First Time Gathering (3)
T/N: Chapter sponsored by Rika and Janet! Thank you for sponsoring!
Du Ke Xin saw that Du Xiao Li was only wearing a simple green long dress, and on her whole body, there was only the simple white jade hairpin in her hair. She couldn't help but frown, saying: "Third sister, why didn't you properly dress up?"
Du Xiao Li lowered her head and looked at her own clothes. Was there a problem with this?
"Right now there isn't time for you to change either." Du Ke Xin took out a necklace from her own case and put it on for Du Xiao Li, saying: "It's much better like this. Alright, fourth brother and fifth sister are already waiting for us outside, let's quickly go out."
With that said, Du Ke Xin thus pulled along Du Xiao Li and headed out.
Outside the Du Manor gates, Du Ke Hui was already waiting on a horse, while Du Xiu Heng was below the horse thinking about something, and Du Xue Qi was also by the horse carriage constantly looking inside the gate.
"Third sister, can you and Xue Qi ride in one carriage? In a while, on the road, I have to instruct Xiao Cui and them on the things to take care of at Feng Xue Luo. So...." Du Ke Xin looked to Du Xiao Li with a troubled look. But without waiting for Du Xiao Li to reply, she turned and got on the horse carriage in front.
Xiao Cui and another servant girl Xiao Yue followed on after her. The horse carriage wasn't big to begin with. If Du Xiao Li sat together with her, then it would appear very crowded. But that way, Du Xiao Li would need to sit in the back horse carriage and follow behind Du Ke Xin's horse carriage. The implications within, it goes without saying!
Since ancient times, it has always been the di in front, shu in back. Du Ke Xin was also just bullying Du Xiao Li for growing up in a village and not knowing these.
Du Xiao Li brought along Xia Yuan, while Du Xue Qi brought along a servant girl Lan Zhi, and got on the horse carriage. The horse carriage then headed towards Feng Xue Luo.
"Third sister, in the morning, I heard wolf cries. Is that your wolves crying out?" In horse carriage, Du Xue Qi gazed to Du Xiao Li with widened eyes.
"Should be." Du Xiao Li said.
"Then tomorrow, can I go see them?" Du Xue Qi asked.
"Yes." Du Xiao Li replied.
"Thank you third sister." Du Xue Qi said and smiled at Du Xiao Li, then lowered her head, no longer speaking, remaining quiet all the way until they reached Feng Xue Luo.
Du Xiao Li observed Du Xue Qi, discovering that she was vastly different from children her age, only quietly sitting there, and nothing like how a child should be.
As expected, she just as taciturn as they said.
The horse carriage quickly traveled along the route and a quarter of an hour later, they arrived at a wealthy district, should be the capital's business district. The outside all of a sudden became noisy. Looks like there were even quite a lot of people.
Entering the downtown area, the horse carriage's speed began slowing down, and after a while, stopped in front of Feng Xue Lou.
After the horse carriage steadily stopped, Xia Yuan got down first and had the small stool placed on the ground. Afterwards, she helped Du Xiao Li get down from the carriage. After Du Xiao Li got down, she turned and helped Du Xue Qi get down.
In front, Du Ke Xin also got down. Du Ke Hui had the horse handed to the servant boy to the side, letting the servant boy take the horse and horse carriage to the parking lot of Feng Xue Lou, just like the specially allocate parking lots of restaurants in her past life.
"Third sister, don't look at how the outside is no different from other buildings, the inside is quite unique. When I came for the first time, I was shocked." Du Ke Xin walked over and said.
"Come on, let's go in first, don't just stand there like a fool." Du Ke Xin glanced at Du Xiao Li and them in dissatisfaction and went on in ahead of them.
"Fourth brother is just this temper. Please don't mind him. Let's go in then. Else, later when they come, we still haven't finished preparing." Du Ke Xin said with a smile and pulled Du Xiao Li inside.
