No one could understand the complexity in Jiang Chengyuan's heart.
When he learned that Jiang Sheng was actually his rightful younger sister whom he should have tried his best to find but failed to do so for various reasons, he was first stunned with pleasant surprise and couldn't wait to bring her back immediately.
However, as he recalled everything that had happened recently, including the scenes where he repeatedly turned around and left in front of her, cold sweat permeated Jiang Chengyuan's back.
It seemed that he wasn't a qualified elder brother after all.
He had brushed past Xieyang County when they met, witnessed her falling in Anshui Prefecture, retreated at the entrance of Jiuzhen Store, equivocated at the Imperial Examination Hall, and only brought Chenghui with him when he left the Imperial Examination Hall in a hurry.
Jiang Chengyuan's shoulders slumped a little. At those moments, he felt his reactions were understandable, but when he truly recalled them, he felt he had been unfair to little Jiang Sheng.
She was the girl that the Jiang family had been searching for over four years.
With his grandmother's objection, he didn't dare actively get close to little Jiang Sheng, but he still wanted to do something more to make up for the guilt in his heart and fulfill his responsibilities as an elder brother.
For example, providing her with a residence compound she needed.
It goes without saying that every inch of land in Fengjing was extremely valuable. Truly well-located residence compounds were almost all controlled by nobles and officials. Ordinary people couldn’t buy them even if they had the money.
The title deed in his hand was secretly given to him by his late grandfather to use for himself.
Now he wanted to give it to little Jiang Sheng as a gift, hoping that she would accept it and be happy with it, and no longer be angry at her elder brother.
"You must accept it, you must accept it."
Jiang Chengyuan stared fixedly at the crouching Jiang Sheng, watching her unfold the paper ball, look around, and finally fold the title deed into a small piece and place it on the most conspicuous rock before leaving.
Along with two servants, she left without any reluctance for the residence compound worth thousands of taels of silver, and without investigating who threw that paper ball either.
Everything seemed to blow over like a spring breeze, light as a feather without any strings attached.
Jiang Chengyuan stiffened, with the gleam in his eyes fading away. He only felt empty-handed, as if having lost something.
"Why didn't she accept it?"
Jiang San asked the same question, "My lady, why didn't you take the title deed?"
Jiang Sheng remained unruffled and said calmly, "Why should I accept it? Haven't you heard that one shouldn't receive gains without labor?"
"But..." Jiang San wanted to say that the Jiang family was the young lady's family.
But then he thought better of it. After the truth came to light at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, a full five days had passed now. Other than the eldest young master of the Jiang family who threw a paper ball from behind, the entire Jiang family hadn't made any move at all.
No one came to fetch her or visit her, let alone care about her.
On the surface it seemed they were just keeping to their promise, but in this world, emotions aren't something that can be restricted by a mere promise.
Jiang San recalled his own parents.
As the only two children with families among the eight Jiang siblings, his situation was different from that of Jiang Wu whose family practiced overt favoritism towards males over females. Jiang San's parents had sold him because they were simply too poor to feed the family, so by selling their son not only could they exchange him for food to keep the rest of the family alive, but also give Jiang San himself a future.
At first, thinking that they might not see their son anymore, Jiang San's parents cried so hard they practically couldn't open their eyes, and his old father even slapped his own face swollen.
Later when they realized they could still see him from time to time, his parents would still shed tears at each parting. They would bring him food and drinks, earnestly nag him to take care of himself.
Back when he was in Xieyang County they even secretly came over to take a look, and only after making sure their son was doing fine did they reluctantly leave again. Had Fengjing not been too far away, the old couple would definitely have run over secretly and then hurried back overnight.
This was parental love, the uncontrollable longing, the irrepressible urge.
And he was merely a sold son whose parents still cared for him so much. Jiang Sheng was the Jiang family's direct descendant they had lost for eleven years!
For a moment Jiang San didn't know whether he should curse the Jiang family for being cold-hearted, or feel indignant on the young lady's behalf.
Yet Jiang Sheng herself remained exceptionally calm, and said, "I shouldn't feel like I have lost something just because the Jiangs are a prestigious family. What if the ones who came looking for me weren't the Jiangs but just an ordinary couple, or even a destitute family? Would you still ask me to go back with them?"
"Of course not," Jiang San blurted out. "My lady has suffered hardship enough already and should not go back to be mistreated again."
