The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian returned to his house in the beast park when night fell. He was carried one jar in each of his hands: one contained a hexagonal dragon while the other contained a green toad.

Both the formula of the black mud cream and the seeds were stuffed onto the top of his chest. Just like that, he fell into a deep slumber.

Unaware of what sleeping posture he ended up in, Ren Baqian subconsciously turned over and nearly knocked the two jars over. He suddenly woke up with start.

Ren Baqian opened his eyes, and even though the surrounding was pitch black, he utilized the light outside and identified that he was already back in his bedroom in China.

After shifting the two jars aside, Ren Baqian turned on the lights and then opened the netted lid at the top of the jars for ventilation. Seeing that the two critters were still leaping and frisking about, he could finally set his heart at ease.

Ren Baqian covered the lids once again and looked at the time, it was not even four in the morning. As he wasn’t able to sleep anymore, he went to the living room, turned on the television, and watched a movie.

When morning arrived, he wanted to head out for breakfast, and only then did he discover that it was somewhat cold outdoors.

Ren Baqian looked at the date and suddenly realized that he had already travelled five times to the other world. It would always be nine days in that world and an additional three days on Earth, amounting to a total of twelve days. These five trips took up two months, and it was already September.

Ren Baqian went back home, found an old jacket, and put it on. He felt that it was a little too tight for him. It seemed like he really packed on weight recently.

Ren Baqian looked at his reflection in the mirror and noticed that his face didn’t gain much weight. But, he indeed became more built.

He then went out to have his breakfast before returning Chen Qing’s call.
Over the past few days, Chen Qing had called him twice. But just as before, nobody picked up the call. Apart from the missed call from Chen Qing, there was another one from Chen Bing.

“This fellow, disappeared for such a long period of time once again. Your whereabouts are getting more and more unpredictable…” Chen Qing fired a volley of questions at him.

“I have the black mud cream’s formula on hand,” Ren Baqian indifferently notified him.

“Oh? Where are you now?” Upon hearing the news, he stopped grumbling and immediately questioned Ren Baqian.

“I will send it to your father’s office in a while. Speaking about the research of the black mud cream, has the team been formed?”

“I do not know the specific details as I am not very involved in this business. However, most of the core members of the research team have been already been recruited, and it should be done soon. Once we have your formula, I reckon that we can proceed with the research.

“Good, I will be there in a jiffy.” Ren Baqian hung up after he spoke. He went back and shifted everything into his car and drove to a foreign brand’s shop to buy a set of casual wear. Ren Baqian then put it on and headed straight to Papa Chen’s company.

Chen Qing rushed over to give Ren Baqian a bear hug as soon as he stepped out of the car. Soon after, he asked with suspicion, “Have you been gaining weight for autumn? You look much more sturdy now.”

Ren Baqian grinned, “I got slightly fatter.”

He looked at Chen Qing who was still the same. Ren Baqian joked, “You and Jiang Nan are about to be engaged, better not fool around anymore.”

“Don’t worry, I have been paying attention to it. An old Chinese physician prescribed a medicine for me and I have been taking it for half a year.” Chen Qing laughed heartily.

Ren Baqian could not help but to give a thumbs up. “As expected, you plan far ahead.”

“Have you brought everything? Let’s go up,” Chen Qing said while pulling Ren Baqian.

“Hang on, it’s still in the car.” Ren Baqian turned around and opened the boot of his car. He took out a box which was padded with waste paper, took out two jars from within, and passed one to Chen Qing. “Hold it, be careful.”

“What is this?” Chen Qing asked with curiosity.

Ren Baqian also held onto one of the jars. The pair then entered the building.

Papa Chen was waiting for the both of them at his office. Apart from him, there were also a middle-aged male and female.

“Uncle Chen,” Ren Baqian greeted as he entered the doors of the office.

“Okay, Baqian has arrived. Let me do the introductions, he is Professor Sun Qing and she is Professor Xu Shan. Both of them are specialists in the medical field. After hearing the efficacy of the black mud cream, they are very interested in it, and so they returned from their overseas organization.”

“Nice meeting the both of you.” Ren Baqian nodded his head towards both the professors. Xu Shan reciprocated with a smile. Sun Qing on the other hand, was elsewhere deep in thought. It was as if Father Chen’s words fell on deaf ears and Ren Baqian was not present at all.

Ren Baqian did not feel at all excluded. He heard that those involved in scientific research were usually eccentric. Furthermore, they did not were unfamiliar the ways of the world as well. Sun Qing was probably someone like that.

Chen Qing and Ren Baqian placed the jars on the table.

“What is this?” Papa Chen asked.

“Two of the ingredients that are used to make the black mud cream. I have also brought the formula and the seeds.” Ren Baqian took the formula out from his clothes and put it on the table.

