The Empress's Gigolo

The ancient people had a good saying, "Sacrifice was made, yet triumph wasn't achieved when such sorrowful results always made heroes devastated…"

Ren Baqian felt that these words were really apt. The ancient people were awesome and what they said made a lot of sense.

He was currently in the described situation.

They just left the city not long ago, but their carriage had already overturned. Ren Baqian was also wet from the dew on the grass, and those two stupid cows were still eating grass indifferently.

If he didn't rely on the two fork-horned cows to transport them around, perhaps they would be his dinner tonight.

When Lin Qiaole crawled out from the carriage, her eyes were still filled with sleepiness. She turned her head and looked around before speaking with confusion, "how did the carriage overturn?""Keep quiet. Lift the carriage back onto the road." Ren Baqian was helpless.

Lin Qiaole used one hand to lift the carriage up. Ren Baqian dragged the two fork-horned cows back to the road and continued their journey.

"What time are we having our meal?"

"You eat after waking up and go back to sleep after eating. Why don't you take a look at how fat you are now?" Ren Baqian had a disdainful look on his face.

He spoke like this, but in actual fact, Lin Qiaole wasn't fat at all. Not only she wasn't fat, but she was very skinny. She gave off an impression that she was skinny and weak, unlike the other experts who exuded a heroic vibe. No matter who it was, nobody could tell that she was actually extremely skilled.

"If I'm fat, so be it…" Lin Qiaole was indifferent about this matter and casually rubbed her chest area twice.

"What are you doing?" Ren Baqian was amused by her actions.

There was no difference if you rubbed that washboard of yours.

"From my memory, this is called kneading and seems useful." Lin Qiaole looked at her chest and was very confident.

"To knead, you must have something to knead. What's the point of kneading nothing?" Ren Baqian rubbed salt on her wound.

"I believe if I knead for another 50 years, there will be something…" Lin Qiaole wasn't affected at all.

Ren Baqian had nothing to say.

Your time calculation method may be different from the average person's…

"How many years before you reach adulthood?" Ren Baqian thought about how she was not an adult even when she was 50 years old and felt pain in his testicles. This kind of inhuman lifespan was indeed enviable.

"About more 50 years…"

A lifespan that makes me envious…

If I send her to the laboratory, I wonder if they can develop a drug that will prolong life. Next time, I'll obtain a bottle of blood from her…

…

The two of them continued on their way, and not too long after, they arrived at the start of a downward slope. After a few bends, there was a series of winding roads around a mountain. From where they were standing, they were about 800 meters away from the flat ground at the bottom. Within their field of view was a piece of endless plain and dense forested regions in the far distance. There was also a city.

This was today's destination. After entering Tianjing Basin, the first city was Longshou City. Behind Longshou City, there were winding mountain ranges.

It was said that there was an earth dragon lying in Tianjing Basin with its head facing the area outside Tianjing Basin, as if it were going to rise into the air and pounce toward the north.

The saying that, "Obtaining Tianjing Basin is equivalent to obtaining the entire world" had something to do with this earth dragon.

Longshou City was situated in the vicinity of this earth dragon's head.

Of course, this was according to the Hao Nation, and the aboriginals didn't pay attention to it.

There was a checkpoint at each of the two extreme ends of Panshan Road. When these two places were closed, more than one million remnant citizens of the Hao Nation would be trapped in Tianjing Basin.

Ren Baqian took out his checkpoint clearance token. Naturally, he could pass through the checkpoints without any hitches.

After passing through the second checkpoint, an endless plain was in front of him. There was a dirt road which extended from the checkpoint to the city that was almost invisible at a distance.

At this time, there were many cow-drawn carriages on the road. These were merchant caravans coming to and from Gu City. As such, Ren Baqian and Lin Qiaole didn't seem conspicuous among them.

If there was anything worthy of attention, it would be that the other vehicles travelling from Gu City to Longshou City were filled with all kinds of goods. The carriage that Ren Baqian and Lin Qiaole were on was not filled with much stuff.

From the tracks left by the carriage wheels and the sound of the carriage travelling on the road, it could be deduced that this carriage was not loaded with goods.

Ren Baqian didn't try to talk to the merchants next to him because it would be rather suspicious

Therefore, his attention was placed on the large swaths of farmland on both sides of the road as well as the farmers who work on the farmland.

