Chapter 140: Everyone Happy in Their Own Way

"...Uh... Breaking the Waves?"

By the small grassy lawn outside the outer courtyard of Yushan Academy, Su Chonghua smiled as he glanced at the paper, then slightly furrowed his brow. At that moment, Xiao Qi had already run over. "Grandpa Mountain Principal."

"Mhm."

"Grandpa Mountain Principal, that's mine."

Bowing respectfully to Su Chonghua, Xiao Qi looked at the xuan paper draft and said with a smile. Seeing the cute little girl, Su Chonghua handed the manuscript back. After Xiao Qi received it and solemnly folded it, preparing to tuck it into her lapel, a trace of hesitation appeared in Su Chonghua's smile.

He had only read the very beginning of the ci poetry, but he recognized the handwriting.

Breaking the Waves...

This tune title made him somewhat concerned, so he said, "Xiao Qi, can you let... Grandfather take a look at that?"

"Ah?" Xiao Qi paused her movements, blinked, and then with an "Oh," handed the draft over with both hands. She pursed her lips as she looked at him, seeming somewhat inclined to remind Grandpa Mountain Principal not to tear the manuscript, but finally deciding it would be lacking in manners, she swallowed the words. Su Chonghua smiled as he took the manuscript, carefully unfolded it, read it through softly once, and frowned. Then he read it from the beginning again. After a long moment, he sighed with a complex expression, looked at Xiao Qi beside him, and smiled once more. "Xiao Qi, this ci..."

"Mine."

"Ah, I know. Was it written for you by Mister Liheng?"

Xiao Qi nodded. "Yi... uh, Mister, he traded with Xiao Qi. It's Xiao Qi's now, and Mister told me to keep it safe."

Su Chonghua thought for a moment, nodded, and handed the xuan paper back to Xiao Qi. "You must take good care of it."

Xiao Qi tucked the piece of ci poetry into her lapel and walked away. Su Chonghua watched the little girl's retreating figure for a long time before shaking his head and laughing. Liheng truly possessed talent, yet at a time like this, to write a Breaking the Waves and only show it to a little girl... as expected, even if he wanted to admire his own reflection and comfort himself in isolation, he knew he would be laughed at if he published it.

Ning Yi was no longer all that important. He still had matters to attend to that afternoon and a banqueting poetry gathering to attend in the evening. Pushing the matter to the back of his mind, he set off to handle other business.

On what seemed like a peaceful and leisurely afternoon, the tense atmosphere of the textile industry had not yet spread to the common folk of Jiangning. Pedestrians bustled through the grand streets and narrow alleys; restaurants and teahouses echoed with light music. Occasionally, people chatted about the current amusing anecdotes of Jiangning, brushing lightly against the Su and Wu families of the cloth trade. It was also on this afternoon, inside a certain teahouse, that Su Tan'er, accompanied by a few carefully screened, truly trusted shopkeepers and three maidservants, met with a few members of the Wu family in a slightly secluded tearoom. At their head was Wu Chenghou.

"Ning Yi... why didn't he come?" Without much of a greeting, after looking around, this was Wu Chenghou's first sentence.

"The marketplace is a petty realm, which my husband has never favored. After writing a poem to advise you, Elder, that day, he ceased to inquire further into the matter. It would not be proper for me to trouble him with it again."

Su Tan'er's demeanor in business dealings had always possessed extreme propriety and measure, but her underlying assertive style was clear to everyone. Though a woman, she was never willing to submit to others. Yet at this moment, her gentle words, sounding as though she nestled under her husband's wings, only served to infuriate Wu Chenghou further. Especially the mention of "writing a poem to advise you, Elder," which felt as though she were dragging out the line—*The crimson gates of the high and mighty mock the first to wear the cap*—to remind him once more: *My husband finished the matter and reminded you once; if you still failed to react, then we couldn't be bothered to care anymore. What is a major crisis to you was nothing more than a casual triviality to my husband.*

"Hah! So to hear you tell it, in the matters undertaken by you, my niece, and these many people of the Wu family, your esteemed husband truly hasn't given it the slightest regard."

