Reborn in Russia as a Big Shot

8. Giving birth

Natasha took Li Xiang home for Christmas.

Li Xiang thought he would only be going to Moscow at most, but it turned out to be farther than going back to China.

Thank goodness I can fly.

"Why do you live in Vladivostok?"

Vladivostok is the capital of Primorsky Krai in Russia, and it also has a Chinese name, Haishenwai.

"My family originally lived in Moscow, but after my father's incident, we were told to stay away from politics, so we moved to Vladivostok."

Natasha seemed a little down, and suddenly suggested, "Honey, shall we take the train back?"

Li Xiang said with a look of disgust, "Train? That would take five or six days."

"Seven and a half days." Natasha hugged Li Xiang's arm. "Just treat it as a vacation. I've wanted to take this train since I was a child, but no one has come with me."

The Trans-Siberian Railway, stretching 9288 kilometers from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east, runs like a dragon through the entire Russian continent and is the world's longest non-interchangeable railway.

"I won't sit."

"husband."

"You should still call me Li Tongxue."

Li Xiang had been to Vladivostok in his previous life. As a Chinese, since he was in Russia, he had to visit Vladivostok, a city known as "the city that rules the East".

There are no direct flights to St. Petersburg; including the layover in Moscow, the flight took eighteen hours.

-

Vladivostok is basically a large rural area, covering 590 square kilometers with a population of just over 500,000. Natasha and her family don't even live in the city; they live on a rural farm.

The fire in the fireplace was burning brightly.

Elena (stepmother), Dalia (aunt), and Natasha, the three women, sat around the table, playing cards and drinking.

"Aunt, Li Xiang is really amazing. He knows everything." Natasha wasn't interested in playing poker. She brought Li Xiang back for the holiday just to ask her family for money.

Dalia took a sip of her vodka and said with a smile, "For Natasha to praise him so highly, this Li Xiang must be quite something. But even if I support you, you can't do anything without Elena's money; that's a rule your father set."

After Natasha's mother passed away, her father, Andrei, had many women but never remarried until he suddenly married Elena, a woman who had no presence in the public eye, just before he went to prison.

Before Natasha could even open her mouth to persuade her, Elena said directly, "I disagree."

Dalia shrugged at Natasha, meaning...

See? There's nothing you can do.

Natasha cleared her throat and said, "Elena, don't bring our personal conflicts into your family matters. You need to meet Li Xiang in person before you can make a judgment about whether he's capable or not."

"I won." Elena finished her cards, raised her glass, and said, "Natasha, you're the one who can't separate public and private matters. You're the one who always thought I was prejudiced against you."

"I'm only five years older than you, and you might think I'm not qualified to be your mother. But my husband has entrusted his assets to me, so I have to protect them, whether you like it or not."

Natasha was still not giving up. "I didn't just pick anyone. I carefully considered him. If you're worried, you can look into him again. I'm just recommending someone to you."

Elena stared into Natasha's eyes and asked, "Do you trust him?"

Natasha hesitated for a moment, then insisted, "I trust you."

Elena slowly shook her head. "I don't trust her."

Natasha felt wronged because she was doing what was best for her family but wasn't being recognized. She blurted out, "How can you trust me? I can marry him. Once I marry him, we'll be family. Surely you can trust that?"

"I don't trust you either. If my dad hadn't married you, would you even be qualified to sit here today?"

"Playing this big?" Dalia had an expression that suggested she was enjoying the spectacle.

After a few seconds of silence, Elena said, "Even if you two get married, I still won't trust you, unless..."

Dalia quickly replied, "Unless you have children, and they have to be boys, preferably several."

Old-school mafia are family-centric, and they value two things most: blood ties and the rule of silence. Li Xiang is not only an outsider, but also an outsider to their clan.

"You already know the answer." Elena picked up the cards one by one from the table, preparing to shuffle them. "Want to play again? I've been lucky today, I've won every hand."

Natasha, with a long face, slammed the cards in her hand onto the table and got up to leave.

"Are you still playing?" Elena asked Dalia.

"Come on, we've got nothing better to do anyway."

