一路向西 粤语

Chapter 246: The Famous Nature Magazine

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

The inside and outside of the birds’ house were two completely different worlds.

When they first entered the birds’ house, Zhang Zian and Guo Dongyue were both annoyed by the noises. However, they quickly got used to the bird noises without noticing. After they left, the sudden quiet seemed especially silent.

Another big difference outside the birds’ house was the temperature. Zhang Zian shivered when he was hit by a cold breeze. He quickly put on his coat. The birds’ house was warm. It was kept around 68 degrees Fahrenheit all year round, so it was a lot warmer than the outside. Going out into the cold after the warm birds’ house could easily make someone sick.

Guo Dongyue didn’t care about himself at all. Instead he was more concerned that the red-headed love birds would get sick. So, he put his coat over the cage to protect them.

Taking off the shoe covers, they disposed of them in the garbage can at the door. There was a lot of bird poop and grains that had stuck to the shoe covers, which was disgusting.

The birds’ house was in the suburbs, so there were not many cabs around. Guo Dongyue pulled out his cellphone and was about to search for a ride.

“Hey, I didn’t know you guys were leaving.”

L? Mingyi came out from the birds’ house and invited them hospitably, “It is almost noon. How about I take you both to lunch?”

“That’s fine. We have other things to do.” Guo Dongyue rejected him directly because he was worried the birds would get sick if left outside for too long.

A free lunch sounded appealing to Zhang Zian. However, he knew that Fina was hungry because it kept licking its lips. It might be a good idea to go home and feed the Queen before it got mad.

“That’s too bad… Let’s take a rain check. We should get together when I come into the city,” L? Mingyi wasn’t insulted by the rejection. He had already made a few phone calls and found that Guo Dongyue’s personality was different. Guo Dongyue was a great architect in his firm. No one would be surprised if he started his own firm anytime soon.

Guo Dongyue was not interested in socializing, so he rejected again, “Maybe someday, but I have been really busy lately. Oh, these two birds…” He raised the cage and opened up his coat to show L? Ming Yi.

A cold breeze got in the cage. The red-headed male love bird moved to block the wind for the female.

L? Mingyi immediately identified the two red-headed love birds. They were rare, but not very expensive. So, he said generously, “Well, I will give them to you as a gift, Mr. Guo.”

“I am going to borrow them from you. When… I will return them,” Guo Dongyue put down his coat and said seriously, but with hesitation.

L? Mingyi thought that Guo Dongyue was being polite so he insisted those birds were a small gift to start their friendship.

On the other hand, Wei Kang would not give up trying to persuade Zhang Zian about his dedication to science.

L? Mingyi came along to help. All they needed was a tiny bit of DNA from Fina. It shouldn’t be such a big deal.

Zhang Zian knew that this was a great opportunity to give back to society, but he was still not sure what he should do.

“Look at this.”

Seeing is believing. Wei Kang knew that applied to most people. He took out his phone and opened up a webpage. All the English contents on the website gave Zhang Zian a headache, but he recognized it was the most famous website: nature.com.

“This is an article from Natural Magazine, published on June 19th, 2017. The author is the Eva-Maria Geigl Research Group from the University of Paris VII. Look at this picture.” Wei Kang scrolled down the page and enlarged a picture from the article.

The picture was clear and clean. There was a woman sitting on a chair where a dark striped cat was eating a fish underneath. Zhang Zian knew that he should’ve paid full attention to the cat, but he couldn’t help but stare at the woman’s smooth legs.

“This is an ancient mural from 3500 years ago.” Wei Kang pointed at the cat, “Look carefully.”

“3500 years ago?”

Zhang Zian was shocked and thought that he had misheard.

“That’s right. 3500 years ago, which is 1500 B.C.,” Wei Kang said affirmatively. “China was in the early stages of the Shang Dynasty at the time. Look, this is part of an ancient mural and it also serves as the most important evidence of cats that originated from Ancient Egypt. However, it is not a decisive evidence. Your cat shares a lot of similarity with the cat in the mural, and they are both very different than the ancient Egyptian cats today.”

Zhang Zian could tell immediately that the cat in the picture was completely different from modern Egyptian cats. Modern Egyptian cats mostly had spots all over them, but the cat in the picture looked the same as Fina, who had stripes.

Wei Kang knew that Zhang Zian was an expert in this topic, so he didn’t explain further on the differentiation. He simply explained, “According to this article published on June 19th, since the beginning, wild cats were trained to be house cats. Until the 14th century A.C., ancient Egyptian cats had striped furs, just like the one in the picture. From the 13th century A.C. onward, their furs gradually turned into spots. That’s why ancient Egyptian cats had stripes while modern Egyptian cats have spots.”

Wei Kang answered Zhang Zian’s unasked questions. He was surprised how clearly Wei Kang could explain a complicated topic like that. Although the information might not be useful in daily life, maybe he could use it and pretend to be knowledgeable someday. Who knows?!

“Also, your cat has both stripes and spots, but mostly stripes with some spots. The cat in the picture has purely stripes and the modern Egyptian cats have purely spots. In other words, your cat was like the Archaeopteryx for cats. It was a very important transition in the evolution. I would call it a living fossil!” Wei Kang got more and more excited as he spoke.

Wei Kang was not young. Zhang Zian was worried that he would have a heart attack from being so excited.

Looking closely at the mural, Zhang Zian discovered another detail – modern Egyptian cats had five different colors: silver, bronze, dark grey, black, and blue/white. However, the cat on the mural looked golden, the same as Fina… or he should say, Fina looked the same as the picture because the cat in the picture lived at least 1500 years before Fina.

Not only was Zhang Zian curious, but Fina was too, so they both looked closely at the cat in the picture.

Zhang Zian finally understood how important Fina was to science. Fina could end the hypotheses and arguments on where house cats originated. Also, if Wei Kang could publish an essay using real evidence from Fina, he could become the most popular scientist overnight.

However, he could not agree without Fina’s permission.

“Professor Wei, how about I think about it at home?” He pushed it back so he had time to discuss with Fina and then make a decision.

Wei Kang sighed, “That’s fine. May I have your contact?”

“No problem.”

Zhang Zian and Wei Kang exchanged contact information. Right then, Guo Dongyue’s ride arrived. The group and their animals got in the car and headed back to Binhai City.