Million 1

This story happened at the end of February, on Millionka. It was the beginning of a new, twentieth century, a New Year (according to the Chinese calendar), a new day. For the heroes of my story, this Chinese New Year was a turning point. But now it’s early morning, each of the characters is busy with his own business and does not know what awaits him ahead. So, time has passed. And time on Millionka is money. Money that no one will give for nothing and for which they kill. On Millionka it’s simple, swing a knife or put a noose on the neck and...

Part one. Vladivostok. Millionka. Si.

CHAPTER FIRST. SI.

I stole a dress from Madame Haruko, and if the policeman turns right now, I will end up at the police station, and the concert at the Tao Menyano Theater will begin without me. Today is the penultimate day of Chinese New Year. For almost two weeks, the streets of Millionka have been filled with unbridled joy. Despite the frost, Chinese gymnasts, magicians, and trainers perform right on the street. Music sounds from all sides. Firecrackers fly into the air. And the smell! This smell cannot be confused with anything else. Smells like China. China, which I have never been to. I so wanted to belong at this festival, to participate in it, I wanted the audience to hear me sing. But it turned out that I had outgrown my weekend dress. But just three months ago it was just right for me. I was upset and wanted to refuse the concert, but suddenly I remembered Madame Haruko and her dress. Madame Haruko's maid, also Japanese, was hit by a carriage, thank God, not to death. I helped the poor girl get up and pick up a dress that had fallen out of a cardboard box. The dress was not dirty, but only slightly wet from the melted snow. It was painful for the girl to walk, so I helped her get to Madame Haruko’s house. And she even took her to the dressing room, where the frightened girl, looking around and wailing, hung the dress in the closet.
As we left the dressing room, I looked back at the dress with regret. The girl went to the hostess, and I went to the exit. Nobody saw me.

It was yesterday. And today I stole this dress. I thought that everything had gone well, and soon I would be singing on stage in this dress. But I was wrong. They saw me and are now looking for me. I probably won’t sing at the concert in the evening! However, of course, no one will notice this except the owner of the theater.
This concert was supposed to be my first concert.


