Deep in the Hometown

In 1992, Jiangjia Village in the south was about to sink to the bottom of the water due to the construction of a reservoir. Jiang Chengli, who had been teaching in the provincial capital for 20 years, hurried back to his hometown after receiving a telegram that his father was critically ill. But when he stepped into the old house, his father had been buried, leaving only a puzzling last word: "Trees cannot be cut down, boxes cannot be opened, and letters cannot be read until everyone is together." A century-old locust tree, a wooden box buried under the root of the tree, and forty-seven letters that have never been sent. The letters included children who were sent away during the famine years, people who disappeared in flash floods, a daughter who had been concealed by her family her whole life, and a letter written to Jiang Chengli himself - it turned out that he was not his father's biological child. The three brothers and sisters, who had been at odds for many years, returned to their hometown due to relocation compensation and the ownership of their ancestral home; and as old letters were opened, they discovered that their father was guarding the village that was about to be submerged because he was not reluctant to leave the old home. He is waiting for someone to come back. A flash flood half a century ago, a group of children whose names were changed, and a past that was buried by the entire village. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.