The Empress’s Gigolo

The following day, Ren Baqian made his way to the Honglu Bureau at first light. The empress’s birthday celebration was today. Following which, his mission would be considered accomplished. The position of Honglu Deputy did not interest him much anyway.

When he returned to Earth that night, he would bring some good stuff back. By the time he looked for Du Changkong, he would be able to exchange the good stuff for learning martial arts. Who knows, he might practice till he became an expert or what not.

With regards to the martial arts in this world, he was nevertheless looking forward to practicing it.

At present, he could only hope that he would be able to master the martial arts of this world. After all his was from another world, and he couldn’t say for certain whether he had the same body composition as the people in this world. In that case, it would be miserable for him.

Qi Heng and Qi Sheng who were guarding the entrance of the Honglu Bureau, still paid their respects to Ren Baqian upon seeing him. Even though Ren Baqian’s temporary stint at the Honglu Bureau wasn’t a secret, he had indeed done a pretty good job as there wasn’t much trouble at the Honglu Bureau these days. As a result, the people there still considered him as someone respectable.

As far as the attitudes of the people in the Honglu Bureau were concerned, Ren Baqian was rather fond of it. But, one’s own family would be aware of the happenings in their own family. In actual fact, the aboriginals were very rude, unreasonable, vicious, and merciless. Even though they posed as a threat to the people from the other nations, but on account of the empress’s birthday, they wouldn’t go overboard either. To add on, Qi Zhi himself was already outstanding and powerful. He could easily settle the other party as long as he whacked them till they were convinced.

As a result, he broke the legs of four people last year and continued to play dirty tricks under the table too.

However, Ren Baqian was different as he was too weak to even truss a chicken and did not have any foundation in Dayao. If he wasn’t able to suppress them, on one hand, he would be in constant fear that his life would revolve around them. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be able to please the empress either.

Following which, the vicious and merciless methods used by Ren Baqian and his absolutely unrestrained behavior was the reason they actually backed down.

This did not imply that he handled the issue somewhat better than how the original deputy, Qi Zhi, handled it.

Ren Baqian returned to his own room, and after a while, someone came to pass a token to him. This was to be used during the banquet that evening. The name list had already been fixed by the palace, and the rest of the invited guests had long ago received a token. He had been missing for a day, and following which, he participated in the Great Hunt. Thus, the token was only delivered to him today.

Ren Baqian fiddled with the token; he had long prepared a gift for the empress. The last time he came back to this world he had brought it along, and there ought to be no issues at all.

It wasn’t expensive on Earth, but over here, it should be at the high-end impressive grade and wouldn’t pale in comparison with the other valuable gifts from the everyone else.

Moreover, this gift also had a unique bootlicking aspect, and it could be assumed that the empress would be fond of it.

After sitting for a while, Ren Baqian suddenly thought of what should he wear this time as nobody informed him anything.

He got up, left his room, and arrived at Gu Daxiong’s room. Ren Baqian could hear his thunderous snores from the doorway.

This person asked others to work but did nothing himself. He must be really comfortable. In previous years, the most troublesome period of time would be this period, but on the contrary, he wasn’t really involved at all.

“Sir Gu,” Ren Baqian knocked on the door and shouted. In no time, someone responded, “What’s the matter? Come in.”

When Ren Baqian entered the room, Gu Daxiong was seated on the chair with both of his arms folded across his chest.

“Sir Gu, may I ask, what kind of clothes should I wear for the banquet?” Ren Baqian cupped one of his fists in another hand.

Gu Daxiong scratched his head. “Of course it’s the ceremonial robe.” Soon after, he remembered that Ren Baqian wasn’t familiar with all these things and said, “Go to Jingyang road and find this Gu Ji ready-made clothes shop. They make ceremonial robes over there. You are currently a Secondary class, Rank 6 and the color of the robe should be grass-green.”

“Many thanks, Sir Gu. But, could you get someone to bring me there?” Ren Baqian asked. Fortunately, he really came to ask, or else, he wouldn’t have known that there were ceremonial robes in Dayao or even knew where to go to get them made. He hoped that there were ready-made robes in the shop to prevent any time wastage.

