On the covered walkway, Lin Feng smiled as he explained to Chen Miao.
"That boy is the only son of the Qian Family's third brother. He's young and doesn't know many people. I never expected them to send him down to spar with the others."
Seeing Chen Miao's puzzled expression, Lin Feng explained the Qian Family's circumstances.
Unlike the large and prosperous Lin Family, the Qian Family had few descendants, and its numbers had dwindled.
The current head of the Qian Family was named Qian Jing. His father, the previous family head, had only one child: him.
Looking back through their ancestry, that situation was far from uncommon.
Whether their luck had finally turned or Qian Jing had married a particularly good wife, his generation had produced three sons.
They were the Qian Family's eldest, second, and third brothers.
From that point onward, the Qian Family seemed to have broken some sort of curse and begun enjoying the blessing of plentiful offspring.
The eldest brother had a son and a daughter, the second had three sons and a daughter, and the third had one son.
If things continued this way, in another hundred years or so, the Qian Family might have as many members as the Lin Family.
Chen Miao had already met one of the second brother's sons: Qian Chao.
He was also a candidate to become the Qian Family's future heir.
Although the Qian Family followed the rules of passing succession to men rather than women and to the eldest rather than the youngest, they also believed in competition and survival of the fittest.
If someone wanted to contest the succession, that was allowed. They would fight a few matches when the time came, and whoever won would become the family head.
Thus, both Qian Chao and this