This sweeping narrative is set against three decades of boom and bust in the real estate industry of the Dragon Kingdom. The story follows the personal fortunes of property magnate Xu Yuan, spanning the entire historical cycle from the leader's southern tour in 1992 to the complete collapse of the Evergrande empire in 2026.
The story begins with Xu Yuan, an impoverished boy from a rural village in eastern Henan, turning his life around. He gets into university, takes a job at a steel mill, then quits and heads south to Shenzhen. Starting out as an ordinary sales agent, he uses his keen instincts and extraordinary nerve to found Evergrande Properties amid the wave of real estate market reforms.
Over three decades, Xu Yuan transforms from a hardworking, down-to-earth entrepreneur into an ambitious titan of capital. The high-debt, high-turnover, high-leverage model he pioneers takes Evergrande from Guangcheng to the whole country at astonishing speed. The company lists in Hong Kong, and Xu Yuan repeatedly becomes the richest man in the Dragon Kingdom. He builds a football empire, enters the electric vehicle industry, and diversifies into a host of other sectors, commanding the spotlight like no one else.
But every feast must eventually end. In 2020, the Three Red Lines policy is introduced, and the empire built on high leverage comes crashing down. Commercial paper defaults, construction sites grind to a halt, and wealth management products implode. A 2.4 trillion yuan debt black hole puts the lives of countless people at stake, from banks and suppliers to homebuyers and migrant workers.
In 2023, Xu Yuan is placed under compulsory measures on suspicion of criminal offenses. Two years later, Evergrande in the Dragon Kingdom is delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its market value wiped out. The once richest man becomes a prisoner.
