After a long while, Ren Baqian heard the sound of footsteps.
Stealing a glance, he saw a line of people walking over.At the front of the group was a lady wearing a magnificent crimson gown with embroidery sewn on with golden threads. Her hair was tied up simply.
It was the lady from that day.
"She sure loves red," Ren Baqian muttered to himself. Having seen the palace complex, he suspected that she was the emperor here.
Just as Ren Baqian took a quick glance at her, the lady's eyes coldly swept towards him. Her sharp, cold gaze stabbed him right between the eyes, and he quickly lowered his head.
Seeing Ren Baqian standing around in his underpants dazed her. Her gaze became even colder.
The rest of the people secretly giggled at the sight, giving the lower half of his body a good glance as they walked past.
It could not be helped since Ren Baqian was wearing eye-catching red underpants. He had purposely changed into this pair to ward off bad luck.
After everyone had entered the palace, he was dragged in as well.
He was restrained against the ground the moment he entered. Beside him was his quilt.
Beneath him was a long carpet which ended in front of nine steps and a couch.
"Just what has happened?" The lady questioned, lying on the couch with one hand propping up her head.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, we found him like this when we went to get him. The jailer said that nobody else had entered and has no idea how he ended up like that. An extra quilt had appeared in the cell as well!" One of the soldiers who had dragged him over reported on his knees.
"Oh? Alright, your turn to speak," The lady casually ordered.
Ren Baqian was still figuring out who she was talking to when the soldier behind him applied force against him. "Her Majesty is asking a question, why are you not replying?"
Ren Baqian had been thinking of a good answer to this question ever since he was brought out of the jail. He had intended to explain it by means of a strange habit where he ate cloth while sleeping, and as such, his clothes had been eaten up by him. But if she were to bring out a piece of cloth for him to eat, he would be royally screwed.
"My clothes have disintegrated." Ren Baqian concocted an answer with his head hung low. "In order to protect the environment, items produced in my country are made to naturally disintegrate after some time. I've worn those clothes for quite some time, and they disintegrated over the past two days in jail."
The lady furrowed her brows as she listened but found that she completely could not understand what he was saying.
Her reply was cold, "What a load of nonsense."
"Your Majesty is wise!" Ren Baqian announced with false courage.
"Where is this from then?"
Ren Baqian knew without looking that she was referring to his quilt.
This was another unexplainable occurrence.
He had no choice but to explain the unexplainable. Going for broke, he answered through gritted teeth, "It fell from the sky. Just like how I appeared here, it had appeared out of nowhere. I thought someone was saving me from freezing to death."
"So that's what happened," the lady replied coldly.
Ren Baqian let out a puff of air. Luckily for him the lady did not interrogate further. All he could do was hold on to his previous explanation, as he did not have anything else to say.
"Drag him out and behead him," the lady said in a mocking tone.
Ren Baqian was dazed. He was going to get beheaded again?
Scared out of his wit, Re Baqian struggled against the soldier dragging him. He shouted, "Your Majesty, I'm a talent, I'm a talent who can be of great use. I know which fields can produce tons of food!"
There was no way he could match up to the strength of the two beefcake soldiers by his sides. He was fast approaching the door.
The lady did not even bat an eyelid upon hearing about food production.
Seeing as he was about to be dragged out the palace door, Ren Baqian desperately shouted, "Spare me, Your Majesty! As long as you give me a chance, I'll do anything you want!"
Ren Baqian was willing to say anything to save his life.
"Oh?" the lady softly said. "Bring him back!"
Ren Baqian was dragged into the palace once again. He was completely drenched in sweat.
Only how many days has it been? Besides waiting in jail to be beheaded, Ren Baqian had several close brushes with death. Ren Baqian felt that he must be the most miserable teleporter ever.
"You said you wanted a chance?" the lady unsympathetically asked.
"Yes, I can do anything if Your Majesty is willing to give me a chance." Ren Baqian heaved a huge sigh of relief after having been scared half to death.
"I'll give you a chance then. Do it well, you live. Mess it up, you know the consequences." The lady said emotionlessly.
Ren Baqian's mind was a flurry of activity. He thought to himself, "I know, of course I know. I'll definitely be beheaded, beheaded, and still beheaded. Don't you have anything better to say?"
What, instead, submissively came out of his mouth was, "I'll definitely do my best to accomplish the task to your satisfaction."
"Xin Zhe!" the lady called out lightly.
"Here!" the female general with one knee on the ground replied. Ren Baqian recognized her from before.
"Bring him to the beast park. That newly arrived small chap isn't eating and sleeping well for some reason. Let this guy take a look and have a shot at treating that small chap. If he does it well, spare him. Otherwise, go ahead and behead him."
"Yes!" The female general accepted the order. She then commanded the two soldiers behind Ren Baqian, "Grab him and follow me."
Along the way, Ren Baqian thought about his task. "Beast park? The newly arrived small chap?" Sounds like he's going to look at animals.
He never once mentioned that he knew anything about being a vet.
Regardless, he had no choice but to take a look. If he cannot accomplish anything then he would drag it out for 2 or 3 days, return to his world to consult a vet, and bring some medicine back. Things should hopefully work out fine.
The palace hall where they came from was pretty deep into the complex. After exiting the palace hall, they walked deeper and deeper, and finally, after crossing a forest, reached the so-called "beast park". A fierce-looking burly man with a thick spare tire around his waist approached them. He looked more like a butcher rather than the caretaker of a zoo. The beast park's caretaker spoke in an aggressive manner, interrogating Ren Baqian's escorts before bringing the several of them in.
What they called a beast park was pretty much a zoo. However, the animals here lived in better environments and were not locked up in cages.
There were many open spaces here in this place. A perimeter wall surrounded the park, within which there were areas for the many animals to roam freely.
Only a handful of animals and avians were kept in cages.
As he walked, Ren Baqian saw a red-eyed rabbit which was the size of a wolf and had a mouth full of fangs. He also noticed a creature that resembled a hippopotamus. Two tigers with long fangs hanging out of their mouths were present as well. They kind of looked like saber-toothed tigers but with slightly shorter fangs.
The further he walked, the surer he was of one thing: the animals in this world were very different from those on Earth.
For instance, the incredibly sinister-looking, fanged rabbit leapt directly at them as they walked past before slamming into its cage.
If someone told him that it did not bite, Ren Baqian would die before believing him.
"We're here, this is it." The people in front stopped before a one meter tall wall.
Ren Baqian looked around before realizing that everyone else was staring at him. He took two steps forward and peered over the wall.
The enclosure had a diameter of about 50 meters and was approximately 3 meters below ground level if one counted the wall. A small stream flowed along the sides of the enclosure. There were metal fences where the water flowed in and out.
In the stream, a white bear with a build of over 2.5 meters lay on its stomach. The water of the stream merely covered half of its gigantic body.
"A small chap indeed!" Ren Baqian ridiculed. He'd already had a premonition when that lady mentioned that it was a small chap. He knew that sort of lady would not raise pets like cats or dogs.