The Empress’s Gigolo

These days, besides going back to the palace at night, Ren Baqian spent most of his time in the courtyard… in a daze…

He was staring blankly into space most of the time since he was only giving instructions on how to make a distiller, which wasn’t a complicated process.

After months of hectic activities in Tianjing Basin, he was really enjoying his time idling these days.

Due to his special status, Ren Baqian didn’t mix much with other court officials, so he wasn’t aware of the discussions about him outside the courtyard.

The main points of discussion were related to the guards from the Rearguard Commandery in Tianjing Basin that he had founded and to the presence of the Zhang family.

Although the guards from the Rearguard Commandery weren’t currently an authorized force, they would become an official department in Dayao once the empress gave her approval.

The Zhang family, regardless of loss or victory, would serve Dayao in the future. If they won, they would take the opportunity to obtain official positions.

Ren Baqian was used to the idea of multinational states on Earth and letting capable people solve problems. However, what appeared to be mundane problems to him weren’t considered small problems to many people.

This was because in the past decades, no one from another race had entered the aboriginal imperial court as an official.

Ren Baqian was considered an exception because of his special status.

Following their observations and evaluations of his projects and contributions, they were starting to accept his status as the future husband of the empress.

However, the addition of a force that consisted entirely of the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation plus the addition of the Zhang family made many people in the imperial court apprehensive.

The empress had already given her approval for these two issues, and given her temperament, nobody could stop her.

This kind of talk couldn’t be suppressed; it was just that it didn’t reach the ears of Ren Baqian.

The empress only responded with a smile, put it aside, and ignored such news when she heard it. She knew and had seen much more than the others at court. The progress shown in Tianjing Basin so far had given her more confidence in Ren Baqian. As for whether the results would be as Ren Baqian had envisaged, only time would tell.

Uneventfully, five days went by.

After these five days, a neatly dressed Zhang Junzheng stood at the open doors of the east courtyard and looked at the doors of the west courtyard that had been opened much earlier. Ren Baqian was seen dozing in a rocking chair in front of the doors.

“Sir Ren, thank you for waiting,” Zhang Junzheng said with a laugh. He was wondering whether Ren Baqian had finished his work or had given up due to failure.

From his experience, the latter was more likely, but he was still concerned and more anxious than before. After all, this concerned the future of half the members of the Zhang family. Its impact was of great importance, and he couldn’t avoid being anxious.

Although he was neatly dressed and looked in high spirits, his bloodshot eyes said it all.

“Have you finished your work?” Ren Baqian raised his head to look at Zhang Junzheng and his nephews as well as at the well-covered carriages behind the door.

“I will get someone to inform the empress to come and witness this,” Ren Baqian said with a laugh. As he gave the order, a guard quickly departed.

“I apologize for troubling Sir Ren.” Zhang Junzheng cupped his hands. Then, he sat down and closed his eyes in repose.

After two hours, everyone heard the sound of galloping horses outside the courtyard that announced the arrival of many people.

Ren Baqian composed himself and went out to receive the empress.

Outside the entrance was a column of troops. Besides the guards and the imperial chariot, there were many court officials like Shi Qing, Tong Zhenye, and Tu Wan who were following behind. Each of them wore sunglasses and walked about like blind bears.

The aboriginal males were sturdy, whereas the females were charming. Tu Wan and a few of the female officials had nice figures and were outstanding.

“I am honored to meet Your Majesty,” Ren Baqian paid his respects to the empress and then smiled at the officials. While glancing around, he saw Li Qianqiu, Xi Wanya, and Hong Wu. It seemed like they were here to celebrate the empress’s birthday.

Li Qianqiu and Xi Wanya nodded their heads at Ren Baqian as a form of greeting.

Hong Wu was angry at him. When Ren Baqian intentionally kissed the empress below the city gate, Hong Wu was resentful for half a year. Now, he was meeting Ren Baqian again.

If looks could kill, Ren Baqian would have suffered a thousand cuts.

“There happened to be a meeting, so I asked them to come along to take a look,” the empress said casually.

Ren Baqian was indifferent because he often saw them, but Zhang Junzheng was excited and felt that the bigger the occasion was, the better.

