The Empress’s Gigolo

The empress waved her hand, got up, and stood in the pavilion while staring into the distance. She brooded about some matters and after a long pause said, “No matter how you treat some people, they will always have their own ideas. How then should we handle these kind of people?”

Ren Baqian’s heart skipped a beat and wondered if the empress referred to him? He knew he did not have any messed-up thoughts.

It more likely referred to those people who originated from the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation.

What was the empress’s intention in telling me this?

Was she trying to sound me out?

The person in front of him could crush him to death with only one hand. It was really a killer hand—not a figure of speech. Ren Baqian had to take care to not seek merit and could not afford to make any mistakes.

Summing up his thoughts, Ren Baqian said carefully, “I think they should be assimilated, so that they can identify with their country and have a strong sense of identity. Some of them may not be able to change their minds and have other ideas, especially those who are older. However, a new generation can identify with the country from an early age and the situation will change after they grow up.”

After Ren Baqian finished talking, the empress turned sideways to face him. She did not utter a single word, and he didn’t know what was going on in her mind. There was nothing in the field except for the sound of that mysterious musical instrument.

Ren Baqian felt uncertain, not knowing whether he had said something that did not go down well with the other side. The empress turned around and said coldly, “If I say so, all should be executed.”

Although the empress did not make any other actions, such a facial expression gave Ren Baqian the chills, and he subconsciously shrank his neck.

The empress returned to her seat, “If the previous emperor did not leave instructions, they would have been executed immediately. However, your words do make some sense, please explain in detail.”

Ren Baqian confirmed that the empress was talking about the remnant citizens from the Hao Nation. Although he did not know why she was consulting him, it was better to wrack his brains to sort his thoughts and then give a well thought out plan.

To put it plainly, this was about education in patriotism.

Regular lectures on patriotism and whatnot evoked bittersweet memories. The Eight Honors and Eight Shames would be taught to them, and they would be expected to memorize them. If the conditions permitted, it would be best to arrange for compulsory classes in private schools.

[The Eight Honors and Eight Shames is PRC’s moral guidelines.]

At the same time, aboriginal culture and traditions would be transmitted, leading to cultural integration.

Finally, the two parties would live together. Presently, they were confined to a small circle, and the descendants did not understand the aboriginals. They only interacted with their own people on a daily basis. Furthermore, the aboriginals were the ones that destroyed their country. Thus, grudges would have built up after some time. If the two sides were to live together, they would see that the aboriginals besides being stronger physically, which was not a bad trait, also had honest characters. This would naturally reduce the prejudices of both parties.

After all, a majority of the commoners were simple and honest. It was the same everywhere.

Actually, the most common type of people was the ambitious type. They refused to accept the status quo and did not see any future in getting promoted. Naturally, they had all sorts of fanciful ideas. If you were to give them an official post and let them get into imperial court, they would suppress those who were disloyal to them in order to keep their post.

Taking it step by step, this was how education in patriotism would be delivered. It was a differentiation and suppression strategy which had been used on Earth over and over again.

The empress listened quietly to Ren Baqian. After finishing his speech, she finally spoke after a long silence, “Carry on with the story.”

Ren Baqian could not read minds and did not know what the empress was thinking about. He guessed that she was pondering over the feasibility of his plan.

Ren Baqian felt that if Dayao wanted to embark on his plan, the feasibility of it was viable. After all, it was already proven on Earth.

It just needed to be adjusted to cater to the conditions in Dayao.

If this approach did not succeed, Ren Baqian had a more ruthless method, but he did not want to create a gang of multi-level marketing members.

He imagined a bunch of aboriginals raising their hands in their small dark houses and fanatically chanting, “Work Hard! Strive! Future!” Then multi-level marketing methods would be used to indoctrinate them. However, if their words could not convince others, they might resort to force to brainwash them. Such a scenario gave him the shivers.

He felt like a lackey in a movie taking orders from his boss and coming up with weird ideas.

This was especially true with respect to the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation.

However, it would also benefit them, or at least they will do less petty actions in private. This was to prevent the person in front of him from shouting out “execute” whenever in a bad mood. At that time heads would really roll.

Ren Baqian continued talking about the fox demon transforming into Concubine Daji and getting into the palace. The empress was inattentive, but Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were enthralled by the exciting story.

The Empress only paid attention to the story when he talked about Yun Zhongzi leaving the mountain to enter civilization. This type of deities and ghost fairy tales was very appealing to her.

The sentence “The ruler treats the statesman like a brother, and then the statesmen will treat the king like a bosom friend. If the ruler treats the statesmen like dirt, then the statesmen will treat the king like an enemy” made some impressions on the empress.

“There is some justification in these words from your country.” The empress nodded her head in agreement.

“Justification is universal, it is the same everywhere,” Ren Baqian stated.

“That is not necessarily so.” The empress sneered and Ren Baqian, and he wondered whether he had said something wrong.

When Ren Baqian was talking about Fei Zhong’s plot to overthrow Queen Jiang, someone came in to inform the empress that it was time for dinner. The session then ended.

“That’s all for today, go back and prepare a bit. Don’t dress like this again tomorrow,” The empress said as she stood up.

“Yes.” Ren Baqian decided to find someone to alter his clothes to better fit him and then quickly wash it.

“Your Majesty!” Ren Baqian quickly called out as the empress got ready to leave.

“Is there anything else?” The empress turned sideways to look at him.

“Your humble subject would like to ask, what is the job of this official position?” Ren Baqian bashfully asked.

“Just continue with what you are doing now.” The empress took along Qing Yuan and Hong Luan, and the musician was packing his instruments to leave as well.

Ren Baqian laughed bitterly after the empress had left. It looked like he was really taken for a storyteller.

It might be better this way as his understanding of Dayao wasn’t that deep. If Ren Baqian was relegated to do other stuff, he might not be able to follow orders as well. This was not Earth. If things didn’t work out there, he might be scolded, or they would penalize his wages.

Ren Baqian went back the way he remembered when coming in and only managed to find his way out of the palace when he was near Qingxin Palace Hall.

He took off his clothes upon reaching home and went to find someone to alter it.

Ren Baqian lay on the bed and immediately felt somewhat exhausted. He was mostly wondering about the reactions of the empress and speculating on what she was thinking.

The empress seemed to be frustrated with the remnant citizens of Hao Nation and would have massacred them earlier if the previous emperor had not given an order to protect them.

He was not sure whether his words would influence her and cause her to rethink and change their current plan.

Upon reflection, he felt that he was doing something that was entirely out of his scope.

Ren Baqian wasn’t sure what would happen to him. He had just landed a small post as a Storyteller in Qingxin Palace Hall, and yet here he was worrying about the life and death of twenty million people.

It would be better to leave these sorts of problems to the empress and her ministers.

It was best to first learn how to write their words, followed by reading some books when free, and better understand the situation over in this world.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory classifies people’s need from low to high: physical, security, social respect, and self-actualization.

He was still at the stage of meeting his security needs, why would he need to even consider others?