Chapter 45: A Poor Judgement

Translator: TYZ  Editor: Book_Hoarder

“What is this?” Caretaker Shi widened his eyes with amazement. Right now, he was looking at the air cooler as though he had discovered the New World.

“Air cooler!” Ren Baqian replied. After pulling the rope for a few times, he yelled, “Hulu, come and pull the rope.”

Then he ran to the front of the air cooler to enjoy the cold wind.

Copying Ren Baqian, Teng Hulu pulled and released the rope. The cold wind immediately hit Ren Baqian in the face, making him feel invigorated.

It felt quite pleasurable to be able to enjoy an air cooler in this world.

Tong Jia ran beside Ren Baqian and tried the thing that he had been busy with the whole afternoon.

He squeezed Ren Baqian slightly out of the way, and Ren Baqian almost fell down. After stabilizing himself, Ren Baqian turned back and glared angrily at Tong Jia, who just gave him a silly smile.

Ren Baqian was so angry that he wanted to give him a kick, but he did not do so. He felt too comfortable having cool air in such hot weather. He stretched out his arms in satisfaction and closed his eyes. However, not too long after, he felt the cold wind disappear.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Caretaker Shi squatting in front of the box trying to study how the cold wind was given off. Now that Caretaker Shi was blocking the cold wind with his body, how would Ren Baqian be able to feel anything?

“How does this thing give off cold air?” Caretaker Shi asked while trying to look through the fine wooden lattice.

After thinking about it for quite some time, Ren Baqian still did not know how to explain and replied bluntly, “You won’t understand even if I explain it to you.”

“What do you say we start selling this thing?” Caretaker Shi chuckled and said when Ren Baqian walked over and squatted beside him.

“It should be a hot item, right? The only bad thing about it is that it’s troublesome. It needs someone to keep pulling its rope, right?” Caretaker Shi continued with uncertainty.

“Not ‘should be’, it definitely will be a hot item,” Ren Baqian replied emphatically. Caretaker Shi had a bad sense of business.

However, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Most Dayao people were like him.

“Do you still remember my ice-selling plan? This thing is better than placing ice in a house. It decreases the surrounding temperature faster,” Ren Baqian explained.

“I think maybe we should gift such a good thing to Her Majesty,” Caretaker Shi said after thinking about it.

“It’s too simple and crude.” Ren Baqian naturally knew that they should gift one to the empress, but the one in front of them now was simply unpresentable. Its external component was merely made up of a wooden box. The woodworking in this world had reached a reasonably high level. The entire box was put together with mortise and tenon joints. If this skill was introduced to Earth, a lot of rich people would be attracted by it. However, even so, the ugliness and simplicity of the box could not be concealed.

In the modern era, everyone knew that giving elegant and high-end packaging to something that was worth 100 yuan would make it look like it was worth 1000 yuan. Even though it was all about the air cooler’s function, Ren Baqian would still choose to complement the 100-yuan-worth air cooler with a packaging that was worth 200 yuan.

“Can you carve a complicated pattern on it?” Ren Baqian turned around and asked Tong Jia.

“I am not sure, I have to see how it looks like first,” Tong Jia scratched the back of his head and replied honestly.

“Let me see what design can we put on it,” Ren Baqian said. It would be meaningless if they gave such an ugly-looking ice cooler to the empress. No matter what, they had to beautify it.

Even if she is an empress, her womanly nature wouldn’t change, right? So, what’s the nature of a woman?

They like glittering things? Like a dragon? Will they freeze when they see glittering things?

The first thing that Ren Baqian thought about was these questions.

Subsequently, he shook his head. After all, she was an empress. No matter how poor Daoyao was, the empress would not lack gold and gems.

Furthermore, Dayao produced a lot of gems. It’s just that most of them were deep in the mountains, and it was very hard to excavate them. Most of the gems on the market were picked up in the open.

So, what does that woman like? Cute things? This might be possible if she was an ordinary woman. When Ren Baqian thought of how the empress sent the polar bear flying in the air with a slap, he felt that this possibility was very unlikely.

