The weather was gradually turning colder. Under the current circumstances, Ning Yi’s daily life was, by and large, no different from before.
Every morning he ran to the banks of the Qinhuai River to meet Nie Yunzhu, occasionally discussing the day’s plans, and in the afternoon he would either go to Zhu Ji’s main shop or come here to drink tea and listen to music. Lately, whenever he spent time with Nie Yunzhu, there always seemed to be a third wheel wedged between them. To be precise, beside them — the seemingly idle Yuan Jin’er kept sitting next to him, keeping him company while he listened to Yun Zhu play and sing. The relationship between Ning Yi and Yun Zhu had already been made clear between them, and things might have developed in a rather impure direction — but under these circumstances, Ning Yi and Yun Zhu were forced to remain quite pure after all, which he found rather regrettable.
Of course, looked at another way, having two courtesan-tier beauties sitting beside him wasn’t something an ordinary man got to enjoy. Yun Zhu’s playing and singing were truly exceptional, and if Yuan Jin’er ever got up and danced a little when she had nothing else to do, that too would be quite the treat. But Jin’er wouldn’t even give him that small pleasure. She sat cross-legged beside him like a boy, chin propped on her hand, listening with apparent relish, looking thoroughly pleased with herself, like a little monk. If Yun Zhu got up to fetch the tea tray or some snacks, Jin’er wouldn’t follow along either — she’d just sit there next to Ning Yi, perfectly composed, thoroughly infuriating.
Because of this, after a few rounds of mutual sniping, the two of them had had a few frank exchanges — usually when Nie Yunzhu had stepped out and the two of them were left glaring at each other.
“Why don’t you go dance for us later, little girl,” Ning Yi said. There was already something off between the two of them anyway, so he didn’t bother picking his words carefully.
“Not dancing. I’m just sitting here listening to Sister Yun Zhu sing… you should count yourself lucky. Do you have any idea how much it used to cost to get this young lady’s company at the Jinfeng Pavilion?”
Ning Yi rolled his eyes, unwilling to get drawn into that. Su Tan’er had recently given him a key, making him a kept man who could take money as he pleased — which, ironically, made him reluctant to actually take any, so he’d been rather poor lately and wasn’t in the mood to argue about money. “Tsk, you shouldn’t be doing this, you know — ruining someone’s romantic prospects like this…”
“How am I ruining anyone’s prospects? Aren’t you and Sister Yun Zhu supposed to be upstanding friends? Then just stay that way. But if you want to push your luck and do something naughty, I won’t allow it. You’re no good man at all — you already have a wife at home. Can you really abandon Su Tan’er back home to be with Sister Yun Zhu?”
“Honestly, that would be difficult.” Ning Yi thought it over, then muttered to himself while gazing at the river beside them. “There are a lot of problems. Besides, no man is any good — always eyeing what’s in the pot while eating what’s in the bowl…”
Jin’er had originally meant to say exactly that herself, and seeing Ning Yi so shameless about it left her wide-eyed and fuming for a moment. But she was a woman well-tested by experience, and quickly composed herself again, pursing her lips. “Eyeing it, sure, eyeing it — go ahead and eye it, since that’s all you’ll ever get.”
Ning Yi gave her a lazy look. “I wasn’t really that hungry to begin with, but with you reminding me about it all day, I’ve suddenly become quite hungry indeed. Whatever shall I do…”
“Then we’ll just see who wins…” Jin’er shot him a coquettish glance, utterly adorable. Ning Yi laughed. “A thief can plot for a thousand days, but no one can guard against a thief for a thousand days.”
“Hmph.” Jin’er wouldn’t hear it, turning her face away with a stern expression. Afterward she stayed and kept listening to the music with Ning Yi, utterly shameless as always, and Yun Zhu found it amusing enough not to chase her off. Once Ning Yi left, though, Jin’er would cling to Yun Zhu and complain about him at great length. But under these circumstances, why would Yun Zhu get angry over something like that? Even when Jin’er brought up Ning Yi’s whole “eyeing what’s in the pot” act, Yun Zhu just smiled without a word, even asking with interest whether he’d really said that, looking every bit like she was thinking, “Does he really want to?” — which left Jin’er a little deflated.
