The Empress’s Gigolo

Chapter 233: [Boxing of Death]

Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder

“Eh? Why is it giving off light?”

“It doesn’t even produce any smoke!”

Shi Qing, Shi Kouhai, Tong Zhenye, Qin Chuan, Tu Wan and a, few other officials were inspecting at the floor lamps at Yangxin Palace Hall while exclaiming in admiration.

The empress was standing in front of a mirror, ignoring them completely.

“This thing stores sunlight and then releases it as energy. Therefore, the floor lamps don’t need oil to burn, and they don’t produce any smoke,” Ren Baqian explained to those country bumpkins.

“This is indeed a treasure!” Everyone nodded upon hearing Ren Baqian’s explanation.

“Deputy Prefect Ren, do you still have any more of this treasure?” Tong Zhenye asked.

“Of course I don’t have any more.” Actually, it wasn’t at all difficult for Ren Baqian to bring each of them a solar energy accumulator, but he simply did not have any intention to do so.

In these people’s eyes, the floor lamps were like magical treasure. Things might go wrong if he gave every one of them a floor lamp.

He gave them the walkie-talkies because they were of great use to them.

Things like the electrical accumulators and floor lamps were not of any use to these people, therefore Ren Baqian felt it was unnecessary to give them these things.

Those people revolved around the floor lamps and exclaimed in admiration for a long period of time, completely satisfying the empress’s desire to flaunt.

Ren Baqian felt that the empress invited so many people to have lunch with her so that she could flaunt her new toy.

Even though this type of floor lamp could be found in abundance on Earth, it was considered magical and exquisite in this world. Previously, all of these officials doubted her choice of husband. Now that she saw them getting fascinated by the floor lamps, she felt extremely satisfied.

While having lunch, everyone sang great praises about the imperial palace’s food as well. Tong Zhenye and Qin Chuan even shamelessly licked the plates clean.

Everyone was aroused by Ren Baqian’s spices.

Even though some spices had been planted in the beast park, it would still take some time for them to be fully grown. Furthermore, only a small amount of them was planted.

Now, they could only wish Ren Baqian could plant more spices as soon as possible.

After lunch, Tong Zhenye pulled Ren Baqian to one side and asked, “Deputy Prefect Ren, I heard that you want to buy land? I have a few plots of land that I can give you, what do you think?”

“Sir Tong, I’m not the one that’s buying land, Her Majesty is the one that wants to buy land,” Ren Baqian immediately corrected him.

Ren Baqian was very surprised that Tong Zhenye was so well-informed. It was just two days ago that he sent Teng Hulu and Tie Dao to spread the news.

Actually, Ren Baqian himself did mention that he wanted to look for land to cultivate spices previously at the beast park. It was just that he had completely forgotten about it.

“It’s the same,” Tong Zhenye replied frankly. The imperial family had never bought any land from anyone before. Therefore, everyone knew whose idea it was when Her Majesty suddenly wanted to buy land.

“Sir Tong, how many mu of land can you give me? What do you want in return?” Ren Baqian asked. He did not believe Tong Zhenye would be willing to give a few plots of his land to the empress for free immediately after hearing that she wanted to buy lands.

“I can give you fifty mu of land. In return, I want at least ten mu of land worth of spices. I’ll pay you a sum of money as well,” Tong Ye immediately bargained.

Ren Baqian felt Tong Zhenye’s offer was a good deal. Fifty mu of land was a huge amount of land. This morning, Teng Hulu just told him some bad news. The land surrounding Lan City had all been given to those meritorious soldiers that founded Dayao. Even though the harvest each year wasn’t plentiful, not many people were willing to sell their land. Even if they could buy the land, the land they were able to buy was scattered. This was far from Ren Baqian’s requirement.

“I can only sell it to you for three years,” Ren Baqian added.

“What if I give you one hundred mu of land?” Tong Zhenye said after thinking about it.