It’s so good that I live in Vladivostok, how good it is that Millionka is the area where I was born and raised. An area where I know all the entrances and exits. Now, when real spring has not yet arrived, Millionka is especially beautiful. Yesterday snow fell and covered everything that Millionka residents like to throw out of their windows. As soon as the snow melts, food remains and offal of slaughtered animals will become visible. But today is the penultimate day of the Chinese New Year, snow has fallen, and I need to run. Run through passage yards, go down into underground crawl spaces, climb into attic galleries. Run, but where? The only good thing in this whole shitty life is that I am a mixed race, and I belong to the Chinese, Japanese and, of course, Koreans. If you don't know this area well, you won't run far. Fanzas, huts, shacks, temporary huts stand close to each other, propping up neighboring buildings and trying to rise slightly above their neighbors. No, don’t think so, I understand languages perfectly, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. If you don’t know the language, you won’t even be able to call for help. They won't hear you. In Millionka, generally accepted laws do not apply and we strictly enforce our own. Anyone who does not comply with them will face severe punishment, including death. However, here you can easily get a knife in the side or a bullet just like that if someone doesn’t like someone. It is not customary to stand on ceremony here, and therefore almost every day in the Millionka neighborhoods, a dozen or even many more corpses are discovered, often brutally mutilated, with parts of the body cut off. Some people disappear completely into the slums forever.
  That's a good idea! Slum!
  I need to run to the slums, but I've never been inside! They say it's so scary there. My friends, Eneko and Hsia-lin told me that the underground depths of this part of the city are dug up with all sorts of labyrinthine passages, where you can reliably hide from any persecution or go through secret passages outside the city and even supposedly to China...
What am I talking about? Ah, I remembered. About the people who have surrounded me since childhood and the languages, languages that I understand well... I can understand, but I can talk... When I was little, the Honghuz took my mother away. My mother... No, I can’t talk about my mother yet. When that incident happened with my mother, I was only three years old at the time, and I stopped talking. A year later, my speech returned, but along with my stuttering. I stuttered until I was five years old, when Grandma Mai took over. She is a bit of a witch and taught me to speak in a new way. When I felt thatI mumbled on some syllable and couldn’t pronounce it, I started singing. I grew up. Everyone around me is accustomed to my manner of speaking and does not find anything unusual in it. I have many girlfriends. True, I hide my friendship with them from my father. As a child, he beat me when he caught me talking with my moon-faced girlfriends, and now, when it seems too late to beat me, he limits himself to reminding me that I am Russian, although it seems less like a reminder than a itch. “You are Russian, Russian, Russian!”
  OK then. I'm Russian. That is, of course, my mother is Korean, but my father is Russian. I'm terribly tired of these reminders, but I don't argue. Russian, so Russian, but what’s wrong with being Japanese, Korean or Chinese? Moreover, we all live together, next to each other, on this very Millionka, so despised by my father. My father, “a man not without education,” as he calls himself, who by the will of fate was abandoned twenty years ago here, in the Far East, with every fiber of his soul hates Millionka and this land itself, along with its inhabitants, slums, opium distilleries.
  The father is a good person, but he has a small (by his standards) flaw. My father is a player. How many times have I shifted around the fanza where he was stuck playing. It was raining, snowing, the sun was scorching, and I still stood. I was afraid to go there. But hour after hour passed, and I was forced to grab the door handle. If she was. Or lift a rag that blocks the entrance to the fanza and acts as a door. Approaching such an establishment, I could already feel its evil from afar. It was becoming difficult to breathe, the smell of garbage and sewage was overwhelming. And all this stuff lay right in front of the threshold of the fanza in which the den was located. And having made up my mind, I went inside. It turns out that what my nose caught on the street were only flowers; the berries were waiting for me inside. And these berries were so poisonous that I had to hold my nose and try not to breathe. If a person came in from the street, he usually couldn’t see anything at first. Low ceilings, dirt and darkness gave the impression that you were in a basement.
  And only after spending a few minutes inside, a person began to discern something. The players sat in pairs. Curious Chinese, eager for spectacle, waited with bated breath for the start of the game. The room was very small and soon the stench, the smell of unwashed human bodies and the lack of oxygen made one feel dizzy. The players didn’t care, they were outside of this world. The game drew them deeper and deeper. This was also facilitated by Chinese vodka, with the short name Suli, which was offered to the players with enviable regularity. The vodka portions were small, poured into tiny shot glasses, probably out of fear that the players would, in the ever-present Russian custom, get drunk and become rowdy. Abuse in different languages flew from corner to corner, not touching anyone, until the losing people appeared. This is where it all began. Sometimes, only my monotonous singing stopped the bloody mess that was about to begin. But more often than not it didn’t stop. My dad got into fights with other players. At first it was words, and then...
That's it, you need to think about something good. Think about something good. About dad. My dad, my beloved dad... a player. This is one of the reasons why he ended up here in Vladivostok. And specifically, on Millionka. There, in the Northern capital, the father lost the family estate, located a few kilometers from St. Petersburg, lost the house on Vasilyevsky Island, and he also lost. ... In general, I lost a lot! So much that he still owed money and was forced to flee from his creditors. He ran for so long that he only woke up in Vladivostok and realized that his run was over. There was nowhere to run further.

Next was only abroad, China! My father took some savings with him, but they quickly melted away, since my father was used to living on a grand scale and was not going to deny himself anything. When the money ran out, they quickly asked him to leave the furnished rooms.

And he spent the night at first, fortunately it was summer, right on the sand, by the sea, and then he met my future mother. My kind and compassionate mother... Well, okay, we’ll talk about my mother later, now we need to run further before the policeman returns.

There, Uncle Ku waves to me that the way is completely clear. I don’t know if Uncle Ku, and other people I know and don’t know, would have helped me if my face looked more like my dad’s and not my mother’s? He would probably help, but probably not as willingly. No, if you look closely, there is a lot of Slavic in my face, but my cheekbones and the shape of my eyes... But then I am a head taller than any of my Asian girlfriends, and my figure is...

Next to my friends who are the same age, I feel terribly fat, although my dad says that I’m not fat, but portly. Dad is happy that I have the same height and figure as my grandmother, my father’s late mother. He says that if you don’t look at my face, then my grandmother and I are just doubles. Well, thank God! At least I pleased my father with this. The father himself did not emerge as a sprout. I’m already taller than him, not even by one, but by one and a half heads, but this doesn’t irritate him at all. On the contrary, he is proud of me! Although the fact that I am so tall, my-then there is no merit. Despite my father's pride, my height has only gotten me into trouble. In the parochial school, which I stopped going to only last year, all the big shots always fell to me, although there were as many as fifty of us in this school. Father Feofan often did this: he looked point-blank at some Chinese or Korean girl, and called... me! And, as luck would have it, I didn’t have time to learn the lesson according to God’s law.

