"Remember, one month." Ren Baqian pointed his finger at Tong Lan and Shi Gan.
"Everyone is a brick that builds up Dayao. The division of labor does not take into consideration your wealth or status. Work hard! The brushes and buckets are over there. Tomorrow, I hope I can see a sparkling clean toilet." Ren Baqian waved to everyone and left swiftly.
Everyone looked dejected.
However, they had anticipated this happening two days ago. Shi Gan was able to accept the reality rather fast.
He cupped his fists and said to everyone, "Brothers and sisters, sorry for troubling you these few days. Let's make a night of it at House Shanhuai someday. Actually, I have to trouble everyone with another request..."
With an embarrassed tone, Shi Gan continued, "Everyone, please aim properly... Don't spray your pee all over the toilet..."
Everyone, "..."
Tong Lan was furious. Her face was puffed like a stuffed steamed bun, making one want to squeeze it.
Everyone knew how angry she was and none of them dared to provoke her.
"Why don't we get two laborers to clean up the toilets? Yagui won't be here at that time anyway," someone offered a suggestion.
Shi Gan laughed bitterly. "It's not easy to deceive him. If he learns about it, I don't know what he will do. Yagui is right. One has to duly accept the punishment if he or she does something wrong. Since it has come to this, I have to accept it."
Everyone naturally knew it wasn't easy to deceive Ren Baqian. Hearing these words, they did not say anything else and left while sighing.
This was the first time that the 49 students worked as one to do something. It was a pity that they failed.
In the early morning of the second day, Ren Baqian went to check the boys' toilet. The toilet was modeled after those old-fashioned school toilets.
The toilet in the school he attended when he was young had left a deep impression on him. Therefore, he asked the builders to make a cement slope in the toilets. Through this cement slope, urine and waste matter could be flushed into a large pit outside of the toilets with a huge amount of water.
However, the stench of urine and waste matter was still very strong. After all, Dayao's weather was too hot.
Today, the toilet was slightly dirtier than it usually was when cleaned by the laborers. However, he could still tell that it had been cleaned.
Since it had already been cleaned, he wouldn't ask too much from Tong Lan and Shi Gan.
After all, the fact that Shi Gan and Tong Lan were willing to clean the toilets was incredible.
After school had ended in the afternoon, Ren Baqian returned to the imperial palace. Along the way, someone suddenly jumped out of nowhere and roared, "Sir Ren, stop!"
The imperial guards surrounding Ren Baqian were stunned. They thought it was an assassin and drew their swords.
However, when they took a closer look at the person, they realized it was the Minister of Works, Tong Zhenye.
"Sir Tong!" When Ren Baqian saw the angry look on Tong Zhenye's face, he reckoned that it had to have something to do with Tong Lan cleaning the toilets in school.
"Sir Ren, isn't it too much to ask Tong Lan to clean the toilets in school?" Tong Zhenye roared angrily.
"A nation has national laws, and a school has school rules. No matter who it is, I treat everyone equally," Ren Baqian replied.
"Doing this will cause Tong Lan to be mocked in the future. Even if you have the backing of Her Majesty, I'm not willing to take things lying down," Tong Zhenye yelled.
Ren Baqian tilted his head and looked at him. At the same time, he pressed the call button on his walkie-talkie.
Then, he said, "Sir Tong, initially no one knew about this matter, but after you yelled about it so loudly, everyone knows about it now."
Heads were sticking out of a courtyard beside them to see what was going on. If Ren Baqian did not remember wrongly, this seemed to be Shi Qing's mansion.
"How can people not know about such an incident? Sir Ren, even though we have a great relationship, I still have to let you taste my punching bag sized fists today for the sake of Tong Lan!" Tong Zhenye raised his fists and said.
"Sir Tong!" Xu Wei and his counterparts stepped in front of Ren Baqian.
"Get out of the way! Otherwise, I will beat all of you up as well!" Tong Zhenye bellowed.
"Sir Tong, it's our responsibility to protect Sir Ren," Xu Wei furrowed his eyebrows and said.
"Alright then, I will let you know why flowers are so red today!" Tong Zhenye snorted and appeared in front of Xu Wei in a flash. He bent his knees and jumped half a meter above the ground to reach a height that was level with Xu Wei, who was sitting on a horned cow. Then, he launched a heavy shot at Xu Wei with his fist.
Xu Wei threw his fist forward as well. The fists of both parties collided and Xu Wei flew back in the air.
At the same time, Tong Zhenye jumped over the rest of the imperial guards and surged toward Ren Baqian.
"Protect Sir Ren!" One of the imperial guards yelled and jumped up from his horned cow. However, he was instantly smacked to the ground by Tong Zhenye.
When Ren Baqian saw Tong Zhenye fly toward him with lightning speed after knocking off Xu Wei and the other imperial guard, he raised his pistol and fired it. He knew it couldn't hurt Tong Zhenye and merely wanted to slow him down.
When Tong Zhenye saw the black handgun in Ren Baqian's hand, his pupils shrunk. Following which, he made a flip in the air and dodged the bullet. He smacked an imperial guard that was right below him and used the reactionary force to make another flip in the air. Subsequently, he surged toward Ren Baqian again.
"Today, I will let you taste my punching bag sized fists!" Tong Zhenye howled with laughter in the air.
A red figure suddenly appeared beside Tong Zhenye. Before anyone could clearly see who the red figure was, Tong Zhenye flew back like a bullet and smashed into the wall of the courtyard beside them.
Half of the wall collapsed.
After hitting Tong Zhenye, the red figure landed on top of a horned cow and stood there with a calm look on her face.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," everyone greeted the empress in unison.
"So how big is a punching bag sized fist?" the empress asked coldly.
Covered in dirt, Tong Zhenye picked himself up.
"Your Majesty, Tong Lan arduously spars with him and teaches him how to fight every day, but he made her clean toilets."
"Sir Tong, a true man has to be objective. I know Tong Lan has worked very hard in sparring with me, so she does deserve some credit. However, she has indeed done something wrong and has to be punished for it. Furthermore, she isn't the only one that is cleaning the toilets. The Great Elder's son, Shi Gan, is cleaning the toilets as well, but you don't see the Great Elder confronting me." Righteousness was written all over Ren Baqian's face.
Tong Zhenye furrowed his eyebrows, appearing to have thought of something. Then, he clapped his hands with a look of realization on his face.
"No wonder the Great Elder told me about this matter! I can't believe he actually set a trap for me! I have to confront him about this matter and let him taste my fists! Your Majesty, I shall leave first."
Ren Baqian looked at Tong Zhenye with incredulity.
Tong Zhenye, can you put on a better act?
"Why are you in a rush to leave? You haven't told me how big a punching bag sized fist is. I am very curious about it," the empress said coldly.
Tong Zhenye gave a dry laugh and cupped his fists.
"Your Majesty, I have already seen a footbag-sized fist just now. It is truly formidable and I have nothing but admiration for it. It's just that it came at me too fast, so I couldn't take a proper look at it."
"I will show it to you again then!" The empress appeared in front of Tong Zhenye in a flash and punched him, causing him to fly into the air again.
Another huge chunk of the wall surrounding the Great Elder's courtyard broke off.
Shi Qing was sitting in the courtyard while looking at the bruised Tong Zhenye. Then, he poured himself a cup of tea and drank it.
With a casual tone, he said, "I shall let the fact that you maligned me just now pass, but you will fix this wall, right?"
"Pffft." Tong Zhenye spat out a mouthful of blood.
With a gloomy look on his face, he sighed and said, "Sigh, Her Majesty has changed."