Rotten Mango - #175: The Mind Games of The Pick-Me Girl Killer (Death of WePhone CEO)

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

When he was found dead at the bottom of a building in Beijing - the police found two notes of interest. His suicide note where he named his killer. That seemed odd? And another note - a piece of paper that was handwritten. Where he had promised $2 million dollars to someone within the next 120 days. Could that even be a real contract? Would a handwritten random note be used in the court of law? Why was this successful tech CEO so scared of losing $2 million dollars? Why had he promised it in the first place? The answer will lead you to the person that pushed him off the edge of the building. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. Betta Bing Betta Bing Welcome to this week's mini-soda run, Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. And let's talk about Mark. Mark was at the beach. It's an early morning.

Nobody else was there but him. The water was surprisingly calm. Nothing but the sounds of the moving water. It was one of those days where nothing felt real. Even the sun shining off the sand, the sand almost looked reflective like water would be. It was hard to even decipher where the water started and where the sun kiss sand stopped. But more interestingly than that, Mark noticed a bunch of stepping stones in the sand, giant, smooth rocks that were placed like a trail heading straight into the water.

Now he's curious. He's feeling good. The sun is beaming down on him like a little warm and brace. The breeze is salty, but it's just enough cool. He took one step onto the first stone. It was a little shaky, but he got his balance. And besides, the stones were in the sand on the shore. The worst that could happen was that he would lose his balance and his pants pockets would be full of sand. And it felt so good. Why not take another step? So he did. He hopped over to the next step, and then the next stone, and something about the cool breeze,

the slight sounds of the ocean water, the sun beaming down on him. It felt like, it felt like love. It felt like peace. It felt good. So that's how he went from one step to step and three step and on the next step he fell hard. But the thing is he kept falling. He was no longer at the beach, but rather he was suspended in the air surrounded by high-rise buildings in Beijing. He could see the city lights at night. It's that he might have even seen his sister sleeping peacefully in her bed as he passed

by her window. We'll never really know what he saw, because next, you could hear the screams of the passerby's. Mark was laying on the cold pavement, dead. There was no beach. There was just Mark at the bottom of his residential building in China, and I think the reason that the visual of the beach is so important to this case, even though, like I said, there was no beach is because this case is known for that. How Mark felt just so loved and he felt so at peace and happy and looking out into this big ocean full of possibilities, and he felt safe enough to take one step, then another

step, and a third step, and then he died. So how do you go from one step to step three step dead? As always, full show notes are available at ronmingopodcast.com, but this is a Chinese case, and please let me know if there's anything lost in translation. I think that this is a rather big case, so I was actually able to find a lot of articles that I had professionally translated. I had a lot of my fian fiance's family help me out. That was the bulk of my research.

And I mean, these details, everything about this case is kind of infuriating. So just keep that in mind. Like you might need a stress ball. Now, let's talk about it. $10,000 a year is $833 a month. That's $192 a week and $27 a day. Listen, it's a lot of money, but it seems like a small price to pay. Divine the love of your life. True love, your real

soulmate. Welcome to the world of elite matchmaking. And you know what? Mark was getting a steal. This was one of the more affordable ones. If you were to work with a brand like CallerHer International, a local search of just one city is going to cost you $30,000. A national search is going to be about $45,000. And an international search to find the dream partner, no matter where they are across the globe, is a minimum of $150,000 but can easily run up to be $300,000. What?

With that kind of money, you don't even really need a matchmaker. You could just... I do even pay a penny. I know, I feel upset by that. Or maybe you want to work with the spindles who are a mom and daughter duo in New York City and they're actually known as the millionaire matchmaker go-to's if you work with the daughter Since she's newer to the scene the membership starts at $25,000 if you work with Janice the founder and the mom It's around 50,000

But if you want both of them to receive priority treatment Some clients have been hurt to spend a million dollars to receive priority treatment, some clients have been hurt to spend a million dollars. For what? They'll help you find someone? Yeah, the spindles, they only take male clients, but apparently they're great at finding you your forever partner.

Well, that is until your next marriage, because what's a millionaire without at least three marriages in their belt? But the matchmakers don't just set you up with people. I mean, they do, but a lot of them will actually facilitate super intense blind dates. So, where the person that you're dating actually

works for the company, they will analyze every little thing that you do wrong during your dates. For example, a woman was paying for matchmaking services. She was told that during her dates, she crosses her arms too much. She wasn't giving off that sensual sexual energy that a man would want to receive, and she actually found these tips to be more helpful than the dates that they were setting her up on.

So Mark, he put a lot of hope into this dating company. His parents had been begging him to find someone, and you need to do it fast before you get any older. You see, Mark's name is Su Shang Mao. Am I saying that? Su Shang Mao. Am I saying that? Su Shang Mao. Okay, so not exactly at all. Okay, Mark had dedicated his whole life to his successful company. And now it's time to start thinking about a family. His parents want grandkids. And you know what? Mark wasn't even mad about it.

He wasn't even like, no, Mom, I don't want to do this. I want to be alone. I want to be single. I want to have ground. Mark actually felt lonely. He could use a partner to talk to. He could use a partner to enjoy the finer things in life with. Did I mention that Mark was rich? But he wasn't actually always rich. In fact, Mark was born to a super rural village in China. And when I say village, I'm talking village, like you need to go to a well. Like I'm not talking small town vibes. So he was the youngest of the family. And he had three older brothers and an older sister.

So that's like five kids total. The parents, they're struggling to make ends meet. Each child was kind of left to just fend for themselves. It didn't create this hostile environment like you're thinking is actually the opposite. So when Mark's older siblings, they finally graduated, they start making money, they saved every single penny that they had to go towards Mark's education. First college tuition, and Mark wasn't dumb. He also didn't take these things for granted. He knew the sacrifices that his four older siblings were making for him, and he was forever

grateful. It just made him more motivated. Other kids are goofing around in college. Mark couldn't do it. He would just picture his brothers slaving away at their jobs, living in sub-park conditions, just so he could have a chance at college. He's not gonna waste that,

getting drunk with some college friends. So he put his all into his studies. Mark thought IT was the next big thing, which it was. So he starts majoring in IT. The guy couldn't even afford to buy a laptop. So what he would do is he would wait until his roommate was done with all of his work. And maybe the roommate's like, all right, Mark, well, I'm going to go to bed now or all right, Mark, I'm going to head out with my friends now. He'd say, oh, can I please borrow your laptop? And he would just kind of use the laptop at night. Mark was, despite all of this, he was doing so well

that he was even offered scholarships later in college. Everyone that knew him said that he was good personality, just one of those positive people that didn't try to use his situation as an excuse or a reason for any shortcomings. Just someone that worked hard, got good grades, you know? Now, Mark was even asked to go to the University of Beijing for his master's degree.

University of Beijing? There's a good university I'm assuming, because Beijing is. It's like Harvard. Yeah, okay. So this is, he's like... It's China. Yeah. Okay.

And, you know, he could even help a supervisor with their various research projects. So not only is he just like a student at this Harvard of China, but he's helping supervisors. And this was the first time that Mark was even making his own money, and he was just blown away. Not at the money. He's not like this very materialistic person,

but just the fact that he could do it. The fact that he could make money. This poor village kid that was always bullied, that was always made fun of, he could go to Beijing and make money, like this is literally the Beijing dream. It doesn't just happen because you work hard, there's so many different things that are involved. And Mark was shocked, but the university wasn't. He was actually one of the best programmers in the entire university of Beijing at the time and That's saying a lot. This is a Harvard of China apparently So Mike graduates and he finds himself working a few jobs here and there But he's his real passion as an app development and in all of his free time

Which he like didn't have any free time at all It sounds like one of those self-made millionaire success stories and it really is Okay, Mark starts building an app called We Phone He saves up 15,000 dollars to start it registers We Phone as an LLC and he launches it The way that it works, it's kind of like an app that you download on your computer or your phone It's like Skype. It's a communication app. It's like WhatsApp. We chat or Kakao talk and Mark put his whole life into this app. Like all his money, all his energy, and it worked. It worked really well.

