The Empress’s Gigolo

“Your Majesty, you are expecting a child now. Drinking has little effect on you, but it will affect the child.” Ren Baqian quickly returned to the palace, only to see that the empress was drinking again.

“Okay!” she replied faintly, but she showed no intention of putting down the wine glass.

He was angry since the child was his as well.

Ren Baqian went forward.

He took action, snatching the glass from the empress.

He was done for.

“Ouch! Your Majesty, that hurts!” Ren Baqian’s face twitched. “Your Majesty, when did you start pulling on people’s ears?”

“Humph!” the empress sneered.

“I want to challenge you to a duel.” He was furious.

“Bring it on!” She rolled her eyes and sneered again.

Her voice was full of encouragement!

“Wait until my waist has recovered!” Ren Baqian replied.

“Humph!”

“Duel!” Ren Baqian was angry again. This was something that a man couldn’t tolerate.

Even if he had to put everything at stake, he would fight it out with the empress!

“Humph! That’s enough!” She stretched her body and said faintly, “Seeing that you have been pretty busy lately, I’ll let you off!”

Ren Baqian groaned. He truly had been rather busy lately. The shortest stint would take three days, while the longest one took five days. It was really time consuming.

Furthermore, his waist hurt…

“Plus, I’m also afraid that your waist will really break…” The empress provoked him slightly.

“Duel!” His face turned black.

“Bring it on!” She wriggled her nose and looked at Ren Baqian as she lay on the sofa, gesturing for him to come over with her finger.

“Forget it! I’m really busy these days! The bookstore and the department store will be opening for business tomorrow!” He decided to give in to her and let her be…

“Humph!” The empress winced.

However, she also knew that Ren Baqian had been busy with various things during the past two months and had been on the ground every day. She subsequently decided to let him off.

The next day, two new shops opened next to the royal spice shop and the royal glassware shop.

One of them was the royal department store. It sold many types of goods, but it still felt pretty empty. Many of the same goods were being displayed on the shelves.

The goods it sold included toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, clocks, needles, threads, perfumes, sunglasses, Glauber’s salt, and flour. This flour was a kind of multigrain flour that was produced in Tianjing Basin. Even though it could be used for eating, it was more widely used together with Glauber’s salt to remove hair and fur.

The toothbrushes were made from beast hair, whereas the toothpaste consisted of calcium carbonate and glycerin, which was a byproduct of soap.

The other items, such as toilet paper, clocks, and needles, seemed commonplace in the modern world, but were very valuable in this world.

The price of iron needles was even similar to that of silver at the same weight. However, their prices were more than half as cheap as products from the Yun Nation and Great Xia.

It was the same for toilet paper as well. Even though the price was already very low, they were still considered very luxurious to the ordinary people here.

Although Ren Baqian had positioned the department store as a convenience store, only the officials could afford to buy the items.

Next to the department store was the royal bookstore. Compared to the department store, which was crowded with people, the large bookstore only had a few customers inside.

When Lin Mengsheng walked into the bookstore, he glanced around him and realized it looked a little bit like the library in the school. One part of the store was filled with shelves, and the other part had chairs and tables where people could sit down and read.

Next to the tables and chairs were French windows made of glass. Bright sunlight poured in from the outside. It would certainly feel pretty good to be sitting by the window and reading a book.

The layout of this store was a novelty to him.

The shop assistant was from the Jing Tribe. He felt slightly at a loss when he saw Lin Mengsheng. Although he had already been trained for a few days, things like books were precious items that were out of reach for most people. Those who would come and buy books to read had a different status.

Even though Lin Mensheng was from the Yun Nation, there were very few of his people in Lan City, and the shop assistant immediately thought of the teacher from Black Bamboo Academy. This was because he had a neighbor who was a student there and had frequently heard about it from him.

Even though his status wasn’t high, he always revered knowledgeable people. This was a common problem for ordinary people in this era.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m just looking around.” Lin Mengsheng seemed to notice that the shop assistant felt a little ill at ease and smiled at him.

He was truly very warm and approachable, and his smile alone made the other party feel more relaxed.

“Can these tables and chairs be used for reading here?” Lin Mengsheng asked as he pointed at the furniture beside the window. There were bookstores in the Yun Nation, but none like this.

Furthermore, the owner of any bookstore wouldn’t be welcoming to those who read, but didn’t buy.

“Yes, as long as you don’t dirty or damage the book, all guests can sit here and read,” the shop assistant replied nervously. “If the sun is too bright, a bamboo curtain can be pulled down to block it.”

Lin Mengsheng nodded before wandering in front of the shelves.

[Bilingual Comparison Dictionary], [Bilingual Three Character Classic], [Bilingual Elementary Mathematics], [Bilingual Xia Court Calculus], [Three Year Series], [Learning Simplified Characters Through Pictures], [Bilingual Witch Hazel]…

There were probably a few dozen books on the shelves. Some of them were bilingual books and some of them weren’t labeled. All of them were written in the simplified Chinese characters that he had learned.

Lin Mengsheng randomly took out a copy of the [Six Secrets] and realized that the opening of the book introduced a sect called the [Six Gates]. Most of the contents of the book were about herbs and insects. At the end, there were also some methods of rearing and controlling.

He was slightly surprised because he didn’t expect such books to appear in the bookstore.

He took the [Six Secrets] and sat down on a bench to read. After some time, he closed the book and slowly pondered.

Books weren’t cheap in the Yun Nation.

Yet, one could simply browse through without buying them here.

This bookstore also had quite a lot of books. The ones that appealed to him the most were those basic bilingual books. He believed that Ren Baqian felt the same as well.

It could be seen from these simple books, which taught people how to learn Chinese characters, and from the existence of these tables and chairs in the store that Ren Baqian’s objective was to make these books accessible for everyone to learn.

Regardless of whether it was a noble official, a merchant hawker, or someone from the mountains, his goal was to widen their knowledge!

Studying had always been something that only scholars would do, and the commoners were only expected to follow orders. If commoners had their own opinions, they would create a lot of trouble. Many people thought this way.

However, Ren Baqian wanted to break out of this.

If all the commoners were educated and had their own ideas, would that be a good or bad thing?

…

Ren Baqian looked at the statistics report in his hands and rubbed his forehead.

A few days after the department store opened, the fastest-selling products were sunglasses and toothpaste.

It was easy to understand why sunglasses were such a big hit. After all, every minister had a pair of them and wore them around every day. The others had been envying them for a long time.

However, toothpaste was selling even faster than sunglasses… The feedback was that it tasted good!

Were those people eating toothpaste as a snack?

Ren Baqian put down that report, picked up another one, and began to frown.

Insufficient recruitment of manpower!

He had built quite a number of factories over the last two months and had recruited many workers.

However, Lan City had a small population and few idle people. The latest recruitment notice had already been sent out three days ago, yet only six people had been recruited.

It seemed that it was about time for Ren Baqian to move more people over from other cities.