Chen Haichao

Biodata

History

Previous Life

Chen Haichao’s family was devastated when Aqi, the production brigade captain’s grandson, drowned during a seaside fight between Su Hongmei and Li Lanxiang. The Chens exhausted their savings paying compensation, and his fourth sister was made to marry one of the captain’s sons. His mother subsequently spent much of her life burdened by guilt 1 3.

His third sister, Chen Pandi, married Wang Zhiwen, who mistreated her while maintaining an affair with Liu Chunlan. Haichao fought with him several times and eventually went to his door carrying a knife; Pandi later resolved to divorce him 6.

Haichao himself held various jobs, including moving furniture and guarding a gate. His marriage was marked by poverty and frequent arguments. After their two children took the college entrance examination, his wife insisted on a divorce, and they went their separate ways 1 10 20.

Rebirth and Aqi’s Rescue

Haichao awakens in 1980 with his older memories and a determination not to repeat his former life. Recognizing a familiar argument outside his home, he remembers the approaching drowning and races to the shore. He retrieves Aqi between waves before the child can be swept away 1.

The rescue prevents the financial disaster and coerced marriage that had harmed his family. It also changes their relationship with the captain’s household: Captain Wang thanks him personally, Li Lanxiang apologizes to Su Hongmei, and Aqi kowtows to him in gratitude 1 2 7.

Exposing Wang Zhiwen

Haichao warns Pandi and their mother about Wang Zhiwen’s affair, then recruits Wang Zhiqiang and Li Zhengjun to watch his house. Chen Xiaoqi accompanies them as a messenger, allowing Haichao to join the family’s shrimp gathering while the watch continues 5 7 11 13 14.

After Wang Zhiwen and Liu Chunlan are caught together, Haichao proposes marriage as a way to avoid a harsher official report. He pressures the Wang family by exaggerating the consequences that a recorded scandal could have for their relatives. The pair marry, removing the future husband who had abused Pandi in his previous life 17 26.

Building a Seafood Business

Haichao discovers a market for the small dried shrimp that villagers largely dismiss. A chance encounter with a truck driver becomes an opportunity for repeat sales, and he organizes his family’s gathering and processing around that outlet 9 14 28 39.

The business remains sensitive to collective ownership rules and village scrutiny. Haichao avoids harvesting excessive amounts of shared resources, favors the comparatively safer dried-shrimp trade, and supports his mother’s suggestion that their stock be explained as preparations for marriage gifts 28 41.

Supporting His Sisters

Haichao encourages his sisters’ request for new names, hoping the change might also help them escape their former unhappy lives. Chen Pandi becomes Chen Panpan, while Chen Sidi becomes Chen Sitian 30 34 36.

After learning from Lin Zhiyu that Sitian is still studying, he advocates for another attempt at the college entrance examination. His father agrees under conditions tied to her work and temporary-job examination. Sitian subsequently obtains a temporary job, giving the family another source of income 11 37 38.

Saltworks Proposal

Haichao investigates the abandoned saltworks soon after his rebirth and confirms that brine shrimp live there. He initially considers eventually contracting the site 3 5.

By New Year’s Eve, he has developed a more specific plan: use the outer ponds for shrimp farming and the saltier inner ponds to breed brine shrimp. He surveys the layout but recognizes that he needs official permission from the brigade captain before proceeding. The project remains a proposal in the supplied chapters 49 50.

Appearance

• Height: 1.75 meters, considered tall in his village 20.
• Eyesight: Described as 5.3, allowing him to distinguish people near the shoreline and spot the stranded timber offshore 1 22.
• Clothing: Wears practical winter clothing, including a padded jacket and rain boots when working around the shore and salt fields 3 22 27.

Personality

Haichao is fiercely protective of his family. His first actions after rebirth prioritize preventing his sisters’ suffering and relieving his parents’ burdens. Despite his desire to become wealthy, his ambitions consistently include bringing his parents, sisters, and younger siblings into a better life together 1 7 14 27.

He is opportunistic and willing to manipulate a situation when confronting people he distrusts. He presents remembered knowledge of Wang Zhiwen’s affair as something he personally witnessed, then exploits the villagers’ limited legal knowledge to push Wang toward marrying Liu Chunlan 6 17.

