The Empress’s Gigolo

Almost imperceptibly, a row of street lights was added to the Black Bamboo Academy. Electric lights also hung from the beams of the classrooms and the library.

The backyard of the academy was expanded again with an extra courtyard in the distance that emitted black smoke all day long.

Inside the courtyard was the most important facility in the academy at present, the thermal powered electric generator.

Most importantly, energy was a huge driver of science and technology.

One particular effect after its completion was the emission of black smoke 24 hours a day, which resulted in a layer of ash falling on the academy. Before this, there was hardly any dust on its floor.

Fortunately, this thing was only temporarily being used for research and development purposes.

Ren Baqian planned to build a power plant outside the city to supply electricity and power the lights in Lan City. Another plan was to put some LED screens on the streets of Lan City and showcase some educational videos.

He hoped to use this method to improve the literacy rate of the aboriginals.

This way, at least some determined people could learn through this method.

With more literate people around, there would be more demand for newspapers and magazines.

He was still unable to achieve universal education in Dayao, but he hoped to produce some talent through this media.

The prerequisite was to provide a stable power supply. After all, he couldn’t always be depending on the solar panels and batteries that he brought from Earth.

Energy was the foundation of a modern society.

This was the top priority for Ren Baqian, and he had made a lot of preparations for it.

Due to the price of copper in this world, Ren Baqian was prepared to use steel-cored aluminium wires.

Then, he discovered a serious problem up front… No bauxite had been found in Dayao!

He took out a map and browse it before finally fixing his eyes on a country situated to the east.

Wealth, people, resources, salt, copper, iron, aluminium… All hopes were pointing there.

Sometimes, it was gratifying to have a good neighbor.

Ren Baqian felt like he was busy preparing for his family, preparing fine vinegar and wine, laying out the fine dinnerware, and waiting for Zi Tonglai to borrow crabs from his neighbor before coming back.

Prior to this, he had more important matters to attend to.

This was to follow up on the empress’s planned trip to the Sixty Thousand Mountains, the place that existed only in the words described by others. It was of unknown size, had countless treasures, and was a place where the aboriginals and wild beasts competed for survival.

It was a place whose name evoked a sense of savagery and remoteness.

The palace had been busy these past few days due to preparing for this trip.

It was a long distance away. Even if they were to travel as fast as they could, the return trip would take two months or more.

If they were to enter into the depths of the Sixty Thousand Mountains, it would take more time and certainly required more preparation.

Their escorts were the winged cavalry warriors, and it was said that there were plans to bolster the number of winged cavalry warriors for this trip.

Right now, only slightly more than 600 of them remained, which was less than half of their original number.

Besides the empress and Ren Baqian, the rest of the group included Qing Yuan, Hong Luan, Lin Qiaole, and almost the entire staff of the imperial kitchen.

As for the students in the academy, most of them were left behind to continue development work on the train as well as the power plant.

Ren Baqian decided to bring the five students who had the best test scores.

Many students lamented after hearing this news. After all, the Sixty Thousand Mountains was something that was only heard of in legends, they had never been there before, and it was a place that greatly attracted them.

Furthermore, following the empress to visit the Sixty Thousand Mountains was definitely more interesting than listening to the robot and doing experiments in class.

Only five students could go, and the selection was based on their test scores.

Most of them knew that it had nothing to do with them personally and that only those with the best results would have the opportunity to go.

The top student in the academy was a girl called Shi Yu. After her, it was Shi Gan, Xu Jianshan, and Ge Lie.

These people were firmly among the top five.

Behind them, Xu Peng, Tong Lan, and Xiong Zhi were fighting to be among the top five.

The rest of them didn’t have much hope.

“Don’t worry too much. This examination is very simple, and there are only ten questions in total. Five are multiple-choice questions, while the other five are assessment questions! Everyone will have a chance.” Ren Baqian saw the woeful expressions of many students and laughed.

Despite him saying this, most of them had no confidence at all and were resigned to their fate.

Immediately after class, Shi Yu, Shi Gan, and Xu Jianshan were surrounded by the others.

The tone of the crowd was filled with envy and jealousy.

“You rascals can definitely go. Not only will you get to see the world, you can also reveal yourself to the empress.”

“You are being too imaginative. What’s there to reveal? We are just going to see the world!” Shi Gan laughed it off.

“If there were many questions, it would be hard to say, but there are only ten questions. You have a chance to go if you are lucky,” Xu Jianshan said frankly.

“You are taking it very lightly!” everyone muttered. Where could they get that much luck?

The next day, everyone was dumbfounded when they saw the questions.

A bunch of people turned to look at Xu Jianshan.

This girl was absolutely correct!

Even Xu Jianshan was stupefied.

Although it was said that everyone had an opportunity, only those who were above average would not know the answers to one or two questions and could make a guess. However, for those who only knew the answers to one or two questions and chose blindly for the rest, how much luck would they need?

However, the content of the examination was beyond their imagination.

It really was dependent on luck.

1) Who is the darkest among the people listed below?

1: Andy Lau

2: Sun Honglei

3: Aaron Kwok

4: Obama

2) What was the weather like exactly one year ago?

1: Cloudy

2: Rainy

3: Windy

4: Rainy, windy, and cloudy

3) Luck is very important!

1: Tick here

2: Tick here

3: Tick here

4: Tick here

…

Everyone was confused by this test paper.

The content of the questions asked was different from what they were taught in class.

Who were these four people?

Who knew what the weather was like one year ago?

The third question directly depended on luck! Even the answers were identical and relied on blind chance.

The following questions were more or less the same.

After going through the whole test, no one was able to take it anymore, so everyone stared at Ren Baqian quizzically.

“Don’t look at me. Answer the questions,” Ren Baqian said.

“What are these questions about?” Everyone was confused.

“Use your wisdom and imagination! I believe in you!” Ren Baqian laughed.

Everyone looked helpless. Then, they closed their eyes, answered the questions, and handed in their test papers after less than ten minutes.

“I know you are very confused about why the test is like this and why it’s different from what I taught you!” Ren Baqian said after all the papers were handed in.

“I want to explain to you what the third question is saying: luck is very important! In many cases, people can only depend on luck when they have no other choices! In order to prevent yourself from getting into such a situation, you must try to master as many things as possible so that you do not have to depend on luck. Eight of the questions have proper answers that can be found in the books at the library. Two of the questions are dependent on luck!

For the same experiment, it takes some people 10,000 times to reach the result, while it takes other people just one time to do it. It can’t be denied that this is due to luck! Luck has many other functions, such as keeping you alive in all kinds of situations or letting you find the most important things! There are countless roles that luck plays.”

Actually, Ren Baqian was conducting an experiment at this time.

While thinking about how to find [The Ancient Scroll of Methods], he suddenly realized that after seeing that bichi on Mount Liucui, many things had happened to him and many people had died, but he was still safe and sound.

He was convinced that luck, though invisible and intangible, existed.

He wanted to see whether he could select people with good luck and whether they could use their luck in the Sixty Thousand Mountains.

If this was practical, then he could select some lucky people to help him find the next volume of [The Ancient Scroll of Methods].

Ren Baqian looked at the bewildered expressions on the faces of many of the students and smiled as he flipped through the test papers. When he came to one paper, the smile on his face gradually froze.

All ten questions were answered correctly! There wasn’t even one wrong answer!

The name on top was… Du Laoliu!

Ren Baqian pondered for a while. Was Du Laoliu’s wife bringing him good luck?

Ren Baqian didn’t feel like Du Laoliu’s luck had been this good before!