The Empress’s Gigolo

This time, they were at a restaurant on Jingyang Street.

“Sir Ren, we, the Zhang family, have arrived. The contest can start at anytime.” Zhang Junzheng cupped his hands.

“In two days then. What do you want to compete in?” Ren Baqian was fiddling with a small box. He inhaled from it with his mouth and blew out a mist that had a fruity fragrance that actually covered his face. It was as if a mythical creature was swallowing clouds and blowing out fog.

This made Zhang Junzheng and the others affix their eyes on the box that Ren Baqian was holding.

“Sir Ren, may I ask what this is?” Zhang Junzheng couldn’t hold in his curiosity and asked.

“Just a small thing. We call this an electronic cigarette.” Ren Baqian fiddled with the box in his hands and placed it on the table. In fact, this thing had been available for a long time back on Earth. It was just that he simply wasn’t interested in it. On one particular trip back to Earth, a passerby was smoking one of these. Ren Baqian felt that it smelled pretty nice, so he took a trip to an electronic cigarette store.

After that, he felt that the cooling and fruity juice in this electronic cigarette was simply too refreshing.

Especially in such a hot place like Dayao, a whiff of this would make his entire throat and lungs feel a cooling sensation as his mouth filled with sweet and fruity flavors.

Over the next few days, Ren Baqian loved it so much that he simply couldn’t part with it.

Zhang Junzheng didn’t know what it was even after Ren Baqian introduced it. He looked at the electronic cigarette for a while longer before shifting his attention back to Ren Baqian and saying, “Sir Ren, is the bet still according to what we had discussed before?”

“Naturally. If I lose, I will recommend you guys to the empress, and this I guarantee. If you lose, the entire Zhang family has to move to Dayao to work. At the same time, you can learn from us as well. To sum it up, you guys have a lot to gain,” said Ren Baqian as he emphasized this to the Zhang family.

Regardless of which perspective one looked at it from, the Zhang family indeed had much to gain. The boat that was the Yun Nation was about to capsize. If they hadn’t met Ren Baqian now, they probably wouldn’t receive such treatment if they were to seek asylum after the demise of the Yun Nation.

Needless to say, they could also learn new things here from Ren Baqian.

Even if it were simply some manufacturing techniques, this would be sufficient enough for the Zhang family to reap the benefits.

Zhang Junzheng was noncommittal after listening to this and said, “There must always be a witness for any contest!”

“The empress shall be the witness!” Ren Baqian laughed. By arranging the contest during this period, which was when the empress would celebrate her birthday and when many high officials would be present, wasn’t the Zhang family intending to gain fame?

Zhang Junzheng smiled. As long as the empress would be witnessing it, this contest would be the best opportunity for the Zhang family to display their strength.

“There will be three tasks in this contest, and they’re not complex. However, they are not going to be easy to do well. The first task is to dye cloth with seven colors, namely red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, and purple. What we are competing in is for the colors to be long-lasting and not to fade easily!” Zhang Junzheng said. One had to know that it wasn’t an easy task to dye cloth with colors that would be long-lasting and that would not fade easily. Even though every dye shop had their own methods, their effects were very different.

This was also one of the methods that could easily differentiate whether one won or lost simply by direct observation.

Zhang Junzheng didn’t suggest competing on the purity of the colors because color purity didn’t have a general standard and was entirely subjective based on a person’s preference. The results of a color purity competition could be falsified, whereas a color fading test could not.

The fading of colors could easily be distinguished once the cloth was washed with soap and water.

Another reason was that the process of dyeing cloth would require at least 15 days. The Zhang family had a special method that could dye cloth in a shorter period of time, but the colors wouldn’t be as vibrant as those that were dyed over the normal 15 day period.

As such, Zhang Junzheng was very confident about this contest. It was considered pretty good for him to be able to apply the dye in such a short period of time.

After Zhang Junzheng was done talking, he looked carefully at Ren Baqian’s expression. He felt a little disappointed when he saw that Ren Baqian didn’t have much of a reaction. He didn’t know whether the other party possessed strong confidence or just didn’t understand the difficulty of the task.

