Leaving home when he was young, his accent had not changed, and his hair had withered.
Fina did not expect to hear the ancient Egyptian accent again after two thousand years, although many syllables or intonation were quite different from the real ancient Egyptian language, making it difficult for Fina to understand it. It was a dialect that it had never heard before. It had the framework of ancient Egyptian and Greek, and the characteristics of foreign languages were integrated.
Even in the past, there were dialects throughout Egypt that she did not understand, and the difference in accents was normal.
Lazart and his daughter, Kate, stayed where they were and asked his son, Chris, to investigate the situation. He was worried that there were so many people in front of them that there was another riot. Every time there was a riot, the Copts were the unlucky ones.
He inadvertently turned his head and met Fina's eyes, and some memories deep in his mind seemed to be awakened.
Like other ethnic groups, the Copts were proud of their origins. In order not to be assimilated into the mainstream of Egyptian society, despite the turmoil, they still stubbornly maintained their traditions, promoted their culture, and worked hard to open up a living space.
It was precisely because they always maintained a sense of crisis that the Copts worked harder than most Egyptians, striving to gain wealth and status, because only these two were the foundation of modern society.
Nothing could change fate more than hard work and effort.
Hard work had paid off. Although the population only accounted for 10% of Egypt's total population, the level of education of the Copts was higher than the overall average level of Egypt. Many Copts had received higher education and become highly qualified professionals, especially among doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Copts accounted for a large proportion, far more than 10%.
Egypt's richest family, the Savelis family, was a Copt. At the height of World War II, among the 100 largest landlord families in Egypt, more than 40 were Copts.
Among the Copts, there was even a Secretary-General of the United Nations — Boutros Boutros-Ghali. This was quite amazing. How many ethnic groups had a Secretary-General of the United Nations?
Not only in Egypt, but the Copts who had migrated abroad in the early days had also taken root abroad. According to statistics, Copts accounted for the highest proportion of minority doctors in the United States, even exceeding the total number of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean doctors.
Lazart did not have such a prominent experience, but he also started from scratch, opening his own gold and silver jewelry shop in the Khan el-Khalili market. He had no worries about food and clothing, and his family was harmonious. His economic level was higher than 99% of the people in Egypt, which made him satisfied.
The inheritance of culture was an important condition for a nation to survive. Lazart and his family had always attached great importance to this aspect. In private, the family would speak Coptic, and the past of the family was also passed down through word of mouth from generation to generation. Every member of the family grew up listening to the ancient stories told by their elders, which seemed both real and imaginary.
When Lazart was very young, his grandfather told him a story. It was a story about a cat.
The narrators added and subtracted a sentence. The details of the story had become so absurd that it was almost like a fairy tale after being passed down by word of mouth for two thousand years. However, the main body of the story had not changed. It was about a family ancestor who was trapped in the desert waiting for death. He was saved by a passing cat.
This kind of story was very vulgar. If it was widely spread, it might be selected into a certain folk tale collection. The only good thing about it was that there was no vulgar ending with the cat turning into a beautiful woman and marrying the main character.
However, this story did not spread. It was only passed down by word of mouth within Lazart's family, along with a series of other distant stories. When he was a child, probably before the age of ten, he also believed it. Later, of course, he laughed it off, but this did not prevent him from telling the story again in Coptic to his son and daughter. There was nothing better than a fascinating story to attract a child's interest in learning a language.
Despite this, Lazart believed that his distant ancestors did have some kind of connection with cats. As proof, his ancestors, who were skilled in craftsmanship, passed down a linen and wool tapestry, which depicted the cat in the story.
When he first saw Fina, the image of the cat in the tapestry instantly overlapped with the cat in front of him, awakening Lazart's childhood memories. This cat was too similar to the cat in the tapestry, whether it was the golden fur or the strange markings. It was as if the cat in the tapestry had come to life and walked out of the tapestry into the real world.
Lazart stared at Fina and almost stopped breathing. It was only when his daughter, Kate, held his hand worriedly that he came back to his senses.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Kate noticed that her father's face was pale, and there was sweat on his temples. She thought that he was worried that the disturbance in front of them meant that another upheaval was about to befall this troubled country.
"No, I'm fine." Lazart raised his chin and gestured for her to look at Fina. "Do you remember the story I told you and your brother?"
Kate stared at Fina for a moment. "What a beautiful cat! Dad, did you remember the story when you saw this cat? In my opinion, this is just a coincidence. "
Lazart shook his head. He had lived for decades and had seen many cats, but none of them had such a color and markings.
He asked the shop owner next to him who the cat belonged to, because it didn't look like a normal stray cat.
The friend of the shop owner was also a fellow Coptic, and he told Lazart that the cat had been brought by a few Chinese tourists. Now that the Chinese tourists had gotten into trouble and were surrounded, it would be difficult for them to escape.
At this time, his son, Chris, ran back and told his father what he had found out.
Lazart heard that this was not a sign of upheaval, and he was more or less relieved.
It was none of his business. Should he just leave like this?
He hesitated for a moment, and the cat's eyes kept staring at him, as if it was expecting something. Not only was its fur color and markings different, but its gaze and demeanor were different from all the cats he had seen before. It was like the cat in the tapestry.
So, he walked over gently. The cat did not move.
"Hello, can you understand me?"
He felt that he was being silly. Only a child would talk to a cat.
He did not know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to see the cat nod its head slightly.
"Are your friends in trouble?" he asked, pointing at the disturbance in front of them.
It looked sideways, as if it found it troublesome and disgusting, but it still nodded slightly.
Lazart finally made up his mind. Not only did he want to help the Chinese tourists, but he also wanted to ask the Chinese tourists about the cat.
"How about this, you come with me. I'll think of a way to help your friends out." He pointed in the direction of his shop.
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