A Pawn Crossing the River: Promotion

Lin Guangze, a young man from Chaoshan, once served time in a detention center in someone else's place. Now he scrapes by doing delivery gigs in Guangzhou. During a typhoon, he saves a girl named Cai Yiyi, who takes an instant liking to him and puts resources and money in his hands. If he accepts, he becomes a pawn on the board. If he refuses, he'll never get anywhere in life.

But as he gradually moves forward, he discovers that an even greater beast is lurking in the shadows, sharpening its claws, ready to tear her family apart and swallow it whole. The moment the butcher's knife is placed in his hands, he becomes the deciding weight between two sides: should he betray a friend for advancement and greater profit, or stand up to the pressure of capital on behalf of her family?

More absurdly, Lin Guangze discovers that her family's company is the very one that exceeded pollution limits all those years ago, the one he took the blame for and served time in a detention center to protect!

Gratitude, love, and ambition, three forces twist together and drive him forward. His benefactor may not trust him, his lover could lose everything because of him at any moment, and his opponents are just waiting for him to make a wrong move.

A pawn advances: it will either be captured or promoted.