His family interactions are teasing and affectionate, though the twins regularly exhaust his patience. He bargains with them using small rewards, jokes with his mother, and complains about sharing his bed with restless children. He also insists on being treated as an adult—particularly whenever someone calls him Abao 2 3 13 31 36.

Abilities & Skills

Previous-Life Knowledge

Haichao uses memories of people and events to intervene before familiar disasters occur 1 3.

• Recognizes the circumstances leading to Aqi’s drowning 1.
• Remembers Wang Zhiwen’s affair and rejects marriage candidates who mocked his family in his former life 3 6.
• Limitation: Decades have passed in his memory; details, names, and the sequence of events are sometimes unclear 1 3 6.

Trading and Negotiation

He identifies buyers, bargains over prices, and works toward repeat transactions rather than relying solely on isolated sales 9 28 41.

• Negotiates the initial dried-shrimp sale at two yuan per jin 9.
• Translates his father’s local dialect into Mandarin during negotiations 41.
• Checks purchasing-station seafood prices to improve his market knowledge 33.
• Adjusts his plans around policy restrictions, gossip, and access to buyers 28 41.

Coastal Gathering and Seafood Processing

Haichao gathers seafood in receding tides and participates in the family’s drying operation 14 21 39.

• Uses hand nets, sacks, and a handcart to collect and transport catches 24 45 46.
• Helps spread, roll, winnow, sort, and pack dried shrimp 21 39.
• Takes advantage of fish driven into the shallows by cormorants; the passages do not establish that he commands the birds 45.

Practical Identification and Improvisation

His former jobs and general experience help him recognize potentially useful finds 20 30.

• Suspects that a large stranded log is ancient bogwood because it resembles furniture he once moved; he explicitly acknowledges that he is not an expert 20 25.
• Identifies a rescued bird as a cormorant chick and constructs a temporary straw nest 30.
• Recruits relatives and friends and borrows rollers and rope to help move the heavy log ashore 24 25.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Gathering tools — Uses a hand net, flashlights, buckets, burlap sacks, rain boots, and a handcart for coastal work 3 13 24 45.
• Suspected bogwood log — Recovered with family and friends and covered outside the house. He imagines making a rustic tea-table set from it, but its identification remains unconfirmed 20 25.
• Gold bangle — Finds a bangle caught around a sea bass and tries to put it on his mother’s wrist. When it will not fit, he promises to buy her one that does after becoming wealthy 27.
• Business savings — Locks his 130-yuan share of the larger seafood sale in a drawer alongside his remaining small change 42.

Relationships

• Chen Aiguo — Father and working partner. Helps gather, process, transport, and sell seafood; Haichao also persuades him to support Sitian’s education 14 37 41.
• Su Hongmei — Mother and close collaborator in protecting Pandi and developing the seafood trade. She recognizes Haichao’s contribution by granting him half the business proceeds 7 12 42.
• Chen Zhaodi and Chen Yindi — Married older sisters. He delivers family seafood and provides egg cakes for their children 9.
• Chen Panpan / Chen Pandi — Third older sister. He prevents her match with Wang Zhiwen after remembering her mistreatment in their previous life 5 6 17.
• Chen Sitian / Chen Sidi — Fourth older sister. His rescue of Aqi prevents her coerced marriage, and he later supports her wish to continue studying 1 11 37.
• Chen Xiaoliu and Chen Xiaoqi — Younger twin siblings. He supervises, teases, rewards, and frequently mediates between them; Xiaoqi also helps with the stakeout and seafood gathering 13 28 36 45.
• Lin Zhiyu — Childhood friend and romantic interest. She alerts him to Sitian’s continued studying; he privately decides to make his fortune before pursuing her 11 36.
• Wang Zhiqiang / Xiaoqiang and Li Zhengjun — Friends who help expose the affair and recover the log. He rewards them with two packs of cigarettes each 13 25 34.
• Captain Wang and his household — Regard him as Aqi’s lifesaver. Haichao hopes the captain’s goodwill can provide protection for the seafood trade and authorization for the saltworks project 7 41 49.
• Master Liu — Seafood buyer and prospective repeat customer 41.
• Xiao Ba — Rescued cormorant chick claimed by Haichao but raised largely by the twins. Its parents and other cormorants later appear near the shore during a major seafood haul 30 31 44 45.

Notable Quotes

“My sister has to choose her own happiness.” 25

“Mom, our family’s life will definitely get better and better, more and more prosperous. When the time comes, we’ll have everything.” 33