Su Tan'er smiled, wearing an expression of natural certainty as she said, "It has nothing to do with you, Elder. It is simply that this niece's temperament is overly stubborn, and she regards success and failure too heavily. Had it not been for his pitying Tan'er while she was ill that day, my husband presumably would not have troubled himself to intervene in such a minor affair. Today's outcome was foreseen by my husband two months ago; every single step of its subsequent development has also been arranged with absolute clarity. Later on, this niece shall explain it all to you, Elder. In learning, insight, and strategic mastery, Tan'er falls far behind him, so Elder need not take anger over this..."

"...Hmph!"

The wind blew past the alley corners near the teahouse, thinning these lukewarm exchanges into the air while pedestrians bustled along the street nearby. The afternoon slowly slipped away amidst the passing crowds. By early evening, Su Tan'er and her three maids boarded a carriage to head home, followed closely by the carriages of several other shopkeepers carrying thick volumes of account books and ledgers. Su Tan'er pulled back the curtain to look at the twilight sky in the distance, and then she smiled.

***

"Chan'er, tell me, was what I said to those people from the Wu family earlier imposing?"

"Huh?" Never expecting her young mistress to ask such a question, Xiao Chan was stunned, dumbfounded. "What? Oh... imposing... yes..."

"Mhm, I think it was quite formidable too." Su Tan'er thought about it and nodded to herself. The young mistress was a bit strange today, but deep down she hadn't changed much. She had negotiated with the Wu family group smoothly throughout, though the things she said about the son-in-law at the very beginning seemed a bit overly exaggerated—all three maids had blushed a little hearing it. Later, the Wu family members suspected her of joking and stalling, and thus stopped bringing up Ning Yi altogether.

"However, after Miss talked to the Wu family about Master, Manager Cao and the others were really frightened, heehee! They still didn't know why the Wu family secretly handed so many things over to us. During the break, this maid heard them whispering: *Ah, is Young Master Ning really that formidable? Just over two months...* This is the happiest time."

The stewards and shopkeepers following behind were not heavyweights within the Su family, but they were middle-ranking figures unassociated with this affair, jointly vetted and selected by Ning Yi and Su Tan'er. This time, even if the Wu family were to honestly lay out their entire assets for the Su family to pick from, the actual workload would be quite cumbersome. Although Chan'er, Juan'er, and Xing'er could lend a hand, relying on them alone naturally wouldn't suffice to sort through so many matters. Over the next few days, they would still need the assistance of this group.

Su Tan'er had not told these people too much when ordering them to come and work with strict instructions for secrecy, so Manager Cao and the others were naturally unclear about the reasons. Yet being in the Su family, they could hardly fail to understand the situation of the past two months. Seeing the dust about to settle and this sudden, dramatic stroke of hand—listening to Su Tan'er's conversation with the Wu family and watching the expressions of bitter resentment on the Wu family's side, as if they had swallowed broken teeth mixed with blood—how could they fail to realize that the Wu family had suffered a crushing defeat under these circumstances, allowing Su Tan'er to stage a comeback?

For a turnaround of such magnitude to be kept secret to this degree, it was said to have been masterminded by Young Master Ning of the household. Over the past two months, heaven knows how much work the couple had done behind the scenes. Originally, seeing that the primary branch was heading for disaster, they had harbored criticisms of Ning Yi; during idle chats, they would mostly shake their heads, feeling an even greater sense of injustice on Su Tan'er's behalf. Only now, amidst the gaps in their work, could they shake their heads in awe at the profound strategic planning the couple had applied to the entire situation.

If, as Su Tan'er had stated, they could swallow as much as they were able to chew, then after this, the entire Wu family would likely never recover.

At this moment, the only ones who knew of this thrilling affair were the mere handful of people in the carriages behind. As they hurried homeward along the way, they happened to encounter Ning Yi. Su Tan'er stopped the carriage to let him board. The shopkeepers in the rear carriages looked at him with entirely altered gazes—a complex, inscrutable mix of lingering doubt, emotional sighs, admiration, and speculation. Su Tan'er also alighted to give them a few parting instructions before the two parties temporarily parted ways.

Returning all the way to the Su residence, Su Tan'er learned that her cousin had arrived today. For this cousin named Su Danhong, Ning Yi was not meeting her for the first time. Understanding the relationship between Su Tan'er and her, he accompanied her all the way over. However, their subsequent meeting could hardly be described as pleasant; Su Danhong held a certain degree of dissatisfaction toward him and treated him with cold politeness. Ning Yi roughly understood the reason. After dinner, he went out for a stroll alone, and as he neared the courtyard gates, Su Tan'er caught up to apologize to him on behalf of her cousin.

