The Empress’s Gigolo

When Ren Baqian woke up, he saw a slightly unfamiliar room. He shook his head with all his strength, finally sobering up.

Yesterday afternoon, he went to the palace and continued the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. That night he was dragged by Caretaker Shi and the other two caretakers to drink until midnight.

The alcohol content of the liquors in this world wasn’t high, but they were able to hit people very hard in their heads. After drinking too much of them, one would have a head-splitting headache.

He went into the bathroom, washed his face, and looked at his reflection in the mirror. During this period of time, his skin tone had become much darker and his body had turned more sturdy.

He couldn’t do anything about it. In that world, he had meat at almost every meal, and he seldom ate carbohydrates and vegetables. After a period of time, he easily became bigger in body size.

He switched on his phone and saw three missed calls. Two were from Chen Qing and one was from somebody unexpected. It was Dong Haiqing, who had exchanged numbers with him that day.

“I wonder what she called me for?” Ren Baqian thought to himself. He seemed to remember Dong Haiqing talking about hosting a class reunion. This call should be regarding that matter.

He did not immediately return the missed calls. He went online and searched for methods to tan furs and hides. He settled on two methods: alum tanning and chrome tanning. These two methods needed alum and mirabilite respectively. It was possible that both alum and mirabilite could be found in that world. After all, he could not possibly bring materials from Earth to that world every time.

After daybreak, Ren Baqian went out to have breakfast. Next, he drove out to buy alum and mirabilite.

He then went to a few electric welding shops to find someone that could make an indigenous electric fan.

Ren Baqian thought of this not too long ago. After all, modern people had a deeper understanding of electric fans, and it was easier for them to make one.

He could bring the finished product back to that world and use it as a model for someone to replicate it.

After visiting a few shops, he finally found someone that would accept his job with a payment of 3000 yuan. He could collect it on the second day. The shop owner’s words made him think of another thing, air cooler. This was another thing could be easily made. He only needed to fix a box outside the electric fan and place a water curtain in front of it.

He did not need to care about the water circulatory system. All he needed to do was to place a water tank above it and pour water into it. This was much easier than sustaining a water circulatory system.

Following which, he bought some food back to his house. Every time he woke up and came back to Earth, it was already the tenth day. The food in his fridge needed to be disposed of and changed every time he came back.

These days, his fridge contained food that would not go bad easily like sausages.

Just when Ren Baqian reached home, his phone rang. He saw the name of a person that he wasn’t too familiar with, Dong Haiqing.

He ruminated over it and picked up her call after the phone rang for the fifth time.

“Ren Baqian? Eight Thousand Years Old?” Dong Haiqing’s voice greeted him from the other end of the line.

(Baqian is eight thousand in Chinese, she is making fun of Ren Baqian’s name when she said Eight Thousand Years Old)

When Ren Baqian heard this long-forgotten nickname, he felt slightly embarrassed. Since he was young, he only had this nickname.

No matter which new environment he settled into, people would very soon call him by this nickname.

He could not help but to admit that people across different environments roughly had the same mindset.

Ren Baqian did not mention this nickname to Dong Haiqing the last time he met her. He still thought she had forgotten about it, and he did not expect her to recall it.

“It’s me!”

“I’ve had a really hard time contacting you.” Dong Haiqing seemed to be smiling brightly at the other end of the line.

“I just came back to Shencheng.”

“Oh? Do you want to go to the class reunion? It’s happening tonight, you’re only one left in Shencheng that has yet to confirm with me,” Dong Haiqing said.

“Who is going?”

After Ren Baqian asked this question, Dong Haiqing told him six names, including Chen Bing. He wasn’t familiar with anyone, or rather, he wasn’t familiar with anyone since his schooling days. Even for the people from the same dormitory as him, he only knew them as hi-bye friends.

“Why? Do you still need to see if your dream girl is at the class reunion first before going? Is it very hard to invite Eight Thousand Years Old to a gathering now?” Dong Haiqing teased.