At its peak, the total number of users was about 20 million people. Wow. He had raised tens of millions of dollars through wephone, and a lot of that was put back into the business, and he was making like over $2 million a year. He bought a house for his parents in the village, he gave them $30,000 a year for other expenses, which is a lot considering that they didn't have to worry about rent or mortgage. That's like $2,500 a month in the village. It goes a long

way. You know, he's really taking care of everyone. He even supported his siblings, the ones that supported him through college, he said, I pledge that I will pay for any of your children's tuition fees. In fact, I'll pay for any member of this family's tuition fees, as long as they want to study, I'm going to cover it. And with that, Mark went back to pouring his heart and soul into the company. He was living in the big city of Beijing when every day he would get a call, maybe via Wephone from his parents. Mark, have you stopped? Have you started looking yet? Have you found anyone yet? We've got a nice village girl here for you if you want to come back and meet her. Listen, we don't want to push you, but you really have

to start thinking about your marriage, about your future. I mean, what's the point of all this money if you're alone? What about the grandkids? What about the grandkids? The older you get, the harder it is, Mark. When are you gonna give me your grandson? Come on. The family name must go on. Now, Mark was so busy with work

that he just did not have the time. It's not that he didn't want to find a woman to spend the rest of his life with. He was ready for marriage. He was ready for commitment. This is not one of those like tech bro stories where he's like, I just want to fuck around and date like all these Instagram girls. I hate commitment.

Now he like really wanted to get married. He just did not have the time to go date a bunch of people to find his soulmate. I mean, how long would that even take and you're not even guaranteed to find your soulmate in that way? How many hours a week would he have to put into it? The idea of going on a million dates and none of them turn out to be the one is just depressing. He could be spending that time building his business. So since it's his parents' wish, he's like, okay, maybe I just throw some money at the

problem. Maybe I sign up for a dating service. An elite service that would match me with my soulmate. For the small cost of $10,000 a year, are you kidding? That's crazy. And that's where he would meet. So her name is Jai Xing Xing. We're going to call her Sherry.

Sherry was perfect. Well, for Mark at least. Well, actually, no, she was perfect for everyone. She was kind of the perfect dream girl. That's how everybody describes her. Not even the it girl, not even the pretty girl, but the dream girl. I mean, I know you can already imagine it, okay?

Cause if you have, if you've got guy friends, they always have a dream girl and it's always the same one. And they're always like this soft spoken, sweet, kind, nurturing girl, but she's also educated with a wealthy background, just like that dream girl. The one that you're like, oh, I would take her home to my parents.

That one. That is Sherry. Sherry's dad was a professor of science and technology, and her mother was a finance officer at a university. So I mean, they don't even just come from a wealthy family. They come from like an intellectual family, like a family that I would be very intimidated by. Her uncle and grandpa were teachers at two of the top schools, so they really were educated

folks. Now, I guess our Eastern society is a huge thing. And Sherry just made sense to the family. In a sense that, no, literally, if you had to come up and create the kind of daughter that this type of educated family would have, it would be Sherry. Sherry seemed to be naturally good at everything that she did. Not only that, but she was pretty, she had a bright attitude, she had this sweet smile, and literally everybody loved her. It was incredibly difficult to hate her, even if you wanted to. She was

obedient, respectful towards her parents, her family, her, you know, everyone just strangers. Honestly, people wouldn't even have been shocked if Sherry was spoiled because that's kind of what they expect from someone from this family. But she wasn't. She just kind of threw people off. Now, when Sherry's in college, she was described to be a fish and water. I never really knew this saying, but apparently it's supposed to describe someone who's in their element. And all the other fishes in the sea they wanted her. They were like look at that fish she's got rainbow scales and I like the saying okay all the guys they start pursuing her she's tall she's perfect five six

beautiful eyes and she almost had this innocent quality to her, everyone called her the campus queen. It's called actually they call it the campus flower. Oh my gosh that's even weirder. It's like the most like shea-haw like the prettiest girl in the campus. Oh my god. Like every campus has one. What do you call the prettiest boy in the campus? The grass of the campus. So girls are flowers and boys are weeds. Yeah. I mean true. She's kidding.

Sherry had this long black hair and it said that her pale skin was even more striking with her long black hair because you know you got to love colorism. Anyway, she was even studying structural engineering. Like are you kidding me? This is like a guy's wet dream. To a lot of guys they only dreamt of her. She almost seemed untouchable. Like that's how perfect she was. Structural engineering, like are you kidding me? This is like a guy's wet dream. To a lot of guys They only dreamt of her. She almost seemed untouchable like that's how perfect she was too perfect to even try to talk to After college, Sherry moves to Beijing and she starts dating here and there. But let me let me tell you You would think that Sherry would be a high-main-and-score friend someone who would wear ready to wear have a Chanel bag in every color, right? No, she dressed incredibly simply. Never asked for expensive gifts, and this just made

guys love her more. Listen, I don't know if it's hindsight, but she's giving pick me. I'm just kidding. Maybe it is hindsight, because just you wait. And maybe that's why the matchmaking company paired Sherry and Mark together. Mark obviously made good money. I wouldn't say that he's the richest on the website or on this dating company, but he was a millionaire and he was self-made. That's saying a lot. A lot of these kids on these dating companies, it's all daddy's money. And also because it's an app, tech app, right?

Like he could be the next billionaire. The next unicorn. Yeah, give it another three years. He could be, you know, the next. He could be Elon Musk. He could be the next billionaire. The next unicorn. Yeah, give it another three years, he could be, you know, the next. He could be Elon Musk, he could be we work. We don't know where this is going. Yeah, okay. And in this world, like he's a hot bachelor,

like not aesthetically, conventionally speaking, that's just what people are saying. But he wasn't just a programmer for a company, he owned his own company, he was going places, there was so much growth potential. And his company was already worth tens of millions. And he paid himself a salary of over two million. This is not just some dude in his mom's basement

being like, I'm an idea for this app. And the app actually went IPO. Oh wow. So it's a public company. That's insane. Yeah. So like, it's really not just some random dude in his dream that you're taking a chance

on. Like, he's making it a reality. And maybe the dating company felt like Sherry, with her wealthy background. She wasn't looking for money. She had money. And Mark wouldn't feel like he was being set up with a gold digger. Either way, it was a perfect match. So Mark described himself as a financial liberal, a relationship romantic, a life realist.

He just wanted to find a girl who could, you know, try good food with, see beautiful scenery, travel sometimes, have a good time! So Mark meets Sherry, March of 2017, and the two of them had actually talked online beforehand. This was their first time meeting, and Mark's time has blown away. Like if he had socks, they would be off. It would be blown off. Sherry was taller than him. He loved a tall girl. He really did.

She was five-six and he was only five-four and just looking up at Sherry and her height, he was in love. He liked it a lot, okay. Maybe a little too much. He liked that Sherry wore light makeup. She always wore athletic wear and something about being in your thirties and wearing athletic wear. And something about being in your 30s and wearing athletic wear all the time,

it just made her look like she was still in college, running around in campus. I don't know how to feel about that. It was clear to the matchmaker that Mark was already head over heels. During their first meeting, Mark was shaking in his chair. He was so nervous.

He was literally shaking in his chair. So the first meeting it goes well and Mark is like hey matchmaker tell me more about Sherry I want to know. Well she comes from a good background like I said but she's not a material girl she's not extravagant she doesn't go clubbing she doesn't like those types of entertainment she doesn't drink she doesn't even like to splurge on luxury items. She was even admitted to the top film school in all of China, but she was declined because her family wanted her to pursue something more academic. And speaking of family, oh she loves her family, she's incredibly family oriented, just

overall, wife material. Mark's knees were buckling. Oh my god, this is the one. This is the one for me. It felt like he was already just ready to marry this girl. He was so happy. He goes home, skip skip, and then he looks in the mirror that night. He's looking at his own reflection and he sees, you know, this heavy glass sitting on top of his rather large nose and he was short, he was shorter than Sherry, he's only 5'4", he was not conventionally attractive and he knew it. So he can't help but wonder what the hell does Sherry see at me? Like why does she even want to meet me?

Why does she want to meet me another time? He just had no idea. By the time that he did know, it would all be too late because Mark would be found at the bottom of his building, dead, with a wedding ring on his finger. And of course, everyone would rally around Sherry. She had been married for what? 41 days? And her husband was now dead?

This was devastating news. They asked her, Sherry, what do you think happened? Why did he do it? Were you guys not happy? Sherry would tearfully say, Well, some of his company's activities were illegal, and he just wanted to make more money in it. It resulted in him just constantly being anxious, and being terrified every single day that the police would come and arrest him. He had insomnia and anxiety, and he took medication for hepatitis B. Yeah, he had

hepatitis B. He didn't want to spread the virus to me and to other loved ones It was very serious, very contagious. He also took antidepressants and sedatives to calm him down And he was just suffering a lot. He just wanted to get rid of the disease and he would search online all the time About how to treat bipolar disorder. I think he might have had bipolar disorder. That was just so scared for him But now it's too late. So you think all the stress got to him, Sherry? Yes, I think mainly he was worried that he was getting short of capital for his company. And all his illegal activities would soon be exposed when he ran out of money.

