On this same evening, with so many people keeping their attention on either Ning Yi or Su Tan’er, the courtyard within the Su household remained, by contrast, perfectly calm and peaceful.
Inside Su Tan’er’s room, the click of game pieces being set down mingled with cheerful chatter. Chan’er and Xing’er sat by the bed playing a game of gomoku, while Su Tan’er lay watching, occasionally offering pointers.
Xing’er, rarely victorious against Chan’er, tended to protest loudly whenever she managed a win, and if their voices grew too loud, Ning Yi—next door discussing something with Juan’er—would often call out a scolding: “Don’t you see there’s a patient in the room! How’s she supposed to rest with all this racket!”
“Miss is the loudest one here,” Xing’er pointed out, and Chan’er nodded along. “Yeah, yeah.” Su Tan’er laughed. “I like a bit of noise. You’ll let me stay in bed but not let me talk?”
“Not the slightest bit of patient behavior, utterly unrepentant…”
“I’m better now.”
“Better my—”
“Which sister are you talking about?”
“Hm? What?”
“Which sister, I mean—Sister Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and then all those cousins on top of it, let me count—Little Mei, Little Qi, Little Luo…” Su Tan’er counted off on her fingers from the bed, quite relaxed lately, entertaining herself with pointless things. Ning Yi laughed despite himself and tossed a few notebooks onto the game board.
“Chan’er, Xing’er, work with Juan’er and draft out the process for upgrading the looms across all our facilities. No rush, take your time discussing it—how the funds get allocated, who’s responsible for which piece, who the relevant managers and stewards are, you all know that already, right… why are you looking at me, just get started on it, think it through casually, doesn’t need to be exact…”
As Ning Yi said all this, Su Tan’er opened her mouth on the bed. “Husband, this matter…”
“You’ve got other things to work on.” Ning Yi picked up a stack of letters and tossed them onto the bed beside her. “Since you’re so bored, might as well help me look over these things that have come in these past few days.”
Su Tan’er grabbed the letters into her hands as if afraid Ning Yi might snatch them back, then laughed, glancing at the three maids around the room. “But… husband, this business with the loom upgrades, it’s such a big undertaking…”
“You’ll have to sign off on it in the end anyway. Never mind them—they’ve been with you long enough, might have some good input too.”
Su Tan’er considered this, and finally nodded, then looked down at the letters in her hand. “What are these?”
“A compilation of opinions from all the managers across Jiangning these past few days, along with the letters they’ve sent up. I’ve already gone through them several times myself, and asked Chan’er and Juan’er and the others too, but you’re still the one who knows these people best. I want you to tell me your read on them—who’s unhappy with me, who’s just testing me out, who couldn’t care less, who’s completely clueless—their personalities and why they’d react the way they do. Mm, you’re not going to be idle anyway, right?”
Su Tan’er smiled, then settled into a more serious expression as she opened the papers, and after a moment began thinking through and analyzing them.
Most evenings over the past few days had gone much like this. Su Tan’er’s fever had broken; aside from the low mood on the day it was confirmed her father would be permanently disabled, she’d otherwise managed to pull herself back together. Ning Yi kept certain limits on her, and she did her best to comply—still weak, she needed a proper stretch of recovery, and with Chan’er or Juan’er usually staying to keep her company during the day, once Ning Yi left she’d get out of bed to walk or sit for a while in the courtyard. She likely still couldn’t help mulling over various business matters, but the truly demanding, high-intensity thinking had at least been scaled back.
Of course, Ning Yi could be plenty unreliable in his own way too—casually handing off matters he needed to deal with in the evening to the three maids, then passing the results along to Su Tan’er to review afterward. As it turned out, they all handled things quite competently. Naturally, giving the loom-upgrade planning to the three of them to work on still made her a little uneasy, but since Ning Yi clearly knew what he was doing, she let it go—she’d still be the one signing off on everything in the end anyway.
Time passed in this atmosphere, Chan’er, Juan’er, and Xing’er discussing their various ideas, with Ning Yi and Su Tan’er occasionally chiming in—Su Tan’er mostly focused on parsing the managers’ intentions, discussing and analyzing them with Ning Yi. This sort of thing likely couldn’t last forever, and once finished for the evening there’d still be time for idle chatter, before Ning Yi returned to his own room and everyone settled in for the night. Under the warm, yellow glow of the eaves, Xiao Chan carried a basin of water toward Ning Yi’s room, laughter and chatter drifting through the air. Then, gradually, the courtyard settled into quiet.
Come morning, the city of Jiangning woke to the crowing of roosters.
After washing up and eating breakfast, Ning Yi and Chan’er boarded the carriage together, heading to the Su family’s main store in the city. What followed was fairly straightforward—a morning meeting, then Ning Yi and Chan’er made the rounds from shop to shop, with Xiao Chan, ordinarily so sweet and playful, taking her role as his assistant quite seriously. She’d point out things they passed along the way, filling Ning Yi in bit by bit on the workings of the textile trade—probably because the incident with the incense herbs mistaken for dye had embarrassed her so badly that she’d shot him resentful looks for a good while that afternoon.
