Naturally, Ren Baqian was unaware what happened in other places. From that day on, he became very busy.

He couldn't even care about the air cooler matter.

After Tong Jia finished making its outer case, Ren Baqian threw the matter to Caretaker s.h.i.+.

As for its selling price, one air cooler would be sold for fifteen silver taels. In any case, those who bought this thing were definitely not ordinary individuals. Therefore, it did not matter if the air cooler was expensive.

This air cooler was too easy to make. It could definitely bring Ren Baqian some profits. However, once it hit the market, there would definitely be imitations of it very soon.

Even though Dayao people were not good at doing business, they weren't stupid. They could easily find someone to make imitations of the air cooler. He was basically placing money beneath their feet. It couldn't be possible that they did not know how to stoop down and pick up the money.

Even if the Dayao people were really stupid, there were still those merchants from other nations.

Right now, Ren Baqian wasn't concerned about this matter. Even though a few hundred silver taels were not a small sum of money, it wasn't an important matter to him.

He did not know that the air cooler piqued a lot of people's interests as soon as Caretaker s.h.i.+ placed it in the newly renovated shop at Jingyang Road.

Especially after Caretaker s.h.i.+ demonstrated how it could emit cold air by adding ice cubes to it. Out of a total of twenty air coolers seven had been sold on that day itself. The remaining thirteen were completely sold out on the second day.

Its sales were much better than Ren Baqian expected.

In fact, there was something that Ren Baqian did not know. Ever since the empress received the air cooler, she had been using it frequently during court sessions. Her ministers were already coveting it.

Therefore, when the ice coolers were displayed at Ren Baqian's shop, they were immediately sold out after someone discovered them.

The twenty air coolers made a profit of two hundred plus silver taels. Caretaker s.h.i.+ was stunned by this result. He immediately went to find Ren Baqian and told him about it.

Upon hearing this news, Ren Baqian was slightly surprised. He knew for sure that the ice coolers would be sold out, but he did not expect it to happen so fast.

He asked Caretaker s.h.i.+ to go back to that shop and make one hundred air coolers. He reckoned that they could sell one more batch of air coolers.

After handing the matter over to Caretaker s.h.i.+, Ren Baqian continued his work at the Honglu Bureau.

As the empress's birthday celebration drew closer, there were more and more people arriving in Lan City.

Most of them possessed businesses in Dayao. Since they frequently sent caravans to Dayao, they were extremely precise with the time needed to get to Dayao from their countries. Usually, they would reach approximately one week earlier than the appointed time.

At this point in time, more than seventy groups of people had arrived in Lan City. Most of them were carriage fleets. Other than gifts for the empress and family members, they also carried a huge amount of goods.

There was one more week until the empress's birthday celebration. Ren Baqian reckoned that more people would arrive in the next few days. He needed to bust his a.s.s off for a few more days before he could finally rest.

Ren Baqian threw away the writing brush, stretched his back, and let out a yawn.

He had indeed been very busy for the past few days. After all, it was unlike the past. Nowadays, he had to make decisions for many matters, arrange manpower, and even mediate disputes.

Just like what Ren Baqian antic.i.p.ated, those who came here weren't ordinary individuals. None of them were good-hearted. All of them were used to tyrannizing people in their own countries.

"What are you looking at?"

"Why can't I look at you?"

"What did you say? F*ck you! Attack him!"

Most of the disputes started out like this.

In this world, there were many formidable individuals. Ren Baqian had seen a few recently. These arrogant and despotic n.o.bles could not change their bad habits even when they were in Dayao.

Even in China, a technologically advanced country, there were plenty of such people, let alone in a feudal society.

Even though examples had been set up for them to see, they still did not care about anything when they were in the heat of the moment.

These few days, Ren Baqian hung another three persons to death. He hung them alive.

Xiong Pi placed a rope on each of their necks and pulled them up. The three persons struggled non-stop until they stopped breathing.

