Text丨Wang Huanrong
Editor丨Du Wenwen
On the day he was extradited back to China, Zhu Chunrong was very happy and talked and laughed all the way.
The police reprimanded him: "What are you laughing at, you committed such a big thing, running around abroad, how much police power did it take to bring you back?" He stopped laughing, but showed no remorse, "The whole person is in a bad state." ”
The 43-year-old, ordinary-looking homestay owner is suspected of fundraising fraud and illegally absorbing public deposits. As of the morning of June 6, a total of 462 victims across the country had reported to the police, and the actual amount of damage was as high as 48.33 million.
The day before he escaped, Zhu Chunrong was still signing a contract with shareholders, defrauded the last tens of thousands of yuan, and took it to a casino in Thailand, but "made two handfuls and lost", and after his visa expired, he went to Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, and traveled while fleeing until he was arrested in early May.
The two-year-long scam, which lasted from early 2022 to early 2024, has the usual elements of hunting in popular scam movies in recent years: a man who suddenly disappears, a woman whose position is unknown, an elaborate illusion, and a greed that consumes everything.
But the location of the scam is not in Southeast Asia, but in Dali, a utopia shaped by countless romantic narratives, and a place that urban migrant workers in the post-epidemic era are fascinated by.
Romance and deception seem to be separated, but in fact they are the most compatible.
"Pig Killing Plate"
In the depths of the quiet alleys of the ancient city, the noise of excavators suddenly sounded, the two wooden doors of the Muzi Town Inn were wide open, and bricks, mattresses and toilets were scattered all over the ground, black sand and gravel fell from the sky, and the air was filled with heavy dust.
On June 2nd, at the front desk of the B&B that is still intact, you can still see the remaining traces of the previous boss's operation, the hanging small blackboard reads the recommended travel route, and the wooden cabinet is placed with a whole row of past honors: Internet gold medal store manager certification, high-quality mobile Internet marketing hotel, a certificate reads, "Settled in Dali Muzi, you won the third prize in the 'Second Yunnan Lifestyle Short Video Competition'." ”
Muzi was originally the proprietress here, but on March 11, 2024, her husband Zhu Chunrong suddenly disappeared, the phone was not answered, the messages were not returned, and the circle of friends was closed. It was the deadline for him to promise dividends to shareholders, around 11 p.m.
When the mobile phone was "blown up" by the shareholders, Muzi was making tea for the homestay guests, and she immediately went home to look for it from room to room, but did not find her husband's shadow.
Zhu Chunrong appeared to have left in a hurry, dragging a medium-sized suitcase, pulling four pieces of clothing, and taking a box of contact lenses and his own passport. Muzi rummaged through the bedside, wondering if her husband had left anything for herself, but when there was nothing, she broke down.
Zhu Chunrong had been in arrears for more than a month, and he had prevaricated with various excuses, including "my father has cancer and needs money urgently", "the bank is suspending business for the Chinese New Year", "evading personal income tax", "suspecting financial embezzlement" and so on.
The shareholders were desperate to find Zhu Chunrong to confront him, and a group of people flew to Dali and walked into another inn he used for the IPO, only to learn that the inn was not in his name at all. Several Ningbo shareholders rushed to his rural hometown and were surprised to find that his father did not have cancer at all. Some shareholders also learned from Muzi that the finances were also fictitious.
The three words "pig killing plate" suddenly appeared in everyone's minds, and in only half a day, the number of victims increased from a dozen to hundreds, and they dialed the police all over the country.
After the case was filed, the Dali police immediately tracked down Zhu Chunrong's whereabouts. The ride information shows that he went to Guangzhou first, and then bought a train ticket to Kunming, the police went to Kunming to guard, but did not squat on him, and there were many tickets in his itinerary, one of which flew to Xishuangbanna, and several "blinders" helped him confuse the police's investigation sight. In the end, he managed to disappear from everyone's view.
Muzi Town B&B in demolition
Zhu Chunrong couldn't be found, and his anger burned to his wife who was left behind.
Wen Jun, who lost 398,000 yuan, rushed to the B&B the day after the incident and found that all the rooms had been turned into a mess, and Muzi was sitting at a white table downstairs, wearing a black hat and a black mask, surrounded by debt collectors and mobile phone cameras.
Wen Jun heard at the scene that on the day Zhu Chunrong went missing, the first five shareholders who asked for debts snatched Muzi's jewelry and forced her to borrow 180,000 yuan on various online loan platforms, each of which received 36,000 yuan. Some shareholders drove away Zhu Chunrong's "Trumpchi" car and took away the remaining tea leaves in his tea shop.
In the next two days, the shareholders who arrived one after another were worried that Muzi would escape, so they took her ID card and passport, and took turns to "guard" her.
On the evening of March 12, Muzi was bathing her son, and Wen Jun was guarding outside the door, when she heard the child's question from inside the house, "Mom, where did Dad go?" ”
"Dead." Muzi replied.
"What does it mean to be dead?"
"If you're dead, you'll never come back." Muzi's tone went from angry to calm.
Utopia and romantic love
Before the incident this year, the image of the couple had nothing to do with the scam, and they appeared on the Internet as a loving couple with a 14-year-old difference. Muzi once posted on Douban, Tieba, and the official account, telling their stories, and attracting batches of tourists for the homestay-
In August 2015, the two met at the inn in Chikan Ancient Town, Kaiping City, Guangdong, when Muzi was a 20-year-old college student working part-time in a youth hostel, and Zhu Chunrong was a 34-year-old backpacker who happened to come to the ancient town to relax. After the part-time job ended, Muzi bought a station ticket, stood 28 hours from Guangzhou to Kunming, and then from Kunming Station to Dali, and fell in love with Zhu Chunrong. Later, Muzi took a year off from school, and the two worked together to build a homestay in Dali, and the name of the homestay was named after Muzi. Muzi wrote in his personal introduction on the official account, "It took two days to fight with an interesting man for life!" ”
A Liuzhou girl who is studying in college saw this story in Tieba and had a strong resonance, she was in love with her boyfriend who was seven or eight years old, worried that her parents would not agree, "I think she has so much courage, love regardless of age, do not set limits for yourself, their love is very beautiful." After graduating, the girl traveled to Dali and lived in a homestay in Muzi Town, and later became an investment shareholder.