"It's nothing. She's just worried about you and under a lot of pressure. I won't take it to heart. Go back and keep her company."

Tan'er pursed her lips and then said, "Let Xiao Chan accompany you." She called Xiao Chan over and told her to walk with Ning Yi outside.

Being confidantes and observing subtle expressions, Su Danhong also vaguely realized that her attitude was largely unjustified—at the very least, it put Su Tan'er in an awkward position. Thus, she offered an apology: "Still... if it weren't for him, you wouldn't have lost the imperial merchant business just like that. You had prepared for so many years; I just feel it's such a pity..."

"Sister Red, you don't understand..."

"You haven't consummated your marriage with him yet, have you?" Since Su Danhong had come over, she would likely sleep in the same room as Su Tan'er tonight. Glancing at the arrangement of her boudoir, she could roughly guess: "Actually... consider it a joke, but if you had married Manager Xi back then, things... might have been different."

Su Tan'er frowned slightly. "Sister Red, please don't make jokes like that in the future."

"Hm?" Su Danhong furrowed her brow, looking at her in confusion. "Just what kind of feelings do you and this husband of yours have?"

"I... I don't know either..." Su Tan'er shook her head, her face flushing slightly.

As for what kind of feelings she held for Ning Yi, she truly couldn't articulate them clearly. Indeed, as Su Danhong pointed out, the two had been married for so long and still hadn't consummated the union. In Su Danhong's eyes, this was undeniably estrangement. If, in Su Tan'er's heart, her husband had remained the bookish pedant she once imagined, then after spending a year and a half, nearly two years together, she probably would have resigned herself to fate and consummated the marriage. As fate would have it, however, it would still take a little longer before she could reach that point.

In terms of favorable impressions alone, had it only reached the level of "resigned to fate," perhaps around the New Year last year it would have been nearly enough. Yet getting along with her husband was, after all, a very strange affair for her. In a later era, something similar would probably be called dating, but in this time and place, what young lady ever had such an opportunity? Caught up in the middle of it, she felt curious and apprehensive, unable to categorize the sensation into any familiar mood. It wasn't until her recent illness that the opportunity arose to voice those words about consummation. Yet subsequent bed rest, followed immediately by dealing with these chaotic affairs and stabilizing the current Wu family, kept her exceedingly busy; she could only wait until all matters were settled to properly arrange this affair.

By now, she regarded the matter with utmost importance and was unwilling to bungle it carelessly as if merely "resigning to fate." At the very least, it needed to carry some symbolic significance, and she didn't want outsiders to know that she and her husband were only now truly sharing a bed, lest people gossip about her husband again. In short, she was quite troubled, though the time was drawing near... That night, sleeping beside her cousin, she tugged at Su Danhong's sleeve and asked in a low voice, "Sister Red, tell me... when a husband and wife live together... how on earth do they... do it..."

Though she was usually imposing in the marketplace, her voice at this moment was as soft as a mosquito's buzzing. To Su Danhong, given her current frame of mind, there seemed to be a hint of desolation to it. "You... why are you asking about this right now..."

"Well... when we got married... I ran away, so I didn't listen to... to Mother and those aunties talk about it..."

After all, this wasn't something she could easily ask Chan'er, Juan'er, or the others.

***

Su Danhong felt a sudden pang of sorrow, remembering what her father and Xi Junyu had said. Her cousin had always possessed a strong will, but this time circumstances were truly stronger than the person. Her cousin was likely planning to cast off this role of a career woman after this, resigning herself to an obedient fate as a homemaker—only for this husband of hers to bear a fair share of the blame for the predicament. Living with him thereafter would probably leave her with a rather heavy heart.

Consequently, over the following days, her perception of Ning Yi showed no improvement. Every time she saw him, she treated him with cold detachment. However, since she was cold to him, Ning Yi was equally cold to her, making it impossible to tell who was winning. Whenever Su Danhong saw Ning Yi walking alongside Tan'er and thought about how Tan'er was about to "resign herself to fate," she felt a lamentation as if fresh flowers had been stuck in cow dung and prime cabbages were about to be plowed by a pig—as though Ning Yi had transformed into a swine, rooting and plowing away at Tan'er the cabbage. Naturally, she had no idea that the big cabbage Tan'er was currently plotting to tie a red silk ribbon around herself to make the process of being plowed more meaningful, and was not nearly as distressed or resigned as imagined.

