Kong City.
After Zong Moju attained Saint Enfeoffment, the Zong Family spread its branches far and wide. Some members spent lavishly in Kong City, buying grand residences.
Kong City bustled with extraordinary excitement before the New Year. Firecrackers crackled, and people in every street and alley brimmed with festive cheer.
After nightfall, many great clans and aristocratic families began setting off fireworks.
The fireworks at the State Duke Zong Residence were especially dazzling that year. Rumor had it that they had been custom-made by the Mohist School at great expense.
With the Saint Origin Continent's vast population, the names of state dukes and princes often overlapped, so the ways of naming their titles gradually multiplied. Some were invested with titles named after ancient states, others after their birthplaces or fiefs. The State Duke Zong Residence, for instance, took its name from Zong Ganming's surname.
Fireworks and firecrackers made a lively din outside the State Duke Zong Residence, but in a side hall in the rear courtyard, more than twenty scholars sat in silence.
These scholars differed in appearance and expression, but every one possessed an extraordinary bearing, and all wore the blue robes of Grand Academicians. Even in Kong City, where scholars filled the streets, gathering so many Grand Academicians for a single literary assembly was no easy feat.
Zong Ganming occupied the seat of honor. A tiny black mole sat just left of the space between his brows. He had handsome features and an amiable face, and his appearance and bearing far surpassed those of ordinary men.
Though called a side hall, the room was extremely spacious. The Grand Academicians sat on the floor in two rows, each with a small black table bearing food and wine before him. Apart from the two charming maidservants behind Zong Ganming, no