Starting from early eleventh month, cold weather enveloped Jiangning, and on the eighth and ninth days, snow began falling with goose-feather snowflakes that quietly wrapped the entire ancient city in a white coat. Though the accumulated snow wasn't yet thick enough to prevent people from going out, according to past patterns, once it started falling, it might continue until next spring—snowflakes would fall intermittently over two to three months, making it nearly impossible for poor families to leave home. In some places, people didn't even have winter clothes, and when heavy snow sealed the mountains, they could only wrap themselves in quilts and huddle on heated beds all day. For the vast majority of people in this era, winter wasn't an easy time.

A big city like Jiangning was somewhat better since commerce was developed and there were quite a few well-off families. During the first days of snowfall, the academy remained open, though several students living outside the city didn't come—this was normal. The lecturing teachers had small charcoal braziers, while students could only rely on doors and windows to block more wind—fortunately they were all at a vigorous age, so it wasn't a big problem. The two female students each had beautiful hand warmers nestled in their arms—originally their families had forbidden them from coming to the academy, but they couldn't bear to miss Ning Yi's stories, so they still ran over to attend class.

Old Qin's chess stall naturally closed once the weather turned cold, and Ning Yi had visited his home several times, though not too frequently. For the old man, having someone he could talk with visit was naturally a good thing—once he encountered Kang Xian there, the old fellow having brought several ancient paintings for Old Qin to authenticate and stamp his seal.

After the heavy snow fell, Ning Yi built a snowman in the Su family courtyard, and every night the Su estate's scenery was most enchanting—looking out from the second floor, light points moving between various courtyards and buildings were warm and magnificent, classically elegant, and though clearly Eastern in style, those light clusters seemed to seep from beautiful oil paintings. If he had a camera, Ning Yi would have liked to take some overhead shots as souvenirs, but the second floor was also windy—after standing a while, Xiao Chan would come up to call him down, and on such nights, it was ultimately more interesting to sit in the downstairs living room warming by the fire, chatting idly, playing chess, reading books. Su Tan'er and the maids selected fabrics and did embroidery, and Ning Yi's relationship with Su Tan'er and her maids had naturally become quite good. They'd sit together playing Five-in-a-Row, and Xing'er, who loved gossip, would occasionally tell interesting stories from the mansion. Sometimes the young maids would argue about the content of Ning Yi's stories—who would be more fierce if a fox demon fought a great general, whether the eye-eating General Xiahou had a full beard, or whether those killed female demons might be innocent—the topics varied endlessly. Occasionally they'd run over to ask Ning Yi to judge who won, and Su Tan'er thus gradually came to like the simple rules of Five-in-a-Row. Every few days she'd check account books, sitting aside working an abacus, and the three young maids would occasionally go help. When playing chess with Ning Yi, she'd casually mention interesting stories about various relatives in the mansion, simply revealing relationships between them, and occasionally relatives would visit at night. After the snow, several of Ning Yi's students from the academy would occasionally come to pay respects and such—actually wanting to extract stories to hear—and purely in terms of story quality, Su Tan'er also liked hearing these things. She'd take her needlework and sit aside doing embroidery while listening to storytelling, and occasionally some brothers and sisters would come over. The younger ones called Su Tan'er "Second Sister," mostly wanting to do something without money, coming to complain to her and such, trying to swindle some silver—Su Tan'er was good to these people. They knew that as long as they kept within bounds, Su Tan'er would usually give—asking for a hundred strings of cash, they could always get sixty to eighty strings, though they'd have to listen to Su Tan'er's admonishments and nagging. What they got was enough for them to drink decent flower wine on the Qinhuai River for several nights—what these people said were naturally progressive excuses, but what would actually happen, even Ning Yi, who wasn't very familiar with these cousins, could see clearly. Su Tan'er was still very patient—no matter what excuse they found, she always acted as if she completely believed it, following the topic to give sincere suggestions, then admonishing them not to spend money recklessly and such. If they called her elder brother, she kept her posture extremely low, the image of an extremely well-behaved younger sister, and occasionally she'd tease: "When will that girl from Spring Wind Pavilion become my sister-in-law..." Being kind to others to an excessive degree—after people left, she'd put away the small box holding silver notes, still with a beautiful and kind smile, then tell Ning Yi interesting stories about these cousins' past—all good words, pride accompanied by thick familial affection overflowing.

