Chapter 11 the same day

At the end of the day, Raisa finally felt a little easier.She took the same class for eight hours.Normally she is in charge of teaching the compulsory political class, but this morning she received a directive from the Ministry of Education published in the school, ordering her to abide by the suspension plan.All schools in Moscow appear to have received these instructions and implemented them immediately; normal classes resume tomorrow.The instructions stated that she had to spend a day with each class discussing how Stalin loved the children of this country.Love itself is a political lesson.No love is more important than the love of a leader, and therefore, love for a leader is also the most important.As part of this love, Stalin wanted to remind all children to take basic precautions in their daily lives.They should look left and right twice before crossing the road, be careful when riding the subway, and finally, don't play on the railway - this is especially emphasized.There have been several rail tragedies in the past year.In this country, the safety of children is paramount.Children are the future.They also did some slightly ridiculous demonstrations for the kids.At the end, each class took a quiz to make sure students had understood all the information.

Who loves you the most?Correct answer: Stalin. Who do you love the most? Correct Answer: See above. (wrong answers are recorded) What should you not do? Correct Answer: Playing on the railroad. Raisa can only speculate that the reasoning behind this latest official order is party concerns about population levels.Generally speaking, her classes are dull, probably more so than other subjects.While students were not expected to applaud when she successfully worked out a mathematical equation, they were sure to applaud her for any proclamations about Supreme Commander Stalin, the Soviet Union, or the prospects for world revolution.Students compete with each other, and no one wants to be behind in their performance.Every five minutes, the class would stop and the kids would stand up, stamp their feet on the floor or pound their fists on the tabletop, and Raisa, of course, would stand up and join in.In order to avoid rubbing her palms, when she clapped her hands, her palms could barely touch, and they slid slightly against each other, pretending to be enthusiastic.At first, she wondered if the kids liked the hustle and bustle, and interrupted at every opportunity.But she later realized that wasn't the case.They were all scared, so discipline was never an issue.She rarely had to raise her voice or threaten them with intimidation.Even a six-year-old understands that defying authority and being the first to speak is risking one's life.

Despite the large class sizes (which they would have been had it not been for the major devastation wrought by the war on the population), Reza insisted on remembering every student's name from the start.Because of this, she cares deeply about each student.But she soon noticed that her ability to call out each student by name created a special kind of uneasiness in them, as if there was some kind of threat hidden in it: If I remember your name, I can openly accuse you. These kids had learned the value of anonymity, and Raisa realized they would have preferred her to focus on herself as little as possible.After less than two months, she stopped calling their names and went back to pointing.

But she has little reason to complain.The school she teaches, the No. 7 Middle School, happens to be a model of national education policy.The rectangular building, built on stubby concrete stilts, is often photographed and widely publicized.The founder of the school was none other than Nikita Krushchev, and he gave a speech in the new gymnasium, whose floor was so thick with wax that his bodyguards had to be careful not to slip.He claimed that education must be adapted to the needs of the country.And what this country needs are highly productive, young and healthy scientists, engineers, and Olympic gold medalists.The church-sized gymnasium, which adjoins the main building and is wider, deeper and longer than the school itself, houses an indoor running track as well as a series of mats, hoops, rope ladders and diving boards, all well served through the curriculum Every student, regardless of age and ability, has to train here for one hour every day.Raisa was always very clear about the implication behind his speeches and the school's design: This country didn't need poets, philosophers and priests.It requires productivity that can be measured and quantified, success that can be clocked with a stopwatch.