Well, no boom-boom! What kind of homework is that! I was diving until late! Grebeshkov, I caught oysters! Yes, I want it!

And you won’t expect much from dad with his aristocratic manners. You'll die of hunger while you wait! Until I was twelve, I was raised by my grandmother Mai, my mother’s mother. When I lived with my grandmother, at least once I ate my fill. The rest of the time my food was what I caught in the sea or stole. And when my grandmother died and I returned to live with my father, an aristocrat, then I had to completely take upon myself not only my own, but also my father’s food. Anyway! Let's not remember the sad things today! Today is a great day! Grandma Mai would understand me, but my father won’t understand. And I won’t even tell him! And then how it will start for half a day about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for the scion of an aristocratic family!
Today I will sing alone for the first time, in front of an audience! Before that, I only sang in the church choir. True, sometimes she played solo. At the sound of my voice, Father Feofan’s face softened, but this did not affect my grades in any way. Singing is singing, but God’s law must be taught! Despite my outward recklessness, I am very timid inside! The Slavic half pushes me to adventure, and the Korean half is afraid of everything. Therefore, I was simply afraid to go to an audition somewhere outside of Millionka.

It's funny, I'm afraid of the city center, but the rich and the police are afraid of our area like fire.

On Millionka a person can easily perish, and no one will ever find him, because, as my friends say, there is a whole underground city under Millionka with secret passages and labyrinths for many kilometers.

I probably need to go to the shack that Grandma Mai left me.

You won’t go home with a dress, lectures about honor and dignity will begin. Questions. Examples from the past. My father is good, but funny! In my opinion, he thinks that food on our table appears by magic, out of thin air. It’s decided I won’t go home. I hope grandma's house doesn't fall on my head while I'm trying on a dress! Grandma's house is a light wooden structure with huge cracks in the walls, randomly filled with clay or earth, with a roof covered with brushwood, heavily pressed down by a layer of earth. The floor inside is earthen, there are no windows, there are no doors - instead there is a mat canopy. There is no stove, there is a bench made of stones, at the base of which a fire is built. Russian homes, that is, where I live now with my dad, are not much different from Chinese ones, but they, as a rule, have iron stoves.

If you look at your grandmother’s house from the outside, and at the other houses in the neighborhood on Millionka, you will simply dazzle your eyes with all sorts of incredible shapes and colors. There are only a few stone houses along the entire street.

I was about to dive under the arches of my grandmother’s house, but an exclamation stopped me

- Don't go there, Si!

Si is me. Actually, my name is Anastasia, Nastya, but my friends have a hard time pronouncing this name and so they shortened it to two letters. My Japanese friend Eneko, seeing that I paid attention to her, beckoned me to her with her finger. Eneko had a bag with school books in her hands, and anxiety was frozen in her eyes.

“Don’t go there, Si,” she repeated again.

- Why? - I asked mechanically

All my thoughts were about how I would look in Madame Haruko's dress when I tried it on.

- Because Madame Haruko saw who stole her dress, and while you were sitting out, the police came to your father, and you were searched! Now they will probably come here. I heard that there, near Mrs. Haruko’s house, there are not only Russian police, but also Chinese ones. “They,” Eneko’s eyes filled with tears, “they scold and promise to severely punish you when they catch you.”

- How do you know? — I was still faintly aware of the impending

there's a threat over me.

— When sakura flies around, the wind carries with it not only its petals!

It’s always like this, no, to answer humanly: run Nastaska, save yourself! So-and-so reported on you, and I learned it from so-and-so, because in our Millionka, news spreads instantly. But no, he’ll definitely say something about sakura, the divine wind, and so on...

Well, I flew along with the petals of, what’s-her-name, sakura! But where?

The police won't catch me here. They'll be catching for a year, but they won't be caught! My Millionka is a city within a city, where you can live for years without going to the rich part of the city. There is everything you need for living here: numerous shops and shops, eateries and small restaurants, various workshops, hairdressers, baths, laundries, “offices” of oriental medicine and ordinary doctors, and even their own teathree. Fresh seafood, provisions and various goods, including smuggled ones, can be purchased at the Semenovsky Bazaar, which merges with Millionka and is also a refuge for various bandits. Semenovsky Bazaar provides an opportunity to hide if necessary. Our streets in Millionka are confusing and crooked and are fraught with a lot of dangers for strangers! Sometimes the distance from one slum to another is so narrow that...

