“Haha, thanks, Boss Xie. Long time no see...”

“Boss Chen, how have you been lately?”

“After tonight's banquet, shall we head to the Jubao Gambling House for a spin?”

“My luck hasn't been good lately, besides, regarding tonight's affair…”

“Regarding that batch of goods from Qingzhou last time, Brother Li offered his generous assistance. I am truly grateful for your noble act…”

“We are in the same trade; mutual help is only right…”

Amidst the lights and the bustling noise, the Green Ripple Pavilion was filled with voices. With some time still before tonight's banquet, people gathered and mingled. As carriages arrived, those related to the weaving industry alighted. Upstairs on the second floor, Ning Yi and the Su family had already arrived for some time. While being arranged at their seats, they were also dealing with merchants coming to greet them. Some favored the Su family, some didn't; some had cooperative relationships, some didn't. In any case, no one would ignore the Su family.

However, compared to Ning Yi, Su Zhongkan, and Su Yunfang – the masters of the Su family – tonight, perhaps Steward Liao and the others were receiving the most attention. This was not surprising. Originally, people guessed that either Su Tan'er would make an appearance tonight, or perhaps the Su family's patriarch, Su Yu, would come. If either of these two came, they would naturally be the ones to decide on the imperial merchant status for the Su family tonight. Who knew that neither the grandfather nor the granddaughter would appear? Therefore, those who truly cared about the imperial merchant status focused their attention on Steward Liao and the others, who were currently managing and steering the Su family's main branch.

As for Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang, they certainly couldn't interfere with matters related to the imperial merchant status. But if the Su family failed to secure the imperial merchant status tonight, their positions would be completely different. Therefore, many people were still speculating about these matters. Moreover, they had been tycoon-level figures in the Jiangning weaving industry in the past, so they were naturally receiving a lot of attention at this time. As for Ning Yi, although he currently held the power of decision-making for the Su family's main branch, it was merely a symbol, a symbol that the position of the Su family's main house had not been usurped by Steward Liao and the others. However, it was impossible for him to truly decide anything.

Therefore, those who were greeting and chatting with Steward Liao and the others at this time were mostly figures with real power from various households, those who cared about the imperial merchant status, or stewards who were managing other cloth merchants, who would come over for a brief chat. Sometimes, there were also officials from the manufacturing bureau who had previously been cultivated, who would come over with smiles and hints that there would be no problems tonight.

As for Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang's side, there were mostly bigwigs of various businesses, figures of similar status to them, such as the heads of some medium-sized cloth merchants, or even the current head of the cloth merchants' guild, the Wu family's patriarch, Wu Chenghou. When Wu Chenghou arrived, he first greeted them and chatted about matters in the cloth industry.

As for Ning Yi, he had been exchanging greetings with various people. After everyone confirmed that Su Tan'er would not be attending, their attitude towards Ning Yi was very enthusiastic. Of course, the topics of conversation were all over the place and didn't involve much about the cloth industry. In any case, he was standing in the center of this stage tonight. Those whose family power was weaker than the Su family's would often not be headstrong enough to completely disregard Ning Yi's face. Those whose family situations were similar had learned not to care about these things. The Xue family and the Su family arrived early and were clearly divided. Xue Sheng simply greeted Su Zhongkan and ignored Ning Yi. Xue Yan came over with a smile and said a lot of things, mentioning that he had met Li Pin a few days ago, and that he must invite Ning Yi to Li Pin's farewell banquet when the city gate reopened and Li Pin went to the capital.

Xue Yan wasn't very familiar with Li Pin, and they only had some contact during events like the Emerald Bower incident. But after Ning Yi started managing the main branch, Xue Yan had invited Ning Yi to dinner twice, and the atmosphere was quite good each time. As long as Xue Yan wanted to put on a show, he could still do it well. At this time, he also regarded Li Pin as an acquaintance. Before long, the Wu family arrived. Wu Chenghou and his two sons came over to say a few words to Ning Yi separately. Wu Qilong even joked about Ning Yi being late this morning: "Today, I heard Steward Luo mention this matter. It seems that even though Liheng has always been indifferent, he is still a little nervous when it comes to today's event, haha..."

As the head of the cloth merchants' guild, the Wu family had always had a good relationship with various households. The Xue family and the Su family had a tense relationship, and they often mediated and eased the situation. During this period, the Wu Qilong and Wu Qihai brothers had met Ning Yi quite a few times. At least in terms of attitude, it wouldn't be wrong to say that they were familiar friends. Ning Yi shook his head and smiled, somewhat helplessly: "Originally, I wanted to continue doing these things well until the last day, but who knew that I would actually oversleep this morning... Uh, you all know about this... It wouldn't have spread again, would it..."

"Hehe." Wu Qilong lowered his voice, suppressing his laughter, "I'm afraid everyone already knows..."

"Tsk..." Ning Yi was stunned for a moment, then rolled his eyes. Then Wu Qihai laughed heartily beside him.

"Brother Ning's affairs are not afraid of being known, now everyone in Jiangning knows that Brother Ning is confused about small things, but he is not confused about big things. Tonight's imperial merchant... cough, to be honest, we are opponents, so I won't wish you anything, haha..." Wu Qilong laughed magnanimously, "However, although Brother Ning is powerful, our Wu family also has a trump card, so whether we succeed or fail, you and I must be convinced."

The two brothers were magnanimous, and everyone around them had a great impression of them. The three of them exchanged pleasantries for a few words, and the two brothers turned and left. Ning Yi smiled and looked at their backs, then turned to deal with some other "acquaintances."

