The Empress’s Gigolo

Everyone in the Zhang family served under Ren Baqian with the intention of learning something from him.

After all, he had proven his superiority in many fields and shown that the knowledge of the Zhang family was insignificant to him.

Despite such intentions, they were shocked by the blueprints given to them by Ren Baqian and felt indifferent about whether or not it was a good idea to link their destinies to Ren Baqian.

“This is a blueprint for a clock tower. There are three pointers of different lengths: the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand.”

“This type of dial divides a day into 12 double hour intervals. Every double hour is divided into two one-hour intervals. When the minute hand completes a cycle, the hour hand advances by one. Advancing twice means a double hour has elapsed. When the second hand completes one cycle, the minute hand advances by one increment.”

About a dozen people from the Zhang family gathered around the centermost blueprint and made a guess.

“It has the same function as a sundial.”

The sundial was the main device used for timekeeping in this world. It used the shadow projected by the sun to measure time, but it was affected by day and night as well as by the weather. Another problem was the variations due to seasonal changes. As a result, it wasn’t accurate.

“It’s entirely mechanical and is more accurate than a sundial. The error is less than five minutes a day, and in theory, it can be even more accurate.” Ren Baqian sat in his school office with both his feet on the table.

“Most importantly, it isn’t dependent on the weather or the time of day and is visible all the time. It’s simple and straightforward to use for chronological purposes,” Ren Baqian said.

“In that case, it’s more convenient to use than a sundial, but the structure is a hundred or a thousand times more complicated.”

“How’s this part made?”  ( AllNovel )

“What’s this mechanism used for? Is there a catch here?” The group of people were soon oblivious of the presence of Ren Baqian as they discussed in low voices.

“This is the escapement mechanism, which catches and releases the gear by a fixed amount and needs to be made for further observation.”

“I have never heard of this! What is this below?”

Most of the people who came were craftsmen and were extremely enthusiastic about this new thing.

“This part is the most important component of the clock tower. The blueprint is complete—if you do not understand, it shouldn’t be difficult to use inference to figure out the concepts. I hope you can figure out this thing quickly. This clock tower will be 60 meters tall and will become the landmark of Lan City. The first thing everyone will see upon arriving at Lan City will be this tower, and the name of the Zhang family will be known and remembered by everyone.”

These words made them even more enthusiastic. Most people couldn’t resist the lure of fame and being remembered by posterity.

“You need to think of how to reduce it to the size of a human head or even smaller,” Ren Baqian continued.

Zhang Junzheng cupped his hands and said, “We will try our best.”

“All along, I thought that your family had the best craftsmen…”

“As long as it’s humanly possible, we can certainly do it!” Zhang Zishan declared resolutely.

“I like your self-confidence. If you lack any type of resources, just let me know. I can only hope for you people to produce the results as soon as possible,” Ren Baqian said with a smile. Zhang Zishan’s words gave him a more favorable impression of the Zhang family.

“Sir Ren, please find us a residence that is quiet. With a few hundred people in this courtyard, we can’t even sleep properly,” Zhang Zishan responded.

“This is due to my oversight. I will arrange for accommodations soon on Jing Street, next to the Jing Tribe people. You will live more comfortably there,” Ren Baqian said.

“I appreciate your effort.” The Zhang family had no problem staying on Jing Street. After all, they would be staying with the similar looking Jing Tribe people, which was much better than staying with the big-bellied and fierce looking aboriginals. Furthermore, they would encounter less trouble.

After the Zhang family members had departed, Ren Baqian went to the palace to see the empress. As he opened his mouth to greet her, she flicked a grape-sized fruit straight into his mouth with her fingers.

“The ziqing fruits that were recently delivered are rather sweet,” the empress said with satisfaction.

“Cough… cough… cough!” Ren Baqian struggled to breathe because that grape-sized fruit had gotten stuck in his windpipe.

Seeing that Ren Baqian was struggling, the empress instantly patted him on the back. That grape-sized fruit was still in its original state as it dislodged from his throat. It bounced off the ground and hit Qing Yuan’s eye.

“Ouch!” Qing Yuan was also shocked.

“Cough, Your Majesty, this ziqing fruit isn’t something that ordinary people can enjoy!” Ren Baqian’s face was still flushed because he was having a hard time recovering from this incident. He looked with lingering fear at the baby ting ling monkey that was holding the plate of fruit. He was almost choked to death by this insignificant looking fruit.

A few days ago, the empress gave the ting ling a few names: Dave, Ferrero, and Sorghum Wine. Ren Baqian had suggested King Kong, but they finally settled on the name Golden Hair…

“You fail to see my good intentions,” the empress complained before wandering off to her couch and ignoring him.

Ren Baqian stood still and touched his throat, then moved forward and said, “Your Majesty, I have just given the clock tower blueprints to the Zhang family. When the landmark tower is completed in Lan City, it will be visible to everyone when they raise their heads.”

All along, the empress was interested in a topic like this, so she soon forgot about how she had almost choked Ren Baqian to death. She began to eagerly discuss which location was the ideal site for the landmark tower.

The opinion of the empress was to put it in the square in front of the palace, but Ren Baqian felt that this wasn’t suitable because the tower was about 200 feet high. From the top, the whole palace would be within view. Therefore, it shouldn’t be so close to the palace.

On second thought, the empress agreed with Ren Baqian.

The two took out a map of Lan City and spent the whole afternoon planning. Initially, they thought of demolishing a row of shops on Jingyang Street, building a square with the clock tower in the center, and making this the heart of the city,

Taking into account that the mobilization of the winged cavalry or the hunting expeditions always started at the front of the palace, this square would block the route, so it was decided to move it to an adjacent location that was between the Beihong and Zhulian districts.

After confirming the site, Ren Baqian began to think about property speculation in the nearby areas.

As an Earthling, he was subconsciously thinking about the certainty of rising land prices here.

However, he gave up on this idea after some reflection. He was representing the empress most of the time, so it wasn’t a good idea to compete with the public for profit.

Furthermore, he and the empress had a long term plan to build a modern new city next to Lan City after conquering the Yun Nation. It would have proper drainage, pipes, electric wires, and public facilities that included toilets. It would be a perfect new city in every way.

Although Lan City was the imperial capital, it had too many drawbacks as a city of this era.

The habit of urinating and defecating anywhere was a real headache. From the senior officials such as Shi Qing to the lowly peddlers, no one ever cared about this matter.

Although they had started to control this aspect, especially with regard to the decree that banned indiscriminate defecation by domesticated animals, the habit was difficult to stop despite repeated prohibitions.

On the one hand, nobody from top to bottom cared, so it was hard to carry out this policy. On the other hand, it was hard to find a public toilet on almost any street in Lan City. Was it possible to hold it in until one was almost dead?

Subsequently, the Yun Nation was very valuable to Dayao. Ren Baqian and the empress were looking forward to getting many things from it.

The population of the Yun Nation, their craftsmen, their mines, and their wealth were all coveted by these two.