Okay, here's the translation of the provided Chinese text into English, following all the given instructions:

The sun shone warmly. Xi Junyu walked along the veranda under the eaves, paused briefly, then entered a room and nodded to the two men inside.

"Shopkeeper Chen, what's Rongji's reaction?"

The man Xi Junyu addressed as Shopkeeper Chen was named Chen Youhe. Hearing Xi Junyu's question, he shook his head. "Rongli is still insisting on raising prices. They plan to increase it to four taels and two qian."

"That's robbery." Xi Junyu frowned, but since similar bad news had become commonplace recently, he didn't show much agitation. He just sat down at the table with a dark expression. "Lüji can negotiate to four taels."

"We've already talked to them, but Rongli says that the Old Master no longer handles matters. Once the Second Miss comes down, the Su family will undergo a major upheaval, making it difficult to recover. They're waiting to lose money, so they must have that price."

"The Second Miss won't come down!" Xi Junyu paused. "Su Yu isn't so short-sighted. Even if he has to tough it out, he'll help the First Branch hold on. With the Second Miss's abilities, she'll rise again sooner or later!"

His words were decisive, but the room fell silent. Everyone knew the situation was dire. The Second and Third Branches were desperately trying to tear down the First Branch. Even Su Yu seemed to be losing strength, and the Old Master couldn't suppress all the gossip. The First Branch of the Su family's reputation had been affected in Jiangning recently. The main issue was that some suppliers or distributors were demanding higher prices or increased profits. Most were still dragging their feet, with the Su family refusing to budge, asking them to wait, but the hidden impact had probably already dragged down the First Branch's total profit by twenty percent. The most frightening thing was the future development.

"Damn it…one wrong step leads to another…"

Xi Junyu cursed under his breath, then shook his head with a dark expression and began to deal with some matters on the table, such as incoming and outgoing invoices. The two shopkeepers next to him also looked grim. Chen Youhe shook his head. "If it weren't for the negligence during the Imperial Merchant period…"

The men in the room didn't continue the thought, but they all knew what it referred to. Recently, a saying had begun to circulate within the Su family, mainly after a self-examination of the Ming Yellow Cloth Workshop during the Imperial Merchant period.

For example, many things the shopkeepers could handle themselves, but many things required a person to control the overall situation. The small workshop responsible for researching the new cloth was originally personally managed by Su Tan'er, and there were no problems, but after Su Tan'er fell ill, negligence appeared on certain levels. Now, from the perspective of these experienced shopkeepers of the Su family, if Ning Yi hadn't been so excited and so decisive in the operation of the Ming Yellow Cloth during that period, many minor details wouldn't have gone wrong.

If Su Tan'er had personally managed the situation during that period, when they chose an aggressive direction in their promotional strategies, she would definitely have made some fine-tuning to the confidentiality measures of the small workshop to adapt to this direction. However, after Ning Yi took charge, he didn't understand these small details. The workshop's policies remained unchanged. Shopkeeper Zhou and Shopkeeper Bai had to work hard to maintain secrecy while cooperating with the high-profile publicity above, inevitably revealing many traces, thus allowing the Wu family to exploit these most fundamental strategic loopholes.

This matter made everyone feel particularly aggrieved. They had done everything well, but in the end, they still lost to that blockhead. Experience, all the problems lay in experience. At that time, no matter which shopkeeper took control of the overall situation, such problems would probably not have occurred.

It was a pity that the scholar even wrote something indignant like "White-haired, we know each other, yet still I grip my sword," embarrassing...

In the past, everyone had ignored Ning Yi to some extent, thinking that if they won, it would have nothing to do with him, and if they lost, there was nothing they could do. But this statement had only become clear in the past half a month. Because of this, recent discussions about Ning Yi within the Su family had become intense. Shopkeeper Xi had always been kind, saying the situation was excusable, but now he finally felt depressed – in the eyes of Shopkeeper Chen and others, Xi Junyu's slight loss of composure at this time was due to this.

The room was quiet for a while, with the rustling sounds of processing business. In the silence, Xi Junyu looked to the side, his previously angry gaze already calmed down.

He was probably prepared enough. The clan conference would begin within half a month. When Tan'er was dismissed from her position, it would be best to allow such opinions to reach their peak. If the Second and Third Branches accused her like that, it might trigger her animosity, but if it was always the people around her saying so, she would inevitably blame them in her dejected state. Human hearts and human nature were just like that.

After the Imperial Merchant event, the Su family was in an uproar, with various kinds of chaos and words. No one knew that all these comments about Ning Yi were driven and guided by him behind the scenes. There was no need to ask someone to publicize them; just mentioning a few words that were enough to make people think in certain conversations would be enough to make them think and deduce. On the other hand, increase everyone's feeling of "losing despite doing nothing wrong," increase that sense of grievance and suffocation…From beginning to end, he had been observing from the outside as a rational person, even helping Ning Yi say a few words. Of course, these words ultimately only had the opposite effect.

