From the start of the eleventh lunar month, cold weather had settled over Jiangning. On the eighth and ninth the snow began to fall, and with flakes like goose down a white coat quietly wrapped the whole ancient city.
The snow was not yet deep enough to keep people from going out, but by the usual pattern, once it had started it would likely keep on until spring came next year, the flakes coming and going over the next two or three months.
For poor households, such weather all but shut them indoors; in some places people did not even have winter clothes, and when the heavy snows sealed the roads, they could only wrap themselves in quilts and huddle on the heated brick bed day after day.
For the great majority of people in this age, winter was no easy season to get through.
A big city like Jiangning fared somewhat better — trade was flourishing, after all, and there were still plenty of households in comfortable circumstances. In the first days of snow the school stayed open; naturally, the few students who lived outside the city walls did not come, which was nothing unusual.
The lecturer had a small brazier of his own; the students could only rely on doors and windows to block a little of the wind. Fortunately they were all at the age of hot blood, so it was not much of a problem. The two girl students each had a pretty hand warmer, hugged against their bosoms.
Their families had already stopped letting them come to the school, but they could not bear to miss the stories Ning Yi told, so they still ran over for lessons.
Old Qin naturally no longer set up his chess stall once the weather turned cold. Ning Yi did call at his house a few times, though of course not too often. Still, for an old man, a visitor who could hold a decent conversation was always a good thing. Once he happened to run into Kang Xian there; the old fellow had brought several old paintings for appraisal, and after Old Qin had examined them, he put his seal on them.
After the heavy snow came down, Ning Yi built a snowman in the courtyard of the Su residence.
At night the whole Su compound was at its most enchanting: looking out from the second floor over the surrounding courtyards and houses, the points of light drifting among them were warm and gorgeous, full of antique charm — plainly eastern in style, yet those pools of light seemed to seep out of a beautiful oil painting.
If he had owned a camera, Ning Yi would have liked to take a few shots from above as a keepsake. But the second floor was windy as well; stand there a while and Xiao Chan would come up to call him in.
On nights like these it was, in the end, more pleasant to sit by the fire in the ground-floor parlor, chat about this and that, play a game of chess, read a book. Su Tan'er and the maids would pick out fabrics and do their embroidery.
Ning Yi's relations with Su Tan'er and her maids were naturally quite good by now. They sat together playing gobang, and Xing'er, who loved gossip, would now and then tell amusing tales from the great households.
Sometimes the little maids would argue over the contents of Ning Yi's stories: who was fiercer when the fox spirit fought the great general; did General Xiahou, who liked eating eyes, have a thick beard; or were those female demons who got killed actually innocent?
The subjects were endless, and every so often they would run over to Ning Yi and make him judge who had won.
Su Tan'er thus gradually came to like gobang too, for its simple rules. Every few days she would go over the account books, sitting to one side working her abacus, and the three maids would sometimes come over to help. When she played chess with Ning Yi, she would also idly tell amusing anecdotes about the various relatives in the great household, casually revealing how they stood with one another.
Now and then relatives would come visiting in the evening. After the snow began, the few students at Ning Yi's school would sometimes come to pay their respects and such — in truth to wheedle stories out of him. Judged purely as storytelling, Su Tan'er enjoyed these too; she would take up her needle and thread, sit to one side embroidering, and listen along to the tale.
Sometimes brothers and cousins came as well. The younger ones called Su Tan'er "Second Sister"; mostly there was something they wanted to do and no money for it, so they came to pour out their woes to her — to wheedle a little silver out of her.
Su Tan'er treated these people well, and they knew that so long as they kept within limits she would mostly give: ask for a hundred strings of cash and sixty or eighty would generally come their way, though they would first have to sit through a round of her exhortations and nagging.
What they got was enough to buy them several nights of decent flower-wine on the Qinhuai River.
The excuses they gave were all about getting ahead, but how things would actually turn out, even Ning Yi — who was not close to these cousins — could see clearly enough.
Su Tan'er was quite patient: whatever excuse the other party offered, she always acted as though she believed it completely, followed the thread with earnest, heartfelt advice, and then reminded them not to throw their money around.
If the visitor was an older cousin she had to call Brother, she set herself very low, playing the well-behaved little sister to perfection, and now and then teased, "So when is that girl from the Spring Breeze Court going to become my sister-in-law...?" She was kindness itself.
