The Empress’s Gigolo

At this point in time, Ren Baqian and the empress were having their lunch. During lunchtime, things were rather peaceful as both of them seldom spoke to each other. They spent most of their time devouring their meal.

The empress’s dining etiquette was worth a second look. Even though no one taught the aboriginals dining etiquette, every one of her movements exuded an aura of nobility.

After they finished their lunch, both of them sat in the palace hall for a while. Ren Baqian began to tell the empress what a glass factory could do again.

Not only could a glass factory produce mirrors and glasses to make profits and trade resources from rich families in other nations, it could also produce various household utensils and things like telescopes, which enabled one to look into the distance.

The methods to make these things could be easily found online. Obtaining these methods would save him a lot of trouble.

Ren Baqian chatted with the empress for quite some time until someone arrived. Then, Ren Baqian bade farewell to the empress and returned to Pingle Park.

The person waiting outside the palace hall was the Imperial Treasurer, Gu Yue. She was also the mother of Liu Ruoyao, the girl whom Ren Baqian had a conflict with last time. She was an aboriginal that looked approximately forty years old. She wore an official robe, and she had a solemn look on her face.

When she saw Ren Baqian walk out of the palace hall, she cast a glance at him.

She did not have a favorable impression of this husband that the empress chose.

Even though Liu Ruoyao was in the wrong last time and had already been punished, Gu Yue still hated Ren Baqian.

However, she couldn’t do anything as he was, after all, the husband chosen by the empress.

Otherwise, she would find an opportunity to deal with Ren Baqian.

One should note who’s the master of a dog before hitting it. A stranger simply had no right to lecture her daughter.

Subsequently, more and more officials arrived at the palace hall. All of them stood in the center of Yangxin Palace Hall and looked at each other. They could only guess what the empress wanted to do as they did not know anything. From the look of it, it was possible that the empress wanted to talk to them about weapons or food resources. After all, the officials from the Ministry of Works, the Department of Military Arms and the Ministry of Revenue were here.

The empress merely said, “We will talk when everyone is here.” Following which, she did not say anything else. After her words, everyone waited patiently in the palace hall.

The last one to reach was Great Elder, Shi Qing. After he arrived, the empress began to talk, “I have something to show all of you today.”

Everyone was puzzled. They wondered what was it that the empress wanted to show them, to the extent that she summoned so many people.

“I wonder what is it that Your Majesty wants us to see?” Shi Qing cupped his fists and asked.

“Since everyone is here, follow me.” The empress got up from her couch and walked out of Yangxin Palace Hall. Everyone hurriedly trailed after her.

After they walked some distance, they arrived at the entrance of Pingle Park. Upon seeing the empress, the guards at the entrance quickly greeted her.

Everyone knew where this place was.

Even if they had never come here before, they could tell what the status of the person living here was from the courtyard. They reckoned that there was only one person living here at this point in time.

“Why has Her Majesty brought us here,” everyone subconsciously thought to themselves.

Ren Baqian was daydreaming in the courtyard. When he saw the empress and the officials, he quickly stepped forward to greet everyone. He had seen most of the officials behind the empress before. Even if no one told him their ranks and positions, he could find out later when the empress commanded them or by looking at their official robes.

“Deputy Prefect Ren, demonstrate it for us,” the empress instructed.

From a box in corner, Ren Baqian took out a circular dish that had mirror pieces placed all over it like a spiderweb. He instructed a guard to hold it properly and took out a few sunglasses. He passed one of them to the empress and the rest to everyone else.

“Your Majesty, wear these sunglasses to protect your eyes.”

Everyone began to take a close look at the sunglasses in their hands. The object had two circular frames covered by a black transparent solid substance, appearing as though it was carved out from a gemstone. They did not know how to use the sunglasses.

The empress had often seen people wearing sunglasses on Earth. After fiddling with it, she put it on straight away. A look of realization dawned upon everyone else’s faces. One by one, they copied her and put on the sunglasses. Immediately, the scene was filled with big shots in official robes and sunglasses.

Looking at them, Ren Baqian felt an aura of grandeur from them.

