Pet King

Morning. Zhang Zian was not woken up by the whistle of the Nile River ferry, but instead by the roaring tides at Alexandria’s main port.

Yesterday, he and the elfins had returned from the Port of Mersa Matruh. It was already nightfall when they arrived at Alexandria. When they entered the city, they heard the bells ringing to indicate breakfast. The locals, much like river tides, came rushing out of their houses and started looking for a place to eat. Unluckily for Zhang Zian, this led him to be stuck in a traffic jam that lasted for an eternity. It was a very long time before he eventually found a hotel for everyone.

The elfins had also lost their patience with the noise and exhaust from the traffic jam. They went back into the phone and slept. This saved Zhang Zian the trouble of having to explain to the hotel why he had dogs and cats with him. He completed the hotel check-in by himself.

The sky was still radiating some light. Zhang Zian gave a huge yawn and got up. It was not that he wanted to. However, Sihwa might have slept more than enough while in the phone. Sensing any sort of light, she immediately took the opportunity to whine for a phone. Zhang Zian suspected that she had a serious case of phone addiction and thought that perhaps he should send her to Professor Yang for shock therapy to cure it.

The Egyptians had a wide variety of mobile phones, and the latest models of high-end mobile phones could be seen while roaming the streets. However, many people still used the old-fashioned phones that were merely functional. Smartphones were, after all, too expensive for the general population. One could also find domestically-produced Egyptian phones. The rationale was that as long as you had money, you could buy any type of phone.

Zhang Zian thought to himself, “In any case, I was going to get up early today. I will have to drive to the Port of Mersa Matruh to meet with Salem, then go to the Bedouin tribe near Siwa Oasis with him. Then, I will have to return to Cairo and report to Professor Wei Kang. It is a packed day, and I’ll probably only return to Cairo at night.”

Zhang Zian woke up the elfins, but he did not expect them to get up immediately. While waiting, he went out alone to buy some breakfast as well as buy Sihwa a mobile phone from a nearby mobile phone shop.

Alas, it was too early. After buying his breakfast, he found that the phone shop had not opened yet, and the staff were still setting things up. Ramadan had probably caused the shop to push back its opening hours.

He estimated that it was not long until opening time and that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to come out after. Zhang Zian decided to wait at the store front. In any case, given Egypt’s temperature, his food would take a long time to cool.

It was already noon in China. He first checked the work report from his clerks. Everything was normal, and the clerks were looking forward to the gift he was bringing back.

Judging from the photos Wang Qian and Li Kun had shared with their friends online, they’d taken advantage of his absence to head down to the beach to play. They looked highly burnt from too much sun exposure.

China had already entered summer, although the heat there was nothing compared with Egypt’s.

Casually browsing, he launched the live app and enter Sihwa’s live broadcast room. Of course, Sihwa, who’d lost her mobile phone, was not broadcasting. In her room, one could see her previous videos. The video of her rescuing a person had a massive amount of views, and the numbers were still increasing.

When Sihwa had rescued the surfer yesterday, Zhang Zian saw that the live broadcast was interrupted and thus left the broadcast room. He waited for Sihwa at the beach for her to drag Salem back. Later, he was talking to Salem and had no chance to turn the app on.

He remembered that platform executives had mentioned to him that many viewers questioned the morality of the show. He decided he wanted to check what netizens were saying.

Each anchor on the live broadcast platform had a corresponding community, similar to Post-It notes. Even if the anchor was not online, fans would continue talking to one another on the channel.

He clicked on Sihwa’s small mermaid community, and when he entered, he saw a tall building with the words “Talk about yesterday’s live broadcast of the rescue.”

In general, posts that were perceived to have high-quality content tended to have polarizing arguments. This method helped to attract a fair amount of supporters and detractors.

Sure enough, after clicking on this post, he saw that the user had written:

“Firstly, let me declare that I am one of Sihwa’s earliest fans, as early as when she first started broadcasting. It does not matter how she treated fans in the past. After all, it was merely entertainment. However, I feel that yesterday’s broadcast was too much. It is so obvious that the producer behind the camera was manipulating the entire show and maliciously tagging on viewer’s sympathy to garner views. Sihwa has an absolutely beautiful and magnificent physical appearance. With time she will make it big. Come on, she really did not need to do this to gain fans, right?”

Zhang Zian also saw a lot of high-profile posts in the Wang Haige Forum. Many claimed to be old fans of Sihwa, though this could not be proven easily. Then, with a seemingly calm and objective position, they swayed public opinion quietly and claimed that the whole thing was a fraud show. Yet none bothered to show any evidence. The logic went that the show was fraud, and now the show must prove that it was not a fraud!

It was simply ridiculous and illogical. Shouldn’t it have been that “those who put forth an argument provide the evidence”? Without that, it was simply empty words accusing the innocent.

The replies to the posts were mixed with support and opposition. They were furious with one another, and on any points on which they didn’t agree, they started quarreling.

“Did you see Sihwa putting on a show? Are you courting death to your family?”

“I believe in Sihwa. She doesn’t seem to be so scheming. If you were an old fan, you would understand.”

“My cousin is a platform employee. He told me personally that this show was planned by the platform.”

“Doubtful. A, she is an anchor who does not usually leave the house. The first time she is out, she’s so lucky to meet someone drowning? B, the sea is huge, so how did she even find that man who was already drowning? And C, who was the man who told her someone was drowning?”

“Those who ask these questions are neither stupid nor bad, but stop being lazy and go search for your answers. A, the beach has a complex geography, and there are no lifeguards. There were drownings there before. B, the mobile phone was in front of Sihwa’s chest and held by her swimsuit. What we saw and what Sihwa saw were different. How do you know that she didn’t see other clues? C, I really laughed at this. A girl wearing a bikini to a remote location in the Middle East without anyone to go with her? Your worldview is really narrow!”

“Are you a troll? Did I say I haven’t checked it? If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all!”

“You are the troll yourself. You resort to calling me a troll because you can’t beat me in a debate!”

“Oh, I also have a cousin who is platform employee. He also told me personally that other female anchors are worried about Sihwa’s superior position and specially hired online ghostwriters to smear her reputation!”

“You are the ghostwriter. Your whole family are ghostwriters!”

After flipping a few more pages, many of the later replies were filled with all kinds of meaningless swear words directed to one another’s families. Zhang Zian also saw a few familiar User IDs joining the conversation, such as [Mr. Grape], [killme], [F*ck The Wildest Dog], and so on.

However, one reply made him pay special attention. That was the post that claimed that other female anchors were worried about Sihwa’s superiority and had sent someone to blackmail her.