The Empress’s Gigolo

Two silhouettes suddenly appeared out of thin air within the quiet and cold Yangxin Palace Hall.

Ren Baqian was clutching in his hands a huge paper box and a small bag. After seeing the surrounding scenery clearly, he looked down at the empress’s hands. They were empty.

“The thing in my hand back then, disappeared in a split second,” the empress said as she looked at her left hand.

After going through the second medicinal bath, he had the strength of a man that weighed a little more than 75 kilograms. The weight of the box in his hand together with the empress was more or less equivalent to how strong he was. Originally, he wanted to see if the empress could bring back some items. But, it was already proven that it wouldn’t work and the items would directly disappear. It was unknown whether the item was being left behind on Earth or disappeared somewhere during the process of the teleportation.

“Your Majesty!” Qing Yuan and Hong Yuan’s voice trailed from behind.

“What time is it now?” The empress turned around and questioned.

“Your Majesty, it’s zishi now.” Both Qing Yuan and Hong Luan walked towards the empress, bowed, and responded.

Seeing both of their manners, it seemed that they had been keeping watch here since the empress had left.

Zishi is the time period between 11 pm and 1 am. It just happened to be midnight.

“Did anything happen in the palace?” The empress asked again.

“Everything was safe and sound.”

“The both of you may take your leave,” the empress said and waived them off.

After the pair of them had left, only then did she look at the box in Ren Baqian’s hands and ask, “What’s that?”

After Ren Baqian gotten someone to deliver the box to his house, the both of them returned to the palace hall, so she hadn’t yet had the time to ask.

“A piece of equipment that utilizes sunlight to melt steel. This will be used for a demonstration. After some preparation, I would like to manufacture glass, mirrors, and a piece of bigger equipment to melt Mount Damo bit by bit. I have been thinking of constructing a factory to manufacture glass, but it might be scorned upon. And as such, I have prepared this equipment and presume that the rest of the people would have nothing to say anymore,” Ren Baqian patted the box and said.

This was a solar furnace exhibition, and similarly, he was exhibiting his own capabilities.

It was not that he wasn’t clear about his current situation. On that day in the throne room, Feng Hou’s attitude, as well as Tao Jiyuan’s attitude from the start, made him realize a lot of things.

Not considering all these, even if he didn’t put himself in someone else’s shoes, he would have arrived at the same conclusion as well.

Therefore, he wanted to show how capable was he and wait for it to be recognized by everyone. In future, it would be more convenient to do such things. After all, he didn’t like to be questioned for everything he did.

“Good.” The empress nodded, turned around and returned to her couch. “Inform me when you are done with your preparations. I will gather Second Elder as well as a few others to observe what you have prepared.”

“Yes. I will take my leave first.” Ren Baqian lifted that box very carefully and walked out. When he was outside, he found two imperial guards and got them to help him bring the box to Pingle Park.

When he returned to Pingle Park, Ren Baqian cultivated [Ruyi Visualization] before crashing into his bed.

The next morning, when Ren Baqian saw that the sun was already up, he got the imperial guards to shift the box from Pingle Park to a piece of vacant land.

In any case, this demonstration only required a spacious and empty place where the sun wasn’t obstructed.

Ren Baqian opened the box and revealed a metal dish which was similar to the shape of a saucepan lid. Its diameter was roughly a bit more than one meter long, and there was a square at the top. Also, there were two other smaller boxes contained within the box, and inside these boxes, were neatly arranged small lenses. It was said to it cost about 2000 yuan.

He had no choice but to admit that this task was rather troublesome and the aboriginals with their thick arms and legs would be of no help. Ren Baqian was afraid that they would exert their strength and destroy this metal dish. Without any better options, he oversaw this task himself and spent about three hours installing the lens, causing his arms to ache.

The two guards didn’t leave either and looked at the busy Ren Baqian from afar. They were very curious as to what he was doing over at the piece of vacant land.

Once in a while, when their sight chanced upon the small lenses, they subconsciously felt that these were very precious items.

“Come, help me to hold this.” Ren Baqian said to the two imperial guards and went to look for a branch.

