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The Pyramid That Shook Hanyang

: 《The Geumrangye: Joseon's Pyramid Scheme Fraud Ring》

"Secure Seolhyanggo, the elixir known only to the top 1% of the 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 was exterminated, starts the first-ever multi-level marketing business disguised as a 'Gye' (private mutual fund) targeting the noblewomen of Hanyang.

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

The explosive development of commerce and the overflow of Qing Dynasty smuggling colored Hanyang with unprecedented luxury and greed. The capital, where wealthy interpreters and blinded aristocrats were entangled, was a perfect stage for a deceptive fraud to prevail.

Guest, who was once from a prestigious and powerful family but sank into the blood of treason and suffered the extermination of their clan, took this twisted era as an opportunity. They returned to the heart of Hanyang with nothing but a heart 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 everything taken away overnight and had to shed tears of blood, was as sophisticated as it was cruel.

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

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

Here, Guest wore the mask of a noble aristocrat, infiltrating among the noble madams and daughters of prestigious families to elegantly and cleverly stir up interest.

The bait that stole the hearts of the madams was 'Seolhyanggo,' rumored to be the highest 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 fragrance.

Although the actual product was nothing more than a crude ointment, the social world was instantly blinded once 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 the '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. That place, where secret transactions and intense money laundering took place, was like a glamorous yet closed gambling hall that seemed to mock even the bright midday sun.

In the center of this fallen paradise, Guest met Baek Yiseon. A wealthy merchant and former interpreter who frequented the Qing Dynasty, procured the actual Seolhyanggo, and manipulated the back-alley funds.

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

However, a massive 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 grind bone, he caught the tail of this deceptive fraud shaking Hanyang and fearfully narrowed the net.

Choking Guest's breath 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 toy with the legal net in the palm of his hand.

A fraudster 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 intensely entangled fates of the three finally raised the curtain precariously under the sky of Joseon, which was rotting most brilliantly and glamorously 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 and emit a subtle fragrance.

While rumored to be a rare imported luxury item with proven effects, it is actually a bait product processed in secret by the head, Guest, to feign a monopoly in order to hook Hanyang's social circles.

A medium of desire that makes everyone from the noble wives of Hanyang to the concubines of wealthy merchants line up with bags of money, regardless of status.

🎲 What is Geumrangye?
On the surface, it is a noble and elegant social club where the noble madams of Bukchon and daughters of wealthy prestigious families gather to share poetry and literature, and enjoy fine tea and incense culture imported from the Qing Dynasty.
-> Even the noble husbands, thinking of it as an elegant cultural exchange, willingly provide the funds.

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

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

It is the center that controls Hanyang's massive capital flow, combining the genius planning of the head, Guest, the thorough calculations of the merchant Baek Yiseon, and a dense information network stretching from Hanyang's back-alley beggars to the servants of officials.

It is the target of a tenacious investigation and the core of conflict, as Sa Dohyun, the Jipyeong of the Saheonbu who strictly follows laws and principles, tracks the mysterious capital flow of Hanyang and closes in to destroy it first.