Resentment aside, she still ended up covering for him on most things in the end. During the morning meetings with the managers, she’d sit off to the side with a small notebook, playing the diligent professional to the letter, occasionally piping up on some point to note that it didn’t quite match what Miss had said, while Ning Yi simply sat there nodding along with an “mm-hm.”
After each morning meeting wrapped up, Ning Yi and Xiao Chan would ride around the city by carriage for a while—the mornings were generally light on business, so they’d just wander casually. Jiangning still appeared prosperous on the surface, though soldiers and constables moving back and forth kept the mood relatively tense, and occasional scuffles could still be seen breaking out here and there. Xiao Chan, sitting beside Ning Yi, would lift the curtain to look out, then grow quiet and thoughtful with her head down. When Ning Yi reached over to put an arm around her shoulders, she’d turn her head and nuzzle his hand with her cheek, cat-like.
“Young Master, are you going alone again today to see that Master He?”
“Mm.”
“But it’s not safe…”
“It’s fine.”
“But I worry…” she murmured softly, and moments like this always made Ning Yi think of her as even more of a little cat than usual—he couldn’t help but reach out and pat her head. “Things outside aren’t nearly that bad, you don’t need to worry so much. Don’t be upset, be good now.” Xiao Chan shook her head firmly, then, after a moment, glanced at Ning Yi’s expression and broke into a smile instead, lowering her head to speak softly.
“Actually, Xiao Chan’s just a maid—in some households, saying something like that would get me beaten, you know… uh, Young Master has his own things he needs to do, Xiao Chan understands that, and I know things outside aren’t really that bad either, but… but when it comes to Young Master and Miss, Xiao Chan just can’t help worrying, mm, I really can’t help it, so, I just wanted Young Master to know, that’s all…”
She curled her small fists and gave her chest a soft, earnest tap, then blushed and lowered her head. Ning Yi wasn’t quite sure how to respond for a moment. By the time the carriage reached the last shop, though, Xiao Chan had returned to her usual self, hopping down cheerfully, putting on her earnest, professional air in front of the shop clerks once more.
Around midday, Ning Yi sent Xiao Chan and the others back to the Su residence and headed toward He Fang’s estate himself—today marked his scheduled third visit. Along the way, he happened to run into Wu Qihao of the Wu family on the street; they chatted for a bit, Qihao inquiring after Su Tan’er’s health before parting ways with a smile. Compared to the Xue family, the two Wu brothers were generally rather more affable, likely owing to the fact that there’d been little friction between the two households over the years. As Ning Yi approached the He residence, he was suddenly stopped by someone.
Two figures in blue robes and small caps blocked his path, looking for all the world like the household attendants of some wealthy family, though rather short in stature. They pulled Ning Yi aside into a nearby alley, and one of them bowed. “Teacher.” This was the young lord Zhou Junwu; the other, more reserved, stood by looking rather amusing in the same blue-robe-and-cap getup—naturally his elder sister, Zhou Pei.
After the exchange of greetings, Ning Yi finally asked, somewhat puzzled, “What are the two of you doing here? Sneak out on your own?”
“No, no, Uncle Mu and the others are right nearby,” Zhou Junwu quickly explained. Ning Yi glanced outward and spotted several similarly disguised figures glancing this way, quietly on guard—likely the guards from the prince’s household.
“Actually, my sister and I heard that Teacher wanted to see this Master He Fang, and that you’d surely have some way to win him over in one go, so we wanted to come see it for ourselves. Oh, and by the way, is this outfit all right, Teacher? We figured we’d dress up as your attendants, tagging along to help deliver gifts—we won’t say a word! Won’t cause any trouble! Won’t get in the way at all! Mm, and we already prepared some gifts too—wouldn’t want Teacher showing up with two extra attendants but not much of a gift to present, so we prepared some in advance, very valuable stuff too—ganoderma mushrooms, tribute-grade preserved fruits, white pearl-silk velvet… we already asked around, and Master He Fang is sure to love these… we just wanted to see how Teacher plans to win him over…”
Little Junwu’s face was bright with excitement as he waved his hands, insisting they wouldn’t cause any trouble. Zhou Pei stood beside him, silent—there was still some awkwardness between her and Ning Yi, but clearly she wanted to see this too. The whole thing had come about largely because Kang Xian had spent last evening analyzing what Ning Yi might be up to, and had eventually concluded that there was almost no way Ning Yi could talk He Fang around through eloquence alone. If not through persuasion, then it had to be something else. The two siblings had put their heads together and decided it must involve something like a scheme, leverage, blackmail—something along those lines.
Thinking about it, meeting with a court official, digging up some dirt on him, some hidden secret, threatening him with it, and even after getting what he wanted the other party still wouldn’t be able to say a word about it—it had to be something like that. Ning Yi wasn’t a fool, after all.
Something so dark and devious was, frankly, thrilling just to think about—so today the two siblings had disguised themselves and staked out this spot, ready to negotiate with Ning Yi and get a firsthand look at the whole affair.
Ning Yi’s eye twitched slightly as he listened to Zhou Junwu finish his whole spiel, the boy gazing up at him with obvious anticipation. Finally, he shook his head.
“You’ll just get in the way—you two aren’t coming with me…”