As the time approached, everyone gradually took their seats. The space on the second floor of the Green Ripple Pavilion was spacious. The merchants who were qualified to come this time basically had exclusively arranged seats. The Su family was at a large round table, and the rest of the merchants were also assigned a round table to sit down. Some merchants didn't have many people, but they wouldn't be arranged to share a table, because this banquet was actually to decide on the ownership of the imperial merchant status, so each household had to have its own position.

The Su family, the Xue family, and the Wu family were located at the three ends of the venue. At this time, the venue was slightly quiet, and some people were still arriving one after another. Officials from the weaving bureau came over to greet them separately and instructed them on some words.

The imperial merchant's bid was not actually competed for by allowing people to compete in a general fair bidding way. This was mainly due to the particularity of the imperial merchant in previous years. The problem of tribute silk made everyone avoid it like the plague. If a public tender was opened and no one came, it would obviously be very embarrassing. Under the changes of decades, the task of the imperial merchant was actually decided in the form of "tribute," just like if you had something good to offer to the royal family, the royal family would take the opportunity to give you some special privileges. Of course, they wouldn't do this on the surface.

The cloth sent to the palace would be more profitable. If the royal family wanted it, it wouldn't care about the time. It could be offered at any time. But every year at this time, the weaving bureau had to arrange and allocate the tribute silk quota. If several merchants who regularly undertook the imperial merchant complained too much, they would often share some of it, and assign it to families such as the Su family, the Wu family, and the Xue family: Here is a batch of tasks, you have to help share it. No one dared not to give face, if they didn't give face, they would definitely be given the cold shoulder in the future. Of course, the weaving bureau wouldn't be too excessive, and would always have some sense of proportion.

Therefore, the model recalled by the weaving bureau in the past few decades was mostly like this: each household had some good cloth, and they would take turns showing it off for everyone to evaluate, and also as their own achievements to be offered to the royal family. Although the burden share of tribute silk for each household had already been decided in secret, it was still very beautiful on the surface, like an achievement exchange and an appreciation meeting of good cloth. This year was still like this on the surface, but the inside was actually very different.

Everyone was well aware of this.

Others whispered, paying attention to the situation of the Su, Xue, and Wu families. Steward Liao and the others were also inquiring about the trend from other people's calibers. When he sat down, he smiled softly to Ning Yi: "Looking at today's atmosphere, there should be no problem with the imperial merchant. The efforts of the past month have not been in vain. Most people are optimistic about our Su family..."

He paused, then sighed: "In the end, it's the foresight of the Second Miss, who started working on it a few years ago. Although I vaguely noticed something in the past, I didn't know the development of this matter. When the First Master had an accident, I really thought that the Su family was going to suffer a big setback... But in the end, small tricks can't compare to real accumulation. With that fabric in hand, we can be truly confident. The events of this month can be regarded as a so-called overt scheme."

Ning Yi pursed his lips slightly and looked around: "Is there really no problem?"

"Not a big problem." Steward Liao also looked around: "The Lv family has a new cloth recently, which is good, but it's not very suitable for the royal family's requirements. It's called Smoked Tea Silk, I've already seen it. The Xue family used to have a signature Purple Woven Cloth, which has always been loved by large households and is priced relatively high, but there shouldn't be anything new coming out recently. Although the Wu family is the first in weaving and has strong strength, their most prominent thing is their weaving skills. With Luo Shenzhen in their family, they are always better than others in terms of cloth weaving, but in front of our Su family's Golden Dawn Brocade, even if the weaving skills are better, the significance is probably not great..."

For the Su family's imperial merchant, Steward Liao and the others had done a lot of homework. At this time, he talked eloquently, then frowned slightly: "However, the real mastermind behind the assassination of the Master has not been found yet. If this person is really instigated by the Xue family, I'm afraid they will have something else up their sleeves..."

Steward Liao glanced at the Xue family, then shook his head and smiled, comforting Ning Yi: "The possibility is not high, and... we've done everything we can. Now that this matter has developed to this point, just watch it with peace of mind..."

Ning Yi nodded and stopped talking, then turned back to signal Chan'er to put the brocade box they were carrying on the table in front of him. After another moment, an official came over to talk to Steward Liao. Steward Liao smiled and tilted his head towards Ning Yi: "Lord Dong and the others have arrived. This time, our Su family has the greatest momentum. Lord Dong wants this banquet to look good and has arranged for our Su family to be the finale."

"Is it good to be the finale?"

"In previous years, the best cloth was the finale, and some of them are still continuously supplied to the royal family..."

In his words, Steward Liao was actually a little nervous. He smiled and told Ning Yi about this, and then spread it to the other stewards around him.

"Finale..." Ning Yi muttered, sitting there and thinking for a long time, then shook his head and smiled slightly: "Tonight's affairs are settled..." Because his tone was somewhat like a question, Steward Liao smiled: "It's still unknown, son-in-law, this is still very difficult to say."

At the same time, in the venue, someone also looked over here, playing with a cyan jade thumb ring in his hand, and a low murmur overflowed from his lips: "Tonight's affairs... are settled?" The voice was too low, like a murmur, or like a soft inquiry to the thumb ring in his hand, with a faint and leisurely smile on the corner of his mouth.

The formal banquet was still some time away, because it was always suitable to eat, drink, and revel only after enough boasting had been done about the things worth boasting about. Almost no one expected that the things that truly belonged to tonight had almost completely happened after half an hour. The turning point was so abrupt and exaggerated, the reactions were so public and intense, and the darkness hidden behind it was so deep and mixed with various twists and turns. When they were revealed layer by layer afterward, this matter became a deep scar in the Jiangning weaving industry, or even the business world, that was constantly repeated for months or even years afterward...

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Ning Yi will write the third poem, I don't think anyone can guess which one it is ^_^ (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log in, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)

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