Back to 1984: It All Began When I Saved My Wife

Lin Wenbin, already financially independent, is reborn. With his memories of the future, he quickly earns his first fortune.

Just as he’s ready to make his big move, the commercial complex he’s been planning grinds to a halt when a Shang-Zhou bronze ding worth millions is “unearthed” at the site. The cultural authorities seize the opportunity to demand an exorbitant sum. Realizing someone has set him up, Lin Wenbin enlists his brother-in-law, Zhou Wenqiang, to bring in a mysterious expert from Hong Kong, Charlie Wen, to “retrieve” the bronze ding and break the deadlock.

But the ding has already become the eye of a storm.

Factory director Bi’s deeply indebted son, Bi Xiaohao, is about to swap a fake ding for the real one to pay off his gambling debts to loan sharks.

Local thug Zhan Long and his gang have their eyes on the treasure too. By a twist of fate, they steal Charlie Wen’s suitcase at the train station, packed with top-of-the-line gear, and suddenly trade their old weapons for new ones. Charlie Wen, meanwhile, is reduced to a “starter-gear” player, forced to make do with basic tools from the supply and marketing cooperative.

One night, one factory, one ding. The factory director’s son, local thieves, international burglars, corrupt officials behind the scenes, and loan-shark enforcers… several factions, each unaware of the others, collide in a sweltering textile mill. Swapping the real thing for a fake, forcing locks, cutting the power, and robbing one another, they plunge into a chain of absurd, chaotic misadventures.