Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The small argument seemed to have ended with He He’s win. She showed off a victor’s smile, sweetly chirping, “I just knew Senior Gao treated me the best!”
If that didn’t just make Gao Ke’s legs weak. If only a few more idiots would come their way and give him a chance to save the damsel in distress.
“Come, come. Let Xiao He walk in the middle. Let’s go see the market.” He showed off his leadership abilities with all he could. “I’ll walk in the front. Tianyu, stay by her left, Xuetao by her right, and Zian…you can be at the back. As for Jack… Do as you see fit.”
He regretted it the moment the words came out of his mouth. If he arranged it in this manner, he wouldn’t have much of a chance to talk with He He since he’d be standing in front. He’d instead given Xiao Tianyu and Du Xuetao an advantage. But as the vice-leader, it wouldn’t be good for him to take his words back either, so he could only go with it.
Zhang Zian had to admit that he was pretty satisfied with this arrangement. He had wanted to walk in the back anyway, since it was more convenient to talk to the elfins that way. He shot Jack a look, and Jack understood, slowing his footsteps to match his.
Jack initiated the conversation, explaining himself. After Zhang Zian had left the hotel, Gao Ke and his crew had gradually come down too, but they chose to have their breakfast at the hotel. During this period of time, He He didn’t come down at all. Gao Ke explained that she was still sleeping in, plus she had to put on makeup, so it took up a lot of her time. After they had decided to come to the Khan el-Khalili market, Jack had offered to get two taxis for them. He and Xiao Tianyu got in the taxi in front, leaving first, and they hadn’t seen He He’s outfit.
Zhang Zian could only shake his head. This lass had really been spoiled rotten by Wei Kang and her three seniors, and she’d most likely been spoiled like a princess back at home too.
She wasn’t wrong. Females did have the right to wear whatever clothes they wanted, as long as it was still publicly decent—at least in theory.
The UN Women’s wing had done a survey in 2013, indicating that 99% of women had suffered from some form of harrassment in Egypt. Some of them mentioned that they would be harassed no matter whether they were in their traditional garb or Western clothing.
But anyone with two functioning brain cells would be able to deduce that the more revealing your clothes were, the higher the chance of getting harrassed. The more traditional and conservative a culture was, the more pent-up frustration and twisted psychology there was underneath the layers. The women had a choice to wear whatever clothes they wanted here, as long as they were willing to shoulder the relative risk. Their bodies were theirs, after all.
Jack noticed the silver hookah in Zhang Zian’s hands, seemingly used, and asked where he’d gotten it from out of curiosity.
Zhang Zian answered that an Egyptian friend that he had met had gifted him the hookah, but Jack didn’t quite believe him. Most Egyptian men viewed the hookah as their lifeblood. How could they just gift it to a random stranger like that?
After a few words, before Jack could ask any further, He He called him over to bombard him with questions, brimming with curiosity for everything.
Zhang Zian lagged behind so that it was easier to observe what was happening. Even though he didn’t like what He He was doing at all, he still didn’t wish for anything bad to happen to her. Everyone was Chinese, after all. They should look after each other when overseas. Secondly, he didn’t want the trip to prematurely end because she had an accident. That would be a huge regret for both him and Wei Kang.
Jack was very familiar with this place. He tried his best to bring them to places with great value and even helped them to bargain.
The group had attracted a lot of attention, especially He He, walking in the middle. Those long, pale legs of hers were just like walking hormones. Zhang Zian could almost hear the men around them swallowing as they walked past.
Egyptians liked sparkly things. Most of the Khan el-Khalili market was selling sparkly things: traditional Arabian gold and silver jewelry, gold containers, and a whole array of gold products. It was a dizzying sight.
These youngsters were interested in anything and everything and wanted to bring everything back home, since the things weren’t expensive either.
All of the store owners that they had walked past had tried to greet them with accented Chinese, asking them to come in. Sometimes it sounded like “Helleow,” and sometimes it was “Hell,” but not one person had said “Hello” correctly.
This place wasn’t bigger or more posh than Yiwu’s trinket market, but the things that they were selling were Arabian and Egyptian in nature, so the few Chinese thought they were interesting. If the things that they sold were instead Chinese in nature, like dragons and phoenixes or fat kids hugging carp, they probably wouldn’t even have spared them a pity glance.
“Wow! Is this a statue of a cat? So cute!” He He saw a shop selling all sorts of Egypt’s godly creatures’ statues, like hippopotamuses, crocodiles, dingoes, eagles, and of course, cats. She immediately rushed over, wanting to buy a few as gifts for her friends.
The one that she’d seen was a statue that had been made to look just like the Holy Cat statue. This small statue, along with a few others, had been cartoonified and had lost the ferocity of the real Holy Cat statue.
“Don’t buy, don’t buy.” Jack hurriedly stopped her. “Unless you want to bring back something from China from Egypt. This is China’s product.”
“What? This is China’s product?”
He He didn’t believe it, and the others couldn’t either. A statue like this was so full of Egypt’s specialty, so how could it have been made in China?
He He picked up the statue, inspecting it all over. “This doesn’t say ‘Made in China’!”
Jack lowered his voice, explaining in Chinese. Most of the items here were made in China. In the beginning, the items all said “Made in China” in Chinese, and it was changed to English after they realized that Chinese people wouldn’t buy the products. But they saw that most tourists were able to understand some basic English and still didn’t buy their products, so they ended up writing “Made in China” in Arabic. Finally, Chinese people didn’t understand it and really thought that the products were made in Egypt, so they bought them enthusiastically.
He pointed at the curved sentence in Arabian at the bottom, meaning “Made in China.” Everyone was speechless.
He He hesitated with the statue in her hands. She quite liked this cartoon Holy Cat statue and thought it would make a great present.
Jack added on that it was okay to buy it back since most of the things sold here weren’t sold back in China, so they weren’t really losing out.
He bargained for He He, cutting the seller’s price by 70% the moment he started and settling the price at around 40% of the original. He He felt like she had gained a huge deal since her friends didn’t know Arabic anyway.
But although Egypt was conservative, it wasn’t as if they didn’t sell raunchy things. There was actually one shop that sold bikini swimsuits just to earn tourists’ money.
As they walked, Zhang Zian noticed that Fina had stopped. It was staring at something in the shop’s window, so focused that it was as though it had forgotten about everything else in the world.
That was a woman’s statue—Cleopatra the Seventh.
