Above the flowing riverbed, this kiss, settled in the midst of autumn, was soft and quiet—simply, four lips meeting. Ning Yi froze for a moment; before him, the woman’s lashes trembled. After a moment, she stepped back, still holding the blanket, her face flushed, head lowered—but then she raised her eyes again.

“Yunzhu… Yunzhu has nothing else she’s able to do, only play a few tunes, sing a few songs. Beyond that… beyond that, this is all I have…”

She smiled earnestly, then lowered her head again.

“These past few days, hearing about your troubles, Liheng, I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was so worried, but you never came by. Seeing today that you’re all right makes me so happy… but I also know, going through something like this, no matter how open-hearted you might be at heart, you must feel some unhappiness. If… um…”

“What you’re doing is quite risky…”

Ning Yi sighed softly, then reached out and touched her left cheek. Nie Yunzhu’s neck instinctively drew back slightly, her gaze shifting uncertainly, but after a moment, with a touch of timidity, she tilted her head and leaned her cheek into his palm, feeling the gentle warmth against her skin. Ning Yi tilted his head slightly too, and after a moment laughed, somewhat complicated in his expression.

“Heh, these past few days at home really have been rather irritating…”

“A bunch of people yammering on and on, the Su family firing off in all directions, resentment building sky-high…”

“Mm, heh, seems I’m rather pitiable, then…”

“Ruined the business deal…”

“Made a fool of myself…”

“Got played, and everyone thinks I’m an idiot on top of it…”

“Heh heh, well, that’s…” After a long moment, Ning Yi still seemed to find it somehow amusing, and shook his head. “Heh…”

Nie Yunzhu stood there holding the blanket, cheek pressed against his palm, feeling the warmth of it. She hadn’t dared to look up at first, but now, feeling a bit strange about it, she raised her eyes slightly—and found his face already leaning closer. In an instant, her lips were covered again.

“Mm…” Her body retreated slightly, her back pressing directly against the wooden wall. In the sunlight, Ning Yi’s figure pressed close, nearly touching her through the thin blanket, though it wasn’t unwelcome. One hand slid along her back to rest at her waist. Rustling leaves filled her vision, sunlight glinting gold among them; for a moment, she felt dizzy with it all.

When she came somewhat back to her senses, her body had nearly sunk down onto the terrace floor, back against the wall, kept from fully collapsing. Ning Yi crouched beside her, holding her, their lips parting slightly, his gaze on her, still smiling—a smile somewhat strange, and touched with a sense of release. But Nie Yunzhu, naturally, couldn’t think clearly about any of this now. Their bodies were nearly pressed together entirely, chests rising and falling unevenly, pressed close, the feeling growing ever more distinct with every heartbeat. Ning Yi’s left hand rested against the side of her chest, nearly brushing the skin at her chest and ribs. Her lips moved, trying to calm herself somewhat, but naturally failed.

Earlier, in that impulsive kiss, she had tried to consider the consequences of what she was doing, only she hadn’t expected things to move quite so quickly. She’d never experienced anything like this before, but since he seemed to want it this way, then…

“Yunzhu’s body has never been touched by another man before, but… if Liheng wants this, I’m happy to…”

Her face flushed crimson, her words as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, but at such close range Ning Yi naturally heard clearly. He only gazed at her expression, his smile unchanged, when at that moment, a faint sound rose beside the terrace. Ning Yi and Nie Yunzhu both turned their heads.

Standing there at the terrace entrance, unmistakably, was Yuan Jin’er in a green dress. She had likely just returned home, heard sounds coming from the terrace, and rushed over eagerly to find Nie Yunzhu, only to freeze there after taking two steps past the threshold. Her right index finger was lightly caught between her teeth—probably her expression from a moment ago as she’d come in, still carrying a smile—now frozen in place. The three of them stared at each other; Yuan Jin’er kept her finger between her teeth, her eyes darting about, her face flushing red then pale by turns, before she suddenly spun around to run.

She ran the wrong way, turned back around again, then tripped over the threshold and fell with a thud onto the ground by the door. As a girl, judging by the sound alone, that fall must have hurt terribly—even Ning Yi’s eye twitched at the sound. And she’d fallen while still biting her finger, no less; her feet were still caught at the threshold, one embroidered shoe knocked loose, which she paid no mind to as she scrambled, crawling, back to her feet and kept running.

By now, the mood between Ning Yi and Nie Yunzhu had entirely dissolved. Nie Yunzhu’s gaze darted about, and the moment she saw Ning Yi looking her way, she immediately lowered her head, turning downward, then off to the empty space on her left. When Ning Yi released her, she still sat there holding the blanket, back against the wall, legs curled up.

