Chapter 125: Liquor

The empress cast a glance at the reflection of Ren Baqian in the mirror. After a while, she shifted her gaze back to her own reflection.

After Qing Yuan finished doing the empress’s hair, the latter turned around and heard crisp and beautiful music. The music was crystal-clear and melodious.

The melody was exquisite and heart-warming.

The empress had never heard a melody that was of such a style before. It easily touched her heart.

However, it lasted for only thirty seconds, which was rather short.

“Your Majesty, this is one of the gifts that I have chosen for you,” Ren Baqian said as he held up the musical box.

“The music just now comes from this thing?” the empress asked with curiosity. The musical box consisted of a pedestal that had a crystal ball on top of it. Inside the crystal ball, there were three wooden horses that swiveled when the music was turned on.

It was very exquisite.

At least the crystal ball and those wooden horses looked very exquisite.

“Yes, Your Majesty. You just to turn the wind up key on its side, and it will produce the music,” Ren Baqian explained.

The empress took the musical box and turned the wind up key on its side. Following which, the musical box indeed produced the music again and the three horses swiveled along with the music.

“Thank you,” the empress said while fiddling with the musical box.

Ren Baqian continued, “These are the candies I bring back this time around. I also know Your Majesty likes to drink hard liquor, and so I have brought back twenty-four bottles of fine wine for you.”

“Present them.”

Ren Baqian passed the candies to Qing Yuan. Then, he opened up the two crates and took out a bottle of wine. Following which, he showed the empress how it could be unscrewed and presented it to her.

An ordinary-looking glass bottle like this was considered extremely ugly in China. However, the people in this world thought otherwise.

After all, the Chinese were used to seeing such glass bottles. On the contrary, glass bottles were rarely seen by the people in this world.

The empress used two fingers to hold the neck of the bottle. Her fingers were slim and soft like grass and her skin was fair like rouge. One simply could not tell that she could single-handedly destroy a Gundam with such a pair of hands.

The bottle was transparent, revealing the crystal-clear liquid within it. The liquid was completely free of impurities. This feature alone was enough to make the empress feel satisfied.

“You will dine with me. Hong Luan, get someone to notify the imperial kitchen,” the empress told Ren Baqian and passed the bottle to Qing Yuan.

“Thank you very much, Your Majesty,” Ren Baqian hurriedly said. This was the first time something like this happened. In the past, he would stand there and watch the empress eat.

The treatment he received had been upgraded now.

Usually, the empress had her meals in this particular palace hall that had only one table. After all, the empress’s lifestyle had always been frugal. Her meals usually consisted of one bowl of rice and four dishes

This time around, they were in a different palace hall. Inside this palace hall, there was a table that was 3.5 meters long.

The empress sat in the seat of honor while Ren Baqian stood with his hands by his sides.

“Have a seat.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Ren Baqian sat down not far away from the empress.

“Tell me more about China, I’m very curious about how a world beyond this world is like.”

After thinking about it, Ren Baqian asked, “Your Majesty, which aspect of China do you want to know about?”

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“What are the experts in China like?”

Ren Baqian pondered over this question for some time. This question wasn’t easy to answer. The strength of the strongest individual in China was merely comparable to an ordinary aboriginal’s.

“Your Majesty, every world has a different set of rules and environment. In China, one is not judged on his physical strength or martial arts, but rather, wisdom and knowledge. We have invented various advanced machines and equipment. Instead of having carriages that are pulled by horses, we have cars that travel as fast as lightning. We have aeroplanes that can carry people and fly in the air. We have Internet that allows people to obtain information from all over the world. In our world, a person’s valor has been replaced by machines. Firearms can take people’s lives from a great distance and many of them in a split second. Artillery fire can attack places that can’t be seen with human eyes from a long distance. We also have nuclear weapons that can destroy a city thousands of miles away with one shot.”

“Destroy a city thousands of miles away with one shot? There is actually such a weapon in this world?” the empress exclaimed.

