The Empress's Gigolo
chapter-26

Waking up from his sleep, Ren Baqian had already returned to his bedroom in the newly rented apartment.

He walked around the house, both upstairs and downstairs. It felt slightly desolated as he was the only one at home. It could not be compared to the liveliness and excitement over in the other world.

Although he was not short on money at the moment, his life over here was more comfortable whereas his life over at the other world gave him a sense of belonging.

Because he was unique and unmatched over in that world.

But on Earth, he was just one of the many commoners. Nothing stood out about Ren Baqian.

He sighed while he went to charge his phone.

He turned on his computer, and the 34-inch monitor was so much more pleasurable than his original 21-inch monitor. Then he finished watching a movie and turned his phone on once again. There were two missed calls.

His former colleagues had already become strangers.

The two missed calls were from Chen Qing.

He pondered for a while, and Ren Baqian did not eagerly return his call. It was too much of a coincidence if he always called him exactly ten days after disappearing.

After heading out for a stroll and taking his breakfast, Ren Baqian returned home. Once again, he turned on his computer and researched on how to plant sweet potatoes.

He knew what to do after going through the information once. Ren Baqian then drove his car to the supermarket to buy more than ten kilograms of sweet potatoes. He conveniently brought some beer and snacks home as well.

Just as he opened the door, Ren Baqian heard voices from within his apartment.

"Thief?" the thought flashed through Ren Baqian's mind. Right away, he recalled that it should be the housekeeper.

The people inside heard the door open as well, and the sound from inside came to an end. Then, a girl who was in her 20s extended her head out to take a look and retracted it back at lightning speed.

"There's somebody. Auntie, come and see if he's the owner of the house?" Ren Baqian vaguely heard this sentence.

Afterwards, a middle-aged lady appeared. She saw Ren Baqian and smiled. "Mr. Ren is back."

They had previously met at the housekeeping company. But, it was only that once.

"That's right, I'm back. You guys get busy with your stuff and need not care about me." Ren Baqian smiled. He was not used to someone calling him Mister, but, the feeling was –-—— nevertheless rather nice.

He placed the groceries beside of the sofa in the living room. Then, he lay on the sofa and switched on the television; it was airing a new period drama. However, Ren Baqian's mind was completely off of the television screen.

One moment, he was thinking of the black mud cream, and another moment he was thinking of the other world. The next moment he was thinking of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Thereafter, he also recalled that he had to settle the indigenous electric fan and also the shop. He hurriedly left the house and drove around again. His first stop was to find a private blacksmith shop which manufactured jewelry.

"Do you have silver?"

"Yes, what do you want to make? A necklace or a ring?"

"I just want to buy silver. Smelted into small pieces will do." After Ren Baqian finished his sentence, it was obvious that the person was no longer interested.

But, he still asked Ren Baqian, "How much do you want?"

Ren Baqian calculated for a while. Silver wasn't expensive on Earth, but over at the other world, its purchasing power was still pretty good. Of course, for 80 taels of silver, 4000 grams was already sufficient. But, buying a little more was not a bad idea either.

"50 catties of silver." Ren Baqian stretched out his five fingers.

50 catties was equivalent to 500 taels, 25000 grams and it was only 100000 yuan.

If it was one month ago, he wouldn't even be able to fork out 10000 yuan.

At this moment, his bank card was left with about 700 to 800 thousand yuan after deducting the expenses for his rented apartment and the allowance for his mother. He did not particularly care about this money.

After hearing that it was 25 catties worth of silver, the boss immediately became enthusiastic.

50 catties of silver, 25 kilograms, even though he might lose out a little, it was still a huge sum of money.

Before Ren Baqian entered the shop, he had already checked the rates for silver. As of today, 1 gram of silver was worth less than 4.1 yuan. After haggling over the price with the boss, he managed to secure a price of 115000 yuan.

Although he spent another 10000 yuan, he knew that he wouldn't be able to find another place which had silver in stock.

After paying part of the deposit and collecting the receipt, he had an agreement with the boss to melt the silver into small pieces. He would then collect them two days later.

Afterwards, he went to buy a yo-yo and a hand-cranked fan to bring back for research. He wanted to see how it was possible to make a comparably reliable indigenous electric fan under such simple and crude conditions in the other world.

By the time he returned home, the two housekeepers had already left the house. The house was in spick and span condition.

Ren Baqian comfortably exhaled and then took out the yo-yo and hand-cranked fan. He began to disassemble them to see its interior composition, so that he could research how to make an indigenous electric fan.

