The Empress's Gigolo

"Chen Medicinal Shop is there." Caretaker Shi pointed to a distant signboard.

Ren Baqian made a mental note of the location of the shop. It was getting late today. He would have to visit the shop in the future to see if he could exchange anything for the formula and raw ingredients.

On the way back, Ren Baqian made some inquiries about Chen Medicinal Shop's background. Reportedly, the shop owner came from Great Xia and had stayed in Dayao for thirty plus years.

It possessed top-notch medical expertise, its owner was nice, and its medical fees were not expensive at all. Very often, they would allow the indigenous people to pay their fees in arrears. They could come back and pay for their fees after they earned enough money through hunting in the mountains.

The citizens of the Dayao Nation were straightforward, and they always paid back their debts of gratitude. There were extremely few people that chose not to pay their debts to Chen Medicinal Shop.

These people would most likely stay in the mountains forever.

Even though the owner of Chen Medicinal Shop was a foreigner, many locals respected him.

Ren Baqian returned to the shop that sold the pandas. The shop owner even gave him a bamboo-made basket that he could carry on his back and some bamboo leaves. The amount of bamboo leaves he gave was enough to feed the two pandas two meals.

Ren Baqian picked up one panda and carried it in his arms. Its fur was shaggy and soft but had a smell to it.

The small chap kept on moving with curiosity in his arms, making him extremely happy.

Ren Baqian placed the two small fellows into the bamboo basket, revealing only their heads. They looked around curiously.

When Ren Baqian returned to his house in the beast park, he let them out of the basket. The two small chaps blankly sat on the ground for quite some time before crawling around carefully to explore their surroundings. Occasionally, they would bang into something or trip and fall. Looking at the two clumsy pandas, Ren Baqian felt very joyful.

He could not help but pick them up and brush his face against their fur, not minding the smell from their bodies at all.

He thought for a long time before coming up with names for the two pandas. The one that kept licking his face was called Tiantian while the one that kept falling down was called Gungun.

After naming the pandas, Ren Baqian once again felt overjoyed. Most people kept dogs and cats as pets. There were some ancient war clans that had kept bears as pets, and the tycoons in Middle East kept leopards as pets. He felt quite unique for keeping two pandas as pets.

If he brought them out on the street on Earth… he most likely wouldn't attract envious gazes, but rather cops.

He took out the food he brought from Earth. From their sent, he could tell that it had not gone bad yet.

If he left it here for one more night, it really might go bad.

Ren Baqian went to the ice cellar and noticed that now it was filled with even more ice.

"Alright, dinner time. Today, I want to reward everyone. There will be food and alcohol."

Upon Ren Baqian finishing his sentence, everyone cheered in jubilation.

Then he invited Caretaker Shi and the other three caretakers of the beast park and set up three tables outside the ice cellar.

Among all the caretakers, Caretaker Shi was ranked the highest. The other three caretakers were one rank lower than him. Being a newcomer, Ren Baqian had the least number of subordinates.

Ren Baqian, Caretaker Shi, and the other three caretakers sat on one table while the odd-job workers sat on the other two tables.

The food that Ren Baqian brought from Earth was ready. The cook ran over to Ren Baqian eagerly and asked him with a smiling face, "Caretaker Ren, how did you make these dishes?"

Needless to say, Ren Baqian knew he had eaten a bit of the food on the sly.

"Do you really want to know?" Ren Baqian smiled.

The cook quickly nodded his head with his eyes lit up.

"The meals for the next few days have already been prepared. When the food is finished, I will teach you a thing or two," Ren Baqian said as he patted the back of the cook.

"Okay, let me know what you want to eat in the future." The cook's face was filled with joy.

When he smelled the fragrance of the food, he ate a bit of it secretly. Even though the quality of the spices wasn't exceptionally good, the food was extremely delicious, leaving a rich aftertaste in his mouth.

After all, the food recipes on Earth had gone through hundreds of years of improvement, and its food was made up from a variety of ingredients and spices. The one-dimensional cooking methods and food recipes in this world could not compete against Earth's at all.

When the dishes were served, Ren Baqian raised his cup and said, "Brothers, I have to trouble you to take care of me in the future, thank you so much!"