When Ren Baqian raised his head and saw the shocked look on the empress’s face, he chuckled softly.

Earthlings might not be able to beat you in terms of physical strength or martial arts but our advanced technologies can definitely overpower you.

“It’s true. Within the blast radius of six kilometers, it will be like Purgatory and no living thing will survive. Due to its devastating power, nuclear weapons have been banned.”

“Such a powerful weapon should indeed banned,” the empress sighed and replied.

“Yes. Like what I said earlier, wisdom and knowledge determine a Chinese’s status in the society. Based on the interest and capability of an individual, he or she will be allocated to a sector of the society to work. The work to build a healthy and powerful society is thus divided among the citizens. By gathering all the citizens’ knowledge, everyone’s life will be made easier and more convenient. The goal of constant development is to explore, understand, unravel the mysteries of the world.”

“By doing these, our society will be more stable and the citizens will have a higher quality of life. Even though there is still economic inequality, the majority of the citizens still enjoy a high quality of life.”

“Basic needs such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation are no longer an issue for most people. Currently, the people in China mainly think about how to improve their quality of life.”

“Human nature is always insatiable,” the empress said with a low voice.

“With an insatiable human nature, people will want to obtain more things and knowledge. This way, the entire world will improve. Otherwise, the world will eventually become a pool of stagnant water.”

Ren Baqian told the empress a little about China. However, he tried to best to talk about China’s strengths. After all, he did not want to wash China’s dirty linen in front of the empress.

On Earth, the wealthier and stronger your home country is, the more respect you will garner when you go overseas.

Even though the amount of respect one garnered still depended on himself, the strength of his home country still acted played a significant role.

An individual from a powerful country and an individual from a weak country received completely different treatment overseas.

Even though this factor wouldn’t matter much in Dayao, Ren Baqian was still willing to flaunt the strengths of China.

As they were talking, the dishes were served.

Ren Baqian stopped talking. Following which, he stood up, picked up the bottle and filled up the empress’s cup.

After taking a sniff, the empress downed the liquor in one gulp. Then, she nodded her head and said, “Not bad.”

From her facial expression, Ren Baqian could tell that she liked it very much.

“If we have enough food resources, we can brew this type of liquor,” Ren Baqian said.

“I will leave this matter to you. Later, you will follow me to Qingxin Palace to pick a set of martial arts for yourself. After you have learned the basics, I will send someone to bring you to the mine. Go there and see if the mine can produce a large amount of ore or not. Settle the smelting metal issue and then the brewing liquor issue. You don’t need to produce too much liquor, just produce enough for the imperial palace will do,” the empress said.

Ren Baqian nodded his head. This wasn’t difficult to carry out at all.

Dayao mainly lacked meat, vegetables, rice, and noodles. Therefore, the empress did not dare to spend too many resources on brewing liquor.

“Actually, we can brew liquor and use it to exchange for food resources from the Chen Nation, the Yun Nation and Great Xia. We can also exchange for salt and iron wares. This type of hard liquor will definitely be marketable in those nations. However, I wonder what quality of the liquor used during your birthday banquet is like compared to that of those nations?” Ren Baqian asked.

The liquor used during the empress’s birthday banquet was much better than Caretaker Shi’s. However, it still paled in comparison to Earth’s. The color and taste of the liquor was still lacking. Ren Baqian wanted to know how would other countries considered its quality to be.

“It’s considered high quality.”

“Alright, if we can produce liquor that is of higher quality, we can sell it to other countries for a high price and then use the profits to buy essential resources. A resource that other people don’t have but need will be very valuable. Liquor, this kind of thing, often has huge market.” Ren Baqian chuckled.

The empress placed her chopsticks to one side. After pondering over Ren Baqian’s words for a while, she said, “It’s a good idea, you have my permission to carry it out. Settle other matters first before doing this. If you do a good job, I will reward you.”