The 60 Billion Donation Shock
At 3:17 AM, wife Lam Vi suddenly woke up after a short nap, startled by the buzzing of her phone. The mobile phone screen on the bedside table emitted a blinding light in the dark. A message from the bank reminded her that her husband, Tran Minh, had just completed a transfer of 680,000 yuan (about 2.5 billion VND). This was the third time she had received a similar notification this week; previously, the amounts had ranged from 500,000 to 800,000 yuan.
She quietly walked to her husband’s office door, and through the slightly ajar door, she saw her man still wearing headphones, staring intently at the computer screen. An excitement showed on his face that she hadn’t seen in a long time. Assuming her husband was working hard, she left because she didn’t want to disturb him.
This was also the time when Lam Vi was looking into a house purchase project, hoping to be near the school for their daughter. Unexpectedly checking the family finances, she was shocked to discover that over the past 14 months, money had vanished without a trace. Digging deeper, she was horrified to learn that her husband, Tran Minh, had actually donated a total of 16 million yuan (nearly 60 billion VND) to three female streamers through live streaming platforms. This amount was equivalent to their entire savings over 18 years, including education funds for their children, medical expenses for parents, and planned retirement savings.
“I thought he was working overtime in his office every night, not realizing he was giving gifts to women he had never met,” Lam Vi said with a trembling voice. Her left hand unconsciously caressed her wedding ring.
A Marriage Hard to Save
Discovering her husband’s secret, the family’s finances were on the brink of collapse. In addition to losing 16 million directly, Tran Minh had also borrowed nearly 4 million through various online lending platforms.
What pained Lam Vi even more was seeing her husband’s private messages with female streamers online:
“Why didn’t you come with me today? I miss you;”
“Yesterday, I gifted that host, and I cried silently for a long time.”
And Tran Minh’s replies were sweet, like “My love, don’t be angry” and “I will always love only you.” The intimate tone and cheesy words were even more than during the sweetest phase of his marriage with his wife.
“When I saw those recorded conversations, I suddenly realized that my husband was living a different life behind the phone screen,” Lam Vi said.
Social Media and the End of an Online Relationship
Tran Minh, 42, is a middle manager at a technology company. His annual salary, combined with stock incentives, exceeds 1.5 million yuan. He owns two properties in Beijing and seems to be a standard successful middle-class man. But behind the glamorous facade is the burnout from long work hours and the emotional emptiness caused by a cookie-cutter marriage.
“In meetings, I need to be the rational one; when I come home, I am a father and husband who must bear all kinds of expectations. Only in live streaming can I temporarily remove all masks and become the simplest version of myself,” Tran Minh recounted during therapy sessions.
In the same counseling session, Tran Minh revealed that every time he made a big donation, the female streamers, along with the entire audience in the live stream room, would say, “Boss, you are amazing!” It was an exhilarating experience. He stated: “The feeling of being the center of attention and being truly appreciated is even more attractive than winning a multi-million contract. At that moment, I felt like I was twenty again.”
After the incident, wife Lam Vi tried every way to salvage the donation money that her husband had “thrown out the window,” but the process was extremely difficult. Because by law, live streaming rewards are often considered “gifts” and are hard to demand a refund unless it can be proven that the streamer committed fraud or the user lacked civil capacity.
Lam Vi and her husband also decided to go to court for divorce.
With a broken family and depleted finances, Tran Minh later discovered that his personal account had been blocked when he tried to contact the female streamers. He was also removed from the “VIP sponsor group” he had once had exclusive access to. Those “friendships” worth billions vanished as if they had never existed.
“The most ironic thing? I discovered that the ‘innocent girls’ who initially captivated me were actually professional actresses in their thirties, and even their names and ages were fake.” The shattered dreams left behind only a debt notice from the bank and a family that could never return to how it was before.
According to 163.com