Although the entrepreneur recalled the story with a degree of nonchalance, Zhou felt quite impressed, evoking his interest to follow the businessman to conduct a series of interviews and visit his plant in the following years.

With more research on China's leading heavy equipment manufacturers, including Sany Group and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science &Technology, Zhou spent a total of 12 years to write Game of Wisdom, an epic tale chronicling how a century-old manufacturing enterprise walks out of a bankruptcy crisis to turn into an internationally recognized behemoth, and get listed in Hong Kong.

Recently, Game of Wisdom, a 40-episode TV series adapted from Zhou's novel, with himself as the scriptwriter, has been broadcast on Shanghai's Dragon TV and Zhejiang Television, as well as the streaming site Tencent Video since Nov 5.

Opening in an unnamed Southeast Asian country, actor Qin Hao-starring Sun Heping, an international trade manager of a State-owned machinery plant, receives an urgent call asking him to come back to take over the plant, which is facing bankruptcy due to poor management. The ambitious and capable entrepreneur masters a series of difficulties and crises to lead the plant, with a history of around 100 years, to a glorious resurgence.

Aside from Sun, the drama depicts another two entrepreneurs who have a nose for business, respectively Tian Yu acting as Liu Biding, a flamboyant yet decisive private company founder, and Tan Kai playing Yang Liu, a sophisticated chairman who's heading a giant State-owned enterprise.