Pet King

Sihwa was still grumpy, but at least she didn’t have any intention to continue spraying him with water.

She gave Zhang Zian a side glance as a silent agreement.

Zhang Zian had wanted to give her a proper education from the start instead of only teaching her the things that she needed to learn when she needed them. But he had been too busy these few days and hadn’t had the time. He didn’t even know what he—an unemployed, useless man—had been busy with.

He used her phone to find some primary school courses, hoping that she would be able to pick up on this information by herself. But, like he’d said earlier, without stress and someone to monitor them, no one would have that strong of a desire to learn new things. Not even a scholar would be able to do so, let alone such a playful Sihwa.

Now that the time to leave for Egypt was near, he could only still teach her what she immediately needed to know, which was geographical knowledge. She at least needed to know where Egypt was.

Looking at the globe he was holding, her face twitched slightly, curious at the round thing in his hands but unwilling to put down her ego to ask.

Zhang Zian put the globe on the side of the tub, lightly pushing at it to turn it. The rusty axles screeched as it turned before finally stopping with East Asia right before her eyes.

“This is China.” He pointed at China on the globe before turning the globe almost 180 degrees around, and he pointed at Germany’s shore on the Baltic Sea. “This is Germany, the shore at which we met. And then…this is Egypt.”

His fingers went diagonally, pointing at Egypt, which was right in between the intersection of Asia, Europe, and Africa.

“So far away!” She was extremely surrprised and forgot all about being grumpy. She had known previously that China was very far away from Germany, but it wasn’t until she saw it with her own eyes on the globe that she understood the difference between them. They were practically on opposite sides of the earth.

“Of course it’s that big. If the Earth isn’t this big, how do we support billions of humans and countless lives?” Zhang Zian turned the globe back to the East half, looking carefully before pointing at an empty spot on China’s east coast. “This should be where Binhai City is. But since we’re not a big city, we don’t have the privilege of being labeled on the globe.”

“So sad!” She pouted before suddenly asking, “Oh, right, where is Korea? What about Seoul?”

Zhang Zian pointed them out to her.

“You’re not lying to me, are you? Korea’s that small?” she asked him.

Zhang Zian was speechless. “Why would I lie to you? Korea’s only this big. This isn’t even considered small. There are a ton of countries a lot smaller than Korea.”

Sihwa observed the globe with extreme curiosity, using her finger to lightly push at it. The mountains and ridges, rivers, land, seas, and the big and small countries went by her eyes slowly.

“There are actually so many countries in this world. No wonder all the girls in those television shows love traveling so much…” she mused.

Zhang Zian couldn’t help but think, annoyed, that they could only do so because they didn’t have to buy a house…

“A globe is really a good thing!” She seemed to suddenly recall something, her mood switching and turning angry in the blink of an eye. “You stingy monster! Why didn’t you bring this for me earlier?”

“Because I forgot! It’s not too late for me to give it to you now!” He tried to defend himself. The globe really wasn’t that precious. It wasn’t like it was lined with gold. There was no reason for him to hide it.

To soften her temper, he graciously said, “Since you like it so much, it’s yours now.”

“Really?” She hugged the globe, worried that he would snatch it back, and snuffed at him skeptically. “Why is the stingy monster suddenly generous? Is it because this thing isn’t actually worth a lot of money?”

Zhang Zian coughed, quickly changing the topic. “Anyway, now you know where Egypt is.”

Sihwa found where Eygpt was on the globe through her memory, staring at the edges of the countries. “Weird. Why is it that some of these borders between countries are so straight, as though they were cut out with knives?”

That was true. Northern Africa did have a very special geography. Their country borders were extremely straight.

“This is due to history. You don’t have to know that yet.” Zhang Zian wanted to explain, but the explanation was really too complicated to condense into a few words. They probably wouldn’t be done with it half a day later. It would be better to just tell her more about it when they had more time.

“What’s so fun about Egypt?” she asked dismissively, her interest in Egypt far less than her interest in the globe.

“Egypt… It’s the first country that humans ever made. It has a huge amount of ancient ruins and attractions, and there’s great scenery too. For example, the seemingly endless Sahara desert, which is the biggest desert in the world,” Zhang Zian said.

Sihwa’s eyes seemed to say: Are you kidding me? Asking me to go play in the desert? Do you want me to become dried fish?

Seeing that she was going to blow up again, Zhang Zian immediately continued, “Of course, that’s not all. Egypt is also surrounded by two great seas—the Mediterranian Sea and the Red Sea. They are both seas with great biodiversity, and there are a lot of tourist attractions near the coastline as well.”

“Tourist attractions…” she muttered under her breath. “Does that mean that there are hotels that we can stay in?”

“Of course. We can’t possibly sleep out in the open. I still have to maintain my appearance, you know,” he answered. “If you don’t want to go, you can stay here, or you can go back to the phone to sleep. No pressure.”

She used her hand to support her chin while she gave it a thought before determinedly declaring, “Alright, then I’m going too!”

Zhang Zian was confused. Why had she suddenly changed her mind?

“Alright, you can go out now.” She was completely heartless as she pointed at the door. “I’m going to continue the livestream. Don’t get in the way of me earning money!”

Zhang Zian shrugged his shoulders. Since he had said everything that he wanted to anyway, he had other things to do, so he turned and left.

As for the water splashed all over the bathroom floor… It would dry eventually.

“Close the door! What a long tail!” Sihwa called unhappily from behind him.

She kept her ears open, making sure that Zhang Zian had gone downstairs before she turned on the live-streaming app again.

“Hello, everyone! Your dazzling beauty that makes fish sink and wild geese fall, a beauty so beautiful that the moon hides her face and the flowers blush for shame at the sight, a national beauty with flesh of ice and bones of jade, the beautiful little mermaid Sihwa is back!” she boasted. “Have you guys been waiting for me in anticipation?”

“No, I’m sh*tting right now. My sh*t is thick today, so it might clog up the toilet.”

“I’m reading a novel. Wait for me to finish this chapter.”

“I just won one round of PUBG!”

“…Was I the only one that read the last two words the other way around?”

“You’re not alone! I saw it the other way around too! I thought even this livestream had been taken over by gays!”

Sihwa was confused too, not knowing which two words were seen wrongly, but she had something even more important to announce.

“Let me tell you something! I’m going to go Egypt soon! Egypt! The Egypt that’s on the other end of the globe, super far away from China! The Egypt where only rich people get to go!”