Two Families in Taiping Village

In Taiping Village, the Zhang and Li families have been feuding for two generations.

A dispute over riverside rice paddies in the early years became an intractable feud. From building houses and irrigating fields to weddings and funerals, they had to compete over everything. Li Yan, who worked away from home, received an urgent message that his grandfather had suddenly fallen gravely ill, and hurried back to his hometown.

The family was in chaos when their rivals, the Zhangs, came knocking. They insisted on claiming half a foot of the courtyard behind the house and demanded that the boundary be surveyed again.

The older generation's resentment ran deep, the villagers each had their own motives, and gossip was everywhere. His father was weak-willed and knew only how to give in. His grandfather lay ill in bed, lucid one moment and confused the next. The old deed recording the land boundary was locked in a battered wooden chest, and no one knew whether it was genuine.

Having seen the world beyond the village, Li Yan did not want the hatred to keep passing from one generation to the next. As he protected his family and their old home, he also tried to uncover the truth behind the riverside dispute from decades ago.

In a small village, there are no purely good or evil people. There is mostly pride, self-interest, and knots of resentment that cannot be undone. As he navigates the Zhang family, village officials, and his fellow villagers, he fights to see justice done and hopes that Taiping Village can finally live up to its name and know true peace.