“Take this and face the sun according to this angle.” Ren Baqian gave a hands-on explanation to that imperial guard.

The disk was emitted brilliant rays and was glistening under the sun. It was like a treasure. The other imperial guard subconsciously neared as he wanted to see what was going on.

“Don’t come close. Stand at the side.” Ren Baqian got a shock from his movement. This disk reflected the focal point of the sunlight and could directly melt steel, let alone a person.

“Okay, hold it there, don’t move.” Ren Baqian commanded the guard to stand properly while extending the branch one and a half meters away from the center of the disk.

当树枝抵达焦点的一瞬间,瞬间就冒烟,随后就着起火来.

At the split second the branch reached the focal point, instantly, there was smoke. Soon after, it caught fire.

This scene made the two guards stare blankly. What kind of treasure was this disk?

Ren Baqian returned to his room once again and found a small brass ring, looped it over the branch and extended it towards the focal point. In an instant, the branch caught fire. However, the brass ring also began to melt within seven to eight seconds. Ultimately, when it fell to the ground, only half of it was left.

The sun in this world was bigger than the sun on Earth and the temperature was slightly higher as well. As a result, the speed of the metal melting was also much faster.

“Deputy Prefect, what is this treasure?” The two imperial guards were speechless and eventually, they couldn’t help but to ask.

Ren Baqian grinned but didn’t give an answer, “Inform Her Majesty… forget it, I’ll go myself.”

He got someone to place the disk back into the box and, after which, store the box back into the house. Then, he ran to Yangxin Palace Hall full of joy and expectations to look for the empress.

“Your Majesty, I am done with my preparations. I have already experimented with it a moment ago, and there isn’t any problems,” Ren Baqian said with a smile of his face.

“Oh, I actually want to see what you came up with. But, there’s no hurry to see it right now. I will get someone to inform Second Elder, Tu Wan, and company. Accompany me for a meal now” the empress said softly.

After the empress spoke, she got Hong Luan to get the imperial guard to inform the Second Elder and Minister of Revenue, Tu Wan, Imperial Treasurer, Gu Yue, Minister of Works, Tong Zhenye, as well as, Overseer of Military Arms, Feng Hou, and so on.

“Your Majesty, manufacturing such a solar furnace requires mirrors. I suggest that we construct a glass factory in the name of the palace and the manufactured glass and mirrors can be circulated to the market. Also, it can be sold to the rich in other countries. I believe that they will be willing to pay a considerable price for these items. After which, we can directly use this money to buy supplies and transport them back. This can also help to replenish the goods in our country.”

“Using the name of the palace?” The empress didn’t have any concept on wealth accumulation.

“That’s right. The palace will dispatch manpower to manufacture glass and mirrors, open a shop to sell these items, as well as set up a merchant caravan to transport these items to the other countries. Then, we’ll use the money from the sales to purchase other goods, slightly increase the price before selling them in our country. This would not only allow the commoners to benefit and be grateful towards Your Majesty, but would also safeguard the wealth of the palace.

At the same time, it will be entirely controlled by the palace. This will also prevent a lot of other issues from occurring, for example, other people getting involved in this issue,” Ren Baqian explained.

“If you put it this way, it seems feasible.” The empress nodded in agreement.

“You want to set up a merchant caravan?” The empress asked.

“Yes, the current circumstance requires this action. After all, transporting goods from one place to another to sell would be very profitable. We can completely replenish the imperial treasury whenever required.

For example, the mirror. If the manufacturing cost is two and a half taels of silver, we can sell it at five taels of silver locally. But, once it’s being transported and sold in other countries, we can sell them at fifteen taels of silver. This sum of money will be flowing from the other countries into our country and such trading would make our country richer.

Furthermore, for a long time, the other countries have been selling their goods to our country. Even though this can replenish the lack of goods in Dayao, but if we continue this way, Dayao’s wealth will continue to flow outwards, and we will just be sustaining the lives of the nobles from other countries.

We can also set up merchant caravans. This will not only allow trade to circulate but also form an equilibrium. At the same time, we can also receive news of the other countries through these merchant caravans.” Ren Baqian simply explained the economic knowledge that everyone on Earth had.