“Look for Gu Shou and ask him to find someone to bring you there.” Gu Daxiong waved his hand and yawned after that.

After a short while, Ren Baqian arrived at an entrance of a shop on Jingyang Road under someone’s lead.

“Deputy Ren, this is the place. Tell them your position and they will know what to do,” the person who led Ren Baqian to the shop told him and then left hurriedly.

There weren’t many people in the shop, and a few completed clothes were hung on the frame.

After all, the other people had already made preparations earlier on. Nobody was like Ren Baqian, who only had his ceremonial robe made when the banquet was the same night.

There were two aboriginal women lying on the counter, and a burly man seated right beside them. Seeing Ren Baqian enter their shop while wearing his official robe, the two women immediately brought their spirits up.

“Sir, what do you want to buy?”

“A ceremonial robe to attend the banquet tonight. Are you able to make it by then?” Ren Baqian asked.

“We’ll just have to alter it. You can collect it in four hours.” One of the woman said, “Sir, follow me.”

It was currently 9 in the morning, and four hours would mean it would be 1pm. This implied that there was still enough time.

After Ren Baqian went inside, there was a woman holding a ruler, standing by the side. It was unknown whether she was from the Yun Nation or Great Xia.

Ren Baqian spread his arms apart to let the other party take his measurements. In his mind, he guessed which nation this woman was actually from.

After all, the people from the three other nations all looked similar. The only difference was that the Chen Nation people were slightly tanner.

One other possibility could be that she was a remnant citizen of the Hao Nation. This was more plausible after thinking about it. In reality, the appearance of the aboriginals and them were similar with their features slightly more boorish. There was an enormous discrepancy in their build as well.

In a moment, after informing them about his position, Ren Baqian left the shop and returned to the Honglu Bureau. He stayed there till afternoon before collecting his ceremonial robe and then directly went back to the beast park.

The ceremonial robes in Dayao were very concise, and there weren’t too many decorations on it. It included only a buttoned slant-collared, layered robe. The left side of the front piece was pressed over the right side and this section extended all the way to one’s armpits. There were also decorative designs that were red on the slanted portion and on the sleeves of the robe.

Apart from the slanted collar, waist area, sleeves, and so on, the rest of the robe was green. The ceremonial robe only reached slightly lower than his knees, and he had to wear a green pants beneath it.

Everything else was fine with the exception of the color of this ceremonial robe. It made Ren Baqian feel that it was somewhat of a pain in the ass. Even if it was in the dark green spectrum, it would have be fine. After putting on this ceremonial robe, he immediately felt that he was as green as the prairie in the city of Hohhot.

Ren Baqian shifted a wooden box which was about the height of one and a half human tall. The exterior of the box was made from wood and the interior was made from wrapping kraft paper inside. Soft paper was used to wrap the surroundings of the box.

This was his gift for the empress’s birthday celebration.

After examining the items, Ren Baqian went out and wandered around. He found Tie Dao and Teng Hulu, and the both of them immediately praised him repeatedly, “Sir Ren, you look dashing and majestic after donning the ceremonial robe.”

“Stop bootlicking. In a while, the both of you change into a set of clean clothes and help me to move my gift to the entrance of the palace.” Ren Baqian said. He was so “green”, how could he look dashing and majestic?

“Yes sir.” The pair immediately nodded. Soon after, they curiously asked, “Sir, we haven’t seen you preparing anything for Her Majesty and thought that you would go to the celebration empty-handed.”

“Naturally, I have prepared the gift long ago.” Ren Baqian waved his hand, “The both of you go and change into another set of clothes.”

When evening approached, Ren Baqian brought Tie Dao and Teng Hulu to the entrance of the palace. There were already a few carriages parked at the side of the plaza.

And, at the entrance of the palace doors, there were also a few rows of imperial guards. They formed a human wall, and among the human wall, there were two paths. The Dayao officials took one path while the others from the three nations took a separate path.

There were also a few women stationed outside of the human wall, recording the gifts that were going to be presented to the empress.