"The patient wants to move to an inn?" Song Shixue looked at Zeng Boyan in complete surprise.
Zeng Boyan smiled and nodded. "It will be more convenient for meals and accommodation at the inn. With the Third Young Master staying here, the medical clinic cannot receive other patients. It is also troublesome for Second Miss Song to go out for house calls every time. It's better to move to the inn."
After a moment of hesitation, Song Shixue nodded in agreement; she had no choice but to agree anyway.
"I'll have a medicine boy go with you to ensure everything is fine during the transfer before he comes back."
Their eyes met, and Heye immediately put down what she was holding and walked over.
Watching Yang Cenan being carried away, the yamen runners looked at each other, unsure if they should follow.
They had been ordered to guard the clinic and keep outsiders away precisely to prevent anything from happening to Yang Cenan in Suining City.
Now that the person had left, and the inn was guarded by so many attendants, deciding whether to follow or not was quite a dilemma.
Lan Xi looked toward Song Shixue.
"Follow Heye."
Lan Xi nodded and immediately signaled four yamen runners to follow.
Upon arriving at the inn, Heye checked Yang Cenan's wounds and prepared to leave.
Seeing that Lan Xi and the other four had no intention of leaving, Zeng Boyan stepped out of the room and politely smiled to shoo them away.
"The inn has people protecting it and does not need yamen runners to stand guard. You may leave."
Lan Xi was already prepared for this. He didn't force them to stay; he gave a slight nod and led his men away.
"Steward Lan, are we just going to leave it be?"
The yamen runners who had followed were concerned, worried they would be held accountable if something happened to Yang Cenan.
"Send someone back to inform Lord Song. What to do next is a matter for our superiors."
Vast stretches of paddy fields sparkled with golden light under the sun.
A gentle breeze blew past, causing the heavy ears of rice to sway back and forth, symbolizing the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Gu Jinghong sat high on horseback, never tiring of the view.
"Brother Song, what are those people doing?" Noticing many wooden carts parked in the distance carrying particularly large objects that people were unloading, Gu Jinghong asked curiously.
Song Qiming took a look and replied, "Those are pedal-operated threshing machines. They will be used to thresh the rice ears for the upcoming autumn harvest."
"Huh?" Gu Jinghong raised his eyebrows in confusion.
A pedal-operated threshing machine? He had never heard of such a thing.
Song Qiming explained, "My sister felt that the current threshing methods are too inefficient, so she wanted to create a machine that could speed up the process."
"She pondered over it for days before drawing up the blueprints, and then had the craftsmen repeatedly experiment until this pedal-operated threshing machine was finally made."
Walking up to the cart, Gu Jinghong circled the machine, examining it in careful detail.
The outer shell was made of wood, and in the middle was a movable iron cylinder with curved, protruding iron wires on the outside.
He knocked on it twice, producing a crisp, hollow metallic sound; the cylinder was empty inside.
Gu Jinghong looked over at Song Qiming.
"Brother Song, how do you use this thing? Could you demonstrate it for me?"
"Of course." Saying so, Song Qiming had someone cut a handful of rice stalks, walked over to the threshing machine, and began to thresh the grain.
Placing the rice stalks over the cylinder, he stepped down on the pedal. As the drum rotated, the rice grains clattered down like hail into the square bin below.
Gu Jinghong, who was used to seeing grain threshed by beating, was stunned by this sight.
He leaned in close to look inside the drum but was stopped by Song Qiming.
"Don't get too close, you'll get hurt if it scrapes you."
Although the iron wires on the drum were not sharp, it spun so fast that bumping into it would still be very painful.
Ignoring the dust and chaff flying into his face, Gu Jinghong squatted down and grabbed a handful of the threshed grain.
"She truly lives up to the title of County Princess Linghui, being able to create such a miraculous object."
Song Qiming smiled proudly and praised, "My sister has always been intelligent. She often comes up with brilliant and unconventional ideas; I'm already used to it."
