"Aren’t both horse carriages borrowed away?" Lian Manman asked.
"They are all borrowed away," Lian Shouxin said, "Imperial Doctor Shi asked how I got to the county seat, and I told him truthfully that I ca by carriage. Then he said that he ca with two friends earlier, and now both of them have left, taking the carriages with them. Imperial Doctor Shi is our benefactor, so I told him if he doesn’t mind, he could borrow our horse carriage. So he took both carriages."
The way Imperial Doctor Shi conducts himself is indeed unexpected, Lian Manman thought.
"So what shall we do now?" Erlang asked.
"Without the carriages, let’s walk to the Song Family. It shouldn’t be too far," Lian Manman said.
The group ca out from the teahouse. For tenant farrs, walking a distance was really quite common. Lian Shouxin was actually quite willing to be able to help Imperial Doctor Shi; it would be even better if Imperial Doctor Shi didn’t always have such a stern face.
Just after turning the corner of the street, a carriage ca straight toward them and stopped right in front of them.
"Is this Miss Lian from Thirty Mile Camp?" A boy looking like a servant jumped down from the carriage and ca up to Lian Manman, asking with his hands crossed in front of him.
Lian Manman blinked.
"My na is Shi Tou, I serve Imperial Doctor Shi. Please, Miss Lian, get on the carriage," the boy said smartly. By looking at the expressions of this group of people, he knew he had found the right person. "Imperial Doctor Shi instructed to take Miss Lian to the Song Family."
The carriage of Imperial Doctor Shi was naturally different from the rickety hired ones, with thick dark green felt on the carriage floor and a circle of decorative tassels around the roof. The curtains bore a unique emblem. It wasn’t ostentatious luxury, but the grandeur and refinent were obvious to the discerning eye; it was clear the owner of the carriage was either very rich or of high status.
Imperial Doctor Shi had borrowed their hired carriages but had sent his own in their place.
"Well then, thank you very much," Lian Manman said after a mont’s thought, without any refusal.
There were six of them altogether, and naturally, they couldn’t all fit in the carriage.
Erlang and Sanlang were sowhat hesitant to go to the Song Family, so they said they would wait in the teahouse. After so thought, Lian Manman nodded and agreed.
The carriage was spacious; Lian Manman, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi were children, small in stature, and together with Lian Shouxin, they fit inside just right. Once they were seated, the boy swung his leg over and sat on the edge of the carriage. The coachman drove the horses straight toward Lion Stone Alley.
Upon entering Lion Stone Alley, the carriage stopped in front of the Song Family’s mansion gates. Lian Manman lifted the curtain and saw in front of her the Song Family’s large gates, a five-beam protruding veranda with gold columns, decorative sparrow brackets and triple clouds under the eaves of the outer ridge, with two big red lacquer doors tightly shut.
Lian Manman rembered Wang Youheng’s words; after Song Hailong’s father married Old Madam Shen, he donated to acquire a sixth-ranked idle position, and since then the Song Family had really changed their threshold. The Song Family’s gates must have been rebuilt after that. Even so, when people spoke of the Song Family, the first thing they inevitably ntioned was that they "started from doing business."
At this point, the servant nad Shi Tou had already jumped off the carriage, went to the front of the door and knocked twice with the bronze ring. The big door opened with a creak, and a neatly dressed servant ca out. This servant seed to recognize Shi Tou, and they exchanged a few words that Lian Manman didn’t quite catch. Then she saw the servant run back inside, and Shi Tou ca back to the carriage.
The carriage moved on and soon arrived at a side gate. The gate was already open, with two servants leading the way for the carriage to enter the Song residence, not even an arrow’s distance farther, and stopped in front of a pink and white screen wall.
Two neatly dressed stewards were already there to greet them.
Shi Tou went up to speak softly with the two stewards, and both won nodded with smiles.
"Old Madam Shen is in the side hall, waiting for you. You can follow these two das there," Shi Tou ca back and said to Lian Manman with a smile, "Only guests sent by Imperial Physician Shi get such distinction. If it were soone else, it probably wouldn’t be so convenient."
After speaking, Shi Tou looked at Lian Manman with so anticipation.
At that mont, Lian Manman finally understood. Imperial Physician Shi’s character was truly... unexpected, to actually manage this feat.
Manman knew what the boy was expecting, but she absolutely would not step on Imperial Doctor Wang to curry favor with Imperial Physician Shi. It would be ungrateful for how Wang Youheng had treated her, and it would go against her principles of conduct.
"Thank you very much, Brother Shi Tou," Lian Manman said with a smile, "We have indeed accepted Imperial Physician Shi’s kindness."
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