My hometown is far away in Moscow.

014 Go have a blast!

After using the toilet that day, the Indian man lay on the bed groaning, walking with his legs flailing like a duck, but he couldn't figure out what was causing it. Yan Zhiwen was overjoyed. He had five bottles of Tiger Balm in his suitcase, and he hadn't kept any for himself, pouring them into the Indian man's bottles every few days.

The straightforward Indian was completely baffled, wondering why his anus kept experiencing problems, with waves of burning sensation accompanied by a slight coolness, as if it had been smeared with wasabi.

At first, he suspected that there was something wrong with his food. Later, he accidentally discovered that the faint, pungent smell in the toilet was actually coming from his own precious bottle. He then realized that someone was playing tricks on him. He was furious and went to confront Yan Zhiwen. Yan Zhiwen happily denied it. The Indian man could not produce any evidence and had to swallow his anger.

From that moment on, the roommates became complete enemies. Later, they had several more conflicts over other trivial matters. The Indian man knew that there would be no peace living with this guy, so after a few days, he packed his things and moved to another room. The dormitory manager didn't know the details, but he knew that this Chinese man was not easy to deal with, so he didn't interfere.

Yan Zhiwen was overjoyed and took the opportunity to bribe the manager, thus securing the room for himself and living a carefree life in a single room. His temper has softened somewhat, and he's no longer as impulsive as before, but he still speaks with great pride about how his medicated oil outwitted the Indians.

Lu Tao, who lived in the room next to Yan Zhiwen, was from Hubei. After graduating from high school, he joined the army and became an armed police officer. After his discharge, he felt that his education level was lacking, so he came to Moscow to receive higher education through connections. His former roommate, who had helped Yan Zhiwen deal with the Indians, had moved out of the school dormitory after graduation, but would occasionally come back to visit them.

Lu Tao was not tall, but he had a straight back and bright, piercing eyes. He was usually quiet and reserved, always with a serious expression, but he was actually very easygoing. Yan Zhiwen often teased him about his height, but he never minded, at most saying lightly, "What's so good about being as tall as you? It's a waste of food and fabric."

As one of the few remaining senior Chinese students at the school, Yan Zhiwen and Lu Tao were both warm-hearted and often helped new Chinese students with various difficulties and disputes. Hu Yi and Li Baoqing liked these two older brothers very much, finding them straightforward and never bothering with trivial matters. That's why they would occasionally buy groceries and come to their room for meals, after which they would squeeze together on the sofa to watch videotapes.

Back then, VCDs were popular in urban families in China, but for poor students who had just arrived in a foreign country, buying a television and other appliances was too extravagant. Their daily entertainment mainly consisted of playing cards and chatting, and watching videos occasionally was definitely a great enjoyment.

Yan Zhiwen's room contained only four videotapes: "Hail the Judge," "The Bodyguard from Zhongnanhai," and "A Chinese Odyssey Part Two." Hu Yi and Li Baoqing would watch these movies every time they visited, and they had memorized the lines perfectly.

On Friday night, the two bought a chicken and went to Yan Zhiwen's dormitory. After dinner, they continued watching Jet Li showing off his cool moves in "The Bodyguard from Beijing".

"I won't listen! I won't listen to anything!" Li Baoqing sat listlessly on the carpet, leaning back against the sofa, reciting Christy Chung's lines: "I want to go out and play! I want to go out and play right now!"

Hu Yi mimicked Jet Li's tone: "Go have fun! Have as much fun as you want!"

After chuckling to themselves for a while, Hu Yi suddenly turned to Yan Zhiwen and said, "Brother Yan, we've been in Moscow for so long and haven't gone out to have any fun yet. Take us out for a stroll tomorrow!"

Li Baoqing quickly nodded in agreement: "Yeah, Brother Yan, these days we're either in class or going out to buy groceries, it's so boring."

Yan Zhiwen had probably been feeling a bit stifled lately, and after craning his neck to think for a while, he said, "Okay, but I have something to do tomorrow. I'll take you guys to the city center on Sunday with Lu Tao."

On Saturday afternoon, Hu Yi went out alone, intending to exchange some rubles and get a haircut while he was at it.

In Moscow, currency exchange offices of all sizes are ubiquitous, making exchanging money a convenient and common occurrence. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced near-hyperinflation, with consumer goods prices skyrocketing. A loaf of bread could easily cost several thousand rubles, and large items required sacks and trucks to transport cash.

This situation persisted until the issuance of the new ruble in 1998, when it was finally alleviated. However, unfortunately, the global financial crisis followed, and a number of internal and external factors caused the ruble's exchange rate, which had just returned to normal, to plummet. To this day, it has not been able to maintain stability, which has directly led to a serious lack of confidence in the ruble.

Although the ruble is currently Russia's sole legal tender, many goods are actually priced in US dollars, and market prices fluctuate with exchange rates. For example, university tuition fees are listed in US dollars, but schools cannot directly accept dollars; they can only accept an equivalent amount in rubles based on the exchange rate quoted by the central bank on that day. During periods of significant exchange rate volatility, the same amount of tuition paid in US dollars can result in a price difference of several hundred rubles if paid just one day later.

Because of this situation, people there tend to hold US dollars. This is especially true for foreigners, who usually keep only a small amount of rubles on hand for emergencies, exchanging them only when they need to spend large sums, in order to avoid unnecessary exchange rate losses.

Hu Yi exchanged fifty dollars for about fourteen hundred rubles, then went to the residential area between the school and the dormitory and casually bought some cheese and ham. When he first arrived in Moscow, he lived frugally, finding everything expensive and always converting the prices into RMB to compare. Later, he gradually got used to pricing in rubles and no longer felt the pinch when spending money.

This is the subtle influence of both prices and currency value on consumer mentality. When Hu Yi was in high school, his monthly allowance was only a little over 100 yuan. Besides food, he had to secretly squeeze out some to buy cigarettes and play games, living a rather frugal life, often managing to get by on just one or two yuan a meal. Now, he easily carries one or two thousand rubles in his wallet, and even knowing the exchange rate, he's gradually become less sensitive to the numbers on the banknotes.

Despite this, Hu Yi still felt a pang of pain when he walked into the trendy-looking barbershop in the neighborhood. Back home, a haircut usually cost only five or ten yuan, but this shop was charging three hundred rubles, nearly one hundred yuan.

"Well, it's cheaper than the watermelon I bought last time, so it should be fair." Hu Yi comforted himself and calmed himself down as he sat in the barber's chair.

A stylishly dressed Russian woman walked over with a smile and stood behind him: "Hello, how would you like your hair cut?"

Hu Yi gestured with his hands over his head a few times: "Short, I want it short." The last time he got a haircut was before he left home for Beijing. Now his bangs almost covered his eyes, and the hair at the back of his head covered his neck. He looked really bad.

The older woman gently placed one hand on his shoulder and ruffled his hair with the other, pondering for a moment before saying thoughtfully, "Your hair is great, but the hairstyle is terrible; it doesn't suit your looks and personality. How about a different style?"

Hu Yi didn't quite understand what she was saying, but he knew she was still asking questions about hair, so he casually nodded and said, "Short, as long as it's short."

"No problem." The older sister worked quickly and efficiently, finishing most of the work with clippers in no time. Then she picked up scissors and began to carefully sculpt his sideburns and bangs.

Hu Yi stared at the mirror for a long time, feeling that her technique was inexplicably strange, and couldn't help but chuckle, "What, what is this? What are you doing?"