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The Pyramid Shaking Hanyang

: 《Joseon Pyramid Scheme Fraud Ring 'Geumrangye'》

"Secure Seolhyanggo, the elixir known only to the top 1% of nobility. Recruit just three people below you, and you'll live in luxury for the rest of your life."

A fraud drama that unfolds as a descendant of a prestigious family, who returned for revenge after their family's downfall, starts the first-ever multi-level business targeting Hanyang's noblewomen under the guise of a 'Gye'.

The peak of pleasure in the late Joseon period, the most glamorous and the most rotting. It was a time of chaos where the status system, which had become a mere formality, was silently shaking and money was becoming power.

The explosive development of commerce and the flood of illegal trade with the Qing Dynasty stained Hanyang with unprecedented luxury and greed. The capital, where merchants holding money and blinded noblemen were entangled, was a perfect stage for a deceptive fraud to prevail.

Guest, who was once from a renowned powerful family but sank into the blood of treason and suffered total ruin, took this twisted era as an opportunity. Guest returned to the heart of Hanyang with nothing but a desire for revenge and a cunning brain to deceive the world.

In fact, the high treason the family was framed for was nothing more than a foul shield fabricated to cover up the massive embezzlement and corruption of high-ranking government officials. The revenge of Guest, who had to lose everything overnight and shed tears of blood, was as sophisticated as it was cruel.

Instead of drawing a sword, Guest aimed straight at the most vulnerable point of the enemies who drove them to ruin: 'greed'. It was an extraordinary plan to empty the enemies' pockets to receive the price of the family's blood and use that wealth to tighten the noose around their necks.

Guest's fraud danced elaborately between two thoroughly dual spaces. Bukchon, Hanyang, where the powerful lived, was a perfect stage for camouflage.

Here, wearing the mask of a noble aristocrat, Guest blended in among the noble madams and daughters of prestigious families, elegantly and cleverly fanning the flames of desire.

The bait that stole the hearts of the madams was 'Seolhyanggo', rumored to be a top-quality whitening ointment from the Qing Dynasty. A premium whitening ointment that makes skin as white and clear as snow and gives off a subtle scent.

Although the actual product was just a crude ointment, the social world was instantly blinded when the glamorous illusion of it being a secret recipe of the Qing imperial family was added. Using the distribution rights of this Seolhyanggo as bait, Guest organized 'Geumrangye', a massive pyramid scheme that promised huge dividends every time a lower-level member was recruited.

The real stage where the greedy money sources hooked in Bukchon flowed was elsewhere. A secret house in a market back alley where the eyes of the police could not reach. The place where secret transactions and intense money laundering took place was like a glamorous yet closed gambling den, as if mocking even the bright midday sun.

In the center of this fallen paradise, Guest met Baek Yiseon. A wealthy merchant and former interpreter who treats the Qing Dynasty like his own backyard, procures the actual Seolhyanggo, and manages the back alley funds.

This sly fox, laughing languidly behind the smoke of a silver-inlaid pipe, became the most dangerous ally, willingly enjoying Guest's clever mind and lightly evading the Saheonbu's investigation net as if mocking it, showing the boldness to roll the stakes even in broad daylight.

However, a giant shadow finally fell over the bright sunlight of the house filled with greed. Sa Dohyun, a Jipyeong of the Saheonbu. Holding a cold and heavy power that seemed to carve bone, he caught the tail of this deceptive fraud shaking Hanyang and fearlessly narrowed the siege.

Tightening the noose around Guest's neck with the blade of the law, he finally stepped into the secret house and blocked the way to personally capture and control the stray cat that dared to mock the legal net in the palm of his hand.

A swindler who built a castle of lies after losing everything, a fox trying to leisurely run away with them in his arms, and a lion who set a trap to seize their breath. The deeply entangled fates of the three finally raised the curtain precariously under the sky of Joseon, which was rotting most brilliantly and glamorously while racing toward the ruin of their enemies.

🧴 What is Seolhyanggo?
A premium whitening ointment (solid cream) from the Qing Dynasty said to make skin as white and clear as snow while emitting a subtle fragrance.

It is rumored to be a rare imported luxury item with proven effects, but in reality, it is a bait product processed in secret by the head, Guest, to simulate an exclusive monopoly to hook Hanyang's social circles.

Regardless of status, it is a medium of desire that makes everyone from the wives of high-ranking officials to the concubines of wealthy merchants line up with bags of money.

🎲 What is Geumrangye?
On the surface, it is a noble and elegant social gathering where the wives and daughters of Bukchon's elite meet to share poetry and literature, and enjoy high-quality tea and incense culture imported from the Qing Dynasty.
-> Even the noble husbands consider it an elegant cultural exchange and willingly provide funds.

-> The wives have no idea it is a scam and voluntarily trust Guest blindly, under the illusion that they are making money through an elegant high-society business.

In reality, it is the most sophisticated and bold pyramid scheme and secret merchant guild in the history of Hanyang, where early noble members take massive profits by recruiting other powerful members.

It is the center that controls Hanyang's massive money flow, combining the genius planning of the head, Guest, the meticulous calculation of the merchant Baek Yiseon, and a dense information network extending from Hanyang's back alley beggars to the servants of officials.

It is the target of a persistent investigation and the core of conflict that Sa Dohyun, the Jipyeong of the Saheonbu who strictly follows laws and principles, seeks to destroy first while tracking Hanyang's mysterious fund flows.