This bet that determined the fate of many people in the Zhang family set off a storm thousands of miles away. However, it didn't cause much of a stir in Dayao.
Even for those court officials who had witnessed it with their own eyes, the fact that he was proficient in all other aspects other than martial arts only left a deeper impression on them.
It was only three days before the empress's birthday celebration, and Lan City was starting to get lively.
Although there weren't any envoys coming this year and there were still battles in the northeast and southeast, the war didn't affect the residents of Lan City much.
It wasn't because they didn't know the hardships at the front line, but because the aboriginals had been fighting against the heavens, the earth, and all kinds of beasts since they were born decades ago. Fighting was already embedded in their bones, and it wasn't something that could be erased in just a few decades.
In addition, three cities in the Yun Nation had been conquered recently. Carts of salt were transported back to replenish the salt shortage in Dayao's market. Taking advantage of this batch of salt and the empress's birthday celebration, a large number of aboriginals came to the foot of the mountain. Many of them traveled for a few days to Lan City, sweeping away the previous desolation in Lan City.
In addition, Hong Wu and the rest had also returned recently, and many people would take a look outside Hong Wu's residence on the way.
Ren Baqian had seen this situation many times. He saw people looking at Hong Wu's residence from afar a few times and didn't know what they were talking about.
He estimated that these people were probably saying, "I can replace you!"
Or they were saying to their children, "Peter can replace you!"
In this case …
Ren Baqian even laughed for a long time after he imagined such a conversation. If someone had such a thought, he would definitely support it.
Otherwise, when Hong Wu looked at her, he would always look at her with his nose and eyes looking at her.
The palace was preparing for the next three days. Ren Baqian got people to wrap pieces of red muslin around the trees and tie them into knots. From afar, the palace looked like a sea of red flowers.
"It's a little wasteful," the empress said faintly when she saw Ren Baqian's actions. Although she rarely cared about these things, Ren Baqian's actions still made her heart ache.
Dayao didn't have the technology to weave cloth. All the cloth was transported from the other three nations, and the price wasn't low either.
The palace was so big, and red flowers were everywhere. This was too extravagant.
"Do you like it?" Ren Baqian asked excitedly. The empress had never done these things. Other than attending court to deal with political affairs, drinking, daydreaming, and her new hobby of watching television series, she rarely paid attention to other matters.
There weren't many guards in this huge palace, and there were even fewer palace maids. It had always been cold and cheerless.
After being tormented by him, it became much livelier.
The empress thought about it and liked it. She shifted her gaze to the side and said, "It seems like you are going to empty out the palace treasury."
"Only in this way can I be worthy of His Majesty! Besides, if we use it this year, we can use it next year and the year after that. It won't be considered extravagant anymore. " Ren Baqian laughed and said, "I have earned some money from selling glass cups and glasses these days. It's barely enough to cover my expenses."
Before the opening of this shop, the glass factory had already stored a lot of glass cups. The opening of the Royal Glass Shop had triggered a frenzy of buying. These crystal-clear cups and bowls only cost fifteen taels of silver. Which of the big shots in the imperial court wouldn't buy a dozen or twenty of them?
In just half a month, the glass shop made more than 30,000 taels of silver, which were used by Ren Baqian to purchase red muslin to decorate the palace.
After hearing what he said, the empress didn't say anything else.
In fact, most of the time, the empress didn't care about what Ren Baqian did. She would only watch quietly from the side and wait for the results.
Even though she felt a little cold at times, most of the time, it was a kind of indulgence.
Even after watching so many television shows, the empress didn't know how to express her feelings. In other words, if she expressed her feelings to others, it would make her feel too shy.
This kind of indulgence was her way of expressing her feelings.
Ren Baqian was well aware of this. Therefore, he would sometimes deliberately tease the empress. Of course, most of the time, he would be sent flying with a kick from the empress.
Three days passed in a flash. During these three days, all the palace maids and guards were tormented by him. As a result, the color of the entire palace changed.
Even when Xin Zhe was patrolling the palace, she would raise her head from time to time to look at the treetops that were full of red flowers.
Even though she looked like a man most of the time, in fact, there were times when she was meticulous.
Ren Baqian only finished decorating the entire palace at noon on the day of the empress's birthday celebration. Ren Baqian went back and changed into a set of blue ceremonial robes. This was the color of ceremonial robes for Rank 4 officials.
At this time last year, he was dressed like a prairie.
Thinking about it, all of this should have started on this day last year.
It was exactly one year.
Moreover, it was the empress's birthday celebration.
This was a good thing. It saved him the trouble of remembering all kinds of anniversaries. Almost all of them were on this day.
If possible, it would be best to set his wedding on this day as well.
Ren Baqian's thoughts drifted as he rushed to the empress's palace.
The empress was dressed in a red robe and sitting on a stool. In front of her was the mirror with the words "If the heavens didn't give birth to Your Majesty, the ages would be like a long night." Beside her was a dressing table.
Meanwhile, Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were helping the empress dress up.
Ren Baqian's eyes lit up when he saw the empress sitting there. There was a golden phoenix spreading its wings on the empress's red robe. When Ren Baqian first returned from Great Xia, he ordered it from a cosplay shop. However, the empress was wearing it today.
In addition, Ren Baqian saw that absolutely beautiful and slightly cold side profile. If this painting of a beauty dressing up was drawn, it would definitely be a treasure handed down from generation to generation.
Unfortunately, Ren Baqian was very confident in his drawing skills.
If he drew a painting of a beauty dressing up for the empress today, he was afraid that he would be beaten to death on a day like this …
If Jack on the Titanic had his drawing skills, there wouldn't be so many stories later on.
Ren Baqian took out his camera and took a picture of this absolutely beautiful scene. Then, he walked behind the empress and carefully watched how Qing Yuan and Hong Luan put the empress's hair in a bun.
Dressing up a beauty was also a pleasure, and Ren Baqian was quite interested in learning how to do it.
"Are you done with those things?" The empress looked at Ren Baqian behind her in the mirror. He had spent three and a half days just for this half a day. Although it was very beautiful and she liked it very much, she still felt that Ren Baqian was a little too idle.
It was time for him to pick up his martial arts skills from tomorrow onwards.
"Your Majesty's beauty today is truly heaven defying!" Ren Baqian looked at the person in the mirror and exclaimed in admiration.
He didn't know if beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but he felt that the empress was getting more and more beautiful!
"If Your Majesty's beauty was 9.8 in the past, it would be 9.9 today. I gave you 0.1 less because I was afraid that you would become arrogant!" After Ren Baqian finished speaking, both Qing Yuan and Hong Luan pursed their lips and laughed.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
