“Brother Yi, teacher.”
“Xiao Qi.”
Walking into the courtyard where Su Yu lived, the little girl greeted him rather timidly. Ning Yi patted her on the head, and she broke into a smile. “Grandfather’s inside.”
In the upheaval of the past few days, Xiao Qi had narrowly escaped disaster in the chaos, but had still been grazed lightly across the face by a blade, leaving a small scar there now. For an ordinary woman, this might well have counted as a disfigurement, but she was still young enough that, as she grew older, there was hope the scar would gradually fade. Ning Yi chatted with her for a few moments, and as he walked into the small inner courtyard, he found Su Yu in the pavilion there, talking with a few of the Su family children. Seeing Ning Yi approach, he sent the children off to play elsewhere with Xiao Qi.
By early April, news of the Liangshan bandits’ raid on the Jiangning prison had spread far and wide, shocking the whole underworld of the martial world. By comparison, the disaster that had befallen the Su family in all this amounted to little more than a small ripple within the larger wave. And the subsequent formal division of the Su family’s three branches was, in turn, an even fainter echo of that ripple, scarcely enough to draw anyone’s attention.
That was true from the perspective of the wider world, at least. In truth, within Jiangning itself, there were still plenty of people paying close attention—the various cloth trading houses large and small headed by the Xue and Wu families, merchant houses like the Puyang family who had once kept an eye on the Wu family’s affairs, and various connections of families in the Hangzhou area who had once benefited from Ning Yi’s kindness. Since the Su family’s ordeal, these parties had, whether openly through visits or quietly through observation, largely made their positions known. Some felt that Ning Yi, being a son-in-law after all, shouldn’t be allowed to put his wife’s family in such a difficult position; others declared they would stand behind Ning Yi no matter what. Opinions varied widely, but in the end, the Su family split apart completely, once and for all.
Su Yu played the leading role in all this, with Ning Yi involved in nearly the entire process. This division of the Su family was different from the several occasions people had shouted about before—judging from the stance both sides took, once the split happened, the First Branch, though it would retain the Su family name, would in practice be entirely severed from the Second and Third Branches. The old master, with an attitude bordering on ruthless resolve, divided up the family’s holdings completely. Since it was already known that Ning Yi planned to head north, nearly all the property allotted to the First Branch lay north of the Yangtze, where the Su family held relatively little in the way of assets—on the surface, this looked like favoring one side over the other, but in practice, it meant Su Tan’er and Ning Yi would essentially be starting over from scratch. From that point on, however, the First Branch would bear no further obligation to assist the Second and Third Branches whenever needed—the intent was to free Ning Yi and the others completely from any entanglement with the Second and Third Branches, letting them move forward unburdened.
Neither Ning Yi nor Su Tan’er showed much concern over how much of the family estate they’d end up with. It was only now that the rest of the Su family truly grasped how formidable this couple was. However much private grumbling there had been about Su Tan’er and Ning Yi in the past, after this string of upheavals, anyone with even a modicum of sense had come to understand the weight this couple carried—without them, the Second and Third Branches could, at best, hope to hold onto what they had, and perhaps not even manage that much.
Once this realization sank in, it was first the other elders of the Su family who objected—they still wanted to keep Ning Yi and Su Tan’er tied to the family, reasoning that no matter how much internal strife the Su family suffered, as long as the two of them remained, things surely wouldn’t get too bad. Then some of the more peripheral, lesser branches of the Second and Third Branches began speaking up too, insisting that even if the family divided, they’d still be one family in spirit. Only the core figures of the Second and Third Branches who had survived the recent chaos—Su Zhongkan, Su Yunfang, and the like—could only purse their lips and watch in silence at such a time; the fact that Ning Yi and Su Tan’er scarcely regarded them as worth considering at all, even treating them as a burden they’d rather shed by handing over the bulk of the estate just to be rid of them, wounded their pride deeply.
Throughout the whole process, Ning Yi mostly just came by each day on Su Tan’er’s behalf to sit in, saying little himself—but everyone had already seen the way he’d stood his ground against the Liangshan men in that courtyard, and no one dared say anything reckless in front of him now. Over these few days, the preliminary matters were settled swiftly and decisively; the remaining details would likely still take another month or two to fully resolve, but since neither Ning Yi nor Su Tan’er cared much about what they personally received, there was no need to fuss over it too much.
“I hear that once things are more or less settled, Liheng will be heading to the capital.”
In this great upheaval, the Su family had lost more than half its members to death or injury, and now, in the aftermath, came the process of dividing the family. In just a few days, the old man seemed to have aged another decade or more—his hair gone entirely white, looking a great deal more worn than the still-spirited elderly man he’d been before, despite his years. He poured a cup of tea for Ning Yi now, gesturing for him to sit down beside him.
“Not decided yet. There’s a lot to sort out, and besides… Tan’er is still recovering. I expect I’ll head to the capital first, probably.”
Ning Yi thought it over before saying this. Once the family division was settled, Tan’er’s business dealings would need to shift northward again; going to the capital first himself, paying his respects to Qin Siyuan and formally joining the Secret Investigation Bureau, was probably the best course of action. Su Yu nodded. “I think it’s good that you go to the capital first too. As for Tan’er, you needn’t worry too much—she can manage things herself… though that’s a matter between the two of you as husband and wife, and it’s not really my place to say too much about it.”
Su Yu sighed, rose from where he was sitting, and looked around at the Su family children playing nearby.
