Chapter 556: Glass

The name, aboriginal barbarians, had a real impact on the people.

However, this was only because the aboriginals had never understood the concept of science and technology. Besides, they had a very strong military force, which enabled them to deal with almost anything in this world.

As such, they rarely placed their thoughts anywhere else.

A lazy man drives the development of technology. Even though this saying wasn’t entirely true, it illustrated a great deal of the problem.

Due to laziness, men wanted shortcuts, which gave rise to all sorts of labor-saving methods, such as the fledgeling stage of machinery.

However, after the students at the Black Bamboo Academy studied “Foundations of Science and Technology – Physics” for some time, they were finally no longer the traditional aboriginals who only thought about muscles and nothing else.

They had yet to be able to produce a steam engine just based on the little amount of knowledge that they had picked up from learning physics. However, through their experience and scope of vision, they managed to produce a pressure cooker!

Da, da, da!

In front of a few rows of students, mud splashed about on the ground!

“What I asked for was a steam engine… and what you have produced after 12 days is a pressure cooker? Huh?”

Facing the ashen-faced Ren Baqian, who was holding a Type 81 assault rifle, the students standing at the front smiled mischievously.

“Teacher, we have already succeeded halfway… With a few more things like an air intake pipe, a valve, an engine casing, a crankshaft, and gears, it will become a simple steam engine!” Shi Gan promised.

“Like I would believe your bullsh*t!” Ren Baqian almost blew his top.

“Someone hang them up on the flagpole! Let them flutter in the wind and reflect upon themselves!” Ren Baqian ordered in anger.

“Who dares to hang me up?” Tong Lan, the lolita, was immediately furious and leaped ten meters into the air.

“Sir, there aren’t enough poles!” The bodyguards found it difficult to carry out this task as they looked at the trio of six-meter high wooden pillars that were erected in the courtyard.

“Hang the rest of them from the wall!” Ren Baqian was furious.

In less than two hours, the black-eyed Tong Lan and a bunch of mischievous students were hung up in a row from the top of the school’s wall.

There were six students hanging from each of the three pillars in the courtyard!

The imperial guards that walked past immediately burst out into laughter after seeing the students being hung up on the pillars and the wall.

Ren Baqian walked back to the palace. The empress had just ended her morning assembly. She casually asked him about what had happened after seeing his angry face.

After Ren Baqian finished talking, the empress gently laughed as she said, “You definitely need to put your mind into teaching students. The teacher who taught me back then also used to get furiously mad. He smashed a table almost every day!”

Ren Baqian’s spirit was immediately lifted after listening to this. He had never expected the empress to actually have such a dark past!

Ren Baqian continued to probe, but the empress merely smiled and didn’t reply.

“We should replace the paper windows in this hall with glass to make it look brighter,” the empress said as she pointed at the row of wooden doorframes in her living quarters.

After all, paper windows were less translucent and tore very easily. If they were replaced with glass, her living quarters wouldn’t be so dark anymore.

The empress had never liked these cold and empty living quarters and preferred somewhere brighter.

“I’ve already sent people to do it. It will be done in another two more days.”

The empress had successfully changed the topic.

The pair of them walked around in the garden. Ren Baqian plucked a small white flower and inserted it into her hair bun.

The empress smiled as she asked, “Excellent and unrivaled?”

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Ren Baqian looked at that small white flower and laughed immediately. Indeed, it was that same excellent and unrivaled flower from before.

After strolling in the garden with the empress, Ren Baqian’s mood immediately got better.

If he were to face that bunch of blockheads everyday, he would one day suffer from a heart attack.

Two days later, the glass that Ren Baqian had ordered to be manufactured was completed, and the replacement of the paper windows in the living quarters had begun. Thankfully, the original window frames were thick enough that six-millimeter thick glass was able to fit in it. After that, strips of wood were used to secure the border behind the window. The empress’s living quarters immediately became brighter, and anyone who was in there wouldn’t feel down anymore.

However, along with this came another problem. After changing to glass windows, the temperature inside the living quarters began to rise sharply… Luckily, the hall was big and spacious enough. With a fan and some ice cubes, the empress wasn’t affected much by the heat.

Over the next few days, the empress’s mood was pretty good, especially at night when both of them were having dinner in the palace under the brightness of lit up light strips. This made the empress extremely happy, and she was always full of smiles, unlike that cold self that she usually portrayed in front of others. Deep in the hall, Ren Baqian sat facing the empress as they spoke softly over wine, which was extremely comforting.

Qing Yuan and Hong Luan both felt very deeply for this moment.

No matter what the occasion was, the empress was always cold and cheerless, which made people afraid of approaching her. The current empress was almost an entirely different person from who she was a year ago.

Even though she might still appear a little cold at times, it was already much better than before, and she wouldn’t get angry that easily anymore.

At the times when Principal Ren was by her side, the empress actually smiled a lot more. Even if she didn’t smile, she wouldn’t act like her cold self either. Others could feel more warmth in her and found her more easily approachable.

After replacing the windows in the empress’s living quarters with glass, the next project was set for the throne room.

A few days later, Tong Zhenye saw many people whispering in front of the throne room while he was attending court. In his head, he was wondering if some unfortunate person had provoked the empress and had gotten lashed. Eventually, he stepped forward and was stunned when he saw what everyone was looking at.

The throne room had a total of 12 doors. Usually, only six of the doors were open, and this was something that everyone was extremely familiar with.

However, the paper windows on all 12 doorframes had currently disappeared.

“What’s happening?” Tong Zhenye was a little suspicious.

“Why did the empress tear down the paper windows? Could it be that it would be more cooling this way?” Qin Chuan and Tong Zhenye both stepped forward, not stopping even when everyone else stood frozen where they were. Instead, they walked ahead, stretched out their hands, and swatted at the empty space where the paper windows used to be.

Crash…!

Embedded in the main door was a piece of glass, which had now turned into countless of glass shards on the ground.

Qin Chuan was stupefied… He looked at his own hand, then back at the door.

This time, everyone finally discovered the problem.

“There’s something on it!”

“Is it crystal?”

“It should be pretty expensive!”

“I’m afraid Sir Qin is bound to get a beating!”

“Where did so many large pieces of crystal come from? Besides, they are molded so thinly that they are almost invisible if one isn’t attentive.”

“This is the thing called glass that Principal Ren created, right?” Tong Zhenye immediately recalled the glass factory outside the city. It belonged to the royal family, and he was only responsible for bringing some glass smiths over. He wasn’t sure what exactly happened afterward, but he knew that the place was manufacturing something transparent that was crystal-like.

After some pondering, Tong Zhenye took a sneaky look at Qin Chuan and laughed grimly.

Qin Chuan’s face turned black after hearing the others whispering and rejoicing at his misfortune.

“How amazing, Minister!” Lian Liang from the Department of the Army gave a thumbs-up.

The black-faced Qin Chuan sent Lian Liang flying with a kick.

After a short while, the empress entered and discovered that the glass, which had just been installed for a day, had been shattered. Her brows were raised immediately, and her murderous spirit permeated the air.

After that, Qin Chuan, the main culprit, was sent flying out of the throne room with a kick from the empress.

A few days later, a new glass shop, which belonged to the royal family, opened in Lan City, and it was immediately packed with people.