This was especially true for s.h.i.+ Yang and Ge Lu as they almost yelled out, "Me, me, pick me!"

Ren Baqian was full of emotion. During the New Year last year, he brought the two of them back home as bodyguards, but they ended up acting out their own rendition of "Escape to Victory." They created trouble the entire way and even ended up entering Kim Jong Un's territory.

There was also no telling how those two actually moved the man that the whole world considered to be the strongest; the post-80 who withstood pressure from the entire world.

"Xiong Bing, Xu Wei, the two of you. The others shall stay here well-behaved. Someone will send over the meat and wine." Ren Baqian glanced over all of the winged cavalry and picked two of them to be his bodyguards. They also happened to be the earliest to arrive this morning and were immediately overjoyed at this unexpected good news.

For the entire year, they had been hearing the other two winged cavalry brag about their experiences outside, which made the rest feel extremely envious.

After the four of them left the house, Ren Baqian turned to look at the empress from time to time while he was driving.

"What are you looking at? Look again and I'll dig your eyeb.a.l.l.s out!" the empress said with a cold look on her face. She felt uneasy because she was constantly being looked at.

Ren Baqian laughed when he heard this and said, "I actually rarely see Your Majesty doll up and put on makeup. You look even prettier now."

The empress wore a red dress with a black coat over it. She actually put on lipstick as well, which was a very rare sight. Even though she didn't put on any other makeup, her fiery red lips were enough to make her look even more gorgeous.

The two in the backseat didn't dare to join the conversation and pretended as if they hadn't heard anything.

The empress groaned softly before turning away to look outside the window.

Even though she had never spent the New Year in this world before, she had seen it several times in the soap operas and at least knew that it was also a rather important event. She was especially looking forward to the fireworks display all over the city during the New Year.

"Eh, Gang Beng!" the empress said suddenly. Ren Baqian turned his head and looked over, only to see a mother and her son by the road. The child was about six years old, whereas the mother was in her early thirties. There was also a robotic dog on the ground that was going through a tough time.

The name "Gang Beng" that the empress called out was in reference to that robotic dog.

The empress's first robotic dog was damaged by Qing Ping. Ren Baqian then got her a few more that she named Gang Beng, Gang Ya, Gang Gu, Gang Jin, Gang Pi, and Gang Zhua. She was fond of them for quite some time.

Lately, however, the empress very seldom recharged their batteries and didn't expect to be reminded of them after seeing someone else's robotic dog here.

In fact, simply because the empress saw that robotic dog on the street, she recalled the days when she was fond of those little things and felt a little sentimental. After all, those dogs were part of her fond memories, and she didn't have many memories like those.

The current date was the 11th of February, 2021. Yet another year had pa.s.sed by so quickly. Even though there hadn't been much change in Shanghai, there were still slight differences.

Ren Baqian saw advertis.e.m.e.nts for automated cars many times and had even seen a few of them along the road. This made him decide to get one for himself so that he can rest his hands. This way, he could also stop thinking about how to make those idiots get driver's licenses. He believed that they would definitely drive a car like a tank.

Apart from this, there were now many automated banks and supermarkets that he could occasionally see along the streets. They had only been testing those out in certain areas a few years ago.

Advertis.e.m.e.nts for household educational robots were widespread as well and could often be seen on automated public transportation. Even small hospitals that relied mainly on medical robots had started to appear as well. It was said that the robots in those hospitals could diagnose normal ailments via the internet, prescribe medications, and even hook someone up to an intravenous drip.

In addition, these hospitals with medical robots could extend to every community and street in the future. Like household educational robots, these medical robots could even become a part of many families.

Flying motorcycles hadn't been released due to the air traffic regulations. However, Ren Baqian had already seen footage of flying motorcycles gliding around in videos from some oil-rich countries. Some countries had already been working on legislating new air traffic regulations, and this was also an inevitable future for China.

Everything was developing and evolving at lightning speed.

