The Empress’s Gigolo

The outcome of Tong Zhenye and Qin Chuan hurting each other was a restrictive order from the empress that banned them from attending the morning court sessions for ten days.

It was said that after coming back on that day, both of them shut their doors hadn’t stepped out since.

There was no other way. Their “fragrance” followed them everywhere they went. On the way back, they were treated like ghosts by the commoners who saw them. The crowd dispersed wherever either of them were.

Over the next few days, the same few words kept resonating in both of their residences.

“Tong Zhenye, you ignorant old man, I will never let you off!”

“Qin Chuan, you ignorant old man, I will never let you off!”

Even though both of them stayed in their residences, they would still occasionally take a stroll inside their houses. As a result, the entire Qin and Tong residences were filled with that odor. Over the next few days, Tong Lan gritted her teeth whenever she saw Ren Baqian at school, holding back the urge to bite him.

Then, the day finally came. Ren Baqian showed up to the palace training ground while looking extremely depressed. The empress had already given a strict order for him to train hard.

The reason for this was that he had poisoned the emperor of Great Xia, so they would definitely plot to assassinate him—just like what had happened the past few times.

Even though there were very few outsiders within Lan City at the moment, there were still a few shopkeepers from the large and influential foreign families who had to stay behind and perform their duties. At present, even with the addition of the Jing Tribe, there was still the possibility of Great Xia’s agents sneaking in.

Full of emotion, Ren Baqian looked at Tong Lan, who was standing right in front of him. He somehow still felt that what the empress had said just now was utter nonsense.

No matter how much he trained, he still wouldn’t match up to a Spirit Wheel expert. He could only rely on his bodyguards to buy time for him to escape back to Earth.

If he were to encounter experts below the Spirit Wheel level, then it wouldn’t be possible for them to get past his bodyguards in the first place.

However, no matter how vast the world was, the empress still had the final say. As a result, he still stood here at the training ground.

On the contrary, the little lolita standing across from him looked excited. People in the Tong residence had been tormented and were pretty miserable these days. Now, she could finally take revenge.

“You said it yourself, Yagui, that a teacher is one who has attained. You are the teacher at school, but me beating you up during training can’t be considered disobedience,” the little lolita said earnestly as she kneaded her fists.

Ren Baqian was astonished when he heard that.

“Why is that so? Your teacher will always be your teacher, and your grandfather will always be your grandfather. You will be disobedient if you beat me up! Then, I will find your grandfather for a chat afterward.”

“He’s at home. You can go look for him,” sneered Tong Lan, the little lolita, before taking a glance at the empress.

“You don’t have to worry about his status.” The empress lay on a deck chair and sported a pair of sunglasses while Qing Yuan and Hong Luan held a large imperial canopy to shield her from the sun. There were also fruit and wine on the small round table beside her. If she were to change into a bikini, she would practically be sunbathing.

After hearing the empress’s orders, Tong Lan grinned, revealing her two tiny canines. In a flash, she appeared above Ren Baqian, and her small fists smashed downward like the rain.

Ren Baqian squinted his eyes and fell several meters back.

“Could this be the legendary [Pegasus Meteor Fist] ¹ that was lost long ago? I never expected this move to actually originate from the Tong family.”

Tong Lan’s vigor immediately came to a halt. She somersaulted in the air and landed on the ground before asking, “What [Pegasus Meteor Fist]?”

Ren Baqian then began to feel his vision turn dark. He lunged forward and launched a [Heart Killing Blade], an extremely vicious technique from the [Boxing of Death].

At this moment, as he was using the [Heart Killing Blade], the muscles in his arms engorged and blue veins twined around the like dragons. The strike from his palms stirred up an intense screech through the air. It was as if the air was being cut up.

Lying not too far away, the empress nodded gently. There had actually been a slight improvement in Ren Baqian’s technique. However, it was still too soft and not fast enough.

Tong Lan leaped up slightly and stepped on Ren Baqian’s arm with one leg. He felt a great force pressing down on his arm, and with a gale heading straight for him, Tong Lan’s kick followed through immediately.

The [Heart Killing Blade] was a move used for ripping the chest or throat apart. After all, the [Boxing of Death] was a fighting technique used in the army for killing their enemies, so its moves were simple.