Back then, there were girls who deliberately imitated Muzi and bought a station ticket to Dali, wanting to witness their love. Under the article on the official account of Muzi Town, there are all enthusiastic comments, "Admire your courage" and "Bless every pair of people who love seriously"
"I believe that love originates from Muzi Town." "In Dali, you don't need a reason to kiss."
It was a time when "brave love" was encouraged. In 2014, the road movie "Heart Flower Road" was broadcast, which was popular on the streets and alleys for a while, Cangshan and Erhai Lake, and romantic encounters made countless literary and artistic young people fascinated, and the movie set off an era of "escaping from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, all the way west to Dali".
A homestay owner who has been in Dali for more than ten years witnessed that after the movie was broadcast, Dali's homestays increased visibly, almost every day, and a sofa seat cost three or four hundred yuan. Muzi Town, which opened on Christmas Day in 2015, is also a beneficiary of that batch of tourism dividends, Zhu Chunrong and Muzi's love story is quite popular with guests, and they also designed a couple's message wall at the homestay, and the hero and heroine in the movie met in front of a similar message wall.
Muzi Town B&B (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
In a photo taken in 2017, Zhu Chunrong sits at a tea table downstairs at a homestay with a flat head and a white sweatshirt, smiling and holding a fair cup, pouring tea soup into the sea of tea, behind which is a mahogany cabinet that occupies a wall.
Zhu Chunrong always beckoned guests to come over for tea, and talked about his past during the banquet. He said that he was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, graduated from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, worked in a hospital in the system, and after getting tired of the 9-to-5 days, he quit his job and became a backpacker, traveling to more than 180 cities in 20 provinces in China, and once took the 318 Sichuan-Tibet Line to Nepal via Lhasa, passing more than 5,000 kilometers. After meeting Muzi, the two went on the road together, went to Lijiang, Shangri-La, Daocheng Yading, and finally settled in Dali. They have always rented a house, and Zhu Chunrong's words showed his disdain for buying a house.
Therefore, the guest's impression of him is that he does not follow the crowd and likes to live a chic and free life. One guest admired him and praised his way of life in the words of Da Bing, "able to work from 9 to 5 and wander the world".
Zhu Chunrong is a very good cook, guests can eat his "private chef" for 20 yuan, and he organizes werewolf killing games almost every night, with volunteers, guests and other innkeepers participating. Guests followed him on a self-driving tour to Shaxi Ancient Town, Nuodeng Ancient Town, Chashan, and Tengchong, which were all unexplored niche routes at that time.
On the way to Lugu Lake, Zhu Chunrong drove the car, chatting and laughing with guests all the way, and a volunteer X sitting in the back row thought to himself, "It's good to be mediocre here all your life." When X left Dali, he wrote in the circle of friends, "Dali gave me a home, which was forged by him (Zhu Chunrong) and Muzi himself." Muzi Town will always give people too much friendship and too much nostalgia. ”
In this utopian atmosphere, many guests have developed friendships with the couple. Once Muzi traveled to Kenting, Taiwan, and sent a circle of friends saying that he would send a postcard to every guest who held a Muzi Town resident card. Zhu Chunrong made his own tea leaves and small green mandarins, which he would also send to the guests to taste. Some of the guests not only attended the wedding of the two, but also went to their son's full moon wine.
The resident card of Muzi Town received by the in-house guests (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
After building trust with guests, Zhu Chunrong will naturally talk about "crowdfunding homestays" to solicit investment. He has shown his resume to guests, experienced more than 200 hostels, opened his first hostel in Suzhou in 2013, volunteered for a month at a homestay in Taiwan, and ran a hostel in Xiamen after returning.
He showed that he was "familiar with this business", and mentioned more than once the goal of "opening 100 homestays". Many young people envy his attitude towards life - while practicing idealism, he also has a successful homestay business, and willingly joins his camp. So, with the investment support of a group of guests, Zhu Chunrong established Muzi Town No. 2 Courtyard in 2017, and released the prospectus of Muzi Town No. 7 Courtyard at the end of 2019.
In the early days of the investment, he never promised any high returns to shareholders, at least until the epidemic, he maintained the image of a sentimental homestay owner.
Illusion of wealth
The change occurred in the third year of the pandemic.
At that time, Dali's homestay industry was hit hard, and Liu Yang, the owner of the homestay who had known Zhu Chunrong for more than ten years, lost one or two million in more than ten months, and some homestay owners directly closed the store and ran back to their hometown, leaving an overgrown inn and never came back. Liu Yang and Zhu Chunrong know each other's business situation best, "it is impossible to make money".
"I'm definitely not going to give money to shareholders because I'm losing money like a dog and I have to borrow money everywhere." Liu Yang said.
Zhu Chunrong did the opposite, from 2022 to the second half of 2023, the dividends of the shareholders of Muzi Town can be received on time, and the amount is quite large.
During this period, Zhu Chunrong's behavior began to defy common sense, trying to create an external image of "no losses" while hyping up plans to expand new stores.
On March 22, 2022, he introduced to Chengdu shareholders that he would open an eighth branch in Zhoushan, which in his vision is a homestay that integrates catering, accommodation and tourism products, and Zhu Chunrong called it version 2.0. Just 3 days ago, the shareholders of Changsha received a notice from Muzi WeChat that the tenth store in Muzi Town had been determined and located in Simingshan, Ningbo.
On December 18, 2022, Kunming shareholders received news that the boutique homestay in Dali Xiyuan in Muzi Town was about to be put into trial operation. Zhu Chunrong relied on these "new stores" to sell his own "room shares", that is, each inn split shares according to the number of rooms to absorb funds.
This operation against the laws of the economy "scared away" shareholders who really understood business logic, but screened out a group of more loyal supporters for Zhu Chunrong - a group of people who have no financial knowledge reserves, but are caught in economic anxiety, and they urgently need a "god of business" to lead them to the road to prosperity.
Zhu Chunrong's forged profit statement (source: interviewee)
Deng Jia, a Sichuan girl, is one of them. In December 2019, she was diagnosed with mid-stage breast cancer and had three surgeries in three weeks. Just one day before she was discharged from the hospital, Wuhan was locked down, she went back to her rural hometown to rest, and then the whole country was closed and controlled, and the situation was grim. She took nine months of sick leave, during which she received only 60 per cent of her salary.