Even Ren Baqian was beginning to feel more and more uncertain of what the future of Earth would be like. The pa.s.sage of time was too fast, and this was even more so for him. It somehow made him feel like he would be abandoned by the new age at any moment, so he would make the most of his time whenever he returned to understand the changes on Earth.

It was snowing when they arrived at S City, which made Xiong Bing and Xu Wei a little excited. It was very rare for them to see snow back in Dayao.

Even the empress stretched out her hand to touch the dancing snowflakes in the air.

From the way they acted, everyone around them knew at first sight that they were from the south. However, with those two burly and fearsome looking men around, n.o.body was going to start a conversation about them.

After cras.h.i.+ng into two cars and driving off right away, Ren Baqian still answered Mama Ren's call while he was driving. They arrived back home before the sky turned dark.

When they arrived, Papa Ren was still carrying some things in the corridor while smoking and chatting with a neighbor. He immediately beamed with joy when he saw them coming home.

"You are back!" Papa Ren's face grew serious, displaying the imposing presence of the head of the household in front of his neighbor. Then, he suddenly asked the empress enthusiastically, "You are back too? Zixiao, why are you wearing so little? And these two are?"

The empress was dressed in a red dress and a black fur coat; her attire did indeed look rather thin.

"Your eldest son is back?" The neighbor was also a man in his fifties who had heard that the Ren family's eldest son was very rich and resided overseas. This was the first time they had ever met.

After looking at them, he immediately felt apprehensive. The lady was incredibly beautiful and didn't look like an ordinary person.

The other three didn't look like ordinary people either, but they also didn't seem like good people.

This was especially so for those two fearsome looking men who made one tremble simply by looking at them.

There was also a tall and strong looking man. He should be the eldest son of the Ren family? Since they are from the same family… Why were they so different?

Both the youngest son, who rarely returned, and the old folks of the Ren family looked like good-natured and ordinary people.

However, this… and those two behind… They were clearly not the same kind of people!

This subconsciously made him feel like he should keep a further distance away from this Ren family.

"Let's chat again another day. We'll go up first!" Papa Ren called out to his neighbor before enthusiastically calling out to the others," It's cold outside—hurry and come in."

After entering the elevator, Ren Baqian looked at the empress and realized that her body was a little stiff. Her gaze had also drifted away a little as she constantly looked at the ceiling.

Ren Baqian grabbed ahold of the empress's hand. Then, she firmly gripped it.

"Ah!" Ren Baqian's turned pale as he took in some fresh air. It felt like his bones were on the brink of breaking!

"What's wrong?" Papa Ren hurriedly looked over, didn't see anything, and raised his head again to look at the ceiling,

"It's nothing!" Ren Baqian inhaled cool air as he turned and looked at the empress while feeling wronged. She gave him a resolute stare, which made him feel a little baffled. He hadn't even provoked her at all!

After entering the house, Papa Ren called out to Mama Ren, "Look who's here!"

"Brother!" Ren Wannian came out from the room to greet his older brother before looking surprised and saying, "Sister-in-law! This is the first time I'm seeing you in person—you are much prettier than you look in pictures! Prettier than a celebrity!"

The empress nodded gently as a form of greeting.

Staying very calm and collected, she accepted Ren Wannian's praise.

Before knowing Ren Baqian, the empress would have still felt very happy to receive such compliments. However, after an extended period of "baptism," aside from Ren Baqian's compliments, she felt that other people were merely stating ordinary facts that there were no doubts about. Did she have to mind it when others were stating facts? Absolutely not!

As a result, such compliments naturally wouldn't make her feel as if something was amiss.

However, she saw that Ren Wannian's eyes looked much gentler and felt that he was a much nicer person.

After leaving them to Mama Ren, Papa Ren went back into his room and took a few deep breaths. This Zixiao's imposing manner was so strong that he had to watch his words when talking to her. Except for the fact that she was too cold toward others and her aura was too strong, everything else about this daughter-in-law was good. A small and simple family definitely wouldn't be able to handle this.

"Does sister-in-law have a younger sister?"