Pet King

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Lazart walked towards his family shop a few steps, then stopped and turned around to look, not sure if that cat had understood his words or not.

The cat rose from its squatting position and meowed twice to the side, as if to greet other cats—but there were no other cats nearby.

The cat followed him back to the store, and when he opened the door and turned on the light, the beautiful gold and silver ornaments seemed to make its eyes brighter. Without waiting for him to say anything, it jumped into a chair and looked around with a critical eye.

Hearing the sound of dogs barking from the streets, Lazart wondered: what method could he use to help the Chinese tourists?

He intended to help but did not want to have a head-on confrontation with the local people. After all, many of them were doing business in the Khan el-Khalili market. As part of a minority group, it was better to keep a low profile. Otherwise, it could lead to a hatred for the rich. It was important that for a long time, the wealthier, more accepting Copts were stigmatized by the Egyptians as “fake, foreign devils.”

The situation in Egypt was calm for the time being, but who knew when the next unrest would happen? Locals who hated the rich might take the opportunity to retaliate.

For the safety of his family, he could only do his best to secretly provide aid.

His gaze landed on the calendar, and he suddenly thought of a method that could work.

It was already June, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter. It was about to be Ramadan in Egypt.

Firecrackers were imported from China. The custom of setting off firecrackers had also been influenced by China.

Egyptian people had a tradition of setting off firecrackers at weddings and holidays, and Ramadan was no exception. The time of setting off firecrackers usually began at the time when they started to fast every evening.

Because of frequent terrorist attacks and unrest, the sound of firecrackers was easily confused with the sound of guns, and because of a series of security incidents caused by setting off firecrackers, the government did not encourage them. Still, local people felt that there was no feeling of festivity without firecrackers, so they refused to stop.

Although Ramadan had not officially begun, firecrackers had quietly come onto the market. There were several firecrackers in the Khan el-Khalili market.

Thinking about that, Lazart started to come up with a plan.

There were many people who knew Lazart in the Khan el-Khalili market, so it was inconvenient for him to show his face, and his old feet and legs were not very agile. So he called his son Chris and asked him to run to a farther-away store to buy firecrackers and set them off to attract the local people’s attention. Then he called his daughter Kate and let her slip into the crowd and bring out Chinese tourists, taking advantage of the messiness.

His son and daughter were smart and did not need him to give any more instructions. They followed his orders and left.

Lazart himself waited at the shop, and when the sounds of firecrackers began, he began to feel worried, not knowing if this plan would be successful.

Kate was afraid of being recognized by acquaintances, and she covered her face tightly with her headscarf, scared of causing trouble to her shop. She took Zhang Zian and the rest into small streets and made unnecessary turns even though the distance was actually very short, and she made sure that no one was following them before she was at ease and brought them back.

Chris, too, had taken a shortcut to an unfamiliar store to buy firecrackers, and after he set them off, he took the long route back.

Seeing his daughter lead Zhang Zian and the rest safely to the shop, Lazart finally felt at ease.

After they’d listened to Lazart’s story, Zhang Zian and the rest nodded and praised Lazart’s wisdom in bringing up his children. From the details of the action, they could see that brother and sister were smart and brave, and that they would definitely become excellent talents in the future.

Lazart himself was even more admirable. He was willing to risk offending the local people for Chinese tourists he did not know. This was not something ordinary people would do.

Zhang Zian, Gao Ke, Xiao Tianyu, Du Xuetao, and Jack all stood up to express their thanks to the father, as well as his daughter and son. He He, who had almost been stripped of a layer of skin, was even more grateful.

At that moment, Zhang Zian and the rest fully relaxed and were in the mood to look around the shop.

If they had not been nervous before, they would have noticed the dazzling variety of gold and silver jewelry in the shop—mainly gold, but also platinum and silver, bracelets, headwear, earrings, rings, necklaces, jewelry, and so on. There were almost three walls full in addition to the direction of the door, and there were many glass counters. The number put on display in them was astonishing, and wherever they looked, it was a sea of gold.

The Egyptians really loved gold. That was one of the few traditions that had been passed down from a few thousand years ago.

Ancient Egypt went without saying—11 kilograms of gold masks and 111 kilograms of gold coffins had made people used to this kind of thing. After all, ancient Egypt, as the world’s granary, was really rich.

Now, with an average monthly income of 500 RMB, 95% of the country was desert, unable to support an exploding increasing population. Flour, sugar, and oil were funded by their brother Arab countries. They were clearly so poor that they needed to eat dirt, but they had an unusual obsession with gold. This was modern Egypt.

The Egyptian principle was that their ancestors were once wealthy, and they could starve and live on the streets, but gold must be bought!

When a local woman got married, she would wear all her gold ornaments on her body, even such that all ten of her fingers were full of rings, and she would wear several heavy necklaces around her neck. The traditional thought was that the more gold ornaments a woman wore, the more her husband would love her.

Under such a custom, Egypt’s gold and silver jewelry shops were not worried about sales.

Of course, Egyptians were very poor. They could not afford pure gold. Pure gold was soft, and it was not easy to create beautiful jewelry with it, so most of the gold jewelry bought by the local people was 18K gold.

In recent years, with the further deterioration of the Egyptian economy, the devaluation of the currency, and the rise of prices, Egyptians could not even afford 18K gold. But even so, they had to do something in order to be impressive. They quietly pawned their 18K gold jewelry at home and bought similar-looking gold-plated jewelry from China instead.

People from other countries probably could not understand why Egyptians were so obsessed with gold.

Although there was a saying in China that went, “antiques in prosperous times, gold in troubled times,” it was used to engage in all sorts of illicit trading and referred to pure gold. If you had to rely on aid to eat, why were you still thinking about gold?

Zhang Zian held his breath and gazed at the store’s gold jewelry that was so heavy and so expensive that it would make an ox sweat wearing them. Even the pupils were reflecting the golden light. Although it was known that the gold was about 18K gold, 18K gold was also valuable!

He He instinctively wanted to pull out her mobile phone to take pictures and then post it to her friend groups. She touched her pocket before she realized that her mobile phone had been stolen by someone. She could not help feeling sad.

In dazzling golden light, Fina sat calmly in the middle of a chair, the golden color of fur fully integrated into the brilliant background.

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