During the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, Qiao Zhiguang, the head of the Qi County in Shanxi, died of illness due to a disastrous business failure. Shareholders came to collect debts one after another, and undercurrents surged within the family, waiting for an opportunity to divide up the family property. In the crisis, the eldest wife (Juan Zi) urgently sent the second young master Qiao Zhiyong (Chen Jianbin), who had passed the imperial examination, home to serve as the new head of the family, and asked him to cut off any contact with his childhood sweetheart Jiang Xueying (Ma Yili) and marry Lu Yuhan (Jiang Qinqin), the daughter of "the most stingy person in Shanxi". Qiao Zhiyong was stubborn by nature and didn't want to take over the business at all, but faced with the kneeling pleas of his clansmen, he reluctantly gave in considering the future prosperity and decline of the Qiao family. Poor scholar Sun Maocai (Ni Dahong) felt that he was full of knowledge. Seeing that the Qiao family was in trouble, he offered to help and became Qiao Zhiyong's military advisor. At the beginning of his tenure, Qiao Zhiyong and his party first rushed to the Qiao family branch in Baotou and made drastic personnel adjustments. His practice of appointing people based on merit quickly won the respect of all merchants. From then on, Qiao Zhiyong, a rare businessman of his generation, began his decades-long journey of ups and downs...