The sunlight was warm and gentle. Xi Junyu walked along the corridor beneath the eaves, paused briefly, then entered the room to one side, nodding to the two men inside.
“Manager Chen, how has Rong Ji been responding?”
The man he addressed as Manager Chen was named Chen Youhe. Hearing Xi Junyu’s question, he shook his head. “Rong Ji is still insisting on raising their price. They’re planning to push it up to four taels two qian.”
“That’s practically robbery.” Xi Junyu frowned, though since similar bad news had become commonplace lately, he didn’t show much reaction, merely sitting down at the table with a grim expression. “Lü Ji is willing to negotiate down to four taels.”
“I’ve already told them that too, but Rong Ji says that with the eldest master no longer managing affairs, once the second young lady steps down, the Su family’s main branch will be too weakened to recover, so they’re just waiting to take a loss — which is why they insist on this price.”
“The second young lady isn’t going to step down!” Xi Junyu paused. “Su Yu wouldn’t be so short-sighted. Even if he has to hold on stubbornly, he’ll help keep the main branch propped up. Given the second young lady’s abilities, she’s bound to rise again sooner or later!”
His words were firm and decisive, but the room fell silent. Everyone there knew their own family’s affairs well enough — the current situation really was quite bad. The second and third branches were doing everything they could to tear apart the main branch, and even Su Yu now seemed to be running low on strength; the old man could no longer suppress all the talk and dissent. Over this past month, the main branch’s business in the Jiangning area had been affected, mainly because some suppliers and distributors were demanding higher prices or bigger margins. Most were still stalling for now, and the Su family side was holding firm, refusing to budge, playing for time on both ends — but the hidden toll had probably already dragged down the main branch’s overall profits by twenty percent, and the most terrifying part was the question of what lay ahead.
“Damn it… one wrong step and everything falls apart…”
Xi Junyu cursed under his breath, holding back his frustration, then shook his head grimly and began attending to some matters on the desk — invoices and the like. The two managers beside him wore grim expressions too. Chen Youhe shook his head as well. “If it weren’t for that carelessness during the imperial merchant affair…”
No one in the room continued that thought, but everyone knew exactly what it referred to. A certain narrative had been circulating within the Su family lately, one that had really taken hold after the internal review of the yellow fabric workshop from that period.
Some matters could be handled by individual shop managers on their own, but many others required someone overseeing the whole operation. The small workshop responsible for developing the new fabric had originally been under Su Tan’er’s direct control, without issue — but after Su Tan’er fell ill, oversight had slipped in certain respects. Now, looking back with the benefit of the Su family’s experienced managers, it seemed clear that if Ning Yi hadn’t been so overzealous and heavy-handed in managing the yellow fabric operation during that period, many of these small details wouldn’t have gone wrong at all.
Had Su Tan’er been personally overseeing things during that time, when they chose an aggressive publicity strategy, she surely would have made corresponding adjustments to the workshop’s secrecy measures to accommodate that direction.
But once Ning Yi took charge, he simply didn’t understand these fine details. The workshop’s policies remained unchanged, while Managers Zhou and Bai had to both maintain secrecy and accommodate the high-profile publicity coming from above — inevitably leaving traces here and there, which was exactly how the Wu family had found the opening to exploit this fundamental strategic vulnerability.
Every time they thought about it, it left everyone feeling deeply aggrieved — they’d done everything right, and in the end they’d still lost, all because of that reckless fool. Experience — that was the whole problem, experience. If any of the experienced managers had been in charge at the time, this never would have happened.
And to think that scholar had the audacity to write something so righteously indignant, like a swordsman keeping his hand on his blade even among old friends — how embarrassing…
In the past, people had mostly ignored Ning Yi — figuring that if things went well, it wouldn’t have anything to do with him anyway, and if they went poorly, well, that couldn’t be helped either. But this narrative had only really crystallized over the past half-month or so, and because of it, criticism of Ning Yi within the Su family had grown increasingly harsh lately. Manager Xi had always been rather even-tempered with others, saying there were understandable circumstances, but even he seemed to feel a certain frustration now — at least, that was how Chen Youhe and the others read his slight loss of composure just now.
