Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
So the amazing idea that Fina had was to let Zhang Zian carry a few bottles of honey on him, break the bottle, and drip all of the honey on himself when they met the Great Mosquito Army, sacrificing himself to save Fina…like a stupid loyal servant.
The “ancient mosquito repellent methods” were just redirecting the mosquitoes from yourself to others, asking others to take the bites for you. Zhang Zian felt the method was seriously immoral, since it used others for one’s own benefit. He was still pitying the slaves of ancient Egypt, but he’d ended up as one in the blink of an eye, destined to sacrifice himself for his master.
But with Fina’s claw pointed at him, he didn’t dare fight the order directly, and he was still contemplating how to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Maybe it would forget about it moments later.
Unfortunately, Richard jumped up, squawking away. “Gah gah! I think this solution is great! You can just apply more cooling oil anyway! At the smell of sweet, sweet honey and spicy cooling oil, the mosquitoes would be completely helpless! It makes me happy just thinking about it!”
“Easy for you to say. What if the attraction of the honey was stronger than their revulsion for the cooling oil?” Zhang Zian said. “Why don’t I pour the honey on you instead, and you can lure the army of mosquitoes away? I’ll make sure to burn some nuts and fruits for you every special occasion as offerings…”
The two of them traded insults back and forth, throwing shade at each other with colorful language, so the long journey was not boring at all.
They drove west for yet another long time before finally reaching the Siwa Oasis in the late afternoon.
When they’d gotten to the Siwa Oasis yesterday, they had merely passed by. They hadn’t had the time to settle down and sightsee then. But today, they had all the time in the world. If nothing went wrong, they could find a place to rest for the night, meet up with Professor Wei Kang tomorrow, and head out to the Bedouin tribe together. They would meet Salem, Nabari, Peter Lee, and the members of the Cosmological Information Society. Then they’d venture deep into the desert.
There weren’t many chances left for them to enjoy the modern civilization.
The sun gradually settled behind the horizon, and Zhang Zian decided to find a hotel to rest his feet first before thinking about going out to play and find food.
This hotel definitely wouldn’t be able to satisfy the picky Fina, but there was no other choice. It would only be for one night anyway. After they entered the desert, they wouldn’t be able to find a place to stay as nice as this.
“I have a little donkey, one that I never ride! One day I changed my mind and rode it to my farm! With my little whip, I had a great time!”
There were a lot of donkey carts going back and forth in the city. Right in the city center was a crowded market, simple tarps covering many trinkets that the merchants were selling. Richard landed on Zhang Zian’s shoulder, singing the lullaby. But there seemed to be something a little weird with the song being sung into his ear…
The cooling oil’s effect at calming the mosquito bite was obvious. It was impressive how Richard went back to being an African grey after transforming into a blue-eyed cockatoo, though he did miss Richard looking like the Old Man from the South Pole.
Zhang Zian chose a hotel near the city center. It had three stories and didn’t seem too old from its outer appearance.
Before they’d entered the city, to prevent any troubles with checking into the hotel, he had made all of his elfins invisible.
He stopped the car, asking the receptionist for the biggest room that they had on the third floor. It was the off-season anyway, so most of the rooms were empty.
After they checked in, he moved his luggage into the room on the third floor. The elfins had all come up first, opening the windows to look at a group of weird concrete buildings—or, more accurately, a pile of rubble, just like those eroded buildings in the ancient paintings of China. But these buildings didn’t seem to be eroded at all. Eroded buildings had specific traits. Wind blew parallel to the horizon and would leave erosion marks horizontally.
“Weird. How did these buildings end up so dilapidated?” Old Time Tea was surprised.
Zhang Zian had done his homework before coming. As he put down his luggage, he explained, “That area is called Shali. It’s from the 13th century and was the first residential area in this city. As Egypt’s average rainfall in a year is nothing, they had not considered rain when constructing these buildings. In 1926, it rained for three days in a row… The people then did not destroy Shali. Instead, they left the rubble behind as evidence for past history and built new houses around it.”
“Oh.” Old Time Tea understood. It was the rain that had destroyed the buildings, and some people might have even died.
In a place where it never rained, was it logical to take rain that happened once every hundred years into consideration when constructing buildings? That was a question to ponder.
Even today, the residents still built their houses from mud bricks, betting that the next big rain would not come soon.
The sun set, the ancient city of Shali was built by the mountains, and it was the first to welcome the sunset and sunrise in all of the Siwa Oasis’s cities. The sunlight shrouded the ruins in a mysterious orange glow, the broken walls and pillars forming dark patches of shadows. This gave it a nostalgic look, just like a headstone.
The reason why the ancient city of Shali had been built was for protection from the nomads of the city—the Bedouins. Maybe the Bedouins from years ago hadn’t been as harmonious as they were today.
“Since the sun hasn’t completely set yet, let’s go out and take a walk. We can have our dinner there too.”
The elfins, of course, didn’t have much reason to protest.
In a forgotten city near the border of the country, there was nothing too famous, just all sorts of roast meat. There wasn’t much variety for vegetables either. It was just exciting enough to fill their bellies and nothing more.
Even though this was just a small city, they had almost 2,000 undeveloped hot springs scattered around the city, still mostly natural.
In the morning, Zhang Zian had convinced Sihwa to quickly end her livestream so he could bring her here, a spring that had no one around, so she could livestream there.
There was no suitable hot spring around them, so he drove further south, out of the city, past the dense forest of date trees, and to a huge round pool lined with cement stones. A few local teenagers were cooling down as they played in the pool, and a few tourist-like people took photos by the side.
He looked at Fina, saying, “Previously, the giant rock by the shore of Mersa Matruh was called Cleopatra the Seventh. This place is called Cleopatra the Seventh’s bathroom, and it is the most famous hotspring in Siwa.”
Fina didn’t show much emotion. “She wouldn’t bathe in a place like this.”
Zhang Zian shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t think so, either.”
All these tales were just merchants using famous people from history to attract tourists.