And people believed her. Well, they wanted to believe her. That is, until a social media post was unearthed, where Mark, right before his death, named Sherry as his killer. So what happened during the 41 days of marriage? And how does someone manage to spend $5 million in just 3 months? In different cultures, dating is well different. So in the Western world, it would be unheard of to ask your partner how much they make

on the first date. They're not even your partner yet. They're just like your first date. Or maybe you ask them, how many properties do you own? What's your credit score? How much money do you have invested in the stock market? Where are your investments? Are you diversified enough?

What about your 401k? How much is your house worth? How much equity do you have in your house? This would be considered incredibly rude and offensive. Can you even imagine those freaking alpha male podcasts if this happened on a first date, what they would say, oh man, it would be bad, okay? Now I know some people who don't even know

how much their partner makes after years of dating. That to me is a little wild. Crazy, yeah. Yeah, like that to me is like, what? How do you even plan a future together if you don't even know what you're working with? Exactly. But in China, especially in the world of blind dates, I think it's more popular in like Asian cultures, right, to do things like this.

Because the reason that people join these matchmaking companies is not like Tinder. It's not like, oh, I'm looking for a fling. Maybe it'll get serious. Maybe it won't. When you join these matchmaking companies and you pay $10,000 a year, marriage is the end goal for all the parties involved. It's pretty common for couples to get married within months of meeting each other through one of these matchmaking companies. And since they're just there for marriage, and since they're paying money to meet people, it's a really straightforward path. Every question, every

action comes down to the end goal of, are we compatible for marriage? Now, I know we want to think like we live in a world where love is everything and it is. But money is a huge thing in marriage. It is, and it's even worse in China, and it's not because Chinese people are more materialistic or more money-focused, which I'm sure there's some individuals that are, but overall the culture in China. And it's not because Chinese people are more materialistic or more money-focused, which I'm sure there's some individuals that are, but overall the culture in China from what I've learned from being with the Chinese man for the past eight years and having a large group of Chinese people around me and my online research is that finances are not like this icky thing to talk about, especially when it comes to dating and marriage. It's not like

this taboo, oh my god, you're seen as money-. It's it's almost like trying to get to know someone. Like, hey, where are you at in life? What are your goals? How can we come together and create this wonderful family and have all these goals aligned, right? I think it's like for online dating there are just, let's cut through the chase. Everyone immediately would like to know someone's background before they even develop a relationship. I think you guys date very realistically. You want someone that has a job, right? That's a pretty standard thing. So in China, it's kind of like that,

but in the sense of like, okay, well, how much money are you making? And do you have any investments? And here's what I bring to the table. It's kind of like that. And I think it doesn't come from a place of materialism or money-hungryness. I think it comes from a place of not being as privileged. Yeah, I think they just want to talk about that first before...

They get serious. Let's beat the bush and then talk about that three months later. Yeah. Let's just go ahead and talk about it now and then work on the emotional part. And I think I don't know if this is true, but from what I can tell online, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it's nearly impossible for people in their 20s and 30s in China and honestly,

anywhere even in the US to buy a home, especially in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Think about buying a home in New York City right now. But worse. Yeah. But worse. A million times worse. Yeah.

To tell four or one. It's insane. I mean, the small worse. Yeah. Two, four, one. It's insane. I mean, the small tiny little apartments cost millions of dollars, which two or 20 something year olds, it would take their entire lives to save up and afford if even that, because real estate prices are always fluctuating. So in order for a married couple to have a house in the city, it means that their parents have either given their all sold their homes saved up their entire life savings for this.

And you're like, wait, why do you even need to have a house in the city? That doesn't even make sense. Well for one, renting is super expensive in the major hubs. And secondly, there's kind of a huge stigma everywhere in the world, but specifically in eastern Asia, I can say that Korea is kind of like this. Owning a home is very different from owning a home here. If you're renting, you're almost kind of look down upon in Eastern societies. Not just with your friends though, not just on Facebook. Kind of sometimes even at work. Owning a home means that you're stable enough to start providing for a family.

You have this home base, you're successful. It's very fascinating stigma, but I mean, I even see it with my own parents. They're like, why are you leasing your car? You should buy the car, Stephanie. And I'm like, but why? I think I want a new car in three years. They're like, no, no, no, no, because you need to own it. Because people are gonna ask you, if you go up to a traditional Korean and you say,

hey, Adjima, look at the new car I just got. They go, are you financing or did you buy cash? Did you lease it? What's going on? It's like, why does it matter? This is my new car. Do you want to ride home or not? I'm going to leave you here.

What are you saying? I know. It sounds tacky to some people to immediately ask them on how much money they have or what their family has or what properties they own. But myself included, I guess I can appreciate the straight forwardness of the whole thing. And again, you have to remember China is not like America. Even America is a place where the American dream sounds like a fallacy these days. Something that never actually happens.

But in China, it's even harder to make it. So its finances are important. Now I think the sentiment is becoming less important with new generations of Chinese people, you know, especially amongst Chinese Americans, but it is seen more with traditional families. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into warrior one in the break room

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or wherever you get your shoes. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. Let's talk about bride prices. That's the direct translation. It sounds weird, but it's called pinging. Pinging. Pinging, yes.

So it seems that the majority of China still operates with the bride price, which translates, it's like wedding money, wedding gold, bride money, right? And pinging, of course it depends on the socio-economic standing of people. For example, if a heterosexual couple decides to get married, the guy's family is expected to give the girls family a big lump sum of cash. And it's not just, hey, we're buying your daughter, but it's more so like a sign of respect to the brides family. And I've heard figures on the smaller end to a few, you know, hundred dollars, to a few thousand dollars, and then figures closer to the few hundred thousand dollars.

Or millions. Yeah, it's, I mean, I also heard that the figure eight is a symbol of good luck. So a lot of the times it could be $888, or it could be $88,888, or it could be $8 million. Yeah. Which is insane.

Now this is all rooted deeply in tradition. Way back then in China. The belief was that when a daughter is married and this was the same way back then in America, she would leave the family and the in-laws take her in as part of their family. So typically you'll move into my farm and you'll be like working for our family so you're a new employee of our family. So we're kind

of paying your family like hey we're taking one out of your little employee roster. And it's also to create good relationships between the in-laws because fighting with the in-laws is the worst. But this is supposed to make sure that nobody feels like they got the shorter end of the stick. Now this is the old belief that a wife would leave her old family. It's just not really a thing that's done anymore, but the traditions still exist. Now the younger generations are typically still doing ping-jings because their parents are telling them that they should. Or because it's just like a wedding tradition of like wearing something blue or not seeing

the groom in the morning of. It's kind of like that. So more so now, the bride's family will just take a big lump sum of cash from the in-laws to symbolize their daughter's worth and they'll return most of it back to the in-laws as a gift, or they will give it to the children as like, hey, kickstart your life. So for the younger generations, it's almost like, hey, my parents want to do this thing, where the other parents give us money and stuff, because I don't know traditions. But the way we see it is that our families are going to come together to help give us a big buttload of cash so we can kind of get our life together.

So it's basically parents helping the kids? Yeah, to make sure that they have a house or have a rentable space and some savings or maybe an investment into their future business or future children's future, right? It's essentially a money transfer from the parents to the children when they get married, but it's all in the disguise of tradition. So it all means well. And what I found to be interesting is that the money amount is not just decided by the groom's family, but it's kind of discussed heavily by both sides before the actual wedding.

And it's a figure that both are satisfied with. It's said that it shows the generosity of the groom's family. And on top of that, typically the guys family will provide the couple with a house. Whether they decide to give a big down payment on a house, which again, could be tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, or they could provide a couple with one of their properties,

which I mean, why is it crazy? And the girls family, they typically will provide the couple with new furniture their properties, which I mean, why is it crazy? And the girls' family, they typically will provide the couple with new furniture for the house, like they'll completely furnish this new house, or maybe some luxury vehicles for the couple, or some other luxury items. And again, this is different based on everyone's socioeconomic status. I think that this type of thing really only happens after people fall in love, after you're serious about someone. Like no one's on the first date.

