The Empress’s Gigolo

“This was it?”

Looking at the dispersing crowd, Ren Baqian suddenly felt someone fall on him from beside him after he finished his sentence. He almost fell down to the ground.

“Caretaker Shi? What’s wrong?” Ren Baqian helped Caretaker Shi up while asking with a surprised tone. Previously, Caretaker still looked alright. Why was he acting like this now?

Caretaker Shi’s face was twitching, and he did not speak for quite some time.

“Was he too excited just now that he got a heart attack? Or a stroke?” Ren Baqian was slightly anxious. Caretaker Shi was a nice man, and Ren Baqian did not want anything to happen to him.

However, upon taking a closer a look, he realized that Caretaker Shi did not seem to be suffering from a heart attack or a stroke. Caretaker Shi looked alright, except for the fact he was staring at Re Baqian with his face twitching.

Caretaker Shi behaved somewhat like Tong Jia did this morning.

When Ren Baqian thought of this, he had a fright. He lowered his head and saw the stun baton in his hand. He must have subconsciously taken it out after being frightened by that man’s imposing aura just now.

Did he press the button and poke Caretaker Shi out of nervousness just now?

When he thought of this, and after he looked at Caretaker Shi’s condition, the more he felt that he was shocked by his stun baton.

With an embarrassed look on his face, Ren Baqian quickly stuffed the stun baton into his pants and helped Caretaker Shi to one side to sit him down.

After a long while, Caretaker Shi finally recovered. Looking as though he had seen a ghost, he asked Ren Baqian, “What the hell did you poke me with just now?”

“It’s an accident, it’s an accident,” Ren Baqian chuckled. Since he stood so close to Caretaker Shi just now, there was no way he could deny it.

“What exactly was that?” Caretaker Shi looked angrily at Ren Baqian.

“This.” Ren Baqian smiled and waved the stun baton in Caretaker Shi’s face. Caretaker Shi unexpectedly snatched it from his hand.

“What’s this thing? Just now, my entire body was numb and I couldn’t move at all. Now, I can’t even exert any strength.” Caretaker Shi fiddled with the stun baton, looking like a child that had just discovered a new toy. Even though the stun baton was made up of plastic, Caretaker Shi considered its quality to be superior.

“It’s a stun baton, a secret treasure from my sect,” Ren Baqian smoothly cooked up an excuse.

“You’re part of a sect?” Caretaker Shi had a surprised look on his face. “This is the first time I’m hearing about this.”

Ren Baqian did not reply him. There was no point for him to continue talking about a lie he just came up with.

“How do I use this thing?” Caretaker Shi asked again and continued fiddling with the stun baton.

“Press the button…” The moment Ren Baqian finished his sentence, his entire body twitched and he collapsed to the ground.

He finally knew how it felt like to be shocked by a stun baton. His entire body was numb and painful. His stomach felt as though it was burning, with waves of pain gushing through it. This feeling was indeed unbearable. Deep down, he wanted to cry but no tears came out of his eyes. A ceramic pot is likely to break when used to carry water from a well; a general is destined to die on the battlefield. He carried the stun baton for only a single day and he was already suffering from it.

Caretaker Shi pulled Ren Baqian to his side. After fiddling with the stun baton, he happily stuffed it into his own pants.

“Brother Ren, I treat you quite well, right? Let me play with this thing for a few days and I will return it to you soon,” Caretaker Shi talked endlessly beside Ren Baqian.

Ren Baqian felt he had encountered a bandit.

Caretaker Shi took about five minutes to recover from the shock while Ren Baqian took about fifteen minutes to do so.

Furthermore, Caretaker Shi merely tapped him with the stun baton.

When Ren Baqian could finally move, Caretaker Shi stood up with a carefree look on his face. He no longer cared about Ren Baqian poking him with the stun baton earlier.

Ren Baqian stood up from the ground and stretched his limbs. When he saw the stun baton at Caretaker Shi’s waist and compared his body size with Caretaker Shi’s, he decided to buy a few more stun batons after he returned to Earth.

At this point of time, a unit of soldiers was filling up the huge hole in front of them. After being pulled to the side by Caretaker Shi, Ren Baqian was able to see the plaza clearly. It seemed like the hole was filled up with the challenger’s body still inside. Upon seeing this, Ren Baqian was extremely frightened.

