I Was a Middleman in the 1980s

In 1985, Zhao Changcheng, an officer in the security department of a cotton mill, was abandoned by his wife, who had no patience for poverty and left him for someone richer. After a bitter clash with his superiors, he angrily took unpaid leave. At the urging of his childhood friend Ma Datou, he borrowed two thousand yuan, boarded a green train bound for Guangzhou, and plunged headfirst into the murky world of “speculation and profiteering.”

During the more than forty-hour journey through this “world on wheels,” he encountered people from every walk of life and learned to strap Marlboro cigarettes to his legs to evade inspections. He also met Zhou Dache, a conductor with connections everywhere, and A Zhen, a sharp and savvy supplier on Guangzhou’s Gaodi Street. With a soldier’s courage, formidable fighting skills, and an eye for reading people, Zhao Changcheng quickly went from novice peddler to seasoned trader. He earned his first fortune and, after a series of clashes, made a name for himself as “Long Legs.”

As his business grew, tensions between him and Ma Datou escalated over how to divide the profits and their differing principles. They eventually went their separate ways and became bitter enemies. Meanwhile, local traders led by Chen Pangzi of Foshan saw Zhao as a thorn in their side, and the two sides repeatedly clashed on trains and in the streets of Guangzhou. To survive and expand, Zhao had to rally his own crew and form a partnership of shared interests with Zhou Dache, defending his lucrative route with both muscle and cunning. Amid this brutal struggle to build a fortune, he and A Zhen developed an ambiguous romantic connection, but he knew that distance and reality lay between them. By the time he had established himself as a well-known independent businessman near Xi’an Railway Station, looking back on the road he had traveled, he realized that behind his wealth lay the betrayal of a brother and a love lost.