The room fell quiet for a while, filled only with the rustle of paperwork being processed. In the silence, Xi Junyu glanced to the side, and the somewhat irritated look in his eyes gradually settled.
Preparations were more or less complete by now; the clan assembly would convene within half a month, and by then, once Tan’er was stripped of her position, it would be best if this narrative could reach its peak as well. If the criticism came from the people in the second and third branches, it might actually provoke her defiance instead — but if it kept coming from the people around her, she’d inevitably end up venting her frustration on them once she was in a state of dejection. Human nature was, after all, nothing more than that.
After the imperial merchant affair, the Su family had erupted into chaos, full of confusion and every kind of talk. No one knew that all this discourse about Ning Yi was being quietly driven and steered by Xi Junyu himself from behind the scenes — there was no need to hire anyone to spread it; all it took was a few carefully chosen remarks in certain conversations, enough to get people thinking, to lead them to draw their own conclusions. At the same time, this deepened everyone’s sense that “we did nothing wrong and still lost,” heightening that feeling of grievance and suppressed frustration… From start to finish, he had positioned himself as a rational bystander, even occasionally speaking up in Ning Yi’s defense — though of course, such words ultimately only served to provoke the opposite effect.
Everything had been laid out beautifully; he was skilled at this sort of thing. The more ideal outcome, originally, would have been for Ning Yi to finally lose his composure at home a few times — but unfortunately, that scholar really could endure. Faced with provocation after provocation, knowing that arguing was pointless, he simply said nothing at all, putting on an air of leisurely indifference. Still, that was fine too — by now, Xi Junyu had already begun hinting to people in the household: this fellow shows not the slightest trace of guilt.
As these thoughts idly drifted through his mind, Wu Qilong’s face suddenly flashed across it, and he frowned.
“Manager Chen, how has the Wu family been lately? I heard something’s gone wrong over there.”
“Not entirely clear. I heard one of their stewards fell ill from overwork — Qin Ye, I believe, someone we dealt with a couple of years back.” Chen Youhe looked up. “Some people are saying all sorts of things about the Wu family running into this trouble or that — probably the Xue family spreading word behind the scenes. The imperial merchant delivery is coming up soon, and after that, the Wu family will be busy with the tribute cloth for a while — the Xue family’s probably hoping to gain some advantage from it.”
“Oh.”
The Su family clearly wasn’t fond of the Wu family at the moment, but having just been played by them, being the defeated party, they were even less in the mood to hear gossip about the Wu family all day long. Chen Youhe had spoken casually enough, and Xi Junyu nodded along, then thought to himself — what could possibly happen to the Wu family that mattered… Never mind it; whatever trouble the Wu family was heading into now was on a completely different level from the Su family’s affairs — the two would only keep drifting further apart. Whatever happened to them could happen; right now, all that mattered was finishing his own work.
In any case, everything was going smoothly.
He glanced out the window at the afternoon sunlight filling the courtyard — the atmosphere peaceful, yet with a faint, lifeless stillness underlying it. Less than half a month remained until the Su family’s clan assembly, when everything would finally be settled. Those belonging to the main branch were all somewhat despondent now, doing what they could while awaiting an uncertain fate. Perhaps only he could say with absolute clarity exactly where he stood and what he was doing. Only he was a man with somewhere to belong.
And so he smiled, as light and easy as that patch of sunlight itself.
…
In a quiet room in the afternoon, dim from the closed doors and windows, the air thick with the smell of medicine. Before the heavily curtained sickbed, an elegant, fine-featured woman held a bowl of porridge in her hands, lifting the spoon to blow on it before bringing it to the patient’s mouth.
“…The clan assembly… I hear Seventh Grandfather has decided to have me step down after all — Second Uncle finally managed to convince him… Third Uncle’s side is busy poaching people; these past few days they’ve been saying it’s a pity Manager Liao’s been sent away right now… Rong Ji wants to raise their prices, and so does Lü Ji — such a hassle, and before long they’ll be running back and forth about it again…”
Spoonful by spoonful, she fed the patient the porridge while speaking quietly of household matters. The woman beside the bed did look somewhat weary, though the corners of her mouth carried a faint smile — beneath the fatigue, there was also a touch of something wry. She reached up to smooth her hair, tilting her head to look at her father lying in bed. In truth, there was a certain bitterness in her heart too — she had come to visit out of concern for his illness, not meaning to bring up all these tiresome matters again, but thinking back on it, aside from the purely obligatory pleasantries, this sort of talk was really all that had ever passed between father and daughter.
