In short
Rotten Mango Podcast Episode Summary: #291 - Pregnant Wife Pushed Off 110ft Cliff
Episode Overview In this episode of Rotten Mango, the hosts delve into a harrowing true crime story involving a Chinese couple, Ning and Yu, who experienced a devastating vacation in Thailand that led to an attempt on Ning's life. The episode explores themes of manipulation, domestic abuse, and survival.
Key Details
- Setting: The incident took place in June 2019 at a national park in Thailand, where the couple were on a vacation before welcoming their first child.
- Background of the Couple:
- Ning: A successful businesswoman in her 30s, independent, and highly ambitious with a net worth of over $3 million. She had little time for relationships due to her career focus.
- Yu: Initially presented as a caring partner, whose romantic advances led to a quick marriage just two months into their relationship.
Timeline of Events
- Vacation Turned Nightmare:
- The couple went on a hike where Yu pushed Ning off a 110-foot cliff after a seemingly affectionate moment, whispering "go die" before the act.
- Ning survived the fall but sustained severe injuries, including 17 bone fractures.
- Initial Response:
- Yu appeared distressed, feigning concern for his wife's safety, while secretly manipulating the situation.
- During Ning's hospitalization, Yu continued to show alarming behavior, including attempts to unplug her life support devices.
- Investigation and Revelations:
- Once Ning regained consciousness, she initially felt unable to speak out against Yu due to language barriers and fear of disbelief.
- A nurse who spoke Mandarin noticed Ning's distress and alerted authorities, leading to Yu's arrest.
- Trial and Aftermath:
- Yu was charged with attempted homicide, revealing a history of manipulation and gambling debt.
- Ultimately, he was sentenced to life in prison, with Ning awarded compensation, though the financial recovery remained uncertain.
Psychological Insights
- Manipulation and Control: The episode highlights the psychological manipulation prevalent in abusive relationships. Yu's initial charm masked deeper issues, leading to serious consequences for Ning.
- Cultural Context: The episode explores how cultural expectations and pressures can play a role in relationships, particularly in the context of familial expectations for marriage and children.
Key Takeaways
- Red Flags: The hosts discuss various warning signs that can indicate toxic relationships, including extreme possessiveness, financial manipulation, and sudden changes in behavior post-marriage.
- Empowerment and Survival: Ning's journey of recovery and empowerment serves as a powerful reminder of resilience. Despite her traumatic experience, she has sought to reclaim her life and inspire others to avoid unhealthy relationships.
- Importance of Due Diligence in Relationships: Ning's story emphasizes the necessity of investigating a partner's background and being cautious in romantic relationships, especially under societal pressures.
Conclusion The episode serves as a chilling reminder of the complexities of relationships and the importance of being vigilant against potential threats. Ning’s story, while tragic, also embodies strength and a call to action for listeners to prioritize their well-being in personal relationships.
For more details, the full transcript and additional resources can be found on the Rotten Mango podcast's official website.
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*This summary captures the essence of the episode while highlighting critical discussions, themes, and the psychological aspects surrounding the case.*
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02So June of 2019 is when this case takes place. A Chinese couple in their early 30s They take this little vacation in a national park in Thailand This is kind of pertinent to the story But the couple, they're Chinese citizens But they live in Thailand full-time But even within Thailand, they're like Let's take a mini vacation to a different part of Thailand To go visit this national park We're going to be staying at a hotel It's going to be nice, like a weekend getaway of sorts So they live in Thailand, they speak Thai to a degree This is very pertinent to the story The husband and wife duo, they're expecting a baby on the way.
0:37The wife is actually three months pregnant. This is kind of like a cute little, let's just take our mind off of all the stress that we have going on and just enjoy nature. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like with Chinese couples in particular, there is this level of extreme protectiveness over the mother, like over pregnant woman. It's just kind of embedded in the culture, at least from what I've seen, what I've perceived. usually everything down to what the mom drinks or eats has to be deemed not even just healthy but more than healthy they're told to not even leave the house or even shower a month a full month after giving birth because it's bad for their immune systems i don't know how many people still follow these traditions but i i get the feeling that there is a level of like oh no like the husband is very catering to the wife babying the wife so just imagine how frantic this husband is when his pregnant wife falls off a hundred foot cliff while they're vacationing at this national park.
1:39110 feet. That's equivalent to an 11 story building. Ambulances rushed to the scene. The husband is freaking out. I mean, he's screaming to get past these first responders who are trying to save his wife's life. You know, he's running, trying to grab her hand. He's crying out to them in tight, like shaking the first responders. You have to do something. You have to do something. My wife wandered out alone and she fell. Oh my God, please, you have to save my wife. She's pregnant. And they're like, okay, like let us do our job. He's like so distraught. There's no way to even calm him down. He's running his hands through his hair.
2:13He just keeps screaming and broken tie. Please, you have to help my wife. He's got tears streaming down his face. And at one point he's just frantically holding onto his wife's hand and he leans in close to her face. He's like running his hands across her cheeks. She's still alive? She's still alive. She's conscious. She can't talk. She can't move, but she's conscious. She's like in a state of shock. And he's running his hands across her face, across her cheeks, and he whispers in Mandarin so no one else can understand him, but this is like their language that they share together. And he whispers, no one else understands Mandarin here.
2:51There are no cameras on the cliff. If you don't want to die, you better behave. The wife is laying on the stretcher, unable to speak, unable to move. And she's looking at her husband. His face looks like the face of pure evil. It's filled with burning hatred and anger. And almost immediately, it's like he snaps out of it. His eyes soften back up and he looks back up at the first responders and begs them again in broken tie to save his precious wife. And he screams about how he will die without his wife. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. This is another case that centers around a Chinese couple.
