A Big Deal

Beijing, the present day. Due to the economic crisis in the West, high-flying, 20-something Zhang Ze is suddenly laid off from his trading job one day. However, along with college pal Liu Yijun, who's been jobless for a year, he's offered an opportunity by their friend Wang Yunpeng to go to Dubai and join him in selling some real estate there. Zhang Ze's girlfriend Chen Yu refuses to join him because of her own career, but Zhang Zhe accepts Yunpeng's offer all the same. But when the trio arrive in Dubai, they find that Yunpeng's contact, Wei, is recovering from a quadruple-bypass heart operation and cannot work with them for the time being. Yunpeng decides to take control of events and, with Wei's help, the three meet the real-estate developer himself, Huang, who's run out of money after building only half the homes and is desperate to sell them. They propose building a hotel-leisure complex on the remaining land to increase the saleability of the existing homes, and for them to manage it. Huang agrees on a partnership and the three set out to find investors for the US$2 billion project. Meanwhile, in Beijing Zhang Ze gets to know Zhou Yun, who recently returned from South Korea after being laid off from a company she originally started with a friend, Yang Yi. But as Huang's deadline for finding the US$2 billion investment approaches, the three aren't having much luck.