It had been two and a half months since Su Boyong was attacked. In that time, he had been confirmed as paralyzed — no feeling in either leg, and even movement in his left hand had been somewhat affected. He remained physically weak, needing his bandages changed daily, unable to leave his bed, and his spirits seemed to have been affected as well, often in low moods. Su Tan’er came to see him every day, but what father and daughter discussed was mostly just this sort of thing. Often, with her mother or one of the concubines present, they’d exchange only a few perfunctory pleasantries.
Su Tan’er fell silent for a moment.
“I saw a lot of people selling tangerines on the street today. Father used to… like those, didn’t he… um, there’s no wind today, should we open the window a little? Husband says it’s better to open it — something about air circulation… and letting the sunlight in helps the mood too…”
These were about the only genuine, heartfelt words she could find to say — and when she mentioned Ning Yi, her smile brightened a little. Su Boyong nodded at that, then shook his head. “Let’s… not open it. It’s cold out. I feel cold. And, Tan’er — what has Liheng been up to lately?”
Su Tan’er smiled faintly. “Doesn’t Husband come to see you every day too? Lately he’s just been teaching those children, going out for walks every day…” Her smile had already faded somewhat as she spoke lightly of Ning Yi’s recent activities. In truth, she understood well enough why her father kept asking these questions — he’d sighed a few times before on this sickbed, saying: “I can’t figure him out at all.” It was, in fact, a subtle warning directed at her.
These were things that couldn’t really be explained clearly. Just how capable her husband truly was, what he might be doing — Su Tan’er was curious about that herself, but her father’s view of it differed from her own. After a bit more small talk, she called out toward the door, summoning her father’s maid Xiuhe, handed over the porridge bowl, and rose to take her leave.
Over this past month and a half, she’d had so much to attend to every single day — stabilizing the current situation wasn’t easy, and she’d worked hard at it. But by now, things no longer felt as hopeless and directionless as they had before the imperial merchant affair; going about her work, her mind was actually at ease and her spirits were good, even if her body was constantly worn out. Once she stepped outside, Juan’er, who’d been waiting, came forward to meet her — it was clear the young lady’s mood wasn’t especially good.
There were still more places to go that afternoon, more matters to attend to. Mistress and maid left the courtyard, only to hear some rather urgent voices coming from the courtyard next door.
“Things have already come to this, and you’re still thinking about what, exactly…”
“It’s not that simple, Sister…”
“I’ve already heard everything. But this main branch isn’t hers alone — whatever she wants to do, everyone has to go along with it. Now that things have come to this… the main branch belongs to Boyong. You’re supposed to help hold this together for him.”
“I know…”
“If it weren’t for that Ning Yi, who doesn’t understand a thing, butting in where he doesn’t belong…”
The conversation drifted, indistinct, and when the two figures appeared at the doorway, both parties froze for a moment. Su Tan’er bowed respectfully. “Second Mother, Uncle Gu…”
“Ah, Tan’er, come here… come see your father…”
“Second Young Lady.”
The ones speaking were the household’s second concubine and her younger brother, currently also one of the main branch’s shop managers. After an awkward exchange of greetings, the two parties went their separate ways. Once they’d reached a spot with no one else around, Juan’er pursed her lips. “Miss, Second Madam and Manager Gu were discussing surrendering…”
“I know.” Su Tan’er smiled faintly. “And it’s not just them, either…”
Given all the recent troubles within the main branch, there were plenty of internal disagreements as well. Some people felt the main branch had no chance of retaining the family headship and thought it best not to fight any further — better to preserve what benefits they already had. Even if Su Zhongkan or Su Yunfang ended up heading the family, they surely wouldn’t be driven out entirely — the more they could hold onto now, the easier things would be for everyone going forward. The two concubines, and even her own mother, all seemed to hold this attitude. Of course, if Su Tan’er ever tried to speak with them frankly about it, most would insist “there’s absolutely no such thing,” “we womenfolk don’t concern ourselves with business affairs.”
