In 1996, poor carpenter Chen Tie is cruelly dumped by his fiancée, and his hard-earned wages are forcibly used by the village bully to pay off his debt with a pile of rotten, foul-smelling timber. Driven to desperation, he angrily chops the rotten wood apart, only to discover 18 priceless imperial gift pearls hidden inside a red sandalwood pillar! Chen Tie promptly sells his treasure and embarks on a journey to turn his life around. He buys heavy-duty trucks, returns to his village to recruit workers with generous wages, drives the village bully into bankruptcy, and acquires a state-owned factory outright. Using a dedicated railway line, he takes on the powerful underworld boss of the county town, crushing him with overwhelming industrial might. Ultimately, amid the forests and rivers of Northeast China in the 1990s, he builds an unshakable forestry empire!