Pet King

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

The sun started rising, and the temperature rose rapidly. Zhang Zian took the elfins back to the hotel where they were staying. When they went upstairs, they passed by a muscular white man with a hearty smile. Fortunately, he’d tied Richard’s beak in advance. Otherwise, he might have let out a whistle…

They’d woken up too early. Wei Kang and the rest still needed a few more hours to get there. They could thus use the time to get some much-needed rest.

Zhang Zian turned on the air conditioner, tied Richard down with a rope, stretched out, and laid down on the bed. At this moment, he made eye contact with Fina. It was not clear when Fina had jumped onto the bedside table and began looking down on him.

“What… What’s up?” Zhang Zian looked fearfully at her claws. Was she still angry about yesterday’s incident? She was simmering too long about this, he felt. She’d barely spoken to him since last night. She muttered nothing more than “hungry,””thirsty,” and “sleepy.” He was merely directed to serve her.

“I want to ask you, what is that ‘Zhong Guangyin’ thing that you were talking about earlier?” Fina’s eyes were burning bright, and she flashed her two white tiger teeth when talking.

Knowing that he was in a somewhat compromising position, Zhang Zian swallowed, smiled, and said carefully, “It is nothing. It is a fictional thing in a novel.”

“Oh. Why did you become so surprised when you heard the word?” Fina asked.

“That is…because the shape of the thing is a bit like a pyramid.” Zhang Zian saw that Fina was interested and decided to share with her the legend of Zhong Guangyin, albeit entirely from his memory of it.

The elfins other than Pi were also interested in this topic. They’d intended to take a nap but were now interested to hear the story.

“What is ‘Inverse Entropy Field?’ What is ‘going against the flow of time?’ Speak English!” Fina was impatient and slammed down hard with her claws.

Zhang Zian saw a deep scratch on the countertop and was so scared he almost peed his pants.

“Science fiction is always like that. They always deliberately put together some pretentious vocabulary and make it sound fancy.” He defended himself before continuing. “In fact, what it means… is that deep within the coffin lies a unique space that connects the past and the future. That is the rough gist of it all.”

“Connecting the past and the future?” Fina repeated. “It means… will you be able to see someone who has died and someone who hasn’t been born yet?”

Zhang Zian nodded and then shook his head. “In theory, yes. But don’t take it seriously. It’s just a setting in the novel.”

Fina thought seriously for a moment. “Do you really think this thing does not exist?”

Zhang Zian smiled. “It’s just the setting of the novel. I won’t dare to say that it is completely impossible. But the possibility of it really existing is low, very low, indeed… The chance of that happening is even lower than that of me winning the lottery every day.”

Fina looked out the window facing the southwest. She said thoughtfully, “I believe it exists.”

Zhang Zian almost blurted that line out, “Where did you get the confidence to say that?” but for the sake of his own life, he swallowed it back. If he had not done that, perhaps the hotel would’ve had to deal with a corpse.

He waited for a while, but Fina did not seem to intend to explain her idea in detail.

Just then, the rope holding Richard’s mouth tightly came loose. Not wanting to be left out, he cried, “Hey! I haven’t read this novel, but I heard things from people! They said that this idiot cannot and does not like to read this novel!”

“Oh? Why? What are you talking about? If you dare to talk nonsense once more, I will use 502 to tape up your whole mouth!” Zhang Zian threatened.

“It’s very simple. This is a novel about love. You haven’t fallen in love, so of course you don’t understand it!” Richard said and even sang. “Zhang Zian, you don’t understand love. You will fall down…”

Zhang Zian said, “Just you wait! It’s just not convenient for me to deal with you right now!”

Fina seemed to have finished asking her questions and jumped back to her bed. She squatted in her corner quietly, as if she was going to sleep. However, her tail slid off the edge of the bed while flicking around, suggesting that she was having a rare moment of deep thought.

This scared Zhang Zian, and he momentarily forgot about his sleepiness. He glanced at the elfins and suddenly realized that they were able to form a pilgrimage team similar to Peter Lee’s. Vladimir was a consul, Pi could be a poet, Richard was a scholar, and Famous was a colonel. Fina would be a detective. However, the remaining priest and saint roles seemed to have no suitable candidates. If Old Time Tea was counted as a (martial) saint, it seemed the role of the priest was still vacant.

“Priest… Priest… Priest…” As he murmured the word, slowly but gradually, he fell asleep.

Galaxy squinted and glanced at him with silver-gray eyes. It yawned, and before long, it laid down to sleep as well.

They didn’t know how long they had slept. Zhang Zian was woken up by the buzz of his phone. He’d received a message. He stumbled up and saw that it was from Wei Kang. He had finally arrived in Siwa.

“Get up! Professor Wei Kang has arrived. Let’s check out now. If we check out after noon, we have to pay for an extra day! That will not happen, as I’m paying for this with my own money!”

He woke up the elfins, cleaned up a little, and immediately brought the elfins to the hotel lobby to greet them. The weather was very hot, and the sun was still as strong as it had been before.

Several Prados were parked in front of the hotel. Wei Kang and his four disciples got out of the cars, and each had an expression of anticipation and excitement.

The four youngsters, including Gao Ke and He He, were very interested in this historic town. However, time was not on their side, and they could not explore the area. Wei Kang hurried them to help Zhang Zian with his luggage.

Zhang Zian and Wei Kang spoke briefly because Peter Lee and Nabari were still waiting at the Bedouin tribe. Although Wei Kang was relatively fast in arriving here, they still had to leave immediately.

Zhang Zian left the RV that Lazart had loaned him at the hotel. He could not drive the car into the desert, as it could easily get stuck in the sand. If he could return from the desert smoothly, he would drive the car back to Cairo and return it.

With a little rest under his belt, Zhang Zian took over navigation and led Wei Kang and the others to the Bedouin tribe. After arriving at the tribe, several of the young people were inevitably stunned by the raw and somewhat backward lifestyle of the Bedouins.

Peter Lee waited for them at the entrance of the tribe. Zhang Zian introduced them and Wei Kang to him, while Peter Lee introduced Nabari and Salem to Wei Kang. Salem got along with the young people, and they quickly got together, talking and laughing.

Wei Kang, Nabari, and Peter Lee gathered together to re-confirm the preparations before entering the desert. They scrutinized the route once again.

Zhang Zian quietly observed all that was occurring. If Nabari was considered a neutral referee, both sides of the team were even at seven people. Fifteen people with different goals, hastily put together to form a group, would now enter into the unknown of the desert.