"Haha, you're being too courteous. You might look frail and skinny but you're actually quite nice!" Caretaker Shi laughed.

Ren Baqian had just arrived in this place for two days and he was already treating everyone to a meal. He did not seem like someone who did not know anything. Caretaker Shi felt comfortable befriending this kind of people.

The other caretakers raised their cups too.

Ren Baqian downed his drink in one gulp. Then, he filled his cup and said to the odd-job workers, "We are on the same boat now. I will share with you whatever that the higher-ups give me. If you do a good job and the higher-ups are happy, I will not ill-treat you. If you do a bad job, we will get punished together by the higher-ups. Therefore, we have to work together as one."

"Alright, we will definitely listen to Sir."

"Whatever Sir want us to do, we will do it."

The ten odd-job workers agreed in unison.

At this point of time, everyone had already begun eating.

Caretaker Shi placed a piece of pork shoulder in his mouth and his eyes lit up.

Usually, the food they ate was merely boiled in salt water. At most, they added one or two spices into the food, and this was already considered not bad.

Their food and Ren Baqian's food were poles apart.

He was not the only one that thought so, the others felt the same way too.

Everyone was swinging their arms as they stuffed the food into their mouths.

Those odd-job workers began yelling after drinking the liquor. They kept on praising the food as delicious. Occasionally, they would fight and curse over the food.

The status of the odd-job workers in the beast park wasn't as low as the ones' in a feudal society.

After all, all of them were 2.2 meters tall, and every one of them could fight and kill. It wasn't for hard for them to get another job if they left beast park.

The odd-job workers in the beast park were hired. Their status was somewhat similar to the commoners'. Therefore, no one really looked down on them.

Ren Baqian was surrounded by tall, muscular, and candid men.

Compared to the sly and narrow-minded people on Earth, these people were more fun to drink and eat with.

"How did you get these dishes?" Caretaker Shi asked Ren Baqian as the bottle of liquor was passed around.

"I made them myself. Next time, I will make more good food for Brother. However, the process of making these foods is rather troublesome, I will have to prepare them beforehand," Ren Baqian chuckled.

"Alright!" Caretaker Shi patted Ren Baqian's back so hard that he almost slammed into the table in front of him.

"After having this meal, I feel that the food I ate in the past is so horrible."

"That's right. After this meal, I guess I won't be eating tomorrow," another caretaker grumbled as his face turned red from the alcohol.

Everyone agreed in a loud voice.

Even though Ren Baqian was a newcomer, many of them liked him very much after eating his food.

After having a few drinks, Ren Baqian began to call the other caretakers "Brother".

Just as everyone was getting intoxicated, a few men were walking over from a distance. All of them were clad in armor.

Among them, there were two persons that Ren Baqian was familiar with. They were the ones that previously brought him here.

Ren Baqian and the rest stood up and went forward to greet them. They wanted to know what was going on.

"Send some ice to the palace, and we need you to follow us." A soldier pointed at Ren Baqian. Ren Baqian found this soldier somewhat familiar. Subsequently, he realized this soldier was the one that carried an ice chunk to the empress that day.

Drinking this weak alcohol, Ren Baqian wasn't at all drunk. After hearing the words of that soldier, he immediately became alert and asked softly, "May I know what is going on?""

"Her Majesty has summoned you, just follow us now," that soldier replied.

"The weather is rather hot these few days and Her Majesty doesn't have much appetite. Don't you say you know how to cook delicious food?" the soldier added.

Ren Baqian clenched his teeth. If they had come earlier, he could bring some marinated beef over. Right now, he had nothing on his hands.

His culinary skills were ordinary. The empress had eaten countless delicacies and his food would merely be a novelty to her. He did not have much confidence that the empress would praise his food to high heaven like these people.

He wasn't familiar with the spices and food in this world. It seemed that he could only follow them and assess the situation first.

"Brother, thank you very much!" Ren Baqian cupped his hands in salute. Following which, he said to the odd-job workers, "What are you waiting for? Go and send some ice to the palace."

Then, he turned around and told the caretakers, "Take your time and drink the alcohol, I have to make a trip to the palace."

"Go ahead. Being summoned by Her Majesty is a major event, don't worry about us," the caretakers chuckled.