“Alright, I will sell you twenty mu of land worth of spices for five years. There’s no need for me to sell you spices for more than five years. By then, the production of spices should be huge enough and you will be able to obtain them easily,” Ren Baqian capitulated. Actually, if Tong Zhenye planted the spices himself, it would take less than five years for him to achieve self-sufficiency in spice production.

However, Ren Baqian couldn’t allow them to grow whatever the empress was growing. Otherwise, they were basically stealing profits from the imperial family.

Therefore, Ren Baqian felt that five years were a reasonable amount of time.

After thinking about it, Tong Zhenye nodded his head and agreed to Ren Baqian’s offer. Other than his personal consumption, he intended to sell the spices to Great Xia and the Yun Nation as well. He reckoned that he would be able to make a huge profit off these spices.

One had to admit that Tong Zhenye was a shrewd businessman that had his potential limited by the Ministry of Works.

There weren’t many business-smart people in Dayao but that did not mean there were none at all. Tong Zhenye was one of such people.

“I shall take my leave first,” Tong Zhenye said. Following which, he looked at Tu Wan and nodded his head.

Tu Wan had the same intention as Tong Zhenye. Ren Baqian offered him a similar deal to what he offered Tong Zhenye.

One had to admit that these Dayao officials had very little amounts of land.

Rank 3 officials like Tong Zhenye and Tu Wan were already considered high-ranking officials. However, to Ren Baqian’s surprise, they did not have much land. Had Ren Baqian not listened to them personally, he wouldn’t have believed it.

Let’s not talk about the actual amount of land they had. Just the amount of land they offered Ren Baqian was far too little.

It was most likely that they were speaking the truth.

Aboriginals did not really care about utilizing their land. They wanted to preserve the land surrounding Lan City was for the sake of glory. After all, these plots of land were awarded to them for their meritorious services during the founding years of Dayao. 　　…

In the afternoon, Ren Baqian and the empress were on a ring in the palace.

Ren Baqian did not know that such a place existed within the imperial palace.

Many stone dumbbells and stone balls were placed around the ring.

“Pay attention to my movements.” After finishing her sentence, the empress began to display a boxing technique to Ren Baqian in her red dress.

The moment the empress began to move, Ren Baqian immediately placed his focus on her stance.

Austerity.

This was the first impression Ren Baqian got.

As the empress started moving, Ren Baqian felt an aura of death arise in his surroundings. He felt as though he was on a battlefield.

Powerful.

The empress’s movements weren’t fast or complicated. However, every punch she executed created a loud boom in the air, appearing as though her punches had exploded the air.

Most importantly, the empress exuded the might of tens of thousands of soldiers even though she was just displaying a boxing technique. Ren Baqian could not even stand still in front of her. Subconsciously, he took a few steps back away from her.

“Boom!” As the empress unleashed a punch, roughly seven stone slabs in front of her exploded into smithereens at the same time.

“Your Majesty’s martial arts are unparalleled, you’re the best martial arts expert in this world!” Ren Baqian woke up from a daze and yelled immediately.

“Humph!” The empress’s voice was slightly arrogant yet attractive at the same time. Following which, she calmed down and asked, “Have you taken a good look at it?”

Ren Baqian, “…”

“Your Majesty, I am enthralled by your elegance,” Ren Baqian laughed sheepishly and said.

The empress raised her eyebrows and stared at Ren Baqian.

“I personally displayed this boxing technique for you, how dare you did not pay attention?”

“All I could see just now is an aura of death, and I felt as though I was on a battlefield. I’m really too stupid to learn this technique,” Ren Baqian quickly said.

“This was a military-used boxing technique, it’s called [Boxing of Death]. It was created by General-in-Chief who Supports the Nation, Hong Wu. It has a total of eight moves. I want you to remember these eight moves in three days’ time. On odd-numbered days, you will practice the technique for six hours. On even-numbered days, you will practice the technique for two hours and spar for two hours,” the empress coldly instructed.