After the visitor had gone, she put away the little box of silver notes, still wearing that clear, kind smile, and then would tell Ning Yi amusing stories from that cousin's past — all of them good things, pride and a deep family feeling brimming over as she spoke.
Watching these scenes from the sidelines, Ning Yi found them interesting. Family feeling there might be; he simply also understood now where the saying came from that the Su family's third generation had no one worth using. Su Tan'er's marriage had been put off a few years; at nineteen this year, by common reckoning she was already an old maid.
In Ning Yi's eyes, of course, it was not so at all: his wife, who had already begun to take charge of the eldest branch of the Su family, still had a girl's looks and figure, and there was even a touch of girlish awkwardness in the way she spoke and smiled.
Yet the measure and control in her every action was truly not to be underestimated.
With the two of them able to gather every day, play chess, tell stories and talk over household matters, the atmosphere between Ning Yi and Su Tan'er grew far more natural than when they had only eaten a meal together each day. After that, Su Tan'er suggested that Ning Yi occasionally go out with her, to pay calls on the people it was necessary to visit.
The Su family did a large cloth business, with many lesser merchants hanging on it — partners reliable and unreliable alike. When Su Tan'er went out to other houses to talk business, it was always better to have a man along.
In truth these pre-New Year visits were not strictly necessary, but once the year had turned, the two of them going out together to pay New Year calls at every house would become very important. Her invitation now was really a hope that Ning Yi would grow a little familiar with such matters.
And a few days later she would discover, to her satisfaction, that Ning Yi was at least thoroughly competent at being a decoration.
Ning Yi had little interest in these people's business affairs. When others talked shop, he would put on an act at the side: drink tea, look over the calligraphy and paintings, smile and stare into space.
If someone greeted him and tried to strike up a conversation, he naturally brought out his all-purpose cure-all routine and fobbed them off, presenting no more than the air of a courteous bookworm. In bringing him along, Su Tan'er really only asked that he handle other people's pleasantries naturally and not give offense.
These people all had more or less business ties with the Su residence, and they knew he was a live-in son-in-law, so they would not make things hard for him.
Some had heard of Ning Yi's reputation, of course, and would find someone to discuss poetry with him — casual talk of that sort, no serious examination, and Ning Yi handled it with ease.
Which family, which household they were to visit — usually the day before, or on the road that day, Su Tan'er would tell him the background, chatting and laughing: this one a senior figure who had once looked out for the Su family in business, that one a present partner, another a weathervane that turned whichever way the wind blew.
In this mode of getting along, she and Ning Yi were on excellent terms. Once they were out the door, she would also smile and tell Ning Yi how the visit had gone, crack a few jokes, or let out a small curse or two — "Old fox, won't let slip which way the wind's blowing."
Most of these outings were just such tedious business. There were exceptions, of course, little interludes now and then — for instance the call they paid on the fourteenth of the eleventh month, which left Ning Yi feeling that... he really was bored out of his mind...
"...The He brothers' silk business is doing quite well, actually. The two of them are capable enough; it's just that they've never been ones to settle. After we finished that batch we discussed with them last time, this time, so I hear, they've already come to an agreement with the Xue family. Going over today is just a matter of courtesy..."
In the carriage, Su Tan'er spoke while twirling a small bead chain in her fingers. Ning Yi nodded.
"So I just go through the motions, then?"
"Heh, Husband need only go through the motions a bit." Smiling, she slipped the bead chain onto her wrist and raised her head, then tilted it to one side and reached up to tidy the hair at her temples. "Once that's done, does Husband have other business this afternoon?"
"I was thinking of looking around the bookshops in the east of the city, to find a Tang dynasty text."
"I'll take my leave early today, then, and go with Husband."
"All right."
It was a deal that could not be made in any case; they were calling in the spirit of no deal, but goodwill remains, and as Ning Yi had said, going through the motions would be enough.
Except that if, in the middle of what should have been a smooth and amiable round of motions, a fly kept buzzing around, that would rather spoil the mood. That afternoon it was not only Su Tan'er and Ning Yi who came calling at the He house; there were people from two other merchant families as well.
So the elder of the He brothers, He Jun, a silk merchant whom Su Tan'er addressed as Uncle, received them all together in a side hall beside the garden. Several great braziers had the place warm, and from there one could take in the snowy garden at a glance; the talk had a rather refined air.
