"Oh yeah!"

"Oh yeah!"

In the past three days, Ren Baqian had already won 67 rounds consecutively. He pasted many slips of paper on the empress. They were all packed densely on her face, making her look like a mummy.

Everytime the empress moved her head, the slips of paper would produce a rustling sound.

"Again!" The empress gritted her teeth. It started as a game, but now, Ren Baqian couldn't even back out. She couldn't accept the fact that she couldn't win even one round.

"Your Majesty, a small gamble would pleasure you, but a big gamble would injure you. You'll be annihilated if you overdo it…" Ren Baqian laughed mischievously.

It was pretty fun pasting slips of paper on the empress's face and watching her gritting her teeth in angst, unable to deal with herself. After all, the empress was always putting on a cold face. Even though her eyes were currently on the verge of turning red, it gave her more of a human touch.

I'll let her win after I win another three to five rounds. Ren Baqian pondered for a while and thought that he had won enough. The empress looked as if she was about to reach her limit.

If he continued to win, he reckoned that he would get into trouble.

Ren Baqian consecutively won 67 rounds of Old Maid, which was a game that relied purely on luck. Besides having pretty good luck, Qing Yuan and Hong Luan's facial expressions gave it away too easily.

By simply looking at their anxious faces while looking at certain cards, it would definitely be the right choice to draw another card and would always be the right card.

Those two fellows didn't even know that they had given the empress away.

"Oh yeah! My luck's pretty good!" Once again, Ren Baqian drew a card from the empress's hand, formed a pair, and laughed as he placed the cards on the table.

"Your Majesty, it seems that your luck isn't very good today. Why don't we fight it out another day." Ren Baqian smiled. At present, the empress's eyes had already turned red. How could she battle it out another day?

However, she still had to display a positive att.i.tude.

The empress's eyes were originally wide open. Not knowing what went through her head, she suddenly retracted her expression and replied faintly, "Another day then."

"Eh?" Ren Baqian was slightly taken aback. He didn't expect the empress to simply call it a day. After all, there were all sorts of behavior that would come from people who had lost until their eyes turned red.

"Tie him up," the empress said in a dull tone.

"Huh? Your Majesty, what are you doing?" Ren Baqian was alarmed.

"Trying to get away after beating me for three days, how is that possible?" With one slap, the empress sent Ren Baqian smas.h.i.+ng to the floor. Qing Yuan and Hong Luan rejoiced at his misfortune and tied him up tightly.

"Very fun, isn't it?" The empress sat cross-legged in front of Ren Baqian, who was tied up like a dumpling. While asking that question, she took down the pieces of paper on her face and pasted them on his face.

"You were pretty happy winning over the past two days, weren't you?"

"Your Majesty…"

"Laughing mischievously, weren't you?"

"Your Majesty, this…"

"'Oh yeah,' right?"

"Just a catchphrase…"

"Trying to escape after winning, weren't you?"

"I was just asking casually…"

The empress was full of complaints. Within a few minutes, there were slips of paper covering Ren Baqian's entire face. She then took one end of the rope that Ren Baqian was tied up with and tied it to the ceiling of the imperial chariot. Hauling it up forcefully, Ren Baqian was suspended in midair.

"Your Majesty, we can have a proper discussion. Why don't you let me down first?" Ren Baqian didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Now that the empress had pasted paper all over his face, both his eyes were covered, and he couldn't see a thing. Even by simply taking a breath, the slips of paper on his nose and mouth would move up and down.

This was indeed karmic retribution.

People who had lost until their eyes turned red would want to win it all back.

As for this person, she immediately took revenge… n.o.body else would play it like that…

...

Four days after leaving Lan CIty, everyone arrived at the side of a big river.

It was indeed a big river. Its width was at least a few kilometers, and one could only look at the opposite sh.o.r.e in the distance.

Feeling the blowing water vapor and listening to the sound of the river flowing, Ren Baqian walked toward the river bank slightly cautiously.

He had almost been consumed by the White Dragon River previously. He highly revered the waters of this world, especially such a big river like this.

He had no idea what sorts of life forms lived within it.

Sure enough, a bodyguard had just gone to the river bank to wash his face. As the water splashed around, a ten meter long crocodile emerged from the surface of the water and chomped toward him.

The humongous build of the crocodile made people cower in avoidance. Its wide open jaws made them believe without a doubt that it could easily crush a man.

Boom. That bodyguard pounded his fist toward the top of the crocodile's mouth before grabbing its upper jaw, lifting it into the sky, and ferociously smas.h.i.+ng it into the ground.

After that, he took out his blade and tossed it over, impaling the crocodile.

This series of movements was smooth and nimble, but the rest merely glanced over and paid no attention to it.

That bodyguard also looked pretty relaxed. A crocodile was considered a ferocious beast by Ren Baqian, but to the rest of the aboriginals, it was simply a normal living creature.

