Pet King

While Salem was learning the Chinese language, Zhang Zian was curious about the semi-transparent miniature whirlwinds that he saw between the dunes. How did they form? Why didn’t they dissipate after a while?

Was it due to the unique geographical landscape? When the wind blew through the honeycomb sand dunes, it changed direction because of the shape of the sand dunes. Might this be similar to how water formed a vortex after flowing through a reef?

In order to learn the authentic Chinese language, Salem diligently helped Zhang Zian by carrying the drone suitcase. Wherever Zhang Zian went, he followed and tried to learn from him.

The strange phrases that Zhang Zian said made him curious. He had never heard them before while interacting with Chinese tourists.

“Zhang Zian, can you say it again? I didn’t hear it clearly,” he begged.

“What are you looking at?” Zhang Zian repeated.

“You… stinky prawn?” Salem tried to imitate the pronunciation.

“No, it is ‘What are you looking at?’” Zhang Zian corrected him.

“What are you looking at?”

Salem had a lot of talent learning a new language. After all, he was a young man and could learn things quickly. In addition, he had a high degree of enthusiasm and motivation. After he repeated it several times, he had learned the pronunciation.

“That… If someone else said it first, how can I respond? Do I reply by saying the same thing?” he asked.

“Of course not! You have to respond, ‘I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?’” Zhang Zian said seriously.

Salem imitated him. “Hey… mud?”

“The accent should be placed on the last word. When you say it, you should have an imposing manner. It is best to stare at the person as you say it. ‘I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?’” Zhang Zian broke it down and taught him slowly.

Richard’s claws suddenly grabbed his shoulder. It meant, “You are teaching him wrong things!”

“‘What are you looking at?’… ‘I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?’… ‘What are you looking at?’… ‘I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?’…” Salem muttered repeatedly and carefully tried to remember the newly learned greetings. He wanted to use them when he eventually went to China. Even if he could not go to China for a while, he could at least make a video call to Sihwa.

He didn’t quite understand why he had to stare when he said, “‘I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?’” Maybe this was the custom of the Chinese when talking. The staring was probably to suggest friendliness. After all, it was said that the eyes were the window to the soul, and staring opened the window. The wider it was, the more likely Sihwa could see his true feelings.

“Zhang Zian, I am done learning! Help me practice!” Salem said with great interest.

Zhang Zian nodded. “Good! What are you looking at?”

“I’m lookin’ at you. You got a problem with that?” Salem stared at him with a face full of rage.

Perhaps because it was genetic, the Bedouins had facial features that were highly pronounced and big eyes. Salem’s actions made his already-large eyes even bigger.

“Yes, that’s the spirit!” Zhang Zian said and raised his thumb.

Salem had gotten a compliment, and he was feeling really good about himself.

Richard covered his face with wings and couldn’t imagine what kind of troubles Salem would encounter if he came to China. He was afraid that he would be killed before even leaving the airport…

Famous and Fina knew that he was being playful again and could not be bothered with Zhang Zian. They picked up their mats lazily and ran to a cool and ventilated place under the car to rest.

Having learned how to greet others, Salem was very satisfied. He then remembered he had another question and asked, “Oh, yes, Zhang Zian, you taught me how to eat, drink, watch movies, and sing. These are phrases. I don’t quite know how to use them in sentences,. Can you teach me? Why can’t you eat water and drink rice?”

Zhang Zian was not a language teacher. Could he really explain this well? These were the phrases that the Chinese commonly used and did not give much thought to how to use them.

He was annoyed when asked, but he didn’t want to say that he didn’t know. He replied, “These usages are all used to teach foreigners. In fact, the Chinese are not so complicated! Since we have such a great bond, I will let you in on a secret. One word is all you need to settle everything. That is the word ‘whole’!”

Salem was shell-shocked from what he’d heard. He’d thought that it would be difficult to learn Chinese, especially so the complicated verbs. In the end, was all this simply to make things difficult for foreigners? Were they so unwilling to let others learn their language? If that was true, it was simply horrible!

Fortunately, he had a good relationship with Zhang Zian, and therefore, he’d learned this secret so easily. He now had a word that could replace all adverbs, and it truly made things easy.

A “whole” word—magical!

He still didn’t dare to believe it completely. He tried to ask, “That can be for eating…”

“Whole bowl of rice!”

“Drinking water is…”

“Whole glass of water!”

“Watch a movie… I know, the whole movie?”

Salem seemed to have gotten it. Yet he did not know that he had been fooled…

“Yes! No wonder your cousin praises you for being smart!” Zhang Zian once again gave him a thumbs-up.

Salem smiled modestly. Although it was necessary to add additional nouns, the combination of new nouns was relatively fixed, making it way easier to learn.

In the spirit of helping people all the way, Zhang Zian added, “If you really don’t know what to do, just say ‘Whole what?’ or ‘What whole?’ is good enough. Others can understand what you mean.”

Salem was almost moved to tears. Chinese was so simple to learn!

“Forgot to mention that if you talk like that to a Chinese, they will definitely ask if you are a Northeastener.” Zhang Zian remembered a loophole.

Salem replied, “A Northeasterner?”

“Well, you see, isn’t Egypt in the northeast of Africa? So if the Chinese ask you if you are a Northeastener, you just say yes,” Zhang Zian said.

“Oh.”

Seeing that Salem believed whatever Zhang Zian said, Richard quickly criticized him. “You idiot! You are really horrible. I am clearly incapable of doing these bad things like you have done!”

Richard felt that he had to say something after seeing Salem whispering to himself all the new knowledge that had been given to him, revising things that would not truly prove useful to him.

Zhang Zian did not back down. “What do you know? I am helping him take shortcuts!”

Richard slammed his wings into Zhang Zian’s head. “To hell with your shortcut! Don’t you know? The Northeastern way of speaking is very contagious. Put a Northeasterner in the university dormitory and four years later everyone is going to speak like that! When Salem returns to the tribe…it’ll be all your doing!”

Zhang Zian shuddered. After a few years, would the Bedouin tribe speak like the Northeastern Chinese?

That might just be a beautiful scene. Alas, it was also difficult to imagine…