The muddy paths in the mountains of the southwest hide the unspoken obsession of a young man. Lin Yi lost his father when he was young and lived with his mother who was a farmer. He was so poor that he could only use tree branches to draw a chess board on the loess and stones as chess pieces. However, with his innate photographic memory and amazing chess sense, he quietly honed his chess skills in the mountains and fields. When he was sixteen years old, he met Lao Zhou, the owner of a roadside chess stall, and won the enlightenment game in three minutes. He was glimpsed at his hidden talent. However, this talent, faced with a poor background, was just a worthless wild way at first.
The cold ridicule on the county court, the ruthless rejection of the provincial chess court, the exhaustion of moving bricks on the construction site, and the heavy pressure of real life pushed him to the edge of giving up time and time again. He is taciturn, has low self-esteem and pride, is not good at words but has a strong heart. In the darkest days, he meets the gentle and transparent Chinese girl Lu Xinglan. She is his only light in the quagmire of the city and a confidant who understands his silence and love; the strict Chen Jiuduan has become his guide on the chess journey from contempt to cultivation; the arrogant genius chess player Fang Ziwen is his strongest opponent across class and prejudice.
From a wild chess player in the mountains to a chess fanatic on the construction site, from a dark horse in the provincial competition to the peak national showdown, Lin Yi endured loneliness and humiliation, turning every fall into the confidence to move forward, fighting reality with perseverance, and breaking through life with his chess skills. This is a young boy at the bottom flying against the wind, an epic counterattack forged by talent and sweat. When he finally makes a decisive move to become the chess king, he understands the loneliness and perseverance along the way, and will eventually reverberate, and his ideals and love will eventually live up to his pursuit.
