When Zhang Zian and the others all entered the shop, the girl stayed outside to keep a lookout. The middle-aged man in a short-sleeved shirt left the shop door ajar and waved at them, telling them not to rush to ask questions.
Gao Ke and He He were nervous. Although the old man and the girl looked kind, bad people wouldn't write the words "I'm a bad person" on their faces. Who knew if they had just left the wolf's den and entered the tiger's cave?
Zhang Zian was even more puzzled. When did Fina come? When he went to rescue He He and the others, he had acted with Famous because he knew that Fina would not stoop to save a woman who was not related to her and liked to kill herself.
He thought that Fina had stayed with Xinghai and Pi. He didn't expect that not only Fina, but Xinghai and Pi had also come, but He He and Gao Ke couldn't see them.
In fact, this shop was quite close to the scene of the accident, and they could still hear the noise. The onlookers seemed to have just realized that they had slipped away, and after a few curses, they scattered.
The shop door was pushed open, and the girl walked in with another local young man, then closed the shop door again. They nodded to the old man, took off the robe that covered their bodies, and threw it aside.
Under the robe, they were dressed the same as Zhang Zian and the others. They were also a combination of shirts, polo shirts, sneakers, and jeans.
When they opened the door, Old Time Tea also jumped in. It hadn't been looking for Fina, so it followed the smell and found that Zhang Zian and the elfins had met here.
The old man also breathed a sigh of relief, smiled at the crowd, and said in English, "Welcome, you must have been frightened. Take a rest. I know you must have a lot of questions, but it's safe now. Don't worry, I will explain to you later. Please sit! Black tea or coffee? "
Their ears had been hurt by the Arabic language, but now they felt very comfortable listening to English. Gao Ke and the others were able to become graduate students, so their English must be good. Zhang Zian's daily conversation in English was not a problem, and Jack, who had moved around many countries as a child, was even more so.
Zhang Zian and the others had a stomach full of questions, but the guests followed the host's wishes. Affected by the old man's calm mood, they gradually calmed down.
After such a long time, they were indeed thirsty. They found chairs to sit down and ordered the drinks they wanted to drink.
After a few minutes, a young man and woman came out of the inner room with trays of black tea and coffee. They handed them to Zhang Zian and the others.
Zhang Zian asked for black tea. After taking a sip, he couldn't help but grin secretly. It was so sweet! Does the sugar here cost nothing?
Egyptians, both men and women, were fond of sweets. Most of the food and drinks were extremely sweet. They probably felt that they could not be seen with their robes anyway, so they did not care about their figures and could do whatever they wanted.
After the young man and woman served the drinks, they stood obediently beside the old man. The old man introduced, "My name is Lazart. These two are my daughter, Kate, and my son, Chris."
Zhang Zian and the others looked at each other. The names of this pair of young siblings … did not have any Egyptian characteristics at all. They were very common European and American names.
Jack was a mixed-race child who grew up in a foreign country, so it wasn't strange for him to be named Jack. However, this family of three looked like ordinary locals, so how could they …
Could it be that, like Zhang Zian, they felt that foreigners did not pronounce "Zian" correctly, so they gave themselves an English name like "Jeff"?
It was not good for them to ask in person, so they thought about it in their hearts. However, the old man Lazart's next sentence made them suddenly understand.
Lazart saw their doubts and smiled. "Oh, yes, we are Copts."
Zhang Zian's heart moved. He looked at Fina, and then looked at Kate and Chris, who looked honest and straightforward. He carefully observed the appearance of the siblings. Although they looked similar to the locals, when he looked closely, he could see that the siblings' thick eyebrows, deep eye sockets, and high cheekbones were slightly different from the appearance of ordinary locals. They were closer to the appearance of southern Egyptians.
So that was it …
That would explain everything.
Copts were a minority in Egypt, accounting for about 10% of the Egyptian population. They claimed to be descendants of ancient Egyptians and pharaohs. Most importantly, they believed in Christianity, so they did not care about physical contact between unfamiliar men and women.
Lazart took a sip of black tea and said, "I'll tell you what happened first. Maybe I can answer your doubts. When I'm done, if you have any questions, feel free to ask."
After He He and the others had gotten into trouble, Zhang Zian rushed to help, while Fina and the other elfins stayed where they were.
On the other hand, Lazart was walking back from the church with his children. He saw the sounds of a riot on the street in front of them. He was afraid that the political situation was unstable and that there would be another riot. He was very nervous, so he let his daughter Kate stay with him and ordered his son Chris to go check out the situation.
When Lazart was with his children in private, in order not to forget the origin and history of his people, he often spoke Coptic, and their conversation happened to be overheard by Fina.
The origin of Coptic was very complicated. It was the final form of ancient Egyptian and the product of Hellenization of the Egyptian language under the rule of Rome and Byzantium.
This language was created in the 3rd century AD. The writing system was based on Greek, and then from the "secular" writing style of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, some letters were borrowed to express sounds that did not exist in Greek. It could be considered a combination of Greek and ancient Egyptian.
At present, Coptic was close to extinction, and very few people used it anymore. Only a small number of Copts still used it privately, and no one knew how long it would be before it officially disappeared.
However, in history, this language had played a huge role — the French philologist Shang Boliang was proficient in Coptic, so he was able to discover the secret of the Rosetta Stone and finally decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Coptic was like Chinese pinyin, and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were like Chinese glyphs. When the pinyin and the glyphs corresponded, the secret of hieroglyphs was revealed.
Just as Zhang Zian had guessed, Fina was not interested in helping He He, who was courting death. It sat lazily on the ground and yawned, secretly blaming Zhang Zian for being a busybody.
However, at that moment, it heard a pronunciation that was very similar to ancient Egyptian. It was like hearing the accent of its hometown again after many years, and its whole body suddenly froze.
It turned its body mechanically, and its eyes met Lazart's.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