In truth, Ning Yi didn’t concern himself with such matters much. As a man, of course he had thoughts on the subject — it would be impossible not to. Nie Yunzhu was beautiful, gentle in temperament, and there was something in her quiet resilience that drew him in as well. Things between them had already reached the point where Yun Zhu was more than willing on this front — had Jin’er not suddenly turned up that day, things would likely have simply proceeded naturally.
But on the other hand, such things didn’t occupy much of his thoughts. As for Yun Zhu, what she enjoyed more was simply the feeling of being around Ning Yi. To speak honestly, in an age like this, while there were certainly romantic tales celebrated by others, or legends of steadfast devotion, the way men and women interacted could never carry any true equality or respect — even men who cherished women genuinely did so within the constraints of this era’s conventions.
What Ning Yi truly offered certain people was perhaps that extremely “peculiar,” “unconventional” manner of his — how, after saving Nie Yunzhu only to be slapped for it, he had simply walked off without a second thought; how he could later chat idly with her without any awkwardness; how he could sleep through an entire afternoon to the sound of her zither, too lazy to show off any impressiveness or scholarly talent. Just as he could keep Su Tan’er company on the balcony for an entire evening out of boredom, or crack absurd jokes about wanting to be kept as someone’s pampered husband.
Though casual, what Ning Yi displayed was neither shameless nor unprincipled — he always carried his own bearing and grace, simply relaxed about it. The calm, equal quality of feeling woven through all this — what might, from a woman’s perspective, be called love — was likely something the women of this era could never otherwise experience. Whether they actually liked it, of course, was a matter of individual taste. A certain young girl named Zhou Pei, for instance, spent all day thinking her teacher Ning Yi had absolutely no dignity and far too little authority.
The sniping and covert rivalry between Ning Yi and Yuan Jin’er often left Yun Zhu somewhat flustered. When the three of them were together, she’d find herself slipping back into her old role as a courtesan, idly picking up her guqin to play a tune whenever there was a lull. She found it shameless of Jin’er to just sit there as an audience and refuse to help out, though Yun Zhu herself rather enjoyed it too. As for the equally shameless Ning Yi, he’d occasionally still muster up a shred of decency, and whenever Jin’er briefly disappeared he’d ask after her, to which Yun Zhu would only smile and say, “She’s just having fun.” She’d often share with Ning Yi the things Jin’er had reported on him — though naturally, nothing too sensitive, like the whole “eyeing what’s in the pot” business.
He didn’t get much time in the afternoons to go to the little pavilion by the river. In the mornings, once classes let out, he’d either take the Zhou family’s young siblings to the lab beside the academy to teach them more things, tinkering with physics and chemistry, or he’d go strolling and eating with Xiao Chan, sometimes visiting Old Man Qin’s house to chat and play chess, sometimes sitting a while at the Zhu Ji shop. The city gates had reopened, the aftermath of the flood was now in the cleanup phase, and once the ban on liquor was lifted, Zhu Ji would be putting its high-proof spirits up for sale.
Occasionally he’d run into people he’d met before in business circles — from the Wu family, the Xue family, or various friends or enemies of the Su family — and sometimes he’d run into some of the Su family’s shop managers too. Looking at it this way, Jiangning wasn’t such a big city after all, though there wasn’t much for anyone to say to each other. As for Ning Yi, these people mostly either mocked him or looked down on him, and he was well aware of it, too lazy to bother with them.
At the Su household, though, all sorts of petty nonsense kept cropping up. Not long ago, for instance, a young shop manager with some distant family ties to the Su family had accused him, saying the whole imperial merchant fiasco was entirely his fault for failing to properly manage the fabric formula — that if not for his lack of experience and his carelessness on this point, the imperial merchant title should have been all but guaranteed by now.
