After all, they managed to repel Great Xia attack after just over a month this time around, and all of Lan City's commoners were very proud of this.
This was the strength of our empress.
Thus, when they knew that the empress was returning, they fell over each other in their eagerness to see the empress with their own eyes.
From the city gate to Beihong District, both sides of the street were filled with people. Even the drizzle couldn't dampen the passion of Lan City's commoners.
"Her Majesty!"
"It's Her Majesty!"
"Long live the victors, Your Majesty!"
All sorts of cheers could be heard from the crowd.
The empress's imperial carriage drew open its front curtains, allowing the people to see her decked in red and laying on her side.
Just like how Ren Baqian saw the empress for the first time, she was lying on a thick layer of fur without much expression. Her eyes were lightly shut while both Hong Luan and Qing Yuan followed closely behind.
Even though she wasn't sitting upright with a strict posture, this image very much fulfilled the impression that the commoners had of her.
Ren Baqian was riding on a fork-horned cow and following behind her submissively. It was inevitable for the crowd to point fingers at him.
Thanks to the existence of the radio station, the daily situation of the north was able to be reported to Lan City. After that, various court officials spread the news to the official residence, which was then further transmitted to the commoners.
Everyday and everywhere, all of Lan City was discussing the battle in the north throughout the day.
Many of the things that happened during the war had also reached the ears of the civilians.
As a result, even though Ren Baqian was still the empress's gigolo, many people heard that this man had contributed quite a fair bit during this war with Great Xia. This made many people change their impressions of him.
At least it wasn't a case of a fresh flower stalk sitting atop a mosaic anymore.
It had almost advanced to the state of a fresh flower stalk sitting atop cow dung.
This improvement was worthy of celebration.
Ren Baqian turned his head to the side and coincidentally saw a few heads sticking out from an open window.
Those were his students.
Ren Baqian smiled at them, revealing a set of dense white teeth.
"Yagui spotted us!" Those students subconsciously pulled back their heads.
"Du Laoliu, have you finished your homework?"
"What is there to worry about? The empress has just returned after such a victorious battle. A banquet will definitely be thrown in the palace. In addition to the other things that he has to settle, that Yagui certainly will not resume school that soon. There'll be more than enough time to finish the homework." Just as Du Laoliu finished speaking with such confidence and patted his own chest, he turned around and looked at the others.
"What about you guys?"
"Not yet…" A few other students were facing the same plight as Du Laoliu. During this period of war in the north, they had been at the restaurant every day talking about the war and exchanging information that they had gotten from their parents. How could they possibly be in the mood to do their homework?
Du Laoliu glanced past every single one of them and felt a little disappointed.
Although he was so confident with his words, if classes were to resume within a few days later, he still wouldn't have enough time to finish his homework even if he were to stay home each day to do it.
When that happens, he would have no choice but to take a bullet again.
Out of all the students, he got shot the most.
Even though the wounds would recover after applying the black mud cream, there would still be patches of fresh skin on the body that were different from before.
Since then, he didn't dare to bare his upper body anymore.
Beneath his clothes, there were white spots on both his arms and shoulders that were roughly the size of a fingertip. Those who didn't know would think that he had dermatosis.
"I've completed half of it," one of the students replied.
Everyone's attention was directed over to him.
"Buddy, the lives of your elder brothers here rest in your hands." Du Laoliu placed his arms around this student's neck.
"A bunch of useless people!" A lolita walked down the stairs with a face full of disdain.
"Have you completed it?" Everybody's eyes sparkled.
"Hmph!" The lolita pridefully held her head up high as she walked down the stairs, not bothered by the looks of envy from the rest.
After leaving the restaurant, her head immediately drooped, and she ran straight back to the Tong Residence. She became frantic the moment she reached home, gritting her teeth before rushing to complete her homework.
…
When Ren Baqian returned to Pingle Park, the first thing he saw were the two round chaps, one black and one white. One of them was lying on the ground while the other one was stepping on it and climbing up a tree.
Almost a year had passed, and those two chaps had grown quite a bit.
Ren Baqian walked over as those two chaps looked at him.
After that, Ren Baqian tugged on the panda at the bottom, causing the one on top to lose its balance and tumble down.
Ren Baqian burst into laughter, hugged the furry panda, and rubbed his face against it. It had a familiar smell.
The other panda rolled on the ground before running toward Ren Baqian with its mouth wide open and wanting to push him away. With a light touch, Ren Baqian pushed it away. It tumbled and fell, immediately letting out a cry as if it had been wronged.
Ren Baqian rubbed the bodies of the two pandas and went inside the house to have a look. There actually wasn't much dust. It seemed like there had been people cleaning the place after he left.
He then dove straight into his bed. He had finally returned home and had a bed to sleep on.
The long distance travelling in this world was simply too exhausting.
It was already dark when Ren Baqian was woken up. He stretched his body and felt much better.
"Sir, Her Majesty has asked you to join the banquet in a while," Shi Hu reported.
"Is everyone in the imperial court attending?"
"That's right."
Ren Baqian pondered for a bit. It seemed that he only possessed that green ceremonial robe.
"The empress has ordered someone to tailor a ceremonial robe for you. I reckon it should be here soon," Shi Hu replied.
"Heat up the water. Let me take a bath first."
When he was done bathing, the ceremonial robe had already been delivered.
Given his current official position, his robe was purple and had beautiful birds embroidered on it. It was much nicer than his previous green ceremonial robe.
The last time he attended a banquet, Ren Baqian sat at the furthest end of the table. If not for the empress's special invitation, he wasn't even eligible to attend that banquet given his status back then.
This time around, his seat was together with Feng Hou and a few officials from the Ministry of Works at the first half of the table.