Among her colleagues, there was only one person who could be considered a friend of Raisa's, and that was Ivan Kuzmich Zhukov, a language and literature teacher.Raisa didn't know his exact age, he wouldn't say, but he looked to be around forty.Their friendship was purely accidental.Once Ivan inadvertently lamented the smallness of the school library—a closet-like room in the basement next to the boiler room, piled with pamphlets, outdated Pravda, licensed texts, no A work by a foreign author.Hearing him say that, Raisa whispered to him to be careful.The whisper started an unlikely friendship that, in her mind, might not have been wise given Ivan's outspoken habits.Other teachers believed that there must be forbidden books hidden under his floorboards, and worse, he was writing himself and smuggling subversive content to the West.Indeed, he once lent her an illegal translation of For Whom the Bell Tolled, which she had to read in the park all summer, never daring to take it back to her apartment.Raisa dared to maintain this friendship with him because her own loyalties were never examined in too much detail.After all, she is the wife of an officer of the Ministry of National Security, which is known to everyone, including some students.Logically speaking, Ivan should keep his distance.But he was undoubtedly comfortable with Raisa, reasoning that if she had wanted to report him, she would have done so.Because Raisa had heard him speak out many times, and it was easy to report him to her husband.So it turns out that, of all her colleagues, the only person she trusts is the most suspicious man, and the only person he trusts is the least trustworthy woman.He is married with three children, but she still suspects that he is in love with her.She didn't think too much about it, and she hoped it would be best for him not to, for their sake.

Across the road outside the school gate, Leo stood in the hallway of a low-rise apartment building.He took off his uniform and changed into plain clothes, which he had borrowed from his work unit.In Lubyanka there are many wardrobes full of odds and ends: coats, jackets, trousers - clothes of all sizes and qualities, prepared for the purpose of plain clothes.Leo had never wondered where these clothes came from, until he found a blood stain on the cuff of a cotton shirt, and he realized that these were the clothes of the executioners who were shot in Vasonofyevsky Lane.The clothes were of course laundered, but some of the stains were still stubborn.Leo wore an ankle-length gray wool coat and a heavy fur hat pulled up to his forehead, and he was sure his wife would not recognize him if he glanced in his direction now and then.He had been stomping his feet to keep warm and kept looking at his watch, a stainless steel Baojie watch—a birthday present from his wife.It wasn't long before she finished class. He glanced at the overhead light, reached for a discarded mop, smashed the light bulb, and plunged the corridor into darkness.

This is not the first time his wife has been stalked.Three years ago, Leo had sent someone to watch her, but the reason had nothing to do with whether she was a dangerous person.They had been married for less than a year at the time, and she had grown colder and colder.They live under the same roof, but in a state of separation.They both work long hours, glance briefly at each other in the morning and barely interact at night, like two fishing boats sailing from the same harbor every day.He thought he hadn't changed as a husband, so he couldn't understand why she had changed as a wife.Whenever he brought up the subject, she claimed she wasn't feeling well, but wouldn't go to the doctor anyway, who doesn't feel well every month anyway?The only explanation he could think of was that she was in love with another man.

With sufficient suspicion, he sent a promising young underground worker to follow his wife.The underground staff followed for a week.Leo took the action for granted, not very pleasantly, but at least out of love.But it was a risk, not only that Raisa might find out, but that if they did, colleagues might interpret the matter differently.If Leo didn't trust his wife sexually, how could they trust her politics?Infidelity or not, subversive or not, it would be better for everyone to send her to a labor camp.This is a matter of course.But Raisa had no affair, and no one found out about the surveillance.He relieved himself, thinking that he just needed to be patient and considerate, and no matter what difficulties she encountered, he should help her through them.Over the past few months, their relationship has gradually improved.Leo transferred the young man to a post in Leningrad, which he called a promotion.

