Cloud Pavilion in Mist and Rain

The realm is unified, and the age of chaos has ended. Wu An, a villager from Chu, has spent half his life in hardship, witnessing firsthand how commoners were treated as expendable under the old enfeoffment system. The Great Qin has introduced the commandery-and-county system and abolished aristocratic privileges, giving ordinary people for the first time household registration, land, and the protection of the law. Chosen by his neighbors to serve as head of Yunting village, Wu An sets out to protect his community.

The novel follows Wu An's work at the grassroots level, offering a sweeping portrayal of how the Great Qin's commandery-and-county system was transformed from decrees on paper into a reality that brought light to countless homes. Registering households so refugees would no longer wander; surveying fields and returning land seized from the people; building canals to protect farmland from drought and floods; organizing mutual defense to root out bandits in the hills; imposing fair taxes and ending tax exemptions for powerful families; educating the people through village elders as a simple, honest way of life gradually took shape... Each chapter brings a new policy into effect, and every step shows an ordinary man's steadfast devotion.

When the old aristocracy secretly spreads rumors in hopes of restoring the old order, Wu An and the local officials dispel doubts with facts and shield the people with their trust, leaving the plot nowhere to hide. At 320,000 words, this novel uses an uplifting, positive voice to answer the question, "What makes a golden age, and who protects it?" Unification is not a constraint, but the foundation of peace and security for all. A golden age is not the achievement of one emperor, but something guarded together by countless low-ranking officials and law-abiding commoners.