The sound of firecrackers heralds the departure of the old year, always replacing old charms with new peaches.
The atmosphere was lively, bustling with various activities leading up to the New Year. Even as a son-in-law, Ning Yi couldn't avoid these matters. Before the New Year, Su Tan'er requested Ning Yi to accompany her on various visits, preparing for this busy season—visiting relatives from the main and second households, as well as merchants they cooperated with. Visiting each household was essential. For relatives at home, Su Tan'er and Ning Yi would go together, but when going out, they mostly followed Su Boyong, as Su Tan'er had yet to formally take charge of the main branch of the Su family. Before the New Year, they were just discussing business, but after the holiday, the symbolic inaugural visit had to be led by Su Boyong.
Before the New Year, Song Mao, the governor who had visited many people, left Jiangning. Thanks to Song Mao's kind words, Ning Yi's status in the Su residence was somewhat elevated. Among the servants, while previously there had been no cases of a servant bullying the master, there weren't many who interacted with him either. The rest were indifferent, but now many servants were more enthusiastic. However, this was of little significance to Ning Yi.
As for the hosts, the various young masters had clearly become more wary of Ning Yi—what was once indifference had turned into caution. Of course, they couldn't do much, as the old patriarch now valued Ning Yi more. After the examination in the library, Ning Yi's importance had clearly increased significantly. The Su family understood the old patriarch's concerns; he had long hoped that the Su family could produce some scholars, moving slightly away from their merchant identity.
What good was wealth to a merchant? If something went wrong, they couldn't secure themselves and were easily manipulated by officials. Scholars were different; once they achieved their degrees, they could always speak for themselves, regardless of their poverty. The Wu Dynasty was named for its martial prowess, originally established by force, but after several major upheavals in its early days, the powers that be learned their lesson and began to rule with scholars, just like in the Song Dynasty, where scholars were highly esteemed while military matters were undervalued.
Since Ning Yi had given the old patriarch some hope, he was naturally valued even more. Especially during the New Year greetings, the conversations between the old patriarch and Ning Yi were noticeably longer than those with others, which did not go unnoticed. The old man wanted to discuss reading and schools with Ning Yi, and Ning Yi casually shared some educational philosophies. The old patriarch, not fully grasping these ideas, found it easier to accept the notion that strict teachers produce capable students. As a seasoned head of the family, he also refrained from giving direct guidance to professionals, happily listening and only saying, "If there are disobedient ones, feel free to discipline them however you see fit."
He then sighed, "Brother Zi'an has a good grandson..."Here, it refers to Ning Yi's grandfather.
The old patriarch, though in good health and spirited, was still not lenient in his management of the family. In the Su family today, no one dared to offend him easily. After the New Year's Day conversation, Ning Yi faced more disdainful glances and idle chatter, but the desire to trouble him or make things difficult for Su Tan'er, thus embarrassing the old patriarch, was likely minimal.
However, even though the school was on break, when Ning Yi occasionally encountered Su Chonghua, he could still sense a hint of vigilance in the latter's eyes, which he found somewhat amusing.
These were merely slight changes. For Ning Yi, whether or not these changes existed didn't matter much. Those at lower levels couldn't stir up great waves, and those who rolled their eyes at him would only manage to stir up more eye-rolling. During the day, he was generally busy running errands, and occasionally, at homes of merchants who cooperated with the Su family, some who knew of Ning Yi's reputation would bring their scholarly children to "get close" to him. This was a friendly gesture, although these children had only read a few literary works and were only indulging in minor exchanges.
Since the Mid-Autumn Festival, when a Shui Diao Ge Tou was shared, Ning Yi had basically not appeared in mainstream conversations in Jiangning. The song remained popular, but discussions about him had lost their heat. If one were to speak about him now, they would say that he was a twenty-year-old son-in-law living in the Su residence, teaching at the inconspicuous Yushan Academy, rumored to have created some peculiar blackboard, and mostly avoiding contact with literary talents. This hermit-like lifestyle, though odd, would at most label him as a peculiar person.
While socially adept literary talents might gain fame quickly, many introverted scholars existed as well. It was just rare to encounter someone like Ning Yi, whose words could astonish.
Since that night's conversation, Ning Yi and Su Tan'er had grown much closer. Previously, Su Tan'er treated Ning Yi like a bookworm, always trying to dominate the situation. After beginning to "understand" Ning Yi as a person, she relaxed significantly. They were both "eccentric," a recognition that satisfied her. This was primarily because Ning Yi didn't mind her taking the lead in business matters. Occasionally, when discussing certain merchants, she felt more casual, sometimes bringing up challenges and then sharing her solutions, asking, "My Lord, what do you think?" More often than not, it was merely to satisfy her desire for communication. Few people could understand and accept her, and even though she occasionally chatted with Xiao Chan and others, it felt no different from talking to herself. Being able to discuss business with someone like Ning Yi, who was unrelated to her world, was a refreshing relief.
