Pet King

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

Just like a giant stone dropped into the heart of the lake, the originally calm Bedouin tribe started to liven up, the roaring sound of the generators starting to ring through the whole village like ancient war drums.

“Zhang, Zhang, get in. We’re leaving.” Wei Kang rushed him through the walkie-talkie.

“Okay.” Zhang Zian finished giving out the last of his snacks to the Bedouin kids surrounding him before putting up his hands in a surrendering motion, showing that he had no more.

He had prepared before coming back to Siwa and had brought a bunch of snacks to make sure that every single kid had one.

All of the kids in the village were here, surrounding him in layers upon layers of kids. No matter whether they were older or younger, they all had a colorful packet of snacks in their hands. Even if he showed that he had finished giving out his snacks, they still surrounded him, refusing to let him out.

Maybe due to their genetics, the kids’ eyes were big and bright, reminding him of the young pups in his shop when they watched him through the glass of their display case.

Zhang Zian didn’t know how many of them would like to leave the tribe like Salem had and go out into the bigger, broader world. There definitely must be some, but they would not say so. They could only express it silently through such eyes, just like how young pups tried to entice customers to bring them home.

But he couldn’t help. Kids were not young pups. He couldn’t just bring them away after paying some cash. That would be human trafficking.

In Western movies and television, those child protective services seemed to have a lot of power, able to take away parental rights to a child, but those organizations didn’t have the same powers here.

“I’m leaving,” he signed, pointing to the group of cars.”Everyone’s waiting for me.”

The kids didn’t speak, nor did they move. Their eyes just drifted to the cars as though they didn’t understand.

Wei Kang rushed him again through the walkie-talkie.

He was extremely sorry, and he wanted to leave immediately too, but in this situation, he couldn’t actually push the kids away, right?

“That…” He patted his own chest, pointing far away and then pointing back to where they were. “I will come back. I will bring more gifts when I come back.”

The few big boys blinked, silently giving way and pulling the kids aside so they made a small pathway. They’d actually understood, or at least, they understood the hand signs.

After being seperated from society for so long, they had an instinct akin to small animals. They knew who was good to them, who ignored them, who laughed at their clothes and dirty faces. They would instinctively avoid the latter and approach the former.

Salem and Nabari were riding in the same bus. Seeing that Zhang Zian was unable to separate himself from the crowd, he thought something bad had happened and rushed out of the car to help him out.

He shouted loudly using their local language, and the kids ran off at the speed of light. Only when he got closer did he notice the snacks in the kids’ hands. Then he understood why Zhang Zian was surrounded.

He shook his head. “Jeff, you shouldn’t give them these things. They’ll know how good the outside world is. But most of them don’t have the courage to leave, and it will only bring them more suffering. I don’t return to the tribe often, and every time I come back, they only see me with empty hands. They don’t have to live like me then, between traditional and modern society.”

He wasn’t wrong, but Zhang Zian said, “But at least they now look forward to the outside world. Without anticipation, it’s even less possible that they will leave the tribe. So even if it’s just one kid who is curious about the outside world and has just the same recklessness as desire as you, they might act on it like you did. After all…times are changing. While they are growing up, different things might happen to the world and your tribe.”

Salem lowered his head before smiling. “Maybe you are right, but you’d better not let our chief hear that.”

Zhang Zian shrugged. “Maybe they already have.”

Salem was stunned for a moment before he realized that Zhang Zian was referring to one of the kids here who might become the chief of the tribe in the future—that was extremely possible, since all of the kids in the tribe were here.

Beep! The leader of the convoy pressed on the horn, rushing them to hurry up and get in the car so they could go.

Zhang Zian couldn’t give more thoughts on the situation. He shared a look with Salem before running to their respective jeep, closing the door and shutting off the noise from the convoy.

“Car Four in place! Sorry for the wait!” he reported through the walkie-talkie.

“Group 2 all in place!” Wei Kang announced.

“Group 1 all in place! All cars report. Check your equipment. Check your car,” Peter Lee said into the walkie-talkie.

“Car One OK!” Nabari said.

“Car Two OK!”

“Car Three OK!”

“Car Four OK!”

The sounds of reporting traveled through the walkie-talkie with different accents and genders, all of them confirming how ready they were to go according to their car’s number. They sounded extremely in order.

Zhang Zian was getting more and more excited too, like he was personally getting involved in a huge project.

No matter how Peter Lee thought or how he thought of Peter Lee, he had to admit that their team had a wealth of experience when it came to team expeditions. With a veteran on their team, they really had become organized and extremely efficient, moving immediately at every command.

On the other hand, on Wei Kang’s side…they were exactly like a group of free sheep.

Gao Ke and Xiao Tianyu had even fought over who would be able to get He He in their car. In the end, Wei Kang decided that neither of them were reliable. If He He were to decide to selfishly act again, the two of them would definitely let her after pretending to stop her. So he went ahead to discuss with Peter Lee, letting He He enter the female detective’s car so she could control her.

Wei Kang and Peter Lee only conversed for a short while before he was convinced by Peter Lee and his team’s actions and words, so he agreed to Peter Lee being the leader of their team. Zhang Zian didn’t disagree either, since the other party was better at organizing a team than they were.

“Car 12 OK!”

“Car 14 OK!”

Silence settled over the walkie-talkie. Zhang Zian didn’t miss one—there were only 13 cars in the convoy, but there was no Car 13. Probably because the foreigners thought that the number 13 was inauspicious.

Peter Lee had asked Zhang Zian before whether he wanted to change his car to Car 5, but he didn’t care about that kind of thing at all.

“All cars OK! Let’s go!”