Emperatrices transmigradas (hombres y mujeres)

Capítulo 49

"Um... um..." George mumbled, his mouth agape as if he had a big bun stuffed in it. "Where are you planning to go? You've packed so much luggage." George, being a shrewd businessman, immediately steered the conversation to the question he wanted to know.

"We're planning a trip abroad!" I was so angry with Shuiying; she just betrayed me like that.

"Traveling abroad?" George frowned and looked at me.

“Yes,” Shui Ying replied softly. “By the way, George, you must have been to many places. Could you give me some advice on which European countries are fun but not too tiring, suitable for girls?”

I almost burst out laughing. You little brat, you even fooled me! You changed your story so quickly, as if you really were going to Europe.

"Alright, alright, stop asking him. He's like a block of wood, he doesn't know what's fun about it. George, you can leave now. It's not good for a grown man to stay in a little woman's room for too long." I said, pulling George's arm and dragging him out, while pinching his flesh with my fingers and whispering, "You know the answer you want, so hurry up and leave."

"Oh, right, I still have a lot of things to do at the supermarket, I have to go now." George said as he walked out with me, and whispered as we walked, "I just helped you acquire another supermarket, we'll change the name and it'll be a chain store."

"Fine, you decide these things yourself. Don't talk to me, I don't understand." I kicked George out.

I had just closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief when the doorbell rang again.

That idiot George, what other tricks does he have up his sleeve! I flung open the door and yelled, "Hey bro, are you kidding me?!"

After I finished cursing, I was stunned. A young man I didn't know was standing at the door, smiling politely at me: "Are you Miss Ziyue?"

I saw George grinning behind the young man. I glared at him, then suddenly remembered that the person who came was delivering plane tickets. I couldn't let George know where the tickets were going, or my mom would definitely get the information and fly back to stop everything I was doing.

“Yes, I’m Ziyue. Come in.” I quickly ushered the young man into the house, gave George one last fierce glare, and shut the door out. Everything was ready.

Before leaving, I made a point of finding a blessed bracelet that my mother had gotten for me before she went abroad. The bracelet was made of sandalwood beads, each carved into the shape of a seated Buddha. There was also a jade gourd on the bracelet, which was larger than the seated Buddhas on the sandalwood beads and was covered with scriptures.

I have a bad feeling about this trip; it's bound to be anything but smooth sailing, so I have to be careful.

Shuiying and I, fully armed, took a taxi to the airport, which caused the taxi driver to keep glancing at us in the rearview mirror. I guess he was afraid that Shuiying and I were female bandits who robbed taxis in broad daylight.

On the plane, Shuiying gave me a crash course in professional knowledge, including geography, climate, archaeology, and a whole bunch of things that I would never look at unless I needed them for writing, and that I would forget after reading them.

Finally, I lost track of what Shuiying was saying and fell soundly asleep.

Finally, I arrived. Stepping out of the airport and looking at the foreign scenery, I felt as if I were in a dream.

"Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!" The voice rang in my ears more clearly, with urgency in it.

I knew the sound wasn't coming from my vicinity, but I still couldn't help turning around to look around.

We asked the airport staff where to catch a bus to the town, and they led us onto the airport bus. The staff member said a few words to the driver in her native language, which I had never learned before, and I was amazed that I could understand it!

The service lady told the bus driver a place name and asked him to remind us to get off when we arrived at that location.

While I was lost in thought, I forgot to thank the waitress.

"Shuiying, it's strange, I can actually understand their native language." I whispered to Shuiying in Mandarin.

"What's so strange about that? I can understand some of it too." Shui Ying studied archaeology and learned some common phrases from different countries in her spare time, just in case.

"No, I had never learned this country's language before, but now I find it as familiar as my Mandarin."

"You..." Xiaoying looked at me, "Are you running a fever?"

“You’re the one with a fever, and you don’t believe me?” I immediately whispered in her ear in that language. I saw that Shuiying looked like she was about to faint, but I was about to faint myself.

IV. Welcome back

I changed buses twice along the way, and the bumpy ride made me vomit uncontrollably.

Finally, we arrived at a small town.

On the edge of the town, you could see an endless expanse of yellow sand. I silently said to myself, "I've arrived."

The town isn't very big, but it has quite a few facilities.

The shops on both sides of the street were filled with a dazzling array of goods. Some shops had so many different things on display that I couldn't even tell what they were selling.

Shuiying randomly asked a shop assistant standing in front of a store where the Tebla Hotel was. The shop assistant pointed forward and said, "Turn right at the intersection, then turn left at the next intersection. You'll see it in a few steps."