Although his physical condition is gradually stabilizing, cancer is like a time bomb that may recur at any time, and Deng Jia's annual income of about 100,000 yuan cannot compete with it. She also can't rely on her family, and when she was in college, her father died unexpectedly while working outside the home, and her mother was working alone in the farm and couldn't provide financial support.
Deng Jia, who was worried, suddenly saw Zhu Chunrong posting a circle of friends on March 15, 2022, in which he was celebrating a shareholder brother who exchanged dividends for a car.
"I'm so envious." Deng Jia sent a message to Zhu Chunrong.
Zhu Chunrong immediately introduced to her that the eldest brother was one of the founders of Muzi Town, and he invested in "original shares" and enjoyed 15% of the income of all stores in Muzi Town, and this time he shared about 200,000 yuan at one time.
Seeing that Deng Jia was interested, Zhu Chunrong began to promote the "original shares", in his account, the original shareholders originally only had ten seats, and now they happened to vacate a position, on the condition that they need to invest 5 shares at a time, a total of 110,000. He emphasized the "guaranteed rate of return of 15%" - "that is, we don't do business every day for 365 days, and you can also lie down and get money at the end of every year, and the dividend of 16,500 yuan is the lowest." ”
Hearing that it would definitely save his capital, Deng Jia seemed to grasp a life-saving straw in his heart, "It's too cost-effective, even if there is any physical condition in the future, I can save myself." ”
Zhu Chunrong took advantage of the trend to increase, "You can return the principal at any time, and you can return it the next day after you get the dividends, which is much more cost-effective than putting the bank's fixed investment", and he also deliberately exaggerated the popularity of the original shares, "All our shareholders want to add it, they have lost money in the fund stocks in the past two years."
At that time, Deng Jia happened to get 200,000 yuan of illness insurance compensation, and after chatting with Zhu Chunrong for fifteen minutes, she decided to take out 110,000 yuan to buy shares.
Chat record of Zhu Chunrong persuading shareholders to buy shares (source: interviewee)
Like Deng Jia, the other guests faced varying degrees of financial pressure after leaving Dali. A Kunming girl in her early 30s resigned after becoming pregnant, worrying about her child's diapers and milk powder; Several stay-at-home mothers in Shandong and Guangdong revolve around their children and husbands every day, and the value of their labor is not recognized, for whom money means the right to speak in the family.
The arrival of the epidemic has accelerated people's economic anxiety in all aspects. Two young people in Beijing, one working in the Internet industry and the other as a teacher in the system, are surrounded by news of unemployment and layoffs, and even state-owned enterprises and civil servants are cutting their salaries.
The export of life seems to point to money, and Zhu Chunrong's high return is in the middle of it at this time. A shareholder took out 60,000 yuan and bought 3 shares, and received a dividend of 2,200 yuan in the first month, "The profit is almost the same as that of a loan shark." ”
The fictitious profits were even more proof of his strength at the time - the quarterly statements received by shareholders showed that Muzi Town was still profitable during the worst period of the epidemic: from July to September 2022, the four stores made a total profit of nearly 140,000 yuan, and from October to December 2023, the four stores made a total profit of more than 90,000 yuan. In the economic downturn, his business rose all the way in the report.
The general environment outside is bleak and bitter, with layoffs, supply cuts, and thunderstorms one after another. The small world constructed by Zhu Chunrong is peaceful, stable, and profitable. It's incredible, but it's also fascinating. More and more ordinary people have entered the shelter built by Zhu Chunrong, where they fantasize about wealth, look forward to the future, and enjoy a moment of peace.
Behind the mask
Before the Chinese New Year this year, Liu Yang, the owner of the B&B, heard that Zhu Chunrong announced in the shareholder group that he would pay a lot of dividends at the end of the year. Liu Yang's first reaction was that something might go wrong.
"Why raise shareholder expectations?" During the interview, Liu Yang's eyes widened, and the brown and yellow slightly curly bangs wet with sweat were attached to his forehead, trying his best to show that he did not understand.
He demonstrated the normal words of a homestay owner - if he has money in his hand, he should say "I have some money this year, but the expectations are not ideal, and it may not be enough next year", or "I have a little money now, who knows next year, what if I can't survive?" Shareholders must be coaxed to lower their expectations, "Let's keep 100,000 to 200,000, or 300,000 to 500,000 reserves." ”
Unless he really earns 30 million, he has the confidence to say like Zhu Chunrong, Liu Yang put forward this hypothesis, but immediately denied it, because Dali B&B cannot earn so much. During the interview, a police officer investigating economic crimes also said that an inn in Dali would make a profit of up to 200,000 yuan a year.
Liu Yang also introduced the completely opposite business philosophy to Zhu Chunrong from the perspective of an insider-not to make money with shareholders, but to make more money, the more I want to clean up shareholders, "I have worked hard myself, and shareholders have not done anything, why should I share it with him?" ”
He spread out his hands, shrugged his shoulders, and directly punctured the dream bubble created by Zhu Chunrong, "No way, this is human nature." ”
However, Liu Yang, who knows the doorway, was blocked by Zhu Chunrong from the "great cause of IPO", Zhu Chunrong was very careful, he seemed to have predicted in advance that the owner of Dali's homestay would definitely reveal his stuffing after discovering it, so he kept concealing it.
Zhu Chunrong is making tea (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
If you repeatedly look through Zhu Chunrong's chat records with shareholders, you will see an energetic "time management master" in front of you.
With more than 500 shareholders, he has at least 1,000 chat records with most of them, tirelessly answering questions, fluently making up all kinds of words, and sometimes providing emotional value. Almost every few days, I complete the homework like a private IPO information, sometimes three in the morning, noon and evening, and some messages are sent out at 2, 3, and 5 o'clock in the morning, and the holidays are not left behind.
His memory is also amazing, he has memorized almost everyone's names, traits, and preferences - some people like to do public welfare, some are civil servants, some know how to do business, some people have cancer, he seems to accurately label everyone, do group management of friends and private messages, talk to people, and talk nonsense when you see people. Zhu Chunrong would not send fictitious store information to Yunnan locals, because he was afraid that they would suddenly come to the door.
