When Severus and Eugene returned to the mural-filled exhibition hall, Gong Saiyi and Champollion were already waiting there.
"Have you discussed a solution yet?" Severus asked stiffly.
Gong Saiyi looked at Champollion.
Champollion hesitated before saying, "I think we'll only know the result after opening the 'surprise box.'"
"What do you mean?" Severus asked.
"He means we'll only know what we're dealing with after we make a move," Eugene said coldly. "We discussed it for ages and still came up with nothing."
"We can leave the sculptures in that room until last," Gong Saiyi said. "Where did you two go just now?"
"We opened another 'surprise box,'" Severus said with a fake smile. "From now on, the Louvre Museum will have another kind of mascot."
"What was it?" Champollion asked nervously.
"People in Egypt call it a babi, a baboon with red ears," Severus said.
"I will not allow that kind of monster in my museum!" Champollion waved his fists excitedly. "They're dangerous to visitors!"
"Where's the last crocodile?" Severus ignored Champollion and looked instead at Eugene.
Eugene's gaze swiftly swept across the murals.
Though these murals had all been painted in tomb chambers, they depicted scenes from the world of the living: farming, pottery-making, sculpture, musicians playing instruments, and sacrificial rites.
"There." Eugene pointed at one mural. "A crocodile hiding in the reeds."
Everyone followed the direction he pointed. It was a hunting scene of nobles riding to the Nile River to hunt, with prey slung over the backs of some horses. As the central figure raised his bow to shoot a waterfowl, a crocodile lurked in the reeds by the riverbank, seemingly waiting to steal the prey after the bird had been killed.
"Where the great waters irrigate, there is Egypt," Champollion said dreamily. "Egypt is the gift