What happened next turned that bodyguard's face pale. The crocodile flipped around and very quickly dashed toward the river.

It knew that it had preyed on the wrong thing and only wanted to escape back into the river while ignoring its injuries.

"My blade!" With his eyes wide open, that bodyguard cursed, leaped over, and grabbed ahold of the crocodile's tail. With all his might, he swung it over and smashed it onto the ground.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump…!

That crocodile was thrown against the ground repeatedly as if it were a worn out sack. After a few rounds of slamming, it appeared to still be alive, but was already down to its last breath.

"Just a reminder, your blade seems to have been bent," Ren Baqian said unhurriedly.

That bodyguard immediately froze.

After having taken all that slamming while being pierced into the back of that crocodile, the blade was entirely deformed.

"My blade…"

"Has anyone eaten this thing before? Is it tasty?" In high spirits, Ren Baqian stood at the side, completely ignoring the bodyguard who acted as if he had lost his son.

Ren Baqian had heard about crocodile meat before, but had never tried it.

The food in this world was widely available and tasted pretty good, and this kind of made him look forward to having crocodile meat.

"It's alright. Quite chewy," someone replied.

"Peel off its skin first before we barbeque it in a moment."

During lunchtime, Ren Baqian almost drooled when he smelled the alluring aroma of the crocodile meat.

After that however, his brows began to knit when his cheeks grew sore from chewing on the crocodile meat in his mouth. How was this even considered chewy? He felt as if he was chewing on some sort of rubber product.

"Ptui!" Ren Baqian spat the crocodile meat out. This thing was really not meant to be eaten.

When he turned his head and looked at the others, however, they simply chewed a couple of times and swallowed the crocodile meat.

Especially to the empress, the crocodile meat was no different from tofu in her mouth. By just looking at the way she ate, it would make others think that this meat was soft and tender.

This was the difference in the disparity of strength. Besides displaying the physical strength of a person, it also reflected in the inner qualities of all aspects of the body.

Even to the extent of how one ate, there was a lot of difference.

"Sir Ren…" A bodyguard approached Ren Baqian with a bashful smile.

Such an expression displayed on a large and crude bodyguard was like a burly man with chest hair, leg hair, and a full beard wearing a sailor skirt. No matter how anyone looked at him, they would want to give him a beating.

"What's the matter?" Ren Baqian had an impression of this bodyguard. He was a bodyguard from the palace who rarely talked. The deepest impression that Ren Baqian had of him was of his mouthful of uneven teeth. He looked like a husky, where no two teeth were sitting on the same line.

"It's like this: I have got my eyes on a lady, and I want to marry her." As that bodyguard rubbed his hands, his facial expressions looked as if he was saying something that he found hard to bring up.

"Marry her then!" Ren Baqian was puzzled, why ask him about it?

"But she asked me to wait until the next lifetime… Sir Ren, can you teach me what to do?" As that bodyguard scratched his head, flakes of white dandruff fell off like snow.

If he was ordered to cut someone down, then naturally, it wouldn't be a problem. However, in this aspect, he found it a little problematic. This matter had been in his head for quite some time. After pondering, he felt that it would be more reliable for him to consult Princ.i.p.al Ren on this. Regardless of whatever other subjects, Ren Baqian was an expert in this aspect. It could be seen from how he made the empress fall in love with someone like him, who was so weak.

"Since she already made a pact with you for the next lifetime, it's obvious that she's interested in you," Ren Baqian replied with a face full of encouragement.

"Oh? Is it like this?" that bodyguard hurriedly questioned.

"Of course."

"Then why didn't she agree?"

"Maybe she has some sort of a hidden trouble that was hard to mention." Ren Baqian replied after hesitating for some time. He had a hard time cooking up this reason.

"For instance, maybe she's seriously ill and does have not much time left to live. Such things are pretty common. Some girl may have contracted a serious illness after eating too much kimchi. Alternatively, maybe her family ran into some problems, making her unable to unite with her true love and leaving her no choice but to make a pact for their next life… I can infer from this that she is a very strong woman. However, which lady doesn't want to have someone who can help her with her difficulties after running into trouble? So, since you are already aware of her feelings, then you musn't give up. No matter what excuses she gives you in the future, it'll only be to avoid giving you problems and to let you give up on your own… However, you'll always have a place in her heart, and furthermore, she'll be waiting for you. No matter how strong the lady is, even though she has already put it this way, n.o.body wants to be given up on…"

After Ren Baqian's enlightenment, that bodyguard raised his spirits and was prepared to carefully check on that lady's problems after he returned home. After resolving her problem, he would then take her as his wife.

Looking upon the back of that bodyguard as he left, Ren Baqian murmured, "Wish you guys good luck!"

There was a phrase that he said well: "A good lady is afraid of being bothered by a man." There might be a chance that the bodyguard would succeed if he really was to go back and pester her. Ren Baqian would have done a good deed then.