Qin Huai River, on a small, dimly lit painted boat with some lanterns extinguished, Xi Junyu looked around. Wu Qilong smiled and took out a rice pot from the side, so he went over to scoop rice and then sat down at the nearby table, pouring a plate of vegetables into his bowl.

"It's always like this after the excitement, the table full of food is all askew, just don't know who's really full." In the flickering lamplight, Wu Qilong picked up a handful of greens and threw them into his mouth, crunching.

"At least we won't starve." Xi Junyu replied faintly.

"I feel hungry every time... Once I really envied that Ning Liheng. Not long ago, everyone was eating, and we invited him, Shopkeeper Liao, Shopkeeper Luo..." Wu Qilong thought for a moment, "He was eating the whole time, he was really eating."

"Irrelevant people can naturally eat their fill."

"True enough."

After the brief exchange, the two sat there eating. Although it looked like leftovers, they were indeed meticulously prepared by famous chefs, and the taste was still quite good. The sound of chewing echoed in the cabin, the water gently rocking the boat. After a good while, Wu Qilong put down his chopsticks, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the night after the day after tomorrow, all the cards will be on the table. At this time, no news is good news, Brother Xi, there shouldn't be any changes, right?"

"No." Xi Junyu shook his head. "Chen Er confessed that the assassination was instigated by someone. The crisis in front of us has been resolved. With no obstacles to becoming the Imperial Merchant, everyone is very happy. Although not to the point of being completely blinded, at least everyone can see clearly that by securing the Imperial Merchant position, all of the main house's problems will be easily solved. From now on, there is no turning back. Right now... they've burnt their boats, there's no turning back, they can only go with the current momentum. If there were to be any changes, it's not possible."

"That is good news." Wu Qilong poured himself a cup of wine, smiled, and drank it in one gulp. "I have also prepared everything on my end. Not to say much, my father merely asked Master Dong to arrange the order that night. Hehe, my Wu family's weavers have always surpassed the Su family's, just to gain the advantage of being the first to present. The rest, let's leave it to the esteemed officials of the Weaving Bureau..."

After he finished speaking, he smiled. After Xi Junyu finished eating and put down his chopsticks, he shook his head: "In two days, Su Tan'er will basically have no chance to take over the Su family. The Su family is embroiled in internal strife, and those idiots will only squander the entire family fortune. There's no future there. Are you really not coming to my Wu family?"

Xi Junyu glanced at him: "You know what I want to do."

"We've known each other for many years. I invited you to my Wu family several years ago, but you refused because of Su Tan'er. I understand. Now you're doing this for a woman who has already become someone else's wife. Tsk, you're really something..." Wu Qilong sighed, then looked at Xi Junyu's expression and smiled again. "Okay, I know. They haven't consummated their marriage yet. After the ownership of the Imperial Merchant is decided, of course you can also manipulate some shopkeepers to deal with Ning Liheng, so they never have the chance to consummate the marriage. Su Tan'er's years of hard work will be reduced to ashes, and she will definitely want to vent her anger. But in the end, it's really difficult, Xi Junyu. Once the Su family collapses, with Su Tan'er's personality, she will definitely grit her teeth and carry on. At that time, you'll help behind the scenes. After years, even decades, she will owe you a favor. You might be able to be together, but it's really difficult..."

Wu Qilong paused. Xi Junyu spoke calmly: "And at that time, the Wu family will have become the Imperial Merchant. When the time is right, you can move to become the number one cloth merchant in the world. As for the Su family, it took decades of accumulation to reach such a scale. Once the old patriarch dies, it will collapse, and it won't be able to recover for decades. Everyone will no longer be opponents. I will naturally no longer be a threat to you."

"I've never cared about such threats, it's just a pity." Wu Qilong frowned. "In Jiangning, I, my second brother, Xue Yan, you, are no match for Su Tan'er. Frankly speaking, in a few years, she seizes onto something and doesn't let go, pushing it all the way to this point. This is the right way in business, she is indeed remarkable. We are all inferior to her. As for the business world, among the younger generation, besides Su Tan'er, only the Puyang family's Puyang Yi and the Tang family's Tang Xu can make me feel inferior. But she is, after all, a woman. Although I might not be able to do what she has done if I were put in her position, she also has limitations after all, many unexpected troubles."

Wu Qilong took a breath: "To be honest, I've never had the idea of specifically dealing with the Su family. If it weren't for this situation, where I and the Xue family have set our sights on the Imperial Merchant, Su Tan'er, since she has made preparations, then what she should earn is what she should earn, no one will compete with her. It just so happens that everyone has set their sights on it when she wants to make a move. It can only be said that her fate is not good. Since she has entered the game, intrigue is just like that. But I've never thought about dealing with anyone, it's just business. My Wu family is already the number one cloth merchant in Jiangning. Brother Xi, Jiangning is just a pond. You could have gone to the sea, are you really going to stay in this pond?"

Xi Junyu smiled: "It's just doing things, there aren't so many grand principles."

"That's true." Wu Qilong shook his head with a smile. "I know your thoughts, being alive is just about doing things, doing what you want to do. But... it's just a woman. When you go higher one day, you might find these things very boring. Or a few years later, you discover this woman is ordinary, and you no longer have that feeling, you will regret it. Do you know? I got married at eighteen, she died three years later, I swore never to touch another woman, but a year later, suddenly one day, when I thought of her, I forgot what she looked like, I married two concubines... Women are all the same."