“By nature, I’d always hoped the Su family could stay whole, and keep thriving together, always. But this affair has made certain things clear to me. Liheng, you’re a man meant for great things. I won’t let them hold you back any longer. Zhongkan and Yunfang’s children in their branches simply aren’t up to the task—if this household is going to fall into decline under them, then let it fall. Even with the family divided now, in name at least, we’re still one family. Come back once a year for the ancestral rites. In the future, once you and Tan’er have achieved great things, if they haven’t done anything too outrageous, I only hope you’ll extend them a little consideration now and then, so they don’t end up out on the streets.”
Ning Yi nodded. Su Yu gestured toward the children playing nearby and smiled. “They survived this disaster. If even one or two of them turn out worth something, I could die at peace. As for you and Tan’er, I won’t interfere anymore—so long as you live well, that’s all that matters, whether the children take the surname Su or Ning, that’s for the two of you to decide as you see fit. Though I would hope that you and Tan’er might let one child carry the Su name. That would be enough for me.”
The two of them talked a while longer in the pavilion, this and that—Su Yu recalling his past dealings with Ning Yi’s ancestors, speaking of his own younger years in business, and later, after taking over leadership of the Su family, all the various affairs he’d had to manage. Several fierce battles in the marketplace, treacherous and unpredictable dealings, not so different in difficulty from the scheme Ning Yi had unraveled around the imperial merchant affair. He spoke, too, of the years after his old wife’s death, when he’d tried to steer the Su family onto a proper, respectable path, striving for some measure of social standing. Over the course of his life, he had given everything for the Su family, weathering every storm, building up such a considerable fortune, helping the Su clan branch out and take firm root in this great city of Jiangning, even founding an academy and a charitable hall, trying to lift the Su family to yet another level. And yet, in the end, it had all fallen short regardless—surely there was a deep well of regret in his heart over that.
“I can probably still hold this household together for a few more years. I just hope that, a few years from now, they’ll truly have grown up. That would be enough…”
As he was leaving, Ning Yi saw the white-haired old man sitting in the pavilion, murmuring these words to himself. This was a realm Ning Yi, too, had no way to enter for now. It was nearly the summer solstice; in the courtyard, the last of the blossoms had fallen, swirling in the warm breeze. Ning Yi glanced over at Xiao Qi and the others playing, and Xiao Qi came over to ask, “Brother Yi, teacher, are you leaving?” She was Su Yunfang’s own daughter, and though she’d always looked up to Ning Yi with a certain quiet admiration, in this household—at least for now—there was only so much that could be said between them; even during Ning Yi’s recovery, she hadn’t been able to come visit him. Ning Yi gently touched the scar on her face, where the scab had only just fallen away, and smiled. “Take good care of your grandfather.”
Xiao Qi nodded firmly.
Stepping out of that courtyard, Juan’er was waiting for him outside, and the two of them walked together toward the small courtyard where they used to live. Passing through a few familiar paths, the courtyard remained just as it had been—not much of what had been there had been moved out yet. Wind chimes rang softly beneath the eaves, as if waiting for their master’s return.
This was the courtyard Su Tan’er had lived in her whole life, carrying with it, perhaps, all her memories from childhood onward—her joys, her anger, her sorrows, her happiness. It was here that she had made the decision to flee her arranged marriage; here that she and Ning Yi had talked together every night afterward; here that she had burned down the small building across the way in order to consummate their marriage with him, the plan to rebuild it set aside for the time being because of the trip to Hangzhou, so that even now it remained just a foundation. It was here that she had fallen ill, here that Ning Yi had devised his scheme for the imperial merchant affair, here that they had released sky lanterns together, here that Tan’er had given birth to their child. It was here that Ning Yi had gone from thinking of the place as merely a temporary lodging to gradually coming to feel it was actually rather good. A place that should have been filled with the past and with hopes for the future would, from now on, likely be nothing more than a memory.
“I’m going to kill Xi Junyu. Maybe soon.”
Ning Yi, looking at the things around the courtyard, said this quietly. Juan’er glanced at him but didn’t react at first, until Ning Yi turned to her with a questioning look, at which point she said “Huh?”—unsure why he was looking at her that way.
“I just wanted to ask—even though I told you that as a joke once before—Juan’er, did you actually used to have feelings for him? If you did…”
“Of—of course not!” Juan’er’s face flushed red at once, her cheeks puffing out. “How could I possibly like him, that kind of person, arrogant and full of himself—I’d never like someone like that. You don’t know, sir, we knew him back before he was even a shopkeeper—he had all sorts of bad habits, a poor temper to begin with, always with a scowl on his face, and he was forever going off to brothels…”
Juan’er rattled on for a good while, then suddenly realized she’d said too much, and lowered her head, blushing. Ning Yi burst out laughing. After a moment, Juan’er looked up, curious. “Sir, if I really had liked that Xi Junyu… would you not kill him, then?”
“Not a chance.” Ning Yi patted her shoulder. “I’d just have to talk some sense into you a bit more.”
That day, besides speaking with Su Yu about the family division, Juan’er had also brought people along to move out some remaining belongings. Ning Yi’s injuries had largely begun to heal, and he took a sedan chair home on his own. Just as he passed through the Su estate’s side gate, a small stone came whizzing through the air, striking the chair’s curtain and hitting him squarely on the head. The stone wasn’t large. Ning Yi, clutching his forehead, lifted the curtain to look, and saw Yuan Jin’er down the road, staring back with a rather stunned expression—apparently not expecting her aim to be quite so accurate. She glanced left, then right, and strolled off as if nothing had happened.
The chair bearers wanted to go after her and catch her, but Ning Yi waved them off. “Never mind.”
He went home that day with his old injuries still unhealed and a new one added—a lump now on his head.