3:33They're Chinese citizens. Most of the sources that we found were in Mandarin. So we did have the support of our wonderful Chinese researchers on this case. But as always, let us know if anything was lost in translation or miscommunicated. But with that being said, let's get into it. The wife, Ning, N-I-N-G is her name, had 17 bone fractures throughout her entire body. Yeah, even her eyes were at risk since the skin around her eyes had lifted. I've never heard of that before, but they were really scared that they weren't going to be able to save her vision. Thankfully, they were able to. Every part of this woman's body was like a fragile, broken piece of glass that doctors are struggling to piece back together.
4:14they even showed her her own x-rays while she was laying motionless on the hospital bed and she looked like she looked like if someone had taken a porcelain vase and threw it at the wall like chucked it at the wall and it scattered and shattered into like a bajillion different small pieces and now they have to like glue it back together every part of her body was basically fractured and shattered she was lucky to be alive that's what the doctors kept telling her because she's in such a fragile state, because she's expecting a child. She's hooked up to several different machines that are providing life-saving care.
4:47She's in and out of consciousness. For the first few days, she couldn't even speak. I don't know if it was the shock. I don't know if it was all the tubes running in and out of her body. She could not speak. She did not have the ability to talk. She's in and out of consciousness. And it's like a fever dream. It's like a nightmare, really. Every time she woke up, she would panic. She's like thinking, oh my God, where am I? then she would look around, see all these scary tubes and wires connected to her body. And then she would remember all the memories would start flooding in. She was at the hospital.
5:18She had fallen off a cliff. And just as she calmed herself down, she would glance around the hospital room. And right there in the corner is her husband, you. And her heart rate would send the machines beeping. He was still there. He was still watching her. he was almost glaring at her from the corner of the room. Sometimes he would walk up to her while she's laying strapped up in this hospital bed, run his fingers through her hair. And his face just showed like utter hatred for her. I don't know if I've ever been looked at like with that type of face, but I can only imagine it so unsettling. Like genuinely someone hates you so much for whatever reason.
6:02She didn't even understand who this man was. This didn't feel like her husband, or at least not the husband that she had known for years. It's like he was possessed by evil, possessed by like a killer or something. Since Ning was unable to move or talk, she spent most of her days just reliving, reliving the incident over and over in her mind as she's staring up at this hospital ceiling. It all took place June of 2019. Yu had asked his wife Ning to go to a national park in Thailand. And she was a little hesitant because when you hear national park, you're thinking, that sounds like a strenuous activity like I am three months pregnant I don't know if I should be hiking up and down a mountain right now right you told her of course I considered that like it's not that intense I made sure to look up reviews there's the trail and everything is going to be perfect I've planned it to a T like don't you want to get out and get some fresh oxygen for the baby too not only are you not going to be exhausted but this is going to be a much needed vacation from all of the work stress all of the stress of prepping for this baby and it's going to be fun It's like going to be a reset for our family.
7:06But when they get to the national park, everything is just going the wrong way. Literally everything is going wrong for the couple. So usually this park is filled to the brim with visitors and tourists. And when they arrived the first day, it was jam packed, which kind of adds to a sense of like easiness. You know, it's a sense of ease. Imagine being out in the wooded cliffs alone. I feel like I would prefer if it's packed with tourists. Yeah. Even though they're strangers, it's just like, oh, okay. At least I know a lot of people come here. But every minute it felt like someone is physically dragging the sun down.
7:38The gloom started taking over. There was this gray, blurry tint to everything. And before the couple knew it, all the other visitors, all the other tourists had gone home. And Ning is looking around. She's starting to feel a bit nervous. What if there's some sort of animal or predator out in the woods, like by the cliffside? And she turns to her husband. Hey, I know you planned this all out, but do you think we should start heading back soon? Like what if it rains or something? It's getting really cloudy. You insisted everything was going to be fine. He's like, no, it's going to be better than fine.
8:08Actually, it'll be even more romantic since it's just the two of us enjoying the view alone. He practically skipped higher up to the mountain, to the cliffside. And Ning is wondering, what has gotten into my husband? This is the guy that for years, he has been petrified of heights. But now he's going over willingly to the cliff's edge, not even like looking down, just soaking in the views, the surroundings. things. She's so confused. And she's so relieved when he finally suggests, you know what? I think we should head back to the hotel now. But before the weekend was over, just a day later, he's like, hey, you want to go to the national park again?
8:46She's like, again, we went, we saw everything there was to see. He's like, no, no, I was looking online. And actually they said that it's the best when we go during sunrise. There's even like this secret local spot to get the best views of the sun rising amongst the mountains. It's just incredible. Like when else are we going to have the time to see this type of thing? When else are we going to come all the way over here? When we have a baby, it's going to be so rough. We're not going to be able to travel anywhere for at least a few years, right? At first she's a little hesitant, but she'd already been there.