Hey, what's your bride price? I mean, yeah, they're going to ask you, you know, do you have a job? Do you make money? Do you have any investments? But they're not going to say, hey, how much to buy you into marriage? Like that's... Like, another thing to note is when a lot of these people nowadays, when they join these type of dating service, all these information you already provided to the matchmaker.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's like Tinder. You already know, oh, this person comes from this type of background, you know, they have a six-figure salary or so, they already know these information. So they make it less awkward when we're talking. Yes. Yes. Less aggressive, more seamless. So the matchmaker is supposed to do all that work, right? So the way that it works now from what I can tell is that most couples will naturally start dating, whether they use the service or not. They'll just have a relationship,

and then eventually when it gets serious, they'll talk about getting engaged. And their parents will meet, and maybe they want to talk about, are we going to partake in these traditions? If so, what are we going to do? It's not like you just have your bride price in your bio and the guys are going shopping. I know it sounds like that, but it's not like that at all. It sounds very patriarchal when I first heard of it, but it's not. And again, the principle is just the kids are set up with something. And all

of this is just to explain that Sherry does not. Because at first, it might come off as incredibly confusing. Sherry does not do anything that's inherently alarming. Now, I'm going to take you back to when Mark and Sherry start dating. After their first date, Sherry takes the initiative to reach out to Mark first. She messages him, letting him know, hey, I was so impressed by you. I have only been in love once after college. And this feeling that I feel for you is coming really close to that. Obviously marks over the moon over this.

He's reading these messages. And soon after she sent some a video, a video of her villa in Beijing. Now, this is huge. It's not an apartment in Beijing. It's actually in the fifth ring of Beijing, which like, can you describe the rings of Beijing? So Beijing is built in these, like, just imagine circles, layers of circles.

The closer you're to the center, the more impressive you are. So a lot of people would just simply label their house, oh, I have a resident in ring number five. It will kind of give you an idea of how much the home is worth. It's like a location meant like the closer to Manhattan, you are the more impressive you are, for example. Wow. So there's six rings, right? And we just looked it up. Let us know for a while if you're from Beijing. You're like actually, you already had this 24. But um, Sherry, since him a video of her villa in Beijing, which

like I said, imagine having a villa anywhere, imagine having it in the upper east side of New York City, like you're rich, rich. She even sent him a picture of the deed to the property. The property was under her name, not her parents. Now again, this is kind of where the cultural difference comes to play. I feel like in the western world we'd be like red flag, red flag, this is weird. What are you doing? Are you trying to flex on me? This is so bizarre. But in reality, it was Sherry's way of proving to Mark that she actually genuinely liked him. She didn't need him for the money. She had money of her own. She wanted to show that she brought something to the table as well.

And Mark was ecstatic. He was also really new to love and relationships. He did not realize the underlying message that Sherry was sending, which was, I'm rich too. And in order to impress me, you're going to have to do a lot more than just by me flowers. This was like a nuance thing. So first level of this message is, hey, look, I don't need your money. I have money of my own. The second level is, I also bring something to the table. We would be a good match. And then the third level is, I'm not just any other girl.

You can't just think I'd be okay with the little bouquet of flowers, but Mark didn't know that, and he played right into it. He felt somewhat insecure about her sending that, so he texted her back saying, I can afford to buy a villa too. This was his way of trying to win back some of that financial power.

He wanted to have that as the man in the relationship, so he texted her a picture of his stock market account with a few million dollars invested, which would essentially equal in the amount that Sherry had houses in Beijing. So now Mark feels like, okay, we're equals again. Let's get that out the way. And Sherry starts confessing her love for Mark. Honestly, even for Mark, it all seems super fast. She kept telling him, I like you a lot.

I fell in love with you at first sight, actually. She's like, damn. She is so romantic. And from that day forward, the two acted like they were dating. Which I guess they were. Sherry would text him every single morning, good morning, every single night, good night, like a little teenager in love. Have an amazing day.

Hope your day was great. Miss you. They stayed up into the wee hours of the night on the phone, talking about their future together. She would say things like, we should get married. I want to have kids. I want you to be the father of my children. As soon as I saw you, I knew we were going to get married. I have to have kids. I want you to be the father of my children. As soon as I saw you,

I knew we were going to get married. I have never felt this before. Never felt these feelings in my entire life. Now, most people would have been cautious because Sherry's coming on strong, but Mark was a guy that was easy to love. An easy to give love. He felt really special. I mean, sure, he knew that money added to his appeal, but he was just happy to be in love. He felt really special. I mean, sure, he knew that money added to his appeal, but he was just happy to be in love. He was also really insecure at times. He would shyly ask, Sherry, well, what if a handsome guy approaches you? Would you change your mind? Oh, my God. Absolutely not. It's not about looks. It's about soul connections. Now, here's the kicker of it all. This is how they're talking to each other within two days of

knowing each other. This is not like one month in. This is not two months in, a it all. This is how they're talking to each other within two days of knowing each other. This is not like one month in. This is not two months in, a year in, this is two days. I just met you like two days ago. I haven't even known you Monday through Sunday. Like not even two business days. It's all happening so fast. There's so many red flags, but more than red flags,

there were distractions for Mark. None of his friends pointed out any red flags in Sherry. Mark's friends, in fact, they were all jealous that Mark had such a pretty girlfriend. They were hyping him up. Some of them even wanted to sign up for the dating company that Mark used. When Sherry finally met Mark's friends, they asked her. You know, Mark left the dinner table. So Sherry, what do you like the most about our buddy Mark?

And they're all giggling and elbowing each other like high schoolers? And she smiles and she shaggy responds, well, I love his sense of humor. And the guy friends, they stop giggling. They start glancing around. Some of them even give like a slight struggle. What?

Don't look at me. I don't know what to say. Because Mark is not a funny guy. At all. He doesn't have dark humor, he doesn't have light humor, he doesn't even have medium humor. Like the guy is not funny, he doesn't try to be funny, he's just not funny and there's nothing wrong with that. He's not even unintentionally funny. Like the guy is just not funny. So the friends are like, what the fuck is she saying?

Maybe she's seeing a side of Mark that we, after being friends with him for years and years, have never seen, which is unlikely, or this girl has no idea who Mark is. Or maybe she has a weird sense of humor, because what is going on? So the couple they date for a full two weeks before Mark gives her with a $150,000 Tesla Model S. What? Wow. This is like where people on TikTok would be like if he wanted to, he would. Sherry was so happy. She asked him to take photos of her with the car and he just saw a Timself. That smile right there. That smile is worth all the money in the world. And Sherry would post a Chinese Twitter, the pictures of her in the car,

but nowhere did she mention her boyfriend Mark. No where did she say, thanks to the best boyfriend for the dream car gift. Nothing, just pictures of her and her bright red Tesla model us. But Kari was telling all his friends, his family, everyone about his new girlfriend. He was over the moon, he starts even opening up to his older sister, and he says, I think she's the one sister. I think I want to marry her, but first I need

to tell her about. Well you know, Mark was a hepatitis B carrier. So hepatitis B is a serious liver infection that is typically spread by bodily fluids. So blood products like unclean needles, unclean blood, unprotected sex, mother-to-baby by pregnancy, labor, breastfeeding, it's actually a pretty common infection with more than 200,000 cases in the US per year. There is a vaccine to prevent it, and some people who contracted are sick for a few weeks, which is considered an acute infection, but others, they have the disease progressed into this serious lifelong illness, known as hepatitis B. Now, Mark is a carrier of HEPB, and even though this is a common virus, there's so much stigma around HEP strains, especially HEPB and HEPC. Some companies in China refuse to hire HEPB carriers, and it

just promoted more discrimination amongst the communities because it's like, oh, well if this company doesn't want to hire you, there must be something really wrong with you. It would be hard to find roommates, or partners would break up with people when they found out that they had had had be. The stigma was really, really bad, and it just sucks. I hate stigmas against stuff like this because it's like, oh my god, I'm so sorry that your liver is under attack right now. But like, fuck you.