But this time the mission was completely different, and the order to investigate came from above.This is a formal state matter, a matter of national security.It's not their marriage that's at risk, it's their lives.It seemed to Leo that Raisa's name had undoubtedly been thrust into Anatoly Brodsky's confession by Vasily.The details of the confession confirmed by another underground worker are meaningless.Either it was a conspiracy, a brazen lie, or Vasily planted the name in Brodsky's head at a critical moment in the interrogation, which was an easy thing to do.Leo blamed himself a little, and fleeing the battle gave Vasily a perfect opportunity to be cruel and ruthless.Leo was set in a trap.He could not claim that the confession itself was a lie - it was an official document, as true and valid as any other confession.Leo's deep skepticism shows that Traitor Brodsky's attempt to implicate Raisa is nothing more than an act of revenge.After hearing this explanation, Kuzmin asked how the traitor knew he was married.Desperate, Leo had to lie about mentioning his wife's name during the conversation with him.Leo is not a master of lying, but in order to protect his wife, he would rather hurt himself.If you want to support someone, you need to tie each other's destiny tightly together.Kuzmin believes such a potential security breach should be thoroughly investigated.Either Leo will execute it himself, or let another staff member take over.Hearing this ultimatum, he accepted the mission based on clarifying his wife's reputation.Three years ago, he dispelled her doubts about her loyalty, and now he wants to dispel her doubts about her loyalty to the country.

Across the road, children swarmed to the school gate and scattered in all directions as soon as they left the school gate.A little girl was walking across the street in Leo's direction, into the apartment complex where he was hiding.Her feet crunched on the glass shards of the light bulb as she passed in the dark, and she paused for a moment, wondering if she should speak at all.Leo turned to look at her, a little girl with long black hair tied with a red ribbon.She was about seven years old, and her cheeks were flushed with cold.She ran suddenly, her little shoes slapping the stairs, and hurried away from the stranger, to the home she was too young to believe was a safe place.