He also opened his mouth to say "hunger marketing", such as limiting some time and words, "There is still one left, first come, first served." "The shares are only available today and tomorrow." "Everyone, the last share, the rest has been taken by others." For another example, I only leave you with good things - "I only notify 21 of you", "I will send a message to a few of you who have cooperated", "But if I send it privately in a small area, you can answer it without brains".
"It makes you feel like a lot of people are thinking about this share, and if you don't make a move, someone else will rob you, and you will lose the opportunity." One shareholder later recalled that he was deliberately creating a sense of competition.
The guests of Muzi Town also gave a common example of his talkative and thoughtful thinking - every time he played a werewolf to kill him, he was the winner, and he was able to successfully use his language skills to hide his werewolf identity and disguise himself as a "prophet", and most of the people present would be deceived by him. According to the victims, it is a "gift for lying".
In the later stages of the fraud, he made full use of this talent to create a persona. For example, he has generously said many times that he wants to take everyone to do business and let his friends make money together, and shareholders who don't understand business think he is very righteous. He also posted photos of doing public welfare in the circle of friends, donated money to local schools in Dali, and sponsored girls to go to school, and teachers and students thanked him, which strengthened his character as a "philanthropist with great love" in the hearts of shareholders.
Two months before the scam was exposed, in order to lure shareholders to take the bait, he also deliberately showed that he would rather suffer losses than benefit shareholders, showing that he had a "big pattern".
He falsified the turnover of a tea shop of up to 200,000 yuan, posted the screenshot on the circle of friends, and then wanted to get away with it and said that he didn't want to offer shares, but it didn't take long for him to change his mind and say that he wanted to share the good business with the 8 original shareholders. Later, he expanded the scope of the IPO and described it as his own sacrifice, "Since there are store shareholders who also want to join, then I will simply contribute another 7%, a total of 25%, this is my bottom line." ”
This kind of sacrifice was described by him as gratitude to the early shareholders, in a screenshot of the conversation in the circle of friends, he said, "Drink water and don't forget to dig wells, the money is inexhaustible, I am convinced, the pattern is open, we do more, after a long time, it will naturally be able to be seen." ”
In addition to playing the role of a strong businessman, he also did not forget to use the marriage relationship to create an image of a "good husband" to the outside world. In the daily life of the husband and wife he showed, Muzi finished his work in the tea shop at half past three in the morning and sent him a message to complain, "I have never felt so tired", she first praised Zhu Chunrong's business performance, but immediately changed the conversation, "Do you feel that our life has begun to become a bit coppery?" I hate this feeling so much. ”
Zhu Chunrong replied to two large pieces of information, apologized to his wife, and supported his wife's practice of blocking the shareholders who made trouble, and shouted in the circle of friends, "I broke the defense in an instant, and suddenly found that our kindness is taken for granted by some people, and these certain people will come to me in the future, what kind of ability is it to bully a girl." ”
In the aftermath of the incident, many shareholders thought the chat logs were "ridiculously fake." But at the time, Zhu Chunrong won the affirmation of some women, and a female teacher in Beijing deliberately saved the screenshot as a typical model of "nonviolent communication" between husband and wife.
The weakness of human nature
Zhu Chunrong is not only a master of fiction, but also an expert in human nature. His fraud "playbook" has always taken advantage of people's greed for money, and based on this, he has made up a large number of business concepts, hiding the real purpose in them, wrapping them layer by layer, and seducing them step by step.
On November 20, 2023, Pan Qi, a shareholder in Liuzhou, received a mass message, a shareholder with the remark "XX Public Security Bureau" withdrew his shares, and Zhu Chunrong was looking for the next person to take over, with the condition of taking dividends for nothing at the end of the year, he lured everyone, "Take this year's money for nothing in two months, at least more than 15,000." ”
Pan Qi took the bait and took out 60,000 yuan in the bride price. Not long after this shareholding, she fell into the trap of "short-term stocks" designed by Zhu Chunrong.
On November 31, 2023, Pan Qi received the news of the 10th anniversary celebration of Muzi Town, and Zhu Chunrong announced that he would give benefits to all original shareholders - shareholders who joined the shares in December this year will only have a contract span of only two months, and until January 31 of the next year, they will enjoy dividends and return the principal at the same time.
Thinking of Zhu Chunrong's experience of charity, Pan Qi invested another 30,000 yuan.
For most of the next half month, Zhu Chunrong issued two notices one after another, using "short-term stocks" and "dividends for nothing" to continue to tempt. Pan Qi transferred 90,000 yuan for the first time, and admitted to Zhu Chunrong for the second time that she had "emptied" her wallet several times.
But Zhu Chunrong still didn't let go of this "big fish", and guided by the words "Investing in shares is just a process, and giving benefits is the real purpose", Pan Qi couldn't resist the temptation, borrowed money from a friend, and invested 60,000 yuan.
Pan Qi can't remember how many times she transferred money later, but in just two months, she invested a total of more than 500,000 yuan, most of which were borrowed from friends and online platforms. Pan Qi's partner reminded her to be careful of being fooled, but at that time she was already at the point where she couldn't extricate herself, "All I thought about was that he would return it to me immediately, and he would give it to me immediately." ”
In addition to exploiting people's greed, Zhu Chunrong also grasped another weakness of human nature - supreme sympathy for his fellow kind and the weak, and was willing to sacrifice himself to support others. He skillfully concocted all kinds of stories to draw shareholders into the script.
On January 9, 2023, Zhu Chunrong forwarded a withdrawal message, in which shareholder A said in the chat record that his father died due to the new crown and was in urgent need of funds and asked to withdraw his shares. At that time, the epidemic had just been released, and many elderly people had passed away, and this news aroused the sympathy of many people. One shareholder had no money in hand at the time and replied, "I'm sorry."
Later, the withdrawal information became more and more frequent. From the second half of 2022 to the beginning of 2024 alone, 6 shareholders have received a total of hundreds of share withdrawal chat records, among which family members have been sick the most, including "My brother is hospitalized", "My grandfather is hospitalized", "My father is cerebrovascular blockage", "My mother is in the ICU".
The rest of the reasons, although varied, convey the same sense of loss. Some people have broken the capital chain for business, some people have run away, and some people have encountered financial difficulties when starting a business, "there is really no way, and it is time to wait for the rice to be cooked."