“Alright, I will go,” Ren Baqian said helplessly.

“Alright then. It’s starting at six in the evening. I will send you the address later.” Dong Haiqing hung up the phone after finishing her sentence.

Ren Baqian switched on the television and fell into a daze. After a while, he went online and searched for information covering various fields.

After all, he could not come back and search online for information only after he encountered problems.

It was fortunate that he was able to teleport to and fro between the two worlds. However, he could not make certain this would happen all the time. There was a possibility that he might get stuck in that world.

If he was going to be stuck on Earth, he would still be alright. If he was going to be stuck in that world, he better learned more things now.

Soon, it was afternoon. When Ren Baqian saw it was about time to for the reunion, he bathed, put on a T-shirt, and left his house.

The restaurant where the class reunion was taking place wasn’t really huge. After all, all of them had just recently graduated and they did not have much money yet.

From its outer appearance, the restaurant did look quite exquisite.

Dong Haiqing and a pretty-looking girl were standing at the entrance. When Dong Haiqing saw Ren Baqian’s Audi A6L, her eyes lit up. She said to the girl beside her, “He’s here. I have created a chance for both of you to meet. You have made good use of it. In the past, I really could not tell Ren Baqian is from a rich family.”

The other girl was, naturally, Chen Bing. When she was still in school, there was a period of time in which she was quite interested in Ren Baqian.

She even thought of pursuing him.

However, when Dong Haiqing knew of it, she told her, “Ren Baqian isn’t handsome, he isn’t rich, and he isn’t capable.”

After hearing those words, she pondered over her feelings. Eventually, nothing happened between the two of them.

The underripe fruit in her heart in those years eventually rotted silently and dropped to the ground and disappeared into thin air.

Before this class reunion, Dong Haiqing suddenly told her to make full use of the chance and see if she and Ren Baqian could end up together or not. Dong Haiqing also told her Ren Baqian actually came from a rich family.

She had an indescribable feeling in her heart.

She felt somewhat painful and bitter, as though she was going to cry.

“Oh! Eight Thousand Years Old, you’re finally here. If I can’t invite you here, I can’t explain myself to everyone that’s already here,” Dong Haiqing yelled at Ren Baqian, who was getting down from his car.

When Ren Baqian stepped out of his car, he could already see Dong Haiqing and Chen Bing. He raised his hand and greeted them.

“Long time no see, it seems you have made it big,” Chen Bing greeted Ren Baqian after she sorted out her emotions.

Ren Baqian did not know what to say. One month ago, he was still drawing a monthly salary of 4000 yuan while living in a small rented apartment.

One year of his salary was barely enough to keep him alive.

Now that he had become somebody in other people’s eyes, he could not get used to it.

“Let’s go, everyone is already inside, you’re the only one left,” Dong Haiqing told him.

They entered a private room where there were five persons already sitting inside: three guys and two girls.

When they saw Ren Baqian, they were stunned momentarily. Then, one of them asked, “Are you Eight Thousand Years Old?”

“You’re Liu Zidong, right? It has been only a year since we last met and you have already become so fat.” Ren Baqian reached out his hand to shake this person’s. This person had a square face and he looked like he weighed at least 90 kilograms. Ren Baqian remembered that he was only around 60 kilograms while they were still students. He did not expect him to become so fat after a single year.

“I am Xu Li. We have been classmates for four years, but Eight Thousand Years Old doesn’t even know who I am. This is really embarrassing for me.” Xu Li laughed at himself. Everyone else burst out laughing too.

The next moment, Ren Baqian felt embarrassed. He had only graduated for one year, and he had already mistaken Xu Li for someone else.

The other four people wore spectacles. The one wearing a very small pair of spectacles was called Guo Kai. The sunshine-looking guy with a very clean appearance and neat hairstyle was Qi Kai. The other two girls were Zhang Xiaotong and Miao Feifei. Both of their looks were average.

Other than Xu Li, the guys wore T-shirts and pants. The girls wore office attire, looking as though they had just ended work.