Leo walked to the glass door and watched the last batch of students leave the school one after another.He knew Raisa wasn't involved in any extracurricular activities—she'd be out of school soon.She came out and stood at the school gate with a male colleague.The male colleague has a gray beard and round glasses.Leo noticed that he was not an unattractive man.He looked well-bred and refined, with lively eyes and a satchel full of books.This must be Ivan, Raisa had mentioned him, a language teacher.Leo guessed the man was at least ten years his senior. Leo wanted them to part at the school gate, but they left together, walking side by side, talking leisurely.He waited, letting them move on.They knew each other very well, and Raisa laughed at the joke, and Ivan seemed content.Did Leo ever make her laugh?Not so, not often.He certainly had no objection to being laughed at whenever he was being silly or clumsy.He has a certain sense of humor in that too, but no, he doesn't tell jokes.Kerisa loves to tell jokes, she likes to play language games, play intellectual games.Ever since they first met, she had teased him into thinking her name was Reyna and that she was smarter than him, which he never doubted.Given that risk is always closely related to intellect, he's never been jealous of that--until now seeing her with this guy. Leo's feet were numb.He was willing to keep going, following his wife at a distance of about fifty meters.It was not difficult to follow my wife in the dim orange light of the street lamps—the street was almost deserted.Things changed when they turned onto the main road, Avtozavodskaya Street, where there was a metro station of the same name, towards which they must have been walking.There were long lines outside food stores, crowding the sidewalks.Leo was now finding it difficult to keep track of his wife, made even harder by her plain, drab attire.He had no other choice but to speed up his pace and shorten the distance between them.Now, he was less than twenty meters behind her.There is a certain risk in this distance, and she is likely to see him.Raisa and Ivan turned into the Avtozavodskaya metro station and disappeared from sight.Leo hurried forward, weaving back and forth among the pedestrians.She was easily lost in the subway crowd.As Pravda often touts, this is the busiest and best subway system in the world, used by tens of thousands of people every day. After arriving at the entrance of the subway station, he walked down the stone steps to the underground hall—this is a luxurious hall, where ambassadors are received, with creamy white marble columns, polished mahogany railings, and a frosted glass dome that envelops the interior. Decorate more brilliantly.Now is the peak season, the crowd is so dense that there is not even a centimeter gap on the ground.Thousands of people, wrapped in long thick coats and scarves, pushed and shoved through the queue at the ticket gates.Leo went against the crowd, walked up the steps, and searched through the crowd with the help of height.Raisa and Ivan had already walked through the ticket gates and were waiting to get on the escalator.Leo re-joined the swarming crowd, and squeezed his way forward.But being stuck behind a large group of people, he didn't care about being polite at this moment, so he had to use both hands to move the crowd to both sides.No one dared to say anything other than a sullen look on his face, because no one knew Leo's identity. When he came to the ticket gate, Leo saw his wife disappearing into the crowd.He hurried past the ticket gates, lined up and fought to be the first on the escalator.From the top of the mechanical wooden steps he looked to the lower floor diagonally, and what he saw was the tops of hundreds of hatted heads.Unrecognizable, Leo turned his body to the right.Raisa was on the steps behind him, about fifteen steps short.Ivan was standing on one of the steps above her, and in order to talk to Ivan, she turned sideways and looked up.Leo was within sight of her.He shrank back behind the person in front, not wanting to be seen by her again, and waited until the elevator came down.There are two underground passages: one is designed for the two subways going north-south, and each passage is full of people, all shuffling forward, trying to get to the platform, hoping to catch the next train Grab a seat on board.Leo couldn't see his wife. If Raisa came home, she would take three stops north and change trains at Trarnaya.In desperation he tentatively assumed that was what his wife did, so he walked down the platform, looking around, studying the faces of the crowded crowd, all staring in the same direction, waiting for the train to arrive.He walked to the middle of the platform without seeing Raisa.Will she take the train in the opposite direction?Why is she going south?Suddenly, someone moved forward, and Leo caught a glimpse of a schoolbag.That's Ivan.Raisa was beside him, both of them standing on the edge of the platform.Leo was so close he could almost touch her cheek with his hand.As long as she tilts her head slightly, they will face each other.He was almost in her peripheral vision; if she didn't see him, it was because she didn't expect to see him.There was nothing he could do, nowhere to hide.He continued down the platform, waiting for her to call his name.He couldn't explain that it was a coincidence, she would see through that he was lying, she knew he was following her.He walked twenty steps forward, then stopped at the edge of the platform, staring at the mosaic in front of him.There were three beads of sweat running down his face, he didn't dare to wipe it off, and he didn't dare to turn around to see what happened, for fear that she would look in his direction.He tries to keep his eyes on the mosaic, which celebrates the Soviet Union's military might - a tank with a gun barrel stretched out straight, flanked by heavy guns, and Russian soldiers on the tank brandishing pistols, their long coats blowing in the wind .Leo turned his head very slowly, Raisa was talking to Ivan, she didn't see him.A warm current blew from under the crowded platform, and the train was entering the station. Everyone turned to look at the train, and Leo saw someone looking straight at him from the opposite side.It's just this extremely brief glance, the eye contact only lasts for a moment.The man was about thirty years old, and Leo had never seen him before.But he knew right away that this person was also a Cheka cadre, an underground worker of the Ministry of State Security.There is another underground worker on this platform. The crowd swarmed towards the car door, and the underground worker disappeared, out of sight.The door opens.Before Leo could move, his body