Everything was laid out very well; he was good at this. The more ideal situation would have been for Ning Yi to finally lose his temper and do something out of line at home several times, but unfortunately, that scholar was indeed very tolerant. Faced with various provocations, he knew that arguing was useless, so he said nothing and pretended to be relaxed. But it didn't matter. Now he had begun to hint to the people in the family: this guy doesn't feel guilty at all.

Casually thinking about these things, suddenly, Wu Qilong's face flashed through his mind. He frowned.

"Shopkeeper Chen, what's been going on with the Wu family recently? I seem to have heard that there are some problems."

"Not very clear. I heard that a manager was so busy that he fell ill, Qin Ye, I dealt with him once two years ago." Chen Youhe looked up. "Some people are discussing whether the Wu family is going to have this or that happen. It is estimated that the Xue family is releasing these words from behind. The Imperial Merchant is about to deliver goods, and the Wu family will be busy with the tribute cloth for a while. The Xue family is probably trying to take advantage."

"Oh."

The Su family definitely didn't like the Wu family now, but as a defeated opponent who had just been tricked by them, they definitely didn't like to hear about the Wu family's gossip all day long. Chen Youhe spoke casually, and Xi Junyu nodded, then thought, what could happen to the Wu family... Never mind it. The things that the Wu family was going to have were no longer on the same level as the Su family. They would go further and further away. Let them do whatever they wanted. Now, he would just finish his own business.

In short, everything was going smoothly.

He glanced at the afternoon sunlight in the courtyard outside the window. The atmosphere was peaceful, but there was a faint sense of dead silence. The Su family clan conference was less than half a month away, and everything would be settled. Those of the First Branch were somewhat dejected, doing their best, their fate unknown. Perhaps only he could clearly know where he was and what he was doing. Only he was a person with a destination.

So he smiled, as relaxed as the sunlight.

******************

In a quiet room in the afternoon, the closed doors and windows made it somewhat dim. The room was filled with the smell of medicine. At this time, in front of the tightly covered bed, a woman with an elegant appearance was holding a bowl of porridge, blowing on the spoon, and then sending it to the patient's mouth.

"...clan conference...I heard that Seventh Grandfather has also decided to let me step down. Second Uncle finally persuaded him...Third Uncle is busy poaching people, saying these days that it's a pity that Shopkeeper Liao has been sent out...Rongji wants to raise prices, so does Lüji, so troublesome, they will have to run back and forth in a while..."

Spoon by spoon, she fed the patient porridge, slowly talking about the family affairs. The woman by the bed actually looked a little tired, but there was a faint smile on her lips. In her weariness, there was also a hint of irony. She reached out to smooth her hair and tilted her head to look at her father in bed. In fact, she also felt a bit bitter in her heart. She had originally come to visit him, not wanting to talk about these烦心事, but when she thought about it, the only communication between father and daughter, besides those purely perfunctory words, seemed to be these things.

It had been two and a half months since Su Boyong's assassination. During this time, Su Boyong had been confirmed to be paralyzed. He had lost sensation in both legs, and the movement of his left hand was also affected. Now he was still weak, changing medicine every day, unable to get out of bed. His spirits also seemed to have been affected, and he was often in a bad mood. Su Tan'er came every day, but what father and daughter talked about was mostly this. Many times, when her mother and concubines were there, they just exchanged a few routine greetings. At this time, Su Tan'er was silent for a moment.

"Today on the street, I saw many people selling mandarin oranges, Daddy used to…like to eat them…Uh, there's no wind today, Daddy, do you want to open the window a little…My husband said it would be better to open it a little, uh…what air convection…and then the sunshine comes in, and your mood will be better…"

The only heartfelt words she could find were these. When she spoke of Ning Yi, she smiled more happily. Su Boyong nodded over there, then shook his head again. "It's still…don't open it, it's cold…I feel cold…Also, Tan'er, what has Liheng been doing lately?"

Su Tan'er smiled slightly. "Isn't my husband coming to see you every day? Recently, he's just teaching those children, going out for walks and playing every day…" Su Tan'er's smile had actually faded, and she spoke lightly about Ning Yi's recent activities. In fact, she understood why her father was asking these things. Before, on this sickbed, her father had sighed several times: "I can't see through him." In fact, he was also reminding her.

These things could not be explained clearly. How capable her husband was and what he could do, Su Tan'er was also curious in her heart, but her father's thoughts were different from her own. After chatting for a few more words, she called out towards the door, asking her father's maid, Xiuhe, to come in and hand her the porridge bowl, and then she also began to get up to leave.

