Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Wei Kang opened the door for Zhang Zian so that he could come into the room. All of the other members of the expedition team had arrived as well.
He He sat in the corner playing with the hem of her shirt, seemingly unhappy about something. Wei Kang had probably scolded her again.
“My apologies for coming late.” Zhang Zian apologized first.
“No worries. You’re right on time. We were previously discussing the academic exchange that we will have today. You didn’t have to come in the first place.” Wei Kang invited him to sit, sighing. “Gosh! I was too relaxed yesterday and overlooked things. We nearly got ourselves into deep trouble! I had been spoiling her too much!”
To the careful Wei Kang, yesterday’s events were a huge deal. Thank goodness they hadn’t brought the Chinese Embassy into the situation, or he would definitely have to face some sort of repercussions when they returned to Binhai University. He might even lose the chance to ever bring another team overseas for expeditions.
Before Zhang Zian had helped out, they’d had a chance to call the Chinese Embassy. Even if they hadn’t known the number, they could’ve just as easily looked it up online. But it was exactly because of the repercussions that they decided not to call—to prevent Wei Kang from being wrongly punished due to He He’s stubbornness. It wasn’t fair, but it was definitely a lesson to remember.
After a night of painful consideration and thought, he’d finally decided that from today onwards, no matter where he went, he would bring his students with him and forbid them from moving out on their own.
“Let me just reinforce the discipline. We are about to enter the month of Ramadan in Egypt. We should try to not eat or drink anything in public in the day, or it will just be extremely rude, and we might anger the locals,” he said sternly, looking at He He. Just like many ladies, she liked to snack.
After receiving a horrifying number of calls from Wei Kang, He He had returned to the Four Seasons Hotel and hadn’t gone out since. She had been forced to write a 5,000-word letter of reflection after she showered and changed, and she had to read it out in front of everyone else.
She really had learned her lesson this time. Not only had she emerged from the situation with a myriad of bruises, but her newly purchased phone had been stolen as well. She’d become a lot more obedient, nodding her head silently to show that she understood.
Seeing how down He He was, he wanted to make the mood a little lighter, so he pulled up the sleeve of his T-shirt and showed off his well-toned biceps, announcing loudly, “That’s nothing. After we enter the month of Ramadan, the locals won’t be eating or drinking. They’ll definitely be weak from starvation. If anything like yesterday happened again, I could take on ten men by myself!”
“Don’t be so confident,” Zhang Zian reminded him. “Some of the locals still eat in secret, and their sickly appearance might just be a façade. Besides, don’t you know that people get easily irritated when they’re hungry and thirsty? It’s best not to try and pick a fight with anyone during Ramadan.”
Gao Ke chuckled, brushing him off. “You get strong by eating and exercising, and I really haven’t starved before. How do you know that they will become agitated when hungry?”
Zhang Zian thought that Fina must be the best example of this. It was extremely cranky in the morning before it had its breakfast…
“Xiao Zhang is right. As much as you can, don’t go to crowded places like the Khan el-Khalili market,” Wei Kang reminded them. “There have been more than one case of assault towards tourists in that area. Even if you have to go, make sure to stay away from European tourists so you don’t get dragged into it. The locals are still friendlier towards the Chinese tourists. They mainly attack the European tourists.” The only thing on his mind was self-preservation.
Wei Kang’s words dragged everyone back into the harsh, cold reality.
On the streets of Cairo, it wasn’t uncommon to see police with loaded handguns or even semi-automatics patrolling the streets or standing at a vantage point. It merely showed how bad Egypt’s terrorist situation was, and the serious attitude that Egypt had towards fighting terrorism. Oddly, the presence of police didn’t bring peace to the people. It instead made them more nervous.
Wei Kang took a look at the time, finally deciding that they had spent enough time harping on this issue. If he continued nagging, he might just cause these young adults to turn back into rebellious teenagers.
“Alright, go back to the room to make preparations. We’re about to head out towards Cairo University.” Wei Kang waved his hands, dismissing his students temporarily.
“Oh, right. Xiao Zhang, hold back for a bit?” Wei Kang beckoned for Zhang Zian to stay.
When all of the students had left the room, Wei Kang took out a map of Egypt and spread it out on the bed. “Xiao Zhang, the few photos that you brought back yesterday were worthy of investigation.”
Zhang Zian had sent the photos that he’d taken of Lazart’s carpet yesterday to Wei Kang, thinking that it might be of some use, but he hadn’t expected Wei Kang to value the photos so much.
Weikang pointed to a vast, open area in West Egypt and said, “I had a preliminary estimation to start looking for the original Egyptian cats. After referencing all kinds of sources, I found that this desert with an area of 700 thousand square kilometers is where many secrets are kept, and the information that you brought to me boosted my confidence.”
His finger pointed at the line between Libya and West Egypt, where the Siwa Oasis and the Black and White Desert met to form a triangular, people-less area.
Ancient Egypt’s actual sphere of influence was anywhere within the Nile River, and it was in actual fact a lot smaller than Egypt’s land now. Ancient Egyptians used to call Egypt the black land, while the desert area anywhere outside Egypt was called the red land—especially the vast areas of desert due south of the Nile River, where the God of Storm, Seth, liked to play.
Water was the provider of life. Without water, mammals weren’t able to survive on such a huge scale. The ancient documents from the age of the pharaohs didn’t have records of this oasis, but the small yet thriving oasis had been interpreted in the carpet art.
With an oasis came life.
Besides, according to Wei Kang’s judgement, this oasis shouldn’t be the Siwa Oasis. Ancient Egyptians knew about the Siwa Oasis. Though they couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that they needed a cat’s guidance to find it, he felt that it was more probable that this was an oasis completely unknown to humans.
Zhang Zian agreed with Wei Kang’s judgment, but he still carefully pointed out that this long, triangular area really had no other humans around in it, and it would be dangerous for them, an inexperienced expedition team, to actually venture deeply into it.
Wei Kang seemed to be really confident, on the other hand, since they had done enough preparation before they had set out for this expedition. Current technology had allowed them to make up for their lack of experience, and they would be able to take down this area without many problems as long as his team didn’t make any mistakes. The bigger question was whether they could accomplish the goal for their trip—finding the beginnings of the original Egyptian cats.
He planned to discuss with the local students in the next few days’ exchanges, to glean more information about this area. He’d heard that there had been other expedition teams from Egypt and other countries that had tried to conduct archeological research in this area and hadn’t met any trouble. If they were able to enter and exit without much issue, then what did they have to be afraid of?
Zhang Zian wasn’t too sure about that. The thing about deserts was that one could only really understand how dangerous they were after entering one. But expeditions carried their own risk, and if they were afraid of them, they should have just stayed home.