Such incidents were not rare, and he’d long been mentally prepared for them — whether it was internal conflicts within the main branch of the Su family, or the growing strength of the second and third branches, everything was now bubbling to the surface. As long as they could strike hard at anyone associated with Su Tan’er, that alone could be counted as a kind of victory. Though Ning Yi had married into the Su family as a matrilocal son-in-law and had by now stepped back entirely from business matters, he was still, after all, Su Tan’er’s husband — and if there was any way to drive him out of the Su family, that would clearly be the most damaging blow to Su Tan’er of all.
Whether it could actually be accomplished was another matter, but pressure from every direction was unavoidable. Ning Yi’s current response could only be seen by others as a completely non-resistant, tortoise-shell retreat — well, he was in the wrong, so what else could he do? But there was no shortage of pent-up resentment in his heart, and one day it would surely erupt, creating an even bigger opening for attack. That was exactly what people were waiting for now — for something to go wrong with Ning Yi, which would make things even harder for the already overwhelmed Su Tan’er. Yet in these past few days, the situation seemed to have taken a slightly strange turn.
“Recently, Fifth Uncle and Seventh Uncle in the clan have both agreed — in half a month, the clan assembly will convene again, and it will formally discuss the problems that have arisen in the family recently. At that time, they’ll also bring up again the issue of Tan’er, as a woman, taking charge of the family’s business affairs. The matter of the main branch really ought to be settled before the year is out.”
That afternoon, in Su Zhongkan’s courtyard, several shop managers and cousins close to the second branch, including Su Chonghua, were sitting with Su Zhongkan drinking tea, chatting casually about recent household affairs. Over the past two and a half months, the Su family had been in turmoil, and the businesses of the second and third branches had also been significantly affected — yet as members of the second branch, they showed little sign of discouragement at the moment. As Su Zhongkan spoke of this matter, one of the cousins spoke up.
“It’s just that I worry Third Uncle still won’t be willing to change his mind by then. Even if all the other uncles stand with us, with our Su family’s situation being what it is, one word from the old man could still drag this out indefinitely.”
Su Yu ranked third among the elder generation, and the “Third Uncle” being referred to here was him.
Su Zhongkan shook his head.
“Father shouldn’t have anything more to say. If he really meant to intervene, he would have already stepped in over this past month, given the state of things at home. Between the main branch and the second and third branches, there’ll eventually be an outcome, and he understands that too. He values stability above all, wants harmony in the family so that everything prospers — he’s probably genuinely angry at Eldest Brother over this. But with Eldest Brother in the state he’s in now, and Tan’er having made such a mistake, he probably feels it’s not good for the main branch to keep standing at the center of this storm either. If they truly step back, it would also protect Niece Tan’er’s chances of living a peaceful life afterward.”
“I suppose that’s how it’ll be, then.” One of the cousins nodded. “These days, most people in the family seem to share this view. I’ve been in touch with a few of the main branch’s shop managers these past few days, asking about their intentions going forward, and most of them said that if they were to split off from the main branch, they’d be willing to come over to our side. It’s just a pity the most central figures still haven’t declared themselves. Manager Xi is young and hot-blooded, says he’ll stand or fall with the main branch — heh, plenty of people in the family already know about his feelings for the second young lady. And then there’s Liao Kaitai, who also refuses to commit…”
“If Manager Liao says even one word, I believe plenty of people would change their stance,” one of the shop managers said. “But he really is loyal to the eldest master. Even after everything that’s happened, he still hasn’t spoken a word of complaint about the main branch… oh, though a few nights after the trade association’s annual gathering, he did tell someone that Ning Liheng’s scholarly temperament was really too self-indulgent, or otherwise there might still have been a chance. Lately we can’t seem to find him, so there’s no way to approach him on that front either…”
“Heh, Ning Liheng…” someone laughed.
Su Chonghua leaned back in his chair with a smile as well. “The man has talent, sure, but he’s utterly hopeless when it comes to business…”
“As for Manager Liao — I heard Niece Tan’er sent him up to the capital?”
