The girl traveled through another world and forced the prince to take the imperial examination

Chapter 236 The former Su family

Su Qingyan's thoughts gradually drifted away. In a trance, the scenes of her five years old came to her mind like a tide.

That year, my grandfather's health was getting weaker and weaker. He was afraid that after he passed away, the young Su Qingyan would have no one to take care of her, so he thought of entrusting Su Qingyan to the head of the Ning family and letting the Ning family take care of her. Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished.

When the old lady of the Ning family saw Su Qingyan, she was shocked by the birthmark on her face and said in front of everyone that she was a disaster. At that time, her grandfather was so angry that he almost fainted. He immediately took her away from the Ning family. After returning home, he fell seriously ill and almost died.

At that time, she took care of her grandfather day and night, and had long forgotten the unpleasant things that happened in the Ning family.

Su Qingyan did not tell anyone about the humiliation she suffered at the Ning family. It had been more than ten years since that incident, and they had no contact with the Ning family for a long time.

"I really don't remember it, so Mr. Ning, don't worry about it. Even if it really happened, it was unintentional on my part, so don't take it seriously."

Ning Haochen said: "How can this be possible? I will never be an ungrateful person."

Oh! Mu Qingcheng became interested: "I didn't expect that the Su family and the Ning family were old friends, so why didn't they interact later?"

Su Qingyan frowned slightly, and her face showed a look of reluctance to mention the past. It was obvious that she did not want to recall those unpleasant things.

Ning Haochen, standing by, looked ashamed. He slowly spoke, "I'm a bastard, disliked by my grandmother, so I wasn't present at the birthday party. I only found out about what happened later. Miss Su and your grandfather suffered so much injustice and humiliation in the Ning family... It was truly my... the Ning family's fault!"

Ning Haochen did not hide anything and told the two of them about the past in great detail.

After hearing this, Mu Qingcheng was immediately enraged. She felt indignant for Su Qingyan. This old lady of the Ning family was too vicious! Even if she didn't want to help, she could just refuse directly. Why humiliate the grandparents and grandchildren like this? It was simply too much!

Su Qingyan just smiled faintly, and that smile was as gentle as the breeze blowing on her face. She really didn't take it to heart.

She only whispered, "Actually, the Suning and Su families didn't have a very deep relationship. I think it might be because my grandfather had been ill for a long time and his mind was a little hazy, so he went to the Ning family to entrust his son to his care."

Yun Qing, who had been unable to get a word in, suddenly spoke up: "That's not necessarily true. The Suning and Su families have been old friends since their ancestors. As far as I know, both of your families are from Shouchun, and one of your ancestors even swore brotherhood and called themselves brothers of different surnames."

"How did you know?" Mu Qingcheng asked Yun Qing with her big, ignorant eyes blinking.

Yun Qing helplessly turned his gaze away, pretending he hadn't heard. How could he have the nerve to say in front of them that he had investigated three generations of someone's ancestors?

Mu Qingcheng was no fool and quickly understood what was going on, though she felt a little embarrassed. However, she secretly gave Yun Qing a thumbs-up. She admired Yun Qing! In this age of underdeveloped technology, where there weren't even computer photos, he could still research someone's ancestors for three generations so clearly. He was quite capable!

Yun Qing continued, "The Ning family's great-grandfather once served as the Huainan Salt Transport Commissioner, while the Su family's great-grandfather was a salt merchant. The Ning family was able to reach the position of Salt Transport Commissioner, and the Su family's ancestors made a lot of efforts.

The Su family used to be much richer and more prosperous than the Ning family is today. Back then, when the Ning family was just a wealthy farmer in Shouchun, the Su family's assets were already spread across Lianghuai. The Ning family rose to prominence by clinging to the Su family, and the two families even intermarried, so they were considered relatives.

Yun Qing described it in great detail and everyone was very surprised, especially Su Qingyan, who looked shocked.

Seeing this, Mu Qingcheng couldn't help but ask, "Sister Su, you don't even know about this, do you?"

