The Two Families of Taiping Village

In Taiping Village, the Zhang and Li families have been feuding for two generations. An early dispute over riverside paddy fields created a deadlock, and ever since, building houses, irrigating land, and weddings and funerals all became occasions for mutual rivalry. Li Yan, who works away from home, receives an urgent letter: his grandfather has suddenly fallen gravely ill, and he rushes back to his hometown. The household is in chaos, and the rival Zhang family comes knocking, insisting on half a foot of backyard homestead and demanding a re-survey of the boundary. The grudges of the older generation run deep, the villagers each harbor their own thoughts, and gossip flies everywhere. His father is weak-natured and knows only how to yield, his grandfather lies bedridden with his mind sometimes clear and sometimes not, and the old land deed recording the boundary is locked in an old wooden chest—whether it is genuine or not is still unknown. Li Yan, who has seen the outside world, does not want hatred to cycle on generation after generation. While guarding his family and the old house, he tries to dig up the truth of the riverside conflict from decades ago. In a small village there are no purely good or bad people; there is more of face, interests, and knots that cannot be untied. Moving among the Zhang family, village officials, and a host of fellow villagers, he strives to fight for what is right, and also hopes that Taiping Village can truly be peaceful. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Two Families of Taiping Village — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