9:18She already kind of knew the vibe. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad. And the views were pretty, even though it was gloomy. So maybe it would be more incredible during dawn. So the next day at 3 30 a.m., the couple check out of their hotel and make their way to the top of the mountain. Ning noticed that her husband was in a rather pensive mood. I mean, maybe it's like the fact that they're hiking up a cliffside before the sun rises. Maybe that's adding to it, or maybe it's being alone with nature, but he turns to his wife and is like asking all these pensive questions. Like in this lifetime, babe do you have any regrets it's so random but she's thinking okay I mean it makes sense it's the type of conversation maybe couples have when they're hiking so she genuinely thinks about it for a moment she has a beyond successful career her husband is working really hard recently to make their home feel ready for their baby it's cliche but yeah there's things that she maybe regrets a little bit but she would never redo anything so she smiles and she says no i don't think so no regrets and he just smiles at her and he takes the lead he climbs higher and higher up the mountain and once they get really high i'm talking like a hundred feet off the ground up in the mountain like the cliffside mountain you starts pointing towards the cliff edge saying that he read online that this is the specific spot that locals it's like a secret spot for locals for sunrises it's the best view he even said that there's paintings left behind from ancient civilizations from thousands of years ago kind of tracked because a lot of this national park has these guided pathways and these beautifully preserved relics from the past and then he's saying this is one that isn't preserved it's just been left in the open because nobody really knows about it except for a few locals and they posted about it online like where is it i'm so confused Literally on the cliff's edge.
11:13Like outside of the cliff? Like this is the mountain, right? There's a mountain. Yes. They're on the mountain 100 feet in the air. And he's like right at the cliff on the ground near the very edge. There's these paintings. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. And they're like getting, they're getting degraded through the weather. So who knows how long this will last. So he's saying, go stand by the cliff, poke your head out, and you're going to see this beautiful art. Yeah. Okay. And Ning is like, okay, let me go. And you is going first, right? So Ning walks towards the area and she wasn't expecting to go all the way up to the cliff's edge since they had walked off the designated trail already.
11:52But they're about three feet away from the cliff's edge when she looks around and she's like, wait, I don't see any of the drawings that you're talking about. And it doesn't really look like people come here. There's no even footmarks or some sort of eroded pathway. There's nothing. It's, I think we should go back to the trail. She's like, I feel like this is a little dangerous. You ignores her and completely just ignores her completely and keeps walking towards the cliff's edge. And she's shocked once again because this is her husband who is known to have acrophobia. And trust me, as someone who is beyond terrified of heights, you will never catch me doing this.
12:28Even if the view is spectacular, you will never catch me just like gallivanting towards the cliff's edge, especially if there's no railing. Like you will never see that in a million years. and Ning is so worried about her own husband. She keeps begging him like, hey babe, like let's walk back to the trail. Let's go, let's go. But he just keeps going. She has no choice but to chase after him and abruptly he just stops near the cliff's edge. He's looking up at the sky, taking in the views. She's like, what has come over this guy? Like what is going on? Is he pensive? What is he thinking about? And she looks up and she has to admit the view is incredible.
13:04the sun is casting this orange hue on everything and the air felt crisp even for a hot june day in thailand because they were so high up it just felt so it felt so fresh she was kind of running but now she's slowing down and just slowly walking up behind him while admiring the sunrise and when she gets close her husband turns around hugs her tightly kisses her on the cheek and she's like smiling you know this moment right here is a moment that she would remember for the rest of her life the two of them hugging in the glow of the sunrise on the mountainside cliff in Thailand like yeah their marriage had its ups and downs but this is what love is about this is a core memory for them and her husband nestled his face into her hair and then brushed his lips on her ear.
13:56And he said, go die. And pushed his three-month pregnant wife off a 110-foot tall cliff with all his strength. He said, go die? He said, go die. He kissed her on the cheek and said, go die. This was the scene that Ning would play over and over in her mind while laying in that hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to leave. She just laid there staring at her husband, who sat in the corner of the room staring at her with just pure evil disgust on his face. And then she would hear the door open to the room because she's in the ICU. She's got her own room. A nurse would come in and it's like a switch had been flipped.
14:38His face would immediately soften and he would go from being this evil guard of hell in the corner of her room to this loving husband who would ask about his wife's condition and if their baby was okay. and if there is absolutely anything that he can do for his wife, please just let him know. Ning would try to communicate to the nurses with just her eyes, like, I'm terrified. My husband is the one that pushed me off the cliff. Like, something is wrong. You have to help me. You need him to leave. Like, please get him out of here. He's going to try and kill me again. But each time, the nurses would smile at her and tell her, you're so lucky to have a husband like this.
15:15You're so lucky he's with you by your side. And don't worry. We're going to get you out of here. You're going to recover nice and well and you get to go home with your husband and everything will be okay. The nurses had no idea that you would try to unplug Ning's life assistant devices while in the hospital. He straight up tried to unplug her to silence her once and for all. What's so crazy about this case is that Ning really didn't see any of this coming. It's not like her husband ever beat her. it's not like her husband ever threatened to kill her or did any of these crazy crazy things i mean they kind of had the perfect relationship before before he pushed her off a cliff okay maybe it wasn't like exactly perfect there was a little bit of weirdness or a little bit of ups and downs i mean especially now that she had a lot of time to think about their relationship while she's in this hospital bed one of the main things was she never even wanted to date you in the first place.
16:13Literally, Ning did not have time to spend with friends, let alone a relationship, a boyfriend. She had basically not known a single day of rest in peace since the day that she had been born. I'm not even sure if ambitious is the right word to describe her. She was more unstoppable than anything. Like she had the ambition, she had the drive. And from the moment that she graduated university with a major in business development, I mean, this woman hits the ground running. She tried working at an insurance company, a travel agency. She went from an assistant in the travel agency to an operations managers in record time.
