What puzzled Charles Bennett was that the young maid Lily, who had clearly grown up in the palace since childhood, was nevertheless extremely familiar with this city. Often, before the coachman could even open his mouth, she would already be telling them what lay ahead and whether they should turn left or right. Could it be that palace maids were usually allowed to wander about freely?

This question was authoritatively answered by Princess: Lily was indeed a palace maid, but she did not serve in the inner palace. She was merely a trainee in a palace maid training class under the Hall Department. Before she had even completed her training and graduated, she was chosen by Nanny Bennett to serve at Princess's side, replacing the previous personal maid who had reached the age for marriage.

Moreover, palace maids like Lily were not born into the role. Most of them were orphans or abandoned infants, raised by the Orphanage Bureau. Only after reaching the age of four or five were they selected to enter the palace as maids, which could be considered a relatively stable job for these orphans.

In the Song dynasty, except for a small number of palace maids with titles, most would leave the palace and marry once they reached a certain age. So being a palace maid in the Song dynasty was not as miserable as in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Most could be considered contract workers, and when they reached the right age, the royal family would arrange marriages for them, often to military officers—not as concubines, but as official wives.

As for what exactly the Orphanage Bureau was, Thomas Foster knew a little. Such institutions existed in places like Lin'an, Quanzhou, and Mingzhou in the Southern Song, though the names varied.

Some were called "Scattered Adoption and Abandoned Infants Grain and Rice Offices," others "Orphanage Estates" or "Childcare Offices." But their functions were similar: government-funded institutions to take in orphans and abandoned infants, especially baby girls.

In the Song dynasty, many less affluent families still practiced the custom of drowning baby girls. The Song government considered this inhumane, but couldn't really stop it, so they set up these government institutions and issued laws specifically to take in these children. Although this couldn't completely eradicate the practice, it was better than nothing.

But as for how the Orphanage Bureau actually operated, Thomas Foster wasn't too sure. He only knew that such government-run institutions existed in many Song cities, and the money and grain they used probably came from the government budget.

"I do not know... but it is certainly funded by the government..." Princess knew little about this issue as well, but her stance was firm—she credited all the merit to her brother. Truly, family always stands together.

Chapter 11: A Chance Encounter

The four of them rode east along the south bank of the Jinshui River, not too fast nor too slow, and soon arrived outside the imperial city. The city walls here were noticeably different from those of the inner city—built entirely of brick and stone, and about the same height.

Princess said they were three zhang high. Thomas Foster made a rough estimate with his fingers—about nine meters, which was close to what Princess had said.

The Song dynasty used length units of zhang, chi, and fen, all decimal-based. One chi was slightly shorter than its modern counterpart, about 31 centimeters.

There were also li and bu. One bu was a step with each leg, roughly one and a half meters. One Song li equaled 360 bu, a bit longer than the modern li—about 560 meters.

Thomas Foster had measured these figures many times while building ships and sailing during the Southern Song. Although the Jinhe Empire later adopted the metric system, he still remembered the approximate numbers.

As for the outer city wall, Princess said it was six zhang high, but Thomas Foster had yet to see for himself if it was really that tall—he would have to see it with his own eyes. But there was one thing he could see for himself: the streets.

They were nothing like the smooth, orderly roads depicted in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival." The roads were all compacted yellow earth, and when the wind blew, dust would fly everywhere. And this was with the milder summer winds—if it were winter and the northwest wind was blowing, Thomas Foster could easily imagine the scene without having to experience it firsthand.

If you walked against the wind, you couldn't keep your eyes open without some kind of veil or face covering, and when you got home your mouth would be full of sand. The Beijing of his childhood was just like this.

On this issue, Thomas Foster humbly consulted Princess again. If the emperor had to go out in winter, surely he wouldn't wear a veil? Even if he rode in a carriage, with such strong winds and sand, even modern cars with less precise manufacturing would let in dust, let alone wooden carriages of the time. Surely they couldn't let the emperor return covered in dust—how was this problem solved?

"The Hall Department has special water-sprinkling workers; wind and sand are no problem." Perhaps thinking the question too silly for Princess to answer herself, the young maid chimed in.

According to her, when the emperor traveled and there was wind and sand, water carts or laborers would be arranged in advance according to the distance and width of the streets.

The water carts had sprinkling devices, and the laborers would use gilded kettles to sprinkle water all over the streets, usually half a li ahead of the emperor's carriage. By the time the procession passed, the water would have soaked into the earth, so there would be no mud and no dust.

"Do you have to learn to ride horses from a young age in the palace?" Since the road problem couldn't be solved for now, Thomas Foster shifted the topic back to the young maid.

She looked only twelve or thirteen, barely as tall as a horse's leg when standing, yet on horseback she could chat and laugh with ease, often letting go of the reins to gesture as she spoke. In terms of riding skills, she was at least as good as he was, if not better. And it wasn't just Lily; Princess was the same, with a real air of "who says women are inferior to men."