Chen Qing took a quick glance, softly let out an “Eh” and said, “What are these? spring grass? demonic ladyflower?

Upon hearing Chen Qing’s words, Xu Shan walked over too. She asked, “Can I have a look?”

Ren Baqian caught a glimpse of Papa Chen. Papa Chen nodded his head, “Definitely, we have already signed the contract and there is nothing that should be withheld from you. It will be handed over to you sooner or later anyway.”

Xu Shan picked up the formula and looked. A puzzled look appeared on her face, “What are these?”

Naturally, Ren Baqian knew what was written on the formula. But with regards to the items written on it, he did not know them either. If Ren Baqian did not personally bring the concrete ingredients back, this formula would then be considered worthless.

Ren Baqian took a paper bag out of his pocket. Inside this paper bag were 6 to 7 smaller bags with words written on them.

“They should have many different names, just like how pigs have many different ways to be called. I have brought the seeds back, and we will know what ingredient it is when it grows.”

The rest agreed with Ren Baqian’s explanation.

One by one, they compared the name written on the paper bag to the formula. All of the plant types were matched correctly.

The remaining three ingredients were related to animals. “This earth dragon is just the earthworm?” Xu Shan raised her head and looked at Ren Baqian.

“That’s right. The other two ingredients are in these jars,” Ren Baqian said.

“Hexagonal dragon should be what we call as salamander. Many people raise them as pets, why would it be in the formula? Moreover, this type of organism is mainly found in Mexico and did not exist in the past. It seems that this formula has not existed for a terribly long period of time. However, why would the person who wrote the formula keep it to himself? I have never heard of this formula before.”

If it was supposed that this formula was created by ancient people and had just recently been found by humans and then given by the masses, it was plausible. But if it was a formula developed in the recent decades, why did nobody know about it? This made people rather baffled.

“Take a look at this hexagonal dragon and see if it’s the type that you are talking about?” Ren Baqian opened the lid of the jar, and Chen Qing spoke without needing Xu Shan to say anything.

“Isn’t this the axolotl that people keep as pets! It is usually used for viewing pleasure, and it could actually be used to make medicine?”

“This is it.” Xu Shan confirmed.

Ren Baqian thought for a bit and said, “The hexagonal dragon is a substitute. Previously, they used an animal called pingkouyuan. Afterwards, they discovered that the effect of the hexagonal dragon was even better. Then after, they incorporated the hexagonal dragon as the main ingredient. It is written at the back of the formula, pingkouyuan. This was the previous formula.”

Ren Baqian immediately exchanged the original ingredient with the substitute ingredient. In any case, he did not note down which was the original or substitute ingredient.

As expected, Xu Shan saw that pingkouyuan was written on the back. She finally felt as ease.

“The hexagonal dragon’s restoration capability is very powerful and same goes for the earth dragon. Making use of these types of special effect ingredients to use in medicine, it is indeed possible.” Xu Shan’s face exuded the feeling that she was in deep in thoughts.

“So, we are still lacking the green toad. What is it?”

Ren Baqian opened the lid of the largest jar. The few of them shot their head over, and they merely saw a brown toad species that was the size of about two palms. It seemed like it was just a larger sized toad.

“This is a green toad?”

“Yes, but we have to be extremely careful as these toads are rare and almost extinct. I obtained it with great difficulty. These toads enjoy eating honey. Use a wooden stick and dip it in honey. Once they lick the honey, you will be able to obtain their saliva. In addition, you will have to be extremely careful as it’s very toxic.”

“How toxic? Among the toad species, those brightly-colored species are usually the poisonous ones. Although the size of this green toad is slightly larger than usual, it doesn’t seem like it’s very poisonous,” Sun Qing said as he unknowingly walked to the side.

“Generally speaking, besides it scarcity, the majority of poisonous organisms are usually extremely colorful to warn their predators, ‘Can you see, I am very dangerous.’ Only small and weak organisms will camouflage themselves with the environment. This is the biological evolution choice for thousands of years,” Sun Qing clarified to the others as he extended his hand into the jar with the green toad. It seemed that he was rather confident in his own knowledge.

Evidently, his own understanding did not include the highly toxic green toad in this jar.

“This type of green toad is really poisonous,” Ren Baqian warned.

“Rest assured. Even if it is actually poisonous, it will be fine as long as there is no wound on your hand.” Sun Qing immediately stretched his hand into the jar as he finished his sentence. He touched the back of the green toad, and it moved around. The toad let out a dull croak which sounded a little like thunder rolls.

Ren Baqian looked at Sun Qing and did not continue to utter a word.

Mmm, you are a high-intellectual person. As a professor, you have the final say.

In any case, the poison from the green toad would not take any lives. It just so happened that, he would be able to witness the effect of the green toad’s poison on Earthlings and whether it would be as what Chen Zisheng had described it to be.