After wearing the sunglasses, the amount of light that entered their eyes immediately reduced significantly, making their surroundings look less bright. They felt as though they had cooled down, heaving a soft sigh of relief.

Like what he did before, Ren Baqian placed a tree branch on the focal point. Instantly, the tree branch burst into flames.

When everyone saw this scene, they reacted like the two guards previously. They thought this was some kind of treasure that could burn things and start fire.

Everyone’s imagination began to roam.

“Lend me your sword,” Ren Baqian said to the guard. Immediately, the guard had a constipated look on his face. This sword was his money-making tool. He absolutely believed that his sword would be destroyed if he gave it to Ren Baqian.

“I will compensate you later,” Ren Baqian smiled and said. Even though he could have just used a small metal blade, he still decided to use a sword as it would be more impactful.

With a miserable scowl on his face, the guard passed his sword to Ren Baqian. Then, Ren Baqian placed the sword on the focal point. Less than ten seconds, the sword began to smoke. Following which, a red spot appeared in the middle of the sword. The red spot gradually grew in size and molten iron started to drip on the floor. Eventually, a circular hole appeared on the sword.

“Hisss!” Everyone gasped.

The sight of a sword melting indeed produced an extremely powerful visual impact. It was much more impactful than burning a tree branch.

One had to know that it required time to melt iron ore. This artifact could actually burn a hole in a sword in such a short period of time. One could tell how formidable it was.

“Your Majesty, congratulations on obtaining such a precious treasure. May I know where you acquired it from?” Shi Qing immediately asked. He felt that the empress wouldn’t ask everyone here just to admire this treasure.

“Your Majesty, are you preparing to use it on Mount Damo?” Feng Hou’s eyes lit up. After all, he had been to Mount Damo with Ren Baqian. Out of everyone present, he was the one that knew the situation best. With this treasure, the iron extraction process at Mount Damo could be sped up significantly.

Upon hearing Feng Hou’s words, everyone reckoned that the empress must have summoned them for this matter. With this treasure, the iron extraction process at Mount Damn could indeed be sped up.

“Deputy Prefect Ren, explain what’s going on to everyone,” the empress said.

Ren Baqian instructed the guard to put down the circular dish. Then, he took off two mirror pieces from it and placed them on his hand and explained, “Actually, these are just mirrors. Everyone should know that a mirror can reflect light. Now, light contains energy. You can assume that light produces heat as well. This is why you feel hotter when you’re standing directly under the sun when compared to standing in a house. Making use of this logic, we use many mirrors and adjust their angles such that the light beams reflected off them will be focused on one spot. This will cause that spot to experience extreme heat. This is also why that iron sword was melted within seconds just now.”

“Are you saying this treasure is made up of such mirrors?” With curious looks on their faces, everyone crowded around Ren Baqian and looked at the two pieces of mirror on his hand. Were these mirrors the same as the large one he’d given Her Majesty? Even though it was small, the reflection on it was extremely clear. They were of good quality.

Some people walked closer to the solar furnace. However, after Ren Baqian’s demonstration, no one dared to walk in front of it. If it could melt an iron-made sword under ten seconds, one could imagine what disastrous effect it would have upon a human body.

“Yes, it is completely made up of mirrors. I call it solar furnace. It completely uses the energy from the sun to produce extreme heat. We can manufacture a few of these and place them at Mount Damo. After melting the mountain, we can begin to extract iron from it. We can easily increase the iron output of Mount Damo by one hundred times within a short period of time.”

“One hundred times! Are you really saying one hundred times?” Feng Hou stared blankly at Ren Baqian with his eyes widened.

Ren Baqian’s previous trip to Mount Damo had already increased the iron output there by five times. Originally, Dayao could only produce 2000 swords per year. Having increased the iron output of Mount Damo by five times, Dayao could now produce 10000 swords per year.

Because of this, his perspective on Ren Baqian had already changed for the better. As such, he had been in a good mood recently as well.

But now Ren Baqian actually said the iron output could be increased by one hundred times?

Does that it even make sense? That would mean five hundred thousand swords could be produced in a year. And in two years’ time, one million swords would be produced.

This number made him feel incredulous.