It's like what? So Mark was a carrier, which meant that he had no symptoms, he had a normal liver function, no signs of any hepatitis. He was also being a responsible adult because he wanted to tell Sherry regardless, which I agree with him. What I don't agree with is what Sherry did with this information later. But we'll get to that. Mark tells Sherry, and personally, he takes her to the hospital so that she can get a better

understanding of what he had. He didn't want to downplay it for her. He also didn't want her to panic if it wasn't that serious. He was just going to let the doctor do the talking. The doctor told them, it's not contagious. We tested Sherry. Her test results show that she has antibodies, and nowadays, even if the mother has had B, which would be impossible for Sherry to get since she has antibodies, and nowadays, even if the mother has had B, which would be impossible for Sherry to get,

since she has antibodies, even if the mom has it, and you guys decide to have kids. The babies these days don't end up with had B, because there's a vaccine. So you guys did the right thing coming here, getting the clarification, but go on with your lives, like, everything's fine.

Just don't overwork yourself. You don't even need to take meds or anything. And when they come out of the hospital, the two of them are linking their arms, just don't overwork yourself. You don't even need to take meds or anything. And when they come out of the hospital, the two of them are linking their arms, just like skipping into the sunset. They're happy, I mean, this is good news. So now that Mark tells Sherry about his whole life, he feels like it's the next step to meet his parents.

Okay, so this is something that took me a while to get used to. But typically in Chinese culture, you don't introduce the parents to every boyfriend or girlfriend that you have. For example, I brought home boyfriend to meet my parents, not because it was like, hey, mother, father, this is who I see myself marrying. Do I have your blessing? It was more so like, hi, this guy's picking me up for a date. I don't know if I

even like him, but like, we'll see. Anyway, see you later. Can you memorize his face in case he kidnaps me? Mom, boyfriend, you know? It's kind of like that. And don't get me wrong, as you get older, it's stressful introducing partners to your family. But it's not as huge of a commitment. But in China, it's pretty big. Like you really only bring home a partner

when you're already sure that you're potentially going to marry them. You've already had that conversation of like, are we going to get engaged soon? Because then you need to meet my parents. All that to say, that this is a big freakin' deal from Mark. Huge. Like this means he wants to put a ring on it. So he's nervous.

This would be the first girl that he's ever brought to meet home his family. And he's from the village. So he's even more nervous because Sherry has lived most of her life in Beijing. He was nervous that she would hate it, that he's from the village. So he's even more nervous because Sherry has lived most of her life in Beijing. He was nervous that she would hate it, that she would look down on his upbringing. But she was the exact opposite. She was honestly amazing. She would deliberately talk about how much she loved it here. The areas fresher here, see so much cleaner than the city, and oh wow, look at that scenery.

And you know, Mark's family, they were coming from a place of insecurity. What if this Beijing girl, what if this New York city girl doesn't like it in this small town? But she knew that and she deliberately was making them feel at ease. She would take on the initiative to do the dishes, she would do the housework.

Anytime they went out as a family to go out to eat or whatever, Sherry would link arms with Mark's elderly mother and they would walk in talk. I mean, it was so cute. She's literally the perfect wife. The perfect future daughter-in-law, everything about her was perfect, perfect, perfect. And Mark's whole family was so happy. After they left, they were all calling him, blowing up his phone. Oh my god, you got to put a ring on it. This is the one. You have got lucky. Most girls that grew up wealthy and Beijing. Oh, they're not like this There are bitches. I'm just kidding, but they you know they don't like the village

She's a rare treasure and after the big family meeting mark feels so good. He's like, okay I got my family's blessing. I'm gonna propose Mark and Sherry they go to this little island called Hainan. It's like the Hawaii of China and Sherry, they go to this little island called Hainan. It's like the Hawaii of China, beautiful city, and Sherry was an awe of everything. She's like pointing at this and that, and she's telling Mark, this is where I want to get married, and we could have the perfect dream house here,

like a vacation house, and it would just be, oh, it'd be fantastic. So Mark nods and puts his arm around her. Like Giggle Gaggle, he he ha ha, you know? I do this when I drive by like Newport Beach. I'm like, yeah, one day we're gonna live here. But Sherry took this as, okay, well, I'm gonna get a real tour tomorrow. So she gets a real tour tomorrow. And of course, she has her own budget. For Mark, that is. She thought the house could be no less than 500K. Because what kind of vacation home is worth going to

if it's less than half a million dollars? Sherry would constantly check back and forth with the real estate agent, and when Mark said, hey, if you're looking at houses, can I, can I join the conversation? And she told, oh, no, no, no, no. The realtor's Mandarin is not standard. Meaning the realtor's dialect was different from Mark,

which is honestly just a pretty bullshit at reason, like I don't even know how to really rationalize what she said. But it worked. Mark was like, okay, well let me know. And Sherry was the only one in contact with the realtor. And therefore she was pretty much in control of this vacation home purchase. And in order to please, whom he thought was going to be his future bride, he bought a half a million dollar vacation house. I mean, of course, Mark thought he was going to be his future bride, he bought a half a million dollar vacation house.

I mean, of course, Mark thought he was going to get a mortgage on it, which is still insane, but he thought he was going to get a mortgage and make monthly payments over the span of what, 30 years, like most people do. I mean, even if you have the cash, most people do that because you want to invest the cash into other things. And that's literally what Mark said. That's why I'm getting a mortgage. But Sherry was pissed.

Why are you so stingy? Just buy the house and cash. It's easier, less paperwork. And it's for me to marry you, kind of like the bride price. Like it's going to be our marriage house. And I don't know. Like it just seems more complicated to get a mortgage. It's just people don't do that for vacation homes.

And with Sherry's constant, urging constant nagging on the side mark was like, oh my god, okay fine. He bought the $500,000 house in cash. And he not only put it in his name, but he also put Sherry's freaking name on there. They're not even legally married. So technically, her name didn't even have to be on there. It's not common law property, nothing. And after this vacation, the couple go to Hong Kong

And suddenly Sherry was no longer that humble queen anymore. She was a material girl She wanted on just this one Hong Kong trip. She purchased well mark purchased Dior shoes for $1,300 a Louis Vuitton bag for $2,000 Cartier diamond ring $36,000 the taun bag for $2,000 Cartier diamond ring $36,000. Remoa suitcase $600. Fendi backpack $2,000. Chanel shoes $1250. Another Cartier purchase of earrings and necklace for $12,000. And the hotel and food costs were around $3,000.

Just this Hong Kong vacation alone was close to $60,000. Oh my god. Which is insane. So within just, listen, I get vacation splurging, but like, what is that? Within just 50 days of knowing each other, Mark had spent nearly $1 million, including the house, of course, on Sherry. How many days? 50, not even two months.

Wow. $1 million on close trips, the house on the island, the Tesla amongst other things. $1 million, which, like side note, the guy is doing well, but he's making $2 million a year, and he has bills to pay and other financial obligations, and he's spending money like he was a billionaire at this point, like he was the founder of WeChat and not WePhone. Like it was insane! In Mark's mind, I think he rationalized it though, Like in his defense, I think he rationalized all this spending,

not as, oh, this is my lifestyle now, but as this is kind of like the bride price. You know, once we get married, things are different. I think that's what he was rationalizing. This is how much money he's spending, and he probably would have spent this amount of money at his level to marry somebody else, but he really loved her, so it made sense.

Now, on the last day of the Hong Kong trip, Sherry proposed that they get married in a few days, but she had something to tell him first. She'd already been married before. Okay, in Eastern cultures, unfortunately, this huge. And he's like, what? I think it's also the aspect of, why don't you tell me that sooner? Like, you want to get married, but now you're telling me right before we get married, you should tell me sooner. And he was so devastated. Well, what do you mean you were married before?

Well, okay. I was married, but it wasn't a serious relationship or anything. It was just papers. So I knew someone in college and he needed a Beijing House registration. Because if you're a resident of Beijing, you get lower tuition fees, better social security benefits. There's like a million and one reasons why having a Beijing residency is amazing. But not anyone can just get a residency. I think you have to be married to someone who has a residency or you have to have a property in Beijing.

Like it's complicated. So I married him. And then we got divorced. Well, okay. The reasoning somewhat made sense, but Mark thought it was odd. And he also found out that he had gifted her like $35,000 when they divorced. And he's like, why did you take $35,000 from him? Like, were you paid to marry him? That's weird.

And she said, no, no, no, it wasn't... No, it wasn't paid to marry him. It was a gift. A gift? Like, he wanted to thank me for being such a good wife, I guess, but not in like the real wife sense, but you know what I mean? I mean, I guess I know what you mean, but I just, okay, this is so much, Sherry,

can I just, just like give me a day to think about all of this. I just need to soak in. Like, there's nothing wrong with you, there's nothing wrong with me, like, we're good. I just need to digest this information. I there's nothing wrong with you, there's nothing wrong with me. Like, we're good. I just need to digest this information. I mean, that's pretty understandable, right? Well, Sherry's like, hell no. She got upset.