Yes, anyone, any person from the eternally hungry population of our quarter, but not Ivan Petrovich, our quarterly. Having weighed all this, I was just about to enter my grandmother’s shack, despite Eneko’s warning, when suddenly Eneko spoke again:

“Mr. Haruko swore that he would catch you, no matter the cost!” - Eneko sobbed again, - So much money has already been distributed to Ivan Petrovich and his subordinates that it would be possible to buy three such dresses.

I unwrapped the dress and showed it to Eneko, wondering what was so special about this dress? I have stolen before, not for pleasure, of course, but nevertheless... But I have never been persecuted like this. Suddenly the air around me was filled with cries of indignation, groans, and threats. It seemed like they were shouting from all sides. I shook my head, trying to understand the cause of the noise. When I decided to ask Eneko something else, the clerk’s son, Filka, stood in her place. Seeing that I was looking at him, Filka defiantly stood in front of me. He stood up and blocked the passage into the gap where I was going to sneak if danger became imminent.

- What a Nastya you are! There, narrow-eyed people were dragged out of their houses, they are looking for you! At least that’s something for you!

- Why were they dragged out? - Still not understanding anything and not believing what Filka said, I asked.

- Do you really not understand anything?

I shook my head.

— The policemen were divided. One half guards the narrow-eyed ones pulled out of their houses, the other hangs around in their fanzes, or whatever they call their houses. They look for you, and along the way, if they find anything valuable in the shacks, they take it for themselves. Like w-li-ku. What a word! Evidence! The quarterly repeated it three times, but I remembered it! Well, why are you silent? Very proud? Now your pride...

I flinched from the scream that came from nearby.

- What will you do? - Filka asked still calmly, almost lazily.

— I’ll make my way to the Korean settlement, I have distant relatives there.

“Nope,” said Filka.

- What, no? - I mimicked him.

— That road has already been blocked! - without being offended at all, even with some joy, Filka said

- What if I try to escape through Polaya to Katorzhanka? — I started to panic.

“And everything is blocked there,” Filka was already amusing himself, openly and from the heart.

If it weren’t for the threat of capture, the clerk’s son would have tasted my fists long ago. But today it was not profitable for me. Restraining myself, I calmly and even affectionately asked Filka.

- So what should I do?

Whistles and shouts came close to the gap that Filka was blocking.

- What will you give me if I tell you?

- What can I give you? I have nothing!

- What if you think about it?

But even after thinking, I couldn’t remember what I had that was so valuable that could satisfy the greedy Filka. Time passed, and Filka still smiled disgustingly, blocking the passage. I was starting to get angry.

- Come on, get out of here, you idiot!

- For a moron, the price doubles! If you fight, I’ll scream and everyone will come running here!

- So what do you want? - I asked tiredly.

- Your famous hair comb!

- Filka, why do you need a comb? You're not a girl!

- Don’t bother Vanka! Tea, I’m no more stupid than you! - Filka frowned. - I’ll sell your comb and buy myself boots!

- Fear God, Philip! This is my mother's comb! How can I give it to you?

- Well, if you don’t want it, you’ll give it to the police! They won’t even ask you, they’ll take it and that’s it! Well, will you give me the comb? I'm already tired of holding back! Passion makes me want to scream!

- Here, take it, Judas! And move away from the aisle!

- Don’t you want any advice? Don't be afraid, the advice is free! Run to the Semenovsky ladle, only the road there hasn’t been blocked yet, hide in the catacombs until everything calms down!

- Filka, you know what...

- What?

- Shove your advice, you know where! And step aside, otherwise I’ll inadvertently hurt you! Stupid, I'm stupid! I would give a comb for advice that I could give myself!

I ran along a familiar road, but the sounds of whistles and screams did not leave me behind. My heart was jumping out of my chest, but despite this, I accelerated my run. Suddenly I stopped. That dress again! The hem got tangled in the branches of a bush. In my fever, I completely forgot about the reason for my misfortunes, and now this reason did not allow me to run further! I tugged at the dress several times, the material crackled, but I didn’t want to come off! Then I tried to carefully unhook the hem. No way!

“Should I leave the damned dress hanging here on the bush?” — I thought with despair.

Yeah, it will hang here quietly, and they will chase me like a hare! No, really! Luckily for me, the bush was frail, but still terribly prickly and tenacious. While I was breaking the bush, St.three. Fresh seafood, provisions and various goods, including smuggled ones, can be purchased at the Semenovsky Bazaar, which merges with Millionka and is also a refuge for various bandits. Semenovsky Bazaar provides an opportunity to hide if necessary. Our streets in Millionka are confusing and crooked and are fraught with a lot of dangers for strangers! Sometimes the distance from one slum to another is so narrow that...

