As dusk fell, the evening sun dipped below the western horizon.
With most of the villagers returning home, crowds began to gather at the gate of the ancestral temple in Li Family Village.
But everyone instinctively found their own spot and sat down.
People chatted and joked with each other, and there was hardly any sign of disorder.
Even the children who climbed trees to hunt birds or went down to the river to catch fish by day—
—were now behaving themselves, sticking quietly by their parents' sides.
Because everyone knew that the monthly village assembly was a very serious affair.
Especially during spring planting and summer harvest, every member of the production team would report on their work and expectations in front of everyone.
As for routine meetings during the less busy farming seasons?
Sharing farming experiences, and discussing whatever new troubles had cropped up in each household, that's what these meetings were all about.