16:49Even got relocated to Thailand for the travel agency. She wasn't even just sent to Thailand like, hey, go work at our Thailand branch, right? No, she was tasked with opening up the agency's market in Thailand. Basically building it from scratch in a foreign country where she doesn't speak the language. Like, I feel like I'd be terrified to see this woman's Google calendar. Like, I bet there is not a single bit of white space for her to relax. Just appointments, meetings, back to back. She would eventually quit the travel agency to start her own business. She would try a bunch of different things.
17:22And, you know, there would be failures. She tried a dried fruit business. She lost about$30 ,000 from that. Then she tried a trading business, which kind of took off. Then it evolved into a Chinese restaurant and a homestay location for Chinese citizens to come stay in Thailand. And in the off chance, in the rare chance that she had some free time, she was just like head deep in a Thai language learning book. So she's putting her roots down in Thailand. She's starting her businesses here and she's thinking, yeah, I better learn the freaking language. It said that every single night early on in her career, so like most of her 20s, she only got three to four hours of sleep.
17:59she was focused dedicated to making a name for herself every single day of her 20s was spent working her ass off and it paid off by the time that she hit her milestone her 30th birthday she was successful she had a net worth of over three million dollars i mean she's killing it she was a huge influence in the chinese community in thailand a lot of chinese citizens who would do business in thailand or visit thailand they would rub shoulders with ning she was kind of the know-all be-all to Thailand. And you would think, you would think that her parents are like, you know what? I'm so proud of you.
18:35I would, I could never ask for a better daughter, but they were also like, okay, great. Why do you not have a boyfriend? Oh, I don't know, mom. Maybe it's the fact that I spent like 120 hours a week on my business for the past decade and Ning would ignore her parents. But I mean, yeah, sometimes she could feel it. she feels a little lonely. Sometimes her house feels a little empty and like, maybe it is time to date. So prior to moving to Thailand, basically in college, she had two boyfriends. That's it. She hadn't dated in like the past decade, over a decade. And ever since then, she's just focused on work, nothing else.
19:13The term boyfriend, like the idea of calling someone, oh, that's my boyfriend. It sounded so foreign to her. She's like, that is weird. She didn't even realize when someone was learning with her. So during these networking events, men would try and come and make small talk with Ning, maybe slowly drop some cute little jokes here and there. And Ning would just be straight face. She's not even entertaining it. She thinks something is wrong with these people. This is a work event. Why are we talking about the weather? Sometimes they would ask her out for a cup of coffee and she would show up with like a briefcase full of business proposals.
19:45And they're like, oh, I was just, I just wanted to get to know you. And she's like, yeah, well, you can get to know my business. Yeah, she was really, really intense. Like she was so focused on work. She literally forgot how to date. And then May of 2017 at one of these networking events in Thailand, which like I said, there's a strong Chinese community there. So a lot of Chinese people there. Ning is introduced to a man named Yu. He's also a Chinese citizen. But like I said, a lot of her business circle are Chinese expats. So nothing too crazy. But the minute that he opens his mouth, she's like, wait a freaking minute.
20:20You're from Nanjing, right? So in China, every town and city basically has their own dialect of sorts. So in Shanghai, people speak Mandarin. Well, most people speak Mandarin or Shanghainese, but just because you speak Mandarin doesn't mean you speak Shanghainese. So a lot of Chinese people, at least from my personal observation with my husband being Chinese, I feel like there is a closer bond as expats. Like in the U.S., when he meets someone that's Chinese, he's like, oh, you're Chinese. Cool. He meets someone who speaks Shanghainese. He's like, oh, my gosh, you are my best friend. We were separated at birth.
20:54I'm like, what's going on? So she's imagine finding out while abroad that someone is from the same hometown as you and speaks the same exact dialect as you. It's this nice, comfortable feeling. You know, you feel closer to them without knowing anything about them. you're like, I feel like I've known you my whole life, even though you just met them. And he opens up his mouth and he's speaking the dialect that's native to Nanjing. I mean, what are the odds? She's so happy. She's like, this is so freaking wild. It's a piece of home. It was a brief spark. And when he continues to try and carry on the conversation, she's like, okay, I'm over it.
21:34This has nothing to do with work. So bye. And he's like, what just happened? She was so excited that I spoke the same dialect. And then all of a sudden she's back to being cold, back to being all about business. He's so confused. She's checked out. She's not getting the hint that he's into her. He even tried adding her as a friend on WeChat and she comes home and she sees it on her phone. And she's like, what could he possibly want to talk to me about? We're not even in the same industry. Reject. What? Yeah. What? I mean, adding someone as a WeChat friend is like adding someone as a Facebook friend or like accepting a follower on Instagram.
22:08It's not like you're giving them your social security number. It's a pretty standard thing. So she just rejects him. And it only makes him more curious. He's like, I have never met a woman like this. This is insane. Like, she's so blunt. She's so laser focused on work. And you know that one idea that's like going around on TikTok, the more passionate someone is about something, the more attractive and charismatic they are. That was what was happening. You cannot stop thinking about her. Now, I don't know how someone would react to what he does next, but I guess it really depends person to person.
22:43Make your own personal judgment. You literally does not give up. He keeps trying to ask for her contact until she finally caves in. And the minute, I mean, the second that he gets that notification that Ning finally accepted him on WeChat, he's all in. He's actively pursuing her. It's like his new life mission is to pursue this woman. He would beg her to go out to eat with him. He would fight to pay the bill. He would take her to Thai lessons together so that they could both learn Thai. Sometimes when she was missing home, he would drive miles out to these random markets to buy supplies to cook her a nostalgic home-cooked meal that reminded her of Nanjing.