Su Qingyan stared at Mu Qingcheng with wide eyes and nodded: "I, I, I really don't know... Your Highness, is this Su family you are talking about really our Su family?"

Yun Qing's eyes were indifferent: "It is indeed your Su family, but not the current Su family."

Su Qingyan said in disbelief, "My grandfather never told me about the Su family's past. The Su family had been in Yongkang County before I was born. I always thought the Su family was born and raised in Yongkang. So our Su family's ancestral home is in Shouchun? Then why did we end up in Yongkang County? What was the Su family like in the past?"

Not only Su Qingyan wanted to know, Mu Qingcheng was also very curious. Ning Haochen knew a little bit, but he definitely didn't know as much as Yun Qing.

Yun Qing thought of the thick stack of information about the Su family that Mo Yu gave him, and he couldn't help but be moved. He paused for a moment to organize his thoughts, and then spoke again.

"The Su family was truly remarkable in the past! By the time Miss Su's grandfather reached his peak, it was arguably the most prosperous period of the Su family. At that time, the Su family's businesses, banks, farmland, shops, and various other industries were spread throughout the Great Qi State.

It was from that time that the Su family, unsatisfied, turned their attention to maritime trade, starting business with foreign peoples. They sailed across the oceans to many foreign countries. They also united with several families involved in maritime trade to form a maritime merchant fleet.

To form this caravan, the Su family spared no expense, meticulously constructing thirty massive cargo ships. This was unprecedented at the time, and even today, and it demonstrates the Su family's sheer determination and ambition.

Those merchant ships brought huge wealth to the Su family. You can imagine how wealthy the Su family was back then! "

Everyone was silent, thinking back to those days when dozens of large ships sailed together on the sea. What a magnificent scene that must have been! It must have been an unprecedented spectacle!

Su Qingyan couldn't believe their ancestors had been so glorious, but then she remembered her grandfather's constant sighing and gloomy moodiness when she was little. More than once, she'd seen him kneeling in the ancestral hall in the middle of the night, weeping bitterly as he rambled on about how incompetent he was, how he'd let the Su family down, how he'd let down their ancestors, and how he wouldn't be able to enter the Su family tomb even after his death... and so on and so forth!

So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…! Su Qingyan finally understood her grandfather’s pain, and she finally found the root of his illness.

Everyone was silent for an unknown amount of time before Mu Qingcheng suddenly broke the silence, "Yun Qing! This doesn't make sense! You just said that Sister Su's grandfather's generation was at its peak. Even if prosperity must decline, it takes time, perhaps a gradual decline over several generations. But how could the Su family fall so quickly?"

Facing Mu Qingcheng's doubts, Yun Qing patiently explained, "Although the Su family didn't fall overnight, they did fall very quickly, which is very unusual!"

Su Qingyan's heart trembled! She immediately perked up and listened attentively.

Yun Qing paused before saying, "Miss Su's grandfather's generation, the Su family has continued for several generations, and the Su family's ancestral precept is to divide the family but not the property. The head of the Su family controls all of the Su family's property, and the other brothers can only get a huge amount of silver and some dividends from the property.

Therefore, the Su family had only one head of household. Miss Su's grandfather, Old Master Su's father, was the head of the household at the time. Old Master Su had three legitimate brothers and two illegitimate brothers. He was the youngest son of the Su family and was known as the Sixth Master. It was said that his parents doted on him, and his brothers learned to manage the family business from a young age. However, Sixth Master Su, however, only cared about pleasure and never managed the family business.

It was when Sixth Master Su was sixteen that the Su family was struck by tragedy. First, his brothers passed away one after another. Then, his parents passed away in grief. He was the only one left in the Su family, and Old Master Su was only seventeen or eighteen years old at the time. He couldn't even support the family business, and he couldn't even manage household affairs. The Su family's vast fortune was quickly divided up by the clan members, leaving little behind. The Su family fell apart and fell into decline.

Ah! It turned out to be like this! Everyone sighed, and Mu Qingcheng felt that something was wrong!