She had a lot of things to do every day for the past one and a half months. It was not easy to stabilize the current situation, and she had put in a lot of effort, but at this time, she was no longer as clueless as before the Imperial Merchant event. When she started doing things, she actually felt at ease and had good spirits, only physically busy. After going out, Juan'er, who was following, also came forward, and it could be seen that the young lady's mood was not very good.

She had to go somewhere else in the afternoon, and there were things to do. The mistress and servant left the yard, but they heard some hurried voices from the yard next door.

"It's already like this, what are you still thinking about…"

"It's not that simple, sister…"

"I've already heard about it, but this First Branch doesn't belong to her alone. Everyone is accompanying her in whatever she does. It's already like this now…The First Branch belongs to Boyong. You have to help Boyong guard this share…"

"I know…"

"If it wasn't for that Ning Yi who didn't understand anything and interfered…"

These were the vague conversations. When two figures appeared at the door over there, they were also stunned. Su Tan'er performed a dignified salute: "Second Mistress, Uncle Gu…"

"Uh, Tan'er, you came…to see the Master…"

"Second Miss."

The speakers were the Second Mistress of the family and her younger brother, who was also one of the managers in the First Branch. After awkwardly exchanging greetings, the two sides also parted ways. After walking to a place where there was no one, Juan'er pursed her lips: "Miss, the Second Mistress and Shopkeeper Gu are discussing surrendering…"

"I know." Su Tan'er smiled slightly. "It's not just them…"

Recently, the First Branch had experienced so many things, and there were actually many differences within. Some people felt that the First Branch would definitely not get the position of family head, so don't争多争少, keep some of the benefits that originally belonged to them. Even if Su Zhongkan or Su Yunfang was in charge of this family in the future, they would not be driven out. The more they could leave behind, the better everyone's future would be. The two concubines, and even her own mother, seemed to hold this attitude. Of course, if Su Tan'er really wanted to talk openly, they would mostly say "absolutely not true," "we women don't care about business matters."

In another direction, they were actually doing it for the good of the First Branch, for Su Boyong, and for themselves, only a little short-sighted and disheartening. At this time, they were using the minds of women only used for household competition to consider these matters.

"Juan'er, it's a good thing you weren't born in a wealthy family…"

"Huh?" Juan'er blinked her eyes.

"There's no human touch in this family."

Su Tan'er smiled slightly. Juan'er pursed her lips. As a maid, she didn't have a comment on this. The two stopped on a small bridge near the pond in the garden. Su Tan'er looked at the reflection in the water, tidied her hair, and murmured, "Actually, I don't have much human touch either…"

"No, Miss and the Young Master-in-Law are both very good."

"I can't get close to Daddy either…I just wronged my husband, uh, he's been outside during the day lately, hasn't he?"

"Yes, some people at home say very harsh things. The Young Master-in-Law is too lazy to argue with them, but he definitely doesn't like to listen…Last time, Chan'er was so angry that she cried."

Su Tan'er frowned, a fierce look flashed in her eyes. After a long while, she took a deep breath and smiled at Juan'er. "Have you written down all the names?"

"Uh…" Juan'er hesitated slightly, then lowered her head. "How did you know, Miss?"

"Because I'm her older sister."

Su Tan'er said it for granted. Juan'er was a little embarrassed, lowering her head and smiling awkwardly. "I, Chan'er and I wrote them all down. Last time…last time we secretly wrote the names at home with Chan'er, and the Young Master-in-Law saw it."

"Oh? What did your husband say?"

"He said we were petty."

"Heh." Su Tan'er burst out laughing, then restrained her laughter. "Remember to show it to me, don't tell my husband."

"Yes." Juan'er nodded. Since she had received this pardon, she then put on a straight face and began to complain: "Miss, in fact, these days, they have been saying more and more excessive things, some even told the Young Master-in-Law to leave the Su family himself…How long will it take us to solve this matter…In fact, the Young Master-in-Law is the most wronged. Sometimes, Juan'er can't stand it anymore…"

"Her husband…"

Su Tan'er paused, recalling the events of the past two months, especially after the Imperial Merchant's annual meeting. Her own busyness was actually secondary. Ning Yi's calmness in the face of everyone's scolding and accusations. It wasn't just that Juan'er, Chan'er, and Xing'er couldn't stand it, she herself wanted to stand up and curse people every time. There were even a few times when Ning Yi patted her on the shoulder and asked her to go back. Only she could clearly feel the power behind each of these events, the stability and firmness hidden behind that casual figure. And every time something like this happened, she also felt that she was a little sorry for her husband. At the beginning of their marriage, she thought these were all things she had to shoulder, and she had also worked hard to do it, but in the end, it was that figure who stood out and easily blocked these things.

