The Empress’s Gigolo

“Check all the equipment again.” Ren Baqian patrolled around a factory that was located outside and to the west of the city. There were several warehouses beside the factory that had a lot of coal and charcoal piled up.

On the other side, there was a row of steel machinery.

At present, hundreds of workers were busy in the factory and most of the third-year students were here to help check things.

As time passed, commands started to be passed down.

“Ignite!”

“Pull the lever!”

When the last command sounded, everyone was nervous.

This was Lan City’s power plant.

After two months of preparation, this was the final moment.

Without further ado, the lever to the electric switch was pulled. Then, all of the street lights in the courtyard lit up at almost the same time.

Outward from the power plant, lights spread far away toward Lan City like a drop of dye in clear water.

When the city lit up, there was a thunderous cheer in the power plant! Cheers filled with excitement!

They had finally succeeded.

Although it had been tested before, it was only a small-scale test outside the city. This was the first full-power operation that involved lighting up all of Lan City.

Looking at the distant city, it was brightly lit. Everyone felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in their hearts.

It was currently about half-past seven in the evening, the sky wasn’t completely dark yet, and there were still many people in the city who were on the streets. The commoners who had been busy the entire day had just finished their dinners and were moving on to their daily activities.

All of a sudden, the entire city lit up.

All of the dim areas were lit up. This included Beihong District, Zhulian District, Shuiboping District, Yingzuiyan District, Goujiazhai District, Wudaogou District, Baishi District, Shihu District, and Yiwulu District.

Many people didn’t know what was happening, so they rushed out of their houses, only to find that the top of the poles, which had been erected over the last two months, were now lit up.

The glass spheres were radiating light.

When Tong Zhenye heard his guard shouting, he walked out of the yard and saw the lamppost outside his residence radiating light. He was immediately happy. They had finally succeeded!

“Extinguish the lanterns at the door!” he shouted.

“Yes!”

With the lanterns in front of the residence extinguished, two streetlamps located about 40 steps away from each other were enough to illuminate the outside of the residence as well as a large area of the front yard.

“Good! Good! Good!” Tong Zhenye touched his beard and laughed.

“Is this what Tong Lan and the kids have been up to?” A middle-aged couple walked out with surprised looks on their faces.

“Exactly! Follow me to check it out!” Tong Zhenye laughed as he leaped up to a higher place. He looked into the distance and saw that everything within his field of view was illuminated by the light.

It looked as if the dazzling stars had been taken out of the sky and placed in the city.

People from the surrounding houses jumped up to look at the magnificent scenery of the night.

The high ground areas of the city were overpopulated.

All of the Yun Nation people walked out of their houses and were shocked to see the street lights that were lit up.

They had always been curious about what these poles were and had frequently heard that Black Bamboo Academy made them. Back then, everyone was still laughing. They didn’t expect these things to light up. How many of these poles were there in the entire city? How did Ren Baqian accomplish this?

How could this brightly lit city be the dusty imperial capital of the barbarians?

Most of the visitors from the Yun Nation had been trying to make connections and seek help, but none of them had included Ren Baqian in their plans. When nobody saw him at the morning court session, everyone thought that he had been excluded from the hall, even though he was the empress’s husband.

After all, he wasn’t an aboriginal.

However, when they witnessed this scene, many of them pondered whether they should visit Black Bamboo Academy. Even if they couldn’t rely on him as their backer, it would be good for them to understand how Ren Baqian had managed to achieve all of this.

Everyone started moving to the streets. Even the residents joined the crowd while looking surprised.

The city would have been dark by this time, but the lights were shining brightly.

A burst of cheering sounded in the crowd.

There were also people shouting other things like, “Climbing the lampposts is prohibited and offenders will get ten lashes of the whip. Jumping on top of the lampposts is prohibited and offenders will get ten lashes of the whip. Damaging the lampposts is prohibited…”

On this evening, the Public Order Bureau and the winged cavalry were deployed to announce the regulations that they had been forced to memorize.

At the corner of a street, a group of Jing Tribe people stood there and watched with their eyes filled with eagerness.

Suddenly, there was the sound of an erhu. A beautiful lady sat by the wall with a happy face and played a cheerful tune. This was her adaptation of a Jing Tribe song played on the erhu to bring out a different flavor.

The empress stood at the palace wall with her hands behind her back and looked down with a faint smile on her face.

This was a big deal.

It was a big deal for all of Dayao.

It was an achievement that even made an emperor felt accomplished.

“Your Majesty, it’s so beautiful!” Qing Yuan and Hong Luan stood behind the empress, looking extremely fascinated.