23:19You know, at first glance, he's not a bad guy. He's responsible. He's very caring. He's financially independent. He's said to have almost this calming aura about him. Like just seems very calm. Like when you're with him, you feel very well taken care of. Like if you guys are outside, something goes wrong. He's the type of person to take charge and figure out a solution. But in terms of personality, they were complete opposites. Oh my God. Beyond that. Like you was this hopeless romantic. Really? Yeah. There were like a few key moments early in their relationship that set the tone for their marriage.
23:55And Ning is like, what have I gotten myself into? This is crazy. Maybe it's hindsight. Maybe it's love bombing. It's hard to say. But now looking back, it's a little, it's a little creepy.
24:10So Ning remembered very early on in their relationship. This is at a phase where she didn't even feel like this is a serious relationship. They'd been dating for like a month. She wakes up one morning to one of the longest messages she had ever received from a single human being. It was a message from you. and at the time it it felt like him professing his love some sort of confessional but now in hindsight she's like it's a deranged letter i mean just imagine waking up one morning to a long message from the guy that you're casually dating and this is what it reads one month you said one month and side note this is shortened for clarity but it's a very long message it starts every man imagines their ideal partner.
24:56Let me tell you about mine. I prefer a southern woman's petite figure. I hope my future partner is beautiful and has a good body figure. She would have long hair, a gentle personality, good morals, and be independent, bright, and cheerful. Because I don't have the best cultural background, I hope my other half has a better education than me so that she can guide our future child. She would also be sensible, well-mannered, and have a career. Meeting you is like love at first sight. And I want to grow old with you. Fate has brought us together. Many people would get together because of their age and from family pressure.
25:33And under these circumstances, they get forced to be married, but none of them are happy. What I look for in a marriage is pure love. And after I met you, I didn't just like you. I didn't want to just date you and have a relationship with you. I want to take care of you for the rest of my life. I want to share your pain and your sorrows. If possible, allow me to face all of your hardships. If I start a relationship with you, there will be a happy ending. We can have our own family, have our own kids. We can teach them to be good people. If we have a boy, he can learn martial arts, work out, and become a caring man like me.
26:12If we have a girl, we will treat her like a princess. And when she grows up, she can find a man that loves her as much as I love you. Oh yeah, so it's like every girl's life purpose, okay? Now that you have me, everything is different. You are no longer alone. You will never be lonely again. All the darkness and pain will go away because of me. After we've become a family, all of this will go away and this life will be filled with happiness. Our careers will continue to prosper and we will work hard together and generate wealth for our family. We will have a better life. Let our parents retire with better conditions and provide our children with better learning environments and a better place to grow up and let them just see the world.
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26:55And when we grow old, it doesn't matter where we are, China, Bangkok, Europe, no matter the place, you and I will be inseparable. Yeah. So you must believe our meeting was just a coincidence, but I believe it's fate. I hope you can accept my love, hold my hand and start a new chapter in life. okay you know that feeling when one person is way more into a relationship than the other and you read this message from a guy that you're like kind of lukewarm about you're just like whoa that's a lot like that is a lot to wake up to like imagine because you know you check your phone before you even brush your teeth your eyes are barely open and you're trying to read this long message you're like it's not that serious it's really just not that serious i feel like i would need to brush my teeth, wash my face down a cup of coffee, sit on the couch and reread this three more times to really even grasp what the hell he's even trying to say right now.
27:53Like why is he even sending this message in the middle of the night when I'm dead asleep? It's so random. It's so out of nowhere. We're not even that serious yet. But Ning does not have that type of time. So she quickly skims through the message. She gets ready for work, swings open her front door and she screams like oh my god you scared me at her front door is you i've been here the whole night since i sent that message whoa you what when i was writing that message i was thinking about you and it made me miss you and i couldn't fall back asleep so i came here but then i realized that you're probably asleep and i didn't want to wake you up because then it would ruin your sleep so i've just been standing here waiting for you to wake up for hours he just stood in front of her front door and Ning was kind of confused on how to feel about it like on one hand it's very jarring and maybe even a little bit creepy but on the other hand it's I guess it's kind of romantic and you have to remember she hasn't really dated much in her life she's thinking maybe this is how all hopeless romantics are like maybe they genuinely see themselves in some sort of like movie and I think the deciding factor for Ning to feel like it was more romantic than creepy was you know context you had always been this hopeless romantic like since the moment that they met he's even said so himself like i have this very idealistic vision of love i mean she could feel it from the moment that they started talking the way that he talked about marriage the way that he talked about all of this it's like he's in his own little romance novel and he's prince charming and for her it was kind of endearing in a sense like she's thinking you know if i was with someone that was like me we would never even work out because we would never talk to each other we We would both be so much into our own work and our own world.
29:39We would not even be able to maintain this relationship. But since he's the total opposite, he's the glue that keeps them talking. Otherwise, she would never reach out to him, right? So he's like, well, since I'm here, do you want to go to the beach? They go to the beach and he rents two small horses. I have a picture of this. And they ride as the sun comes up. It was like a Prince Charming moment. And at one point, as the sun is coming up, just like across the horizon, he gets down from his horse and he stands next to her. And you hear the waves crashing behind him. And he looks into Ning's eyes and said, I can be your Prince Charming.
30:20Okay, but he didn't propose, right? No. Okay, thank God. Yeah. So within two months of dating, yeah, this is, he's about to propose. Two months? Yeah. So within two months of dating, this is all unfolding within two months. Like she had just met the man two and a half months ago. They started dating officially like two weeks into meeting. And it's been two months of having this, what she perceived as a pretty casual relationship. The two of them are enjoying this nice little Saturday evening dinner, just being in each other's company. When you all of a sudden is like, we should get married. And she's like, what?
