1212 Return to Siwa (1/2)
So the amazing idea that Fina had was to let Zhang Zian carry a few bottles of honey on him, break the bottle, and drip all of the honey on himself when they met the Great Mosquito Army, sacrificing himself to save Fina…like a stupid loyal servant.
The ”ancient mosquito repellent methods” were just redirecting the mosquitoes from yourself to others, asking others to take the bites for you. Zhang Zian felt the method was seriously immoral, since it used others for one's own benefit. He was still pitying the slaves of ancient Egypt, but he'd ended up as one in the blink of an eye, destined to sacrifice himself for his master.
But with Fina's claw pointed at him, he didn't dare fight the order directly, and he was still contemplating how to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Maybe it would forget about it moments later.
Unfortunately, Richard jumped up, squawking away. ”Gah gah! I think this solution is great! You can just apply more cooling oil anyway! At the smell of sweet, sweet honey and spicy cooling oil, the mosquitoes would be completely helpless! It makes me happy just thinking about it!”
”Easy for you to say. What if the attraction of the honey was stronger than their revulsion for the cooling oil?” Zhang Zian said. ”Why don't I pour the honey on you instead, and you can lure the army of mosquitoes away? I'll make sure to burn some nuts and fruits for you every special occasion as offerings…”
The two of them traded insults back and forth, throwing shade at each other with colorful language, so the long journey was not boring at all.
They drove west for yet another long time before finally reaching the Siwa Oasis in the late afternoon.
When they'd gotten to the Siwa Oasis yesterday, they had merely passed by. They hadn't had the time to settle down and sightsee then. But today, they had all the time in the world. If nothing went wrong, they could find a place to rest for the night, meet up with Professor Wei Kang tomorrow, and head out to the Bedouin tribe together. They would meet Salem, Nabari, Peter Lee, and the members of the Cosmological Information Society. Then they'd venture deep into the desert.
There weren't many chances left for them to enjoy the modern civilization.
The sun gradually settled behind the horizon, and Zhang Zian decided to find a hotel to rest his feet first before thinking about going out to play and find food.
This hotel definitely wouldn't be able to satisfy the picky Fina, but there was no other choice. It would only be for one night anyway. After they entered the desert, they wouldn't be able to find a place to stay as nice as this.
”I have a little donkey, one that I never ride! One day I changed my mind and rode it to my farm! With my little whip, I had a great time!”
There were a lot of donkey carts going back and forth in the city. Right in the city center was a crowded market, simple tarps covering many trinkets that the merchants were selling. Richard landed on Zhang Zian's shoulder, singing the lullaby. But there seemed to be something a little weird with the song being sung into his ear…
The cooling oil's effect at calming the mosquito bite was obvious. It was impressive how Richard went back to being an African grey after transforming into a blue-eyed cockatoo, though he did miss Richard looking like the Old Man from the South Pole.
Zhang Zian chose a hotel near the city center. It had three stories and didn't seem too old from its outer appearance.
Before they'd entered the city, to prevent any troubles with checking into the hotel, he had made all of his elfins invisible.
He stopped the car, asking the receptionist for the biggest room that they had on the third floor. It was the off-season anyway, so most of the rooms were empty.
After they checked in, he moved his luggage into the room on the third floor. The elfins had all come up first, opening the windows to look at a group of weird concrete buildings—or, more accurately, a pile of rubble, just like those eroded buildings in the ancient paintings of China. But these buildings didn't seem to be eroded at all. Eroded buildings had specific traits. Wind blew parallel to the horizon and would leave erosion marks horizontally.