Pet King

The shop owner didn’t know Chinese, but he could easily guess what they were saying from their expressions and tone. He pointed to another display cabinet, smiling. “Distinguished guests, if you would like to see beautiful women, you could instead head there. There is the most beautiful woman that the Egyptians are very proud of, the true beauty that captured that hearts of millions—Queen Nefertari!”

After Jack translated for them, the foreign name had them confused. Who was this Queen Nefertari? This was the first time they had heard the name.

Zhang Zian explained, “Nefertari is one of the queens of Ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh, Ramesses the Second, and is publicly acknowledged to be Ancient Egypt’s most beautiful woman. Nefertari means ‘the most beautiful woman.’”

In front of Jack and Fina, he didn’t finish the rest of his words.

The current Egyptians didn’t actually like Cleopatra that much. Firstly, she wasn’t Ancient Egyptian, and neither was she Arabian. She was Greek. Secondly, she had used her body as an exchange for the temporary independence of their country. It may have been a nice story to tell, but it was not a nice one to hear. In the eyes of the Arabians, who believed in male chauvinism above all others, this was just a…disgrace! What “bear the shame to save a country”? That could go to hell!

Gao Ke and He He immediately shifted their interest from Cleopatra to Nefertari, rushing over to the other display cabinet in a quest to know what the most beautiful woman in Egypt looked like.

The shop owner took the chance to garner more interest, continuing to introduce other items. “Distinguished guests, if you are interested, we also have a statue of Queen Nefertiti. Nefertiti is a woman whose beauty is only surpassed by Queen Nefertari, and I believe she will not disappoint you.”

Out of curiosity, Gao Ke and his crew immediately rushed over to the next display cabinet to spectate, commenting on Nefertari and Nefertiti’s looks.

Only Zhang Zian didn’t move from his spot. He has no interest in what Nefertari and Nefertiti looked like. If he really wanted to look at beautiful women, there were a bunch of them waiting for him on TikTok.

In the display cabinets before him, there was one more stone statue that they hadn’t seen.

This was a woman’s statue, her curly hair done up in a bun and secured with a hair tie. This looked just like an adult woman from Europe. Even though her beauty wasn’t shockingly overwhelming, she was at least a pleasant sight.

The stone statue that Fina had been staring at was this one.

The shop owner had run this shop in the market for quite some time and still had some skill in watching people. Even though Gao Ke’s crew seemed interested in everything, he could see that they were just normal university students without big wallets, and they clearly had no intention of forking over any money. Zhang Zian didn’t talk much, but his eyes had never left the display cabinet for Cleopatra the Seventh. The customers that really had an intention to purchase were are like him.

So the shop owner came pattering over, asking, “Distinguished guest, which statue has taken your fancy?”

Jack came over to help him translate.

“Where did this come from?” Zhang Zian asked, pointing at the fourth statue.

“Oh, the real version of this statue is in Berlin Museum, and it was said to be the statue that is closest to how Cleopatra the Seventh looked. But to me, this is also the most uninteresting statue. Any art school student would be able to recreate a similar statue just using their pinky. If you are interested, why not consider the other three? As the shop owner, I strongly recommend the second one.” The shop owner pointed at the whole-body sculpture, the statue where she was wearing naught but her crown.

He introduced it. “This whole-body statue’s original is kept in Saint Peter’s Museum, and it expresses every single drop of Cleopatra the Seventh’s strength and power as a pharaoh. It is the most valuable.”

“Ha, stupid idiot! How dare this lowly person criticize Her Holiness’ image and even point out the wrong person!” Fina suddenly burst into a snort, its words full of scorn.

The shop owner obviously didn’t know what Fina had said and merely treated the cat as though it had sneezed.

Zhang Zian knew that no matter how arrogant Fina was, it definitely wouldn’t say words that it thought were untrue. He mused over Fina’s words for a moment before pointing at the whole-body statue, asking, “Are you sure about the background of this statue?”

“Of course!” The shop owner smiled. “Distinguished Chinese guest, I have operated the shop here for tens of years. If I can get this wrong, then I might as well close shop and go home!”

Zhang Zian continued calmly, “Is that so? But if I remember correctly, Ancient Egypt only has one official Pharaoh, and that was Hatshepsut. Even though Cleopatra’s name had spread far and wide, she was a ruler of Ancient Egypt, the queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty, but she wasn’t a pharaoh.”

“Huh?” the others asked, confusion scribbled all over their faces. “Cleopatra wasn’t a pharaoh?”

“No,” Zhang Zian answered definitively. “You have to go through a specific ceremony in order to become a pharaoh. Cleopatra the Seventh had risen to the throne at a pressing time, with internal and external conflicts, and so there wasn’t time to prepare and carry out the complicated ceremony. Of course, this doesn’t contradict the fact that she was one of the most outstanding leaders of Ancient Egypt and in history. Even if she wasn’t a pharaoh, she fulfilled the role of one perfectly.”

The last sentence was, of course, to appease Fina.

The shop owner’s face was a little stiff, and he laughed a little to buy some time. “Haha! This distinguished guest definitely did make his preparations before coming. You sure are well-versed in Ancient Egypt’s history. I know that Cleopatra the Seventh isn’t a pharaoh, but everyone thinks that she fulfilled the role and was just lacking a title. That’s why it isn’t wrong to say that she is a pharaoh.”

Well, that wasn’t an unreasonable explanation either. Zhang Zian didn’t get caught up in that situation. He’d merely asked to gain some time to think about what Fina had meant by “point out the wrong person.”

He suddenly recalled that when Gao Ke and Xiao Tianyu had been commenting harmlessly about the statue’s figure and art, Fina was completely immune to it. If this statue had really been a statue of Cleopatra the Seventh, it definitely wouldn’t have tolerated their comments and would have treated their legs like the world’s best scratching post.

Only Fina had seen the real Cleopatra the Seventh in this world, so its judgment must be correct. Which meant this nude statue with three snakes on its crown and a staff in its hand wasn’t one of Cleopatra the Seventh. Then who could it be?

A memory flashed through his mind. Back when Fina had been muttering under its breath, it had mentioned one name before, and it had complained about the fact that people often mixed this person up with Cleopatra.

What… What was that name again?

He scoured all of his memory before it suddenly pounced on him, and the hard-to-remember name surfaced. He pointed at the statue again. “You’re wrong. This statue isn’t actually one of Cleopatra the Seventh. It’s Arsinoe the Second.”