Deng Jia noticed something unusual, and she asked Zhu Chunrong, why have so many people withdrawn their shares recently? Zhu Chunrong only replied, "Anyone will encounter something."
Screenshot of the shareholder withdrawal information sent in a group (source: interviewee)
The two fraud methods are parallel, and Zhu Chunrong has been performing until the end of 2023, almost without arousing suspicion. At this juncture, his tricks have been exhausted, and the rent, utility bills, and project money of the homestay have not been paid, and the landlord keeps urging. Shareholders are also asking for money, monthly dividends, quarterly dividends, annual dividends, he is tired of coping.
At this time, he only had one last hole card left in his hand - the feelings and trust accumulated between him and shareholders after two years of painstaking operation. He writes the final chapter of the deception with a stroke of pen and lets bad luck befall him.
The first scene is pretending to be Muzi and telling the bad news about her son's car accident in the voice of a mother. The news was passed to Wen Jun first - the child needed surgery, but the company account happened to be unable to withdraw the money, and the situation was urgent. Wen Jun, who is also a mother, is very understanding and empathetic, although she didn't have much money in hand, she still managed to borrow 80,000 yuan in two days and transfer it to Zhu Chunrong's account.
Then, the tragedy of the second act falls from the sky. In late December 2023, Zhu Chunrong suddenly posted a stomach cancer diagnosis slip on the circle of friends, which said that the patient Zhu Moumou and a photo of the old man lying in the ICU. He told the shareholders that his father had been transferred to the Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University for treatment.
Seeing the word "cancer", Xue Xue, a graduate student in Beijing, felt very uncomfortable, she studied medicine before, and her relatives had stomach cancer. Knowing that Zhu's father had stage III cancer, she comforted Zhu Chunrong that if she could buy more time with money, she could be regarded as filial piety.
From the end of December 2023 to the end of January 2024, Zhu Chunrong continued to present on social media the image of a filial son who ran for his father's treatment. ”
Shareholder Q did not doubt the authenticity of this information, Q has known Zhu Chunrong for more than ten years, and knows that Zhu Chunrong believes in the legendary Jizu Mountain, and he also told Q that his son also asked for a signature.
After completing the narrative foreshadowing of "Father's Illness", he began to ask for money everywhere.
From December 20 to 23, 2023, Zhu Chunrong sold more than 10 shares on the grounds that his father was critically ill and underwent surgery. In January, he sold about 14 shares at a price of 30,000 yuan per share on the grounds of his father's postoperative treatment and the purchase of imported chemotherapy drugs.
Zhu Chunrong sold shares on the grounds of his father's surgery (Source: interviewee)
While winning sympathy, Zhu Chunrong did not forget to tempt the interests of "short-term stocks", and also promised, "In order not to owe everyone favors, I will take more than 2% of the profits to shareholders for three consecutive years to express my gratitude." ”
In the end, things turned out as Zhu Chunrong wanted, and he "harvested" the widest sympathy.
Wen Jun borrowed 158,000 yuan from Zhu Chunrong, Deng Jia took 1.5 shares, a total of 45,000 yuan, Xue Xue invested 30,000 yuan, and shareholder B couldn't make up 30,000 yuan per share, so he offered to lend him a few thousand yuan.
During Zhu Chunrong's lying that his father was sick, the father of Guangdong shareholder C was really lying in the ICU, and out of sympathy and temptation, C invested 240,000 yuan in two months and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan at the same time. That's her entire net worth, hard-earned money that has been saved all the time. She originally wanted to get back 100,000 yuan a year ago for her father's craniotomy, and waited for Zhu Chunrong to "pay back the money to save her life".
On the afternoon of January 14, Zhu Chunrong sent a sigh of emotion, as if he was finishing up this round of performances, "Shareholders, I woke up and received a message of comfort from you, and I really thank you." People are born, old, sick and die, and I have figured it out, my father is over 70 years old, and he was diagnosed with stomach cancer this time, and I can only actively cooperate with the treatment. ”
While thanking, he still did not forget to emphasize the benefits of taking over shares, "Especially the shareholders who can help temporarily collect my shares, although you get several times the dividends of others, I still thank you." ”
Wife with a blurred face
For most of the year before the scam was revealed, Zhu Chunrong was performing in the online world while squandering wildly in real life. ”
During the summer vacation, Zhu Chunrong and Muzi first drove to Lhasa with their children, and within two months, they traveled almost half of China from Lhasa to Xinjiang and then to Gansu. Muzi likes singer Yu Wenwen, and chased almost every concert last year, flying to Chengdu, Zhuhai, and Macau, and Zhu Chunrong also flew to Beijing to watch his favorite ball game.
Before the Chinese New Year this year, they concentrated on buying a wave of clothes, and Zhu Chunrong's clothes were almost thousands of yuan a piece. When the new teahouse opened at the end of the year, Zhu Chunrong spent seven or eight thousand on hospitality, and Dali's food consumption generally did not reach this level.
The couple spends lavishly, but does not bother to make money. Winter vacation, summer vacation and New Year's holiday, they are not in the store, that is the three best selling seasons of Dali B&B, the highest profit can reach about 100,000 to 200,000, other B&B owners can not understand, Liu Yang also wondered, "I, do you really don't want to make a penny?" ”
In Liu Yang's opinion, this is Zhu Chunrong's style, but he doesn't understand why Muzi is "crazy" with him.
Muzi and Zhu Chunrong (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
At first, some shareholders firmly believed that Muzi was an accomplice, because it was Muzi's WeChat that connected to them, and the nickname was "Dali Muzi Town B&B & Muzi", and it was Muzi himself when he added WeChat to the hotel.
But when questioned by shareholders, Muzi acted unaware, in her narration, WeChat is not used by herself, she doesn't know how much money is in the account, because the big account does not go through her own hands, and the small account is immediately transferred to her husband, this year's Spring Festival, Zhu Chunrong also transferred the profits of the three stores away.
Even if she is not an accomplice, shareholders believe that she is inextricably linked. Muzi's social media has always provided the group of guests with an imaginary escape from the city, and she will shoot the daily vlog of the family of three, buy groceries, cook, travel around Erhai Lake, and sing together at the inn. Muzi shows the image of quiet years, practicing yoga, learning skateboarding, and eating vegetarian for half a year. In fact, many shareholders have the idea of investing because they like the life of Muzi and Dali.