Xin Zhe stood in a shadowy area and looked at the lights in the distance. A thought ran through her mind, I have heard that this is called electricity? Once electricity is connected, light will be produced… Is that why Principal Ren’s body emits light as well? It’s no wonder that when he touched me, I felt an electric shock running through my body…”

Ren Baqian didn’t know that he had been presumed to be a human generator.

Witnessing the first time that they had successfully supplied power to the entire city, he was extremely excited. Although he had long been used to seeing lights back on Earth, it had been tough trying to do the same in this world!

He then hurried back to the palace, not knowing whether the empress had eaten.

Along the way, he enjoyed the scenery of the city. He finally squeezed through the crowds in the streets and arrived at the palace. He went to the empress’s quarters and saw a hotpot accompanied by a table full of meat and wine bottles.

“Your Majesty, we have succeeded. We have taken down all the stars in the sky. Have you seen it?” Ren Baqian laughed.

“I saw it just now!” The empress smiled.

“Give me a reward, Your Majesty?” Ren Baqian laughed mischievously as he moved toward her.

Seeing a bald man with this expression, she almost laughed out loud, but she held it in. However, she couldn’t conceal the smile on her face.

She allowed him to draw closer and kiss her on the lips.

This soft touch made Ren Baqian’s heart race.

The empress didn’t mind him kissing her occasionally these days. After all, their wedding was just a few days away.

However, it always made him feel as if he was kissing a rare jewel. No matter how many times he had done it, the rush of excitement never dipped.

Suddenly, Ren Baqian was pushed away violently by the empress.

The empress frowned and asked, “Did you not brush your teeth today?”

He pondered and analyzed carefully before realizing the problem.

Damn it! I forgot to brush my teeth today!

“How could that be? It might be because I had eaten the stinky eggs that they brought to the power plant today!” Ren Baqian looked as if he had been wronged.

“Stay further away from me! Or I’ll beat you!” The empress felt even more disgusted.

She forced him to move to the other end of the table.

She then glared at him for a bit before starting to eat…

“I have found a mister for your school,” the empress casually said during dinner.

“Oh?” Ren Baqian was slightly surprised. “Are you referring to a teacher, Your Majesty?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t looking for him, but he asked for it. His name is Lin Mengsheng, and he is the man who gathered all the warlords and convinced them to surrender back then. Do you remember him? I promised to reward him with a Rank 6 official position or 100,000 taels of silver, but he said that he wanted to be a teacher at the school and I agreed.”

“Oh, it’s him? Why does he want to teach at the school?” Ren Baqian was astonished. He then smiled and said, “In any case, it’s fine with me. I’m too busy to do it alone, so it’ll be good to have another teacher as well. However, he has to learn how to read and write!”

“Yeah, I’ll leave the arrangement to you.” The empress thought about it and, as a joke, told him about the piece of treasure that was meant to change the fate of a nation.

He laughed out loud as well.

If there truly was such a treasure, how had the human race been banished to such a desolate place?

Ren Baqian became serious shortly after and asked, “How was that person dealt with? He might have evil intentions. There are things like feng shui and luck on Earth as well. Luck can be gathered and can naturally be dissipated too.

“Killed him!” the empress replied.

Ren Baqian fell silent and smiled before replying, “Truly your style of doing things, Your Majesty.”

He then tried to imitate her voice and said, “Take him away and kill him!”

Pow.

The empress flicked her chopsticks and sent a large piece of beef crashing into his face.

The two chatted and laughed. After the dinner was over, she poured him a glass of wine and said, “This is to acknowledge your efforts in making Lan City no longer dark at night.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!” Ren Baqian smiled.

“Do you want any other rewards?” the empress asked again.

“Can I tell you again in a few days?” he asked as he smiled.

“No! You have to tell me now!” Looking at his expression, she subconsciously felt that she couldn’t agree to this.

Ren Baqian pouted. He originally thought that he could bring up his request on the night of their wedding, but unfortunately, she didn’t agree.

He pondered for a while and said, “When we go back to Earth, we still have to hold another wedding. As the customs on Earth and Dayao are different, there are some things that you have to be patient about!”

His hometown was pretty alright since they didn’t have any bad traditional customs. However, a wedding on Earth was still quite different from a wedding in this world. He didn’t want the empress to suddenly flip out when the time came.

Even the simplest act of serving tea and changing the way she addressed his parents would be a problem.

“Do you think I’m that unreasonable? However, since you mentioned it, I shall promise you this!” The empress smiled. Wasn’t it just etiquette? No big deal!