Pet King

The moment a test was mentioned, the four research students suddenly got excited. The one that was getting tested wasn’t them after all, so they were more than glad to witness this happening. He He even said, “Mr. Luo, don’t let him off easily!”

Wei Kang was instead worried that Mr. Luo would make the questions too difficult and embarrass Zhang Zian. He really wished that Zhang Zian could answer these questions correctly. It would really be a great final addition to their Egypt trip then.

Mr. Luo smiled but remained silent, flipping through the book that he had brought. He landed on one page, pushing it towards Zhang Zian. “What does this picture mean?”

Zhang Zian, Wei Kang, and everyone else there came to surround the book, stretching out their necks to see what was happening.

Wei Kang sucked in a cold breath, exclaiming, “These…these are Egyptian hieroglyphs!”

Mr. Luo nodded. “When talking about Ancient Egypt, we can’t possibly leave out Ancient Egypt’s ancient language and alphabet. Language and words are the basis to every single civilization. If you know Ancient Egypt’s language, even if your knowledge is rudimentary, it is great proof of understanding.”

“This… Isn’t this too difficult…?” Wei Kang sneaked a glance at Zhang Zian worriedly.

Mr. Luo looked over at Zhang Zian as well. “What do you think? If you think this is too difficult, I can change it into another question.”

Zhang Zian stared at the picture emptily.

First of all, all of the hieroglyphs were circled up with an elliptical border, a symmetrical support beneath it, looking like a long oval makeup mirror.

In the border, a right angle triangle was at the very top, with its hypotenuse looking more like steps.

Under the triangle was an animal that was lying down. It had a head, a tail, and four legs, much like a lioness.

Under the lioness was an upside-down U shape with one of its openings connected to a circle, somewhat similar to a fishhook.

There were a few other symbols—two birds, a feather that was like a dagger, squares, semicircles, and a few other symbols that were too hard to describe.

The four students started to try deciphering the hieroglyphs, guessing everything under the sun. Every time He He guessed something, she received great praise from Gao Ke and Xiao Tianyu.

“How about it? Do you know what this photo means?”

After some time, Mr. Luo questioned him, mouth curved into a smile.

“If I am not wrong,” Zhang Zian answered confidently, “this photo came from the Rosetta Stone, and it means ‘Cleopatra.'”

“Cleopatra?” He He repeated. “Why does this name sound…ah! It’s the Beautiful Queen of Egypt?”

“No, the one on this sledge is Cleopatra the First, and the Queen of Egypt is the Seventh. There’s a huge difference between them.” Zhang Zian corrected her without any consideration.

Wei Kang couldn’t help his excitement and nervousness at Zhang Zian’s firm answer, asking for Mr. Luo’s opinion with his eyes.

Even Mr. Luo was surprised. “Have you seen the Rosetta Stone before, or have you learned Egyptian hieroglyphs before?”

“About that… I have a friend that’s very interested in Egypt, and I learned a bit from them.” Zhang Zian answered as vaguely as he could.

“Oh, then what else do you know about Egyptian hieroglyphs?” Mr. Luo asked. He really couldn’t believe that a normal person would actually be able to read the elusive and confusing hieroglyphs.

Zhang Zian gave it a thought, pointing at the picture. “Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are all combinations of sound and meaning,” he explained. “The one in front shows its pronunciation, while the one behind shows its meaning. You could write it from left to right, right to left, up to down, or even from the middle towards the left and right—this is usually determined by where the faces of the animals or humans are pointing. The sentence structure usually goes verb-subject-noun, and is completely opposite to Japanese, which goes subject-noun-verb, and they’re pretty non-intuitive.”

Don’t ask him how he learned Japanese. He would be more than glad to teach you personally.

Wei Kang and his four students were all completely confused and had no idea whether he was right or not. But seeing how calm Zhang Zian was, it didn’t seem like he was pulling this out of his *ss.

Mr. Luo closed his book, smiling. “Alright, I can end the class early. I hope everything’s successful in your expedition! Remember to bring me some souvenirs!”

Finishing, he completely ignored Wei Kang’s attempt to hold him back, waving his hand and leaving the office with much ease.

His actions had already shown everything.

“Zian, when did you learn how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs?” Wei Kang couldn’t hold in the bubbling excitement in his heart, and he tugged on Zhang Zian’s elbow.

Zhang Zian removed his elbow from his death grip calmly, answering, “I didn’t really ‘learn,’ I only know a bit. Ever since I knew I was following the team to Egypt, I’d been using my free time to read some books about Egypt. I had nothing to do anyway. You know my shop doesn’t have much business…”

“Look at him! He’s already been out of school for so long, but he hasn’t forgotten to use his free time to study. This is lifelong learning! You guys should learn from him!”

In the midst of his excitement, he didn’t forget to chide the four students, pinning down especially the lazy Gao Ke with his eagle eyes.

Gao Ke shot Zhang Zian a pained smile and hid behind Xiao Tianyu’s wide torso, hiding from his mentor’s piercing gaze.

Zhang Zian’s understanding about hieroglyphs was entry-level at best. He wasn’t even a novice in a real expert’s eyes. He did use his free time to learn about Ancient Egypt’s words and language, since he had a free teacher in his shop anyway. The only thing was that this teacher was a little temperamental, so if he pronounced or recognized the word wrongly, even if it was just a small mistake, he would end up getting scoffed at.

The first thing that Fina had taught him was how to read “Cleopatra,” including the pronunciation and writing. That was why he was able to recognize it on sight from Mr. Luo’s picture. That was why he could act cool for a bit.

No matter how he tried to explain that he was just a novice, Wei Kang couldn’t seem to ditch the idea that he was just being humble.

The four students had a completely different impression of him now. Other than Du Xuetao, who genuinely liked studying, the other three had merely wanted to get an easy Master’s certificate to get a job. Even though they didn’t say it, they were all a notch more confident in their Egypt trip.

Even He He—she had already been proven wrong several times, and it wouldn’t bode well for her if she continued to question him. It might instead negatively impact the others’ impression of her.

Only with true strength would one be able to gain true respect from the people around them.

It is a good thing that they are more confident now, and seeing the situation, Zhang Zian didn’t fight their words anymore. When they reach Egypt, if there are situations where the knowledge of Ancient Egypt’s words, language, culture and knowledge are needed, they could just ask Fina for guidance. It is the walking dictionary and encyclopedia for Ancient Egypt after all, no one could be stronger than it.