1986: Tidal Harvests, A Cherished Wife

Lu Hai, a modern food delivery rider, gets into a car accident while delivering food and unexpectedly travels back in time to a 1980s fishing village, taking over the body of a drunken nobody who shares his name. He knows the original owner’s fate: after falling into deep debt, he would be thrown into the sea by his rival Chen Xiong and his gang. Still shaken, Lu Hai is confronted by his ruthless uncle Shen Daqiang, who storms in to take cured pork from Lu Hai’s wife, Shen Qingge, as debt payment. Casting aside the original owner’s cowardly nature, Lu Hai steps up to protect his wife, turning everyone’s opinion of him around for the first time. In this moment of crisis, the Tidal Harvest Wealth System binds to him, granting him starter tools like tidal scanning. Ignoring his wife’s pleas, he heads to the shore at low tide, braving rough winds to catch several top-grade wild large yellow croakers. That same night, Shen Daqiang returns with local thugs to demand payment. Lu Hai shows off his fresh catch to intimidate them, temporarily defusing the crisis. The next day, he is blocked at the village entrance by Lin Jiaojiao, the village chief’s daughter, and her followers. Using the system’s preservation agent, Lu Hai revives the dying fish, then takes a small boat to break through the blockade. He successfully sells the croakers to a county hotel, pays off all his debts, and buys new clothes, rice, and flour for Shen Qingge. The village chief and Chen Xiong plot behind his back, forcing Lu Hai to take over a notoriously dangerous shoal called "Ghost’s Despair"—a spot no one dares to approach—hoping he will fail. But with the system’s detection function, Lu Hai discovers the shoal is full of seafood and signs the contract without hesitation.