During China’s economic transition from 2010 to 2025, Chen Xiao, a young man from humble beginnings, sets out on the road to a comeback in the gray financial underworld of Jianghai City. After loan sharks drive his father to his death, his mother falls gravely ill, and he drops out of school to work as an enforcer for Jinding Loans. In secret, though, he devours economics books from the secondhand market and grows at a breakneck pace.
With an animal’s instinct for danger and a deeply conflicted nature, he is ruthless and decisive toward his enemies, yet tender and protective toward his family. Armed with extraordinary talent and a fierce determination, he reports his boss and strikes out on his own, then consolidates logistics resources and builds an intelligence network, gradually establishing his own private financial empire.
As he rises, he faces territory disputes with Zhao Shanhe, an old-school underworld kingpin; a ruthless campaign to box him in by Lu Ziming, a returnee capital elite; and deadly schemes from the underground banker known as the Smiling Buddha. He also develops complicated feelings for Su Mingyue, who represents justice; Red Scorpion, who has a talent for gathering information; and Lin Wanqing, who remains true to her ideals.
From the primitive accumulation of wealth through violent debt collection, to the wild expansion of P2P platforms, and finally the arduous pursuit of regulatory compliance, Chen Xiao is constantly torn between “survival and ambition” and “principle and profit.” In the end, he brings together Jianghai City’s private financial resources and establishes a new order for the industry, only to turn himself in to the police. He spends five years in prison seeking redemption for the original sins of capital, carving out a blood-soaked path of his own in a life divided between light and darkness.
