In 1981, when supplies were scarce, fisherman Shen Haichuan of East Reef Village labored hard all day, yet all his harvests were taken by his biased family. Refusing to sacrifice himself in exchange for food, he was drugged unconscious by his family and cast adrift on a leaky sampan into the vast sea. At death's door, the killer whale he had saved fifteen years ago came to his aid, gifting him a Water Spirit Bead and granting him the ability to survive underwater. Shen Haichuan struggled to survive on a deserted island, returned loaded with seafood, publicly severed ties with the patriarchal Shen family, and was allotted only a dilapidated shed and broken fishing gear, embarking on a new life of his own.