"What's going on here? Are you all just standing around doing nothing?" Lou Zheng of Shili Village bristled at the gathered crowd. He had just returned from the government offices, hoping to apply for tax reduction for the village. The village's harvest had been meager these past few years; after paying four-tenths of it in taxes, most families were barely scraping by.
However, the county magistrate rejected their application, leaving him stewing in frustration. On his way back, he ran into Lin Changshu. A conversation between them lifted his mood slightly. But upon returning to the village, he was shocked to find the villagers embroiled in a brawl.
This circumstance plunged his spirits once again.
"What's the matter?" Lin Changshu saw, his son crying uncontrollably in the old man's arms, his younger brother sporting a bruised face yet glaring fiercely at the folks from the Ma Family, and his sister actually holding a glittering sickle. What on earth had happened?