Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Morning.
Due to the lack of natural foliage and the extremely poor heat retention of the earth, the desert’s climate was extremely hot during the day and freezing at night. Zhang Zian wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants, and he could finally warm himself up after practicing his moves with Old Time Tea and playing hide-and-seek with Galaxy.
Siwa was a tiny town, but it still had a vibrant nightlife due to the fact that it was a tourist attraction. The moment lights came on in the city, the Shali ruins and temple were also bathed in strong light. The month of Ramadan was also when the timing of activities were opposite—the local people were out at night, while they went back home to feast and eat right before the sun rose.
Very few tourist groups would put the out-of-the-way Siwa on their itinerary, so most of the tourists here were on free-and-easy tours. With no tour guides to wake them up and bring them everywhere, they slept late and woke up late too. That was why there was barely anyone out there during the day in Siwa, even less so on the outskirts of town.
Zhang Zian wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. They had wasted too much time last night, and they hadn’t gotten to find a secluded hot spring to let Sihwa out for her livestream. He’d decided to sleep early and wake up early to fulfill his promise to her during the day.
Besides, he also wanted to avoid locals and tourists as much as possible—all thanks to Richard and his potty mouth. Whenever he met a young male who showed him a smile, he couldn’t help but clench his *ss a little bit…
In a small hot spring not too far from him, Sihwa’s laughter could be heard. She was clearly in a good mood. The hot spring that he’d chosen could overlook the top of the temple, so she could clearly show that she had come to Siwa to travel, stroking her ego to the fullest extent.
His phone rang. It was Professor Wei Kang who’d sent him a message, telling him that they had already left. Besides He He, everyone else drove towards Siwa in a jeep, each car filled to the brim with food, water, and other perishables.
Zhang Zian replied that he would wait for them at Siwa and reminded them not to stop at the Faiyum Oasis.
Every tourist they’d met in Siwa looked extremely relaxed, like they had no troubles on their minds, and life was going great. But he wasn’t. He might’ve looked relaxed, but he was actually pretty anxious.
Thinking about having to enter the dangerous Sahara desert with a bunch of loons, he couldn’t help but be so. The people in his group were either old scholars or naive students who hadn’t taken a single step into society. He couldn’t rely on them at all.
The closer they got to the time of departure, the more erratic his heartbeat became.
The only ones he could rely on…were the elfins. Even then, he couldn’t trust all of them.
For example, Fina. Fina had been acting a little weird since yesterday—that wasn’t quite accurate. It was more like it had been weird ever since they had come to Egypt, and it had just gotten weirder yesterday.
It hadn’t slept so much yesterday night. It had instead tossed and turned. Every time Zhang Zian woke up, he could see its sparkling green eyes watching the ceiling, glaring at him sharply from time to time…
Even though it said it was because the mattress provided by the hotel was too low in quality and not soft at all, it could sleep on the hard wood of the cat tower.
Zhang Zian didn’t know what he’d done to warrant such deep hatred. He had just educated it in some common knowledge.
Seeing that it was about time, he picked up a small rock and threw it in the direction of Sihwa’s hot spring, reminding her that it was about time to wrap up. If he let her be, without a limit to how much battery she had, she would definitely stream the whole day.
The stone plopped into the hot spring, causing water to spurt up.
Sihwa turned to regard him with a glare before speaking to the camera, “Alright! An idiot is rushing me again! Your beautiful, sweet, kind, hardworking mermaid Sihwa is going to go offline for now! The next time I livestream… Hmm… Let me tell you some good news! The next time I livestream, it will be in the mysterious desert oasis! Prepare your gifts, and anticipate it with all your heart! Hahahaha!”
Finishing, she ended the livestream reluctantly, her phone already reaching a dangerous battery level.
Zhang Zian said, “Wait, aren’t we already in the desert oasis? To which desert oasis do you still want to go?”
“What a silly question! Of course it’s the real desert oasis! The kind where there is no one for miles!” Sihwa leaned both her elbows on the stones by the periphery of the hot spring and spoke without hesitation.
Zhang Zian said, “Drop the thought. Where am I going to find such an oasis? Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You’ll lose fans that way!”
“Are you going into the desert? Aren’t there oases in the desert? Aren’t there lakes in the oasis?” Sihwa hadn’t heard what he said at all and took it all for granted. “Those that are more natural would be good. It’s best if no one has been there before. I’ve promised my fans, anyway! You have to take responsibility and find one for me!”
Zhang Zian thought it must have been some fan who’d mentioned this to Sihwa, and she’d just believed their word.
“Forget it. Come back to the phone first. People might be coming.”
Zhang Zian couldn’t be bothered to speak too much. As a mermaid who had been in the sea all her life, she had no concept of what a desert looked like. She thought that finding an unmarked oasis in the middle of the vast desert would be as easy as flipping her hand.
He put Sihwa back in his phone.
It wasn’t just Sihwa—the other members of the expedition team were overly enthusiastic about the desert, thinking that just because they had enough materials, great equipment, an experienced Bedouin as their guide, and enough people on their team since they’d teamed up with Peter Lee, everything would go fine and dandy. That the worst case scenario would be not completing their goal.
But hearing what Nabari had said about the things that had happened years ago, he deeply understood how scary the desert was, and he understood that humans were far from conquering and understanding the desert.
He called the other elfins to return to town together.
Fina was still angry at him and maintained a set distance from him. Even though he bought roast meat for it, it still looked really grumpy as it devoured all of the meat.
Just as they walked to the town’s opening, a handsome Land Rover stopped beside him with a cloud of sand and the heavy smell of diesel.
The window rolled down. Peter Lee wasn’t wearing his white suit today. Instead, he wore a canvas shirt with a hunting vest. Even though he was no longer young, his body still looked firm and toned.
“Jeff, what a coincidence! Are you going back to town or to the Bedouin tribe? Do you need a ride?” Peter Lee smiled at him through his yellow-colored sunglasses, his eyebrows quivering as his eyes passed over Famous and Fina.
