As daylight faded, Jiangning City came alive. Painted boats and pleasure vessels lit up one after another, brothels glowing with lantern light along the riverbank. The nightlife here naturally offered more than just visiting pleasure quarters—people could admire the Qinhuai River's evening scenery, sample pastries and snacks, sit in teahouses listening to stories and ballads. But relatively speaking, visiting the entertainment houses remained the most fashionable pursuit.

Neither the tense military situation beyond the city walls nor the recurring floods could dampen the city's extravagant prosperity. The wealthy remained wealthy, and in affluent centers like Jiangning, Yangzhou, and the Eastern Capital, government control was still absolute. Even when the city gates closed in the coming days, most brothels and pleasure quarters would continue operating as usual. In fact, with the gates closed, prices would rise higher, fees would increase accordingly, and wealthy patrons with nowhere else to go would visit even more frequently. This period would actually become the golden season for such entertainment venues.

When they arrived at Smoke and Emerald Tower with Li Pin, Su Wengui, Su Wenxing, and the others, the rest of their party had already gathered. These were mostly friends of the Su family's younger generation, including two minor scholars who wanted to meet Ning Yi and Li Pin. The group included not only Su Wenxing, Su Wengui, and Su Wentian from the Second Branch, but also Su Wenluo and Su Wenji from the Third Branch. Even Su Wending, who usually stayed close to Su Tan'er's side, had come along. Su Zhongkan had essentially invited every young Su family member he could find—after all, he was footing the bill tonight, so he'd brought the whole younger generation out to play.

As Su Tan'er had said, Su Zhongkan wasn't particularly honest and definitely harbored interest in the position of family head. However, that didn't mean he needed to play petty tricks on Ning Yi at this point. Tonight's banquet served as casual entertainment—partly to send off Li Pin in the Su family's name, and partly because he genuinely wanted these youngsters to spend more time with Ning Yi and Li Pin. Su Zhongkan understood clearly that this generation of Su children wasn't particularly talented. If he'd wanted to humiliate Ning Yi, it would only have been like slapping his own face, especially with the socially adept Li Pin present, who would certainly stand on Ning Yi's side.

Smoke and Emerald Tower wasn't as famous as those brothels that regularly produced top courtesans and famous entertainers. Establishments like Golden Wind Tower and Condensing Rain Tower where Qilan performed represented Jiangning's first tier of pleasure houses, while Smoke and Emerald Tower ranked among the best of the second tier. It barely made Jiangning's top ten, and while its services and entertainment were quite comprehensive, it lacked the refined elegance of Golden Wind or Condensing Rain—purely a matter of brand reputation.

For instance, if the Prefect of Jiangning or someone like Imperial Son-in-law Kang Xian hosted guests at Smoke and Emerald Tower, it would be considered embarrassing. However, many wealthy merchants still enjoyed patronizing the place. Scholars visited too, though not in great numbers—many weren't so particular, but it wasn't their first choice of venue.

During their journey here, no one had initiated discussions of poetry or literature. People like Su Wenxing and Su Wending usually enjoyed playing the scholar, but they possessed enough self-awareness now. With both Ning Yi and Li Pin present, even Jiangning's moderately famous talents wouldn't dare make fools of themselves. The incident where Chen Jiwen hadn't dared to write poetry after encountering Ning Yi was still fresh in memory—why bring up topics that would only invite embarrassment? These young men came from all three branches of the family and might have had their daily frictions and arguments, but tonight they shared a common purpose: discussing only business, not poetry.

Using one's strengths to attack another's weaknesses—this aligned well with military strategy. Su Wenxing, Su Wengui, and Su Wenji each managed a shop or similar venture within the family business. Along the way, Su Wenji chatted most comfortably with Ning Yi. This young man styled himself as the Su family's "Little Lord Mengchang.¹" Though his personal abilities fell short, he excelled at managing people and kept a humble demeanor with courteous speech. Ning Yi found him quite interesting—having interpersonal strengths was valuable, though truly capable managers needed the ability to evaluate and control talent, which was likely his weakness.

Such abilities required long-term cultivation and depended on both natural aptitude and education. To use someone with a hundred percent capability, one needed at least sixty percent capability oneself. It wasn't impossible to develop, but Ning Yi naturally saw no need to comment. As he listened to Su Wenji share his insights and amusing business anecdotes along the way, Ning Yi smiled and nodded, indicating he was learning. This made Su Wenji even happier—rare was the chance to display his knowledge before someone like Ning Yi, so he naturally delved deeper into his explanations.

Occasionally Su Wenxing and Su Wengui would interject: "Liheng, you don't understand business matters. Don't listen to his nonsense—he's trying to fool you. That Lake Tai deal? Wenji has no idea where the problem actually was."

"Who says I don't know!"

"You just believe whatever your managers tell you, accepting everything they say..."

"At least I can distinguish what makes sense!"

The two sides inevitably began arguing. In the carriage, Ning Yi and Li Pin found it all quite amusing. After a while, someone from that side turned to Ning Yi: "Why don't you ask Second Sister when you get home tonight, see what she says... hmph."

Though Su Tan'er was a woman and everyone was fighting over the family assets, no one could deny her business acumen. As for Ning Yi, he might be a great scholar, but naturally he understood nothing about commerce. Both Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang had likely explained to these youngsters why they'd brought Ning Yi into the family as a live-in son-in-law—Xi Junyu had actually lost out precisely because of his excessive business talent. This point was beyond dispute.

