An empire built on money, power, and flesh and blood comes crashing down beneath the bloodied shovels of migrant workers.
Sanchang Ancient City, a bitter winter at the turn of the century. At twenty-five, Yang Gaofeng, known as the "Western Venom," is worth eight million. He is ruthless and all-powerful. To seize the 50-billion-yuan "Daming Lake" project, he carefully lays his plans: he pretends to divorce to move his assets, uses his maternal uncle's qualifications to secure a subcontract, and grooms Zhao Xiaoli, an innocent bank clerk, into a social butterfly who can charm the powerful. His blueprint for a financial empire comes at the cost of the dignity and sweat of the workers at the bottom.
Old Geng's wife coughs blood in their shack, waiting to die, while the workers' dormitory groans in the cold wind. When Yang Gaofeng coldly declares, "Whose life isn't a life?" and freezes all the wages, despair that has long been building finally lights the fuse. A foreman kneels and begs for money. A letter from home is held high. Brains spatter across the ground. A bloody storm unleashed by the silent brings the invincible "Western Venom" down for good, pinning him to the frozen earth.
When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. In the mental hospital, Zhao Xiaoli mutters about blood and Land Rovers. Creditors tear into the two million yuan in inheritance Yang Gaofeng left to his ex-wife, Feng Xuemei, when he walked away with nothing. A police investigation tears open the bribery scandal. Feng Xuemei, mother of six, holds on to a fortune tainted by original sin and stands silent and steadfast in court. She wins in the eyes of the law, but bears a heavy burden.
As a black van carries a widowed mother and her children toward an unfamiliar coastline, the unfinished "Daming Lake" and countless shattered lives recede behind them. The feast of wealth ends as scraps, and the Game of Thrones dissolves into dust. The turbid waters of Laogou River keep flowing, unable to wash away the blood-soaked mud beneath the frozen earth or the dark currents in the depths of human nature.
