The Empress’s Gigolo

After an hour, more tables were set up along the entrance of the shaved ice shop.

The guy that was previously standing behind the counter in the shop was Shi Xigu. His name sounded civilized, but he was still a burly chap that had thick and muscular limbs. He was Caretaker Shi’s relative.

At this moment, he was slicing fruit and shaving ice at the shop’s entrance. First, he shaved the ice and made a bowl of ice shavings, then he placed some fruit pulps on it ,and finally he drizzled some fruit juice over it. This was how a bowl of shaved ice was made.

Meanwhile, Shi Qingshan was making full use of his loud voice, yelling, “Shaved ice! Fruit shaved ice! Ice-cold and thirst-quenching! It can relieve you of the summer heat! Come and try this shaved ice in such a hot weather!”

His voice could be heard even from half a street away.

Ren Baqian held a bowl of shaved ice that had just been made and slurped it, placing spoonfuls of shaved ice into his mouth. It indeed felt good to eat shaved ice in such a hot weather.

After a while, Caretaker Shi held a bowl of shaved ice that had just been made and sat beside Ren Baqian.

A few pedestrians that were drenched in sweat gathered around them. They stretched their necks and asked, “What’s this?”

“Fruit shaved ice. This is the ice that can only be found in the North. Take one mouthful of it in summer and you will be relieved of summer heat immediately. You will feel coolness from head to toe,” Shi Qingshan promoted.

The few pedestrians’ interests were aroused when they saw Ren Baqian’s and Caretaker Shi’s bowls of shaved ice drenched in reddish-orange fruit juice. They asked, “How much is one bowl?”

“Five coins. If the taste isn’t worth it, feel free to smash my shop,” Shi Qingshan said as he gestured with his hands.

“Give me one,” a burly man immediately yelled.

“Alright, we have watermelon, orange, and green lotus, which flavor do you want?” Shi Xigu asked while shaving the ice.

“Watermelon!” The burly man’s eyes were filled with envy when he saw the watermelon shaved ice that Ren Baqian was holding.

After a while, a bowl of shaved ice that was covered in fruit pulp and juice was placed in the burly man’s hands. He examined it closely.

So, this is ice?

When the burly man placed a spoonful of shaved ice into his mouth, his eyes immediately widened. “So cold!”

“Not bad, not bad, it tastes good.” The burly man nodded his head repeatedly as he brandished the spoon in his hand so quickly that afterimages began to appear.

Upon seeing the burly man acting like this, the rest of the pedestrians’ interests were piqued.

“Give me one.”

“I want orange flavored.”

…

After a while, the shop was surrounded by seven to eight people. All of them were waiting to buy the shaved ice.

This was a quick and easy task, with the exception being that shaving the ice would take some time and effort. After a while, everyone had a bowl of shaved ice in their hands.

The burly man who was the first one to buy a bowl of shaved ice was already starting on his second bowl. His face was filled with comfort.

“Ugh! It’s poisonous!” The burly man suddenly grasped his stomach while his facial expression changed.

When the rest heard these words, they almost threw away the bowls in shaved ice in their hands.

“Poisonous my foot!” Ren Baqian could not help but blurt out, “Eating too much cold food in a short period of time can irritate your stomach.”

Everyone looked at the bowls of shaved ice in their hands, then shifted their gazes to Ren Baqian, and finally had their gazes landed upon the burly man. There was a dead silence.

The burly man had a constipated look on his face. He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed two huge chest pecs that were trembling non-stop. After a while, he recovered and looked at the bowl of shaved ice in his hands and said, “It gave me a huge fright as I thought I was poisoned.”

Then, he gave Ren Baqian a surprised look and asked, “How did you know what happened?”

“Err… This is common sense in the North?” Ren Baqian rolled his eyes and replied.

On Earth, it’s common sense that wolfing down ice cream will irritate the stomach and cause a stomachache. Furthermore, given the way you wolfed down the two bowls of shaved ice, it’s not surprising that you have a stomachache. You really thought you are made of metal?

When everyone saw the burly man was alright, all of them then felt at ease. Someone then asked Shi Qingshan for permission to eat in the shop and went in.

