Song Fan, a poor young man from northern Jiangsu, was left behind when his mother went away and his father died early. Carrying his family's hopes, he headed to Shanghai's Waigaoqiao Shipyard to work as a contract apprentice.
He endured it all: dormitories in prefab buildings, welding flashes that burned his eyes, a demanding master, and layer upon layer of exploitation by the labor agency.
Determined to earn enough to survive, he gritted his teeth and struggled to stay afloat in the muddy waters of Shanghai.
In bustling Shanghai, opportunities and beautiful women came one after another.
A warm, perceptive older Shanghai woman, the stunning campus belle from his old technical school, and all kinds of women entered his life.
Starting as a shipyard apprentice, he fought his way forward, seized the opportunities of the times, and built a path from nothing.
With romance and passion on one side and the burning dream of entrepreneurial success on the other, watch how this poor young man carves out a place of his own in Shanghai's glittering foreign concessions!