"It won't be long, the news has already begun to be released. If the Wu family's response is normal, almost…" She looked at the surrounding scenery. "It should be possible to start the showdown in these few days…"

After saying this sentence, she seemed to feel a little relieved in her heart: "What a long two and a half months…" She sighed to herself. "After things are over, after things are over…"

Something came to mind, and a flush suddenly flashed across her face. She lowered her head and looked at the reflection in the water, then subconsciously raised her hand to comb her hair, turning her face to look at herself in the water. Sure enough, she had to wait until after it was over. She was really haggard now, and she wasn't worthy of him like this…

She smiled in the water, and the woman let go of her hair and moved forward.

"Let's go, prepare for the showdown."

In the afternoon sunlight, the woman's洒脱 and confident steps were reflected, and the little maid happily followed behind. This day was the fourteenth day of the tenth lunar month in the eighth year of Jinghan. Although it had been decided to start the showdown, after going through some procedures, there would naturally be a few days of waiting time. But in fact, it was on this afternoon that some things had already happened. This matter seemed quite natural, but if you thought about it later, it might make people feel a little abrupt.

This afternoon, in a teahouse, Ning Yi may have been inspired, and casually finished a line for a small matter. Of course, in his opinion, this small matter may be unimaginably big to others.

The day before, Ning Yi had met Wu Qilong on the street once. That matter looked like an accidental encounter, and the two also greeted each other casually. In the past month and a half, this may not have been the first time they had met, but it was indeed the first time they had greeted each other. Wu Qilong was talking to a cloth merchant about something at the time. Seeing Ning Yi, he cupped his fist from afar: "Brother Ning, how have you been lately?" Ning Yi also cupped his fist in return: "Fine." Then they parted ways. At the time, Ning Yi was too lazy to take this matter to heart.

Then, today, after finishing class, he ran to the East Market to buy a used book. This was probably a book brought in by a Hu merchant from the Western Arab region, with many graphics on it, probably involving alchemy or something. Ning Yi also bought it casually, deciding to find someone to translate it later. After buying the book, he went to the teahouse to drink tea, and also asked the waiter to bring paper and pen. He looked at those graphics, guessing what the book was about – this kind of guess was also a way to recall past knowledge. While he was immersed in writing and drawing, a figure walked to his side.

"Brother Ning, what a coincidence, what is this?"

Ning Yi looked up and saw that it was indeed a coincidence, it was Wu Qilong. He nodded and greeted him. Then, Wu Qilong sat down on the other side of the tea table, so Ning Yi casually introduced it.

"It should be from the Arab region, this is Persian, a little north, I can't understand it, but the graphics look like they involve the chemical reactions of several metals…Do you understand chemistry? Uh, similar to alchemy…"

"Brother Ning is really widely knowledgeable. Uh…the chemical reactions of metals?"

"The purification and transformation of metals, etc."

"Oh?" Wu Qilong's expression became solemn. "Then…isn't it very useful?"

"So-so. The things said on this, blacksmiths and the like here should have already mastered, it's just that a stone from another mountain can attack jade. Their way of thinking is different, and can be used for reference." Ning Yi said here, raised his head and looked at Wu Qilong. "Brother Wu is waiting for someone?"

"Heh, nothing, just wandering around casually, and saw Brother Ning here, a little curious."

Ning Yi nodded, his eyes did not move away. Wu Qilong smiled, the two looked at each other like this for a while. After a moment, Ning Yi narrowed his eyes, nodded again, and waved to the waiter: "Add a cup."

He lowered his head again and began to draw one of the graphics from the book onto paper, frowning and thinking. After the cup came, he didn't look at Wu Qilong, just reached out: "Brother Wu, please help yourself."

"Thanks." Wu Qilong smiled and poured tea for himself. Ning Yi was still dealing with those graphics with his head down, sighing softly, as if he had heard some other answers that Wu Qilong had just said, so he muttered to himself with some realization: "Oh, the cloth is starting to fade…"

Wu Qilong's smile instantly froze there, and his hand also shook a little, but in the end, he still held the teapot steadily and put it back gently. Tilting his head, he stared at Ning Yi seriously and a little fiercely, his face twitching slightly. Some things surged from the bottom of his heart, that was the feeling of a nightmare finally turning into reality, and there was also a bit of astonishment. In his imagination, these conversations should not have been like this, and Ning Yi should not have said these things so lightly.

But in front of his eyes, everything was presented like this. Ning Yi was still writing and drawing with his head down. It seemed that to him, all of this was as common as the dim sum and tea in front of him on this early winter day. He just said this sentence with an attitude of chatting with someone: Oh, the cloth is starting to fade, no wonder you want to sit over.

A very ordinary thing.

"Sure enough…you did it…"

Wu Qilong had to put in a lot of effort to restrain his tone from being gnashing or trembling.

In the early winter sunshine, Ning Yi put down his brush, raised his head, and glanced at him…

*************

Six thousand words ^_^ (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log in, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)