And this is very much giving. I'm upset because I got caught vibes. Like, you know when you go through your partner's phone and you find out they're cheating on you and you confront them and they're like, I can't even trust you now. Like, my phone, you went through it. You've, I've lost trust.

Like this is literally that. She's mad at him for catching her for doing something different than what she had said all along. And Sherry being the master manipulator, she packs up her clothes first and goes back to her place. And Mark is distraught. He feels so bad.

He's like, man, I feel so bad for her. He starts blowing up her phone and texting her. Sherry, come on, like I just needed to think about it. It's not that I didn't love you. Let's get married, I want to marry you. So they set the date for June 6th. Now they're on somewhat good terms. But the night before on June 5th, he asks,

Sherry, can I just see the divorce certificate from the first marriage? I just want to make sure everything is good. You actually are divorced. Shay, there was this whole fit. You don actually are divorced. Jay throws this whole fit. You want to see, you don't trust me. You don't trust me. You want to see my divorce certificate.

Okay, well, because you don't trust me. And I don't even want to get married to someone who doesn't trust me. You have to pay me $130,000 to see it. Listen, I really tried to make it make sense. But what? It's just so bizarre. She said, if you want to see the divorce certificate, you have to pay me $130,000, which honestly should be fine because if you really are committed to getting married tomorrow, then it's

like technically your money still, you're not actually giving me money, like you're not, you know, it's our money tomorrow when we get married. But like if you want to see it, $130K, to my bank right now. What? I mean, I realized why she lied, because we find out that she lied to Mark. And she was worried that once he saw the divorce certificate, he would know the truth, and he wouldn't marry her.

But at least she would be $130,000 richer. Well, I guess more like $1.13 million richer. So now Mark pays the money only to find out yes, Sherry did lie. She lied about the groom's name. This is important later, which is just so strange. And they were only married for three months, which just didn't add up with what Sherry was saying. And just all of it was just weird. The whole thing was shady, and of course the fact that she demanded money to see it with shady. So he's like, okay, I I need to think about it. I Need to think about this and Sherry throws a fit straight up blows up on him punches him in the eye

He gets a black eye and he does not fight back now. I'm not saying he should punch her back I don't like that argument of like you want to be equal on my punch you back, but like you know leave right Move her to the side self-defense like that. I all agree with but he just sat there and she continued to yell at him and hit him And this really goes to show that this guy was so abused Emotionally and mentally prior to all of this that it was too late I think a lot of the times people want to victim blame Mark because Because it's like, why didn't you just do this, right? But this literally to me shows he had already been abused. Like, he was being abused and manipulated by her for weeks, for months now.

And within a few days, Sherry of constantly blaming him, blowing up his phone, Mark started to feel guilty. He asked her one day, you know, is it true? What you said about falling in love with me at first sight. And Jerry starts yelling at him. How dare you talk to me about this right now? Shut up, I hate you. And Mark started feeling like he was the one that did something wrong.

And he said, wait, stop, Sherry. I'm the one that didn't know how to respect you. I really didn't even mind that you were married once. I'm just, I was so overwhelmed the past few days and I'm sorry, you're right. I'm in no position to be upset. I'm sorry you're right. I'm in no position to be upset. I'm sorry. So, the I'm in no position to be upset.

It's implied that Sherry used his hepatitis B carrier status in this fight. And he felt like he was in no position to be upset about her past when he was a head-beak carrier. Which like, why would you want to marry someone that would make you feel that way? I mean, it was just horrible. But Mark was in love. And like I said, she had been manipulating him for a while now. So Mark continues apologizing and shares like, nope, I don't accept your apology. Honestly at this point she was just milking it, like that's the feeling, you're just doing too much. And when Mark was getting frustrated that she wasn't even responding to him. She gave him an absurd request.

Okay, fine. You want to talk to me? Give me $10,000 a day as earnest money and I'll forgive you whenever I feel like you've repented enough. If you give me $10,000 a day, I'll talk to you and I'll try to make things work. This shows me that you're actually experiencing pain that you're actually trying to be serious about us. I'm sorry, what? And on top of that, I want another $50,000 right now for emotional damages. And Mark did it because he was under the impression that they were going to get married, and this was going to be his money, his her money, and her money, his money.

And the two do get married. They do. They finally get married. And in order to be forgiven for all of that, Mark paid $200,000 in total. And even on the marriage certificate photo, there is an injury on Mark's eye. So it's like, OK, well fine.

Now, their married life should be great, right? Of course not. Sherry refused to live with Mark. She said that high-rise apartments were terrifying and she was scared of heights, which side note, I understand, but Mark lives on the 15th floor. Like, it's not even that high. She sent him a news article of a family burning to death in their house and their apartment.

Yeah, do you remember the Nanny Arson case that we did? She sent him a photo of that and said, see, it's dangerous. That could be me. If the apartment gets burnt to flames, it would be hard for me to escape when I'm that high up That was murder. That was a murder exactly But she's like see this is what happened to me. I prefer houses. It's safer. I think you should get a house too

No, I don't think that's the case. What was going on is since they were now married Mark's apartment was acquired and bought before the marriage which means that if they divorce Mark's apartment was acquired and bought before the marriage, which means that if they divorce, Sherry has no rights to that apartment. But, if you were to sell his place and buy a new place after their wedding date, in the event of a divorce, Sherry would have her stake in that house. In house prices, like, I've never, ever, ever met someone who lives in the house growing up. Like, house meaning, if you have a house, you're a multi-multi-multi millionaire.

Insane. Yeah, like, multi-mult need to do because I'm so scared of heights. So when that didn't work, Sherry's getting frustrated. And she starts going through Mark's phone and finds text messages. They were from another girl that Mark had dated before he met Sherry. And this girl had messaged him and he kindly let her know, like, hey, I'm getting married, to which she responded, oh, well, I thought you were a really nice person and now I don't have the opportunity to go out for a meal with you, but you're a good well, I thought you were a really nice person and now I don't have the opportunity to go out for a meal with you, but you're a good guy and I wish you nothing

with the best. And he wrote back, you're also very sweet. I believe your soulmate is destined to show up soon. And when the time comes, as you said, we can go out on a double date. So again, it's very appropriate, both of them were incredibly courteous. But Sherry takes this and accuses Mark of cheating. She's like, based off these text messages, you're a cheat-nass hoe. And she packs her bags and demands a divorce.

And Mark is so distraught, he's begging her to stay, but also he's so confused. What are you talking about? I'm not cheating. Sherry, whenever we're apart, I miss you so much. I feel like I've been bewitched or something. Please, just forgive me one last time, even though he did nothing wrong. And Sherry said, as a woman, being cheated on like what you were doing to me. And like the potential of a second divorce is bad.

It's going to make me less valuable to society. That's just how the world works. And I'm emotionally damaged now. And for that, for me to really know that you will never do it again and that you really feel the consequences instead of just being another one of those IT tech bros that cheats on their wife non-stop. Pay me. Pay me $150,000 for cheating on me. Mark nodded his head. He was willing to pay anything for her to stay, literally anything. So Sherry sat down with him soon after and said,

I'm just scared you're gonna cheat on me again. If you do, I'd be divorced two times and I'd be so depressed, but it would also be so hard for me to move on, you know? So sign this piece of paper. It says that in the event of a divorce, you will pay me $1 million in cash and give me the vacation house in high none. That's the only way that I stay.

If not, I will divorce you right now immediately. I need to know that you have consequences in case you decide to cheat on me again. I'm not going to be one of those housewives that just turns a blind eye. Wow, it's like she's playing chess. Yeah. And he's playing Tetris, not even. I don't even know if it's checkers He's playing tic-tac-toe and this is not a dig at him

It's like when you're in love you're not you don't even think you're playing games, you know, you're just happy So Mark signs it and he was desperate to have Sherry back But things were never gonna be happy like Mark had imagined he thought soon enough after he signs this Sherry would go back to the one that was humble, that loved him so much, that connected with him, that, you know, she'd be one of those girls again. But she would never make a reappearance. Sherry just kept asking for divorces for different dumb reasons. She even got mad at him for giving his parents $35,000 a year.