After the bunch entered, Du Xue Qi looked in all directions with wide eyes. Her eyes were completely filled with astonishment.
Different from ordinary restaurants' arrangements, after entering, it wasn't the usual main hall layout, but rather, in the middle of the large room was a shallow fountain. And in the fountain, there were several water lilies, and also some weirdly shaped rocks. On the side directly facing the entrance was a fretwork carved rockery standing next to the fountain.
Surrounding the fountain in all directions were tables. This was the main hall. What was different from the masses was that placed between the tables was a small screen as an obstruction. Those screens were like independent painting, but also like pieces from a whole mountain river painting. And matching with the entire painting of distant mountains on the wall, it made one feel like they were residing in the middle of a beautiful mountain scenery.
Du Xiu Heng although had seen Du Xiao Li paint this design at the time, and wasn't as shocked as Du Xue Qi, he still was stunned by the scenery before his eyes.
"Miss Du, Young Master Du." A waiter went forward and said to Du Ke Xin and them, "Your private room has already been prepared, please follow me."
The party followed the waiter to the fourth floor. The entire floor just had one private room. However, this private room additionally had two listening rooms. This is prepared for larger gatherings. The listening rooms were prepared for the misses and young masters' servant girls and servant boys, letting them both be able to not disturb their master's gathering, and still be able to hear their orders at any time.
And inside this private room, tools for the four arts were all provided. Moreover, they were all rare works of the world. Aside from these, the other decorations were all fantastic oddities of every description. Although they weren't well known works, they were still very unique.
"Miss Du, this is the private room you all reserved yesterday. The tea will be brought up right away." The waiter finished saying and then left. Before leaving, he even glanced at Du Xiao Li and them.
"Wah, this place looks so different from other restaurants!" Du Xue Qi exclaimed.
"Of course, just look at where we are. If not special, why would second sister and I need to spend that much effort to reserve this place?" Du Ke Hui said.
At this time, a knock sounded from outside the door, following which the door was opened, and Fu Wan San came up carrying a teapot.
"Miss Du, Young master Du." Fu Wan San entered and had the teapot placed on the table, pouring each of the five siblings a cup of tea, "Everyone, please enjoy the tea."
"Shopkeeper Fu, how come you came personally? Normally, can't even see your silhouette." Du Ke Hui accepted the tea and took a shallow sip, saying: "This tea tastes really good."
Fu Wan San smiled and said, "This is this year's newly produced yuhua ('rain flower') tea. Jiangnan altogether only produce less than ten catty. After this humble shop received them, we still haven't given to the customers to drink yet. After sampling, if anyone has any thoughts, you can mention it to this humble shop."
Yuhua Tea
"No, this tea is very good. Practically able to compare with the tribute tea." Du Ke Xin elegantly took a sip and said.
(T/N: Tribute tea is tea that's offer as tribute to the imperial family, usually the highest quality of teas.)
Du Xiao Li hadn't drank anything all morning, and now, seeing the tea, she felt somewhat thirsty. She picked up the teacup and finished it in one gulp. Afterwards, she had the cup handed to Fu Wan San, looking to him with blinking eyes.
Fu Wan San quickly poured a cup for Du Xiao Li, saying: "Du third miss, please."
Du Xiao Li had the tea in the cup finished in one gulp again. Afterwards, she finally felt somewhat relieved of thirst. Du Ke Xin, Du Ke Hui, and Du Xue Qi watched Du Xiao Li's gulping appearance, and all couldn't help twitch their mouth. Such precious tea was actually wasted just like that by her!
"Really a country bumpkins, don't even know how to sample tea." Du Ke Hui said with a disdainful expression.
"Isn't this tea precisely for drinking? Then no matter how it's drunk, isn't it all the same." Du Xiao Li shot a glare at Du Ke Hui, stopping Fu Wan San from continuing to pour herself tea. "What kind of fruit wine do you have here?"
T/N: I have this inexplicable stuffy feeling whenever OP MC's can't show off ;;v;;)
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