After thinking about it for a while longer, Ren Baqian still could not come up with anything. He shook his head and did not think about it anymore.

He got the cook to cook a special feast for everyone. After finishing his dinner, Ren Baqian swayed back to his house.

This world had no nighttime entertainment at all. When the sky darkened, other than those making babies, everyone else was sleeping. After staying in this world for so many days, Ren Baqian was still unaccustomed to the daily routines here.

Unable to fall asleep, he sat at the doorstep and teased Gungun and Tiantian.

Initially, the two small chaps were lying flat on their backs. After being teased by Ren Baqian, they started to climb up his body.

In the end, they stopped at Ren Baqian’s knees. Upon taking a closer look, Ren Baqian realized they had fallen asleep.

Feeling helpless, Ren Baqian could only raise his head and look at the starry night.

The night sky in this world was exceptionally beautiful. He raised his head and saw countless stars. There were two starry trails and one gigantic plate-like star cluster. He wondered if it was a nebula or not.

The magnificence of the starry sky put him in a daze momentarily.

Suddenly, an idea popped in Ren Baqian’s head. If he could take a photo of this starry sky and post it online, would his online friends and those astronomers go crazy?

It was a pity he never brought his phone.

Another idea immediately popped up again in his head. If he could put this starry night onto the box, it would be extremely beautiful.

When he thought of this idea, he immediately became restless. He lowered his head and saw the two small chaps drooling all over his lower body. He quickly placed the two small chaps to one side and went to find Tong Jia.

Initially, Ren Baqian thought Tong Jia had already fallen asleep. When he reached Tong Jia’s house, he saw Tong Jia laughing sheepishly at the air cooler while tugging at the rope.

“Come out, I have an idea.” Ren Baqian grabbed Tong Jia’s elbow and tried to pull him up. However, Tong Jia did not move a single inch even after Ren Baqian had exerted all his strength.

“Ah?” Tong Jia turned around and gave Ren Baqian a sheepish smile.

Looking at Tong Jia’s sheepish smile, Ren Baqian clenched his teeth and gave him a kick. “Stand up and follow me out.”

Tong Jia stood up and asked, “Caretaker Ren, what’s the matter?”

“Go out first and I will tell you about it,” Ren Baqian led Tong Jia out of the house and pointed to the starry sky above their heads and said, “Can you put this starry night onto the box?”

“How can I do that?” Tong Jia was at a loss.

“Carve it on the box, I will settle the rest,” Ren Baqian said.

“Oh, I should be able to do that. I look at these stars every day, and I’m extremely familiar with them,” Tong Jia replied bluntly.

“It’s settled then. Tomorrow, you carve this starry sky onto the box. Especially that two starry trails and that circular star cluster, don’t miss out on them. Carve the constellations that you’re familiar with onto the box as well.”

“Alright, this can be done,” Tong Jia immediately responded.

“Is one day enough?”

“Yeah, one day is more than enough.”

“Okay then, you will complete this task by tomorrow. Do you need to draw the starry sky down first?” Ren Baqian asked.

“No need, I have memorized it in my brain.”

After hearing these words, Ren Baqian did not add anything else. He hummed a song while walking back to his house to sleep.

The next morning, Ren Baqian held a biscuit in his mouth and went to find Tong Jia. Ren Baqian sat to one side and watched Tong Jia dismantle the box and carve the starry night on it.

Ren Baqian took out the “electric fan” from the box and placed it on his knees. Then, he began to tug on the rope of the “electric fan”.

By afternoon, Tong Jia was drenched in sweat. He raised his head and yelled, “Caretaker Ren, it’s done.”

Ren Baqian put the “electric fan” aside and walked up to take a look at it. At this point in time, the wooden board was covered with small eye-like etchings.

This was the starry night? This looked more like a mushy riverbank!

When Ren Baqian took a closer look, he could finally see that the engraving somewhat resembled the starry trails. If he stood slightly further away from it, he would not be able to recognize it. Right now, he also did not know whether or not the engraving really resembled the starry sky. All he could do now was to first apply colors to it.