The Grand Auction Hall of the Yanjing Municipal Land Bureau was packed to the gills with the most powerful figures in northern real estate.
Under the towering crystal chandeliers, more than three hundred property developers, commercial bankers, institutional investors, and municipal officials sat in plush velvet-cushioned rows. Armed security marshals from the city judicial bureau stood at every double door, keeping the buzzing press corps behind velvet ropes.
For twenty years, this hall had been the private hunting ground of the Seven Capital Chaebols.
They had rigged every major land auction across Yanjing. They used straw buyers, cartel agreements, and illegal bank guarantees to purchase state land at minimum prices, only to hoard the vacant lots for five years before building overpriced luxury apartments.
At the front row, on the far left, sat Chairman Situ Tai of Crown-Home Real Estate.
He was a thick-necked, sixty-year-old man with slick graying hair, heavy jowls, and eyes as cold as stagnant swamp water. On his left lapel sat the golden crest of the Capital Real Estate Chamber of Commerce.
Flanking him were the chief executives of the remaining six Capital Chaebols. They wore matching European designer suits, laughing and whispering among themselves with supreme, unshakeable arrogance.