"People are all like that." Wu Qilong said, "We men should do great things. Women can't do anything, and they are all the same. If you let go of Su Tan'er, you will find many others like her. Do you know that many women like to flaunt and feign, whether they are pretending or being genuine, if they do it once, I will never put my mind on her a second time. These are all small things, but I'll give you a word of advice on these things: 'It's useless to yearn for love, if you have no heart, I'll give it up!'"

"You're talking a lot of nonsense today."

"Heh, I know you might not listen, but if there's a possibility, I have to say it, because in three days, this matter will be resolved. Are you planning to stick around her for ten or twenty years just because they haven't consummated their marriage? One step forward and you can see the sea, just one step, and the next ten or twenty years of your life will be completely different. This time, the Su family's affairs, it's good if it succeeds, but even if the Imperial Merchant position is given to the Su family, I wouldn't care. The Wu family is still the Wu family. If you and I join hands, the格局 will never be just in Jiangning."

Wu Qilong smiled: "How this matter goes will ultimately depend on your own consideration."

The more capable a person is, the more determined their will. Xi Junyu isn't someone who doesn't think things through, so it's definitely hard to persuade him. But when it's time to speak, you still have to speak. After he said these things, Xi Junyu's expression was still calm. After a long time, he said.

"In the last two or three days, don't create any unnecessary complications. Su Tan'er isn't simple, she might have a backup plan. For the sake of the tribute cloth, she has been drawing funds from all over, preparing for more than two years. At this time, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver have already been invested. When the Imperial Merchant is revealed, and all her expectations are dashed, it's hard to say what she will do."

"Hehe, Brother Xi is talking about lowering prices to dump goods?" Wu Qilong laughed happily. "I'd rather she do that. If she breaks the rules, everyone will come together to beat her, and the Su family will collapse even faster. Your family's patriarch won't let her do that, and Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang won't agree. If she does that, she will be dragging the entire Su family down with her into madness."

He shook his head, his voice raised slightly due to happiness and confidence: "What I'm wary of now is that Su Tan'er and Shopkeeper Liao have done their best to build the Su family's momentum to this point. Su Yu is the most capable person, who single-handedly supported the Su family and established Jiangning's cloth industry as one of the three great powers. Afterwards, he might be able to barely turn the tide, but he is old, and the Su family won't last long. Of course, that's a matter for the future. Now that he has let go, the role he can play is limited. Who else is there? Could it be Ning *gongzi*, taking over under critical circumstances, gaining everyone's attention, and turning the tide?"

Xi Junyu narrowed his eyes, his expression weary. To be honest, he didn't really like hearing that name. An incompetent person, yet he married Su Tan'er. Even now, the Su family has pushed him out to temporarily take charge. An incompetent person, yet he took away something that he could have had: "Don't be so arrogant, he is Jiangning's top talent, overflowing with poetic talent. You're engaging in shady dealings, be careful he condemns you in writing afterwards."

"Haha, you're right, you're right." Wu Qilong patted the table and laughed, then became slightly solemn. "This person is also not a fool. Judging by his demeanor and bearing, he is much more sensible than the Su family. Although his actions these days have been clumsy, they can't be considered very rash. It can be seen that he is still thinking and learning with his heart. It's just that the Su family's situation is like this, and he can't help but be anxious. If it were a small matter in normal times, letting him take charge wouldn't be a big mistake. But right now... such a situation is in front of a scholar. The opponents are not on the same level. What role can a slightly clever novice play? This matter is not something he can participate in from beginning to end, it can only be said that... the timing is bad."

"After this, he will probably understand a lot." Xi Junyu thought about some of Ning Yi's actions these days, then shook his head faintly. Then he turned and walked outside, "As long as there are no other issues, thank you for the hospitality."

"Great kindness needs no thanks, you should repay it with a spring." Wu Qilong joked, then waved his hand. "Think about what I said, the sea is ahead, it's not worth it for a pond. The Wu family's door is always open to you. Oh, and that line... 'It's useless to yearn for love...'"

"'If you have no heart, I'll give it up.'" Xi Junyu repeated as he walked out, his figure dissolving in the darkness of the ship's side. "It's best if there are no more meetings like this."

"This matter is settled, there shouldn't be any more changes." Wu Qilong replied. When the hazy figure disappeared into the distance with the small boat, he sighed, pushed aside the bowls and chopsticks in front of him, stood up, and turned to leave: "What a pity..."

His words were murmured in a low sigh. In any case, Xi Junyu was the talent he had always wanted to recruit. He would have to manage the Wu family in the future and needed his own team. It was certainly gratifying that the Wu family had obtained the Imperial Merchant position, and some plans could be brought forward to add icing to the cake. But even if they didn't get it, the Wu family would still be the Wu family. He was still young, and there would be many opportunities to expand in the future. Only such a talent was hard to come by, he truly valued the future, not the immediate interests.

However, since there were such interests, of course, he didn't mind taking them along the way. He stood by the railing, thinking about the Su family's confusion over the past month, the fear hidden in their radicalism, the anxious running around of the old patriarch of the Su family, who was said to have brought the Su family to the peak of Jiangning with his own strength, and the gloating stupid smiles on the Xue family's faces, he couldn't help but shake his head with a smile again.

How laughable.

The light on the river darkened a little more, and the small painted boat sailed forward in the waves.

It dawned, then darkened again. It was August 24th. When it dawned again, it was the morning of the 25th. Ning Yi slept in, so he missed the morning meeting. That night was the annual general meeting of cloth merchants held by the Weaving Bureau, because autumn is the harvest season, and such general gatherings are held once a year in various industries.