The Empress’s Gigolo

“Shall we find something else to play? We can’t possibly play the little bee game every day—we need to change to a new game.”

In the villa on top of Sheshan in Shanghai, 12 winged cavalry warriors sat in the living room looking bored. They only trained or drank in this place, and it had indeed become a little dull for them after all this time.

“Tiny thing, is there anything fun to do?”

“Pao Yao[1.Pao Yao – A poker card game that is popular in Northeast China]? Fight the Landlord?” proposed Ding Jie when he looked away from his laptop.

“Played before! Not fun!” The winged cavalry warriors shook their heads.

“Mahjong?” Ding Jie suggested again.

“Too troublesome. My brain feels as if it’s exploding when I play,” one of them replied as the rest nodded in succession.

“What do you want to play then?” Ding Jie asked helplessly. He had long since understood the character of these winged cavalry warriors during these two years. They were straightforward people, but to put it bluntly, their brains were useless.

“I feel like chopping people!” One of the winged cavalry warriors heaved a sigh.

“Me too! My hand is itching—I haven’t chopped anyone in ages.” His words evoked the thoughts of another one of them.

“Chopping people in half with one swing of our blades—those were the days!” Another one of them burst out laughing.

Everyone started reminiscing about the days back then when they fought in the war. Regardless of whether they had been cutting or getting cut by someone, it had still felt equally rejuvenating.

Even though they were currently eating meat and drinking wine every day, it was extremely dull and boring here.

Ding Jie’s face turned pale upon hearing that. What sort of experiences did this group of mountain kids have previously?

Scared witless while listening to their discussion, he shifted from the sofa to the floor and then shriveled up behind the sofa. He was afraid that this bunch of man bears would draw their sabers the next second and cut him up.

“Hey, I thought of something fun.” While everyone was having a discussion, one of them spoke up and slapped his thigh.

“What is it?” Everyone else looked over.

“Don’t we have a lot of guns here? There’s a game in this world called Battle Royale[1.Battle Royale – A Japanese dystopian thriller film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and written by Kenta Fukasaku]. Everyone will be given a gun and anyone that gets shot will be considered dead. The last man standing without getting shot will be the winner. How about that?” the man suggested.

“Sounds like a great idea!” One of them nodded.

When all of the winged cavalry warriors heard this, they became increasingly excited. Someone immediately went to fetch a box of firearms and bullets.

“How do we use this thing?” one of them asked as he lifted Ding Jie up like a little chick from behind the sofa.

Ding Jie looked astonished.

What are you trying to do?

Using real guns to play Battle Royale?

Why don’t you fly instead?

If he were to teach them, wouldn’t the lady boss kill him when he came back? The lady boss probably would! He definitely musn’t teach them!

“I don’t know how to use them either…”

“You are lying!” The man bears gathered over. “How can you not know?”

“Only military personnel know how to use these things… How would a student like me know?” Ding Jie denied as he scowled miserably.

“You are really useless!” Everyone looked at him with disdain.

Ding Jie looked bitter, but in fact felt relieved. No matter what, it was better not to let them play with those.

“I know how to use this!” One of the winged cavalry warriors picked up a flashbang from the box.

“I know how to use that too! We used it to capture a city previously, and it was indeed pretty useful.”

“Shall we play with this?” one of them suggested.

“How do we play?” the others immediately asked.

“This thing takes some time before it explodes. We shall sit in a circle in the living room and then pass it along. When it explodes, the person holding it in his hands will be the unlucky one!” that warrior explained.

“Hey, it sounds interesting. This is what it shall be!” The others immediately burst into laughter and agreed to this idea.

Just when Ding Jie managed to heave a sigh of relief, his heart suddenly jumped in his throat. Apart from being stunned, his face looked deathly pale.

Dear Sirs, does it work if I call you sir?

Can you play with something more ordinary?

Looking a little contorted, Ding Jie immediately leaped up from the floor and shouted, “This is a grenade! You can’t play with that!”