Su Zhongkan nodded. “What exactly he’s doing there is hard to say, but the official report to the family does say he went to the capital. I laughed about it at the time — is Niece Tan’er out of her mind? She knows there’s no way through in Jiangning, so she wants to go file a complaint in the capital? But I suspect she has something else in mind. As for filing a complaint — without solid evidence, we don’t have much of a foothold in the Eastern Capital either, and she should know that’s not realistic.”
“She’s apparently been focusing lately on scheming against the Wu family — wants to flood the market with underpriced goods to disrupt things. Maybe she really has lost her mind and is going for broke?”
“Flooding the market with cheap goods would be shoving our entire Su family straight into the fire pit — even a fool knows how that would end. The whole textile trade would band together against us.” Su Zhongkan laughed. “Even if she wanted to do that, the family wouldn’t allow it. The day such an order went out, we’d probably have a clan assembly called that very night — which would save us the trouble, frankly.”
“Well… there have been some rather odd rumors going around outside these past two days,” said a shop manager surnamed Ren, thinking it over before speaking up.
“Oh? What rumors?”
“Something seems off with the Wu family. These past two days their behavior is different from before, when they were busy adjusting supply and demand, pulling in tribute cloth, and boldly negotiating expansion with other merchants. There are rumors that something’s gone wrong with their brilliant gold brocade. In any case, these past two days, Wu Chenghou and his people seem distracted whenever discussing business. Someone from the Bureau of Weaving and Manufacturing has even let slip that they’re negotiating with Dong Decheng to push back the delivery date for the first batch of brilliant gold brocade. Though this can’t be confirmed yet.”
“What’s that about?” Su Zhongkan frowned.
“Probably just some minor problem — that sort of thing happens often enough. I heard that yesterday, Steward Qin Zhongnan, who’s in charge of that batch of fabric for the imperial merchant order, suddenly fell ill. Given all the various connections involved, people always end up exaggerating these things into something mysterious.” A shop manager shook his head.
The manager who’d spoken earlier shook his head with a smile too. “Probably so. I think it’s the Xue family spreading rumors. This afternoon I even heard someone say the Wu family fell for a scheme by our own Su family — that the second young lady is secretly plotting against them, and that’s why they’re running into trouble now.”
“Fell for a scheme?” Su Zhongkan blinked, then tilted his head back and laughed. “That’s surely just the Xue family spreading baseless rumors. If anyone really fell for a scheme, it would either be Eldest Brother’s doing or the second young lady’s — but Eldest Brother hasn’t even been fully conscious these past few days. As for the second young lady — if she were only feigning illness, then sure, maybe she really is scheming something. But last time, she genuinely collapsed from overwork and exhaustion; even Physician Sun said she was under too much stress, on top of Eldest Brother’s sudden collapse… there’s no doubt about that. And if it really were a scheme, I heard everything at the time was being handled by Liheng — could it be they fell for a scheme laid by him?”
At this, everyone let out a rather helpless, bitter laugh. To be honest, it felt a bit unseemly for family members to laugh at one of their own, but by now, they’d all grown quite familiar with Ning Yi. Outsiders might call him mysterious or hard to figure out, but they were all people living under the same roof — everyone in the household knew perfectly well what he did with his days.
All day long he just taught a bunch of children, told them all sorts of pointless stories, supposedly ran some kind of unorthodox little experiments, played weiqi, and wandered around eating snacks. Before Su Tan’er collapsed, he’d almost never touched business matters at all, and after that year-end gathering, he never set foot in the cloth trade again. If a man who did nothing all day had somehow managed to pull off something significant that entire month, staying idle and unnoticed until just now — while enduring all manner of insults and abuse without so much as flinching — then he would hardly be human anymore. What’s more, if he really had done something, then over the following month and a half, all sorts of complications would surely have arisen; there was simply no way he could have remained entirely uninvolved.
Everyone drank their tea and laughed for a while. A moment later, one of the cousins frowned. “But… what if it really is him?”
“Uh…” Su Zhongkan blinked, momentarily caught off guard, and the mood in the room turned a little chilly as everyone exchanged glances.
The cousin thought it over for a moment.