As Elena shuffled the cards, she asked, "What are your thoughts on Natasha bringing her boyfriend home this time?"

"If she really wants to marry into China, that would be good. It's better than her staying in our family. Even though she's hiding in the mountains, there are still people watching her. I don't know when this will end."

Dalia's husband was also arrested; the entire family consisted of women and children.

"I'm referring to what she brought up." Elena glanced at Dalia's expression.

Dalia was taken aback. "Didn't you disagree?"

Irina said cautiously, "I don't agree to touching the family's money. Don't you have some private assets? You can try talking to them. If it's really okay, then I'll consider it."

"Isn't my money money?" Dalia slammed her glass down on the table, the bottom of the glass hitting the surface with a loud thud.

"Then let's not move anything and wait until the men get out." Elena thought for a moment and then said from a different angle, "My husband is in prison, and you're Natasha's aunt, the closest person to her. Now that she's getting married and having children, you have to help her make the right choice."

"Whether that guy named Li Xiang can help us or not is not important. What I'm worried about is that he might be trying to get close to Natasha with impure motives or to probe her background."

"I'm a stepmother, and I'm not a good person to begin with, so I don't care. If something really goes wrong, I'll figure out how to explain it to my husband when he gets out of prison."

-

St. Petersburg is a city, so Li Xiang can't legally own a gun here, but that doesn't matter. His nearest neighbors are all three kilometers away; seeing a stranger is rarer than seeing a wild wolf.

"Have you ever fought wolves?"

"I even fought a bear! But I didn't kill it; it got away."

Dalia's son, Roman, is nine years old.

It was so cold that his little face was red from the cold. Li Xiang was learning to shoot from him.

This kid's marksmanship is pretty good; he fired six shots from five meters away, hitting four bottles.

"I told you to teach me, so stop playing around by yourself." Li Xiang took the pistol and instructed Roman, "Go and put the bottles away."

"I left you two." Roman didn't move, and seeing Li Xiang clumsily trying to reload, he mocked, "One is enough, you can't hit anything anyway."

"That's not necessarily true."

Under Roman's guidance, Li Xiang changed the bullets and got into position. He often played games, but this was the first time he had ever handled a real gun.

When you activate the [Scan] function, everything around you begins to slow down; even your breathing slows down.

Three points in a straight line: eyes, crosshair, target...

boom!

The gunshot rang out but missed.

"Where are they all crooked? Can't you even aim?" Roman grinned.

Li Xiang focused his attention further, followed by the second shot, and then the third shot.

On the fourth shot, I finally hit the target.

"Probably just a guess."

Li Xiang fired another shot, shattering the second bottle. He imitated a cowboy from a Western movie, blowing on the muzzle of his gun, then turned to Roman and said smugly, "Was that a fluke too?"

"To achieve this level on your first try, isn't that amazing? I'm a shooting genius."

"You definitely knew how to do it anyway." Luo Manchong made a face at Li Xiang.

Li Xiang asked Roman for some more bullets, and they chatted while practicing.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

"Have you seen Terminator? I want to be a scientist and study robots, but my mom says that the movies are all fake and that there are no robots like that."

It wasn't completely dark yet, but some stars had already appeared.

"Look there," Li Xiang said, pointing to Mars in the sky.

"What are you looking at?"

Li Xiang described it vividly: "That's Mars. There's a robot on it right now, called Opportunity. It was sent to Mars by NASA to find water."

"I know NASA," Roman said excitedly.

"Do you know about the Opportunity rover?"

"have no idea."

"The Opportunity rover was designed to have a lifespan of only ninety days, but it has been in service for two years now and is still working normally." Li Xiang patted Roman's head and continued, "Don't underestimate yourself. Every extraordinary achievement is created by ordinary people like you and me. As long as you have a goal and are willing to persevere, perhaps the Terminator in reality is the one you designed."

Natasha walked out of the villa looking unhappy and called out from a distance, "Li Xiang, let's go."

"Huh? Where are you going?" Li Xiang handed the gun back to Roman.

Natasha deliberately shouted at the top of her lungs, "Go have a baby!"