Zhang Junzheng paused for a bit before continuing, “The second task will be to manufacture springs.”

“Springs?” Ren Baqian pondered over this word. This was a surprise because he had never expected the Zhang family to actually know how to make springs. It would take a huge amount of strength to be able to move a piece of metal spring around with the hands.

Ren Baqian had always thought that Great Xia’s crossbow battalions were using springs. Eventually, he realized that they were using multiple bowstrings to fire an array of arrows everytime.

As such, he had never had much expectations for the technology of springs in this world.

One had to know that the biggest problem in making springs was the material. This was the most difficult problem that would limit how well a spring functioned.

Since the Zhang family had brought this up, they must possess a certain level of achievement in this aspect and possibly had access to a special type of material.

Zhang Junzheng placed a torsion spring, which was the size of a fist, on the table as he answered will full confidence, “Yes! This is a spring. As for what this thing does, please forgive me for keeping you in suspense for the moment, Sir Ren. We shall compete in the tensile strength and elasticity of our springs.”

This was the Yun Nation’s latest technology. At present, the ballistas that the Yun Nation used for war were made with torsion springs like this.

Even though Zhang Junzheng knew that Ren Baqian possessed something small that was capable of exploding, he believed that ballistas, which could fire 100 bolts at a range of 200 steps, would definitely pique Qi Zixiao’s interest.

Ren Baqian looked at the torsion spring on the table. Although he had known for a long time that these could be made using a compact roller with the aid of technology, he was between laughter and tears when he saw Zhang Junzheng’s extremely confident look.

Competing with modern technology in alloys and springs… Who gave you this confidence?

However, Ren Baqian grew to hold the Zhang family in higher regard.

Being able to make a spring that was at a quality standard was sufficient to prove the value of Zhang family’s craftsmen.

Ren Baqian placed the spring on the table and asked faintly, “What’s the third task?”

“Brewing wine! Previously, Sir Ren, you had mentioned that you knew how to brew wine. We, the Zhang family, have some knowledge and experience with this as well. Using the same type of wine as the base ingredient, we will process the wine and compete to see who makes the more intense product,” Zhang Junzheng said. In fact, the most important task of this contest was actually the spring. He very clearly knew the difficulty of making such springs.

He had even gotten people to bring the materials over from the Yun Nation.

Zhang Junzheng firmly believed that Ren Baqian could never accomplish this.

The other tasks were simply just extras to him, but at the same time, they were not meaningless.

Take for example, wine brewing. Qi Zixiao had always loved the strong alcohol of the Yun Nation. Everytime the caravan from Dayao arrived at the Yun Nation, they would buy and bring back plenty of good wine. The best wines in the Yun Nation were all brewed by the craftsmen of the Zhang family.

Zhang Junzheng believed that it would be sufficient to make Qi Zixiao happy with just the task of brewing wine.

On the other hand, the torsion spring and ballista served as a great incentive for the whole of Dayao.

By fulfilling both official and personal tasks, the items that he had prepared to compete with this time would be enough to let the Zhang family stand firm in Dayao.

Not only that, in order to prevent Dayao from harboring any ideas against the Zhang family, the craftsmen that they had sent were all prepared to die and had consumed poison before the competition.

This had also removed the possibility of Dayao extorting the manufacturing methods from them.

The Zhang family would never allow the techniques that they possessed to be leaked out because these would be the roots for their establishment in Dayao in the days ahead.

“It shall be these! We will begin the contest in two days. Do you have any more requests?”

“We need a courtyard that is segregated into two parts to be able to transport the materials in. Both parties will not be allowed to look at each other’s manufacturing method and will only compete based on the end product. Do you agree, Sir Ren?”

Even though such skills weren’t something that someone could replicate with one look, there were many unique techniques and formulas. Zhang Junzheng still remained vigilant, afraid of the possibility that his techniques would leak out.

Ren Baqian gave it some thought and felt that there was nothing more that could be said. Putting them at a disadvantage was his original intention. Now that the other party had already plunged in with so much confidence, what else could he say?

He took a deep puff of the electronic cigarette, lifted his head, and blew out a huge cloud of vapor.

Sigh, such is life!