Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The biggest problem with fulfilling Sihwa’s request to do an outdoor livestream was the fact that she couldn’t be invisible, or a live stream would become footage for paranormal activity. So they decided to bring her to a beach that had fewer people.
Maybe having fewer people wasn’t enough. Unless it was in the middle of the desert, they couldn’t guarantee that someone wouldn’t come out from nowhere, especially in the northeast part of Egypt, which had a lot of tourist attractions. Just like the Sham El-Sheikh and Dahab, which were both world-famous diver playgrounds.
A blue hole in the seaside of the small town of Dahab had been dubbed the grave of the divers. More than 130 divers had gotten into accidents there, but there were still a lot of adventurous divers rushing to challenge the blue hole.
Zhang Zian opened the map. With the experience of having driven to Zagazig, he had a rudimentary understanding of Egypt’s roads and driving speed.
The highways in Egypt were a rare show of Egypt’s morality. No matter the distance, the toll was always within five to 10 egyptian pounds. After a currency conversion, it was basically free.
According to the distance marked on the map and the average speed that they drove, it would take about two hours to drive from Cairo to the Red Sea, and it would take about four hours to drive north from Cairo to the Mediterranian Sea. Neither was too far away.
But beaches near Cairo definitely had more people. Even though there weren’t many locals there, seeing that it was the month of Ramadan, the tourists from other countries were barely affected.
The further away they got from Cairo, the fewer tourists they would run into, but the journey would be longer. It would be best if they could find a sweet spot between the two.
“Everyone, come over here! To fulfill Sihwa’s request, let’s go play by the beach, but which beach? Do you have any opinions? Where do you want to go more? The Red Sea or the Mediterranian Sea?”
He gathered all the elfins together to get their opinions, but most of them didn’t have a preference. There wasn’t much difference to most of them whether it was the Red Sea or the Mediterranian Sea. Cats, monkeys, and parrots weren’t too interested in swimming in the sea, after all.
But Famous was absolutely itching to go. The weather had been extremely hot, and a swim in the sea would bring down their temperature. It didn’t have a preference as long as there was a sea involved.
The fewer opinions they had, the harder it was to choose.
Zhang Zian gave an initial proposal. “I feel that we should go somewhere with fewer people so we can have more fun.”
The other elfins had no objections, but the oddly sharp Sihwa started shouting in the bathroom again, “No! It must be a beach that is full of Egyptian specialties! Otherwise, who will know that I have come to Egypt?”
Zhang Zian said, “Complaining too much is bad for your health!”
Vladimir gave him a thumbs-up.
If Sihwa had been a real person, she definitely would’ve been the kind of girl who took selfies for memory at famous tourist spots and internet-viral cafes, and she might even plan an entire trip around this goal.
Seeing how pitiful she was for having to stay in the bathtub all day, they decided to try their best to fulfill her wish. But where would be better?
As he was worrying over it, a cat paw pressed onto the map.
“If you go here, she should be satisfied.”
Fina pressed her paw down sightly before taking it back, turning around, and going back to the balcony as though she didn’t care.
Its paw was clean, not even leaving behind a paw print.
Zhang Zian looked at where she had landed her paw. It was the Mediterranian shoreline to the northwest of Cairo.
Even though cats’ paws weren’t too big, they still covered a fair bit of space when pressed onto the map. This small area contained dozens of small and bigger cities, so which one had it specifically been talking about?
If he went to ask, he would definitely get a glare in return. Now he needed to put on his thinking cap to try and understand Her Highness’s meaning.
Zhang Zian’s eyes landed on the few cities near the shoreline. All these names were pretty foreign to him. On the third time looking it over, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity with one of the city names.
He picked up his phone to check online, and through the results, he immediately decided on their destination—the Port of Mersa Matruh.
“I’ve decided. Let’s go to Mersa Matruh!” he announced, carefully sneaking a glance at Fina to check its reaction.
Fina was neither angry nor happy, but it was already a win in his book if it hadn’t jumped up in anger.
“Me…Mersa Matruh? What tourist attractions are there?” Sihwa asked.
Zhang Zian answered, “Cleopatra’s bath is there. It’s just like Yang Guifei’s Huaqing Pool.”
“Wow! Thank you Fina!” Sihwa was satisfied with that and immediately livestreamed the news to her room.
From Cairo to Mersa Matruh, they had to go past Alexandria. These two cities had left behind many a great legend about Cleopatra. Zhang Zian knew that Fina had probably not chosen Mersa Matruh for Sihwa, but he kept silent on that.
The journey there and back was not short, so they had to make sure to leave as soon as they could, or they might not be able to come back on the same day.
“Make your preparations. I’ll go inform Professor Wei. Then we can leave.”
If they were just looking around in Cairo or in the satellite towns nearby, he wouldn’t have to specifically go inform Wei Kang. But the distance that they were traveling this time was greater. He had to be responsible to the team, so he couldn’t just leave and act on his own.
When Zhang Zian came to Wei Kang’s room, the door was lightly ajar, the sounds of talking drifting out. Wei Kang and his students must’ve been having their daily meeting.
He knocked before entering.
“Xiao Zhang, you’re here.” Wei Kang nodded at him, stacks of documents beside him, annotated with marker. These were all documents in the thumbdrive that Hans had given him, but Zhang Zian had absolutely no idea what those symbols all meant.
The other four people all held photocopies of the documents in their hands and listened to Wei Kang’s instructions attentively.
He He seemed to have perked up a lot since yesterday. It seemed like the effect of the incident had slightly diminished, but hopefully she wouldn’t forget about the pain once the scar was gone.
Gao Ke rolled up the sleeves of his short-sleeved polo t-shirt, showing off his well-defined biceps. He’d been working out in the hotel’s gym that morning and came for the meeting after a brief shower.
The third day of their Egypt trip hadn’t even passed, but Xiao Tianyu was already looking rounder than before. He definitely hadn’t missed out on Cairo’s good food, and the effects of the high-calorie, high-fat diet of the Egyptians were already showing on him.
A saying that wasn’t quite like a joke went like this: If you wanted to know how long a person had been staying in Egypt, you just had to see how much sugar they put in their red tea. Someone who put only one or two teaspoons was just a tourist. Three to four teaspoons were for people who for some reason stayed in Egypt long-term. Those that carried the entire sugar tin up to pour sugar into the tea cup were definitely locals.
Du Xuetao hadn’t changed much. He was still a silent person.
“Xiao Zhang, is anything the matter?” Wei Kang asked, since Zhang Zian didn’t have to join the meeting this morning. He wouldn’t understand anything anyway.
Zhang Zian told the team of his plans, asking for Weikang’s permission.
