“Teacher Yi, Brother Yi.”

“Xiao Qi.”

Walking into the courtyard where Su Yu lived, the little girl greeted him somewhat timidly. Ning Yi patted her head, and she smiled: "Grandpa is inside."

In the turmoil of the past few days, Xiao Qi was lucky enough to escape, but her face was also lightly cut. Now there is a small scar on her face. For ordinary women, this may be equivalent to being disfigured, but she is still young, so we can only see if she can gradually remove the scar as she grows older. Ning Yi chatted with her for a few words. When he walked into the small courtyard inside, Su Yu was talking to several children of the Su family in the pavilion. Seeing Ning Yi coming, he asked the children to leave with Xiao Qi to play aside.

In early April, the Liangshan bandits' robbery of prisoners in Jiangning spread far and wide, shocking the entire Jianghu. Relatively speaking, the Su family's extermination played only a small ripple in this incident. Afterwards, the official separation of the Su family's third branch was even more of an aftershock of this ripple, and it was difficult to attract everyone's attention.

From the perspective of the world, this is the case. In fact, if only in Jiangning, there are still many people who are truly concerned about this matter, including large and small cloth shops headed by the Xue and Wu families, merchants such as the Puyang family who once paid attention to the Wu family, or some family affiliates in the Hangzhou area who have received Ning Yi's favor. Since the Su family experienced this incident, they have either come forward to visit or silently paid attention, and most of them have expressed their positions. Among them, some believe that Ning Yi is a Son-in-Law after all and should not make things difficult for his family, and others say that they will stand behind Ning Yi and support him no matter what. There are various opinions, but in the end, the Su family completely separated.

Su Yu played a leading role in this, while Ning Yi participated in almost the entire process. This time, the Su family's separation was different from the previous few times when everyone clamored for it. Judging from the attitudes expressed by both sides, once separated, although the first branch still retained the name of the Su family, it was actually completely separated from the second and third branches. The old master completely cut off several properties with an almost decisive attitude. Because he already knew Ning Yi's plan to go north, the properties to be distributed to the first branch were almost all north of the Yangtze River. The Su family did not have many properties there, which seemed to favor one over the other. In fact, it was equivalent to letting Su Tan'er and Ning Yi start from scratch again, but from then on, the first branch had no obligation to help the second and third branches at any time. It was to let Ning Yi and others completely get rid of the shackles of the second and third branches and travel lightly.

Ning Yi and Su Tan'er did not care much about how much family property they could get. At this time, the other members of the Su family felt the horror of it. Even though they had always complained about Su Tan'er and Ning Yi, after a series of changes, anyone with a little bit of thinking ability understood the weight of this couple. Once they were gone, the second and third branches could only maintain the status quo, and perhaps even their ability to maintain the status quo would be insufficient.

When they realized this, the other elders of the Su family were the first to object. They still wanted to tie Ning Yi and Su Tan'er to the Su family. No matter how the Su family fought internally, as long as they were there, things would not be too bad. Then some of the side branches of the second and third branches also began to speak out, saying that even if the family was divided, they were still a family. Only Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang, the core of the second and third branches who survived this great chaos, could only watch with pursed lips at this time. The attitude of Ning Yi and Su Tan'er, who completely ignored them and even treated them as a burden and would rather give them most of the family property to get rid of them, hurt their self-esteem.

Ning Yi only came every day on behalf of Su Tan'er to sit and not express much opinion, but everyone had already seen him confronting the Liangshan people in the square that day. Who would dare to talk nonsense in front of him? These days, they quickly discussed the initial matters, and the follow-up matters may still take one or two months. However, since Ning Yi and Su Tan'er didn't care about the things they received, they didn't need to care too much.

"I heard that after the matter is roughly settled, Liheng is going to the capital, right?"

This time, the Su family suffered a great change, with more than half of the Su family's deaths and injuries. After the incident, they began to deal with the separation of the family. In a few days, the old man seemed to be ten years older. His hair was gray, and he looked very different from the old man who was still energetic before. At this time, he poured a cup of tea for Ning Yi and signaled him to sit down next to him.

"Not yet decided. There are many things to do, and... Tan'er is still recovering. I guess I'll go to the capital first."

Ning Yi thought for a while and said so. If the separation of the family is completed, and the business under Tan'er's command has to be transferred to the north, it may be the best step for him to go to the capital first, visit Qin Si Yuan, and officially enter the Secret Investigation Department. Su Yu nodded: "I also think it's a good thing for you to go to the capital first, but you don't need to worry too much about Tan'er. She can do it herself... But this is a matter between you two, so I can't say too much."

Su Yu sighed, stood up from there, looked around, and looked at the Su family children playing there.

