The snow was indeed heavy. Palm-sized snowflakes fell on the roof, the trees, and the ground with a soft rustling sound. Occasionally, a gust of wind would rattle the old, dilapidated windows.
All was silent outside. Inside, a candle had already been lit, its dim yellow light filling the entire room.
The atmosphere was warm and peaceful.
It made one relax involuntarily.
Here, the topic of the funeral had long concluded. Su Ning once again told the story she had repeated many times, this time adding a lot of details.
"...Dad loved eating candy the most. He could eat over a dozen pieces a day. Our family doctor always said that if he kept eating like that, his teeth would fall out very quickly."
Su Ning revealed a nostalgic look:
"He wouldn't listen, saying the doctor was talking nonsense. No one in the Su family from top to bottom had ever had bad teeth. Sure enough, right up until he was lying on his sickbed, his teeth were still perfectly fine without a single small cavity."
"Sigh, after all these years, Huaishan still loved eating candy."
Half-Immortal Su said sadly.
Suddenly, it seemed there was a chubby little boy in his memory whose favorite thing to eat was candy. He didn't even like eating proper meals, and he seemed to recall often seeing servants chasing after him to feed him.
That must be his younger cousin, Huaishan.
Such a small, delicate child, even after going abroad, he still couldn't change his love for candy.
The memories he thought he had long forgotten suddenly became clear in an instant. Half-Immortal Su enthusiastically talked about many people and events from the Su family's past, naturally including "Su Huaishan".
Su Chen and the others listened in stunned amazement.
Su Ning also showed great interest in the family's past, occasionally asking follow-up questions. For instance, what, was Dad really hit on the palms for not doing well in his studies when he was young?
After getting an affirmative answer, she muttered:
"...Dad even said that if the imperial examinations hadn't been abolished, he would have had no problem scoring first place. Hmph, liar."
In short, with this back and forth.
The image of this fictional character became increasingly vivid.
Even Su Zhenzhu and the others remembered that Uncle Huaishan, whom they had never met, loved to eat candy and would brag in front of his daughter...
By this point, even if someone jumped out to accuse Su Ning of being a liar and claimed that Su Huaishan didn't exist in this world at all.
There would be no need for outsiders to refute it.
The Su family would be the first to jump out and defend Su Ning. With their testimony, the accusations would collapse on their own.
Stuffing a non-existent person out of thin air into past memories sounded magical, but it was actually quite simple.
First, twenty or thirty years had already passed. Half-Immortal Su felt that he remembered everything very clearly.
That was only what he thought.
Memories can blur, and they can also be deceiving.
Second, subconsciously, he wanted to believe it. It was like finding a lifesaver; how could he not grasp it tightly? Even if there were flaws in Su Ning's words, they would be ignored, or he might even think he had remembered it wrong.
...
Eliminating a hidden danger.
Su Ning relaxed significantly, and the smiles on her face increased. This change, in the eyes of bystanders, proved that blood ties were indeed important; she really liked the Su family.
The atmosphere grew even more harmonious.
Somehow, the conversation shifted to how the Su family had made its fortune in the past.
Speaking of which, the Su family had risen to prosperity quickly, but had fallen just as fast.
Half-Immortal Su's grandfather's generation was still toiling in the fields for food, but by his father's generation, they had become the nouveau riche of Peiping City. Even his aunt had married into the imperial clan as a secondary consort.
It could be said that their sudden rise to wealth was unstoppable.
Hearing this, Su Ning also felt curious and asked for the reason.
Half-Immortal Su smiled proudly, striking the pose of a storyteller, and coughed twice:
"You've asked the right person. No one knows this better than I do. Our Su family had connections with the palace. We could speak directly to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. Which prince or noble wouldn't give us a bit of face?"
"That's so impressive. How did the family manage that?"
Su Ning's imagination ran wild. Could it be like what was written in novels, where the Su family had incredibly good luck and saved an emperor traveling in disguise, thus ascending to the heavens in a single step?
In that case, given the villainous nature of the Su family... the opportunity to save someone might have even been orchestrated by them.
Then, she heard—
"It was all thanks to my grandfather. Eldest niece, you should call him great-grandfather. He was truly a man of great ability. If you ask me, younger cousin Huaishan might have inherited his roots to be so capable."
Hearing this, Su Ning became even more curious.
"To be able to build such a large family estate single-handedly, what did great-grandfather do?"
To think he could be compared to the overpowered male protagonist she had meticulously created in her mind. However, fiction comes from life, and calculating the time, that era was also full of turbulence and upheaval.
Chaos is a ladder to progress, after all.
It wouldn't be surprising if a real-life version of an overpowered male protagonist actually appeared.
"Oh, he entered the palace and became a eunuch," Half-Immortal Su casually dropped a massive bombshell, saying proudly, "And he was one of the top chief eunuchs in the palace, with thousands of disciples and followers under him. He was incredibly majestic..."
