At five o’clock in the morning, a luxury flatbed transport truck backed away from the underground garage of the Qin family estate as a cold autumn drizzle dripped from the eaves of Tianhai’s high-rise towers.
On the flatbed sat twelve supercars: an orange Aventador, a red SF90, two silver McLarens, and a line of classic vintage roadsters.
By six o’clock, the private auction concluded. One hundred and twenty million yuan landed in a frozen escrow account.
Half an hour later, the front glass doors of District 4 Municipal Sanitation Station were pushed open.
A young man stepped inside, breathing hard.
He was wearing a brand-new fluorescent yellow sanitation vest over a plain gray cotton hoodie. On his feet were heavy black rubber rain boots.
In his left hand, he gripped a standard bamboo street broom with stiff, frayed bristles.
The depot supervisor, an old woman named Auntie Liu Xiulan, lowered her tea mug in surprise.
