The atmosphere was lively during the bustling New Year period, and various matters continued until after the Lantern Festival¹. Even with his live-in son-in-law status, these things couldn't be avoided. The various visits Su Tan'er required Ning Yi to accompany her on before New Year were preparation for this period. First branch, second branch, close and distant relatives, partner merchants—visiting between households was unavoidable. For family relatives, Su Tan'er and Ning Yi would go together. For outside visits, they mostly followed Su Boyong. After all, Su Tan'er hadn't officially taken over the Su family's first branch yet. Before New Year they just talked business, but after New Year these symbolic first visits to establish presence still had to be led by Su Boyong.

Before New Year's, Provincial Governor Song Mao left Jiangning after visiting many people back and forth, and due to Song Mao's few words of praise, Ning Yi's status in the Su mansion received more attention. Among the servants, naturally there hadn't been any cases of servants bullying their masters before, but few people had to deal with him and the rest were naturally cold. Now there were quite a few more enthusiastic servants, though this matter was dispensable to Ning Yi anyway.

As for the masters, those Third Young Master, Fourth Young Master, Fifth Young Master, Sixth Young Master types obviously had no good expressions for Ning Yi—they'd only treated him coldly before, but now had to be vigilant, though of course they couldn't do anything either, because Old Master clearly valued Ning Yi more. With that library pavilion exam, Ning Yi's weight had obviously increased too much. The Su family all knew Old Master's obsession—he'd always hoped the Su family could produce some scholars to somewhat shed this merchant identity.

What did it matter how much money merchants had—once something happened, they couldn't protect themselves, just letting those officials knead them flat and round, while scholars were different, as long as they had an imperial degree, no matter how poor they'd always have the ability to speak for themselves. The Wu Dynasty was named for military might and originally founded through military power, but after several major upheavals early in the founding, those above learned their lesson and governed through scholar-officials. Now, just like the Song Dynasty Ning Yi knew, they treated scholar-officials extremely well, emphasizing civil over military.

Since Ning Yi let Old Master see this hope, he was naturally valued even more, and especially during New Year greetings, the conversations between Old Master and Ning Yi were obviously much longer than with others—everyone saw it. Mainly the old man wanted to chat with Ning Yi about reading, the school, and such matters. Ning Yi casually talked about principles of education through entertainment. Old Master didn't understand these—he more easily accepted ideas like "spare the rod, spoil the child" and "strict teachers produce outstanding students." But being accustomed to being the family head had one advantage: he never micromanaged professionals. After listening happily, he'd only say: "If any are disobedient, discipline them however you want."

Then he'd sigh: "Brother Zi'an has a good grandson..." This referred to Ning Yi's grandfather.

Old Master's health wasn't bad now and his spirit was vigorous, and though he didn't control his grandchildren much anymore, appearing kind, peaceful, and harmonious, his grasp of the family was absolutely firm. In today's Su family, no one dared carelessly offend the old man on such matters. After this conversation on New Year's Day, eye-rolling and gossip about Ning Yi naturally wasn't lacking—there was even more. But thoughts of moving against him to cause trouble for Su Tan'er and upset the old master were probably very few.

However, though the school was on break now, occasionally encountering Su Chonghua, he could still sense a trace of vigilance in the other's eyes, which made Ning Yi find it somewhat amusing.

These were just some perceived changes, and for Ning Yi, whether these changes existed or not, he didn't care much. Low-level people couldn't stir up huge waves. Even if those who could only roll their eyes racked their brains to do something, they'd probably only make others roll their eyes too. During the day they mostly ran here and there. Occasionally at homes of merchants with partnerships with the Su family, those who knew something of Ning Yi's reputation would call their studying children to "get close" with Ning Yi. This was also goodwill, though of course the other party had only read some poetry—just small talk.

After spreading one Water Melody Prelude since Mid-Autumn, Ning Yi basically hadn't appeared in Jiangning's mainstream topic circles—now Water Melody Prelude was still sung daily, but discussions about him had basically lost heat. Speaking truthfully, this guy was twenty years old, a Su family live-in son-in-law, teaching at that inconspicuous Yushan Academy, reportedly making some strange blackboard, almost never associating with talented scholars—this hermit-like life was strange, but at most they'd just say he was an eccentric person.

Socially adept talented scholars might become famous quickly, but there were also many homebody-type scholars completely unskilled in such matters. It was just that cases like his of stunning with one poem were relatively rare.

Since that night's conversation, his relationship with Su Tan'er had grown much closer—previously Su Tan'er had treated Ning Yi as a bookworm, always trying to lead the situation. After initially "understanding" Ning Yi, she relaxed much more. Both being "strange people"—this recognition made her very satisfied, mainly because Ning Yi didn't mind her showing her face doing business. Occasionally talking with Ning Yi about some merchants became more casual too. Sometimes mentioning difficult problems, she'd then tell Ning Yi her solutions and ask: "What does Husband think?" Of course, it mostly just satisfied her desire for communication and expression. People who could understand and accept her were ultimately too few. Even if she could occasionally talk with Xiao Chan and the others, that was no different from talking to herself. Being able to discuss business with Ning Yi who had nothing to do with business was naturally a nice relaxation for her.

