Beijing Real Estate
One hundred and eight stars flickered strangely in the dim night sky.
The Ominous Stars had existed in this world since long before martial sects were born, long before wanderers of the blade ever roamed the land. They were older than the history of the Murim, older even than the dynasties of men. These mysterious celestial bodies—sometimes called Heaven’s proxies—would, from time to time, descend into human vessels and exert an enormous influence upon the Central Plains. Long before the people of the Central Plains ever recognized their existence, the stars had been quietly steering the course of the world from the shadows.
And as the ages turned and humans learned to read the heavens and parse the celestial currents, those who watched the stars with wary eyes began to appear—people who cast no shadow upon the Murim, who observed the stars only from within the dark.
“Strange indeed.”
Atop a sheer mountain peak, in terrain no human foot seemed meant to reach, a middle-aged man looked up at the stars and let out a short, troubled breath.
“Strange. So very strange.”
He was an astrologer who had opened his upper dantian and was reading the flow of celestial energy through his Wise Eyes. Fixed in those eyes now was a certain star, burning a dull, sooty black.
An Ominous Star would brighten little by little, blaze at its fiercest the moment a Descent took place, and then sink back into that dead color once the vessel died. That was how they worked.
“So why… why is there a crack in an Ominous Star?”
Someone, it seemed, was doing something to that unreachable star in the sky—and not just any star, but the most vicious among the Ominous Stars.
“Bizarre. Utterly bizarre.”
Even for a man who had lived as long as he had, it was a phenomenon he had never once witnessed. Amid the mournful cries of mountain insects, the astrologer could only keep tilting his head in bafflement.
“Boss, you’re really going to set up shop here in Beijing?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”
After hearing my grand vision—open an office in Beijing first, get famous, then expand branch by branch—Ilhong scratched her cheek, looking troubled.
“Uh, Boss.”
“What.”
“If you’re planning on the inner city instead of the outer city… won’t that be a little difficult?”
“Why?”
She dropped it on me out of nowhere: inside the city walls would be hard. Why was she already taking shots at my magnificent dream before we’d even started?
“To buy land inside Beijing you need a solid identity, and because it’s the imperial capital the prices aren’t anything to sneeze at either.”
“Hey, relax. I’ve got money.”
I thumped the wooden box full of gold ingots and the money pouch stuffed with gold coins, face full of confidence. As for the identity problem, Sister Eun Hwaran would sort that out.
“Still, it’s going to be pretty expensive…”
As someone who had once lived here, Ilhong kept fretting over Beijing real estate. But how expensive could ancient Chinese housing really be?
“Well, trustworthy brokers are rare, so we should get an introduction from the Merchant Leader, Boss.”
It wasn’t a small sum, she said, so we ought to knock on the stone bridge before crossing it. Fair enough—in an age where people would rob your nose right off your face if you blinked, picking a vetted middleman made sense.
Ilhong and I headed for the leader’s office at the Eunseong Merchant Group. Even the gatekeepers recognized me as someone who called the Merchant Leader “Noona,” and they stepped aside without a fuss.
“Sister Eun Hwaran, introduce me to a broker, please.”
I gave a quick knock and slid the door open with a rattle. Eun Hwaran looked over, mildly startled.
“…You startled me, Mujin. Your way of entering a room is starting to resemble your master’s.”
Me, resembling Hwang Geolgae? What kind of nonsense was that.
“Still, it’s been a while since you barged in like this. I might have missed it a little.”
Apparently I hadn’t paid her a single private visit while I was away at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. The head of an organization is always lonely—and she ran her merchant group alone without family, so the solitude must have cut deeper.
“Did I used to do this a lot?”
“Whenever my mouth got bored, now and then.”
Ilhong looked faintly stunned at the idea that I’d been coming and going as if it were my own house.
“I stocked some nice things in case you dropped by.”
She tapped a nearby drawer with the tip of her folding fan. I opened it and found it packed with colorful sugar cakes.
“So, what’s the matter? You want me to introduce a broker?”
After living as a beggar, I never turned down free food. While Ilhong and I were chewing through the sugar-glazed pastries, she asked what business had brought us.
“I’m going independent. Time to open my own troubleshooter agency.”
