After an accident sent him tumbling into a cave while mountain climbing, Zhu Yuan, a high school senior and the bottom-ranked student of the 21st century, was reborn in 1999 as Zhang Xiantao, a boy from Wang Village.
From the start, he was in dire straits: local thugs came to force him out of his home with violence. After enduring beatings and threats, Zhu Yuan fled across the river by leaping from rooftop to rooftop in the dead of night, carrying only the eight thousand yuan in compensation he had received. He barely made it to the other bank, only to end up in a hospital, where plainclothes police officers of uncertain identities interrogated him. People kept setting traps and making things difficult for him at every turn. He was isolated, with danger all around.
After surviving the perilous interrogation, he broke free of their entanglements and found a place to stay in an unfamiliar county town, starting from scratch. Beginning at the very bottom, he built up industry experience and broadened his horizons, struggling to get by in the busy streets and everyday bustle, tasting life's hardships and comforts and learning to read people. He fought to survive in an era around the turn of the century marked by unchecked growth, lax oversight, and undercurrents swirling beneath the gold rush. Local power brokers and influential figures carved up the territory, like players in a game of chess, clashing openly and covertly over land and profit. Hard-fought confrontations were everywhere, and the dangers came from more than just business competition.
Armed with memories and knowledge from another era, Zhu Yuan keenly spotted opportunities everywhere. He relied on no sudden windfall, only patience, vision, and careful planning to gradually build capital, forge connections, and lay the groundwork for his business. As he fought for influence and dominance in the business world, he also broke through deadlocks on two fronts: the feuds of the underworld and the battles of commerce. Once a boy from the bottom of society, bullied and pushed around by anyone, he rode the tide of the times against the odds, overcoming obstacle after obstacle amid the shifting currents of business and the underworld, ultimately becoming a business magnate who shaped an era.