She would say things like, you're giving them too much, it's hard for us to even start our own family because you're giving them so much money. What? Man, that's the price of your Cartier ring. Please sit your ass down. Sherry was even messaging one of her friends. God, I want to break up with this guy right now. And he doesn't want to break up and I'm so annoyed. Look, he's a four. He's an IT five feet four inches tall, 110 pounds. If he even finds a new girlfriend, I would congratulate him. And then Sherry would go on to send long-winded messages to Mark.

She told him, I have never lacked money. I have $3 million in personal assets at all the villas I own or in my name, not my parents. And speaking of my parents, they are well-known figures in the community. My father teaches at a university doing research. Did you know every single year at the university gives him $600,000 for his important research? Furthermore, all the guys that I have met by the dating company before you were better than you, and they are still wanting me, even though they know that I'm married. So if you really want to live with me, you can buy a new house because I don't like high-rise

buildings, and your apartment is too small. And if you're not willing to work with me, you can buy a new house because I don't like high-rise buildings And your apartment is too small and if you're not willing to work with me Then I will have no choice but to divorce you and find someone else The same day sharing messages her friend and said I've already thought about what I want to do I just want to divorce him and find a fresh boy to have fun with this time I want it to be a younger one. I'm just so tired of these old men I just want to get some money from Mark and get divorced. I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life with this kind of person. Now, I think at this point, Mark wanted out. He was realizing with more time apart from Sherry,

which is common with abusers, because they typically want to be with you non-stop, so they control every little thing that you do. But Sherry was playing this like push-pull game, where she would leave at days on end, but it actually didn't work in her favor, because with some time apart, with clarity, Mark was like, you know what? I do want to divorce this girl, like she's crazy!

And Sherry was shocked. She had been begging for her divorce, but when he agreed, she was shocked and she said, well okay, but remember, you have to give me a million dollars. Sherry, I've already spent more, more than enough money on you, way more than a million dollars. Iry, I've already spent more than enough money on you. Way more than a million dollars. I think that's more than enough. Nope. The one million dollars that you wrote in the paper cannot be reduced, and it's separate

from what you've already spent. If you don't follow, I'm gonna sue you. Don't try to negotiate with me. It's your honor that I married you. You're ugly, short, and stupid, and you should have felt lucky to have me in the first place. And then Sherry pulled out her ultimate bargaining card that she would abuse and use till death do them part. She said, you think I don't know? You think I don't know about your little company's

shady business that we phone is evading taxes? You know, I know. And I have proof because you gave me access. And I have family members that work with the government and I'm going to report you. All it takes is one report and you will be jailed for a life. You I have family members that work with the government and I'm gonna report you. All it takes is one report and you will be jailed for a life. You know, China doesn't play with tax evasion. I can't wait to report you and watch your company collapse and you become a prisoner.

I can't wait to watch you fall. It'll be the best. And Mark was shocked. He's like, what are you talking about? First of all, we don't evade taxes. Everything that you're saying is so exaggerated, I never did any of that. But Mark knew and Sherry knew that she was bad,

hit crazy, that she would fake documents. She would make it seem like he did. Of course she would. And he wasn't dealing with someone that was rationally upstanding and moral. At this point, Sherry took her mom and went to Mark's house, where she was seen in the elevator kicking Mark.

And even then, after the threats, after the acts of violence, Mark tried to appease her by calling her cute nicknames. But Sherry didn't calm down. Mark was so scared he moved to a local hotel. He just wanted a divorce, and that's what Sherry wanted, right? So why can't she just be okay with it? But then Sherry would post on her social media. And at first glance, it seems normal, but it wasn't.

Not from Mark. Sherry posted a picture of her uncle in his police uniform and wrote, "'Congrats to my uncle on his promotion to the senior police superintendent. So much good news in the family recently, smiley face.'" Again, to anybody that doesn't know this situation, it's a regular congratulatory post.

But to Mark, it't know the situation. It's a regular congratulatory post But to mark it felt like a threat and I can Listen the amount your heart drops to your butthole and you feel like the world is crumbling around you And you feel like you've been backed into a corner You didn't even do anything wrong and you're like why am I in this corner? And it's just all this anxiety of this craziness it's genuinely a mental game. And that is what Marcus feeling. Sherry is showing off her family's power

and her threats have a force behind them. He felt like Sherry's uncle would ruin his company and his career, and he didn't know what to do. Side note, her uncle was never a high ranking official in the police force. He was just a police officer. And he actually hadn't talked to Sherry in years. For whatever reason, they just weren't on good terms, I guess, or they fell apart.

So she's just making up lies and posting them to get Mark scared. So yeah, it was a threat. Anyway, a few days later, Sherry calls Mark to ask if he wants to meet to talk about the divorce. He's scared. He declines. And in the background, he hears a man's voice scream. Hey, you think you can pick on Sherry

and you'll have a good time? Pay it up the money. If you refuse to pay, we're going to make you go to jail. We're going to shut down your company. We're going to go to your house and rest you tonight. And Sherry hangs up. And Mark is pacing the room. He's like, my life is falling apart.

I have no more money to give her. I just, I wish I could hand her the money and be done with it If he paid her that he would lose the business and who's to say that he would even stop with her threats If he didn't pay her he would go to jail for life and lose his business like what was he gonna do? I do think that maybe Mark was doing some great area stuff with his company like any business might do I don't think that they should, but a lot of businesses, you know, sometimes they do enter a great area of like,

oh, I don't know if this is precisely legal, but it's not illegal. Like, you know what I mean. And I think that in his mind, with the anxiety, with the pressure, with the threats, it was building up to be this huge thing. He genuinely believed that he was gonna get prison time, potentially for life.

And Sherry was good at acting like she knew what she was talking about. She said everything with authority and power, and he started to believe it. And now that Mark was scared, instead of asking for that $1 million in additional cash, like the piece of paper that she forced him to sign, Sherry now wanted to take advantage of him in this emotional state. And she said, actually, I want $2 million now. First of all, Mark was losing his mind over the $1 million. He has no idea where to get $2 million. It's literally impossible. It will bankrupt him and the company and he will have nothing. He texted her. I don't have $2 million right now. Do you just want to

sentence me to death or something? I'm not trying to push you to death. I'm just using the law to protect myself. The damage that you have done to me isn't even enough to be fixed by many alone. It's my right to be compensated for the damage that you have caused me mentally and physically. After you pay for the emotional damages, my family and I will work out on our mental state. And we're not gonna ask you for anything more,

but if you keep doing what you're doing, you're gonna pay for this. What about the property and high-non? Well, I want that too. Just remove your name from the deed and give me an additional $2 million for mental distress for emotional damages. Sherry, I really don't have $2 million right now. I mean, look at the stock market recently. The market has crashed over 20%. Could you change the payout to 1.2? I'll give you, you know, we agreed on one. I'll give you 1.2. And after I'll give you, you know, we agreed on one. I'll give you 1.2.

And after I pay you that, I will literally have zero dollars to my name. I'll be bankrupt. That's still more than what we wrote on the previous document, but please. Nope, that's not okay. I'll just go to the police then. They will arrest you first and then remove you from your company. So go ahead, collect all your previous earnings, and then I'll sue you for all those damages that you've caused me.

You will regret this. So if you're confused, like I was, Sherry is threatening to sue Mark for good old emotional damages, which I don't know who taught everyone around the world that this is a thing, and it is, but not really. Like you can't actually sue someone for emotional damages after a breakup, you can't even sue a company for emotional damages if their product has hurt you emotionally. Typically, sure, you can sue for physical damages and add on emotional damages. But more often than not, the emotional damages is just to add impact to the physical damages.

You're not even going to get compensated well for physical damages. But let's be real. Mark isn't scared of being sued for emotional damages. That's just what Sherry is using as an excuse, but in reality, she's threatening to send him to prison. He said, even if I sell all my stocks right now, I won't have two million dollars. We'll just sell it now anyway. It's the weekend, Sherry. The market isn't even open. Well then sign this agreement, agreeing to two million dollars in transfer the money on Monday. Listen, you don't have to rush, please.