After researching for a few hours, he had a rough idea. He would just have to wait till he's back in the other world before he could get someone to try out his idea and see whether it worked as anticipated.

On the second day back, Ren Baqian spent his whole time in front of the computer watching "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Now, he could recall all those vague plotlines which he had long forgotten.

On the third day, he finally gave Chen Qing a call.

"You went into seclusion again?" Chen Qing struck once the call got through.

"It was for the formula of the black mud cream. The place where the person-in-charge lives was rather remote and was inside the mountains. I returned your call as soon as I arrived," Ren Baqian felt wronged as he replied.

Deep down, he knew that he could not contact Chen Qing so frequently in the future. This was because the number of days he disappeared to the other world was always so consistent. Every time he would stay on Earth for 3 days and then disappear for 9 days.

"How are things, have you obtained the formula yet?" Chen Qing asked.

"Not yet, but soon."

"Shall we have some fun tonight?"

"Let's have a meal. I will not be going to the bar." Ren Baqian shook his head gently.

After setting a time to meet with Chen Qing, he went online for a few hours to search for medicines and prepared to exchange them for the black mud cream. Based on the situation that the people over there had not seen snow before, Ren Baqian guessed that it was a subtropical climate in the other world. Following which, Ren Baqian found a few commonly difficult to cure problems and kept them in mind.

Following which, he went to buy a pile of spices including pepper, Chinese anise, sesame, cumin, cinnamon, MSG and Thirteen Spices. He bought a huge bag of each type of spices.

He specially bought the seeds of the pepper, Chinese anise, fennel, and cinnamon and was prepared to plant them in the other world. Sesame and cumin were already in the form of seeds. Although it was also the case for Chinese anise, the marketplace only sold those that had been processed. Those seeds were not able to germinate and grow anymore.

With these items, he would be able to prepare a rather tasty meal over in that world.

He placed the items in the car and went to collect his silver. 50 catties were indeed a lot, and they were all melted into 2 or 3 tales of fragmented silver.

Ren Baqian did not have the additional time to examine the purity of the silver. He made the payment directly and carried the silver into the car. Ren Baqian then left for the restaurant which he had made an appointment with Chen Qing.

After waiting for a long time in the car and playing with his phone, there was a knock on his car window. He turned around and saw Chen Qing signaling him to come out of the car.

Ren Baqian got down from the car, and just as he was about to speak, he got distracted. There was a woman with Chen Qing.

This was not unusual as there was often different women by Chen Qing's side, and they even followed along to have meals with Ren Baqian. So far, with the exception of Jiang Nan, Ren Baqian had yet to see any other women that appeared for a second time.

But, this woman made Ren Baqian somewhat flabbergasted.

To his surprise, it was his university classmate, Dong Haiqing.

Upon seeing Ren Baqian, Dong Haiqing also opened her cherry lips. She was clearly surprised as well.

"Both of you know each other?" Chen Qing noticed the expressions on their faces as he asked with a smile.

"Yes! Classmates." Ren Baqian smiled faintly.

During university days, Dong Haiqing was constantly being sought after by many guys. She was the center of attraction while he was just a passer-by whom people did not care about.

He was also shocked that it was such a coincidence.

Dong Haiqing was in a bigger state of shock than him. The reason why she could even remember Ren Baqian was that a roommate of hers once had good feelings towards him. After she got hold of the news, she added in, "Ren Baqian isn't handsome, he isn't rich, and he isn't competent. Why did you find someone like him?"

Then, that matter was never brought up again.

Although Ren Baqian was unaware of this, she could still remember it. Because of that matter, she had once—for a period of time—paid attention to Ren Baqian. The impression she got then from him was just ordinary: even more ordinary than ordinary. It would be a waste if her roommate was matched with someone like him.

As a result, after seeing that Chen Qing's friend was actually Ren Baqian, she was naturally very much taken aback.

Ren Baqian looked exactly the same as when he was in school. He didn't have any significant changes. His was considered decent looking and only had short stubble. His clothing style was ordinary and certainly did not cost more than 300 yuan.

However, the car he was driving was actually an Audi A6L. It was at the very least 500 to 600 thousand yuan.

In addition, he was actually Chen Qing's friend.

With regards to Chen Qing, she did not really know much. She only knew that he was the son of a rich man, and their net worth was extremely high.

Ren Baqian and he were good friends. Furthermore, he was also driving such a good car. He was probably not that simple as well?

At this moment, Dong Haiqing only had one thought in her mind. She had made an error in judgement back then.

Ren Baqian's disguise as pig to eat a tiger was too convincing.