The attempt to bury the corpse in order to destroy all evidence of the empress’s deed seemed to be too blatant.

However, given the way that Long Wanli fell to the ground, Ren Baqian reckoned that even Astro Boy would be smashed to smithereens if that happened to him, let alone someone with human body.

Ren Baqian had a deeper understanding of the empress’s strength. Her strength was absolutely on the same level as a Tyrannosaurus’s.

He did not know why was she so powerful at such a young age.

At the same time, he felt pity for that Long Wanli fellow. His appearance was rather good. Even though Ren Baqian couldn’t see his face, he still felt that he was an elegant-looking man from his back view. Especially his sword move, which made him look like a fairy flying through the sky.

It was a pity he was swatted to death by a single slap. Even his corpse was buried under the plaza now.

“Why don’t they bury the corpse elsewhere?” Ren Baqian asked. He felt uncomfortable that the corpse was being buried under the plaza.

“Why should they do that? Burying our enemies’ corpses under the plaza will boost the fortune of the Dayao Nation,” Caretaker Shi explained.

He had no choice but to admit this was one of the cultural differences between this world and Earth.

On Earth, people would feel uncomfortable standing wherever corpses were buried. However, in this place, this could boost Dayao Nation’s fortune. This fact rendered Ren Baqian speechless.

“Will anyone come and seek revenge for him?” Ren Baqian asked again.

“We will bury that person along with him.” Caretaker Shi chuckled, completely unconcerned with Ren Baqian’s unease.

…

Not too long after the both of them had returned to the beast park, Ren Baqian was summoned into the palace.

The person who came to summon Ren Baqian was someone he was familiar with, Shi Hu. He had seen Shi Hu a few times before.

“I have something that I want to present to Her Majesty,” Ren Baqian patted the air cooler.

“What’s this?” Shi Hu asked with doubt.

Ren Baqian tugged on the cord on the air cooler. As the fan blades spun, cold wind blew out immediately.

Shi Hu looked at it curiously. “It’s much more convenient than a fan.”

“That’s for sure,” Ren Baqian replied. Even though this air cooler did not contain any advanced technology and it wasn’t hard to make, it was still something that ancient people couldn’t come up with. It was a type of novelty for them. The wind produced by it was stronger and lasted longer than a fan’s, which was weak and inconsistent.

Re Baqian carried the air cooler and followed Shi Hu into the palace. However, he was led to the imperial kitchen.

“I will report to Her Majesty first, she might summon you later,” Shi Hu told Ren Baqian before he left.

“Thank you so much,” Ren Baqian smiled.

After entering the imperial kitchen, Ren Baqian placed the air cooler on one side. When the cooks saw the new-and-odd-looking thing, they went forward to examine it. All of them were kicked away by Ren Baqian. Everyone chuckled with an unconcerned look on their faces.

Even though Dayao people had violent tendencies, they were quite friendly and straightforward with him after he had gained their approval. They did not mind him joking with them at all. This made Ren Baqian feel rather good.

They were much nicer and easier to hang out with than modern people.

Even though they had only met a few times, they absolutely acknowledged Ren Baqian’s capability after he took out those spices and taught them a few new dishes.

If Her Majesty did not have other arrangements for Ren Baqian, Caretaker Gou would have wanted to transfer him to the imperial kitchen.

Ren Baqian was certain that simmer-fried dragon fish was made using a carp that had two feelers. After giving it a taste, Ren Baqian couldn’t detect any fishy smell at all. Its meat melted upon entering his mouth, filling his mouth with nothing but fragrance.

He had made up his mind to buy a few of this fish when he returned to the beast park. They might be expensive, but they were worth the price.

Sweet and sour meat, sautéed sliced pork, and white fungus broth.

After the four dishes were made, Ren Baqian took a break. Even though the dishes were made by the cooks of the imperial kitchen, he was in-charge of giving them cooking instructions. Those who did not know what happened would think that he did hard labor after seeing the dead-beat look on his face.

After the dishes were sent to the empress, Shi Hu came back to the imperial kitchen and told Ren Baqian, “Her Majesty has summoned you, bring your box along.”