Ning Yi naturally agreed and teased a few words, or showed some admiring expressions, and Su Tan'er felt satisfied. This desire for expression had nothing to do with ability level—no matter how capable, people occasionally felt stifled, hoping at least someone knew what they were thinking. And this person, preferably completely unrelated. This was the same as the stress-relief method of digging a hole in the countryside, telling your secrets then burying the hole.

Of course, most communication was still completely unrelated idle chat. Going back at night, eating, telling stories, playing gomoku—Su Tan'er who originally felt Ning Yi's stories were somewhat childish now listened purely with a relaxed mood. Occasionally she'd have Ning Yi tell another segment, or proudly show off while playing gomoku. Actually Xiao Chan had the most talent for gomoku and won the most. Ning Yi was the most troublesome—if he got serious, he never rushed to win. As long as the opponent had two pieces together, he'd immediately block them, constantly blocking and blocking until the opponent felt stifled. After filling up most of the board, he'd counterattack when the opponent wasn't paying attention.

This chess-playing style was most unbearable for the three little girls, and in the warm room at night, occasionally Chan'er or Juan'er or Xing'er's protests would ring out: "Young Master is too shameless!" Su Tan'er had the strongest learning ability and also didn't lack patience. She'd purse her lips and tediously block back and forth with Ning Yi, seeing who could outlast whom. Once the two filled the entire Go board and drew. The three little girls whispered on the side, saying Young Master and Young Miss were transformed from monsters. After this situation went on for two days, Ning Yi smiled helplessly: "Why must you and I massacre each other like this..." Su Tan'er, who'd been seriously blocking pieces, finally couldn't help pursing her lips and laughing, then continued blocking Ning Yi's pieces with a smile.

After this the two finally developed some tacit understanding, no longer using this purely patience-testing method when playing each other.

Su Tan'er occasionally asked about what Ning Yi wanted to make. Ning Yi would often gesture: "Look, here we need to use iron sheets to make a cylinder, standing vertically... over here we can pour water to cool it... but it needs to resist strong acid. I still need to increase the concentration of sulfuric acid, um, that's oil of vitriol. The problem is without containers that resist strong acid I can't increase it, and if I can't increase the concentration, I also can't make containers that resist strong acid. This becomes a chicken or egg problem... but making glass really isn't easy either... uh, do you understand?"

Since she asked, Ning Yi didn't care and just spoke casually, while Su Tan'er was also just asking casually but now felt stunned: "Um... Husband... what exactly do you want to make?"

"Oh, something to eat. If you want to think specifically... it's probably like salt. Mm, kelp soup—kelp soup tastes good right? If we boil a hundred jin²of kelp into soup, filter it, evaporate the water, we can probably get a very small amount of something like salt, though the purity isn't high either. But if we put it in dishes the taste would be very good... mm, that's it."

"Uh... kelp soup... using the essence of a hundred jin of kelp to cook... how many dishes could that make?"

"One bowl should be no problem." Ning Yi blinked. "So the consumption is too high. I want to use another method to make it."

"...Oh." Su Tan'er nodded, one hand supporting her tilted face, looking like she had a toothache. If casually making something could equal the essence of a hundred jin of kelp, it sounded impressive, but... kelp soup wasn't that delicious either...

"Husband is a strange person..." In the end, she still honestly expressed her thoughts.

What Ning Yi wanted to make was MSG.

He'd had experience in this area before, at least understanding the modern industrial process for MSG production. But honestly, this process was meaningless. Containers resistant to strong acid, fermentation enzymes, what bacterial cultivation, crystal cultivation, freezing, temperature control... these things were simple a thousand years later. In the Wu Dynasty, pure wishful thinking. Yet besides knowing the most modern production processes, he only knew the history of MSG being refined from kelp soup. The span in between, the initial simple industrial methods, he completely didn't understand. If he wanted to make monosodium glutamate step by step, he'd first have to lead half an industrial revolution.

Of course, sitting and waiting for death wasn't his personality—MSG was something he had to try no matter what. These past few months he'd already drawn out basic process charts, thinking about substitute methods when bored. Before New Year he'd already been walking around Jiangning's various markets, measuring this world's development level, even finding books like "Dream Pool Essays"³to research.

No matter what, as he'd told Su Tan'er, this was indeed a concept of playing around when he had nothing to do. He didn't expect results within a few years, so naturally wouldn't find a team insisting on making something. The appearance of countless derivative products in between could be significant or trivial—doing basic investigation was enough for now. Besides these things, he couldn't find too many interesting goals to pursue in this era.

However, there was one other thing he was interested in, or rather, something he was even more interested in than MSG—learning martial arts.

On the night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month when he went out with Su Tan'er and the others, he saw for the first time the legendary true martial arts masters. Though not as tall as in TV and movies, they were indeed quite tall...

(End of Chapter)