The day after Zhu Chunrong escaped, a shareholder asked Muzi emotionally, "You have opened a store for ten years, got married, had children, and got along day and night, doesn't he even have a strange mind?" ”
Muzi suddenly admitted that Zhu Chunrong was emotionally unfaithful, and on May 13, 2018, the anniversary of their marriage, she found out for the first time that Zhu Chunrong was with the hired store manager. She said that she chose trust and forgiveness, but since then, the relationship between the two people has not been as good as before, and the operation of the B&B has been carried out separately.
In the video taken by the shareholder, Muzi pulled up the mask several times, covered his expression, and said in a cold tone, "I have always been disgusted by him in front of any guest. ”
Zhu Chunrong's strength and machismo within the family have been heard of by friends. Liu Yang called him several times in the morning because of an emergency, but the other party didn't answer, he wanted Muzi to help wake him up, Muzi resisted, "You figure it out yourself, I don't dare to call him in the morning, and I will quarrel with me when I get up." ”
A shareholder who lived in Dali went to visit Muzi after the incident, and Muzi told her that "she was numb and her tears were dry." And Muzi's father's first reaction when he learned of this was, "My daughter has been deceived, she is too simple, and she accommodates everything to her husband." ”
In Muzi's father's memory, the youngest daughter Muzi is the most sensible and obedient child, with a very gentle personality and good academic performance. When Muzi was in high school, he was sent to Taishan No. 1 Middle School, and later admitted to a Guangzhou 211 South China Agricultural University.
The parents originally expected Muzi to be admitted to the civil service and live a stable life, and their daughter has always been very obedient to her parents. Falling in love with Zhu Chunrong was the first time Muzi stood on the opposite side of her parents, when she insisted on taking a break from school to open a homestay with her boyfriend, and her family suspected that she had strayed into a pyramid scheme. Later, she insisted on marrying Zhu Chunrong and settled in Dali, her mother did not agree to her daughter's marriage, and her father pretended to have a foot injury to coax her back, but in the end she couldn't resist Muzi's determination.
Muzi who does yoga (Source: Muzi Town Public Account)
After learning about the various versions of the information, the victim's internal feelings towards Muzi are becoming more and more complicated. Some people insist that she is bound to Zhu Chunrong; Others felt that she was not an accomplice, but also a "ghost"; The woman, who is also a mother, is relatively understanding and sympathetic to her, and sees her as a victim of this marital relationship. Some people also criticized her for being a "love brain" and "being used, controlled, and played around by her husband".
To what extent was Muzi involved in the construction of the scam?
The police also couldn't be sure. First of all, there was no large amount of consumption and capital transactions in her account, and secondly, during the interrogation, Muzi behaved "very wooden" and insisted that she did not know.
Although one of the WeChat messages used to communicate with shareholders is Muzi's identity information, electronic records are difficult to use as evidence. If the couple's confessions are consistent, the police will not be able to verify whether Zhu Chunrong is using his identity to direct and act himself, or Muzi himself is operating. The only thing that can be determined is that Muzi will do the revenue account of the B&B every day, send the report to Zhu Chunrong, and Zhu Chunrong will re-edit it and then send it to the shareholder group.
A week after Zhu Chunrong escaped, he never showed up until 4:47 a.m. on March 18, when a shareholder suddenly @ everyone in the shareholder rights protection group in Muzi Town, "Zhu appeared".
He posted a two-and-a-half-minute video on social media, with his face occupying the whole frame, a serious expression, and a blue stubble on his chin, without showing too much emotion. He stressed that he did everything alone, and "my daughter-in-law Muzi didn't know about it."
The video does not reveal any environmental information, only the sound of a motorcycle can be heard coming from the background, and the IP address is displayed first in India, and then in Thailand 24 minutes later.
gambler
At first, no one knew the real reason for Zhu Chunrong's disappearance, until the shareholders dug out a notebook from the homestay.
There are very few daily purchase accounts in the front of the book, and in the back, there is the game time and information of large and small leagues of the football team, including minor leagues such as the Japan Second Division, and then there are "thousands of betting records" and odds, and the intuitive feeling of one shareholder present is that "only professional gamblers will remember this", and another shareholder who has gambled guesses, "He may gamble tens of thousands of dollars in one night." ”
This is the first time that gambling has entered the victim's sight, someone asked Muzi if he knew, Muzi first replied that he would not gamble before the epidemic, and then added, "He promised that he would never gamble again." ”
It was also during the epidemic that Liu Yang noticed that Zhu Chunrong began to indulge in watching the World Cup and major football leagues. When the two drank tea together, Zhu Chunrong always took his mobile phone and computer to place bets, and at first he didn't gamble much, but Liu Yang didn't take it seriously, "Who doesn't bet on the World Cup, right?" I think everybody is going to come up with some money. ”
But Zhu Chunrong became more and more obsessed, often talking about this win of 5,000 and that win of 10,000, and he must raise in the second half. "The look of watching the game is different from ours, and that state is crazy," M, the owner of the B&B, described to the victims. Another B&B owner Z envied Zhu Chunrong for winning money, so he bet together, and later Z complained to Liu Yang, "Why does he win when he bets on his own, and loses when he bets with me?" ”
During the interrogation, the police asked Zhu Chunrong what he was gambling for.
"I am a gambler's mentality, at first it was a small bet, and after losing a small bet, I wanted to return to the cost, so I increased the bet, and then it was out of control." He replied.
Zhu Chunrong communicates with Dali locals (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
According to Zhu Chunrong's own confession, he has been addicted to gambling since 2022, but during the epidemic, the inn was operating very poorly and had no money, so he wanted to send a crowdfunding message and transfer his shares in exchange for an income. At first, he didn't want to cheat directly, but in order to attract shareholders, he put forward an attractive condition - a fixed dividend of 15%, such a high return, which has not appeared in crowdfunding before.
The number of people who responded was beyond imagination, the money came very easily, Zhu Chunrong tasted the sweetness, and the scam began.
Under normal circumstances, the shares of an inn are 100 shares, and he has created more than a dozen fictitious stores, each of which has sold more than 1,000 shares. He played his abacus very shrewdly, used regular rebates to maintain shareholder relations, constantly pulled people into the game, and used one person's investment principal to pay another person's dividends, so that the money flowed in circulation.
