Tide Rising on Sand Islet

Setting: An alternate reality, summer 1987, the southeastern coast, Qingyu Fishing Village. Historical backdrop: In the late 1980s, restrictions on individual businesses were lifted and private entrepreneurship was permitted. In the 1990s, the market economy boomed, bringing the rise of individual businesses, township enterprises, and private factories. The era saw price reforms, outsourced processing for foreign trade, mass layoffs in the 1990s, the Southeast Asian financial crisis, and a rise in domestic consumption.

Protagonist: Chen Haisheng, reborn. In his previous life, he was forty-eight and had failed at life. Born in a fishing village, he was afraid of hardship when he was young and refused to go out to sea. He drifted aimlessly through jobs away from home, while his parents worked themselves sick and died young. His younger sister married far away and was mistreated. In middle age, he lost his job and repeatedly lost money running a street stall. His marriage fell apart, and he ended up lonely and destitute. After a sudden heart attack, he opened his eyes and found himself back in 1987, at the age of nineteen.

His predicament from the start: His family is poor, living in a mud-brick house. His father has suffered from rheumatism after years at sea, and his mother is frail. He also has a sixteen-year-old sister, Chen Haiyan, who is in high school. The family is in debt, owing several hundred yuan to the village credit cooperative, due at the end of the year. The villagers are conservative and look down on anyone who "doesn't do proper work." The fishing village is generally poor, and fishmongers force down the prices of the catch. He won't get rich by predicting lottery numbers. Golden finger: his complete memories as an adult, business knowledge from the future, knowledge of seafood gathering along the shore, and traditional crafts.