Moreover, the empress had brought along so many senior officials, which made him feel that the empress regarded this matter as important.

“Both of you, get ready. Let’s begin.” The empress, dressed in red, came out of the carriage and strolled regally forward.

When everybody was in position, Ren Baqian asked with a smile, “What’s the first item for the competition?”

“Let’s start with the dye,” Zhang Junzheng said. He knew in his heart that he would lose the distilled liquor competition and would be belittled if he lost in the first round. So, he chose dyeing cloth as the first competition event.

“So be it.” Ren Baqian laughed and instructed some people to take out the dyed fabrics.

The fabrics from the Zhang family were taken out first. There were seven rolls of silk in pure colors; red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and purple. Due to the rush, the colors were rather light and didn’t look right at first glance.

Zhang Junzheng quickly explained, “Dyeing takes a long time and five days isn’t enough, so the dyeing is inadequate. Therefore, this commoner will compete with Sir Ren on how easily the colors fade.”

“Oh, I’m hearing this for the first time. Where are yours?” the empress commented and then asked Ren Baqian.

Ren Baqian heard the footsteps in the courtyard and replied with a smile, “They will be here momentarily.”

Three guards were seen holding numerous rolls of fabrics. Each guard was holding seven rolls while each roll had a different color, including red, orange, yellow, turquoise, green, blue, and purple. Furthermore, the colors carried by each guard had a different shade.

Surprisingly, each color came in three hues.

In addition, the colors were dazzling, bright, and deeper than those sold on the streets. As long as one wasn’t blind, the disparity was easily discernible.

The eyes of Tu Wan and a few of the female officials lit up when they saw these fabrics.

Even those officials who weren’t interested in the competition laughed when they saw the difference between the seven rolls of silks from Zhang Junzheng and the 21 rolls of cotton from Ren Baqian.

It would have been better if Zhang Junzheng had not made his earlier statements as the comparison between the dyed fabrics from each party made his statement laughable.

Didn’t he say that five days wasn’t enough? Not only was the dyed fabric produced by Principal Ren better than those on the market, they came in three different hues each. What could he say?

Zhang Junzheng was astonished by the fabrics displayed by Ren Baqian, and he expressed incredulity.

How did the other party do this in five day? How was the color so vibrant? In five days, how many times did they dye the cloth to get this result?

What kind of dye did they use?

Then, he discovered the problem; he had never seen the material of this type of cloth before.

“Sir Ren, can I feel the cloth?” Zhang Junzheng cupped his hands and asked.

“Of course.”

Zhang Junzheng rubbed the cloth with his fingers and confirmed that the material was unfamiliar to him.

It looked like the problem was related to the material. Was it possible that this material was easy to dye?

“Sir Ren, thank you very much. If we were competing on color, I would lose this round, but this time we are competing on the degree that the color fades,” Zhang Junzheng said. Although the Zhang family would have lost based on the vibrancy of the color, he regretted not stating beforehand that both sides should use the same cloth material.

However, the most important thing was the degree of fading after washing, which was the theme of the competition.

“Of course.”

When two pieces of cloth, each about the same size, were immersed in hot water, one tub of water instantly turned red.

The other tub of water only had a slight change in color.

Zhang Junzheng’s face also became ghastly when the tub of water that turned red came from the cloth dyed by the Zhang family.

There was no need to take out the two pieces of cloth and compare them because he knew that the Zhang family had lost the first round of the competition.

The Zhang family had always been the best in the cloth dyeing business, but lost to this guy before them. They lost not only in terms of color vibrancy, but also in how much the color would fade.

This hit Zhang Junzheng harder than just losing the first round.

With a loss expected in the distilled liquor part of the competition, the Zhang family would lose two rounds, which meant that they were inferior in these two processes. Furthermore, these two items were selected by him, and the other party competed without knowing in advance.

The other party had not had much of a chance to cheat. Furthermore, finding people in Dayao who were better than the Zhang family in making these two items was impossible, especially not in such a short amount of time.

Was it possible for a young man in this world to be proficient in all professions and trades? Was such knowledge inherent ever since they were born?