As soon as the money arrived, he immediately took it to gamble, and the more he gambled, the more he lost, the hole became bigger and bigger, and he had to talk to investors every day to find ways to pour money to avoid the scam being exposed. Over time, it is impossible to stop.
When the police checked the account flow, they found that he lost 10,000 the day before, and immediately bet 50,000 the next day, several 50,000 yuan were invested in it, and then lost again, and then 150,000 and 200,000, the website domain name changed many times, and the payment account also changed, and he continued to play. The money obtained by fraud, he did not buy fixed assets such as houses and cars, and used them all to gamble. In the end, he lost more than 38 million yuan on gambling sites.
Zhu Chunrong also clearly told the police, "You can't recover the money because the server is overseas." ”
The websites on which he gambled, similar to the advertisements that pop up when watching pirated movies, are difficult to detect by looking for people to buy accounts and conduct transactions in China, and the server addresses and domain names of the websites are frequently changed. The police found that the money that Zhu Chunrong had deposited into the website had flowed to several accounts in Northeast China, and every time he made a dozen dollars, he was withdrawn the next day.
After several contacts, the police found that Zhu Chunrong had two sides, on the one hand, he was very smart, knew English, knew the logic of gambling websites, and was very shrewd about the design of scams. On the other hand, he was very confused, and as soon as he entered the gambling game, he was completely uncontrollable, and he would believe in a fake web page, almost watching himself sink deeper and deeper.
In fact, these gambling sites are also scams, and small wins can be withdrawn, but big wins will never happen. Zhu Chunrong took the money he had been defrauded, but he just walked into another scam.
The four bank accounts in Zhu Chunrong's name now only have more than 10,000 yuan left, plus the 70,000 or 80,000 yuan in rent and auction money returned by the landlord, leaving only about 100,000 yuan for the 462 informants.
During the interrogation, Zhu Chunrong did not show remorse or mention his family. A policeman who participated in the case felt that Zhu Chunrong's sense of morality was very low, and that morality and social rules were unnecessary for him.
Liu Yang does not want to regard his brother who has known him for many years as a long-planned and heinous criminal, and what Zhu Chunrong presents to Liu Yang is the story of a young man with ideals who is forced to go to a dead end.
Zhu Chunrong is 5 years older than Liu Yang, and the two met around 2013, and they were both the owners of a rare boat-type theme house at that time, and they soon became friends. Zhu Chunrong likes to smoke, play basketball, drink tea, love seafood like a demon, Liu Yang likes to ride a motorcycle, and the brothers agreed that one day, they must leave Dali on a motorcycle and go on a long-distance trip, but they have never had the opportunity.
In Liu Yang's eyes, Zhu Chunrong, who just came to Dali, was very diligent and put all his thoughts on the store. They often talk about business at the tea table, talk about the market, talk about the future, Zhu Chunrong set a goal of opening 100 homestays, Liu Yang also said, to open 300, "That is a beautiful vision, but also the most sincere and simple feelings, just like I said to travel around the world." But there may not be a chance to land, and we don't have the ability to land. ”
Muzi Town B&B during business (Source: Muzi Town Official Account)
Although they have known each other for more than ten years, Zhu Chunrong has never talked about the reason for coming to Dali, and Liu Yang also feels that there is no need to ask, he has heard a lot of fabricated versions, and most people will say naked words, "At the beginning, I gave up 100,000 annual salary, then 200,000, 300,000, and finally everyone gave up million." You're at Google, he's in Intel, you're not working in the Fortune 500, and you're embarrassed to say hello. ”
Liu Yang's tone had the excitement of knowing everything, and the tired self-deprecation, "No one takes it seriously, anyway, everyone has come to Dali, so it's okay to set yourself up." ”
During Zhu Chunrong's ten years in Dali, no one knew his true past.
When the police synchronized the case with the victim, they revealed an unknown piece of information, Zhu Chunrong had been imprisoned for stealing a mobile phone while working at Suning Electric.
On the Internet of judgment documents, a civil judgment of Zhu Chunrong as a defendant can still be searched: In 2009, Zhu Chunrong owed the plaintiff 255,200 yuan, which was the payment used by the plaintiff to buy a TV set, and later Zhu Chunrong only returned 80,000 yuan and lost contact. The plaintiff sued Zhu Chunrong and his father, and later only Zhu's father attended the trial, and Zhu Chunrong's whereabouts were unknown, and the plaintiff finally applied for preservation of his father's property.
To this day, there are still victims who do not know that Zhu Chunrong has served two sentences in his hometown, and he can't get along anymore, so he fled to Dali. He deceived everyone when it came to concealing his criminal record.
Poverty cycles
In Miyan Village, Ningbo City, 2,552 kilometers away from Dali, the parents and children of Zhu Chunrong's hometown have borne huge pressure from public opinion. While Zhu Chunrong was on the run, local victims in Ningbo came to his door to inquire about him and express their anger and pain to Zhu's father.
On June 15, Zhu Chunrong's mother politely declined an interview with a reporter from Phoenix Weekly. In a villager's account, Zhu Chunrong's parents are in their 70s, his father is a veteran, usually farming for a living, the old people in the village in addition to farming, will also go to the surrounding hardware factories to work, heard that Zhu Chunrong defrauded more than 40 million, the villagers opened their mouths in surprise, "Oh, it is impossible to afford it." ”
The villagers also mentioned that Zhu Chunrong had cheated money before, and it was his father who helped him pay off the debt, and later he "tricked another woman into getting married."
In the past two months, the reporter has contacted Muzi several times through WeChat and phone, but she has never responded, and her brother has also refused to be interviewed. On June 13, the reporter rushed to a rural village in Taishan City, Guangdong Province, and met Muzi's father, who died of a heart attack at the end of 2019 on the table of his family, with a number of apples and zongzi on the table.
In 2022, Muzi's father went to Dali and found that the homestay business was not as good as before, but his daughter and son-in-law did not show any problems in front of him. After his daughter got married, Muzi's father always had a good evaluation of Zhu Chunrong, because he was good to Muzi and filial to the elderly, and Muzi's eldest sister also felt that this brother-in-law was very reliable.