Well then, that settled it.
The only reason the Jiangs made people look at them differently was their superior status, but for Jiang Sheng, what mattered were those who had treated her well.
"My eldest brother's imperial examination will end tomorrow. I wonder what the top candidate is called this time."
"My second brother wouldn't make it back during the exam period. Hopefully he can return after the exam ends."
"And I miss my third brother so much. I wonder when I'll see him again."
"My fourth and fifth brothers are always sneaking around mysteriously doing who knows what. I need to go find out."
The little girl chattered away as she hopped onto the carriage shaft and disappeared over the horizon along with the setting sun.
At the same time.
At the gate of the retired imperial physician's residence, Wen Zhiyun holding his medicine chest and Chang Yan holding pastries had spent half a day knocking futilely until they finally sighed and turned to leave.
Chang Yan comforted his little brother whose mood was low. "We only encountered the elderly master by chance. It's normal he didn't grant us an audience."
"It's all because my medical skills aren't good enough." Little Dr. Wen almost buried his head into his belly.
Speaking of which, although Wen Zhiyun's medical skills were initiated by his father and guided onto the right path by Dr. Wu, he had still relied mostly on self-study. When faced with difficult and complicated ailments and disorders, he could flip through all the medical books left behind by his father and Dr. Wu yet still not find the answer.
It was often said that while masters could lead their disciples through the gate, cultivation depended on personal effort. But medicine was different—it was a discipline that required both experience and guidance.
The lingering difficult issues had made it hard for Wen Zhiyun to eat or sleep well. He developed the intention to visit his elders and seniors, but unfortunately was still unfamiliar with Fengjing.
Fortunately Chang Yan knew his way around.
The two brothers readily teamed up, with one leading the way and the other requesting an audience. Yet no matter whether they visited widely renowned private physicians, chief physicians of large medical centers, or retired imperial physicians, regardless of distinguished mansions or small doorways, they were turned away outside one and all.
It was said that Fengjing valued power and influence. Chang Yan had also mentally prepared himself to be denied audiences.
But seeing Wen Zhiyun blame himself for lacking medical skills still twisted his heart. "Fourth Brother, don't blame yourself. It's because we have neither status nor connections nor relations."
Medical skills depended on personal ability. It was kind of the venerable masters to be willing to teach, and not granting an audience was also normal.
"I guess I was really lucky to have encountered Dr. Wu back then," Wen Zhiyun murmured, hugging his little medicine chest tighter.
The two brothers walked side by side, lonely in the setting sun, with their shadows pulled longer.
When the splendor of heaven and earth faded away and darkness stealthily descended, the three siblings met at the doorway of their little second-courtyard residence.
"Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother!"
The formerly pretending-to-be-mature Jiang Sheng resumed being lively and mischievous. She pounced in front of her brothers and said, "Where have you two been? I just picked up a title deed a moment ago. It's so expensive, surely no less than a thousand taels! But I left it there, I didn't take it."
She gestured animatedly with her hands and feet.
Wen Zhiyun unconsciously straightened his back and assumed the posture of an elder brother. "You can't just randomly pick up other people's belongings. Be careful or you'll end up at the authorities."
Jiang Sheng obediently nodded. "I put it on top of a big rock. We don't want what belongs to others."
The two laughed together, sweeping all troubles away.
Only Chang Yan stroked his chin murmuring, "For a fourth-courtyard residence inside the Imperial College, it would be surely far more than just a thousand taels. More like seven or eight thousand at least."
If the garden layout and residence design were well done, it could even fetch eight or nine thousand.
While "a thousand taels" was used as a descriptor here, one thousand taels versus eight or nine thousand taels were two very different numbers.
After all, Jiang Sheng was still lacking in knowledge and experience, greatly underestimating the value of wealth.
But so what.
Whether it was one thousand or eight or nine thousand, they wanted none of the Jiang family's possessions anyway.
Chang Yan took his sister's hand. "In the future when your brothers make money, we'll buy Jiang Sheng as many fourth-courtyard residences as she wants."
"Right, that's right." Wen Zhiyun took out two silver notes from his jacket. "This is this month's surplus from the clinic."
Congratulations and celebrations. Wen's Clinic had finally stopped operating at a deficit and started making profits.
Jiang Sheng happily tucked the silver notes into her clothes, then grabbed her brothers' hands. "Let's go, meat for dinner tonight!"