Also present, playing host alongside him, was his son He Tingguang.
There were two men at the head of the He family. Apart from He Jun, it was the second brother, He Feng, who truly had the business talent.
Su Tan'er had only come to pay her respects; after the tea had gone on a while, she went with the three maids and the other guests to admire the snow in the garden, and then ran into He Feng coming from that direction — looking over from where he was, Ning Yi could see the group talking over there.
With fewer people left in the side hall, He Tingguang began pestering Ning Yi about his poetic talent.
He probably did not believe Ning Yi had much of it and wanted to test him, but he had little talent himself; Ning Yi fobbed him off with a few words, and the man chattered on and on, dropping hints about his friendship with the great talent Xue Jin and, by the way, reciting a few of Xue Jin's new works for Ning Yi to appraise.
This fellow's an idiot too... Ning Yi was bored. Over there He Tingguang's father, He Jun, probably felt his son was talking nonsense and spoke up to smooth things over, so Ning Yi naturally had to pick up the thread: "From what Tan'er says, the He family's silk business is impressively large. It's mainly around Shouzhou, isn't it?"
He Jun frowned, but He Tingguang was already laughing: "I had best inform Brother Ning of something — our family actually operates mainly around Luzhou and Lake Chao. If Brother Ning ever has the leisure to go traveling, he'd best not go to the wrong place..."
Ning Yi blinked, and only after a moment nodded. "Oh, I see... Luzhou and Shouzhou aren't far apart, so shipping the raw silk over..."
Over there, He Jun's frown deepened, as though at some thought. "Nephew, why do you suddenly bring up Shouzhou?"
"No particular reason — doesn't the Xue family have a batch of workshops in Shouzhou? The ones that Chief Steward Yan is in charge of. I think I heard someone say the other day... mm, so I assumed the He family's business would be in Shouzhou..."
He Tingguang burst out laughing. "Brother doesn't understand these things, so he'd best not speak of them at random. Chief Steward Yan is plainly in charge of Luzhou affairs — every uncle and elder sitting here knows it. If you don't believe it, ask any of them, heh heh..."
At this the people from the other two shops laughed too and vouched for it, and Ning Yi smiled and nodded. "I don't understand these things; I hear a scrap of news now and then and got it wrong, my mistake, my mistake..." They all knew he was a live-in son-in-law and did not find it strange; they only smiled. But over there He Jun said in a low voice, "I wonder where my nephew heard these scraps of news."
Ning Yi looked at his grave expression, and thought about it with some puzzlement, then shook his head vaguely. "I only... overheard people chatting a few times, uh... I don't know the particulars. Ha, Uncle must think me a fool. In matters of business Tan'er understands a little; I don't. I know nothing about the Xue family either — I just mixed up Luzhou and Shouzhou, heh heh..."
He fobbed it off like that, and after that the whole affair turned a little odd. He Jun sat frowning as though he were genuinely turning over something important, and then called a steward over and gave him a few instructions. Ning Yi frowned. I only said it offhand — don't tell me I actually guessed right...
These past days, running about with Su Tan'er, he had no interest in other people's business talk, but in his mind an outline had slowly taken shape — who did what business, how the whole picture operated. Whether or not he deliberately thought about it, these things would lay themselves out before him, clear or blurry, forming a possible outline.
Bringing up Shouzhou now had been nothing but a way to push He Tingguang's topic aside; he had only vaguely sensed, from the idle talk he had heard over the previous days, that the Xue family's business might be shifting — that its center of gravity might move from Luzhou to Shouzhou, and that in the Shouzhou direction there was in fact a silk merchant set in opposition to the He family who might step in...
These things were only a blurry outline to him; he had no certainty of them, only a keen sense of one or two crucial points. But judging by the results, he really had hit on something...
So before long, when they took their leave and went out — when Ning Yi and Su Tan'er had said goodbye to He Jun and were about to climb into the carriage — He Feng came after them from behind, exchanged a look with He Jun, and said gravely, "Niece, pray stay a moment. Regarding next spring's silk, I wonder whether the Su family has settled its plans for the several districts nearby. If my niece has the time today, there is a batch of spring-silk business I would like to discuss with her..."
Su Tan'er turned back, her face full of puzzlement, unable to understand why there had been such a sudden change. With his back to them, Ning Yi rolled his eyes in boredom.
Damn it... me and my big mouth...