Just then, I felt someone watching us, so I turned around and saw a man who had just come out of one of those general stores that sold all sorts of things, brazenly sizing up Shuiying and me. I rolled my eyes at him, but the man grinned, his handsome bronze skin contrasting with his white teeth.

"Let's go, I'm exhausted." After asking for directions, Shuiying saw that I was still standing there, so she grabbed my arm and started walking.

I saw the man grin again, even laugh out loud. My face flushed slightly, but thankfully it was getting dark, so it wasn't very noticeable. We found the hotel and rushed inside.

In a small hall, behind a tall wooden counter stood a beautiful young woman. I groaned; Shuiying was already beautiful, but compared to this woman, she paled in comparison. I became curious about her. In this kind of country, women rarely showed their faces in public to work, let alone such a beautiful young woman.

"Are you staying in a hotel?" the young woman asked in perfect American English.

Shui Ying walked over, looked at the young woman, and said, "I'm looking for your boss."

“That’s me.” The young woman smiled. “My name is Edison, but everyone calls me Sasha.”

I have this urge to slap my forehead and faint again.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Brad sent me to find you.” Shuiying said, taking a neatly folded piece of paper from her bag and handing it to Eddie. “This is a letter he asked me to give you.”

A blush crept onto Edisa's face: "It's rare that he still remembers me after all these years."

Eddie didn't read the letter immediately. She placed it under the counter and then said to Shuiying, "Your rooms are ready. I'll have someone take you there. I'll have the things Mr. Brad asked me to prepare for you delivered by the waiter later." With that, Eddie snapped her fingers, and a young waiter ran over, picked up our large bags, and headed towards the back stairs.

The houses here are generally quite short, which, according to the knowledge Shuiying forced on me on the plane, is because of the strong winds and sandstorms. The Tebla Hotel appears to be a three-story building from the outside, with relatively small gaps between floors, but even so, it is considered a tall building here.

After climbing to the third floor, the young man led us to the last room before opening the door.

The room was quite well-equipped. There was a small living room with two sofas and a coffee table. The room had two single beds with clean and tidy sheets. There was also a small but clean bathroom.

After the young man put down his things and left, Shuiying and I collapsed onto the bed like hot water bottles that had been emptied.

I hadn't been lying down for long when the doorbell rang. Shuiying ran to open the door and came in a moment later carrying two huge bags. She threw the bags on the ground, opened one of them, and I was stunned—it contained guns!

"Don't make a fuss. Brad said there are often bandits around here, so it's safer to carry a weapon."

"Brad, my God, what kind of monster is he?" I became curious about Brad again.

“Actually, I’ve never told you this, but Brad also came here more than ten years ago. He heard some rumors about the ancient city and, out of curiosity, wanted to investigate it. Unfortunately, he was unlucky. He came several times over the past ten years but never found the ancient city or any more useful information.” Shui Ying said as she packed up the two large bags of archaeological tools and guns.

After packing her things, Shuiying went to take a shower and change her clothes.

I was still lying in bed like a lazy snake sunbathing, my legs spread out in a starfish shape, thinking about the events of the past few days with my eyes closed.

"Come back! Aridodona! Come back! Aridodona!" The voice suddenly rang out with a powerful resonance, like a hymn being recited in a church.

I jumped out of bed; the sound was coming from the direction of the window.

I ran to open the window; it was already dark outside, and the sound surged into my ears like a tidal wave. Looking past the low houses, I saw that the window faced the desert.

The town's streets were lit up, but it was so dark that it was almost impossible to see the faces of the people walking by.

"Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!" Suddenly a hoarse voice clearly stimulated my eardrums; the voice came from downstairs.

I looked out onto the street and saw a hunched-over person standing under the dim yellow light across the street. He was wearing a short black robe that looked like a sack with a hole cut in it, but on his head he wore a very tall metal hat with some indistinct ornaments that reflected the dim yellow light.

"Welcome back!" the man grinned widely.

"Ziyue, are you taking a shower? Sasha is treating us to dinner later."

I turned around and saw Shuiying drying her dripping long hair. "Wait," I said, turning back again, only to find that the strange person who had been standing under the dim streetlights was gone. Sasha invited Shuiying and me to a famous restaurant in town for a sumptuous meal featuring local specialties. Naturally, this meal brought us closer to Sasha.

It turns out that although Sasha is of mixed race, with her mother being a local and her father being American, Sasha grew up locally and studied in the United States, so she is not as conservative as the average local woman.