Ning Yi watched these scenes from the side and found them interesting—family affection perhaps existed, but he also understood why people said the Su family's third generation had no useful people. Su Tan'er's marriage had been delayed a few years, and at nineteen this year, she was already considered an old maid. But looking through Ning Yi's eyes, naturally this wasn't so—his wife who had already begun controlling the Su family's first branch actually still had a young girl's appearance and figure. When speaking and smiling she even carried some youthfulness, but the sense of proportion contained in various actions indeed couldn't be underestimated.

Being able to gather together daily, playing chess, telling stories, chatting about domestic matters, the atmosphere between Ning Yi and Su Tan'er became much more natural than when they only ate meals together—subsequently, Su Tan'er proposed that Ning Yi occasionally accompany her when going out to visit necessary contacts.

The Su family's cloth business was large, with many dependent merchants below them and reliable or unreliable business partners, so when Su Tan'er occasionally visited others to discuss business, it was always better to have a man accompanying her. Actually these pre-New Year visits weren't extremely necessary, but once New Year passed, the two going out together to pay New Year visits to every household would become very important—Su Tan'er's invitation now was actually hoping Ning Yi could become somewhat familiar with these matters. Of course, a few days later she could discover with satisfaction that Ning Yi was at least very competent at being a decoration.

Ning Yi had little interest in these people's business dealings—when others chatted about business, he'd pretend to drink tea at the side, look at calligraphy and paintings, smile and daydream, and if someone greeted him and sought conversation, he'd naturally use his jack-of-all-trades skills to deflect, only showing the manner of a polite bookworm. Su Tan'er bringing him actually only required he could naturally handle others' pleasantries without causing disgust. These people all had business connections with the Su family to some degree. Knowing Ning Yi had married in, they wouldn't make things difficult for him. Of course, some had heard of Ning Yi's reputation and found someone to chat with him about poetry. Such casual conversation wasn't serious examination, so Ning Yi naturally handled it easily.

Which family or household to visit—Su Tan'er would often tell Ning Yi the background while chatting and laughing the day before or on the road, some being business seniors who'd looked after the Su family, some current partners, or some fence-sitters who blew with the wind. In this interaction mode, she and Ning Yi got along extremely well. When going out, she'd also smile and tell Ning Yi about the trip's results, making a few jokes or cursing slightly with things like "old fox, won't reveal anything."

Most trips were such boring matters, though occasionally there were exceptional interludes—for instance, the visit on the fourteenth day of the eleventh month made Ning Yi feel... he truly was bored to death...

"...The He brothers' silk business is still quite sizable. These two brothers are capable, just always lacked determination. After finishing that batch of business we discussed before, this time I heard they've already arranged cooperation with the Xue family. Coming today is just fulfilling courtesy..."

In the carriage, Su Tan'er spoke while turning the small prayer beads in her hand. Ning Yi nodded.

"So, just perfunctory politeness then?"

"Hehe, Husband can be perfunctorily polite." She smiled, putting the prayer beads on her wrist and raising her head, then tilting it to arrange the hair at the back of her head with her hand. "After the perfunctory politeness, does Husband have afternoon plans?"

"Planning to browse the bookshop in the east city, looking for a Tang dynasty classic."

"I'll finish early this morning and accompany Husband."

"Alright."

Inherently a business deal that couldn't be made, just visiting once with the idea that even without a deal, friendship remained—as Ning Yi said, being perfunctory would be enough. However, if a fly kept buzzing annoyingly during what should be a peaceful perfunctory process, it was quite mood-killing. Those visiting the He family this afternoon weren't just Su Tan'er and Ning Yi—there were also people from two other merchant families. So He Jun, the elder of the He brothers whom Su Tan'er called Uncle, this silk merchant entertained everyone together in a side hall beside the garden. Several large braziers made the surroundings warm. From here one could see the snowy garden scenery outside at a glance. Speaking in such surroundings, the atmosphere was quite refined. Also accompanying as host was his son, He Tingguang.

