The Empress’s Gigolo

The jade egg that Hong Wu gifted the empress last year was one of the rare treasures of the world. The “100 Beauties” painting was also a pretty good gift, and naturally, so was the mirror that Ren Baqian had gifted. There was no telling if the empress would receive such gifts like she had last year.

Many people looked toward Hong Wu first. Following the usual practice, Hong Wu would present the first gift.

Some looked at Ren Baqian as well. He had more weird stuff, and they weren’t sure what he would bring out.

“Hong Wu, General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation, presents 100 armor plates and 2,000 blades!”

His current gifts weren’t as precious as the previous year’s, but they weren’t irreverent either. 100 armor plates were worth a great sum, and 2,000 blades were as well. This gift was deserving of Hong Wu’s status.

The gift that Hong Wu presented last year had shocked everyone, which made it inevitable for everyone to have such expectations of him. However, Hong Wu had been stationed at the border for the entire year with all his focus placed on Great Xia. How would he still have the energy to go search for rare treasures for the empress?

“Shi Qing, the Great Elder, presents three pieces of the Meng beast’s skin and two stalks of Qingyang Flowers!”

“She Kouhai, the Junior Elder, presents 150 grams of cloud crystal!”

Everyone turned their heads. These 150 grams of cloud crystal were extremely expensive. No one had expected She Kouhai’s gift this year to be so much more valuable than Hong Wu’s or Shi Qing’s.

However, She Kouhai was expressionless, so nobody could make out what he was thinking from his face.

Next were the gifts from the generals of the six protectorates such as Xi Wanya, Li Qianqiu, etc. Their gifts were basically different sorts of rare treasures that were of similar value to Shi Qing’s gift.

For all the gifts that were presented, those in huge quantities would immediately be sent to the warehouse, keeping just a few pieces displayed in the hall. The rare treasures were also specially transported to the warehouse after being displayed.

“Ren Baqian, Principal of Black Bamboo Academy, presents the [Painting of the Delicate Beauty].” Following that voice, two men appeared in front of the hall holding a long pole with a six meter tall and three-meter wide painting hanging from it.

The painting depicted a lady dressed in red that stood on a peak. She had both hands behind her back and faintly overlooked everything that was below. Everyone could tell the cold and pressing vigor of the lady in the painting.

Naturally, that lady was the empress. The delicate beauty referred to her as well and was pretty deserving.

However, what surprised everyone the most was that the painting of the empress was so lifelike that one completely couldn’t tell that it was actually painted. People always described things as vivid and lifelike, but now that they had seen this painting, they truly knew what that description meant.

This absolutely wasn’t painted, but was printed instead.

Everyone gasped in surprise, not knowing how Ren Baqian had actually done this.

The empress could tell with one look that this was a photograph… and this made her a little disappointed. She had originally wanted to see if Ren Baqian could give her something that she would like better—never had she expected her gift to merely be a blown-up photograph.

The angle of the photo was taken very nicely, and she looked very beautiful in it. However, as much as he could deceive the others with it, she had seen too many of these on Earth. It was to the extent that she even knew how to use a mobile phone to snap pictures on her own.

However, considering that Ren Baqian had been busy preparing for the bet with the Zhang family, oversaw the decoration of the palace, and was also dealing with many other things, the empress decided to let the matter rest.

“Your Majesty, this painting isn’t as simple as it looks.” Ren Baqian laughed as he stood up.

“Oh?” The empress’s eyes glowed. Everyone else began to closely examine the painting with great interest, trying to figure out what mystery laid within it.

Ren Baqian waved his hands toward the outside, signalling them to bring the painting in.

The six-meter tall picture frame was even taller than the doors of the hall. They had to lift up the bottom half of it to be able to bring it through the door.

As the distance grew closer, everyone started to realize that there were fine lines on the painting that formed lattices. This was a painting formed by putting together those lattices.

When the men carrying the painting walked past the officials, everyone started gasping in surprise again after seeing the back of the picture frame, and this piqued the curiosity of those in front. What did they actually see?

Ren Baqian had the two men hold the painting about four meters in front of the empress and then slowly had them turn it around. Even the empress looked amazed when she saw the back of it. Her eyes looked like a lake when wind breezed through, glistening with crystalline brilliance.