“It only strikes me as odd now that I think about it — Ning Liheng never had anything to do with business matters before, and after the second young lady fell ill, he really did throw himself into trying to sort things out. But after the twenty-fifth of the eighth month, once the second young lady took over again, he suddenly withdrew — you could say he was hit hard that day, that’s plausible enough. But… he withdrew a bit too thoroughly, don’t you think? After that, he never asked about business affairs again at all. When people scolded him or mocked him, he took it all with an air of complete indifference, carrying on exactly as before, as if none of it weighed on him in the slightest, showing not a trace of being affected… If he were really so upset, shouldn’t there be some sign of guilt or concern afterward? Is his self-control really that formidable?”
Once he said this, a strange feeling stirred in everyone’s hearts. Indeed, over this month and a half, there had been open and hidden struggles within the family, rising and falling tides, with everyone inside and out fighting tooth and nail over countless things, everyone exerting their utmost effort. Quite a few people had also set their sights on this scholar, treating him as part of the struggle, trying constantly to make him uncomfortable and push him out of the Su family, or at least to disrupt Su Tan’er through him. But this couple — one at the very center of the storm, stubbornly doing things that no one else quite understood, and the other… now it seemed almost as if he simply didn’t take any of it to heart, living his life as usual. Everyone had always assumed he was just enduring it, but to endure it to this degree really did seem a bit much.
Still, this was ultimately nothing more than an offhand guess, and a moment later everyone shook their heads and laughed.
“That scholar couldn’t possibly be that capable…”
Su Chonghua, who probably knew Ning Yi best of anyone present, laughed the hardest of all. “You’re all overthinking this. The Wu family’s just having some minor trouble, and here you are taking hearsay as fact. If Liheng really were that formidable, he wouldn’t be the Ning Liheng we know — he’d be some Zhuge Liang reborn, answering the call in a crisis, doing what needed doing, and walking away clean once it was done, untroubled by worldly affairs… Do any of you know anyone like that? Sure, he does have some literary talent and refinement, and his temperament is different from most — back when people questioned his poetic talent, he never bothered defending himself even once. Enduring a bit of scolding and gossip now — that’s nothing new for him…”
“Ha ha, Chonghua’s right. You all really are overthinking this…”
Amid the laughter, everyone soon put the matter out of their minds. Still, perhaps because of that afternoon’s conversation, when Su Zhongkan crossed paths with Ning Yi on his way home that evening, he couldn’t help glancing at him a few extra times. The young man in his blue-gray robe held some old book he’d bought from who knows where, walking along while gazing at the sunset in the western sky, apparently lost in thought about something. Noticing Su Zhongkan’s gaze, he turned and smiled at him. “Second Uncle.”
The two exchanged greetings and passed each other. Su Zhongkan shook his head slightly. Indeed, the young man was still so young — one could see in him the ease that belonged to youth, but not much in the way of deep scheming. And such ease, on a young man, was more likely than not simply put on. Over this past month or so, having endured so many cold looks and insults, he was surely holding it all in, forced to put up this kind of front…
Thinking this, Su Zhongkan turned his mind to how best to persuade the youngest of his uncles, Ninth Uncle, that evening, setting aside all thoughts of Ning Liheng.
Petty squabbles were always a matter for the younger generation — no need for him to get involved.
…
That same evening, in a room at a restaurant along the banks of the Qinhuai River, Wu Qilong and Xi Junyu met — the two of them treating it as a chance “encounter,” though each had his own business to attend to. Xi Junyu, for instance, had recently been going back and forth frequently with many members of the Su family and the main branch’s shop managers, working hard to steer and lay the groundwork for certain things, and it was already showing results. That evening he also had a dinner arranged nearby with several young members of the Su family, so he didn’t have much time to spare.
“Brother Xi, how have things been lately?”
“All well enough. But your Wu family — did something happen these past two days?”
Wu Qilong looked at him for a moment, then took a sip of tea. “It’s nothing. I just wanted to ask how you’ve been considering the matter we discussed before. Over this past month and a half, you’ve been working to get the Su family to pin the blame for the imperial merchant fiasco on Ning Yi, and I’ve had people help spread that word outside as well — that the biggest problem with the whole affair was Ning Yi’s failure to properly guard the dye formula. But it seems the results have been limited. What do you think, now that things stand as they are?”
