Recruitment (Part one) (Blessings for reader Dreaming of Roaming the World with a Sword on the Birth of Their Child)

On the first day of the eighth month, the summer heat had finally eased a little. That afternoon, the banquet began upstairs in Qixia Tower, which still had no signboard.

Despite the grand arrangements, only a handful of people were there at first. According to the plan, this was merely Huan Xin, as host, entertaining three traveling scholars-Xi Chao, Liu Cheng, and Fu Hong-with, at most, two young gentlemen of scholarly families whom the third Huan son had invited to keep them company.

Of these two young scholars, the older one, surnamed Luo and named Luo Zhunzhi, was only fourteen or fifteen. He was the son of Luo Chong, a member of Huan Wen's staff, and counted as a local Jingzhou scholar. The younger, surnamed Fu and named Fu Xizhi, was barely ten. He was the son of Fu Tao, another member of Huan Wen's staff, but counted as an émigré: his ancestral home was in Qing Province, and his father had been recruited by Huan Wen in Jingkou.

As far as standing went, they could probably match Liu Cheng and Fu Hong. But asking that local Jingzhou boy Luo Zhunzhi to take on three opponents alone and produce some dazzling scholarly-banquet drama was asking rather too much.

Fortunately, although it was three against three, this was a banquet, not a fighting ring.

Besides, according to the arrangements, members of Huan Wen's staff would soon arrive in order of rank. First, they were coming ahead of Huan Wen, calling on friends and bringing more local Jingzhou scholars to liven things up; second, in theory, they would also be conducting interviews.

That second function was better than nothing. Would Huan Wen really dare send Xi Chao packing without even meeting him? Or would these aides dare drive him away out of