Such a method had intimidated many of the arrogant and tyrannical n.o.bles.

Ren Baqian was like a terrorizing ghost to them now.

Ren Baqian was far too ruthless. Furthermore, he wore an amiable look on his face all the time. Even when he was giving order to kill someone, the amiable look on his face did not change at all.

These n.o.bles were used to seeing people getting killed. Some of them had even personally murdered people before. However, Ren Baqian's actions still sent a cold s.h.i.+ver down their spines. Especially when they saw the monster-like Xiong Pi behind him.

After a few more incidents like this—no matter what happened—so long as Ren Baqian and Xiong Pi were there, everyone would scatter like alarmed birds.

The news of these incidents spread throughout Lan City.

Many people already knew that the seemingly kind and gently Honglu Deputy was actually a vicious and merciless individual.

The n.o.bles from the other three nations hated Ren Baqian to the core. They wished they could slice him to death. They had been thinking non-stop how they would torture Ren Baqian if he fell into their hands.

If Ren Baqian really fell into their hands, they wouldn't let him die that easily.

However, since they were in Dayao now, they had no choice but to give in to him. At this point in time, all of them were convinced that Ren Baqian held more power than them in Lan City.

In the past, every year during the empress's birthday celebration, these people would create a lot of trouble. However, this year, the number of disputes that happened had decreased significantly. Even the public order bureau felt very puzzled.

…..

In a mountain stronghold, one day's journey from Lan City, Qi Zhi was using a dagger to carve a puppet. Suddenly, he heard a racket at his doorstep. A huge man rode a horse into the stronghold. Then, he jumped down and strode towards Qi Zhi. "You are leading a rather carefree life here huh."

Qi Zhi immediately laughed and replied, "It's still better than handling those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. This year I can finally not see those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. I will rather Her Majesty throw me into the army and I will still be carefree there."

"You should have won the battle then." After hearing these words from the huge man, Qi Zhi's face turned dark in an instant.

"How is it going at the Honglu Bureau? Has the lad been tormented to death by those people?" Qi Zhi changed the topic.

Upon hearing these words, the big man's facial expression turned slightly odd.

"What happened?" Qi Zhi asked with curiosity after seeing his facial expression.

"Hehe, whenever they see Ren Baqian now, they are like mice seeing a cat."

Hearing these words, Qi Zhi's curiosity was immediately piqued. He asked, "What happened? When I was working there, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds created trouble for me every day. At that time, I wished I can strangle them to death."

The huge man laughed out loud and told Qi Zhi what happened.

"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are really frightened this time around. Whenever they see him, they will be frightened to death. Wherever he stands, any dispute will go away on its own."

Qi Zhi touched his short hair and cursed, "G.o.dd.a.m.nit! Last year I broke four persons' legs but those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds did not even care. They obviously think I'm bulliable. Next year, if they create trouble for me, I will slaughter them as well. If it weren't for the fact that they are going to present Her Majesty with gifts, don't you think I wanted to kill them?"

The huge man laughed again and shook his head. Following which, he replied, "You can't scare them. You might be tyrannical and you have no qualms about killing people, but you're still different from that lad. He is like a snake. I have never seen him in action with my own eyes. However, I did hear that he always has a smiling look on his face. He will ask Xiong Pi to put a rope around their necks and pull it to hang them to death. There's nothing scary about killing people with swords. He can smile and pamper you while stabbing a knife through your heart. This certainly strikes fear into people's hearts."

Qi Zhi threw the dagger in his hand and stuck it to a wooden board in front of him. He couldn't believe that weak-looking lad was doing a better job than him, and he felt slightly sullen.

"d.a.m.n it! Initially I still thought that lad wa going to be tormented to death. I was thinking why Her Majesty did not want to send someone formidable. I didn't expect this lad to be this formidable," Qi Zhi cursed. Then, he slapped the huge man's thigh and asked, "Anyway who did you hear this from?"

"Those people from the Chen Nation told me," the huge man chuckled.

...