Pet King

Richard’s voice was still in the air, and other elfins with good hearing had also realized that two SUVs were coming down the pitted roads, kicking up dust. The destination seemed to be the site of the Bastet’s Holy Temple. After all, there was no other place worth stopping at near here.

“Didn’t you say that there are no tourists here just now, you idiot?” Richard asked and patted Zhang Zian’s head again. “Aren’t you just making a fool of yourself?”

Zhang Zian forcibly defended himself and said, “Is your ear used for breathing? I meant that there are usually no tourists! Maybe some senior cat slaves came here to cherish the past!”

“Gah gah! Bullsh*t! You did not say ‘usually’ at all!” Richard did not let him off, grabbing onto his words and refusing to let go.

Zhang Zian was quite troubled as well. They hadn’t come early or late, so why were tourists coming at this moment?

Normally, few tourists came to Zagazig, a city not famous for tourism. After all, there was only a museum and the ruins. There were many museums in Egypt. Who would come to see the ruins on purpose?

Of course, the site of Bastet’s Holy Temple was not his home. He could come, and others could also come. Could people not touch what a monk had touched?

But now the timing was not right. Fina was in a period of emotional ups and downs. Once disturbed, no one could tell what it would do.

A joke was just a joke, and the other elfins understood that too.

Old Time Tea picked up a stone and asked “How about I break the headlights of the car, to delay them a little?”

For Old Time Tea, it was not hard to use a stone to break the headlights of a car, but it was invisible now, and moving to attack would show itself. If it was seen by the people in the car, the situation would probably not be easy to explain.

Zhang Zian waved his hand. “Never mind. I’ll go and stop them.”

“Gah gah! Did you get a heat stroke or a fever? Are you going to use your face to stop them?” Richard asked, looking down on him.

“Yes, I’ll stop them with my face. If they stop here, I’ll go up and try to hit on them to delay them for some time. Show you the power of a handsome man! Maybe there are beautiful foreign girls in the car!”

After saying that, he straightened his collar, full of confidence.

Richard looked towards the sky. “Magnificent Goddess Bastet above, please give him a gay man!”

Zhang Zian didn’t say anything.

If not for the fact that he might be seen, he would really punch this stupid bird to death. Could he randomly wish for things by the temple? What if it came true?

As expected, the two SUVs slowed down as they approached, parking one after another at the roadside.

Zhang Zian used a white headscarf to cover his mouth and nose to keep from breathing in the dust that appeared with the cars.

The people inside the car waited until the dust settled a little before pushing open the car door and walking out.

Huh?

Although these people were mainly Western Caucasians, there were also some local people, but their clothes did not seem to be those of ordinary tourists, nor did their skin color. Even though they were Caucasian, their skin was tanned and brown. At first sight, it was easy to deduce that this was the result of long-term work in the field.

In addition, instead of picking up their mobile phone cameras and snapping photos like ordinary tourists, they opened the trunk of their car and took out folded tables, chairs, and a suitcase.

Their ages were generally on the older side. Several people who seemed to be in charge looked over 40 years old, and there was not a single young girl there.

Strange. What were these people doing?

Zhang Zian had originally planned on going up to make small talk, but this kind of situation made him stay and carefully observe. At least there was one point he was sure of: these people were probably not terrorists.

One of the middle-aged people noticed Zhang Zian, or rather, noticed that his clothes had both Chinese and English printed on them. He gave a few words to the others and came towards Zhang Zian.

“Hi! Are you from Binhai University?” the middle-aged man asked in English.

Zhang Zian was stunned again. Was Binhai University of any special significance to them? Or had the reputation of Binhai University somehow surpassed that of Beijing University and Tsinghua University to spread overseas?

“Yes. And you are…?” he asked.

The middle-aged man held out his hand to him enthusiastically and said, “Oh, hello! I’m Hans. Nice to meet you! We are full of expectations for this cooperation. If I’d heard you were coming earlier, I would have sent someone to wait for you in advance…”

Zhang Zian listened and got even more confused. He mechanically shook hands with Hans. “Hello, I am Jeff Zhang. But wait a minute, is there some misunderstanding here?”

“Misunderstanding?” Hans looked at his clothes again and smiled. “If you’re from Binhai University, there’s no misunderstanding.”

What was going on?

Had two teams from Binhai University arrived in Egypt for field work at the same time?

Zhang Zian tried to clarify that he had come with the Binhai University Science Investigation Team, but his visit to Bastet’s Holy Temple was just for pleasure, so Hans had probably mistaken him.

While supervising and urging the others to work, Hans laughed and listened to Zhang Zian’s narrative. He said, “There is no misunderstanding. My Chinese friend, maybe your professor didn’t tell you. In fact, this is a tripartite cooperation—you from China, us from Germany, and scholars from Cairo University. We Germans are indirectly involved, so your professor probably thought it was unnecessary to go into detail about it.”

It turned out that Hans was leading an archaeological team from Germany. He and his colleagues were archaeologists. They’d come to Egypt to work with local scholars to excavate Bastet’s Holy Temple.

The University of Cairo had received an invitation to cooperate with Binhai University and informed Hans about that as well because the archaeological team led by Hans was also indirectly linked to the objectives of the Chinese team.

As Hans reminded him of this, Zhang Zian recalled that Wei Kang had mentioned that he would cooperate with archaeologists when he arrived in Egypt. He had not asked about it, and Wei Kang had not elaborated on it. Maybe he’d thought that after all, Zhang Zian was not specializing in biology, so there was no need to tell him.

“Oh, I understand,” Zhang Zian said and nodded.

It was really like fate that they had met even though they were thousands of miles apart—that they were actually meeting with the German archaeology team at Bastet’s Holy Temple.

“Then you’re here to look in the ruin for…valuable murals and enchases and those sorts of things?” he asked. What else could be found between the ruins?

The wasteland was deserted, and even the poorest thieves would not visit it. In Zhang Zian’s opinion, the enchases on the surface of the broken stones and pillars had become indistinguishable, but it was uncertain whether the professional archaeologists had any special skills or special instruments.

“No, no, my friend. It’s a pity, but this is a wasteland and no longer has any value for archaeology.” Hans shook his head, pretending to be mysterious as he blinked and pointed at the ground beneath his feet.

“Our archaeological target is hidden under the ruins.”