The back of the painting was filled with palm-sized photographs of the empress. They were all photos of her, with every frown and smile captured within the countless palm-sized photos.

Ren Baqian chuckled. The back of the painting was put together with 1,200 photographs of the empress, whereas the front was a jigsaw puzzle of her portrait composed of 1,200 pieces. Behind every photograph was a piece of the puzzle.

The important thing to note was that all 1,200 photos were arranged in chronological order. Almost the entire year’s worth of the empress’s transformation was catalogued within. Even a blind person would be able to tell that toward the bottom, the empress’s expressions grew more lukewarm and that cold demeanor of hers had decreased.

Even a blind person would be able to perceive these changes.

In the eyes of the others, this painting could already be considered to be worth a ton.

Even though the empress knew that these were photographs, she felt that Ren Baqian had indeed put in effort. Almost her entire year had been recorded in those pictures as if this was actually the past year of her life.

This feeling was amazing.

“Besides that, this painting still conceals a secret,” Ren Baqian added.

Everyone got curious after hearing that. The effort put into this painting had already been extremely elaborate, and they weren’t sure what else it was still hiding.

“I have hidden everything I have learned in this painting. In order to let everyone be able to see Your Majesty’s beauty, I will split this painting into 1,200 pieces in the future and scatter them throughout the entire country of Dayao and maybe even the Yun Nation. If someone manages to collect all 1,200 of these, they will then discover the place where I have hidden everything that I have learned in my entire life and obtain that knowledge!”

The empress squinted her eyes toward the end of Ren Baqian’s speech, and she felt stuck between crying and laughing. That bit of emotional feeling she had felt from before had entirely disappeared.

Have you hidden a set of math, physics, and chemistry textbooks somewhere for the entire world to look for?

First, let’s not talk about the possibility of someone being capable of collecting all 1,200 photos. If indeed someone actually managed to do this and discovered the textbooks that Ren Baqian had hidden, she reckoned that this person would probably have the intention of killing Ren Baqian.

However, except for the empress, everyone else felt that it was rather interesting.

Even though Ren Baqian wasn’t good at martial arts, everyone could see what he was capable of in other aspects, and they acknowledged his ability.

If someone were to really learn all of Ren Baqian’s knowledge, it might be possible for that person to be able to make a career out of it!

It would then be a pity for this exceptionally elaborate piece of art.

“I’ve also prepared a few other things that I believe Your Majesty will like. After the singing performance, Your Majesty and all the distinguished guests are welcome to join me to see what I’ve prepared.”

No one was in the mood for the rest of the scheduled celebration anymore. All of them wanted to see what else Ren Baqian had prepared.

Everyone was left with no choice but to admit that Ren Baqian’s efforts were indeed ingenious. At least for the painting, nobody had thought that it was even possible for it to be put together that way.

After the singing performance had ended, everyone followed Ren Baqian to an open space behind Xingqing Palace Hall, only to see all sorts of things spread over the ground.

At first sight, the empress knew what Ren Baqian had prepared.

“Your Majesty! Please do the honors and light it up.” Ren Baqian took a torch from a bodyguard and handed it to Her Majesty while pointing to a cord on the ground.

The empress lit the fuse, and the flame rapidly moved across the ground before splitting toward dozens of fireworks.

Bang! The fireworks shot into the air, blossoming into colorful rays of light in the sky.

All of Lan City was shaken by the fireworks. Many of the people were startled when the explosions in the sky blossomed into colorful flowers.

“Look, they are flowers!:

“What beautiful flowers!”

“Above the palace!”

One after another, people started to walk out of their houses and looked at the first-ever fireworks that decorated Dayao’s sky. Over and over, the people’s faces were lit up and darkened by the light of the fireworks.

Everyone exclaimed in admiration of these beautiful fireworks!

Balls of light rocketed into the air from the palace before blossoming in the sky!

Besides those fireworks that soared into the sky, there were many lanterns on display in the palace as well. They looked magnificent, and everyone stared in awe.

Qing Yuan and Hong Luan stood behind the empress with tearful eyes, watching the fireworks in the sky and the lanterns in the court without even blinking.

The empress was totally immersed in the fireworks display as well.

Even though she was the noble empress, this display of fireworks had completed captured her heart.