The Lazy Fish's Guide to Self-Rescue

Rewritten synopsis after completing the book.

This book is about starting a business and documenting history. It’s not about being reborn ten or twenty years in the past; it’s about living in the present.

The story runs from January 2018 to May 2021. It began serialization in August 2018 and was completed in June 2020. On April 1, 2020, the story’s timeline officially caught up with reality.

The paths of the protagonist, Chu Yuanxi, split between two parallel universes. In 2014, one version resolutely set out to start a business, while the other kept working as a wage slave, content to coast through life. By January 2018, the entrepreneur had already reached the pinnacle of success. His soul leaped across universes into the body of the slacker, bringing only his abilities and none of the resources he could show for them.

These were two turbulent years in the real world, both globally and in the business-startup scene. The book keeps pace with current events, covering nearly all the major happenings in the country’s startup environment. Amid all the excitement and upheaval, Chu Yuanxi finally upgrades and iterates on the startup venture that had succeeded in his original world through a tightrope walk. Starting with short videos on social media, he innovates again and again, redefines the playing field, and takes on the iron-curtain giants.

The book focuses mainly on the workplace, where people either scheme against one another in business or push forward through adversity. Each character has their own goals and convictions. There are sincere emotions, as well as selfishness and hypocrisy, all portrayed as realistically as possible.

Readers have said that being too realistic is the book’s biggest flaw, but it is also what makes it unique.