“Who says the results are limited?” Xi Junyu smiled. “The matter hasn’t reached its final stage yet — who knows how it’ll turn out? Given the Su family’s current state, whether it’s Su Tan’er or Ning Yi, there’s surely resentment building up inside both of them. Su Tan’er is too overwhelmed to even deal with those feelings right now, trying to seize her last chance. As for Ning Liheng… he’s just been holding it in, and one day he won’t be able to hold it in any longer… Once the main branch slips from Su Tan’er’s grasp, she’ll start remembering everything that happened, and she’ll remember that everyone was saying it was Ning Liheng’s fault…”
“And what if it doesn’t go that way?”
Xi Junyu shook his head. “That’s not something I need to worry about right now.”
“Heh, that’s just like you…” Wu Qilong laughed, then leaned back in his chair. “As I’ve said before — our Wu family’s door is always open to you. When the time comes, do give it some thought, at least.”
Xi Junyu looked at him in silence for a moment, first nodding, then thinking it over before speaking. “Something’s off with you. Did something really go wrong on your end?”
“There is indeed a problem. There have been several incidents at the workshop, and Uncle Qin suddenly fell ill. Everything’s happened too fast, with too much pressure. We’re currently considering negotiating a delay with the Bureau of Weaving and Manufacturing — it’s not a major issue, but it’s certainly not good news either. Not many people can know about it, so I was thinking — it would be good if the family had more capable people at hand…”
“Go handle your own business.” With that, Xi Junyu turned and left.
Wu Qilong watched him go, then finished his tea and sat quietly in the room. Evening turned to night, and as the lamplight grew clearer, a figure knocked on the door and entered. Anyone from the Su family would have recognized this man at once — the middle-aged man who entered was also one of the Su family’s stewards, surnamed Qi, given name Guangzu. After closing the door, he greeted Wu Qilong and sat down at a nearby seat, brow furrowed.
“Uncle Qi, how did it go?”
Qi Guangzu looked at Wu Qilong. “Young Master, is something really wrong with the Wu family?”
Wu Qilong smiled and lowered his head to sip his tea. “Uncle Qi, if something really were wrong with my Wu family, that wouldn’t do you any good either, would it?”
“I spoke with Manager Zhou yesterday.” Qi Guangzu frowned. “Manager Zhou and Manager Bai are the most low-key and cautious among the main branch’s managers, which is why the second young lady put the two of them in charge of developing that dye formula. After the imperial merchant incident, the Su family started an internal investigation, and the two of them have been sidelined quite a bit lately. But after receiving your message, Young Master, I had drinks with Manager Zhou the night before last — and what he said really gave me a fright… Young Master, what exactly is going on?”
Wu Qilong’s expression turned serious. “What exactly is going on — shouldn’t that be my question to you, Uncle Qi? What exactly did Manager Zhou say?”
“He… he didn’t really say much.” Since Wu Qilong wasn’t willing to reveal anything, Qi Guangzu took a deep breath. “But throughout the whole time he was getting drunk, I couldn’t detect any worry in him at all. It wasn’t until yesterday that I realized — he didn’t seem worried, not just about the Su family’s investigation, but not even about the entire current situation the Su family is in. That’s supposed to be exactly what he and Manager Bai are responsible for, Young Master. There’s just one thing he said that I remember most clearly.”
Qi Guangzu paused. “He was drunk at the time, and he said… that throughout the entire Su family, the person he admired most, aside from the old patriarch, was…”
“Heh, was it your second young lady…” Wu Qilong could already guess what was coming, and at this point he lifted his teacup with a cold smile. Qi Guangzu looked at him with some difficulty. “No… it was… Young Master Ning.”
Wu Qilong froze there. He moved the teacup away from his lips, and after a moment, his gaze shifted about, as if he didn’t quite know where to set the cup down. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, then let out a long exhale, his eyes turning back to Qi Guangzu.
“What did you say…?”