"Today's gathering had indeed been arranged specifically to deal with me!" Zhang Chen strolled leisurely through the Ancestral Hall, his gaze sweeping across the entire hall. With a turn of his eyes, everyone fell within his sight: Zhang Shenqi standing beneath the central ancestral tablets, and the elderly men lined up on either side. All of them turned to look at him in unison, pairs of eyes fixed tightly upon Zhang Chen, their gazes carrying scrutiny, disdain, or hostility.
Zhang Chen walked all the way to the front of the Ancestral Hall and stopped before Zhang Shenqi. "Where is my place?"
Within a clan, the positions of its members and disciples were not something one could occupy casually. There were rules.
Those at the very front should be members of the direct line. After them came collateral branches of the direct line, followed by the respected elder predecessors of the clan.
Although the Zhang Family followed a system ruled by the family head, the entire family was not a place where the head's word alone counted. Even the family head could not disregard the opinions of the clan elders.
Zhang Shenqi turned to glance at Zhang Chen, a smile hanging on his face. To Zhang Chen, though, that smile was unbearably false. "Stand here. Today's family gathering was originally convened for you. You are today's main character."
"For me? Since when did I have such a great reputation?" Zhang Chen pretended not to understand.
Zhang Shenqi merely smiled without speaking. At that moment, the leading elder at the side stepped forward. "You are Zhang Chen? Zhang Shicheng's eldest legitimate son?"
Zhang Chen turned his eyes toward him. The man was over eighty, with white hair and a youthful face, his clothes immaculate down to the slightest crease. Yet his entire