was pushed towards the train, and he stared at a certain place, looking at the indifferent but professional eyes around him.Passengers who got off the train filed past him. He recovered from his surprise and got on the train. He was in the car next to Raisa.Who is that underground worker?Why did they need another man to stalk his wife?Don't they trust him?Of course they don't trust it.But he didn't expect them to take such extreme additional measures.He squeezed his way through the crowd to the window so he could peer through the window into the adjacent carriage.He could see Raisa's hand on the handrail, but not the underground worker.The door is about to close. The underground worker got into Leo's compartment, glanced at Leo with indifferent eyes, and stood a few meters away from him.This man was well-trained, calm and composed, and Leo might not have noticed him if it hadn't been for the brief glance just now.This man wasn't stalking Raisa, he was stalking him. He should have guessed that he would not be fully responsible for this operation, and he might be implicated.If Raisa was a spy, they might even suspect him of working with her.His superiors were obliged to make sure he was doing a good job, and anything he reported up was double-checked by another underground worker.For this reason, Raisa had to go straight home.If she went somewhere else—the wrong restaurant or bookstore, the wrong house—she would be in danger.Her only chance of escape, and that chance was slim, was to say nothing, do nothing, see no one.All she can do is work, shop, and sleep, and any other activity is misleading. If Raisa goes home, she will take the train for three stops, transfer to the Abba-Tekro line at Trarnaya station, and then take the eastbound train.Leo looked back at the officer following him, just as someone got out of the car, this person took the opportunity to find an empty seat.Now, he was looking out the window leisurely, no doubt watching Leo carefully out of the corner of his eyes.The underground worker knew Leo was watching him.That might even be his intention, and as long as Raisa goes straight home, it doesn't matter. The train stopped at the second platform - Novokuznetskaya station.There is still one stop away from the subway they transfer to.The car door opened, and Leo watched Ivan get out of the car, thinking to himself: Please stay in the car. Risa also got off the bus and walked along the platform directly to the exit.She didn't come home, and Leo didn't know where she was going.Tracking her would expose her to the careful investigation of a second underground agent; not following her would put his life in danger.He must face a choice.He turned his head, but the underground worker didn't move either.From this position, he couldn't see Raisa getting out of the car.His lead came from Leo, not Raisa, and he thought the two were acting in unison.The car door was about to close, and Leo stayed where he was. Leo looked to one side through the window, as if Raisa was still in the next car and he was watching her.What is he doing?It was an impulsive decision with no regard for consequences.His plan depended on convincing the underground worker that his wife was still on the subway; a flimsy plan at best.Leo didn't count on crowds.Risa and Ivan were still on the platform, walking towards the exit at a very slow speed.Since the underground worker had been staring out the window, he was sure to see them as soon as the train started moving.Raisa moved slowly to the exit and lined up patiently.She was in no hurry, she had no reason, she didn't know that her life and Leo's were at stake unless she disappeared from sight.The train started moving forward, their cars almost in line with the exit.The underground worker must have seen Raisa—and he must have known that Leo was pretending not to. The train began to accelerate - now parallel to the exit.Raisa stood there and should be able to see clearly.Leo felt his blood rushing up, and he slowly turned his head to see the reaction of the underground worker.A muscular middle-aged man and his equally muscular wife stood in the aisle, blocking part of the view.The train rattled into the underpass.He didn't see Raisa come out of the exit, he didn't know that Raisa was no longer on the subway.Leo didn't show any relaxation, and pretended to be staring at the car next door. At the Trarnaya station, Leo took a long time to get out of the train, pretending to be following his wife as if she was heading home.He walked towards the exit while looking back to see that the underground worker also got out of the car and tried to make up the distance between them.Leo picked up speed and tried to move forward. Passengers flocked to the passage, some to transfer to other routes, and some to walk towards the exit.He had to get rid of this follower as if nothing had happened.The access on the right is the Abba-Tekro line heading east - the way home.Leo turned right, waiting for the next train to arrive quickly.If he had gained a good deal of distance, he might have gotten on the train before the man caught up, and the man would not have known that Raisa was no longer on the platform. Now, he was already in the passage leading to the platform, with a bustling crowd in front of him.Suddenly, he heard the sound of a train approaching the station.With such a large group of people in front, it was impossible for him to get in the car immediately.He reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his Ministry of State Security ID, and tapped the man in front of him on the shoulder.As if being scalded by hot water, the man moved aside, and the woman in front also moved away, and the crowd quickly made a path to both sides, and Leo hurried forward along this path.The train has arrived at the station, the doors are open, ready to go.He put away his identification and boarded the train.He turned to see how far the tailer was from him, and if the man caught up and got on this train, it would be over. The dispersed crowd immediately gathered again, and the underground worker was stuck behind the crowd again. He could only use brute force to push his way out.He caught up.Why is the door still open?The underground worker has appeared on the platform, only a few meters away.The doors began to close.He reached out sharply and grabbed the side of the door.But the mechanism would not retract, and the man—the first time Leo had observed him so closely—had no choice but to let it go.Leo continued to maintain a casual expression, trying not to react, he looked out the window, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man being left far behind by the train.Leo took off his sweat-soaked hat as the train pulled into the dark passage.