In another sense, they too were doing this for the sake of the main branch, for Su Boyong, for themselves — just with a somewhat short-sighted and rather disheartening way of thinking about it, applying the kind of scheming minds usually reserved for household politics to this situation instead.
“Juan’er, it’s a good thing you weren’t born into a wealthy household…”
“Hm?” Juan’er blinked.
“There’s no warmth of human feeling in this family.”
Su Tan’er smiled faintly. Juan’er pursed her lips — as a maid, it wasn’t her place to comment on such things. The two paused on a little bridge near a pond by the garden. Su Tan’er looked at her reflection in the water, straightened her hair, and murmured softly, “Honestly, I don’t have much warmth in me either…”
“That’s not true. Miss and Master are both wonderful people.”
“I’ve never been able to get close to Father either… It’s just Husband I feel bad for. These days he’s out and about during the daytime, isn’t he.”
“Mm, some people at home say rather unkind things, and Master’s too lazy to argue with them — but he definitely doesn’t enjoy hearing it either… Last time, even Xiao Chan was made to cry over it.”
Su Tan’er’s brow furrowed, a flash of sharpness crossing her eyes. After a long moment, she took a deep breath and smiled at Juan’er. “You’ve all kept track of who said what, haven’t you?”
“Uh…” Juan’er blinked, taken aback, then lowered her head. “How did you know, Miss?”
“Because I’m the elder sister.”
Su Tan’er said it as though it were only natural. Juan’er looked a little embarrassed, lowering her head with an awkward smile. “I— Xiao Chan and I have both been keeping track. Last time… last time we were secretly writing down names at home, and Master caught us doing it.”
“Oh? What did Husband say?”
“He said we were petty.”
“Ha.” Su Tan’er burst out laughing, then quickly composed herself. “Keep good records and show them to me. Don’t tell Husband.”
“Mm.” Juan’er nodded, and having secured this pardon in advance, promptly resumed her complaining with a stern face. “Miss, honestly, these past few days they’ve been getting worse and worse — some of them are even saying Master should just leave the Su family on his own… How much longer until this is all resolved… Honestly, Master’s the one who’s suffered the most unfairly. Sometimes even I can’t stand to listen to it anymore…”
“Husband, he…”
Su Tan’er paused, thinking back over the past two-plus months, especially since the imperial merchant year-end gathering — her own busyness had really been secondary compared to how Ning Yi had carried himself with such easy indifference amid all the scorn and accusations directed at him. It wasn’t just that Juan’er, Xiao Chan, and Xing’er couldn’t bear to listen anymore — her own heart wanted to stand up and lash out every single time, and there had even been a few occasions when it was Ning Yi who’d patted her shoulder and told her to go back inside. She alone could clearly feel the strength behind each of these moments — the unshakable resolve hidden behind that casual figure. And each time something like this happened, it also made her feel that she’d somehow failed to live up to her husband. When they’d first married, she’d assumed all of this would be hers to bear, and she’d worked hard trying to shoulder it — yet in the end, it was still that same figure who stepped forward and brushed it all aside so lightly.
“It won’t drag on much longer. The word’s already starting to spread — if the Wu family’s reaction is what we expect, then probably…” She glanced around at the surroundings. “Probably in the next few days, we can start showing our hand…”
Having said this, a certain sense of relief seemed to settle over her. “What a long two and a half months it’s been…” she murmured with a sigh. “Once this is all over, once it’s all over…” Something crossed her mind, and a flush of red suddenly rose to her cheeks. She looked down at her reflection in the water, then instinctively reached up to smooth her hair, turning her face slightly to look at herself in the water. Right — she’d have to wait until it was all over. She looked so haggard right now, hardly fit to be his match like this…
The woman in the water smiled back at her. Letting her hair fall loose again, she stepped forward.
“Let’s go. Time to get ready to show our hand.”
In the afternoon sunlight, the woman’s confident, unrestrained stride was cast in light, the little maid following happily behind her. That day was the fourteenth day of the tenth lunar month, in the eighth year of the Jinghan era. Though the decision had already been made to show their hand, there would naturally still be a few more days of waiting once the necessary steps were set in motion. But in fact, it was on this very afternoon that certain things had already begun to unfold — things that seemed, in the moment, entirely natural, yet might, in hindsight, strike one as rather abrupt.