Next to him were Feng Hou, the Overseer of Military Arms, as well as Ge Yihong, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. In front of him were the six Ministers, Great Elder, and Junior Elder.
The moment Ren Baqian entered the banquet hall, he received a number of stares. He also received greetings from a few officials from the Ministry of Works whom he had worked with.
As for the other departments, the officials of the Ministry of War were rather friendly to him as well.
The others weren't exactly sure of how the items Ren Baqian brought out these days had impacted the war front, but the Ministry of War was crystal clear about this. Also, the idea of the militia that he had devised had made the people at the Ministry of War rather pleased. Hence, they were very friendly with Ren Baqian the moment they saw him.
For instance, they were grinning nastily at him!
Those who were unaware would think that they were planning to beat him up.
"Sir Ren, this trip has been tiresome for you." The moment Ren Baqian took his seat, Feng Hou smiled as he sat down beside him.
"Service for the nation!" Ren Baqian replied courteously.
Feng Hou was speechless.
What is he talking about?"How is the building progress of the blast furnace?" Ren Baqian questioned him.
"Still in progress. The rain has been rather heavy these days and has slowed down the construction speed quite a bit," Feng Hou replied.
The rainy monsoon season arrived earlier in Lan City. It had been pouring these days, and even the speed of cement production had been badly affected. Thus, up until the return of Ren Baqian, the blast furnace was only half completed.
At present, the hydraulic powered forge had been completed. This was a much easier process, and the production rate of weapons had increased significantly.
On the contrary, now that the blast furnace was half completed, the supply of metal was insufficient to keep up with the building progress.
Ren Baqian and Feng Hou chatted for a bit before the six Ministers entered one after another.
Both Great Elder and Junior Elder followed behind.
After everyone was seated, the empress walked into the hall.
"We respectfully welcome Your Majesty and congratulate Your Majesty's victorious return!" Everyone stood up and bowed.
"Take your seats," the empress replied faintly before taking the seat of honor and saying, "We will not talk about politics today. Today is a celebration, so help yourselves to the drinks. Begin the performance!"
After the empress's speech ended, six strong men and six ladies walked into the hall. The men were wearing leather shorts, while the ladies wore tube tops and leather skirts.
After that, the fast beating of drums sounded. The 12 people starting performing a primitive dance in the middle of the hall. Many of the movements resembled that of hunting and were full of energy while wild in nature. They were also shouting, "He! Ha!"
Soon after, an ocarina sounded as well, which added on a swab of desolation to the wild nature, as if they were in an endless wilderness.
"This is a celebratory dance. In the strongholds back in the past, if there was a fruitful hunt or a victorious battle against enemies, such dances would be performed," Feng Hou softly explained to Ren Baqian because he knew that Ren Baqian was clueless about this.
Ren Baqian nodded. Such primitive dances were interesting and full of vitality.
After the dance ended, a few middle-aged ladies played instruments which resembled a pipa.
The mood in the hall was immediately lifted up.
Starting from Great Elder, everyone started toasting the empress.
The hall was filled with liveliness and harmony.
Up until an hour later…
All of a sudden, somebody shouted loudly, "Ignorant old man Tong, what did you say? Do you want to have a taste of how sharp my blade is?"
"Come, come, come, I shall teach you a life lesson today…" Tong Zhenye's voice resounded.
After a couple of slams, Tong Zhenye and Qin Chuan immediately lifted the table and leaped over to the center of the hall. Tong Zhenye struck with [Black Tiger Steals Heart], and Qin Chuan struck back with [Monkey Steals Peach]. This was followed by another [Black Tiger Steals Heart] from Tong Zhenye. Then, Qin Chuan attacked with his [Darkness Lifting Kick], followed by another [Black Tiger Steals Heart]. After that, Tong Zhenye attacked with [Dredging Moon from the Seabed]… and then the fourth and fifth move of the [Black Tiger Steals Heart]. There were people at the side cheering loudly for them as well.
"The strike by Sir Tong was executed at the perfect moment and disrupted Sir Qin's readiness, forcing him to defend. Due to one mistake, Sir Qin's position went leeward. Sir Tong then struck again, forcing Sir Qin to retreat…" Feng Hou assessed the fight from the side, speaking rather loudly.
Ren Baqian's face was full of expression.
From Tong Zhenye's [Black Tiger Steals Heart], there were 13 consecutive strikes.
You are actually able to read so much into it?"Feng Hou, stop spouting nonsense!" someone immediately shouted from the opposite table.
Plates and cups then went flying toward Feng Hou.
At the sight of this situation, Ren Baqian hurriedly crawled to the side.
He then heard some rustling sounds coming from behind him.
After he crawled behind a pillar to hide, Feng Hou got into a fight with a burly man from the Ministry of War.
Bowls and plates subsequently started flying across both sides of the hall.
Stretching out his arm, Ren Baqian grabbed ahold of a piece of pig trotter in midair. On closer inspection, two chunks of meat had already been bitten off.
Out of disgust, he threw that piece of pig trotter away.
"Sit here, Sir Ren." Shi Qing waved at him from a place nearby.
Ren Baqian stopped in his tracks after taking just two steps.
An enormous shadow flew toward Shi Qing's direction, knocking him and the table onto the ground.
Tong Zhenye stood up, picked Shi Qing up, and placed him on the ground. He looked around and spotted something, then picked up Shi Qing's document case that had been knocked over and threw it at Qin Chuan.
Looking at the situation, Ren Baqian thought that it would be better for him to stay in his location.
He turned his head and looked at the empress, only to see her sitting in the seat of honor as if nothing was happening, filling her own glass, and drinking.
It was so chaotic below, yet the empress could still be so calm.
Ren Baqian was full of admiration for the empress.