Only by staying within the Su residence could one truly experience the immense pressure currently bearing down upon the Su family's primary branch. The ancestral assembly was ticking down day by day; the secondary and tertiary branches were happily bustling about with their activities. With everything seemingly predetermined, the primary branch was originally isolated, and now appeared all the more deserted, as if everyone looking their way was broadcasting the message that they would lose power in a few days—a sentiment she herself was forced to agree with. Su Zhongkan, Su Yunfang, Xi Anzhi, Yu Daxian... one after another spoke in high-flown terms as victors...

Under such circumstances, Su Tan'er departed early and returned late every day, her fatigue evident. As for those occasional bursts of sunshine and smiles, they looked rather like the resignation of someone realizing nothing could be reclaimed as the sun set. Su Danhong's heart ached for her. In such a climate, Ning Yi, who spent his entire day looking leisurely and unoccupied, naturally appeared all the more grating. Sometimes, unable to help herself, she would offer a few sarcastic remarks, to which Ning Yi would gaze at her in bafflement without a trace of shame. Once, when Su Danhong sneered at him, he suddenly blurted out: "I was just thinking..."

"What..."

"Why isn't our nephew named Su Catalyst?"

"Huh?" Su Danhong paused for a long while, failing to understand why he brought this up. "My husband's family doesn't even carry the surname Su... Is there something wrong with that name? I think it's quite nice. If you like it, Tan'er's eldest son can be named that..."

For the first time, Ning Yi suffered a direct hit, sighed, and scurried away dejectedly. Su Danhong pondered for a long time without figuring out why.

In truth, Ning Yi had jokingly considered before that since he was the one marrying into the family, he might as well consider naming a daughter Su Danhong and a son Su Catalyst. This time, Su Danhong had simply been too bored, prompting him to offer a casual jab. The sarcasm had been far too casual, and only after saying it did he recall that her husband had not married into her family. Su Danhong had scored a blind hit; having fallen victim to his own self-directed mockery, Ning Yi felt rather depressed for a time.

Five days, four days, three days, two days... Time slipped away amidst the atmosphere of the Su household, inching ever closer to the day of the ancestral assembly. Today was the twenty-fourth day of the tenth lunar month—just one day away from the deadline for the delivery of the Wu family's first batch of brilliant-gold brocade. Awakening at dawn, there was fine morning light, with mist lingering in the milky radiance.

Inside the Su household, the morning atmosphere was extraordinarily unusual.

A feeling akin to rebirth permeated this estate. Turnarounds, hopes, milestones—so many people felt a difference even in the way they pushed open their doors. When Su Yunfang opened his chamber door, he took a deep breath. In the courtyard next to his, a shopkeeper named Yu Daxian gazed eastward. Su Zhongkan had been sitting out in his courtyard since the early hours, watching the drifting mist and the rising dawn. Xi Anzhi walked past the courtyard gate and cupped his hands in greeting. "Second Master, good morning."

Today would witness a battle—a battle they had already won, or rather, this evening, they would officially confirm a matter and reap the harvest.

Outside the Su estate, numerous others were secretly observing the situation. At the Xue residence, several brothers gathered in the morning light. Xue Yan stood beneath the eaves, gazing in this direction, smiled at the others, and patted his younger brother's shoulder.

"I'll host tonight. Let's go eat at the newly opened Yuexiang Pavilion on Shuzi Street." Shuzi Street was not far from where the Su residence stood. "The matter of the Su family will have its result tonight." Similar conversations were taking place among many households operating cloth businesses.

Ning Yi was not within the Su estate. Maintaining his morning exercise routine, he jogged through the mist. By now he had run quite far from the Su manor, having already passed the small building by the river earlier to exchange greetings with the beautiful, tranquil woman at the door. He still had a bit more running to do before turning back to sit a while in the small building.

To him, today held no difference from any other.

"It's going to be very busy today, isn't it?" Not long after stepping into the small building, the woman smiled and poured him a cup of tea. "Liheng's family is holding a grand meeting, you know."

"An ancestral assembly. I'm a matrilocal son-in-law, so I'm not allowed to attend," Ning Yi said shamelessly. "Therefore, it has nothing to do with me."

A bunch of idiots holding a meeting, and he didn't have to attend... How wonderful...