30:55You're joking, right? Like that's crazy. No, I know. I love you. and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Like, what is the point in waiting now? We're both in our 30s. I mean, we're both of age. What are we waiting for? And Ning is kind of laughing because she's thinking he's joking. He's crazy. This is crazy. But he keeps insisting. And she tries to reason with him. Well, no, like you haven't even met my parents. My parents would be so upset if I got married to someone and they didn't even approve of him. I can't just get married out of nowhere. And he tries to convince her that they can just get married first and tell the parents later.
31:28they're both independent they're both successful they're both of age like they're not even like 18 they're in their 30s this shouldn't be something that parents need to be involved in I mean which I can partly agree with but it's the fact that that's what she wants to do you should respect it even if you feel like the tradition is not your vibe still respect it you just kept saying how he's certain about this love he's certain about the way that he feels about her. He's never felt this way about anyone else before. And honestly, Ning is like, what is going on? Like, this is so unbelievable. I don't even know if he's being serious right now.
32:04And she just keeps telling him, you're crazy. Like you're crazy. This is crazy. I can't do this. No. Okay. How about this? We go to the courthouse tomorrow. It's Sunday. Courthouses are almost always closed on Sundays. When's the last time you ever saw a courthouse open on a Sunday, right? right we go and if they're open that means we're destined to be married tomorrow if they're closed fine we'll come back home eat a meal take it slow um what kind of a stupid yeah idea is that yeah he must research this beforehand yeah and ning is looking at him like he's crazy but it's so stupid she doesn't take it seriously okay because she fell basically got tricked yes because Because, I mean, I would imagine I'd be like, that's so stupid.
32:51Yeah, okay, fine. Let's go to the courthouse tomorrow. It's not going to be open. And then we'll probably go get lunch and then I'll go to work after. Like, that's what she's thinking. No courthouse is open on Sundays. So the next morning, she still thinks that he's just trying to be cute. And she's just playing along, entertaining him. She gets ready for the day. She doesn't even get ready for the courthouse specifically. She gets ready for her day, goes to the courthouse and they're freaking open. I mean, most likely he paid someone to keep it open or something, right? Yeah. And at this point, she was so surprised.
33:22She started believing it was faked. She talked herself into it. She's like, you know what? This is so absurd and so crazy. Maybe it's a sign. Because again, when was the last time a courthouse is open on a Sunday? Like this is marbles, nuts. So, okay, fine. Let's get married. we're gonna probably get married anyway she's thinking you know let's do it okay some context to remember is that ning is in her 30s the way that she's approaching this relationship is not let me just date around yeah so so how i see is like if she's chinese at that point she's probably getting pressured every single day by the parents like when is you when are you getting married where's my grandkid and then she probably have that social pressure of oh i need to have a kid now i need to get married now you know she feels like her time's running out that might have pushed her to just okay maybe this guy is is it yeah and i think the logic was i mean we're already talking about gary getting married eventually anyway i'm not getting any younger he's not either we'll just get married now and it was just kind of a cute moment too it was romantic like think about it you're like making a bet hey if the courthouse is open like what are the odds and then you go there and it's open, there might be some adrenaline running like, oh my God, this is crazy.
34:40And that feels like it should be, it's meant to be. Like they already had the plans for the rest of their lives together. So that day, no ring, no wedding, no honeymoon, no parents knowing they get married. And in the moment, it felt romantic. It just felt like two people with no stress of having this big luxurious wedding. It was just love, right? They signed that marriage certificate and everything flipped upside down. An immediate 180. You went from being a romantic, hopeless romantic to an evil husband straight out of one of those K dramas. Okay. Well, I don't want to say evil, more like a deadbeat husband, like the epitome of a useless husband.
35:24So I don't know if I can say evil. He's not hitting her. He's not cheating on her, at least that we know of, but he's just so gross. Like it just made her so confused the day after they signed their marriage papers. So normally when they would spend the night at each other's places, they would both jump up in the morning, ready to get washed up, both a tackle their to-do list. Like they were both on the same page of ambition and having that really intense work ethic. But the day after alarms go off, you stays in bed. He rolls over, grabs his phone and starts playing phone games, like mobile phone games.
36:01And she's like, okay, that's weird. He's never done that before. I've actually never even seen him play a phone game in my life. I didn't even know that he was into phone games, but she finishes getting ready. He's still playing phone games. She makes breakfast. He comes out to eat, goes right back to bed playing mobile games. And she's like, what is going on? Okay. Maybe he has an off day today. She goes out to work, comes home. He's still in bed playing mobile games. Mobile games. I sound like a boomer playing games. Okay. And she's like, what is going on? Like what the hell came over this guy?
36:41She's so confused. She's not trying to raise a boy though. So every single day she would get up and do her things. And it was like every day she'd come home still like, Oh, I'm sure today is the day that he goes back to being normal but no still playing games in bed so what's going on so he married her for her money for her it seems like it to do nothing just lay in bed yeah he wouldn't even leave the house all he all he used to talk about was his budding company how he wanted to be the ceo how he had all these visions of these different endeavors his future dreams all of that and now now all he does is play phone games and she's like the man that i used to know or i thought i knew just dissipated into thin air now he's like a full-blown deadbeat husband he was living under her roof relying on her financially he was a leech he was just sucking her dry of energy love compassion and money not only did he take advantage of her financially but his loving attitude towards her gone out the window so remember how ning opens a chinese restaurant so she's just the owner she doesn't really go in unless they need someone unless someone cancels calls out of their shift or it's like peak hours and they they're understaffed now he used to come over and help her out when it got really busy or if the employees called out he would go he would put on an apron he would just do everything and she's she would look at him like wow he really is something right but now she would get called in during peak hours she'd be like let's go come on get up like you need to do something with your life he would drag his feet to the restaurant plop down on one of the customer chairs no eat food for free and play on his phone and she's getting so frustrated because you know what like there's only so much you can nag someone before you're like i don't even have the energy to nag anymore.
