Beside him, there was a stone tablet with the words "Jingyang Ridge" inscribed on it. Not far away, there was a wine shop.
Wang Dachui entered the wine shop, sat down, smacked the table, and yelled, "Waiter, serve some wine please!"
After finishing the bowl of wine in one gulp, Wang Dachui smacked the table again. "Waiter, more wine please. Give me a plate of pickled cabbage as well."
After finishing his third bowl of wine, Wang Dachui smacked the table to ask for more wine again. The waiter said softly to him, "Sir, our wine is very strong. It is said that one will not be able to cross the ridge after drinking a third bowl..."
"Cut the nonsense. Serve me more wine now, I have the Blue Potion..." Wang Dachui smacked the table with confidence.
...
After drinking 18 bowls of wine, Wang Dachui left the wine shop and walked to a secluded area. Suddenly, a roar resounded through the air and a tiger with raised eyebrows appeared in front of Wang Dachui.
Wang Dachui was stunned. Following which, he took out a blue bottle and drank its contents. His eyes regained clarity instantly, and he turned around and fled. His legs moved so fast that they resembled the rotating blades of a fan.
"One must drink Blue Potion after drinking alcohol..."
Ren Baqian sat on the sofa and grinned. Today was the premiere of Blue Potion's advertisement. He intentionally switched on the television to watch it. The advertisement was rather impressive.
Especially the face of Wang Dachui, which Ren Baqian reckoned that youngsters would laugh at when they saw it.
After the advertisement ended, Ren Baqian switched off the television. Then, he went to the clothing shop that he had visited last time to collect the empress's cape. Afterward, he brought the cape, the snacks for the empress, a box of glassware for chemistry experiments, and some other materials back to Dayao.
He also brought along a sack of salt that weighed roughly 20 catties. Some of it was intended for Na Gu's commision while the rest of it was intended for the stronghold as a gift to express his gratitude. It could last them for roughly half a month.
Upon arriving in Dayao, Ren Baqian felt that he had stepped on "something," which gave him a fright.
The "thing" that he had stepped on reacted even more strongly than him. With a flip, that "thing" threw Ren Baqian against the wall, causing the things in his hands to fall all over the ground.
"Who are you trying to scare?" Ren Baqian felt pain all over his body. He reckoned that if he wasn't at the level of Man Wheel, he would have broken all his bones.
Apparently, the "thing" that he stepped on was Lin Qiaole, whose hair was standing on end.
"You stepped on me first!" At this point in time, Lin Qiaole was fully awake with an angry look on her face. Her hair was standing on end. If she had a tail, it would now resemble a spike mace.
"This is such a big house, so what are you doing there?" At this moment, Ren Baqian heard a loud crash. He looked down and saw that most of the glassware had been smashed into smithereens, resembling crushed tofu.
"This is such a big house, so why can't I be here?" Lin Qiaole glared at Ren Baqian angrily while revealing her canine teeth.
Ren Baqian, "..."
"Do you know how precious these things are?" Ren Baqian pointed at the box of smashed glassware with a look of resentment on his face.
"You stepped on me first." Lin Qiaole also heard the sound of the glassware breaking and reckoned that she might be in deep trouble. She quickly laid down, closed her eyes, and fell asleep. She used her hands to cover her ears completely.
Seeing this, Ren Baqian did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Do you think you're an ostrich?
It was such a pity. He was going to demonstrate a chemistry experiment to his students. Now, he failed before he even started.
Ren Baqian did not care about the box of glassware anymore. He switched on the radio station because he wanted to see if anything had happened while he was away.
Ancient warfare wasn't the same as modern warfare. An army could reach the enemy's capital in merely a few days after the start of a war.
It had been 10 days since the war started. The empress and her army still needed a few days before they could reach the front line.
They had spent a lot of time travelling.
However, even though they suffered a huge loss at the start of the war and were just getting familiarized with the modern communication equipment, the current situation for the aboriginals wasn't too bad.
That was because the enemy forces were severely delayed as well.
"Your Majesty, are you there?" Ren Baqian asked after realizing that no one was talking.
"What's the matter?" It seemed that the empress had been listening to the radio station all along. It was just that she did not have the intention to talk. She replied a few seconds after Ren Baqian popped the question.
"So Your Majesty is here! Greetings, Your Majesty!" someone immediately said.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" +1
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" +2
Ren Baqian, "..."
Why are all of you so dull-witted?
"If you have something, say it. Otherwise, you're dismissed," the empress plainly said.
The channel became silent once again.
"Your Majesty, the north is cold, remember to wear more clothes. I have prepared a cape for you. Tomorrow, I will have someone send it to you," Ren Baqian chuckled.
The empress, "..."
"How's everything on your end?" the empress asked.
"There shouldn't be many problems. For the next two days, we will be heading to the other place to take a look. Afterward, we can start looking for ways to produce salt," Ren Baqian replied. Nowadays, the empress was the only person that he could share his joy with.
"Good!" The empress's voice was filled with joy. Salt and iron were resources that were extremely important to any country. However, Dayao lacked both resources.
Now, the scarcity of iron and salt had been tentatively resolved.
As such, the empress was very happy.
After talking for a while longer, Ren Baqian dismissed himself and switched off the radio station. When he turned around, he saw Lin Qiaole looking at him with a pair of big, pitiful eyes while holding her stomach with both her hands.
"I can't help you with this. Go out and make yourself some hot water," Ren Baqian said.
"Hot water can't fill up my stomach..." Lin Qiaole whined.
"Are you hungry?" Ren Baqian suddenly realized what was going on.
"What do you think?" Lin Qiaole asked.
It was only after Ren Baqian instructed an imperial guard to prepare some food that he found out that Lin Qiaole had never left the house at all yesterday. All her meals had been sent to her.
She must have been waiting for him to return.
"This stupid girl!" Ren Baqian sighed.
...
The next day, Ren Baqian instructed an imperial guard to send the cape and snacks to the empress. Then, he set off with his party. This time around, they had to travel for an entire day and spend the night in the wild. As such, many students were very excited.
Tong Lan secretly snuck up beside Ren Baqian and said with a cheeky tone, "Yesterday, you spent the entire day with Sister Lin in the house. A man and a woman together in a room—a dry kindling on a blazing fire. How are you going to explain this to Her Majesty?"
Ren Baqian almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
The metal chain came out of Ren Baqian's head like an antenna, perfectly straight.
"Where did you learn these words from?" Ren Baqian asked with incredulity.
"Every time Dad goes to the brothel to drink, Grandpa would always say these words," Tong Lan replied.
Ren Baqian was shocked.
Tong Zhenye, you old bast*ard! Given your success in the Ultimate Battle of Brothels, how dare you say these words?
Tong Lan, your dad isn't your grandpa's legitimate son, right?
"Yawwwn!" The sleepy Lin Qiaole let out a big yawn and asked, "What's there to be explained?"
"And every time Dad would be beaten up by Mom," Tong Lan continued with contempt.
A smirk appeared on Ren Baqian's face.