1214 Unique Culture (1/2)

”Women?”

At the mention of women, Zhang Zian immediately perked up, but he didn't immediately understand what Richard meant, since he had clearly seen women at Cleopatra's bath. Or…what if Richard had seen the truth—that the few European tourists that he had seen earlier were actually crossdressers?

Richard nodded solemnly. ”Stop thinking of weird things, idiot! I meant local adult females. Tourists and local girls don't count!”

Well, if that was the case… Zhang Zian gave it a brief thought. He hadn't really paid attention to that yesterday when he'd passed by quickly, but it seemed they really had not seen a single local adult woman. The local market was packed full of men, merchants and buyers alike.

”What's so weird about that? This is the most conservative place in all of Egypt. The local women must cover themselves from head to toe. Even if you did see them, you wouldn't know what they looked like anyway. Besides, this is such a short road. How can we treat what we see as standard?”

”You idiot! You still don't understand what I mean!” Richard flapped its wing, making sure to hit Zhang Zian's head on every downward swing. ”I have considered that situation. But even if so, there are way too few women out here, and most of them are men! Especially young, strong men!”

Zhang Zian gave it a thought again. That really did seem to be the case. In a place where there was no Planned Parenthood, the ratio between the sexes should've been equal. In other areas of Egypt, they also saw women walking by in their long robes. Even if the women here didn't like to show their faces, there were many situations where they still have to walk outside. They couldn't possibly stay indoors for their whole lives like the princesses of Ancient China.

Even though they had only walked for a short while within the city, it was clear from their short time out there that there were significantly more men in the city than women.

”What are you trying to say? Even if there are more men than women, what's wrong with that?” he asked.

Richard broke into a smile. ”It's not just about the amount—when we were at the hot springs and you were eyeing the female tourists with abandon, I was watching the few young men. There were locals and tourists. From their eyes, words, and physical actions…they were definitely not just normal friends!”

Zhang Zian didn't say anything. This ”not just normal friends” deserved more investigation.

He rejected thinking in the way that Richard was trying to guide him to and said instead, ”You must have seen wrongly.”

”Definitely not! You have to believe in my intuition, idiot! My intuition is always right!” Richard said confidently.

”You mean only when it comes to 'that,' right? Why are you always talking about 'strong young men,' anyway?” Zhang Zian retorted.

”Gah gah! You idiot, you didn't notice it at all! One of the really manly ones even smiled at you!” Richard squawked excitedly.

Zhang Zian said nothing and thought, ”Thank goodness I didn't notice.”

He had a vague grasp of what Richard actually wanted to say.

In a town where there were more men than women and a few lads that had a deeper relationship than just friends… These relationships could be seen everywhere. The time they had spent watching them was too short, but was it really just a coincidence?

He turned back to look at one of the few things left relatively unharmed. It was the tip, tall and imposing, shrouded in the light from the sunset.