I'll sign the agreement, and then I'll transfer the money. Well, my lawyer is asking me if you don't transfer the money after the divorce, what happens then? And my uncle won't wait longer than Monday before filing a report. So how much money do you need by Monday? Total is $2 million, but you can pay $1.2 million first by Monday, and the rest, you have to sign an agreement to pay

60 days after we get our divorce. So you pay the rest of the $800,000, $60,000, which I think is totally fair. And if you don't give me the extra balance in the 60 days, you have to pay me $15,000 a day in late fees, which is just insane. During the messages, Sherry kept referencing her uncle. My uncle, this, my uncle, that after Monday, it's out of my hands, it's out of my control because my uncle will file a replace report. And the whole weekend, Mark just felt this

crushing weight on his shoulders. His chest felt like he had 200 pounds pushing down on him. Like, it was even hard to breathe. And when he did breathe, it was rapid and fast. And he wasn't even catching a break. He ran through every single scenario in his head, and all of them ended up with him being a destroyed man. And of course, there was the self blame and the guilt.

How did he let it get this far? How were his parents going to live without his support now now that he was financially wiped? What did he do wrong? Why did he even trust her? Why didn't you see the signs? So finally, July 16th, 2017, Sherry forces Mark to sign the extremely unfair divorce settlement

that said Mark would compensate her $2 million in cash within an initial payment of 1.2, and an additional 800K in the lump sum within 120 days after the divorce, and that's $15,000 a day in late fees if he doesn't comply. So if he was late on that $800,000 payment by a week, that'd be an extra $105,000 a week. And two days later, Mark transferred all his money every last penny, $1.2 million to Sherry.

He took his name out of the deed of the House on the Island, so that was hers completely. And that was the end of their 41-day marriage. Oh my gosh. In just one 41 days of marriage, Mark had spent more than $2 million. And that's not including the one million he spent before the marriage. A month after the divorce, Sherry started demanding the 800K. And even though according to the agreement, they had more time, Sherry insisted that Mark get a second mortgage on his apartment to pay her the money. Now at this point, Mark's family knew what was going on.

And at first they were angry, but now they were fully on board. They wanted to support Mark. They wanted to take Sherry down. They encouraged him. You need to go to the police. This woman will stop at nothing. She won't even abide by that stupid agreement that you signed. Who's to say that she's not going to ask for more money later?

Mark decided it was too much. He got himself an attorney. He gathered all their chat history. To give to the attorney, but even then he saw no hope. I mean, it didn't matter what the lawyer said. It was all pointless. And to pay for the lawyer, his company was going into the red deeper and deeper.

So Mark made a decision that he couldn't live with himself after what happened. And he posted on social media, and he just felt cornered. He had nothing to live for, and nothing to lose. So he posted a suicide note, along with three sets of files. Another file of his statement, Mark's chat records were Sherry. Mark's bank transactions that he had shared with Sherry as evidence. He wrote as the title,

We Phone CEO Mark was killed by the vicious ex-wife. We Phone will stop operations soon. Now, after he posted it, he quickly decided to take it down, but I mean, it was too late. People had seen it, taken screenshots, downloaded the files, Sherry's friends even saw it, and they started messaging Sherry accusing her of being the horrible person that she was. And Sherry was pissed. I guess she was embarrassed by her actions, coming to light.

She started bombarding Mark with text messages. Do you fucking wanna go to jail that bad? Tomorrow I'm gonna come over and I'm gonna kill you. You said you were killed by me, so why the hell are you still alive? Sherry was on the phone with Mark for 10 hours yelling at him, berating him, threatening him. Meanwhile, she also posted on social media frantically that her ex-husband, the CEO of We Phone,

had evaded taxes, was a scumbag that cheated on her non-stop, was violent, abusive, and horrible to her. And everyone believed her. The internet started attacking this poor man. September 6th of 2017, Mark and Sherry had their last conversation it lasted more than 10 hours. Sherry did all the talking, the screaming.

She kept screaming at him. I'm gonna come over, I'm gonna fuck you up. I'm not gonna let you die easily. You said I destroyed you? Yeah, then go ahead and kill yourself, why are you still alive? You wanna screw this up for both of us? Is that what you want? And around 5 a.m. Mark finally gets off the call.

And he felt drained, like he felt depleted, he felt like he had nothing to live for. He was completely broken, he had nothing. His life was ruined. So he wrote a letter about how he fell in love with his ex-wife, married her, and was forced to die by her. He went to the rooftop of his residential apartment building, sent a text message to a sister who happened to visit him to give him support, so she was in Beijing in his apartment. He said, I love you guys so much, but I just don't want to live anymore.

I'm sorry. I've removed the password lock off my phone, and I'm putting it on the rooftop in the corner, closest to the west door. And from there, Mark took one step, two step, three step, and fell to his death. When his family found out what happened, their lives were shattered. Mark had only known Sherry for 160 days, and now he was gone. She had played him every second of every day that they knew each other. When they found his phone records was Sherry, it was even worse.

Sherry was disgusting. She would constantly belittle him, calling him new money, but in Chinese there's a lot more vile of a word. For that, she told him that he was useless. His only advantage in life was that he could at least make some money. She said being Mary-Tem was the biggest mistake of her life, and she was the one supporting him. So with that, April 2018, Mark's attorneys filed a lawsuit, in an attempt to force Sherry

to return all the money back to Mark's family, and in response, Sherry posted a long message to social media where she said, well, hello everyone, I'm Sherry. I've been silenced in slasped September no matter how much slander and abuse I've received, as well as having my residents and phone number exposed, being threatened and harassed. I have been living in extreme fear during this time. There are some things I didn't say out loud because I have to respect the deceased. I would have rather suffered these unfair accusations

and great mental stress by myself. I knew that the majority of people who scolded me were motivated by their own inner sense of justice, and I have no complaints against them. These abuses are based on the so-called quote, truth. The quote, truth was told by Mark's family and their attorney. I told by Mark's family and their attorney. I can understand Mark's family. They set some unobjective and excessive things against me because

of their grief. But their attorney is supposed to be objective and impartial and should not intentionally distort the facts and mislead public opinion. Even from the standpoint of one of the parties, the way things have been going has turned my opinion upside down. Some people repeatedly slandered me for their own fame and fortune. Under the encouragement of my family and friends, I have decided to stop being silent, to face reality bravely, and to tell what I have experienced. No matter what the final outcome of this matter is, I will say it. In the next few days, I will tell my story of my relationship with Mark one after another, and I will leave the truth to the reader to judge.

The next few days, Sherry claimed that Mark was unfaithful. Sherry claimed Mark had hit her multiple times, that he was unpredictable and had mood swings that he had threatened to throw her off the balcony of the 15th floor. She also claimed that Mark had intense sexual fetishes that involved torturing her, but she didn't feel comfortable disclosing what happened. She said that she suffered in silence because she was so scared. So the civil lawsuit began, and it was wild. During the lawsuit, Sherry claimed a lot of things.

One being that Marc had faked his death. What? Yeah, she was like, I think he faked his death and he had to see the death certificate. And second, that whatever the WeeFPhone company earned during their 41-day marriage should also be split in half with her. Because she was his wife during those 41 days. I mean, just a greedy, greedy little bitch. I don't know how else to say it.

And as it turned out, she did not marry her first husband to help him out. No, she met him on a dating service, like the way that she met Mark. And he gave her $35, like the way that she met Mark. And he gave her $35,000 for emotional damages during their divorce. She did not marry him for his Beijing residency. But get this, there was a second marriage. That's not Mark. She married a second time to a famous Beijing businessman who gave her a car that was worth like a couple hundred thousand dollars. She went shopping every single day that they were married and he was shocked because before they got married she was doing the whole sportswear at the leisure girl vibe. I don't even care about money. But then

she just had these nasty spending habits and he's like, okay, I gotta divorce you. She demanded she keep the villa that they bought together as a couple and one point two million dollars in cash and a new BMW. And he was like, I just want to get rid of this girl. So he did it. And then Sherry married once more to another guy named Wang. And he purchased another house for her, spent a ton of money buying clothes and bags for her and they divorced.

Oh my God. So this is her fourth marriage. Yeah. So with the previous three marriages, Sherry became a rich woman without even doing anything. Wow. So the court, they dismissed the case. And Mark's family were left to pursue an even bigger fight. They didn't even know how they were going to, but they wanted to get everything back. Everything that Mark had given Sherry, they wanted it back. And it's not because they're money hungry. mean you it's literally the principle of it as of right now Sherry is laying low

She has not faced any consequences for her actions But I really hope one day there will be justice and I hope it's one day soon because I mean How do you do something evil like this? I feel horrible even borrowing ten dollars from someone I can't imagine what kind of person you have to be to do this without feeling like you have blood on your hands. She didn't need the money. She wasn't dying. Money can buy a few things, but it will never buy a mask big enough to hide Sherry's ugly little face. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Please be safe. Bye. safe. Bye!