Pet King

Zagazig was a city situated northwest of Cairo. As the capital of the governorate, Zagazig should not be considered a small city, but when compared to the big city of Cairo that had a population of 20 million, Zagazig’s population of 200,000 looked like child’s play. It would be at most a district in China.

This city was located on the fertile lands of the Nile River delta, with one river flowing through the heart of the city. Its great geological position had helped it to become one of the most important agricultural trading cities in Egypt. Other than that, Zagazig University was also quite famous within Egypt and other Middle-Eastern countries.

But not many foreigners knew about this small city. Even if it had an important museum, it would be difficult to attract tourists to this place. If they wanted to see artifacts in Egypt, they had so many more choices.

About three kilometers to the southeast of Zagazig, there was a piece of abandoned land filled with a mess of stones. Anyone that drove past might not even stop there, thinking that it was just a dumping ground for all the architectural trash that they had.

But right at this spot was one of the holiest, most prosperous places in the world 2,000-3,000 years ago. Back then, this city hadn’t been called Zagazig—it had been called Bubastis.

This land held the ruins of the Temple of Bastet.

In the Ptolemaic dynasty, Bubastis had held the biggest, most grand festival in the whole of Egypt. When the festival day drew near, more than 700,000 came from all over Egypt, even from outside the country, into Busbastis to attend the grand party, religiously presenting their offerings to pray for the goddess’ protection.

They said that the amount of wine that Busbastis consumed during the festival was more than the other parts of Egypt’s consumption of wine for the entire year added together.

While other countries were still cultivating their cultures, Bubastis had already been partying like no other for 2,000 or 3,000 years, truly a city that never slept. Even the Paris, New York, or Tokyo of today couldn’t compete.

The day after the celebration, the streets were lined with collapsed drunkards. They didn’t freeze to death only due to the warm weather and their goddess’ protection.

Their glorious days were over, and Busbastis had been washed away by the tirades of time. The glamorous Temple of Bastet had been reduced to a pile of tiles.

Combined with the time needed to have their lunch and the bumpy drive on Egypt’s roads, it was late afternoon by the time Zhang Zian reached the place. The sun had become less harsh.

The gentle breeze blew through the broken walls, the overgrown grass cascading through the wind. The palm trees and date palms covered a corner of the building, the sound of insects chirping fully expressing just how quiet it was.

This sight reminded Zhang Zian of Yuanmingyuan Park’s rubble. Yuanmingyuan had been dubbed the best garden of all. It had also been ruined due to the invasion of enemies and the fire of war.

Fina left the car by itself and walked slowly to a square stone, seemingly a broken stone pillar. Its front paws lightly grazed the surface of the stone, feeling the rise and fall of its surface.

There was still a little evidence of the carvings on the pillar, but its contents had been polished down by thousands of years of weather and was no longer distinguishible. It held nearly no value to archeologists. It was more like a headstone for the Temple of Bastet, for the masses to know that the once-prosperous temple had dwindled into a ruin.

The other elfins had all thought that this was just any other ruin, but they understood the specialty of this area after Zhang Zian’s soft explanation, and they understood the special meaning that this place held in Fina’s heart.

It stood far, far away, on the border of the ruins. Fina must’ve wanted to be alone.

This was Fina’s palace. This was Fina’s home.

It was finally home.

“It’s evil…” Old Time Tea shook its head. “How many wonderful works of art have humans ruined through fights and wars…? Just looking at the scale of this ruin, the Temple of Bastet must have been just as big and just as luxurious as the palace.”

Zhang Zian nodded. “According to records, the Temple of Bastet was built in a square shape, and every side was just as long as an open sports stadium. The main path through the temple was actually 120 meters long, just as long as the diameter of Chang An. I believe this is accurate, or this place wouldn’t have been able to hold 700,000 worshippers.”

That shocked the elfins even more. They had all been to the capital and had seen the flag-raising ceremony on Chang An Street. The memory of the extremely broad roads was still fresh in their minds. But they didn’t expect that 2,000 or 3,000 years ago, the Temple of Bastet already had a main road just as grand as Chang An Street’s.

Zhang Zian continued, “It’s not just that. The Temple of Bastet’s floor plan was extremely beautiful too. The ancient Egyptians had redirected two channels of the river that cuts through the whole of Bubastis, each channel around 30 meters in breadth, so that they could surround the Temple of Bastet. They run parallel to each other and never cross paths, so the only way of entering the temple was through its opening.

They built this temple using the same standards and concepts one would use to build a city. The temple doors were 20 meters tall, with three meters of relief sculpture. When you walked through the doors, the relief sculptures looking down on you, you could really feel how small you were and just how glorious Bastet was.”

Just those numbers were enough to let them understand just how massive the Temple of Bastet had been back in the days.

And a temple like that was actually Fina’s home! Everyone felt that shock deep in their bones.

“Gah gah! If it were me, after living in such a luxurious home, I would definitely rather die than stay in your small and poor pet shop!” Richard flapped his wings at Zhang Zian’s head in sympathy.

“No worries. You can stop staying there, and you can go die too.” He glared at it.

“Gah gah! I think dying standing is better than living on my knees!” Richard squawked shamelessly.

No wonder Fina had never stopped complaining about the pet shop, about the food, about its living space… They sometimes thought that Fina was just being too picky, but if any one of them was in its shoes, having to stoop to living in a commoner’s home after staying in the most luxurious palace and having the world’s most scrumptious foods, having to experience such a huge gap in treatment, anyone would feel anger, indignance, or maybe even like dying. Just like those princes whose rich and noble families were taken down by others in the olden days.

Fina had tried its best to get used to life in the pet shop with few words of complaint, but this was definitely not something that someone without an extremely strong resolve would be able to do.

Today, returning to the temple again after 2,000 years, what kind of emotions had bubbled up in its heart again?