Chapter 1208: Refresh Oneself

n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Last time, Zhang Zian had taken the arc route of Cairo-Alexandria-Matruh-Siwa Oasis. In order to go sightseeing in Alexandria and Matruh, he’d chosen the route from Cairo along the highway westward and through Faiyum Oasis to Siwa Oasis.

If one went south rather than west at the fork in the road, it led to a famous scenic spot in Egypt, the Black and White Desert.

The Black and White Desert was made up of two adjacent deserts. One was the Black Desert, and the other was the White Desert. Many visitors to Egypt would visit it and spend the night in the desert, lighting bonfires, living in tents, eating barbecue, drinking beer, and enjoying the desert sunrise and sunset as well as the pure and pollution-free starry sky, which brought new experiences to people who lived in big cities.

Recently, the situation in Egypt had been unstable. Tourists were not allowed to stay alone in the Black and White Desert for the night. However, Zhang Zian had no intention of visiting the Black and White Desert in the south. He would turn westward at the fork in the road. The Black and White Desert was just the edge of the Sahara Desert. When they entered the Great Western Desert, some people spent the night in the desert. Even if they wanted to leave early it was probably impossible.

The scenery on this road was extremely monotonous and boring. There were boundless deserts on both sides. On a road that was so long the end of it could be seen, he would come across a bus carrying tourists once in a while. After all, it was the off-season now.

The elfins had slept late last night and gotten up early again today, and they soon fell asleep because of boredom. Fina in particular, seated in the front passenger seat, could hardly stop yawning, and Zhang Zian began to feel sleepy.

Feeling sleepy while driving was a big taboo. Zhang Zian didn’t want to get into an accident on a road in another country. Moreover, the place was so desolate that if an accident really happened, he would not be able to get help for a very long time.

To wake himself up, he could not help but use a miraculous weapon—Pinduoduo cooling ointment!

He had given out quite a lot of the cooling ointment, and he only had a few stored up in his hands. He’d been planning to give everything out before leaving Egypt. If he really could not give it away, he would have to throw it out. Anyway, he couldn’t bring it back to the country.

When he opened the cap of the small container of cooling ointment, a strong smell started to spread throughout the car.

He dipped his fingertips in a little and applied it to his temples on both sides. He was immediately refreshed and felt that the sticky paste absorbed the heat of the skin like a bottomless hole.

“What is that?”

Fina was the closest to him and instantly smelled it.

“Cooling ointment. Do you want a bit? You won’t be sleepy anymore after you put it on,” Zhang Zian courteously said, but he couldn’t read the first word, so he had to replace the pronunciation of the word with the word ‘cool’.

Fina looked at him like he was an idiot. “Are you dumb? Why would I need to put that on? Can’t I just sleep if I’m tired?”

“I’m driving, so I can’t sleep. Besides, it contains mint. It’s a close relative to your favorite catnip,” he said.

Although mint and catnip both had the words “mint” in them, and they looked quite similar, they were not closely related. Catnip was not even a type of mint plant.

Fina pulled a long face and instantly denied it. “Who said I like catnip? Don’t group me in with those ordinary cats!”

Well, catnip didn’t work for all cats either. About 50% of cats responded to catnip. It seemed that Fina belonged to the other 50% of cats.

Some cats also reacted to ingredients containing peppermint, but as for the box of cooling ointment in his hands... Who knew what its ingredients were? Anyway, if it didn’t eat it, it shouldn’t kill anyone.

Since the cooling ointment had no effect on Fina, she began yawning again. Zhang Zian thought for a moment and said, “Right, there seems to be a crystal mountain in the Black and White Desert.”

“Crystal...mountain?” Fina opened its eyes wide in an instant, suspiciously asking, “Is it that kind of crystal mountain that I take it as? You aren’t tricking me again, right? Like the diamond town in Germany...”

When they were in Germany, Zhang Zian had just said it casually. He had not thought that it still remembered the incident of the German diamond town. That was awkward.

“No, of course I’m not tricking you. There is really a crystal mountain in the Black and White Desert. The ground is covered in crystals as big as fists. You can pick crystals up whenever you want,” he said confidently.

Fina straightened herself up and said with her eyes wide open, “What are you waiting for? Start going towards the Crystal Mountain! If we’re late, they’ll all be picked up by people!”

“It’s a pity we aren’t going on that road, past the Faiyum Oasis. We need to turn westwards,” Zhang Zian shrugged.

“What?” Fina angrily sat up straight and said in a loud voice, “You, a mere mortal, dare to go against my orders?”

Old Time Tea coughed once. “Your Highness, calm down! There must be some hidden reason in this. That crystal mountain was probably not just found recently, and it has been standing there for many years. Why is it that no one has gone there to pick things up?”

As soon as Fina heard about the crystals being all over the ground, she ignored other problems. At this time, she was reminded by Old Time Tea and carefully pondered, as if it were a truth. Just like the German diamond town, if there were diamonds everywhere in the town, why hadn’t they been picked up?

“You’re tricking me again!” It was utterly angry as it reached out its claws. “I’ll give you a chance to admit the truth. Are there crystals there or not?”

Zhang Zian hadn’t expected such a response. He’d just wanted to play a joke. He didn’t want to lose his life. He quickly explained, “I didn’t fool around. There is a crystal mountain over there, and it really has crystals all over the floor that can be randomly picked up... It’s just that the purity of the crystal is not high and it’s not worth money.”

If there really had been a valuable crystal mountain over there, Fina probably would’ve forcefully filled up the car with crystals, and he and other elfins could only buy tickets like the Indians.

Fina heard what he said, and it did not seem like he was randomly speaking. It calmed down a bit. “Not worth money?”

“They’re not worth money. Crystal is essentially no different from glass. It’s all silicon dioxide, which can be synthesized artificially. In fact, speaking of crystal, even diamonds are hyped up...”

When Zhang Zian talked about diamonds, he totally abhorred them. What diamonds lasted forever? An advertisement that had been circulating forever was really popular. This evil little stone fooled not only women, but also cats!

He tried to reverse Fina’s view that diamonds were not valuable by themselves so that it would not value its diamonds so much, like the dragons guarding treasures all day long in Western legends. He might as well sell them secondhand while they were still valuable.

“Shut up!”

Fina scolded him with a cold expression. “Since you were not lying, I won’t bother with you about the crystal mountain for the time being, but you can’t go too far! Otherwise, I will calculate what you owe me for that time at the diamond town!”

Zhang Zian shut his mouth in an agreeable manner, but at least the goal of refreshing his mind had been achieved, and he was no longer sleepy. From his temples to his back, it was cold and depressing...