A Sequel to a Floating Life

A Sequel to a Floating Life is an urban romance novel by the web writer Lonely Xiaoming. Taking the characters and ending of Chen Ergou's Wicked Life by Feng Huo Xi Zhuhou as its starting point, it continues the later story of the farmer Chen Fusheng, nicknamed "Ergou." At the opening, Chen Fusheng has just plunged from the countryside into the whirlpool of society and is beginning to make some progress in Nanjing when his wife, Cao Jianjia, suddenly passes away after leaving him a pair of children. This blow becomes the turning point of the whole book: will he sink into degradation, or will he return all his resentment to the world and climb toward the top of the pyramid? The novel is divided into two volumes, "That Moment, Iron Bones and Tender Feelings" and "That Stretch, Rising with Wind and Water." The first volume depicts the pain of losing his wife, family pressure, the probing of various forces such as the Fang family and Old Mr. Qian, and dealings with relatives and old acquaintances; it includes both somber passages such as "Jianjia's Funeral" and moments of spirit such as "Unrivaled in the World" and "A Grandson Like Chen Fusheng." The second volume turns to the journey: he leaves Nanjing and moves between Chongqing and Shanghai, negotiating, allying, or confronting figures such as the Tan family, the Crown Prince of Sunan, and Prince Nalan, laying plans step by step through car racing, negotiations, openings, and capital operations, and closing the volume with "Only with a great path in the heart can one rise with wind and water." The book interweaves rustic origins, brotherhood, business calculations, and urban romance, portraying an underdog gritting his teeth and climbing up through the cracks between power and capital.