They continued showing off their business insights throughout the journey. As these young men eagerly displayed their commercial knowledge to impress Ning Yi and Li Pin, the group arrived and met their invited friends at the entrance. Su Wenxing entered Smoke and Emerald Tower first, but soon encountered familiar faces ahead.

When the main group entered the building's entrance, they saw Su Wenxing and Xue Jin from the Xue family already exchanging barbed remarks. Beside Xue Jin stood his older brother Xue Yan, supposedly the Xue family's future head. Various friends and guests had also gathered, seeing the Su family suddenly arrive with over ten people. The brothel's madam and attendants², sensing trouble brewing, quickly came over with honeyed words to smooth things over.

Though pleasure houses often saw heated disputes over jealousy, this remained mere verbal sparring. Everyone had their status to maintain, so it wouldn't escalate into a real quarrel. Both sides found it entertaining, though Xue Jin's expression soured upon seeing Ning Yi. After the "Daoist recited two poems" incident, he'd basically stopped writing poetry, constantly feeling mocked. With both sides creating a commotion, Xue Yan exchanged friendly greetings with Su Wengui and the others while the madam mediated. As Xue Jin and Su Wenxing traded insults while searching for ways to attack Ning Yi, Li Pin greeted someone on the other side.

"Brother Qingdi, you're here too."

"Brother Dexin, what a pleasant meeting."

The man was another scholar whose reputation matched that of Li Pin and Cao Guan. After the greeting, Xue Jin looked up to introduce him: "This is my elder brother's good friend, Liu Yan, courtesy name Qingdi." This prompted a round of "pleased to meet you" from the Su side. Xue Jin stared at Ning Yi, who turned to examine the brothel's layout and decorations.

What had been just verbal sparring between Xue Jin and Su Wenxing now appeared more harmonious with more people present. They exchanged greetings, trading veiled insults beneath honeyed words. Xue Yan smiled: "The specialty of Smoke and Emerald Tower is really sitting comfortably in the main hall. We're watching performances in the main hall tonight—what do you gentlemen think?"

Su Wengui smiled in response: "Brother Xue's discerning eye is known throughout Jiangning. Since Brother Xue is here tonight, we'll naturally sit in the main hall as well... We'll take the second floor."

Generally speaking, the first two floors of a brothel's outer building shared similar construction, basically arranged like a theater surrounding the front stage. Private rooms were available here too for drinking and female company, but the stage performances catered to mainstream tastes. In full public view, naturally no one could make overly forward advances toward their companions. Besides, no one came here just to watch performances. For those truly interested in deeper entertainment and development, they'd need to change rooms. As Ning Yi followed the group upstairs, he turned to ask Li Pin: "What are these guys planning to compete over now?"

Li Pin laughed: "The performances in Smoke and Emerald Tower's outer hall are quite elaborate. Popular courtesans like Lü Xia, for instance, sometimes don't accept advance invitations. When they perform in the outer hall, if they fancy someone, they'll personally step down from the stage to offer them a cup of wine before accompanying them to the inner hall. Ha, to receive a cup of wine in full public view—it's quite the prestigious matter. Merchants, scholars, anyone really, they all enjoy such scenarios of using various means to win the beauty's favor."

Ning Yi nodded: "So to catch their eye, it probably still comes down to spending silver."

"Naturally." Li Pin smiled. "Of course it's not that simple. Being an old flame works too, or Liheng, you could simply write her a fine poem, and she'd naturally come offer you the wine. It's all these sorts of methods—to stand out, one must put in some effort."

"Oh, is Brother Li planning to write a poem to win the beauty later?"

"That's rather difficult. Liu Qingdi's poetic talent doesn't fall short of mine, and looking at Xue Yan's expression, they're clearly regulars here with a sure win. Of course, your brothers probably know this too. Their confidence comes from seeing both of us here. If I alone write a poem and lose, Lü Xia would still come greet us out of courtesy. But if Liheng also writes something, with your titles as the foremost talent and poetic genius, plus your brothers' financial offensive, the outcome would truly be uncertain."

"Oh, so it's very prestigious..."

"Haha, it's all about prestige..."

The two chatted and laughed as they headed toward the second-floor booth with a view of the performances. Li Pin actually found such matters quite interesting—even if Ning Yi didn't write anything, he'd likely compose a poem anyway to meet Liu Qingdi's challenge. Ning Yi glanced back and saw the scholar named Liu Qingdi below seemingly looking up their way, waving in a friendly manner. But Ning Yi's gaze had already moved past him, suddenly drawn to a scene at a room window beside the stage.

The window appeared unremarkable, located to the side of the stage—probably not a room for entertaining guests. Ning Yi noticed it because the mediating madam was just entering, and then... he saw a face revealed there. It was Nie Yunzhu.

The woman had been watching from that room for who knew how long. When Ning Yi's gaze found her, she immediately smiled and waved lightly in his direction. As Ning Yi smiled and waved back, another figure emerged from beside the window. Another woman peered out curiously at Nie Yunzhu's expression, then searched the hall for familiar faces. When she spotted Ning Yi, she blinked, her whole face scrunching up. This was Yuan Jin'er.

Were these two here to sell century eggs...?

While he pondered this, Yuan Jin'er said something that made Nie Yunzhu glare at her with amused exasperation, speaking in defense. Then the two tussled playfully before Yuan Jin'er pushed Nie Yunzhu away from the window. A second later, she leaned back out, stuck her tongue out at Ning Yi in a childish face, as if claiming victory for monopolizing her Sister Yunzhu, then slammed the window shut with a snap.

Ning Yi laughed at the amusing sight...