natasha smiled mischievously. "You won't mind, will you?"

"I don't mind. It's like your son, so naturally it should stay by your side."

"That's great. But if we need to be alone in the house, could we let it stay in your room for a while?"

"Of course, no problem!"

The two chatted and laughed as they walked out of the market. A boxy, old Lada was parked by the roadside; a young, dark-haired man sat in the driver's seat, his hands on the steering wheel, looking around, seemingly waiting for someone to hail a taxi. Hu Yi stepped forward and knocked on the window: "Friendship University, wanna go?"

Black Hair glanced sideways at the bundles of trousers they were carrying and shook his head indifferently. Hu Yi walked another ten meters or so, flagged down a car, and saw Natasha off.

Watching the car disappear from sight, Hu Yi stretched slightly, intending to go back to his box to rest. Just as he turned to walk back, his phone received a text message. It was from Da Liu, who had managed to get his hands on some new books and had sent him the titles to take a look.

Hu Yi glanced at the books quickly; two titles caught his eye, so he called Da Liu to reserve them for him. Unexpectedly, as soon as the call connected, Da Liu spoke first: "Brother Hu! Who is that Russian girl you were talking to?"

"Oh? That's my girlfriend." Hu Yi chuckled. "Where are you? Did you see us?"

"I happened to see you standing by the roadside hailing a taxi, and I only caught a glimpse of your backs." Big Liu chuckled softly. "Did you need something?"

"It's nothing, just those books you sent me," Hu Yi said, but he suddenly saw the driver of the Lada that had been parked by the roadside earlier open the door and get out, rushing towards him.

The two were very close. Just as Hu Yi realized something was wrong, the black-haired man was already in front of him and punched him in the nose without saying a word.

Hu Yi reacted quickly, dodging to the side. He avoided the punch to his nose, but it landed squarely on his lip. He stumbled a few steps on the snow, his body tilted to the side, before he knelt down on one knee, his hand on the ground. Seeing Hu Yi fall, the assailant rushed forward, bent down, and tried to snatch the plastic bag from his left hand.

So they were trying to rob him. Enraged, Hu Yi wrapped the plastic bag around his wrist and clutched it tightly to his chest. Blackie failed to snatch it and was about to try again when Hu Yi, kneeling on the ground, twisted his waist violently and slammed his phone down twice against Blackie's eye socket: "Fuck your mother! I'll fuck your mother!!!"

The two blows were solid; you could feel the vibration of the phone screen cracking even through the gloves. Black Hair let out a wail, pulled back his hands to cover his face, and half-squatted down. Hu Yi sat sideways on the ground, taking advantage of the moment his vision was obstructed, bent his right leg, and kicked him hard in the face with all his might.

He was wearing imitation military-style cotton-padded leather boots, the thick soles pressing firmly against his chin. Without even a groan, the black-haired man leaned back and fainted.

Just as Hu Yi was about to get up, he saw two more black-haired men emerge from the back of the Lada and sprint toward him like they were doing a 100-meter dash.

Getting into a fight wasn't a big deal, but he couldn't afford to lose the 500,000 rubles in his arms. Without thinking, Hu Yi stumbled to his feet and forcefully threw his slightly deformed phone at one of the tall, short-haired men.

The man quickly ducked down, the phone grazed his head, and he tumbled and crashed into the Lada, falling to the ground and breaking into pieces.

In the blink of an eye, another man with slightly longer black hair was already next to Hu Yi, cursing and punching him in the forehead, and then reaching out to snatch the money bag.

Hu Yi was hit, bent over to protect his money bag, and backed away. The man leaned forward, grabbed Hu Yi's left arm with both hands, and forcefully pried it outward. The short-haired, black-haired man who had just dodged the phone also quickly closed in, opened his arms, and hugged Hu Yi from behind around the waist, trying to throw him to the ground.

In a moment of desperation, Hu Yi reached out his right hand and grabbed the long hair of the person in front of him tightly, pulling him sharply into his arms. The long-haired man cried out in pain and bent over to the side.

Almost simultaneously, Hu Yi was pushed and tripped by the short-haired man behind him, lost his balance and fell hard, while the long-haired man also stumbled and fell beside him.

The short-haired man rushed up to rob him of his money, but Hu Yi loosened his long hair, clutched the money bag tightly to his chest with both hands, and lay on the ground kicking and thrashing his legs.

Enraged, the long-haired man lunged at Hu Yi with a yelp and started fighting. Hu Yi thrashed about with his elbows, knees, and head, clinging tightly to the 500,000 rubles in front of his chest.

However, two fists can't fight four hands. Hu Yi couldn't get up, and with both hands protecting the money bag, he had no advantage whatsoever. He was quickly hit several times on the body and face. The long-haired guy was lying on the ground pressing down on his waist and abdomen, while the short-haired guy stood beside him and grabbed the money bag from his chest. The black-haired guy who had been kicked unconscious earlier had also slowly woken up and staggered towards them.

Hu Yi knew something was wrong. Without hesitation, he leaned in and bit down hard on the short-haired man's wrist. The short-haired man screamed, pulled back a few steps, and then came back cursing angrily.

"You little brat! I'll kill you!" Hu Yi cursed as he struggled like a fish pulled from the water, trying to shake off the long-haired thugs. Suddenly, he heard someone in the market shouting in Russian, "Security! Security! Over there! Someone's robbing people! Quick!"

(End of this chapter)