38:38Like I genuinely don't. He would watch her clean tables, take in orders. He did nothing to help. Not a single thing. Employees said that the worst thing was one time Ning was carrying a ton of stuff from the stock room. She's walking down the stairs, accidentally slips and falls, tumbles all the way from the top of the staircase to the bottom of the staircase. Obviously this type of thing doesn't happen quietly. It's like a series of really loud thuds and bangs back to back. She's probably screaming. Employees are probably like, oh my God, what happened? Right? They look over at the husband thinking, okay, like your wife just tumbled down the stairs.
39:14He looks up from his phone, verifies that his wife is not bleeding out dead on the bottom of the stairs and goes back to his phone. Doesn't even pretend to care. Not even a meaningless. Are you good? Not even that. Not even that. I mean, that would be a problem but not even that like no reaction employees rush to ning's side and they stare at each other like what the fork is this guy's problem like what kind of husband acts like that her fall was so bad it warranted an ambulance ride to the hospital no way yeah he did not care so ning is trying to reason with herself maybe it's just a phase you know maybe she even read online like guys go through a phase after getting married because it's this feeling of commitment that becomes overwhelming honestly she was making excuses for him because i'm sure to a degree she also felt trapped like she legally got married in chinese societies like anywhere in the world there is a stigma against divorcees especially of her age and she's thinking maybe maybe it's even my own success maybe dating is one thing you know maybe when he was dating her he wanted her to be successful and he wanted to date an ambitious woman.
40:31But then she's reading online of all these other women saying that once you get married, it's different. Once men marry women that are more successful than them, it's no longer an advantage. It's no longer a pro. It becomes like this con. So she's thinking, okay, maybe, maybe he's dealing with all these emotions. Deep down, she's trying to, she's trying to reason with herself and hope that the you that she used to know would make a reappearance. And randomly, he would be nice. Randomly, he would do chores. He would take out the trash, give her a foot massage. And she would think, OK, thank God, like he's back.
41:05He's coming back. The man that I fell in love with, he's coming back. But then he would look up from her feet and ask with a big old grin on his face, can I borrow a few thousand dollars? At first, it's a few thousand. Then it's like 10 ,000, then a 20 ,000 dollars. Finally, Ning puts her foot down and she's like, what the hell do you need all this money for? Like you don't pay rent. You're not even working on your company anymore. So it's not like you need money or funds to expand your business or something's going on with your company. You literally spent every single day laying in bed, playing games.
41:35Why on earth would you need a thousand dollars, let alone $20 ,000? Eventually he confessed that he has 140 ,000 US dollars in gambling debt. This is the man that used to talk to her with such authority as if he was this aspirational hustling entrepreneur ceo to be and now he's confessing to the fact that he does nothing with his time and he's in debt from gambling like can you imagine just the whiplash you would get from something like that but what can she do they didn't sign a prenup and he said that he had these aggressive violent loan sharks that are breathing down his neck every single day he told her that he never wanted her to get involved in this this was his problem to take care of by himself but he was scared for his life oh yeah yeah laying on the bed taking care of it oh yeah so ning briefly scolded him you know like well i don't even know if it's scolding but kind of what you would expect like you shouldn't be gambling in the first place like you shouldn't be taking out loans to gamble like that's so dangerous do you not know that can ruin your life like i mean that's an easy way to kill your own future and if you're dealing with crazy loan sharks you could end up killing yourself instead of tucking his tail and being like i know i know i know i'm gonna take accountability i messed up i'll never do it again he straight up starts whining like a child and he's like no i always said no but my friends would visit and they would make me gamble they'd be like let's hit the casinos and you're like what you are 30 years old dude yeah she was so shocked he pinky swore that he would never do it again and Ning said you know I'm not gonna pay off all your debt because then you'll never learn I will pay off half your debt that is more than enough that is generous and it's more than enough to get the loan sharks off your back to give you enough time to make up the other half.
43:32And she was thinking like she is someone who is very empathetic and likes to think the best of people, not even the best of people, but tries to reason with herself. Like she tries to reason with human psychology. She's thinking maybe he was so depressed because he was getting all these calls from these loan sharks. He felt like he was in such a deep hole that he couldn't climb out of. Maybe that's why every single day he would lay in bed playing games because he just didn't even know how to tackle this problem. Right. But now there's a clear solution. Not even that. Ning was like, I'm going to give you one of my businesses to run and I will pay you more than the market competitor price for this type of job for you to pay the rest back.
44:12You don't even have bills. So your whole salary just goes to paying back your loan. You're going to be out of this in no time. And Ning said at first he was super passionate about his job, like super enthusiastic about not only doing his best, but transforming the business into something bigger, scaling it expanding it IPO vibes you know do you know what business I think it was one of her trading companies like where they would wholesale trade stuff yeah and then he was like it's gonna be like an IPO company just you wait it's gonna be public I'm gonna make it like the next Amazon and then after a week he was over it he's literally like a child I don't know okay I'm sure every single one of us has met one of these people they're so in love with the idea of being a boss or like a CEO, but they have such a phobia for work.
