The Golden Fisherman: From Village Bachelor to Island Tycoon

In the spring of 1983, Chen Yongchao, the most famous “three-nothing” bachelor on Wangchao Island, was dragged to the shore by a village bully who was also his creditor. The man shoved Chen’s head into the seawater. Before him, his lame father knelt on the beach, kowtowing and pleading desperately. Behind him, his mother lay in bed at home, coughing up blood, while his terrified little sister hid in her room, too afraid to come out. Not far away was the battered sampan passed down through three generations, soon to be taken from them. Chen Yongchao, a useless old security guard who had died a miserable death in his previous life, returned reborn just as he was about to suffocate, carrying a heart full of regret and a mountain of debt. He awakened the Treasures of the Vast Sea System. Others relied on luck when they went out to sea. He relied on the System: abalone in hidden currents, schools of yellow croaker behind reefs, and ancient porcelain in sunken ships. The sea no longer kept its secrets from him. From a battered boat to his first motorized fishing vessel. From gathering seafood on the shore and selling fish to leasing an entire stretch of tidal flats. From being mocked by the whole village as “Bachelor Chao” to leading the way in establishing a fishing cooperative. Chen Yongchao rode the wave of new policies and caught fish others couldn’t even see. He turned a barren island into a seafood supplier for the whole country and a hub for foreign trade. The name “Wangchao Island” became a golden calling card envied by everyone along the coast. Was the village bully who had ruined his family in his previous life watching his fleet grow stronger by the day? Were people all over the village consumed by jealousy, their eyes red with envy? Were matchmakers now tripping over themselves to visit the old house that used to leak whenever it rained? As Chen Yongchao gathered seafood, built boats, raised aquatic produce, processed it, and traded overseas, he seized every opportunity of the times and made a fortune. He went from a mocked bachelor in a fishing village, socially dead, to an island tycoon who married the prettiest village girl in eighteen villages across three towns and became the envy of the entire village. This time, he wasn’t just going to catch fish. He was going to reclaim a life that the waves had swept away.