Huang Zhihe served as a reconnaissance soldier for eight years, but after making a mistake, he received a major demerit and was discharged early. When he returned to Luwu Town, beside the Pinglu Canal in Guangxi, he was met by his father's kidney failure diagnosis and his younger sister's university admission letter.
His discharge pay of more than 100,000 yuan was a drop in the bucket compared with his father's medical bills. He worked day and night to earn money. His father kept murmuring “Pinglu Canal...” in his coma. The relocation process was already underway. Then “Old Ghost,” a man at the wharf, showed him a way out: the ocean-going freighter Sea Shark was hiring security guards in international waters.
He was due to set sail in three months. Just as he was taking his father to Nanning for treatment, his former commanding officer called. He wanted Huang to go undercover in international waters and carry out two missions: thwart foreign forces plotting to sabotage shipping on the Pinglu Canal, and investigate the Sea Shark in preparation for taking it down. Over four years in international waters, he used his wits to battle all manner of shadowy forces, surviving one brush with death after another. He kept order aboard gambling ships and fought in brutal clashes between rival criminals.
The only person who made him feel he was “still alive” was A Yu, a girl who had been trafficked.
Still, he never gave up believing he would return alive to his now-submerged hometown.
His chance came on a stormy night. He broke open the iron lock on the lower deck and led the prisoners onto a life raft. During nine days and nights adrift at sea, his reconnaissance skills kept everyone alive. Then, quite unexpectedly, a five-star red flag appeared on the horizon.
The Pinglu Canal had opened to traffic, and he returned to Luwu Town, now sunk beneath the water.
On the canal bank, he opened a diving club called Underwater Hometown. He took people diving to explore the ancestral hall, the lanterns, and the homes beneath the water.
His hometown had sunk, but he had found his way home.
It's a wonderful, dreamlike canal, and it's written like a charm. It's not bad!
Very good! I will definitely watch it with more people.