That afternoon, in a teahouse, Ning Yi, perhaps simply on a whim, casually tied off a small matter — though what seemed like a small matter to him might, to anyone else, have seemed almost unimaginably large.
The day before, Ning Yi had run into Wu Qilong once on the street. It had looked like a chance encounter, and the two had exchanged a casual greeting. Over the past month and a half, this may not have been their first time crossing paths, but it was indeed the first time they’d actually greeted each other. Wu Qilong had been chatting with some cloth merchant at the time, and upon spotting Ning Yi, he’d cupped his hands in greeting from a distance. “Brother Ning, how have you been lately?” Ning Yi had returned the gesture. “Well enough.” They’d then gone their separate ways, and at the time Ning Yi hadn’t bothered giving it another thought.
Then today, after finishing his lessons, he went to the eastern market and bought an old book. It appeared to be a book brought over by Hui merchants from the Arabian region in the west, filled with diagrams that seemed to relate to some kind of alchemical knowledge. Ning Yi had bought it on a whim too, planning to have someone translate it for him later. After buying the book, he went to a teahouse for tea, calling for the attendant to bring him paper and brush. Studying the diagrams, he tried to guess what the book might be about — a kind of exercise in recalling old knowledge. As he sat there absorbed in writing and sketching, a figure walked up beside him.
“Brother Ning, what a coincidence — what’s this?”
Ning Yi looked up, and sure enough, quite the coincidence — it was Wu Qilong. He nodded in greeting. Wu Qilong then sat down on the other side of the tea table, and Ning Yi gave him a casual explanation.
“Should be from the Arabian region — this is Persian script, a bit further north, I can’t read it. But judging by the diagrams, it seems to involve the chemical reactions of several metals… do you know chemistry? Uh, something like alchemy…”
“Brother Ning really is widely read. Um… chemical reactions of metals?”
“Purification and transformation of metals, that sort of thing.”
“Oh?” Wu Qilong’s expression turned serious. “Wouldn’t that be… extremely useful?”
“So-so. Most of what’s written here, our blacksmiths and the like have probably already figured out on their own. It’s just that other perspectives can sometimes offer useful insight — their way of thinking is different, worth referencing.” Ning Yi looked up as he said this, gazing at Wu Qilong. “Brother Wu, waiting for someone?”
“Heh, nothing in particular — just wandering around, happened to spot you here, got a bit curious.”
Ning Yi nodded, his gaze not shifting away. Wu Qilong smiled, and the two simply looked at each other for a moment. After a while, Ning Yi narrowed his eyes slightly, nodded again, and waved for the attendant. “Bring another cup.”
He lowered his head once more, starting to sketch one of the diagrams from the book onto paper, frowning in thought. Once the cup arrived, he didn’t even look at Wu Qilong, simply gesturing with his hand. “Make yourself at home, Brother Wu.”
“Thanks.” Wu Qilong smiled and poured himself some tea, while Ning Yi kept his head down, working through the diagrams. He let out a soft sigh, as though he’d just caught the tail end of something Wu Qilong had said, and murmured to himself as if suddenly recalling something. “Oh, the fabric’s starting to fade…”
Wu Qilong’s smile froze instantly on his face. His hand trembled slightly, but he still managed to steady the teapot and set it down gently. He turned his head, his gaze fixed on Ning Yi with sharp, almost fierce intensity, his face twitching faintly. Something rose up from deep within him — the sensation of a nightmare finally becoming reality, mixed with a fair amount of shock. In his imagination, this conversation wasn’t supposed to go like this — Ning Yi wasn’t supposed to say such a thing so lightly.
Yet right before his eyes, it had all simply happened. Ning Yi was still bent over his sketching, as though, to him, all of this was as ordinary as the snacks and tea on the table this early-winter afternoon. He’d simply said it in the same casual tone one might use in idle chat: oh, the fabric’s starting to fade — no wonder you came over to sit here.
As ordinary a thing as could be.
“So… it really was you…”
It took considerable effort for Wu Qilong to keep his voice from grinding through clenched teeth, or trembling.
In the early-winter sunlight, Ning Yi set down his brush and looked up, meeting his gaze…