The Empress’s Gigolo

“I am foreign to these firearms. All I need is a slightly powerful handgun with a recoil that is not too strong. Also, its accuracy needs to be above average standard.”

“Any requirements for the range?” That man asked.

“I will be playing with it in the woods and reckon that a distance of tens of meters would be sufficient,” Ren Baqian elaborated. He intentionally used the word “play”.

That man got up, took a black handgun from the shelf and placed it on the table. “This is the QSZ-92-5.8. It should be able to fulfill your requirements. A few days ago, someone actually included this handgun in the list of top ten guns. Although it is a rumor, this handgun is indeed pretty good. Moreover, it is cheap. The only shortcoming is that the cartridge might jam at times.”

[QSZ-92-5.8, made in China semi-automatic pistol designed by Norinco, using 5.8 mm caliber bullets]

“Apart from this model, are there any others?” Ren Baqian felt a little terrified upon hearing that the cartridge might get jammed. If by any chance he needed help and the cartridge suddenly jammed, he would not have the chance to cry anymore even if he wanted to.

“CZ83 from the Czech Republic. It’s safe and reliable. There’s the 9mm as well as the 7.62mm variation.” That man picked up another gun and placed it on the table.

[CZ83 – compact semi-automatic pistol made for the Czechoslovakian military, the CZ83 is a civilian export version of the original CZ82.7.62mm or 9mm caliber bullets can be used.]

“What’s the difference between the two?” Ren Baqian asked.

“The 9mm will be slightly more powerful, but its range will be shorter.”

Ren Baqian fiddled with the CZ83. Every man would be interested in two things; cars and guns. Naturally, Ren Baqian wasn’t an exception. In the past, he would have never expected that he would actually get the opportunity to possess a handgun of his own.

“This handgun will do, the 9mm one. Will the recoil of this handgun be too strong?” Ren Baqian asked immediately. In any case, he wasn’t familiar with this stuff. As long as it was powerful, the recoil wasn’t too strong, and was overall safe and reliable, it would be acceptable. Furthermore, he felt comfortable when he held the handgun.

“For a man, these are all nitty gritty details.” That man laughed.

Soon after, Ren Baqian displayed a shooting pose and then slapped his wrist upwards. “It should roughly be this amount of strength.”

Following which, Ren Baqian made a few other purchases which included a military crossbow, bullets, reserve magazines, arrows, a silencer, three hand grenades, and also a 20 centimeter long military knife.

Ren Baqian merely asked about what ran through his mind. He didn’t expect that they actually sold grenades and bulletproof vests over here. In particular, grenades as they could not be bought as one pleased.

“Those sons of rich men always like new and fresh items. If nobody introduced you, you wouldn’t be here either.” That man’s unenthusiastic words made Ren Baqian understand that the customers of this place were all those kind of people. Originally, he still thought that it would be similar to television series whereby the main customers were people from the underworld. To his surprise, the customers were mainly the rich.

However, after thinking about it, it was actually better to sell these firearms to the rich than the underworld people. Firstly, they would be less likely to commit a crime. They also had a lot of money and were a safer bunch of people to sell to. The rich were only having fun and were afraid of breaking the law. Often, they were able to cover their own tracks as well.

Ren Baqian spent a sum of money and brought the items back to his car. While walking towards his car, he felt very scared and edgy, for fear that he would run into a traffic police officer that was checking for drunk drivers.

In the past, he never had to worry about running into the traffic police. But now, he had a load of prohibited items inside his car. If Ren Baqian was caught, then, the word disastrous would not even be sufficient to describe his situation.

Ren Baqian couldn’t even imagine what the consequences would be if he travelled to and fro from the other world while being locked up in the detention center. He was very certain that would not have a good ending—very certain about it.

Fortunately, such a melodramatic thing did not happen.

Ren Baqian successfully brought all the firearms back to his apartment. Afterwards, he headed to the hospital to retrieve anesthetic which could be used with his military crossbow.

The following two days, he was fully immersed in practicing how to shoot at the shooting range.

…..

While Ren Baqian was practicing his shooting in China, the empress was sitting in the palace, drinking a glass of wine. Soon after, the Seventh Prince was brought in to meet her.

“It’s my pleasure to meet the empress of Dayao.” The Seventh Prince cupped one of his fists in the other hand. The other party was Dayao’s empress and he was Great Xia’s prince. As such, his etiquette towards her naturally wasn’t too excessive.