Ning Yi naturally played along with some teasing remarks or showed admiration. This made Su Tan'er feel content. The desire to express oneself isn't necessarily tied to one's abilities; even the most capable individuals occasionally feel stifled, wishing at least one person could understand their thoughts, and ideally, that person would be someone unrelated. It was akin to digging a hole in the countryside, spilling out one's secrets, and then burying it again to relieve stress.
Of course, most of their exchanges still revolved around trivial matters. In the evenings, they would return home, have dinner, tell stories, and play Gomoku (five in a row). Initially, Su Tan'er found Ning Yi's stories somewhat childish, but she listened with a relaxed mind, occasionally asking him to elaborate or boasting a bit when they played. In truth, Xiao Chan was the most talented at Gomoku, winning the most often. Ning Yi was the trickiest; if he got serious, he wouldn't rush to win. As soon as his opponent placed two pieces together, he would immediately block them, continuing to frustrate them until they felt stifled. Only then would he counterattack when they weren't paying attention.
His style of play drove the three girls crazy. In the warm room at night, they would occasionally protest, "The son-in-law is too sneaky!" Su Tan'er, being the most patient and capable learner, would tightly purse her lips and play a monotonous game of blocking with Ning Yi, seeing who could last the longest. Once, they filled the entire board and ended in a draw. The three girls whispered to each other that the son-in-law and young lady were like monsters. A few days later, Ning Yi helplessly smiled, "Why must we harm each other like this?" The serious-faced Su Tan'er couldn't hold back her smile and immediately set to blocking Ning Yi's pieces with a grin.
From then on, they developed a certain tacit understanding and stopped playing purely for patience's sake.
Occasionally, Su Tan'er would ask about Ning Yi's projects, and he would often illustrate his ideas: "Here, we need to use iron sheets to make a cylindrical container, standing it up... Here we can pour in water for cooling... But it needs to resist strong acids. I still have to increase the concentration of sulfuric acid, uh, the acid solution. The problem is that without a container that can withstand strong acids, it's tough to increase it, and if I can't increase the concentration, I can't make a container that can resist strong acids. It becomes a chicken-and-egg problem... But making glass isn't easy either... Uh, do you understand?"
Since she asked, Ning Yi casually spoke. Su Tan'er was taken aback, "Uh... My Lord, what exactly do you want to make?"
"Oh, something to eat. If you think about it specifically... it's somewhat similar to salt. Hmm, seaweed soup. Seaweed soup tastes great, right? If we simmer a hundred pounds of seaweed into soup, filter it, and then dry the water, we could get a tiny bit of something similar to salt, although the purity wouldn't be high. But when added to dishes, it would taste excellent... That's it."
"Uh... seaweed soup... using the essence of a hundred pounds of seaweed to cook... how many dishes can that make?"
"One bowl of dish should be fine," Ning Yi winked. "So the consumption is too high. I want to find another way to produce it."
"…Oh." Su Tan'er nodded, propping her head with one hand, looking pained—no, more like she had a toothache. If making something out of nothing could equate to the essence of a hundred pounds of seaweed, it sounded impressive, but... seaweed soup wasn't exactly that great...
"My Lord is quite eccentric..." she finally voiced her honest impression.
What Ning Yi wanted to make was monosodium glutamate.
He had experience in this area and understood the modern industrial process for producing MSG, but honestly, this process seemed pointless. Acid-resistant containers, fermentation enzymes, bacterial cultivation, crystallization, freezing, temperature control... these concepts would be simple a thousand years later but were mere fantasies in the Wu Dynasty. Besides knowing the most modern production process, he was only aware of the historical extraction of MSG from seaweed soup. The gap between the two was vast, and if he were to produce monosodium glutamate step by step, he would first need to guide half an industrial revolution.
Of course, it wasn't in his nature to sit idle; he was determined to give MSG a try. Over the past few months, he had outlined a basic flowchart and pondered alternative methods when bored. Before the New Year, he had visited various markets in Jiangning to gauge the world's development level and even sought out books like the "梦溪笔谈" (Dream Pool Essays) for research.
Note on "梦溪笔谈": The "Dream Pool Essays" is a collection of writings by the Song dynasty scholar Shen Kuo, exploring various topics including science, philosophy, and technology.
In any case, as he told Su Tan'er, this was more of a playful endeavor. He didn't expect any results within a few years and certainly wouldn't be looking for a team to produce something. The emergence of countless by-products could have varying significance; for now, basic research was sufficient. Beyond this, he found little else in this era that intrigued him.
However, there was another interest, perhaps even more intriguing than MSG: learning martial arts.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, when he went out with Su Tan'er and others, he encountered the legendary martial arts masters for the first time. Though not as grand as in TV shows or movies, they were indeed impressive…