“A troubleshooter agency? Ah—now that you mention it, when you took on that silkworm job you did ask me to hire you as a troubleshooter.”
Eun Hwaran nodded as if the memory had clicked into place.
“Yes. So I was thinking of looking around Beijing for a good plot of land for business.”
Supply goes where demand is. I would soak up every commission those sword-for-hire vagrants let slip and invent a whole new paradigm of Murim contract work. She listened to my grand business plan with genuine interest.
“But Beijing land is expensive no matter where you go.”
“Please. I’ve got money, Noona.”
I thumped the heavy pouch against my chest. People say a full wallet brings ease and confidence, and that was exactly the state I was in.
“How much did the Murim Alliance give you… Fine. I’ll introduce you to someone decent.”
Eun Hwaran wrote out a letter of introduction in her elegant brushwork. We took it and ran straight for Beijing’s commercial district, then boldly shoved open the door of a brokerage house tucked at the mouth of an alley.
Inside, a middle-aged woman in loose, comfortable robes was mid-sip of tea. She stared at us in surprise. That had to be the “Madam Jang” Eun Hwaran had mentioned—the broker.
At first she looked bewildered at a couple of kids walking in, but the moment we produced the letter of introduction from the head of one of the Ten Great Merchant Groups, greed flashed sharp in both her eyes.
“Oh my, oh my—you’re guests sent by Merchant Leader Eun. Well then, what sort of land are you looking for?”
The letter’s power was absolute; the conversation raced ahead. She nodded along as she jotted down my requirements.
“Somewhere along a busy thoroughfare in the commercial district… population traffic flow…? In short, a storefront with lots of foot traffic, plenty of residences nearby, and a clear, open view so it stands out—is that right?”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
Beijing’s Goldilocks commercial zone, calculated for foot traffic, residential density, spending patterns, dwell time—the works. Location is everything in business. Real estate is an immovable asset, so staking out the right spot comes first. The dream I could never realize in Korea because the land was too expensive—I was going to make it happen here.
“You’ve got a good eye for land, sir. How do you know the commercial districts so well?”
“Right? I’m pretty good at this.”
True to a skilled broker, her flattery was no amateur act. Laughing lightly, she led us straight to a listing that matched what I wanted.
Crowds everywhere.
And so we came face to face with a storefront in a place with staggering foot traffic. The property itself seemed to be thriving—customers thronged both inside and out.
“As you can see, business is so good that under normal circumstances this place would never come on the market. But the family needs cash in a hurry, it seems. Wonderful luck for a young customer like yourself.”
It was a prime commercial location even within the heart of the bustling district—the kind of spot that drew the eye. Slap a flashy signboard or plaque on it and passersby would stop with a “Huh? What’s that?” and get pulled right in.
“There is just one problem with this place, though.”
“What problem?”
Madam Jang continued as if this were the most important issue of all.
“The price is rather steep.”
If that was all, no problem. How much money had I scraped together from every which way?
I pulled out every scrap of gold I was carrying—three gold ingots from the Murim Alliance Leader, plus dozens of gold coins from various bounties and commissions.
“Is this enough?”
I held out the entirety of my hard-earned income with full confidence. She clicked open the contents for a look, then startled.
“Sir, this is…”
Apparently shocked by a young customer’s unusual wealth. Not bad for a kid who used to be a beggar. I was just starting to bask a little in the feeling when—
“…I’m afraid this falls far short.”
“Huh?”
At Madam Jang’s awkward reaction, my proudly squared shoulders slowly folded back in. Beside me, Ilhong shook her head as if she’d known this was coming.
“Ahem.”
This was… considerably embarrassing. I had no choice but to keep clearing my throat in awkward little coughs.
“I told you, didn’t I? Beijing land prices are more expensive than you can imagine.”
We returned to the modest brokerage house to look for other listings. The moment we sat down and took a sip of tea, Ilhong started in with the I-told-you-so.
“I didn’t think it would be this expensive…”
Capital-region real estate—then or now—had a special talent for crushing people. Who knew my entire fortune wouldn’t even come close.
“How is land this expensive in the first place? What are ordinary people supposed to do? How are they supposed to live?!”
In this vast city of Beijing, not a single proper place for me to lay my head. Overwhelmed with injustice, I bellowed it out.
