Chapter 647: The Lan City Newspaper (Part 2)

“I have already seen this thing of yours. Why are the contents a hideous mess?” The empress held up a page of the newspaper from the couch, fiddled with it, and folded it into a paper airplane. She had learned how to do this from Ren Baqian.

She then flung her hand, causing the paper airplane to fly up high before dropping down. Ren Baqian stretched out his hand, caught it, held it to his nose, and sniffed it. Aside from the smell of ink, there was also the empress’s fragrance on it.

“It’s the Lan City Newspaper that’s written by the students from the school after all—it isn’t the Dayao Newspaper. By including some sensational news, we can pique the interests of the civilians. Unfortunately, there are too many people who are illiterate. I plan on posting up the newspapers on the streets and finding some people to read them. This way, even if the commoners don’t know how to read, they will still be able to know what’s written in the paper.

Ren Baqian walked to the side of the couch and placed the paper down. He picked up a fruit and a small knife from the side table, twirled it around his hand quickly, and the fruit peel fell off in circles.

Ren Baqian looked at it from various angles and nodded in satisfaction. He had peeled it just right, not too much and not too little. If he cut off too much, he would have taken too much off the fruit. If he peeled off too little, the fruit wouldn’t be peeled clean. He peeled the entire fruit perfectly, and his knife skills had improved.

He could give himself a nickname in the future like the Number One Storm Blade. At least it sounded more pleasing compared to the Stinky Emperor.

“Your Majesty!” Ren Baqian handed the fruit over to the empress.

The empress praised him as well and said, “Your strength control has improved.”

Ren Baqian was extremely happy and he hurriedly responded, “I’m flattered. I’m still far from the level of Your Majesty. The amount of control you exhibited while drawing circles makes others feel far inferior. Even though it was merely drawing a circle, one can tell your capabilities simply by judging this.”

Mutual compliments would only work if it went both ways. Otherwise, who would entertain you if you didn’t reciprocate?

He then looked forward for her to continue giving praise.

As she held the fruit, the empress commended after taking a closer look at it, “It’s indeed pretty good! That’s how I fared when I was five!”

Ren Baqian murmured, “Hmmm.”

The empress watched Ren Baqian’s defeated look from the corner of her eye. Her gaze was filled with joy, and her eyes looked as if they were smiling. As she tapped her finger on the fruit, it immediately split into eight small pieces. She then flicked one piece into Ren Baqian’s mouth.

“Sit down,” she said casually.

He brought a chair over and sat beside the couch. He pulled her hand over, held it in his palm, and they transmitted their warmth to each other via their palms.

Even though it wasn’t the first time Ren Baqian held the empress’s hands, he felt that her hands were very soft and exquisite every time he held then. It was as if her touch could reach inside his chest.

If he was attentive, he could even feel her strong pulse through her palms.

“I can feel Your Majesty’s heartbeat and you can feel mine too. This is what a kindred spirit is!” Ren Baqian smiled.

After that, both of them calmed down and tried to feel each other’s heartbeat. The rate of their heartbeats rose by a bit and so did the temperature of the surroundings.

“I want to experience the taste of your lipstick!” Ren Baqian leaned forward and brought his face closer to the empress’s.

The next moment, a cylindrical shaped object went straight into his mouth.

“My lipstick is in your mouth—you can eat the whole thing!” She grinned.

Ren Baqian’s eyes were wide open as he took the lipstick out of his mouth. He took a bite of it, followed by another bite, and eventually ate all of it.

“It tastes good!” Ren Baqian exclaimed. “I feel like having some more. One isn’t enough.”

Soon after, another tube of lipstick went into his mouth.

The empress stretched out her hand, revealing that she was holding ten tubes those lipsticks.

“Previously, you bought me 50 of these!”

“Forget it! I’m almost full!” Ren Baqian sat back down resentfully.

She looked at him with eyes that seemed to contain something. She then stretched out her head very quickly and gave him a light peck on the lips. This soft and gentle tactile sensation dissipated as soon as it happened.

“The lipstick on Your Majesty’s lips is much sweeter than this,” Ren Baqian said as he held the empty tube of lipstick.

“How come I was unaware?” The empress looked at him with a smile.