Sasha met Brad while studying in the United States. Knowing that he was an archaeologist, she told him about some local rumors about the "cursed city." Brad was attracted by these rumors and came here several times to search for the legendary ancient city.

Judging from Sasha's shy expression when she talked about Brad, there seems to be some romance between them.

After dinner, Sasha led us back to the hotel on foot, saying she really enjoyed walking in the dark. I felt the same way, but for Shuiying, it was a bit of a ordeal; she thought it would be better to go back to sleep earlier.

As we turned onto a somewhat dark street, a group of people suddenly approached us. They were masked and moved quickly and in an orderly fashion. The person at the back of the group glanced at the three of us briefly, then disappeared around the corner with the others.

I couldn't help but look back.

“Those are bandits. They rob merchants traveling through the desert and then sell their goods to shops in small towns that specialize in buying these kinds of smuggled goods,” Sasha explained. “This desert isn’t big, but it’s an important trade route within the country. If you go around the desert, it’s a long way, which increases costs and isn’t worthwhile for small merchants. So most merchants are willing to take the risk and go through the desert. Sigh, you know this country is quite chaotic.”

As we were talking, we turned onto another street and soon arrived at the hotel entrance.

Just as I was about to go inside, the hotel door suddenly opened, and a monk came out. "There are monks here?" I wondered curiously, and stared at the monk for a moment.

The monk was about forty years old, with dark skin, and wore a gray robe.

I was staring at the monk when he suddenly stopped and greeted me: "Female benefactor."

My eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, not because the monk greeted me, but because he spoke to me in Chinese!

It's not unusual for a monk to speak Chinese, but it's strange that in a small town in such a small country, a monk who speaks Chinese greets me.

“Master.” I looked hesitantly at the monk opposite me.

“Be kind to others, and you will be kind to yourself. This amulet is for you, and it is best to keep it close to your body.” The monk said, handing me a folded amulet. I took the amulet and looked at the monk, puzzled. The monk ignored me and strode towards one end of the street, chanting as he went: “Where light originates, moths fly to the flame. Though born, though dead, the cycle never ends.”

"Thank you, Master!" I bowed to the monk's retreating figure with my hands clasped together. As I climbed to the third floor and turned onto the corridor, I was bumped into by a man running towards me, and almost fell down in the corridor.

Fortunately, the man pulled me back in time.

"Clumsy fool." I don't know why I blurted out the local language.

The man didn't let go of my arm immediately. I noticed a strange ring on his left index finger. The ring was silver with a skull on it, and the skull's eyes had two small rubies in them.

"I'm sorry." The man's voice didn't convey any apology whatsoever; it sounded as if he was trying to suppress a laugh.

I shook off the man's hand and glared at him. Good heavens, this man was the same one who laughed at me when Shuiying and I first arrived in town and asked for directions. Could he be following me?

Thinking about this, she realized she was being a bit too idealistic or delusional, so she ignored the man and headed towards her room.

"Be careful next time!" I'm really impressed by Shuiying. She's still so gentle even when talking to someone like this.

I opened the door, kicked off my shoes, and heard Shuiying giving instructions: "Tomorrow we'll go to the town library to look up some information, though I doubt we'll find much more. Brad must have worn out all the materials here. Then we'll get some rest, and the day after tomorrow we'll find a guide to rent camels. The day after that we'll set off, and ideally, we could join a caravan or something."

"Wait!" I gestured for Shuiying to be quiet, then squatted down and carefully examined my bag. "Shuiying, someone broke into our room."

"How did you know?" Shuiying asked curiously.

“I made a small mark on my bag before I left, but the mark is gone now.” As I spoke, I suddenly thought of the man who bumped into me at the corner of the corridor. “Damn it!” I cursed under my breath.

"Then let's quickly check what's missing!" Shuiying said, taking out bags of various sizes and rummaging through them.

"Is something missing? I didn't miss anything," I asked Shuiying after I finished checking.

"I didn't lose anything either."

Who could have touched my things but not stolen a single item? This must be no ordinary thief. "Come back! Aridodona! Come back! Aridodona!"

I drifted off to sleep to that voice that sounded like it was reciting hymns all night.

When Shuiying woke me up this morning, my eyes were still a little sore.

After breakfast, Shuiying and I went to the town library to look up information. The people in this town are quite laid-back. Although it's near the desert, the scenery is quite nice, and the town has a good amount of greenery, although I don't know the names of some of the strange plants.