Ren Baqian took note of the surrounding and realized that the farming tools used by the farmers were mostly made from stone. The ends of the tools were connected to wooden handles.

Just like everywhere else in this world, even a kitchen knife could be regarded as a family heirloom. Farming tools that were made of iron were too extravagant for the aboriginals as well as for these remnant citizens of the Hao Nation.

Previously, the majority of the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation that Ren Baqian saw were merchants. Even if their statuses were not high, they were not considered impoverished, and he couldn't tell much from seeing them.

On the other hand, Ren Baqian could tell a lot just from seeing these farmers.

At the very least, he saw the poor living conditions of these remnant citizens of the Hao Nation.

Although the farmers weren't malnourished and sickly in appearance, their clothes were torn, tattered, and patched together with cloth scraps of various sizes.

Most importantly, these farmers lacked essence, qi, and spirit. This gave people the feeling that these farmers were like walking corpses that completely lacked any vigor.

"Sure enough, I needed to witness all of this for myself before I could understand," Ren Baqian whispered.

"Give me one of those red lollipops of yours. I haven't tried it before and need to taste it once…" Lin Qiaole immediately continued his sentence.

"Be careful of any tooth decay." When Ren Baqian grabbed a lollipop from his pocket, Lin Qiaole began staring straight at him.

"Here's a red lollipop for you." Ren Baqian threw it over to Lin Qiaole.

"Petty." Lin Qiaole looked at Ren Baqian as he put away a bunch of lollipops and nearly wanted to scratch him.

Lin Qiaole carefully peeled off the wrapper of the lollipop and placed it neatly in her waist pocket. Recently, she had started collecting these wrappers.

"Oh yes, what is your reason for coming here?" She finally recalled the question she wanted to ask.

"I want to take a look at their living conditions and see how can I tame them," Ren Baqian pointed at the farmers and said.

Lin Qiaole was flabbergasted as she spoke, "They provoked you? I will help you hit them. Give me a piece of candy for every person I hit."

"The next time we start a war against Great Xia, would it suffice if I released you on the battlefield?" Ren Baqian turned his head and looked at this cheaply-priced expert. Then, he felt as if he was going to release a dog.

"I'm no match for the army," Lin Qiaole immediately replied. If she dashed into the Great Xia army, she probably wouldn't come out alive.

The fact that Great Xia crumbled once they encountered the aboriginals was because of the winged cavalry's existence. There were at least thousands of Earth Wheel experts there.

If Lin Qiaole was the only one, she reckoned that she would be torn apart.

"You are only a threat toward the commoners, do I still need you then?" Ren Baqian gave her the side eye and looked down on her.

"That's also true." In the end, Lin Qiaole's skin wasn't that thick. After thinking about it, she felt that what Ren Baqian said made sense and didn't bother rebutting him anymore.

When it was approaching night time, the duo finally arrived in front of Longshou City.

While Ren Baqian was waiting to be inspected, he carefully examined the guards at the lower city gate. They were wearing leather jackets, were generally thin, and had a long saber strapped at their waists.

Even before he arrived, he knew that these sabers were all bone sabers.

"Show us what's in the carriage!" When it was Ren Baqian and Lin Qiaole's turn, a guard came to open the curtain. Upon seeing that there was only one box inside, the guard's eyes glistened.

Usually, when carriages returned from Gu City, they would be filled with all sorts of goods.

There was only one box, which meant that the things inside were valuable. Immediately, his quick-witted self took charge of the situation.

"Open the box."

Ren Baqian stuffed a bunch of loose silver into his hands. "If I really open the box, then you wouldn't be receiving these."

The guards of Longshou City were very greedy. After all, those who came and went were mostly merchants. Moreover, this was the only route. Even if those merchants had complaints deep down inside, they had no choice but to pass through this road. Naturally, the guards unscrupulously received bribes from the traveling merchants.

Ren Baqian already knew of this prior to coming here. Thus, he wasn't surprised by their behavior at all.

Ren Baqian's words made that guard's expression freeze. Just like what Ren Baqian said, even if there was something valuable in the carriage, it didn't belong to him no matter what. In that case, he might as well know his limits.

These loose pieces of silver could match up to the amount of bribes he would receive in a month.

He kneaded the loose pieces of silver in his hand, put on a smile as he waved, and waved them through.

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