# Gambling Addiction Series #2

A 96-born Woman Lost Over 1 Million Playing Crypto, Was Kicked Out by Her Husband, Now Makes a Living Selling Braised Food to Repay Debt

Around July and August 2022, a business boss I'd worked with before reached out to me. We'd collaborated several times on small side gigs like loan activation deals, each earning me 30 to 80 yuan in cashback. The settlements were always quick. Then he contacted me again, asking me to register an exchange account and deposit some money upfront. I saw the cashback was 200 yuan—way more than before—and didn't even think twice before following his instructions.

I should have withdrawn after getting my commission, but I didn't. He told me that plenty of people made a fortune trading crypto, then invited me to a group chat. The group was full of people showing off their profits—some making thousands a day, others earning hundreds of thousands. I was so tempted that I decided to try it right away.

I'm conservative by nature, so at first I was very careful, mostly trading with 20U or 30U, and would exit whenever I made a small profit. I never thought crypto trading could make me rich. But one day, I started trading futures contracts. With 500U principal and 20x leverage, I doubled my money in three days, and that's when I became completely addicted.

I haven't worked a real job since getting married. I'd take on various side gigs when I had time—bookmarking and liking on social media, writing product descriptions for online shops, selling digital products on Little Red Book. But after making money from futures, I couldn't look at those gigs anymore. The earnings were too low and customers were demanding, so futures became my main income. I'd be satisfied as long as I made 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month.

My greed kept expanding. Making a few thousand felt too little. Losing my profits made me so uncomfortable that I kept playing bigger, escalating from hundreds of U to thousands of U. In just six months, I lost the 160,000 yuan my husband had entrusted to me.

But reality worked against me. The more I wanted to recover losses, the more my mindset collapsed. Every time I borrowed money, I'd deposit it and open 20x leverage, losing it all in a few trades. Then I'd take out another loan.

To hide it from my husband, I'd delete each lending app immediately after borrowing, even erasing text messages. When the payment deadline approached, I'd reinstall it, repay that month's installment, then delete it again.

By October 2023, I owed over 400,000 yuan. The 50,000 yuan my husband had given me piece by piece also disappeared through repeated leveraged trades. I couldn't get any more money, and then I found out I was pregnant. That's when I decided to come clean.

I thought that since I was pregnant, he couldn't really do anything to me. If he dared to be cold or resentful toward me, I'd immediately get an abortion. I really thought I had leverage.

That afternoon after I confessed, his face turned black with rage, and he roared at me like a ghost. I didn't stay silent—I got even more agitated, frantically pounding my own stomach, telling him I'd go get an abortion right then. Maybe he didn't expect me to go this far. Scared, he immediately apologized, but I didn't forgive him. When I walked toward the door to head to the hospital, he knelt behind me and hugged my legs. I felt my opportunity had come, so I abandoned the abortion plan.

In that moment, I thought I'd reform and change, wait until the debt was paid, then focus on my pregnancy. To help me pay off the 400,000 yuan, my husband sold his car—I knew he hated to part with it, but I couldn't stop him. He borrowed 50,000 from friends, his mother gave 70,000, relatives lent 100,000, and with the car sale proceeds, he gave me 280,000 total. My parents covered the remaining debt.

After clearing the debt, I thought life would return to normal. But just half a month later, I started having abdominal pain and miscarried. My husband was devastated when he discovered my miscarriage, then started deliberately holding grudges against me, bringing up old issues. This left me in a terrible mood and made me realize that what sustains a marriage isn't love—it's money.

I'm not defending myself. When people are most depressed, they really will find any way to regulate their emotions. I just chose the wrong path and turned to futures contracts again. I thought if I could win the money back, everything would be solved. But the truth is, once you fall into the futures trap, you can never climb out.

I'll skip the repetitive process. My second time trading futures, I owed 240,000 yuan in online loans and another 150,000 to relatives and friends. Combined with my first loss, I lost roughly a million yuan total over two rounds.

I did fantasize about him selling the house to save me. The mortgaged house was worth maybe 450,000 to 500,000 yuan—enough to clear all my debts. I overestimated our love too much. My worst-case scenario was just divorce, but after that confession, it wasn't just divorce talk. He pushed me down, grabbed my hair and slapped me several times. It wasn't over—he threw all my clothes and personal items into the stairwell, shouting for me to get out, threatening to kill me if I didn't leave.

That was the most unforgettable day of my life. I'll never forget the harm he caused me. After our divorce, I moved to another unfamiliar city. My parents couldn't help pay my debt, but they transferred me 20,000 yuan and told me to figure it out myself. I rented a place and rested for a month before starting my street vending business. Since my family has been in the braised food business, I have the skills for it. I bought a vehicle and started selling braised meat specifically at residential community entrances.