The Empress’s Gigolo

“What are the stakes?” asked Ren Baqian while looking worried. He was trying to project great anxiety due to his progress.

“Seeing your expression, I know you already have a plan in mind and want to con me.” Tong Zhenye was sharp enough not to take the bait as he instantly smelled something fishy after observing Ren Baqian’s expression.

Ren Baqian looked at Tong Zhenye with some exasperation. Who said that the aboriginal were naive?

It seemed like this old fool only appeared to be candid.

“Do you want me to go and scout the enemy’s situation?” Tong Zhenye chuckled.

“If Sir Tong has nothing to do, go ahead.” Ren Baqian’s answer was neutral.

“Haha, I am just kidding. I have confidence in Sir Ren. If I were to go, they will look down on you,” Tong Zhenye said evasively.

Ren Baqian was really annoyed this time. Was this old fool trying to joke with him?

Seeing Tong Zhenye putting his hands behind his back while ambling and humming a mountain ditty, Ren Baqian was even more convinced of this.

After pondering for a long time, he couldn’t figure out how he had offended him recently and decided to ignore it. Ren Baqian strolled back to the house, took out steel wires of different thicknesses and threw them to the blacksmiths.

After testing them, several blacksmiths were amazed by the steel springs brought by Ren Baqian. They hadn’t been exposed to advanced alloys and found the steel wires to be totally different from what they had ever seen.

After coiling the steel wires on their arms and then letting go, the steel wires would straighten again instead of bending out of shape like ordinary steel.

Furthermore, there were no irregularities at all as the wires were uniform in thickness throughout. Plus, there weren’t any traces of hammering. This made the blacksmiths think that these wires were naturally formed and not man made.

Not long after, the sound of hammering metal was heard coming from the courtyard.

However, a new problem soon emerged. The steel wires became brittle after heating and hammering or other problems might arise.

Although they might find the solutions to these problems if given the time, time was unfortunately what they lacked most at this moment.

“No problem. I was letting you give it a try.” Ren Baqian waved his hands and answered the blacksmiths with a laugh.

He already knew about these types of problems. This was a special carbon steel spring and not easy to deal with at present. Any extra treatment would change the composition of free gas and the carbon content in the steel wire, which would affect the performance in various ways.

His reason for bringing these wires was to mislead the people.

The blacksmiths would then happily bring these steel wires home to experiment with and quickly discover new uses for them. For example, making a whip that would deliver an almost lethal lash…

In this aspect, Ren Baqian could only say that he underestimated the degree of affinity for weapons that the aboriginals had.

The aboriginals would find a way to use whatever materials they obtained to make offensive weapons.

Even steel wires could be used to whip people.

Dyeing was one of the tasks in the bet, and it progressed very smoothly.

Dayao had no spinning and weaving technology to speak of, and this was the same case for the cloth dyeing industry. Therefore, he could only choose some dexterous and smart craftsmen from the Ministry of Works.

The assorted dyes brought back by Ren Baqian came from pure materials. Not only was there a complete range of colors that consisted of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, every color came with three variations.

For example, yellow came in light yellow, lemon yellow, and golden yellow. There was dark red, bright red, and peach red…

If he wasn’t limited by the amount he could carry, he would have brought 30 hues for each color and come out with 210 colors. It would certainly make the Zhang family lose faith in themselves.

Each piece of cloth that he brought from Earth was three meters wide, about 10 meters long, and made of cotton.

The final material was the color fixing chemical.

The only drawback to this type of bright dye was its tendency to fade after being exposed to water, and most dyes were the same. Although Ren Baqian didn’t know what measures the other party would take to reduce this fading, they were most likely some indigenous methods and would only reduce the fading slightly.

However, the fixing agent was totally different. The covalent bond between the epoxy in the fixing agent and the molecules in the dye made the dye stable.

First, the cotton cloth was immersed in the dye, dried, and, if required, dyed again. After this, it was immersed in the fixing agent at a certain temperature for 15 minutes and then dried. The work needed to be done by the craftsmen was very simple and was completed in three days.

In fact, Ren Baqian was most busy in the courtyard brewing the distilled liquor that Zhang Junzheng was most indifferent about.

Ren Baqian had long wanted to brew wine here. Whether it was due to the special environment or different materials found in this world, not only were the meats delicious and nourishing, the fruits and grains were fragrant and sweet. If the same method was used to brew wines here, the wines produced would be much better than those on Earth.

If the skills to make wine weren’t somewhat backward in this world, the empress wouldn’t need to bring sorghum wine with her every day.

After three days, Ren Baqian finally produced a pot distiller.

At this time, the smell of wine in the neighboring courtyard had dissipated and it looked like their wine was ready. However, the sound of hammering metal continued.

On the fourth day, the strong aroma of wine wafted out from the courtyard of Ren Baqian and company. A whiff of the rich fragrance was enough to make those outside salivate.

The first to discover it was Zhang Heqi and others in the other courtyard, followed by a bleary-eyed Zhang Junzheng who had received an urgent report.

As soon as he smelled the aroma, his face changed as he exclaimed, “What a rich fragrance!”

The progress of the wine made by Ren Baqian could be determined just by using the nose. This was only the first brewing, but it was already so strong that it seemed as good as the wine that had gone through three rounds of brewing by the Zhang family.

Although it still couldn’t compare with the hard liquor made by the Zhang family, it already made Zhang Junzheng worry.

Zhang Junzheng stood in the courtyard for a moment, cast a glance at the others, and said solemnly, “Carry on with your work. This wine is still inferior to ours. Anyway, even if we lose that round, it won’t affect the overall situation. Just carry on with what you were doing.”

The people who were attracted by the fragrance of the wine dispersed after these words from Zhang Junzheng.

Zhang Junzheng wasn’t surprised by the flavor of the wine. In order to impress the empress, the wine he would use for the competition was definitely the best.

What was surprising to him was the ability of Ren Baqian to brew such a strong and fragrant wine with merely one or two brewing cycles.