“I— I’ll go check on Jin’er…”

She said this softly, glanced at Ning Yi once, then scrambled up and hurried after her.

“Heh…”

Ning Yi was still laughing, sitting back down against the wall in the same spot, tilting his head back to gaze up at the sunlight filtering through the rustling leaves, the zither not far off. The smile on his face deepened further. It was the smile of someone who had sensed something, and was happy about it…

He naturally understood the reason behind Nie Yunzhu’s shift in mood today, and had been quietly pleased about it just now too. In this world, there would always be some people who genuinely thought of you, whether or not you needed them to—and that alone was always something worth being glad for.

He’d never particularly felt the need to hide things from Nie Yunzhu; it was simply that the subject had never come up before, so there’d been no need to explain everything that had happened these past weeks in advance. He hadn’t expected, though, that she would go quite this far.

Well, this made things simple… and complicated, both at once.

Over in the main hall, Nie Yunzhu seemed to have caught up with Yuan Jin’er; faint sounds of arguing could be heard, Yuan Jin’er sounding rather distressed, sniffling. Whether she was genuinely that upset would be hard to say without seeing for oneself, but it certainly sounded that way.

“Sister Yunzhu, how could you do this…”

“In broad daylight, the two of you right there on the terrace, wanting to, wanting to…”

“Fine, say you were on the terrace, out in the open—I won’t say anything about that, no one on the river could see… but even if you two wanted to do that, you shouldn’t have… shouldn’t have used my blanket!”

“Ning Liheng is a total pervert!”

Yuan Jin’er shouted this, and gave the wall a hard kick from the other side. It was a wooden wall, and having lived there so long, she knew exactly where Ning Yi was positioned—the impact of that kick traveled straight through, and Ning Yi, as though struck hard on the back, jolted slightly away from the wooden wall, laughing uncontrollably, the laughter growing louder and louder, until he balled his fists and pounded the terrace floor several times in helpless amusement.

Yuan Jin’er, brimming with fury; Ning Yi, utterly shameless. Between the two of them, it was probably Nie Yunzhu, caught in the middle, who found herself in the most awkward, embarrassed position of all. After a moment, she walked back out onto the terrace, her figure in the white dress timid and hesitant, her fingers twisting together in front of her until they nearly went pale—suddenly transformed from the image of an ethereal zither-playing immortal into a newlywed bride, scolded by her mother-in-law for not knowing how to cook. Ning Yi looked at her and smiled, then patted the spot beside him. Nie Yunzhu walked over, sat down with some embarrassment, legs folded beneath her, tugging at the hem of her skirt to cover her ankles and socks.

“Um, does what we talked about earlier still count, then?”

Ning Yi took hold of her hand, smiling as he asked. With Yuan Jin’er’s interruption, whatever mood there had been was pretty much gone entirely, but some things that needed confessing still had to be confessed eventually; some relationships that needed clarifying could no longer be avoided. Of course, starting things off this way left Nie Yunzhu blushing with embarrassment again. “Jin’er… Jin’er’s right there at home…”

Ning Yi laughed again. Amid the golden light, the two figures on the terrace talked on. Nie Yunzhu was by turns shy, earnest, and startled, but in the end, their joined hands never let go…

…

By the time they left the small tower and set off on the way back, it was already afternoon. Ning Yi thought over what had happened—the confession, this and that—and sighed faintly. “Cursed old society.” If this had happened over a year ago, he might have chosen to find some other place to live with Nie Yunzhu entirely. But now, within the Su household, there was not only Su Tan’er, but Xiao Chan as well. As for Nie Yunzhu’s side of things, the fact that she’d never expected anything from him, never meant to trouble him—that, perhaps, was what left him feeling most troubled of all.

Of course, thinking about it that way made him sound rather like a man taking advantage while playing the martyr about it.

Passing by Old Master Qin’s residence, he thought to stop in for a visit, and seeing Lu A’Gui standing outside the gate, realized Kang Xian was there too today.

Going inside, the Zhou siblings had tagged along as well. Seeing Ning Yi, little Junwu ran up to confront him. “Teacher, Sister and I came looking for you this morning—where did you go?”

“Ah, had some business this morning…” Ning Yi patted his head. Kang Xian, having just finished a game of chess with Old Master Qin, exchanged a few pleasantries with Ning Yi and invited him over for a game. Zhou Junwu dragged a small stool over to sit down, while Zhou Pei followed along rather quietly, occasionally glancing at Ning Yi’s expression. Ning Yi chatted idly with Old Master Qin and Kang Xian, his mind elsewhere, frowning as he placed his stones. After a while, Kang Xian spoke up. “The city gates will be opening again in the next few days. Perhaps it’s time to arrange the formal apprenticeship ceremony for these two children—what do you say?”