Yes, anyone, any person from the eternally hungry population of our quarter, but not Ivan Petrovich, our quarterly. Having weighed all this, I was just about to enter my grandmother’s shack, despite Eneko’s warning, when suddenly Eneko spoke again:

“Mr. Haruko swore that he would catch you, no matter the cost!” - Eneko sobbed again, - So much money has already been distributed to Ivan Petrovich and his subordinates that it would be possible to buy three such dresses.

I unwrapped the dress and showed it to Eneko, wondering what was so special about this dress? I have stolen before, not for pleasure, of course, but nevertheless... But I have never been persecuted like this. Suddenly the air around me was filled with cries of indignation, groans, and threats. It seemed like they were shouting from all sides. I shook my head, trying to understand the cause of the noise. When I decided to ask Eneko something else, the clerk’s son, Filka, stood in her place. Seeing that I was looking at him, Filka defiantly stood in front of me. He stood up and blocked the passage into the gap where I was going to sneak if danger became imminent.

- What a Nastya you are! There, narrow-eyed people were dragged out of their houses, they are looking for you! At least that’s something for you!

- Why were they dragged out? - Still not understanding anything and not believing what Filka said, I asked.

- Do you really not understand anything?

I shook my head.

— The policemen were divided. One half guards the narrow-eyed ones pulled out of their houses, the other hangs around in their fanzes, or whatever they call their houses. They look for you, and along the way, if they find anything valuable in the shacks, they take it for themselves. Like w-li-ku. What a word! Evidence! The quarterly repeated it three times, but I remembered it! Well, why are you silent? Very proud? Now your pride...

I flinched from the scream that came from nearby.

- What will you do? - Filka asked still calmly, almost lazily.

— I’ll make my way to the Korean settlement, I have distant relatives there.

“Nope,” said Filka.

- What, no? - I mimicked him.

— That road has already been blocked! - without being offended at all, even with some joy, Filka said

- What if I try to escape through Polaya to Katorzhanka? — I started to panic.

“And everything is blocked there,” Filka was already amusing himself, openly and from the heart.

If it weren’t for the threat of capture, the clerk’s son would have tasted my fists long ago. But today it was not profitable for me. Restraining myself, I calmly and even affectionately asked Filka.

- So what should I do?

Whistles and shouts came close to the gap that Filka was blocking.

- What will you give me if I tell you?

- What can I give you? I have nothing!

- What if you think about it?

But even after thinking, I couldn’t remember what I had that was so valuable that could satisfy the greedy Filka. Time passed, and Filka still smiled disgustingly, blocking the passage. I was starting to get angry.

- Come on, get out of here, you idiot!

- For a moron, the price doubles! If you fight, I’ll scream and everyone will come running here!

- So what do you want? - I asked tiredly.

- Your famous hair comb!

- Filka, why do you need a comb? You're not a girl!

- Don’t bother Vanka! Tea, I’m no more stupid than you! - Filka frowned. - I’ll sell your comb and buy myself boots!

- Fear God, Philip! This is my mother's comb! How can I give it to you?

- Well, if you don’t want it, you’ll give it to the police! They won’t even ask you, they’ll take it and that’s it! Well, will you give me the comb? I'm already tired of holding back! Passion makes me want to scream!

- Here, take it, Judas! And move away from the aisle!

- Don’t you want any advice? Don't be afraid, the advice is free! Run to the Semenovsky ladle, only the road there hasn’t been blocked yet, hide in the catacombs until everything calms down!

- Filka, you know what...

- What?

- Shove your advice, you know where! And step aside, otherwise I’ll inadvertently hurt you! Stupid, I'm stupid! I would give a comb for advice that I could give myself!

I ran along a familiar road, but the sounds of whistles and screams did not leave me behind. My heart was jumping out of my chest, but despite this, I accelerated my run. Suddenly I stopped. That dress again! The hem got tangled in the branches of a bush. In my fever, I completely forgot about the reason for my misfortunes, and now this reason did not allow me to run further! I tugged at the dress several times, the material crackled, but I didn’t want to come off! Then I tried to carefully unhook the hem. No way!

“Should I leave the damned dress hanging here on the bush?” — I thought with despair.

Yeah, it will hang here quietly, and they will chase me like a hare! No, really! Luckily for me, the bush was frail, but still terribly prickly and tenacious. While I was breaking the bush, St.