“Sir, can I order a takeaway?” The burly man glanced at the bowl in his hand and asked.

“Bring your own bowl here,” Shi Qingshan replied.

The burly man put the bowl down and squeezed out of the surrounding crowd.

Ren Baqian and Caretaker Shi stood to one side and watched as the number of customers increased. There were some people sitting inside the shop as well. Both of them finally felt relieved. After rejecting Caretaker Shi’s suggestion to visit their other shop, Ren Baqian headed back to the beast park.

As long as the fame of the shaved ice shop spread, there wouldn’t be much problems left, and he did not need to worry anymore.

Given Dayao’s furnace-like weather, if one said that the shaved ice shop wouldn’t make money, Ren Baqian would be the first one to discredit him or her.

“Qi Zixiao, I heard you’re the number one expert in Dayao, one of the top ten experts in this world. I’m Long Wanli and I have travelled over a great distance here to challenge you.”

Suddenly, a thunderous voice resounded through the air, causing an absolute silence to descend upon the entire Jingyang Road.

“Qi Zixiao, I heard you’re the number one expert in Dayao, one of the top ten experts in this world. I’m Long Wanli and I have travelled over a great distance here to challenge you.”

After the voice rang across the air three times in a row, an uproar broke out in the entire Jingyang Road. Countless people flooded out of the shops on the both sides of the street and looked in the direction of the voice.

When Ren Baqian heard these words, his interest was piqued in an instant. “This is a challenge? This voice is ten times louder than Caretaker Shi’s and his son’s voice add together. It definitely belongs to an expert.”

“Let’s go and see where it comes from.” Ren Baqian had an excited look on his face. After having been to this world so many times, this was the first time he experienced something like this.

Even though fights easily occurred every day in this city, none of these fights was as exciting as a duel between two experts.

“It’s the imperial city!” Caretaker Shi quickened his pace.

They were not the only ones whose interest was piqued by the thunderous voice. Many people were heading in the direction of the voice, sweeping up Ren Baqian and Caretaker Shi in the process.

“Eh?” Ren Baqian was slightly stunned by Caretaker Shi’s words as they squeezed themselves through the crowd. “Who’s Qi Zixiao?”

“It’s Her Majesty,” Caretaker Shi said softly.

“…”

It wasn’t until this moment that Ren Baqian knew the empress’s name.

Even though he had heard before that the empress was the number one expert in Dayao, he was still stunned when he heard her name.

After all, the empress looked young and she already had an imperial court full of civil and military officials. She even had an unknown number experts from the mountains in her service.

All this time, Ren Baqian thought the reputation of the empress being the number one expert in Dayao was just an exaggeration.

Looking at the situation, it seemed that the empress was really the number one expert in Dayao, huh?

Initially, Ren Baqian thought the challenger was challenging a general. He did not expect the empress was the one being challenged. Ren Baqian had no choice but to admit that this man was quite foolish to challenge the ruler of a nation.

“Will this man be shot to death by tens of thousands of arrows?” Ren Baqian asked subconsciously.

“Depends on Her Majesty’s mood?” Caretaker Shi replied with uncertainty.

“Will Her Majesty really accept his challenge and fight him?” Ren Baqian asked with curiosity. Wouldn’t the empress have her status lowered for accepting someone’s challenge and fighting him personally? If anything happened to her, it would be a misfortune for the entire nation.

A wise man wouldn’t stand beside a collapsing wall. Even though this saying did not exist in Dayao, surely, they knew it wasn’t good to keep on fighting in the throne room of the imperial palace, right?

“Depends on Her Majesty’s mood,” Caretaker Shi repeated.

“Have you seen Her Majesty fight before?” Ren Baqian asked. Caretaker Shi’s words sounded as though this wouldn’t the first time the empress had accepted a challenge.

“Of course I have seen her fight before. Last year, there were more than ten challengers. This year, this person is the first one.”

“All of them have been defeated?” Ren Baqian asked. Did he hear correctly that the man said the empress was one of the top ten experts in this word? The more Ren Baqian heard about the empress, the more formidable he felt she was.

“All of them were beaten to death!” Caretaker Shi sinisterly sneered.

“…” Ren Baqian gasped.