Ning Yi glanced at Zhou Junwu, then at Zhou Pei, and laughed. “You’d still let me teach them, after all this? Won’t they be disappointed in me?”

“Victory and defeat are common in the ways of war, as Grandfather always says. Besides, this wasn’t really your strong suit to begin with, teacher, so even losing was mostly because they played dirty. I still like the telescope stuff a lot…”

Zhou Pei was quiet for a moment. “I’m learning arithmetic and calculation methods from you—not business…”

“So, what do you say?” Kang Xian laughed. Old Master Qin, beside him, tugged at little Junwu’s hand. “Good children, both of them.”

“Well then, of course I’ll keep teaching them. Though let’s hold off on the formal ceremony for now—it’d draw too much attention.”

Kang Xian considered this, placed a stone, and after a bit more idle chat, finally asked, “Something on your mind lately?”

“Mm.” Ning Yi picked up a stone and nodded.

“Honestly, this old man’s been waiting for you to come ask for help these past few days—shame you never did…”

Ning Yi glanced at him. “Heh, such noble generosity from you, old Kang…” He hadn’t even thought of doing so, and laughed at the idea, but Kang Xian grew somewhat serious.

“Even those who accomplish great things need not master everything themselves. I know your temperament—unwilling to easily owe others favors, which is why I didn’t interfere before. But matters have reached a point now where something easily resolved with a small effort on my part could help. What’s so difficult about simply asking? Between the two of us, does our friendship not even merit owing me this much of a favor?”

At these words, Ning Yi glanced around, his expression turning somewhat more serious. After a moment, he nodded. “All right…”

In the vast city of Jiangning, this might be nothing more than a small corner where idle people gathered—a pebble tossed into a pond, stirring small ripples that would soon smooth back out amid the wind and rain. Not long after, the city gates opened. Li Pin left Jiangning for the Eastern Capital to seek office, and before departing, offered Ning Yi some words of comfort regarding the matter with the Wu family. Yushan Academy resumed classes; some children abandoned Ning Yi’s lessons. Su Zhongkan seemed to want to stir up trouble within the academy too, trying to turn some of the tutors against him and have him ostracized, but under Ning Yi’s characteristically unbothered demeanor, this hadn’t accomplished much for the time being.

Everything unfolded exactly as most had expected. The Wu family had secured the imperial merchant title and was preparing for it. Su Tan’er tried to stabilize the Su family’s situation, but appeared to be sliding regardless, helplessly. She poured large amounts of capital into markets originally meant to target the Wu family—which, to most observers, looked simply like a woman acting out hysterically, preparing to dump goods at low prices to disrupt the market. Of course, since this hadn’t been carried out yet, there wasn’t yet much cause for anyone to move against her.

Externally, thanks to Su Tan’er’s efforts, the decline had been only slight; most others seemed to be waiting for her to genuinely step down, or for everything to settle, before deciding whether to abandon the Su family—even if the Su family remained a mid-sized house afterward, there would always be some who chose to walk away regardless. Within the Su family itself, however, the pressure on Su Tan’er only continued to mount. Su Boyong hadn’t yet passed, so for now she could still hold on, but how much longer she could manage was hard to say. Some cousins who had once been close to the Eldest Branch had already begun aligning themselves with the Second and Third Branches.

Out in the wider world, people delighted in discussing the ruthlessness of the Wu family’s maneuver, delighted in discussing that poem, “A Toast to Pei Di,” delighted in discussing Ning Liheng’s humiliation and current quiet, dispirited state. Of course, what people discussed most of all was the future shape of the textile trade, the Wu family’s coming expansion. With another month passing without any further development, the situation in Jiangning’s textile trade seemed to shift and simmer quickly; people had nearly forgotten about Ning Liheng entirely. And it was precisely when no one paid him any mind or thought it necessary to track his recent movements that certain things finally began showing their first ominous signs, like something out of a nightmare.

It was the end of September, exactly one month after that annual textile gathering held just after Mid-Autumn Festival. Throughout that month, everything had seemed clear and straightforward as ever—until one day, with no warning to the outside world, things began turning strange.

Projected a thousand years into the future, it would look something like a stock steadily, inevitably reaching its peak—and just when everyone assumed it would keep climbing, it would plummet without warning, crash entirely, with no one quite understanding why. Only when people gradually came to understand, much later, would they finally see clearly the darkness that had lain hidden within it all along, and the shadow that had loomed over everyone from the very beginning…