The Fake Mogul

In 1983, smuggling runs rampant in Binhai City. Color-blind young man Li Guoqiang fails to make a profit reselling digital watches and is chased by the police. With nowhere left to turn, he breaks into the black market for antiques. Using his keen powers of observation, he joins forces with the mysterious craftsman Old Chen and makes a fortune passing off fake blue-and-white porcelain. But the buyer sees through the scam at once, and the underworld demands compensation.?

To get out of trouble, Li Guoqiang puts together a team and navigates a web of underground banks and other powers. After losing a covert battle over foreign currency at the Canton Fair, he flees to Hong Kong when the Cultural Relics Bureau comes to inspect. There, he makes the acquaintance of a powerful Hongmen boss and establishes a smuggling route. Returning to China, he bids on a state-owned steel mill and gets caught in a double crisis: bidding by day and stealing blueprints by night. A seven-day bomb countdown in the boiler room leaves his life hanging by a thread.?

Swept along by the tide of the times, Li Guoqiang rises from a down-and-out peddler to a business tycoon, with danger at every turn. Open Fake Empire and see how he turns the tables against all odds.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.