Since the Seventh Prince’s entrance, her gaze was fixed on his face.

“Why, does the empress of Dayao find me familiar?” The Seventh Prince smiled.

The empress used her fingers to tap on the wooden couch and did not speak. But, she somewhat straightened her body a little.

“You are not him, the way you speak is different,” the empress took a sip of wine and replied.

“I am the Seventh Prince of Great Xia.” The Seventh Prince made his intention clear.

“Anyone, please bring the seat of honor for the guest,” the empress’s cold voice sounded, and immediately, someone placed a seat right in the middle of the palace. The Seventh Prince did not stand on ceremony and sat on the seat.

“What’s your agenda in wanting to meet me?”

“I would like to exchange something with Dayao’s empress. Using seven dragon scales in exchange for a bottle of blood.” The Seventh Prince grinned. This was his objective in coming to Dayao. As for the empress’s birthday celebration, he absolutely did not care about it. If it wasn’t because of the huge importance of the items he would like to exchange, he wouldn’t even head to this wilderness.

Regardless of whether it was dragon scales or that bottle of blood, the value was extremely costly as far as he was concerned.

The empress did not even ponder the slightest bit and replied the Seventh Prince, “Not enough.”

Even though the dragon scales were of considerably high value and the empress would be able to use them, it was not sufficient for her to exchange them for a bottle of blood. The empress knew that the blood he wanted was the kirin’s pure blood.

As the kirin’s blood wasn’t completely pure, the kirin would lose a lot of vital energy just by extracting a bottle worth of pure blood from it. It was also unknown how long would it take for the kirin to recover from this.

“These dragon scales are not the from the same dragon at Great Xia’s palace. They were found in the surroundings at the same time that dragon was discovered. The aura of the real dragons which have become extinct, are actually contained in these dragon scales.”

“Now, you are the one who’s begging me for a favor.” The empress was rather tempted, but she still did not relent.

Although the dragon scales were useful, it was not something that the empress absolutely required. It was more than enough to prove the importance of the bottle of blood to the other party because a prince like him travelled more than a thousand miles away to Dayao for it.

The Seventh Prince had already predicted that such a scene would happen, and he was not all surprised. He then nodded his head and offered, “I’ll throw in an additional drop of dried-up dragon blood that was discovered at the same time as the dragon scales.”

Only then did the empress nod.

If Ren Baqian overheard the transaction between the two of them, he would probably get a shock. In addition, he would once again re-evaluate how he felt about this world.

Previously when he had just arrived in this world, he managed to see a kirin. But, he never had the chance to see it again. This issue was being buried at the bottom of his heart. To his surprise, there were actually dragons in Great Xia. This proved that this world was much more profound than what he had always believed it to be.

“There’s someone that I want as well,” the Seventh Prince spoke again.

The empress knitted her brows.

“Not an aboriginal. It is someone whom is not at all important to you,” The Seventh Prince added.

The empress recalled the face of that person who was identical to the Seventh Prince and laughed out loud suddenly. “Actually, I like your face a lot. I feel good every time I see it. How about this, you leave your head here with me, and then you take him away?”

The Seventh Prince was slightly stunned. It had never crossed his mind that the person was actually so important in the eyes of the Dayao’s empress. He thought that a foreigner was insignificant when compared to the person standing right in front of her. That was actually a miscalculation on his part.

“Since the empress of Dayao wishes to keep him, I’ll forget about it. The deal still stands,” The Seventh Prince replied with a fresh smile on his face.

However, the empress’s reply made him momentarily unable to move.

“No, I have changed my mind. I detest those who pry into my things. On the account that you are the prince of Great Xia, get lost!” the empress said as she waved her big sleeves while lying on the couch. The Seventh Prince instantly sensed a bout of terrifying aura hitting him on his face.

…..

After quite some time, the Seventh Prince returned to the residence arranged by Dayao. His brows were tensed, and he felt a mixture of anger and confusion.

This deal had originally been settled.

But in the end, it was messed up as a result of me trying to demand for Ren Baqian.

Why did this happen? No matter how he tried to work it out, he could not understand why the empress made such a decision.

That was actually the scales and a drop of dried-up blood of an already extinct real dragon.

As far as this was concerned, it should be the most valuable treasure to the Dayao empress.

“Your Highness, did you not settle your business?” the beautiful lady by the name of Xiu Wu asked softly as she approached him.

The Seventh Prince ignored her and directly went into the house. His entire head was filled with why, and only why, did the empress make such a decision.