Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 218: For Your Majesty (33)

Dragon Raja 5

“I was born in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug in Siberia. My parents were both members of a cooperative. I worked at a state-owned tractor factory, but I was restless and came to Moscow to do business. I met a few friends from China who taught me to drink Moutai and import clothes and gave me a Chinese name. In those years, I often went back and forth to the border crossing. On this side of the border, I drank vodka and spoke Russian. After crossing the border, I drank Moutai and ate dumplings and instant noodles. I bought goods in the Northeast and sold them on the black market in various republics, making a lot of money. . But the situation suddenly changed, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the great ideal was shattered. It was a chaotic era. You could exchange a box of Moutai for a tank that had just been produced, and you could also use a pair of stockings to make friends with a beautiful girl of the Miss Russia level. The red behemoth fell, but its bones were still a huge treasure. I like to drink and make friends. I soon realized that the military industry is the greatest legacy of the Soviet Union. There are still half-built aircraft carriers in the dock, and the parts of the Su-27 fighter jets were piled up in the warehouse, just waiting to restart the production line to assemble them. On the black market, some were even selling Topol intercontinental missiles, capable of destroying half of the United States with a single one. I closed my foreign trade company and became an arms dealer. I befriended high-ranking officials from the Soviet era, and through them, I found connections with the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the Mikoyan Design Bureau, the Almaz Design Bureau, the Northern Shipyard, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Submarine Plant, and others. I helped them convert their unused inventory and blueprints into fuel for the winter, beautiful clothes for their wives, and toys for their children. But gradually, this business became difficult; the warehouses’ inventory inevitably ran out. Fortunately, I was making more money from the arms trade, and my connections in Moscow were becoming increasingly solid. I shifted my focus to acquiring military factories and contracting for Ministry of Defense projects. Gradually, everyone knew the name Alexander Bunin. I also knew that no one in the arms industry was clean, so I did some charity work for children. Perhaps it was because of my experience in China that I had a certain belief in retribution. Mr. Bunin smiled. “I’m a relic of the past. Fortunately, these relics of the past can still help me make some money. Otherwise, all I could offer you would be sour black bread.”

Mr. Bunin pointed to the boys and girls at the table. “Come, meet my friends. Mr. Chernyanev, his great-grandfather was Brezhnev’s foreign minister. We usually call him Valodia.”

The tall boy, with a few freckles on his nose, looked to be in his early twenties and nodded to Lu Mingfei.

“Sonia, her grandmother Ivanovna was the chief confidential secretary of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, performed outstandingly during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and later served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

The beautiful Russian girl who could drink two taels of Moutai liquor with just a raise of her head waved her hand to greet Lu Mingfei. The alcohol burned her cheeks red, and her youthful vitality evaporated like boiling liquor, infecting everyone around her.

Finger whistled when she just walked in, so Lu Mingfei reached into his pocket to turn off his phone.

Mr. Bunin introduced them counterclockwise, a series of glorious and illustrious names that had illuminated the Soviet political arena but had long been covered by the dust of history.

“All my former business partners have passed away, forgotten by history, old folks already in their twilight years. The ones you see now are their heirs. We don’t get together very often, just once a year for dumplings. They weren’t used to it at first, but now you see they’re all proficient in using chopsticks. You can think of me as a cooperative where members help each other. The military industry is a high-risk business, and mutual support will help you survive longer. The people at this table are basically fixed, but we occasionally invite new friends, provided they are friendly and worthy of sitting with us,” Mr. Bunin said with emotion. “For an old club like us, we really don’t dare to bring in too many new people all at once.”

“Do you know who he is? Do you think he is qualified to sit with you?” Zero interrupted the conversation between the two.

She had no interest in Moscow’s arms trading circles, nor in Alexander Bunin; she came here only because she believed in General Vatutin.

Alexander Bunin was humorous and sincere, and is the kind of person who easily makes people feel trustworthy, but for Zero, the accumulation of trust only depends on the time spent together.

“I don’t know. Cassel College told me.” Mr. Bunin smiled. “I have a partnership with the college you attend. They’re a group of law-abiding businessmen, and they’re very reputable in our circle. They’re mysterious, but they seem very powerful. We respect each other, but we’re not very close. Until a few months ago, they suddenly asked me to find a way to convince the Ministry of Defense so that their network could break through the firewall and enter Russia. It was an excessive request. Why would Russia open its borders to a college? The people at Cassel College were also well aware that this was an excessive request. They claimed that they were doing it to capture a dangerous person named Lu Mingfei. That was the first time I heard your name, and I had a feeling that you must be a very interesting person.”

Lu Mingfei suddenly understood. In reality, the branches of the Cassel Academy around the world were intelligence agencies and commercial organizations. They constantly monitored dragon activity, but spent more time earning money. Much of Cassel Academy’s massive expenses came from the branches’ contributions. As for business, it varied depending on local conditions. The Egyptian branch employed a group of highly skilled antiquities dealers, the American branch was filled with financiers, the British branch delved into gold and oil futures, and the Chinese branch’s executives took a unique approach, acquiring numerous restaurants and liquor factories because dining and drinking was incredibly profitable in China.

It is not difficult to guess that the Russian branch is also engaged in military-industrial trade. To do business in this circle, one has to get to know Alexander Bunin.