Don't Rent a Room 有房别出租

Description:

Lin Yi-Kun, sixty years old, owner of a private restaurant, had toiled alongside his wife Xu Qiu-Min for decades. Deeply devoted to each other, they had, thanks to his skillful management, accumulated a modest fortune…
One day, Kun's younger brother Lin Yi-Song introduced a new tenant — Lan Xin-Mei — to rent the vacant suite above Kun's restaurant. On the evening Mei moved in, Kun unexpectedly gave her a warm welcome, personally cooking several dishes, when suddenly he suffered a heart attack and died. The Lin children were grief-stricken, yet each had their own ideas — hoping to divide the inheritance and start new lives elsewhere, while paying only lip service to caring for their mother. When the will was read, the estate was divided into six shares: the four children, Min, and the newly arrived tenant Lan Xin-Mei was also one of the beneficiaries. Lin Yi-Song revealed to everyone Mei's true identity — Kun's illegitimate daughter. Everyone accepted Mei unanimously, but Mei, who had lost her mother in childhood and until the reading of the will had not known that the "uncle" who had cared for her for years was in fact her own father, did not resent their rejection. With her kind nature and longing for a home, she strove with all her might to make them accept her as time went by. The eldest son, Lin Mao-Sheng, was honest by nature; though he found it hard to accept Mei, he did not approve of his younger siblings' fierce behavior. Through their interactions he gradually came to understand Mei, and she realized that Sheng was the only person in the Lin family she could talk to. Min, seeing through everyone's motives, left home in a rage and fell ill from accumulated resentment. The second daughter, Fang, stubborn by nature, clashed with Min repeatedly… and after marriage, due to fertility problems, quarreled constantly with her husband Qian Cheng… The third son, Yuan, never engaged in honest work, chased quick profits, and landed himself in legal trouble… The youngest daughter, Ling, aimed too high, trusted swindlers, and suffered heavy losses in both money and love…
Seeing his family torn apart, plus troubles at work and his wife Zhang Qiang's constant complaints and suspicions, Sheng unwittingly grew close to his colleague Han Zhao-Yun, who shared his sorrows, and nearly divorced Qiang. The restaurant Kun had run for years, due to poor management, was on the verge of closing. Mei used her inheritance to buy out Fang's and Qiang's shares and, with Min's support, took over the restaurant. The change in Min's attitude toward Mei alarmed the children, who feared for their interests. Qiang even used her cousin Ding Yu-Fei to make Mei fall in love, hoping to strike at her. But in their dealings, Fei was drawn to Mei's frank and upright character; the act became real, and he fell in love with her. Yet his girlfriend threw up many obstacles, making this love even more tortuous. After many twists and turns, old and young in the Lin family finally changed their attitude toward Mei completely. Min at last understood that the true legacy her husband left was not money, but this good daughter — Lan Xin-Mei.