War of Faith

It is the 1930s, mostly in Shanghai. Wei Ruolai (魏若来, played by Wang Yibo, 王一博) is a mathematical prodigy from a poor mountain village. He gets a job at the Nationalist government's Central Bank, where the senior adviser Shen Tunan (沈图南, Wang Yang, 王阳) takes him on as a protege.

His talent brings quick advancement, but it also shows him the corruption inside the financial system. Shen Tunan's sister Shen Jinzhen (沈近真, Li Qin, 李沁) is a Communist underground member who works under a pianist's cover, and she gradually draws Wei Ruolai toward the Communist cause. The story later moves to Jiangxi and the contest over the economic blockade of the Central Soviet Area.

The setting is Republican-era China in the 1930s, when finance was a battlefield of its own. The series was filmed in Shanghai and Jiangxi, from January to May 2023, and directed by Yao Xiaofeng (姚晓峰) from a script by Weng Liangping (翁良平). The script took about five years to develop.

In the series, Wei Ruolai quotes an old saying: "Chinese has an old saying, ride the long wind and break ten thousand miles of waves" (乘长风，破万里浪).

The series premiered on March 21, 2024.

When the Magnolia nominations came out, Wang Yang was nominated for Best Actor and Wang Yibo was not. According to Beijing News, the production then said that it had submitted every lead actor for consideration within the rules, and that the submissions were not shared with the cast and crew. Wang Yibo thanked the crew and viewers and said he would keep focusing on each role.