In 1978, when the spring breeze of reform and opening up first came to the Northeast, Zhao Shanhe, a young man in the compound of a steel factory in Songliao City, was trapped in the cold winter of minus 30 degrees Celsius.
The job quota has been filled, and he is dependent on his sick mother. He can only walk around the streets on the 28th pole and make a living as a hawker by handing out egg and food stamps in order to have a stable meal.
He was open-minded and righteous by nature, not bullying the weak or afraid of the hard. He helped the educated youth when they were in trouble, protected his brothers when they were in trouble, gathered four dead friends, and just wanted to make clean money with his strength.
But the gangsters running rampant on the streets have no room for honest people to survive.
Stealing goods, beating people, charging high protection fees, and even disturbing his sick mother, pushing him step by step into a corner from which he could no longer retreat.
When patience could not buy any peace, Zhao Shanhe finally wielded the kitchen knife - from then on, the street vendor died, and there was a Zhao Shanhe who abided by the rules and valued friendship in the underworld.
He led the scout Wang Tiezhu, the resourceful Li Xiuwen, the all-rounded Liu Changshun, and the rock-steady Zhang Shouyi. The five brothers worked together to fight from the streets of Tiexi District. They licked blood at the edge of the knife to gain a foothold, and the black and white game expanded the territory. Finally, they swept through the underworld in the three northeastern provinces and climbed to the top of the throne that no one can resist.
But once you go up this road, you can never come down again.
He has kept the bottom line of "not harming the people" all his life, but in the end he cannot escape the fate of the underworld. He can only go to the dark side on this road of no return.
The wind and snow blew in Songliao year after year, and the name of Zhao Shanhe became the most special and tragic legend in the history of the Northeastern underworld.