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“I’m nicknamed the honest and adorable husband, and I have never spoken a lie. Now that my lips are also covered with lipstick, you can have a taste and see if it really is…” Ren Baqian moved closer to her, lowered his head, and gave her a kiss. Their lips touched, and their warm breath brushed against each other’s faces.

Several seconds later, Ren Baqian hastily licked her lips and retracted his tongue. He burst out laughing and declared, “Very sweet indeed!”

The empress let out a gentle “hmph.” Her face was blushing, but she didn’t look angry at all. She put on a nonchalant look and moved to another topic.

“The candies on the tree have been finished!”

He turned his head and looked at that tree. Not only were the candies finished, but the branches were gone as well… The only thing left standing there was a bald tree trunk.

…

“Lan City Newspaper, the new and fresh Lan City Newspaper. A startling secret is about to be uncovered—the love-hate relationship between the Minister of Works and the Minister of War!”

“Lan City Newspaper, why do the Minister of Works and the Minister of War oppose each other like fire and water? This issue of the Lan City Newspaper will officially reveal it to everyone!”

After hearing advertisements for the newspaper coming from beyond the wall, Zhang Junzheng sent his men to buy a few copies.

Newspapers weren’t something new to Zhang Junzheng since the Yun Nation already had them.

However, the difference was that the newspapers in the Yun Nation were printed by the imperial court and sent to the residences of the warlords in all cities. All of the news pertained to the transfer of court officials and the major happenings in the Yun Nation. The ordinary people didn’t even know those things happened.

The Lan City Newspaper was completely different since it was targeted at the commoners. Besides major news, much of it detailed sensational stories about the court officials.

Zhang Junzheng felt that these newly introduced papers had both pros and cons.

Its merit was that it allowed the commoners to feel more cordial with the court officials and let them know that the officials actually did such things as well.

At the same time, it also brought many officials into the limelight that the commoners hadn’t really been familiar with.

Its drawback was that it made the officials lose quite a bit of their dignity.

There was no telling what the principal of the Black Bamboo Academy was aiming for when creating such a thing.

Some time later, Zhang Junzheng held the newspaper and studied it attentively. The first page was a report about the war with the Yun Nation. This issue of the Lan City Newspaper was printed three days after the previous one. During this period of time, the Yun Nation had lost another four cities.

Zhang Junzheng reckoned that this piece of news was in fact already three to six days old. From the Yun Nation to Lan City, even if they used birds to transmit the news, it would take at least three days.

However, after reading that the Yun Nation had been successively losing possession of their land as if they didn’t have the ability to retaliate, he felt a sense of elation.

Zhang Junzheng had recently pondered about it. This time, Dayao’s objective didn’t seem to be like what everyone imagined, which was to plunder and leave like they had before.

If they simply wanted to plunder and leave, Dayao should already have achieved their objective after having conquered a quarter of the Yun Nation’s cities. These cities definitely had more than enough for them to plunder.

Furthermore, there was no need to send scouts into all the cities just to spy on the situation.

Zhang Junzheng somehow felt that Dayao’s objective this time was probably to conquer the entire the Yun Nation.

Would this be the demise of the Yun Nation?

Even though the Zhang family could almost be considered as exiled, the thought of their homeland sinking into ruins still made Zhang Junzheng feel a little mournful.

Also, did Dayao have enough officials to send to the Yun Nation territory?

If not handled properly, the territory of the former nation might turn into a quagmire that endlessly swallowed the efforts and military strength of Dayao.

Zhang Junzheng was lost in thought for a moment, and he flipped to the next page a while later. The longest article at the back was about the love-hate relationship between Tong Zhenye, the Minister of Works, and Qin Chuan, the Minister of War.

After reading it, Zhang Junzheng almost spat out blood.

He wasn’t the only one who felt like this. Everyone who finished reading the newspaper felt the same way too.

Everyone knew that Tong Zhenye and Qin Chuan opposed each other like fire and water. Fighting at the brothel and the imperial court were frequent occurrences as well.

Even though they would eventually get beaten up by the empress, they would rather get beaten than let each other off. They would much rather take the other one down with them.

Many people were curious about what made them hate each other so much, but nobody had ever expected it to actually be such a disturbing reason!