When he heard about Zhu Chunrong's various fraud methods and the victim's losses, Muzi's father realized that there was something wrong with this son-in-law's character.
As early as March 24, a local victim in Taishan found Muzi's father, who said that he had no ability to repay, that he had lost money in raising pigs in his early years, and that he now had no regular income and relied on his children to help. After his wife died, he lived alone in the house, growing vegetables, fishing, and shrimp, and spending a lonely time. Seeing him talk about his daughter's tearful eyes, the victim couldn't bear to be embarrassed.
Strictly speaking, Zhu Chunrong and Muzi both came from the bottom, and their families of origin represent widespread rural poverty. However, most of the victims are also young people from the bottom of the family, including hearing-impaired, pregnant and unemployed mothers, stay-at-home mothers, university students, and construction safety leaders......
When Zhu Chunrong lied that his father had cancer and asked for help, it was these vulnerable groups who contributed the most kindness and money, but they did not receive any gifts for this, but paid a heavy price. The weak hurt the weak, and the weak defrauded the weak of resources, which is the deeper cruel reality behind this fraud case.
Among the interviewees, the most vulnerable victim was the woman from the mountain village, Wenjun, who lost 398,000 yuan. Her family is a poor household in Yunnan Province, who makes a living from farming and raising pigs and cattle, and has lost a lot of money in the past few years due to the sharp drop in market prices, so she can only rely on loans to survive. After being deceived, Wenjun's family was saddled with a debt of nearly 1 million, with a sum to be repaid in July this year and another 140,000 yuan in April next year.
The day after the incident, Wen Jun rushed to Muzi B&B, and N, the shareholder who returned to the capital, encouraged her: "You have lost so much money, go and move all the valuable things, and move the TV and air conditioner to the flea market to sell, and it is good to sell them for 50 yuan." ”
Muzi's 7-year-old son is only one year younger than Wenjun's son, and N persuaded again, "Isn't his son playing with an iPad, you can take it to play with your son." ”
This kind of suggestion to counter violence with violence was rejected by Wen Jun. She lost the only valuable wedding ring on her body, six grams of gold, one gram in exchange for 490 yuan, which was used to pay off her debts.
After staying at the B&B for two days, Wenjun returned to the village and never went to Dali again, and she did not attend the meeting of the police to synchronize the case, because it cost money to ride and eat, "I really didn't have a penny."
The village where she lives is more than 80 kilometers away from Dali, with no public transportation to the outside world, and is almost isolated from the rest of the world. There are only a dozen houses built on the towering hills, as are the pigsties, there are more chickens than people on the mountain roads, and the internet signal is poor. Wen Jun, who has a junior high school education, has always lived here, doing farm work, housework, and taking care of children every day, and hardly goes out of the house.
A mountain village in Yunnan where Wen Jun lives
And getting involved in a scam was an accident. In 2019, Wenjun's daughter had a lot of red bumps, which did not disappear for a long time, and the teacher was worried that it would be contagious, so he suggested that Wenjun take her daughter to a big hospital to have a look. So, the mother and daughter got into a van and drove on the highway for more than three hours to arrive at the First People's Hospital of Dali City.
When told that the allergen report would not come out until the next day, Wen Jun decided to take her daughter around, who had never seen Erhai before. That night, Wen Jun happened to choose the 80 yuan a night Muzi Town B&B, exchanged WeChat with Muzi at the front desk, and established a connection with the world outside the mountain.
That was also the beginning of misfortune.
The loss of hundreds of thousands of yuan is equivalent to the income of the urban middle class for a year, but for rural families, it is "money that cannot be seen in a lifetime". In this investment, Wenjun originally looked forward to a bright future - building a house in the future, buying gifts for his mother, paying off loans one by one, and sending his children to college. In the life of a woman in a mountain village, money means hope.
Tragically, not only is hope dashed, but the fate of three generations of Wenjun's family will be affected, and they are about to fall into a deeper cycle of poverty.
Wen Jun's youngest son is about to enter the first grade, and the eldest daughter Ma is going to junior high school. In September, her daughter will face the problem of choosing a school, and Wenjun originally planned to send her daughter away from the village school where she was born in poverty and go to a middle school with better teachers in the county seat, so that she could have the opportunity to change her fate through knowledge, but now everything has become a pipe dream, "Even my child's life will be ruined." ”
Supporting the elderly is also a challenge. After Wenjun's father had a sudden cerebral infarction, he lost his ability to work, and his only income was a rural pension of 130 yuan and a few cents per month. Recently, Wen Jun wanted to go to work in an electronics factory in Guangdong to pay off her debts, but she didn't take action, she didn't want her parents and children to become "left behind".
The economic collapse was accompanied by the breakdown of family ties. After discovering that Wenjun was deceived, her husband made a lot of trouble and smashed things at home, which scared his youngest son into nightmares. In the past few months, every time the husband and wife had a small friction, the husband turned over the fact that his wife had been deceived and quarreled.
Wen Jun never dared to tell her husband that in addition to investment, she also lent out 158,000 yuan, just when Zhu Chunrong lied that her son was in a car accident and her father was sick, and all this money came from friends and credit card loans, "If he knew, this marriage would not be saved." ”
In the world outside the mountains, shareholders continue to discuss Zhu Chunrong's high consumption, concerts, ball games, plane tickets, and brand-name clothes...... Wen Jun has never experienced it, she has no concept of these expenses, she recently cleaned up the wardrobe and found that she has not bought more than 100 yuan of clothes in recent years, and the children's clothes are only more than 20 yuan.
Soon after being deceived, Wen Jun went to the town to pick up his son from school, at the school gate, a foreigner led a very thin camel, invited the child to sit on it and take pictures, one charged 20 yuan, and the son said that he wanted to take pictures.
Wen Jun's mind instantly appeared in the embarrassing situation of the family, she ruthlessly refused her son's request, and at the same time a sour feeling welled up in her heart, "Why can I buy happiness for my child for 20 yuan, I don't have the money to do it, if this doesn't happen, this is not a very high requirement." ”
(At the request of the interviewee, Wen Chinese Jun, Liu Yang, Deng Jia, Pan Qi, Xue Xue, and Mu Zi are pseudonyms)
Operation / Li Xinran Proofreading / Li Xiangling Art Design / Uncle Mary
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