The He family had two people in charge—besides He Jun, the second brother He Feng was the one with real business talent, and Su Tan'er had only come to greet them. After the tea gathering went on for a while, she went with the three maids and others to admire snow in the garden. Then they encountered He Feng coming from that direction. Looking from here, several people were talking over there. With fewer people in the side hall, He Tingguang began pestering Ning Yi about his poetic talent. He probably didn't believe Ning Yi had much talent and wanted to test him. Unfortunately he himself didn't have much talent either. After Ning Yi gave perfunctory responses, the other party chattered on and on, hinting at his friendship with the great talent Xue Jin, incidentally reciting some of Xue Jin's new works for Ning Yi to evaluate.

This guy's also a good-for-nothing... Ning Yi felt bored, while over there, He Tingguang's father He Jun probably also felt his son was saying meaningless things and spoke up to smooth things over. Ning Yi naturally had to pick up the conversation: "I heard from Tan'er that the He family's silk business scale is admirable. It's mainly in the Shouzhou area, right?"

He Jun frowned. He Tingguang already laughed: "I should inform Brother that our family actually mainly operates in Luzhou and Chaohu areas. If Brother has leisure to travel someday, don't look in the wrong place..."

Ning Yi was stunned, then after a moment nodded: "Oh, so that's how it is... Luzhou and Shouzhou aren't far apart. Transporting raw silk there..."

Over there He Jun didn't know what he thought of, frowning more deeply: "Why does Nephew suddenly mention Shouzhou?"

"It's not really that. Doesn't the Xue family have workshops in Shouzhou? That Manager Yan in charge, I think I heard someone say last time... mm, so I thought the He family's business would be in Shouzhou..."

He Tingguang laughed loudly: "Brother doesn't understand these things, so don't speak carelessly. Manager Yan is clearly in charge of Luzhou matters. The several uncles sitting here probably all know. If you don't believe it, you can ask them. Hehe..."

When he said this, people from the other two shops also laughed, confirming it, and Ning Yi smiled and nodded: "Don't understand these things. Occasionally hearing fragmentary news, got it wrong, got it wrong..." Everyone knew his live-in son-in-law status and didn't find this strange, just smiling. But over there He Jun said in a deep voice: "I wonder where Nephew heard these fragmentary news."

Ning Yi looked at his serious expression, also somewhat puzzled as he thought, then shook his head blankly: "I just... occasionally hear people chatting. Er... I'm not clear on specifics. Heh, making Uncle laugh. About business matters, Tan'er understands some. I don't understand, nor do I understand much about the Xue family. I mixed up Luzhou and Shouzhou. Hehe..."

After his perfunctory response, the whole matter became somewhat strange—He Jun frowned as if truly thinking about something important, and later he even called over a manager to give some instructions. Ning Yi frowned: Just speaking casually, I didn't really guess right, did I...

These days following Su Tan'er around, though he had no interest in others discussing business, slowly he could always establish an outline in his mind of who did what business, how to operate on the big picture. These matters, whether deliberately thought about or not, could all be placed before him more or less clearly or vaguely with a possible outline. Mentioning Shouzhou now was just casually deflecting He Tingguang's topic. He just vaguely felt from previous days' idle chat that the Xue family's business might change, Luzhou's focus might shift to Shouzhou, and in the Shouzhou direction there was actually a silk merchant opposing the He family who might intervene... These matters were only vague outlines for him without certainty. He could just keenly sense a key point within. But judging by results, he'd truly hit upon something...

So when they said farewell and left not long after, as Ning Yi and Su Tan'er bid He Jun farewell preparing to board the carriage, He Feng chased out from behind, exchanging a serious look with He Jun: "Niece, please wait—regarding next spring's silk, I wonder if the Su family has decided on plans for nearby areas. If Niece has time today, there's a batch of spring silkworm business I'd like to discuss with Niece..."

Su Tan'er turned back with a puzzled face, not understanding why there was suddenly such a change, while with his back to them, Ning Yi rolled his eyes in boredom.

"Damn it... loose tongue..."

(End of Chapter)