With Tong Lan’s leg stepping on Ren Baqian’s arm, he wasn’t able to perform any moves.

According to how it usually went, Tong Lan’s kick would basically end the entire fight. Regardless of whether it was strength or speed, she had absolute dominance over him.

Little did she expect that Ren Baqian would immediately lie flat as if he had predicted her move beforehand. With both hands supported by the ground, he unexpectedly bent his waist at a 90 degree angle and wrapped his legs around Tong Lan’s waist.

It would still be manageable for a lady to use this move, but for a man weighing 110 kilograms like Ren Baqian, it was rather taxing.

This was actually one of the simplest ground grappling moves that the empress taught from another set called the [Hunter Techniques]. When practicing the [Entangling Python], Ren Baqian had to aim for the waist, neck, or jaw. This was what he was actually doing right now.

Even though Tong Lan was a little surprised, she twisted her body in midair even with Ren Baqian’s legs practically sticking to her. She then grabbed ahold of both of his legs and threw him to the ground, making a human-sized pit out of it.

Ren Baqian became dizzy after taking that throw. He stood up and shook his head before looking at Tong Lan with an odd expression.

“Your pants dropped.”

“You really think I will believe you? This trick is obsolete!” Tong Lan complained and wriggled her nose before feeling a chill on her legs…

Ren Baqian looked at the little pair of underwear that was revealed after Tong Lan’s pants dropped. They were the same type that Lin Qiaole always wore, something similar to that of a pair of safety shorts. After all, the women in this world often would perform many leg raising movements when fighting and even leap to high spots.

If she were to be like the ladies in ancient China, she would have been completely exposed.

Subconsciously, Ren Baqian turned and looked at the empress, only to see her holding her wine glass while looking back at him with a half smile. Her face was blushing as well.

It seemed like it wasn’t exactly brilliant to use this move against a ten year old lolita.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! I’ll fight it out with you!” Tong Lan screamed as if she had been molested, and her face blushed crimson like blood.

An hour later, Tong Lan stomped away, still panting in rage. Meanwhile, the area around Ren Baqian’s eyes looked like those of a panda. Even though he had bruised black eyes, he had already achieved tremendous improvement this time around.

At least… Alright, even though he hadn’t hurt Tong Lan, he managed to damage her waistband. Even if it was a result of her carelessness, this was still a big improvement for him.

“Your ground grappling move was executed pretty well. What about the other techniques?” The empress smiled.

“Still not perfect yet. Many of the moves simply challenge the limits of a human.” Ren Baqian was also helpless. There were 13 moves in the [Hunter Techniques], but he could only perform two of them. There were five that he could barely execute, whereas he couldn’t even perform the movements for the rest.

“This set of moves is only effective against humans. However, you aren’t in the mountains currently, so you don’t have to fight beasts. If you can master this set of [Hunter Techniques], you will more or less have the ability to defend yourself,” the empress replied dully.

Tong Lan was still panting in fury when she saw Ren Baqian in class the next day.

Even though she was only a ten year old girl, she would remember an extremely humiliating event like dropping her pants for the rest of her life. Let alone that, she had been wearing striped underpants and actually let someone see her wearing them. This was simply a lifelong shame.

It didn’t really matter to Ren Baqian. In any case, Tong Lan was angry most of the time.

After these two weeks, there was actually some progress in the students’ steam train as well. They at least changed the single flywheel at the front to a double flywheel and a row of gradually smaller sized wheels at the back. They also wrapped the exterior with animal tendons that held all the wheels together, resembling the caterpillar tracks of tanks.

The positions of the linkages were also shifted to the inside.

They were only able to make such good progress after consulting a few craftsmen. However, they merely asked for guidance, and Ren Baqian personally saw them do the work with their own hands.

As such, Ren Baqian didn’t mind that at all. In the end, it was impossible to expect the students to have the skills of the carpenters and blacksmiths. Also, even under the guidance of the craftsmen, most of the progress was made by the students’ own efforts.

However, the problem that followed was that the output of the steam engine was unable to move the simple steam locomotive that was made from this type of wood.