“This is a flashbang. We know that.” The winged cavalry warriors looked at him with disdain. “It seems like you really don’t know about such things at all.”

“Flashbang?” Ding Jie looked carefully at that thing, and it indeed looked a little different from the grenades that he saw on television.

If it’s just a flashbang, will it be alright if I just close my eyes?

At the thought of this, it seemed okay.

The 12 winged cavalry warriors excitedly played the finger-guessing game for quite some time before spreading out and sitting accordingly in a circle around the living room.

“We will start when you give the cue to begin.”

“Umm… Umm…” Ding Jie hesitated for a moment. If possible, he still didn’t want to let them play with this. Unfortunately, he was no match for them. They could crush ten of him with one hand.

That being the case, playing with a flashbang would be much better than playing with guns.

Ding Jie subsequently agreed…

However, there was something that he didn’t know… There was something called a stun grenade that had effects which were similar to a flashbang!

One of the winged cavalry warriors held the grenade, pulled off the safety tab, and gripped the handle tightly.

“Give the cue to begin!”

Ding Jie looked at the 12 pairs of eyes staring at him and unwillingly said, “Begin!”

He then hastily shut his eyes.

As soon as his voice sounded, the first person immediately threw the grenade over to the second person before it ended up with the third person. All 12 of them moved their hands extremely fast, causing the grenade to move around so quickly that it formed a dotted line around the room. In a short five seconds of time, the grenade went around the room once.

Bang!

An intense flash immediately spilled throughout the entire villa.

At the moment that the grenade exploded, the 12 warriors immediately shut their eyes.

However, it was already night time, so the effect of the explosion was like countless flashbulbs going off wildly in front of them. They couldn’t see anything except for a sheet of white.

Following the intense flash, there was a deafening clamor that was 170 decibels.

In just a split second, everyone felt as if they had been attacked by something. They felt as if their heads were repeatedly smashed with a rock and became extremely dizzy.

Boom! All the glass products in the villa were shattered, including the new television set that Ren Baqian bought… Everything was destroyed by the explosion of the grenade.

As for Ding Jie, he felt as if a hammer struck his head when that blast was set off. He only managed to curse to himself before passing out.

Outside the villa, a surveillance team from the Messier 87 department were startled when the intense flash and deafening roar occurred inside the house.

In their attempt to make the enemy agents lower their guard during this period of time, there wasn’t any surveillance going on at night. Otherwise, there would always be someone standing guard outside around the clock.

“What’s the situation?”

“It seemed like a stun grenade!”

“Enemy attack? Monkey, contact the headquarters to request for backup. Noodles, follow me to check out the situation!”

When they rushed into the villa, they saw the 12 winged cavalry warriors looking stupefied with their eyes wide open. Even though the effects of the grenade would blind people for a period of time, their physiques were much better than that of an ordinary human. As a result, their vision had already recovered by the time the Messier 87 team rushed in.

However, everyone was facing the same problem now. Everyone felt a little dizzy and heard a buzzing in their ears.

“What happened? Where’s the enemy?” The leader of the surveillance team rushed in with a drawn gun, scanned around, and couldn’t spot anyone other than the winged cavalry warriors.

“What did you say?” All of the winged cavalry warriors glared at him with fierce looks after they regained their senses.

“Where’s the enemy?” the leader asked nervously.

“What did you say?” Those men continued giving that fierce look.

“My ears are buzzing—I can’t hear anything,” one of them replied.

“What did you say?” another one of them asked.

“What are you guys saying?” a third person asked…

The people of the Messier 87 department looked at those man bears dejectedly. Other than the questions that the leader asked, nobody paid any attention to them. Everyone was asking questions.

The entire room was repeatedly filled with the words, “What did you say?”

There was no enemy. There were only the 12 of them sitting in a circle when the stun grenade exploded in their faces.

What exactly happened?

Could it be that these people played with a stun grenade and blasted themselves into looking like huskies?