So he was a eunuch. No, a chief eunuch.
Su Ning's eyes looked complicated. Although this wasn't in any of her scenarios, thinking about it, it actually made a lot of sense.
Fighting in wars gets people killed.
Taking the imperial exams? Heh, with the dark and corrupt bureaucratic environment of the previous dynasty, even if you were a genius in a million, without connections, background, or money, you were destined to remain a commoner.
Becoming a eunuch was a shortcut.
Just be ruthless and cut off the root of your troubles. Unlike other paths, there wouldn't always be privileged elites competing with you...
The room for promotion was also huge.
For the Su family's great-grandfather to reach the position of chief eunuch, one had to admit that he had high personal qualities, was smart enough, and had enough luck.
He could be considered an alternative overpowered male protagonist... right.
Su Ning calmed her mind and said, "Dad never told me about these things before. Then, did the Su family suddenly fall into ruin because this great-grandfather passed away?"
"Yes and no." Half-Immortal Su shook his head:
"Although grandfather suffered in his early years, he was excellent at taking care of his health. He was nearly sixty, and his hair was still jet black. But one day, news suddenly came from the palace that grandfather had gotten into trouble."
"We didn't know what it was about."
"Anyway, when he was brought back, he was covered in blood and couldn't even speak clearly. He passed away just a few days after returning home. The palace said that grandfather had stolen something and was going to be punished."
"And then, the family just fell apart like that. The various branches divided some of the money and scattered all over the country."
He concluded hastily.
Hearing this, a question mark popped up in Su Ning's head. Was something omitted in between? Even though it's true that a family rising because of one person can easily fall into ruin upon their death.
But this was way too fast.
Even a pig knows to struggle a bit when being slaughtered. Did the Su family just disappear so silently?
Knowing there must be something fishy going on, Su Ning suppressed her curiosity and didn't ask Half-Immortal Su—it was obvious that the playboy Young Master Su of that time didn't know anything.
If she didn't ask, someone else would.
"Such a massive Su family, and nothing was left behind?"
Su Chen furrowed his brows and looked at his own father, urgently adding, "How come I've never heard you mention these things before?"
"If I said it, would you guys believe it?"
Half-Immortal Su rolled his eyes at his son. It wasn't that he hadn't mentioned it. Every time he started, he was interrupted. They either said he hadn't woken up from last night's dream or guessed he was delirious from a fever.
Only Zhenzhu was willing to listen a bit.
And even then, it was with one part belief and nine parts suspicion.
"As for what the Su family left behind, there was gold, silver, and jewelry—"
Su Ning slowly sipped her tea. Seeing the eyes of Su Zhenzhu and the others light up, she sighed inwardly. Their father was just messing with them. If he really had any money left, how could they be living in such poverty?
Even the teacups they were drinking from were chipped.
Sure enough, Half-Immortal Su chuckled:
"I just spent it all. I couldn't help it. It is hard to go from a life of luxury to one of frugality."
Thank goodness he had come to his senses when he still had a tiny bit of money left in his hands. Otherwise, if he had kept going like that, he would have ended up in massive debt sooner or later.
If that had happened, he would have had no choice but to beg for food at a male brothel!
Hearing this, the hopeful light that had just sparked in Su Chen and Su Zhenzhu's eyes dimmed once more.
"Your uncle is just teasing you."
At this moment, Su Ning spoke up with a smile, "As the saying goes, even a wrecked ship still has three pounds of iron nails. Even though the ready cash is gone, there must still be some hidden advantages left behind."
For instance, the marriage agreement with the Fang family.
She recalled that in the original novel, the engagement between Fang Lin and Su Zhenzhu had been arranged by the elders of both families years ago. Because of this, Fang Lin had found it incredibly difficult to break it off.
As soon as she said this, the members of the Su family each had their own thoughts.
Su Chen and Su Zhenzhu, for example, had clearly also thought of the engagement with the Fang family.
After all, the logic behind the whole situation made perfect sense.
The two families had been friends for generations. After the Su family's downfall, the Fang family had not dared to lend a helping hand out of fear of being implicated and punished by the palace. Instead, they had offered their support in a roundabout way through a marriage alliance between their children.
As for why the Fang family's attitude grew increasingly cold later on?
The elders who had arranged the engagement had passed away.
The younger generation had no real ties to the Su family, so naturally, they were unwilling to honor the agreement...
"Dad, you are so unreliable. So this is how the engagement with the Fang family came about! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Su Zhenzhu complained.
Previously, the origins of this engagement had been so unclear that she had lacked confidence in it. Fang Qingqing had even used it as an excuse to insult her, accusing her of securing the engagement through shady and deceitful means.
"What was I supposed to tell you?"
Half-Immortal Su looked bewildered. After a moment, he finally realized what she meant:
"You think we have this engagement because the Fang family and our family are close? That's not it at all."
"Before this, I didn't even know anyone from the Fang family."
