The Empress’s Gigolo

The first plate consisted of eight river fish that died with their eyes still open and only the heads exposed. The imperial kitchen staff deliberately arranged those fish heads to appear as if they were looking at the person eating.

The second dish served was four eggs, smashed into half and showing almost mature birds with feathers.

The third dish served was steaming hot goat’s brain. It looked identical to a human brain but was slightly bigger, with some spring onions sprinkled on it.

The palace began to buzz with noise again, and everyone greeted and hobnobbed with each other. Something did not seem right with the dishes provided at this banquet. Subsequently, a few people looked in the direction of the Empress Hall’s entrance where a certain person was seated.

Facing the crowd’s murderous look, Ren Baqian felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

This was the empress’s arrangement, why are you looking at me?

Wasn’t the first dish just looking up at the stars? Wasn’t the second dish just balut? Wasn’t the third dish just a steamed goat brain? Wasn’t the fourth dish just fried spiders?

Ren Baqian looked at the few dishes in front of him, particularly at the steaming hot goat’s brain and the plate of fried spiders. He immediately lost all of his appetite.

One of the remaining two dishes was roasted field mice. The other dish looked visually better, but what was in it was unknown, and it could be assumed that no one was willing to swallow it.

Sauteed large intestines was what these people would not want to know about. If they knew, they would strangle Ren Baqian to death.

With so many eyes staring at him, especially those from senior court officials, Ren Baqian felt very uncomfortable from head to toe. Which bastard had betrayed him? How did these people know?

Then again, there were no problems at the banquet all these years, and it had to happen after he appeared on the scene. Furthermore, he was always running errands in the palace, and it was easy to associate any problems with him.

The Seventh Prince looked at the dishes and felt queasy at the thought of eating these inedible foods. As a prince, he was used to fine clothing and fine food and never had never seen such stuff before.

It was not only him that felt this way. Even though they were nowhere near his status, nevertheless, everyone there was born with a golden spoon. For those who had suffered a little before, they might eat slightly less well, but they’d definitely never eaten such strange stuff at all.

Everyone raised their heads to see how the Dayao people reacted to these dishes. In the end, everyone uniformly looked in the same direction.

Looking at the direction Dayao’s court officials were gazing at, the people from the three nations who were frowning and feeling nauseated, turned their malicious looks on Ren Baqian.

From the looks in the eyes of those Dayao people, if they still didn’t know Ren Baqian was the culprit behind this matter, they were fools.

It could be seen from the dishes the deep malicious intent, new vengeful thoughts were stirred up by old hatred. For a moment, Ren Baqian who was sitting at the corner of the entrance, became the center of attraction.

“But the mastermind was the empress, how could he arrange anything without her approval?” Ren Baqian felt that he would not be able to stuff his head into his crotch area. Also, he did not have the courage to treat these people with disdain. As such, he decided to close his eyes and pretended to be dead.

Even with his eyes closed, Ren Baqian’s body still felt cold.

“Her Majesty has arrived!” Hearing the voice at the entrance meant the salvation of Ren Baqian.

The empress looked somewhat different today unlike the languid looking lady Ren Baqian was used to seeing. Her hair was pulled into a high bun and inserted with a carved ruby hairpin. Her lips were painted blood red and coupled with her cool temperament and charming demeanor, stunning Ren Baqian with her breathtaking look.

Similarly, her clothes today were somewhat different from what she wore usually. The material she always wore was a breathable type of red yarn, but tonight she wore a red silk dress embroidered with gold threads, and on the back, was a phoenix with wings spread.

The last time Ren Baqian flattered her when he said, “Your beauty transcends the whole world.” Ren Baqian had to admit those words were not an exaggeration from the way she looked today.

If 10 points was full marks, the empress scored nine points on her looks. Adding one point for temperament, one for being the seventh most powerful expert in the world, and one for being the ruler of a nation. At the very least, she had to be given 12 points.

Those pretty boys looked at the empress with lovestruck eyes. They dared not look too long as one slap from her was enough to kill them. Yet, they still wanted to raise their heads to look. They were seen raising and lowering their heads repeatedly…

The most important person seated at the highest seat in the seat of honor was naturally the empress. The banquet only formally started when she sat down.

As the empress entered the hall, she looked to the sides and looked quite pleased about the food served. Smiling, she felt they deserved it for nagging her everyday about marrying her off and having children.

In fact, Ren Baqian was mistaken. If everyone had not discussed about forcing her to get married in the court sessions a few days earlier, she would not have let him prepare this menu.

Instead, the people from the other three nations were implicated by the Dayao officials.

“May my Dayao have eternal courage!” the empress toasted her cup of wine.

“May Her Majesty be eternally courageous!” the people toasted.

Ren Baqian followed whatever the crowd did. At this moment, nobody noticed him, and he could finally heave a sigh of relief.

Gulping down the fiery wine was like cutting the throat with a knife, and the stomach was on fire.

The pressure was on the crowd to eat the food. All eyes were on the empress and nobody moved the chopsticks. Some of those with low alcohol threshold looked at their plates and glared ferociously at Ren Baqian.

The empress toasted again, ” Glory to everyone.”

“Glory to Her Majesty,” the crowd toasted.

It was bottoms up again.

After two rounds, some were not able to withstand the alcohol anymore, especially those pretty boys on the opposite side. Although they were here to attend the banquet, two toasts of wine had nothing to do with them, but they still had to drink it.

At this point in time, after taking a look at the table again and pondering for a while, the sauteed large intestines seemed to look palatable. With eyes closed, the taste in the mouth was surprisingly unexpected and full of flavor. Everyone was relieved to know that the bastard was not that extreme.

Many people looked at Ren Baqian again, seeing whether he was eating or not. If he did not eat, they would kill him when he left the palace.

The empress was sitting at the highest position inside the hall, and yet, this group of people were looking at the entrance.

Ren Baqian analyzed the crowd’s reaction. He had to test the food or he would face trouble when he had to leave the place. He tried the sauteed large intestines, and it was not bad. The skills of the cooks from the imperial kitchen were indeed good. They must have gone through some training recently.

Then, he put a spider into his mouth. He had not eaten it before. It was very colorful and disgusting to look at, but he bit the bullet and popped it into the mouth.

“Eh? It is crispy, tastes like chicken, and the smell was better than the sauteed large intestines.” Ren Baqian’s eyes brightened. This tasted better than he expected, and he grabbed another spider and put it into his mouth.

The whole hall looked at him popping the spiders, left and right, into his mouth.

“Is it really that tasty?” Many saw him enjoying the food and believed it to be good too.