Pet King - Chapter 1143

Chapter 1143

The sounds and sights of his hometown had not changed one bit since he’d left when he was young .

Despite that it had been more than two thousand years since the dawn of Egyptian civilization, Fina could still hear the authentic Egyptian accent amongst the people who spoke it . Granted, some of the differences were highly detectable . Syllabic sounds and intonations had evolved drastically from old Egyptian, and sentences were structured differently . The influence of the Greek language and other foreign languages were present in this dialect that Fina now heard . She could not understand it, and she definitely had not expected it .

The land of Egypt had many dialect groups which not many could understand, and the difference in accents was normal .

Lazart and his daughter Kate stayed in the same place, and Lazart told his son Chris to check up on the situation . He was worried that the vast number of people in front of him was a sign of looming turmoil . The Copts always caused the worst unrest around the region .

Deep in thought, he absently turned his head, only to lock eyes with Fina . Looking at her stirred up memories buried deep in his mind .

Like many other ethnic groups, the Copts were a proud group . They valued their traditions and their way of life, and they refused to be assimilated into mainstream Egyptian society . They held on strongly despite having to live through trying times, carving out a tiny bubble of life where they understood how to live .

And it was precisely the will to exist and maintainance of their culture that became the driving forces for the Copts to thrive . They worked much harder than the Egyptians to attain wealth and social status . They knew that these were the ingredients that guaranteed their place in modern society .

Perseverance and hard work were the hallmarks of changing one’s fate . Although Copts accounted for only 10% of the total population of Egypt, their educational level was significantly higher than that of average Egyptian . Many Copts had also gone on to receive higher education and become highly qualified professionals . Copts made up a huge proportion of doctors, lawyers, and engineers .

The Saviles family, one of Egypt’s richest households, was of Coptic origin . At the height of their wealth, before the dawn of World War II, more than 40 of the largest 100 landlord families in Egypt were Copts .

Even more impressive was Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a Copt who had eventually become a United Nations Secretary-General, a highly coveted position . Not many ethnic groups in the world could claim this important position .

Early Copts also emigrated abroad and put down roots in other countries . They thrived in these foriegn lands as well . According to statistics, Copts accounted for the highest proportion of minority population doctors in the United States, exceeding even the sum of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean doctors combined .

Lazart had not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he too had been able to make something of himself out of nothing . He opened his own jewelery store in the Khan el-Khalili market, dealing in gold and silver . The store provided his family and himself with a comfortable life . They did not need to worry about basic necessities . It also had the added benefits of maintaining harmony amongst his family and placing his household’s economic position in the top 1% of Egyptian households . He was contented .

The passing down of culture from one generation to the next was important for the survival of one’s tradition . Lazart and his family had attached the utmost importance to this . In private gatherings, family members had to converse in the Coptic language . Their shared history was also passed down via word of mouth, with the elders sharing stories and folk legends to children once they understood how to read and write .

When Lazart was a young boy, his grandpa had told him a story—a story about cats .

However, the story had been grossly distorted after two thousand years of being passed down by mouth . Each narrator added his own narrative to the story, and it was now indistinguishable from the original . The current story sounded more like a fairytale rather than a serious story . Yet while the story had changed, the protagonists had not . The story revolved around a family that, for unknown reasons, had been trapped in the desert . They were eventually rescued by a passing cat .

Such a story was lousy, with neither a spectacular moral nor a colorful ending . Its only saving grace was that the story did not allow a lousier ending where the cat transformed into a beauty and married the prince . Such colorful stories, if spread widely, would almost certainly be added to any book collection of folktale stories .

Alas, this story, along with many other folktales, had not been circulated widely, and had stayed heavily confined within Lazart’s family . When he was ten, Lazart had truly believed that the story had actually happened, but once he grew older, he came to his senses in the blink of an eye . Despite all this, he continued the age-old tradition of reading the same story to his children in the Coptic language . He knew that nothing sparked children’s interest in a language like a fascinating, albeit ridiculous, story .

Yet looking past the absurdity, deep in his heart, Lazart believed that his ancestors had had some connection with cats . The source of his belief came from a beautifully handcrafted tapestry made out of linen and wool . It depicted that very same cat .

When Lazart had first seen Fina, he’d instantly connected her with the cat depicted on the tapestry . The uncanny resemblance had drawn up memories of his own childhood and the absurd folktale . Fina was exactly what the tapestry showed . They had the same golden hair and unique spots . To Lazart, it was as if the cat had jumped out from the tapestry and entered the real world .

He could not take his eyes off Fina . He almost stopped breathing, but suddenly, his daughter Kate held his hands .

“Dad, are you okay?” Kate asked in fear . She’d noticed that her father was pale and sweating profusely . She thought that the riots were causing him all that stress .

“Yes, I’m fine,” Lazart muttered, raising his chin to signal her to look at Fina . “Remember the story I told you and your brother?”

Kate stared at Fina . “What a beautiful cat! Dad, are you seeing the cat in the story in this cat? I think it is simply a coincidence . ”

Lazart shook his head . He had seen many cats throughout his life, but none of the cats had had such fur coats and markings .

He decided to ask his shop-owner friend about the cat because he did not think that this was an ordinary stray cat .

The shop owner was also a Copt . He told Lazart that the cat had been brought in by several Chinese tourists . Now these Chinese tourists were caught in the commotion and unable to get out .

Suddenly, his son Chris ran back and told his father what he’d found out about the situation .

Lazart was relieved to hear that the unrest was unlikely to be a precursor to something greater .

He thought to himself, “Shall I leave since this is not my business?”

He stood firmly in his spot . However, Fina kept staring at him, as if expecting something to happen . Not only were its coat and markings similar to the cat in the tapestry, but its eyes and aura also mirrored that picture .

Lazart gently walked toward Fina . The cat stood firmly in its spot, not moving one inch .

“Hello . Can you understand me?”

Lazart immediately felt stupid talking to the cat . He thought only children talked to cats .

Yet he could swear that the cat gave a slight nod of its head . He could not discern whether this was an illusion .

He pointed to the riot happening and asked, “Are your friends in trouble?”

The cat turned its head to the side, as if signaling to Lazart that this was too troublesome a question to answer . Nevertheless, the cat still nodded its head just slightly .

At this point, Lazart decided that not only would he help the Chinese tourists in the distance, but he would also ask them about the cat .

“Come . I want to help your friends get out of trouble . ” He pointed in the direction of his shop .