Three days later.
Schech pushed open the villa door.
I've finally seen the outside world again.
She opened her parasol and walked through the garden. As she passed a tree, she heard chirping chirps of baby birds. She moved the parasol aside and looked up to see a bird's nest high in the branches.
It turns out they're a new neighbor. They're really brave; aren't they afraid of snakes?
Why didn't you wait for me?
Shi Jinzhe caught up from behind and took the umbrella from Sheh's hand. "So you're leaving me to face this alone, huh?"
"The instigator should take responsibility."
The bathtub was filled with wine, things were spilled all over the floor, and the whole house was a mess after a passionate revelry.
The person cleaning the room was immediately shocked when they entered, exclaiming, "Now I finally understand why people aren't allowed to enter the villa without permission! This is the reason?!"
Even now, as he leaves the room, Shekh feels as if he's been thoroughly soaked in alcohol.
She pressed her nose against Shi Jinzhe's neck and sniffed: "I can't smell your fragrance anymore."
"It's just my imagination." Shi Jinzhe opened the car door for her. "Let's get in. After we go to the reptile house, we still have to catch a flight. We can't waste the long vacation you got for me."
Shekh asked the crucial question: "Why are you rushing? Don't you have a private jet?"
"Do you agree to let me spend money to buy myself one?" Shi Jinzhe hit the nail on the head.
"Didn't the Cheng family have this before?"
"Yes, but domestic routes are hard to get approved, and there's not enough time. I'm not a business tycoon with connections everywhere."
Shekh had become desensitized to those words and wouldn't feel awkward anymore. He encouraged her without batting an eye, "Honey, give it your best."
The driver in the front seat glanced at the rearview mirror and realized that the boss was very career-minded.
No more worries about being unemployed and having nothing to do.
The future looks promising; I'll share this good news with my colleagues when I get back.
Airport.
Sheh sat in the VIP room looking at her phone. She and Shi Jinzhe hadn't made any specific plans and intended to go wherever they felt like, with Egypt as their first stop.
She has recently become interested in historical myths and has been thinking about the myths that Shi Jinzhe told her last time.
The twelve-hour flight was very boring, and Shekh would sit for a while and then stand up and walk around.
Even as Shi Jinzhe was still giving instructions, he was still making sure that he was keeping an eye on things. A hands-off boss can be indifferent to things, but he can't really be completely oblivious. He had to make his presence felt from time to time to prove that he was keeping an eye on the company and wasn't truly ignoring everything.
Although the marriage wasn't explicitly mentioned, those two charity events garnered a lot of goodwill, and considering that he was also in charge of the Cheng family's past charitable work, the negative impact of the past is being forgotten.
It doesn't matter what those cunning old bastards think about the change of ownership. In short, thanks to the money he's been throwing around, compared to the Cheng family, he's now a pure white lotus rising from the mud, untainted by its surroundings.
Shekh brought over two bottles of water. "Would you like some water?"
"Hey, can you help me open it?"
"..." Does Shi Jinzhe have some kind of boneless weakness syndrome? She has to open bottle caps.
Schechner held the bottle to his lips: "Should I feed you?"
"Alright."
"I won't give you any." Shekh took the water bottle and drank it himself.
Shi Jinzhe handed her a tissue: "Have you noticed that you've become rebellious since we got married? Before, you would only occasionally talk back to me, but now you reply to every single thing I say."
"Have you noticed that I've become much more peace-loving? Would you have dared to talk to me like this before?"
"Look, here we go again."
Shekh replied half-heartedly: "In the past, you would have shut up after I said that."
She looked over. "Do you understand?"
Shi Jinzhe unscrewed another bottle of water: "I understand, it's me who's rebelling."
After drinking the water, the two boarded the plane ahead of schedule.
After an overnight flight, the plane landed the following morning.
After completing the formalities, Shi Jinzhe exchanged some cash at the airport. Sheh hadn't slept well, so he went to the hotel after leaving the airport and lay down to catch up on sleep.
Cairo was a bit hot during the day in early May. She woke up and saw that it was noon, so she turned her head and went back to sleep. She slept until four o'clock in the afternoon, then changed her clothes and left the hotel with Shi Jin.
Walking two blocks away from the city center, Schech encountered an environment vastly different from that in China.
Car horns blared incessantly, crowds weaved through traffic, stray cats appeared every few steps, and faint scents of spices and other aromas wafted through the air, creating a somewhat chaotic first impression.
But after walking a few more steps, she felt the weight of time in the muddy, earthen buildings that were everywhere in this somewhat disorderly urban area.
Schech took a sip of juice: "It's not quite what I expected."
Shi Jinzhe: "Don't you think it's bad?"
"No, it's not that. Didn't you tell me this is an ancient civilization? I can see some relics from the past, but there's also a feeling that the people here are forcibly locked away by history..."
Shech thought for a moment and said, “The feeling of confinement, I feel very fragmented here, like a lump of wet mud of different colors, which looks integrated, but if you drop it,” she made a shrug, “it will fall apart.”
“Very perceptive.” Shi Jinzhe held her hand as they walked, telling Shehe, “There is indeed a lot of integration here.”
"But haven't you also integrated a lot? Why don't I feel that way?"
"It's different. This country's civilization has been interrupted. To borrow your analogy, if this place is wet mud that hasn't yet taken shape, then we are porcelain that has already been fired and shaped. Even if it breaks or cracks, it's because it was completely solidified together by the intense fire and became indistinguishable from one another before it broke."
Schech was still observing the city when he casually remarked, "Porcelain is fragile, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is fragile, but as you said, even if wet mud is tightly mixed, someone can use some force to tear off a piece and use it on themselves, dismantling and reshaping it."
Unlike shaped porcelain, its fragments can only be pieced back together in one place. No one can replace it, no one can take it away. Stealing it is useless; you might even cut yourself. Even broken, it will always be part of the whole, and will never change.
Shi Jin turned back to look at her. "That's the difference. It's true that porcelain is very fragile, but in thousands of years, only this one has gone from clay to its final form. That's a very difficult step."
"It's clear that everyone else has passed away."
As Schech learns new things, his attention gradually shifts from architecture to food.
The magical moment sound effects of randomly refreshing NPCs in the country around the world, she saw several people traveling together holding a plate of roast meat.
Shekh stopped on his own and didn't move.
Shi Jinzhe followed her gaze but couldn't find any shops selling similar barbecue meats near this street.
"If you want to eat it, we'll go over and ask."
Shekh was pulled along by him to the group of people. A young man who was eating heartily turned his attention to the two of them and wiped his mouth sheepishly.
They ate so recklessly, it felt like we were from a completely different world.
Shi Jinzhe politely asked where he bought the items. The young man was very generous, pointing out the way and giving the address. He then took out another item and said, "I don't know if you'll like this taste. Why don't you try it before you buy it? Don't waste your money."
Shi Jinzhe politely declined, but bought a portion for Shehe and they ate it in the shop.
"How is it? Is it delicious?"
Sheh chewed a few times, swallowed, and began to worry that she wasn't used to the local food. She said bluntly, "Why don't you cook for me?"
Upon hearing this answer for the first time, Shi Jinzhe asked in surprise, "There are things you don't eat?"
Sheh put down the fork.
"...I was being inconsiderate again."
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