“Boss, Beijing land isn’t something ordinary people live on in the first place.”
“….”
She hadn’t empathized with my feelings once all day—just kept pointing out facts. Had I ever seen such a capital-T Thinking type?
“Haa… Still, this is too unreasonable. Does this price even make sense?”
I set my teacup down with a thud and let out a long sigh. Madam Jang added a word from the side.
“It makes perfect sense, sir. Beijing land prices have been on a pure upward climb this whole time.”
Absolute faith in Beijing real estate. She sounded exactly like one of those modern real-estate aunties back home. Sensing I was losing interest in buying, she set out refreshments on the table and kept going.
“If I’d had the money myself I would have bought that spot… Sir, if you wait too long you might end up paying the late-arrival tax.”
Because we’d walked in waving a letter of introduction from the fabulously wealthy Eun Hwaran, maybe she figured she could talk us into a purchase no matter what. One persistent auntie, this one.
“D-Do you have any other listings? Something cheaper.”
I almost wished the Demon Cult would just charge in and wreck the place so the land prices would crash. With that uncharitable thought, I asked her to show us something more affordable.
“Of course I do.”
And the place she took us to was a storefront in the far outskirts, utterly cut off from the commercial district—unlike the previous listing. A ramshackle shop on the verge of collapsing, no less.
“Whoa. I didn’t know Beijing had quiet places like this.”
Even Ilhong, for whom Beijing had once been her turf, sounded surprised.
“Huh.”
Even if it was a bit far from the center, if it had been near a city gate business might still have done reasonably well. But here the foot traffic was thin, the roads wound and twisted in a confusing maze, and every line of sight was blocked—a place that missed every essential element of a commercial zone.
“Madam Jang… how much is this one?”
“I’ll give you a special discount on this one. Just six gold ingots.”
“….”
Was that actually a special discount? One of those horseshoe-shaped gold ingots was worth a hundred gold coins. Meaning this woman was asking six hundred gold coins for a single storefront.
“You swin—”
The word “swindler” hovered at the back of my throat. But she was a broker Eun Hwaran herself had introduced, so that couldn’t be right. Besides, even Ilhong looked like she more or less accepted the figure. The people of the Central Plains… come to think of it, even on modern Earth they were almost insane about real estate.
“We’ll come back later…”
I said we would return and left. A strategic retreat, as they say.
“Beijing real estate… not easy.”
I’d charged in thinking it would be a breeze and gotten my nose badly bloodied. The troubleshooter agency of my dreams would have to postpone its grand opening for a while.
“Pffft.”
In the leader’s office of the Eunseong Merchant Group, Eun Hwaran listened quietly to what I’d been through and to my complaints about real estate—until she finally couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. Her shoulders shook as she chuckled. Mid-storm of candy-cake inhalation, I opened my mouth in annoyance.
“What’s so funny, Noona.”
“Heh. So even you don’t have a complete grasp on how the world works.”
Between handling Jamsil and reeling in the adults, I’d shown so many un-childlike sides of myself that this little failure was refreshing to her—and she was enjoying it.
“That’s what you get for looking inside the inner city. Space is limited and demand piles up there. Of course the prices shoot up.”
But if I opened shop in the outer city, customer access would drop off a cliff. And given the nature of the work, I’d be out of the office a lot—which meant I wouldn’t even have the city walls for protection.
“Still, that price was a bit…”
“Enough. Grumbling about a product’s price doesn’t change a thing.”
As a merchant who had spent her life pushing and pulling through every kind of deal, she was ice-cold on this sort of thing.
“Anyway, you came because you need somewhere to borrow money, didn’t you?”
“Yes, well… that’s true, but…”
Finding an investor was never easy. Money talk was awkward even between sworn siblings.
“I’ll lend it to you. My little brother is going independent—as your big sister, I ought to help out a bit.”
Eun Hwaran nodded and readily offered to extend the funds.
“Noonaaa…”
Yes. This was what a real older sister looked like. A certain other sister—who wasn’t even a lion—had shoved her own little brother off a cliff… Are you watching, Moyong Cheonghye?
“But there’s one condition.”
Her face shifted into that of a merchant as she said it. Apparently there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world either.