Asking for Recommendation Tickets.
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In the main hall of the Ji Clan Backyard, morning light pierced the window paper and cast mottled shadows across the blue-brick floor.
Ji Xiang sat in a huanghuali round-backed chair, the white linen bandage wrapped around his right shoulder seeping with a few dark-red specks.
"Old Seven, what happened last night?" Across from him, his eldest brother Ji An frowned as he stared at that glaring bandage. "Your arm was injured?"
Beside him, Ji Rui immediately cut in, rapping his knuckles against the small table. "Yeah, last night was lively. Brother was lucky to get away with just a minor wound in that situation."
Ji Lan sat upright in an armchair, her fingertips lightly tapping the carved patterns on the backrest. "Father made a move too."
Her tone was calm, but it made everyone's gazes snap toward the main seat in unison.
Ji Xiang also raised his eyes toward his Second Uncle, Ji Hongming, seated at the head. That refined face of his was now like a taut bowstring, especially when Ji Xiang thought of Chen Zhang patting his shoulder before he left and saying, "I believe in you, brother-in-law."
—Believe, my ass!
On one side was the Main Family bloodline bound to him by shared roots, and on the other was the Chen Clan kin his wife had newly acknowledged. Caught in the middle, every word he spoke had to be measured as if he were walking on a blade's edge.
Ji Hongming was the head of the family—after his eldest brother's early death, he had taken charge of the Ji Clan—and even more so the towering pillar of the family: Titled Literary Heart!
A faint sweat broke out in Ji Xiang's palm. "Second uncle, brothers