Reborn in 1985: My Life as a Traveling Peddler

After waking up, business elite Chen Yuan found himself back in 1985, now a poor rural youth from Chenjiagou whose marriage had fallen through.

Faced with a bare-walled home and the contempt of those around him, the Myriad Worlds General Store System that awakened within him became his only hope of turning things around.

Starting with a red hair ribbon and a tin of clam oil, he traveled from village to village across the countryside.

He traded buttons for eggs, used Dacron fabric to break into the market, and won over children with novel toys, building his business empire one step at a time.

When his former sweetheart married someone else, when idle villagers grew jealous and started causing trouble, and when the director of the state-run store pressured and undermined him, Chen Yuan met every challenge with ingenuity and courage.

This is more than one man's story of struggle. It is also a vivid portrait of rural China in the early days of reform and opening up, full of the warmth of everyday life and the vitality of a changing era.

See how Chen Yuan uses a shoulder pole and two baskets to carry an entire golden age.