In 2008, in Linjiang, an industrial city in northern China.
Nineteen-year-old Chen Ye has just graduated from the city’s technical school for mechanical and electrical engineering. He has no qualifications or connections, and all he knows is how to fix cars and fight. His father disappeared after running up debts, and a local thug is demanding protection money from the small restaurant his mother runs.
Chen Ye only wants to find a job and pay off the family’s debts. But the night he stands up for his mother, he stabs a local hoodlum, dragging himself and several of his closest friends from technical school into the underworld.
They start out at a repair shop, collecting debts, guarding venues, and fighting over business, gradually establishing themselves in the old city. At first, they promise to make money together and face trouble together. But as the money grows, their enemies grow more vicious, and the brothers no longer want the same things.
Some want out. Some want to be the boss. Some betray their friends in secret. And one, bound by a promise made years ago, leaves his life behind in the coldest winter Linjiang has ever known.
Be careful with yourself