Chapter 1158: Wasteland
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Birth reincarnation was an activity that required skill. Some people were born with means. They could devote their limited lives to eating, drinking, entertaining, and all kinds of ostentatious wealth. They could also pay for their strange hobbies.
The believers of mysticism Zhang Zian had met in the Great Pyramid were typical representatives of people who knew how to reincarnate. They were rich and idle and willing to search the world for the so-called pure energy of the universe.
Until he walked out of the pyramid, Lee Peter was still chattering on and on, trying to convince him to join their organization.
But Lee Peter said that they would visit the other pyramids in Egypt, which made Zhang Zian feel moved.
Fina said that only the pyramids could hold the Holy Cat statue, so he could try to find out if there was such a pyramid that would allow him to keep the statue for a long time, but to be honest, he did not hold much hope—every known pyramid was guarded, not necessarily open to the outside world. It would be very difficult to get in, let alone leave the Holy Cat statue inside.
As the saying went, if you had the money, you could have the devil push the millstone for you.
Especially in Egypt, you might even be able to have the millstone push the devil for you.
There was very little that money could not do. If there was something, most of the time, it was because the money you had given was not sufficient.
Perhaps the Egyptian government would be happy to sell an unknown pyramid to private buyers if hundreds of millions or billions of dollars were spent.
But this was just his wishful thinking.
Zhang Zian had no money and could not even bring out a few hundred million j.a.panese yen, and he also doubted that the members of the Cosmological Information Society would bring out hundreds of millions of American dollars to help him fulfill his wish.
After meeting up with Galaxy, Richard asked, “Gah gah! Where will be going next?”
“It’s too hot. Let’s go back to the hotel. It’s almost time for meals.” Fina was hungry, and it was already used to seeing both pyramids and sphinxes.
It was enough to visit one big pyramid within the Pyramids of Giza. It would be meaningless to stay any longer.
It was near noon and too sunny today. The sun was s.h.i.+ning on the elfins, putting them in a bit of a slump. The peddlers around them kept coming over to hara.s.s them one after another.
Zhang Zian regarded himself as a self-respecting person and disdained taking all kinds of weird pictures with the Sphinx like other tourists, and if he continued to stay here, he would unavoidably meet those weird people again.
“No need to go back to the hotel. How can we waste the day in the hotel? I think we might as well rent a car and visit another nearby city in the afternoon,” he suggested.
“If you want to go, just go to the palace. Send me back to the hotel and you guys can go out yourself. Everywhere we go, there are these vendors and hawkers. The noise gives me a headache,” Fina yawned. The implication was that you guys have never seen the world before, so I would rather go back to the hotel and have an afternoon nap.
Zhang Zian resolutely shook his head and refused. “No, let’s go together! You can rest a.s.sured that the next place is not a popular tourist attraction but an unpopular place of unpopular places. People who come to Egypt will rarely go there. There will be no hawkers without tourists. I promise you that you will not be disappointed.”
Rarely did he so flatly rebel against Fina’s will, and Fina and the other elfins were surprised. Richard patted his head with its wings. “Did burn your head in heatstroke, you idiot?”
Fina squinted. “Don’t think that I can’t see. You’re tricking me again! I will no longer be tricked by you!”
“I really am not tricking you!” Zhang Zian said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “I’m rarely so sincere, and you all have this kind of reaction?”
“Then tell me, where exactly are we going?” Fina still refused to believe him.
Zhang Zian shook his head. “I can’t say! If I say it, there’ll be no meaning.”
“No matter where we are going, let’s leave this place first. Let’s not stand here and let the sun s.h.i.+ne on us!” Famous’ tongue was out, and it was panting.
This sentence was really too logical, and even Fina expressed its agreement silently.
Zhang Zian picked up the phone, hesitated a little, and dialed a number left by Lazart from the el-Khan Khalili Market. It was the group of the scientific investigation team, saying that if they needed help in Egypt, they could ask him for help.
After the call went through, Zhang Zian gave a straightforward explanation of his intention. He wanted to ask Lazart to help him rent a car. The cost would be borne by Zhang Zian.
Renting a car was the best way to travel on your own, but Zhang Zian did not know the traffic rules of Egypt well and dared not rent it rashly.
Now it seemed that there was no need to obey traffic laws in Egypt. He even doubted that traffic laws actually existed. One couldn’t expect to obey traffic laws when driving in a country without traffic lights.
Lazart did not say anything else and agreed instantly.
When he hung up the phone and waited for the car, Fina said, “I am giving you a chance now. If you take back the deception, I can regard it as not having heard it.”
Zhang Zian insisted that he was not trying to deceive her.
“Well, if you say that I will be satisfied, then do you dare to bet with me? If I’m not satisfied, you will be handed over to Snowy Lionet and let her do what she wants to you, how about that?” Fina asked contemptuously.
Zhang Zian said, “Alright, but you must promise not to say that you are not satisfied even though you are obviously satisfied.”
His calm att.i.tude convinced Fina a bit. “Hmph! What is my status? I’ve always stuck to what I say. Would I lie to a lowly servant like you?”
Zhang Zian shrugged his shoulders. He had been with it for so long that he knew that sometimes it was not so honest, especially when the topic was related to its experience two thousand years ago.
Not long after, the car arrived.
It exceeded Zhang Zian’s expectations in that it was a fairly new station wagon, not an old one that could be seen everywhere on the streets of Egypt.
And the person driving was was Lazart’s son, Chris.
It turned out that Lazart had decided to lend his family’s car to Zhang Zian to use because he had more than one car in his house.
Zhang Zian was very embarra.s.sed, but he also felt the hospitality of the Copts. He was willing to trust the Chinese people who he’d only met once.
He wanted to pay for the use of the car, but Chris waved his hands to reject that idea, just wanting him to drive carefully. He rented a car to go back home himself.
Zhang Zian could not stand at ceremony anymore. He greeted the elfins to get in the car, then turned the air conditioner in the car to full blast and finally isolated himself from the heat outside.
He took out the map and followed the electronic map on his phone, and he drove the car northeast.
After driving about seventy or eighty kilometers, he checked the road signs against the map, stopped the car, looked out, and said, “Here we are. Get out.”
“Gah? This kind of place that birds don’t sh*t at?” Richard called. “Looks like you really want to be a eunuch!”
No wonder he’d claimed that there were no tourists and no peddlers. It was almost a wasteland outside.
Fina was stunned, its lips trembling slightly. It couldn’t speak.
Because 2000 years ago, this had been a city called Bubastis, and where they were standing was the lost address of the Cat G.o.d Bastet’s Holy Temple.
This was Fina’s palace.