Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Just like many females, He He hated snakes and wanted nothing more than to get as far as physically possible from them. Her best friend was full of nothing but hatred for them too. If she were to ever gift them a pendant that had a carving of a snake on it, their friendship would be as good as over.
But all of the Cleopatra merchandise that they sold had cobras. They might be slightly different in style and pattern, but they were all full of life. There was no way that He He would be buying these, unless she was looking for a good dressing-down.
She could only buy Nefertari and Nefertiti’s pendants then. The two of them didn’t have snakes on their portraits, but they definitely were way too unknown in China…
“Isn’t there a Cleopatra pendant without snakes?” she asked timidly.
“The cobra represents ultimate power in Ancient Egypt. This is the greatest difference between Cleopatra and our other two beauties,” Lazart explained. “I regret to say so, but all of our Cleopatra pendants have snakes. If you insist on having one without snakes, you can custom-order one.”
“Oh, you accept custom orders?” He He perked up. “It must be…expensive to have one custom made, right?”
Lazart’s quote was less than a thousand RMB, and it was a lot cleaper than her expectations. Besides, if she ordered more than one piece, it could be even cheaper.
He He silently calculated. Even friends were separated by how close they were to her. There were only two or three closest to her heart, and with her added into the mix, she eventually requested four snake-less Cleopatra pendants.
Other than importing their goods from other sources, Lazart’s store also fulfilled their customers’ customization requests in-house. He and his son, Chris, were in charge and responsible for that, and they had made it a family business.
They had a work shop connected to the back of the shop so that the clients could even watch their own customized product getting made.
The charcoal burned a vibrant red as its flames licked at the gold, and the iron hammer clanked periodically, sparks flying everywhere. The golden liquid was poured into the mold, and the final touches and carving would come after the gold cooled down. At completion, it would be an exquisite handmade pendant, made from a process not any different from thousands of years ago.
That certainly piqued an interest in the youngsters’ hearts, beckoning them to try and witness the process with their own eyes and their own cameras. But Lazart had no intention to start work now, and it would be rude to demand the other to change his schedule.
Just as Zhang Zian was contemplating the desert, he felt something hit his leg.
He looked up and brought his line of vision right into Fina’s, a sugar cube missing a corner by its claw.
The sugar cube came from a small plate on the table, provided for the guests should they want to have more sugar in their already-really-sweet coffee.
Fina seemed to have carved the corner out using her claw and flicked it at Zhang Zian, clearly signaling to him, “Make a move while you can. Do you still need me to remind you of such a thing?”
Zhang Zian sighed, picking up the Cleopatra pendant to purchase it. Right then, another sugar piece hit him, stopping his actions.
Turning around, he found Fina’s fiery eyes glaring holes at him. What? Didn’t it want this?
Only after a moment had passed did he belatedly realize that Fina wanted the snake-less version of the pendant too. A poisonous snake had killed Cleopatra, so it hated snakes.
As a servant, of course, he always had to try to understand Her Majesty’s thoughts, unless he would like to see his head rolling away from his body.
He put down the completed pendant, adding one more pendant to He He’s order. Gao Ke and the rest even teased him, pushing him to reveal which girl he was actually buying it for.
Speaking of girls, his employees and friends had been bugging him about bringing back some souvenirs. How dare they think he would be too petty to bring back gifts. What horrible friends!
When it came to presents, it was best to treat everyone equally and not be biased. Otherwise, people might feel that you were being unfair to them, and it might lead to misunderstandings. That was more trouble than it was worth.
Zhang Zian contemplated buying a few Rosetta stone plaques, pyramids, Tutanka masks, or the three beauty’s pendants back as presents, but he can’t help but feel these gifts lack originality.
Right then, Lazart continued. Other than the replicas of their famous artifacts and prominent figures, another gift that tourists did like was an amulet full of Ancient Egypt’s flavor.
“Actually, Cleopatra’s pendant is believed to help ward off some evils and can be used as an amulet too,” he said. “You might think that Egyptians aren’t afraid of poisonous snakes and that’s why we put cobras on Cleopatra’s crown, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. No one knows better than Egyptians how terrifying poisonous snakes are. We’re afraid of them too, but our culture is to fight fire with fire. The more afraid of snakes we are, the more we wear them on us, to ward off bad things.”
Something seemed to click in all of their minds. They really had thought previously that Egyptians weren’t afraid of snakes. Who knew that Egyptians were just as afraid of them as Chinese were? But no matter how Lazart explained, everyone still didn’t want to buy the ready-made Cleopatra pendant and asked him to show them the real amulets.
Lazart took out a few accessories again, like the pendants and rings showing Scarabs pushing the “Sun,” Fatimah’s Hand. These were pendants all very well-received by tourists. The females usually wore the pendants, while males wore the rings.
The scarabs were a representation of the sun gods in Ancient Egypt, a symbol of justice and immortality. But no matter how good it was at being an amulet, it was still not a suitable present in China. Even if he wore it himself, it would just attract others’ weird stares. On the other hand, Fatimah’s Hand carried too much religious connotation. It was an amulet from a religion, which was not too good for China, where people were mainly atheist.
As a businessman, Lazart was patient, listening to his clients’ every single need. He took out another two accessories, one pendant looking similar to the symbol ♀, while the other one was a thin, golden oval plate, bald as a middle-aged man.
“This is for females only?” Gao Ke pointed to the ♀ shaped pendant.
“No.” Lazart shook his head as he explained. Even though the ♀ symbol represented women internationally, in Ancient Egypt, this symbol meant the Key of Life—Ankh. It was the oldest rune in Ancient Egypt, and it meant immortality. Wearing it brought in the good while warding off evil, disease, and disaster.
As for the other golden plate, a customer could translate their name into hieroglyphs and carve it into the golden plate before making it into a bracelet. It was said to protect its wearer and bring a magical strength to them.
Both of these accessories were very unique to Egypt, the former suitable for females, the latter suitable for both.
Zhang Zian didn’t believe that one simple accessory could ward off evil, but it was good as a gift and great as a memento too. He could support Lazart’s business as well, so he custom-made one for himself and all his employees and bought a few Ankh pendants as presents. He really had dug a hole in his wallet today.
When Wei Kang heard that they had gotten into an accident, he was hopping with anxiety, calling them dozens of times to ask them to come back. Zhang Zian and the rest could only leave their contact methods behind so they could come back for their accessories after they were done.
