The Empress’s Gigolo

“I heard that you have something that is made out of galvanized iron sheet, can speak, and looks like a person. Where’s it? Let me have a look,” asked Tong Zhenye in a low voice after staying behind. He wasn’t interested in the steam engine, but he was very interested in the robot because Tong Lan had raved about it very often.

“That’s the academy’s teacher named Gundam.” Ren Baqian’s face turned black. In any case, the steam engine made by his students was of great significance. However, other people couldn’t see its value, and he felt like they didn’t give him any respect. In particular, he couldn’t stand either of the two old chaps, Tong Zhenye or Qin Chuan.

“Where is it? Even if it’s a teacher, I would like to take a look.” Tong Zhenye laughed mischievously.

“He’s currently in seclusion and doesn’t want to meet anyone,” Ren Baqian rejected him decisively.

“Just let me have a look. Apart from the steam engine just now, you have a lot of good items.”

Upon thinking of what Tong Lan had mentioned to him, he had the urge to find out more. However, his last sentence made Ren Baqian’s expression turn even darker.

“I have said that he doesn’t want to meet anyone. Come at another time.” Ren Baqian snorted and chased Tong Zhenye away.

He then turned around and went back to one of the houses, only to see Li Fu caressing Gundam. It was as if a lecher had seen a beautiful lady.

These days, Li Fu had been coming over every day to touch Gundam, which made Ren Baqian extremely disgusted.

He subsequently turned to leave for the courtyard and saw that many students were cooling the steam engine while inspecting it.

“Put aside whatever you guys are doing for now!” Ren Baqian said from a distance away. Immediately, everyone stopped whatever they were doing and waited for him to speak.

“You guys heard everything just now, right?” Ren Baqian asked.

“Her Majesty said that Dayao’s future depends on us.” Du Laoliu couldn’t stop giggling as he spoke.

“Her Majesty was just being courteous. You guys really believed that?” Ren Baqian scoffed at his students.

Du Laoliao rolled his eyes and said, “Her Majesty isn’t someone like that!”

“How useful can this thing be? Useful for fetching water?” Ren Baqian sneered. “Didn’t you guys hear what the other officials said?”

Upon hearing Ren Baqian’s harsh words, everyone’s faces turned black, including Tong Lan’s. After studying and spending such a long time on this steam engine, they were actually being ridiculed that it was just a toy. Nobody could accept such treatment.

“Not content? Do you guys want to be praised and admired? Do you guys want to show them your capabilities? Do you guys want to show them that what you have done is extraordinary?” Ren Baqian looked at everyone.

“Yes!” A few answers were heard.

“The same goes for me. After all, you guys are my students. What all of you have learned is the knowledge that I taught. If anyone despises you guys, that means that they are also looking down on me,” Ren Baqian calmly explained. “The knowledge of the steam engine is only the beginning. It represents a new source of power. Our next step is to convert the steam engine into something else. For example, the train that I mentioned earlier! A train can pull hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo. In addition, its speed is definitely three or more times faster than a carriage’s speed. As long as we can manufacture it, nobody will look down on you guys anymore.”

After Ren Baqian finished talking, everyone started to bend their fingers, counting the number that he had just mentioned. Thanks to the mathematics class taught by Ren Baqian, these students could finally understand the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In the end, they got a huge shock when they finally managed to calculate the figure.

One ton of cargo weighs 1,000 kilograms, 1,000 tons of cargo weighs 1 million kilograms.

The load of a carriage pulled by a fork-horned cow was around 1,500 to 2,500 kilograms. In other words, the train Ren Baqian mentioned could at least carry hundreds of these carriages. More importantly, the amount of rations consumed by the fork-horned cows was quite significant. This was because the grass in some places was not suitable for livestock.

Ordinary grass would only help the livestock to survive, but the cows wouldn’t have enough energy to work, and they needed to eat other sources of food.

Otherwise, the fork-horned cows wouldn’t have the stamina to transport goods over a long distance.

An example would be the babeast. Whenever the aboriginals herded their livestock, they would grind up some babeast meat, mixed it into the premium fodder, and feed this to the fork-horned cows.

As a result, there would be at least dozens of carts carrying fodder and other items that followed behind the hundreds of fork-horned cows pulling the cargo.

The train could prevent this sort of trouble. Furthermore, the students were able to learn even more through the manufacturing of the steam engine this time around.

If what they showed off today was the fully built train, the officials would definitely have a different opinion of them.

After all, these students were still children, and after being incited by Ren Baqian, they decided to work together and show Tong Zhenye what were they capable of. Even Tong Lan was included.

“Go back and have a brainstorming session about how you guys can improve this steam engine. Here’s a tip: connect the poles and change the direction of the force as well as the flywheel,” Ren Baqian said.

“You guys can go back and ask Teacher Gundam too! It should know.”

After he finished his sentence, Ren Baqian left leisurely. Everyone else immediately ran toward Teacher Gundam to inquire about the train.

Half a day passed when all of a sudden, someone exclaimed out loud, “Tong Lan, you broke Teacher Gundam.”

“I was just taking a look! Who knew it would break so easily. What’s inside? Stop pulling me—I’ll fix it back to how it was in a while!”

“There’s really no one inside. I have been thinking about whether there are individuals or other things hidden in it!” Du Laoliu’s exclamation was also heard.

“Are you stupid? It’s obviously lifeless. However, it’s amazing that it can actually speak!”

“Ah, Shi Gan, you broke another piece of it!”

“It’s Tong Lan who broke it. Since it’s already broken, why not do some research on it?”

“Yagui will definitely kill both of you tomorrow.”

“I’ll fix it later. In any case, he won’t know who did it. All of you better keep your mouths shut. If anyone dares to divulge anything… I’ll let you guys have a taste of my huge fist!” Tong Lan said in a menacing tone as she waved her tiny fist.

“We should enjoy blessings and endure misfortunes together. I’m certain that all of you know what type of person Yagui is. If this is leaked, each and every one of you won’t be able to escape it either! Everyone will be in deep sh*t!”

In the end, Shi Gan was still smarter than Tong Lan. He managed to get everyone else to support them.

The next day, when Ren Baqian stepped into the classroom, his face turned dark. He noticed that Gundam’s outer shell was hammered by someone and then forced back into place again. Just by touching it gently, a few pieces of the outer shell fell to the ground.

The mechanical parts inside were all exposed. A few of the wires were broken and randomly tied back together by someone.

Crash! Ren Baqian wanted to see how much damage they had inflicted on Gundam. Ultimately, with only one touch, Gundam’s arm immediately fell off, nearly smashing Ren Baqian’s legs.

“Teacher has destroyed Teacher Gundam!” An exclamation could be heard from the little lolita.

As if she were astonished, Tong Lan stood at the door with her mouth slightly open. She was also pointing her finger at Ren Baqian.

“What’s happening?” A bunch of people gasped in astonishment and rushed toward the door.

“Hmph! Itching for a beating?” Ren Baqian put on a fake smile.

These chaps actually learned how to frame others and make bogus accusations, huh?

“Speak, who did it?”

Swish!

The group of students extend their fingers and pointed at Ren Baqian in unison.

Ren Baqian’s face turned black as he said, “Seems like the bunch of you will not repent until you are faced with death. Guards, hang them from the flagpoles. I will shoot them for 50 minutes today!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!