The Empress’s Gigolo

During this half a month leading up to New Year, Ren Baqian could feel a festive mood everywhere in Lan City.

Everywhere bustled with activity. Aboriginals could be seen bringing many products to Lan City to exchange for resources. Many people were sitting along the roadsides of Shiwu District and Yiwulu District with goods placed in front of them. These goods included medicinal herbs and various offspring of wild animals. Occasionally, one could see some treasures as well.

Therefore, Lan City was filled with a multitude of people almost every day, resembling a mega-sized bazaar.

Everyone wore a smile on their faces.

After all, New Year was an important festival of the year to everyone.

Ren Baqian had been strolling around the city to see some of the oddities in this world.

He even brought a few things that piqued his interest. For example, a green-colored stone that revealed white-glowing spots when placed in the dark, resembling the stars in the night sky.

He also bought a plant that would bloom every alternate day. The flower bud on top of this plant would open up and close every alternate day, and this process would go on and on—extremely interesting.

There was also an animal horn which produced a sound that could be heard hundreds of miles away. However, the sound could not be heard by humans. Only certain animals could hear it.

On the contrary, the imperial palace was cold and cheerless.

The two completely different worlds were separated by one palace door.

The empress did not really care about New Year. No preparation was made for the arrival of New Year, and there were no decorations anywhere in the palace. Everyone in the palace was still carrying out their usual daily tasks.

After all, the empress had always been alone in the palace. She had no one to talk to or share her joy with. Therefore, a festival like New Year meant nothing to her.

However, this year she had someone to spend New Year with. Therefore, it would be a slightly different experience for her.

“Your Majesty, should we put up some decorations in the palace?” Ren Baqian suggested to the empress, who was watching a television series at the moment. On the way back to the palace, he saw a lot of court officials in Beihong District cleaning up and decorating their residences.

Their decorations were very unique. They gathered many bones and drilled a hole on every one of them. Then, they strung a strip of cloth through the bones and hung them on the wall. Every time the wind blew, the holes would produce a wailing sound while the bones would clatter when they hit against the wall.

The entire Beihong District was chilly and gloomy.

For the past two days, whenever Ren Baqian passed by Beihong District, he would tremble in cold. He felt that the surrounding air had become colder than usual.

This kind of atmosphere wasn’t festive at all. The officials’ residences were like haunted houses. Were they trying to scare people? Ren Baqian wondered who the “genius” was that came up with such creative New Year decorations.

However, everyone in those residences had jubilation written all over their faces, thus confusing Ren Baqian.

The empress propped up her chin with her fingers and looked at Ren Baqian. Following which, she nonchalantly said, “Do whatever you like.”

After saying goodbye to the empress, Ren Baqian returned to Earth. When he returned to Dayao, he brought along two huge bundles of stuff. Inside the bundles, there were colorful LED string lights and bells.

Now that the maximum amount of strength he could exert was 3000 newtons, he could bring back many things at once. The number of things he could bring back was now several times more than before. He was no longer restricted by his lack of strength.

Ren Baqian asked someone to build a few wooden frames on the two sides of Yangxin Palace Hall.

Then, he asked Qing Yuan and Hong Luan to hang up the LED string lights and the bells on the wooden frames.

Even though it wasn’t a complicated task, it was arduous. Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were standing on the wooden frame while Ren Baqian was carrying a bundle of string lights running to and fro between the two persons. He handed one end of the string lights to Qing Yuan and ran to Hong Luan to pass her the other end. The two girls would then lace the wooden frame with the string lights. This process repeated several times.

The empress was still watching her television series, but she wasn’t focusing on it. Every now and then, she would look at the three persons that were working in frenzy, slightly in a daze.

It had been a very long time since Yangxin Palace Hall was so lively.

Or rather, this place had never been so lively before.

Yangxin Palace Hall had always been cold and cheerless. Even when she was young and her father was still the ruler of Dayao, this place was already like this.

For a very long period of time, she even felt that this was how Yangxin Palace Hall should be.

Therefore, when she saw how busy Ren Baqian, Qing Yuan, and Hong Luan were, she was slightly surprised. At the same time, she felt warmth and amusment too.

The empress did not even realize she was smiling.

It took them nearly half a day to set up the LED string lights. After Ren Baqian plugged the electric cable into the electric power source, the color of the entire Yangxin Palace Hall began to change. The string lights that were hung along the sides of the palace hall and the entrance emitted colorful light. Furthermore, the light seemed to be flowing as well.

For every 100 meters in length, the string lights weighed 9 kilograms. Ren Baqian brought a total of 2000 meters of string lights, making the entire Yangxin Palace Hall brightly colorful.

Initially, Qing Yuan and Hong Luan still did not know what Ren Baqian was trying to do. After seeing this sight, they almost cried out in alarm. Even though the current Yangxin Palace Hall still looked slightly cheerless, it also exuded a rich and diverse, intoxicating aura.

Even the empress was pleasantly surprised. She did not expect the decorations to be so beautiful and dazzling.

Moreover, Ren Baqian even asked someone to cut down two logs and place them in front of the empress’s couch. Then, he laced them with some remaining colorful string lights.

“Your Majesty, this is how your palace hall should be.” Ren Baqian wiped off the sweat on his forehead. Running around the palace hall with the heavy string lights had tired him out drastically.

However, after seeing how gorgeous Yangxin Palace Hall was, like the palace hall in fairy tales, he felt very satisfied.

The empress’s face was filled with surprise while her heart was engulfed in warmth. For a moment, she did not know what to say.

After a long while, she said softly, “It’s very beautiful, I like it!”

Hearing the empress’s soft and gentle voice, Ren Baqian’s heart melted.

This was probably the most romantic thing that he had ever done in his life.

“But I’m afraid there is not enough power to sustain these string lights. I have brought back another set of batteries. Including the four battery sets that we already have, these string lights can last for roughly five hours.” Ren Baqian looked slightly disappointed.

The fact that such a beautiful sight couldn’t last forever made him slightly disappointed.

Previously, he did not bring back many battery sets. He prepared a total of four battery sets to sustain the empress’s laptop, lampstands and walkie-talkie. Now, there were a total of five battery sets in Yangxin Palace Hall.

It seemed like he had to bring back a larger battery next time around.

Following which, Ren Baqian, Qing Yuan, and Hong Luan hung the bells on the string lights. Whenever the wind blew, the entire Yangxin Palace Hall would be filled with a sweet-sounding chime.

The chime sounded much better than the ghostly wails and howls that those residences at Beihong District produced.

The empress listened to the chime for the whole night and almost couldn’t fall asleep.

It was far too noisy.

She could not feel it during the day. However, when it was the dead of the night, she could hear the chime loud and clear.

However, the empress did not ask anyone to take down the bells. The next day, she behaved as though nothing had happened.

Qing Yuan and Hong Luan loved the bells dearly. On the second day, Qing Yuan had dark circles under her eyes. On the third day, it was Hong Luan that had dark circles under her eyes.