"Originally, with my personality, I hoped that the Su family could be complete and continue to be good. But this time also made me see some things clearly. Liheng, you are a person who does great things, so I won't let them tie you down. Zhongkan and Yun

Fang's family disciples are not up to par, so let them ruin the family fortune if they want to. Although we are separating now, in name, we are still a family after all. Come back once a year during the ancestral rituals. In the future, you and Tan'er will achieve great things. If they don't do too much, I just hope you can take care of them a little bit so that they don't end up on the streets."

Ning Yi nodded. Su Yu pointed to the children playing and smiled: "They survived a great disaster. If one or two of them can become successful, I can die in peace. Also, I won't care about you and Tan'er anymore. As long as you live well, whether you are good, or the children are good, whether they are surnamed Su or Ning, you can consider it yourself. But I hope that you and Tan'er can have a child surnamed Su. That's enough."

The two then chatted in the pavilion for a while, about trivial matters. Su Yu talked about his past interactions with Ning Yi's ancestors, about his business when he was young, and about various things after he took charge of the Su family. Several times of business battles, the treachery of people's hearts, were as difficult as Ning Yi's breaking the imperial merchant's situation. Later, after the death of his old wife, he tried to bring the Su family onto the right track and obtain some social status. He devoted everything to the Su family in this life, blocked the wind and waves, accumulated such a large family fortune, and also allowed the Su family to grow and take root in the big city of Jiangning. He also ran a school and a charity hall, trying to bring the Su family to a higher level, but in the end, all of this was in vain, and he must have had deep regrets in his heart.

"I can probably guard this family for a few more years, and I just hope that they can really grow up a few years later, that would be good..."

When he was about to leave, Ning Yi saw the white-haired old man sitting in the pavilion, murmuring this sentence. This is an area that he cannot set foot in for the time being. The summer solstice is near, and the flowers in the courtyard have fallen, swirling in the warm wind. Ning Yi looked at Xiao Qi and the others playing. Xiao Qi came over and asked: "Teacher Yi, Brother Yi, are you leaving?" She is Su Yunfang's biological daughter. Although she has always admired Ning Yi, in this family, at least at this time, she can't say too much. Even during the time when Ning Yi was injured, she couldn't visit him. Ning Yi gently touched the scar on her face that had just shed its scab and smiled: "Take good care of Grandpa."

Xiao Qi nodded vigorously.

Walking out of this courtyard, Juan'er was waiting for him outside. The two walked all the way towards the small courtyard where they originally lived. Passing through several roads, the courtyard remained the same, and not many of the things that were originally here had been moved away. There was a light sound of wind chimes under the eaves, as if waiting for the return of the owner.

This is the courtyard where Su Tan'er has lived since she was a child, or it also carries her childhood memories, joys, sorrows, and joys. She made the decision to elope here when she was about to get married. Later, she chatted with Ning Yi here every night. In order to consummate the marriage with Ning Yi, she burned down the small building opposite. The original plan to rebuild was temporarily put on hold due to the trip to Hangzhou. Now it is just the foundation. Su Tan'er fell ill here, and Ning Yi set up the imperial merchant's plan here. They released Kongming lanterns here, and Tan'er gave birth to a child here. Ning Yi gradually felt that this place was actually not bad from just the idea of staying here temporarily. The place that should have been full of the past and dreams will probably only be memories in the future.

"I'm going to kill Xi Junyu, maybe soon."

Ning Yi looked at the things in the yard and said a sentence. Juan'er looked at him from the side without responding. It wasn't until Ning Yi looked over with an inquiring look that she said "Ah?" in a sentence, wondering why Ning Yi looked at her with this kind of look.

"I just want to ask, although that sentence was what I told you when I was joking before, but... Juan'er, did you really like him before? If it's true..."

"Of, of course not." Juan'er's face turned red immediately, and then her cheeks puffed up, "How could I like him? That kind of person is arrogant and aloof. I won't like him. You don't know, young master, we knew him before he was a shopkeeper. He had a lot of bad habits. His temperament was not good to begin with. He always had a straight face and often went to brothels..."

Juan'er rattled off a lot, and then felt that she had said too much, and lowered her head with a red face. Ning Yi laughed heartily. After a while, Juan'er raised her head curiously and asked: "Young master, could it be... if I really liked that Xi Junyu, you wouldn't kill him?"

"How is that possible." Ning Yi patted her on the shoulder, "I'll enlighten you more."

This day, in addition to chatting with Su Yu about the separation of the family, Juan'er also brought people to prepare to move some things away from here. Ning Yi's injury had basically begun to heal, and he took a sedan chair back. As soon as he left the side door of the Su family, a small stone flew over with a swoosh and hit the curtain of the sedan chair, hitting Ning Yi on the head. The stone was not big, and when Ning Yi covered his forehead and opened the curtain, Yuan Jin'er looked over there in a daze, probably not expecting that she would throw it so accurately. Then she looked left and right and walked away nonchalantly.

The people carrying the sedan chair wanted to go over and grab her, but Ning Yi waved his hand and said "Forget it."

This day, he went home with a new injury on top of the old one, and a bump appeared on his head.