1982: Building a Business Empire in the Special Economic Zone

Summer, 1982. The hot wind at Luohu Bridge in Pengcheng carried the salty tang of the sea, blowing open the gates of a new era.

Chen Jianguo clutched a crumpled stack of foreign exchange certificates as he stood before a corrugated-iron shed in the Shekou Industrial Zone.

In his previous life, he dragged his brothers down with him, was betrayed by his wife and framed by a villain. His father died young, and when his mother lay sick in bed, he couldn’t even afford a dose of fluorouracil.

Reborn into the tide of reform and opening up, he swore to ride the Special Economic Zone’s soaring momentum and make the beads of fate’s abacus clatter like thunder.

Fabric sales, product assembly, land battles, brand building, a stock market frenzy...

This is the bloody legend of an ordinary man who builds a business empire with courage, cunning, and the opportunities hidden in the cracks of his era.