A Hai, a young man raised by the river, arrives at Chaosheng Bay with an old, yellowed sea chart left by his father. His father, Li Guangjiang, had been the finest navigator. He went out to sea for the last time and never returned, twenty-two years ago. The name blurred by ink on the chart, Heichao Bay, became A Hai's obsession.
At Chaosheng Bay, A Hai boards Uncle Mai's Little Fullness and starts as one of a group setting out to sea. He learns to cope with seasickness, identify boat equipment, read fish finders, and study sea charts, following the fleet again and again into the deep blue. Over the next ten years, he saves money, buys a boat, and puts together his own fleet. He moves from making a living in coastal waters to opening up fishing grounds in the open sea, and from taking orders to steering his own course, completing his transformation from deckhand to captain.
The sea offers far more than catches and sunrises. Old Jin's legend of Heichao Bay, a sea that recognizes people, ghostly ship silhouettes that flicker across the water late at night, and clues to the Yongchang hidden on the back of his father's old sea chart... His decade at sea remains shrouded in layers of suspense and terror. Meanwhile, Shen Ruolan, a female streamer at the harbor who is just as passionate about fishing and has made a name for herself through fishing livestreams and promoting fish products, becomes the brightest light on A Hai's journey. The two stand side by side in the livestream room and amid the wind and waves, as their romance and careers intertwine.