44:59Like they just, they'll sit there and talk about how they're gonna scale this to be the next like Fortune 500 company. And then you never see them actually work a day in their life. They're just like at Starbucks in business meetings. But those business meetings are just like telling random people about their business that they're gonna start. That was him. That was him. And then one day you said that he had a meeting with the client for work. she's like okay well maybe he's gonna enter his phase of being determined and motivated again and then that's gonna die off in a week whatever he leaves early in the morning and Ning is getting ready to hang out head out she's brushing her teeth when she gets a phone call hello it's her accountant asking her why she just transferred seven hundred thousand dollars from her account transfer out seven hundred usd usd wow and she's like what i didn't transfer out seven hundred thousand dollars why would i do that hold on i'm about to run out the door and go to the bank and see what's going on she spit out the toothpaste ran to her bag to run out the door but one glance inside her wallet is gone he wouldn't right like that's crazy he wouldn't do that she runs to the file folder in the corner of the room their marriage certificate is gone as well as other personal identification documents of hers were gone so he used this at the bank to be like look this is my wife this is our joint account and like basically tricked the bank into allowing this transfer she stood there not even knowing how to feel like this man that she married her husband stole seven hundred thousand dollars from her she didn't know how to feel if she should feel angry sad manipulated gross betrayed she grabbed her phone from her pocket and she keeps trying to call this guy no answer so she's like you know what i have no choice she goes to the police station and reports him.
46:52At this point, Ning's life was at her lowest. Her husband just stole$700 ,000 from her. I mean, she still had a lot of money left. I think her assets totaled to be around$3 million at this point, but I'm not sure how much of our assets were in cash. But even then, I think it's just the principle of her husband stealing money from her and the emotional trauma of all of that. I mean, he knew, he was the only person in the world that knew how hard she had worked her entire life, like how much she had sacrificed to be this career woman. She didn't even date. She didn't have friends. And even though he knew all of this, he betrayed her.
47:29And just before this incident, there was a really bad fight that they had where Ning was, she found out that she was pregnant and her life was completely fine before meeting you. You know, sure, she would have moments where she felt a little bit lonely. She saw everyone else around her getting married, having families. She hated calling her parents because they would inevitably ask, when are you going to find someone? When are you going to give us grandchildren? But other than that, her life felt so stable. Like she was very content. She knew exactly what her future was. She knew what she was doing.
48:01And then after meeting this man, it's like her life was a toilet bowl. It's just spinning down the drain. They get married. Everything starts falling apart in the matter of a year or two. It's like a car accident that she can't stop watching. And she's got front row tickets. She's about to get hit by a car. And now she's pregnant with a husband who can't even do the bare minimum. Not only could he not just exist and be invisible, but he's constantly making her life worse. Like her life is not even neutral because of him. Her life is harder because of him. And she's so upset. She's stressed about bringing a baby into this type of home.
48:39She's overwhelmed with all of her responsibilities. and when she told him the news of her pregnancy he was drunk and he angrily said well I don't want a kid right now if you want to abort it abort it if you want the baby you can raise it on your own wow he said abort it it the man that she thought she was marrying was gone she had sat alone in her home like waiting for the police to catch her husband for stealing her money and she would reread that message that he had sent her before they got married. And the words just stung. He wrote, we can have a family, work hard and have kids. We can teach them to be good people.
49:19If we have a boy, he can learn martial arts, work out and become a caring man like me. If we have a girl, we'll treat her like a princess. And when she grows up, she can find a man that loves her as much as I love you. It just felt like everything he had ever said to her was a complete and utter lie. so after a full week the police find you and he confesses to stealing seven hundred thousand dollars from his own wife he stated that he lost it all in the matter of a week no gambling he lost almost a million dollars okay it's not almost oh my gosh seven hundred thousand dollars the police station called ning and they're like hey we got your husband you want come down here.
50:01She walks in through the doors and he runs to her. He slumps down onto his knees and he's sobbing in front of everyone. And there was snot coming down his face. And he said that he just wanted to confess to everything, just be clean. He wanted to bare his soul to her. He admitted to stealing her money. He admitted to losing$700 ,000 to gambling, but also he revealed that he was jailed for 12 years in the past for robbery and theft. He served eight years in prison and had only been out for the past three years before he met Ning. He lied about his whole life. And what can you do? Because she can't even pursue anything because that's her husband.
50:39Yeah. Right? But also the father of her soon-to-be child. Yeah. Wow.
50:52He said he lied about his whole life because he wanted her, he wanted to feel like he was good enough for her. he said you know i really do love you and i knew that you wouldn't want to date someone like me most of his 20s that he lied and said that he was trying to build businesses he was in prison he wanted to which nothing is wrong with that well depending on the crime maybe right but still the fact that he lied honest yeah it's just so manipulative like just be honest about it and i'm sure there will be someone out there that is okay with it and loves you for you but why would you lie about it he said now he wants to lay it out on the table so he can be the man that he truly thinks he can be and the man that she deserved him to be he begged her for one more chance even though he knew that he didn't deserve it he said that he's like even though i know i don't deserve another chance like you don't have to but like can you find it in the goodness of your heart to just give me like one last chance wow like this guy is so good with his words.
51:57He's a master manipulator. I will give him that. Ning said that she would think about it. She didn't even say yes right away. She was like, just, I don't even know what to say to you right now. I'm just going to go home. He goes home and that next morning, he's a new man. He wakes up bright and early, draws the curtain, starts cleaning the house top to bottom. He cooks healthy pregnancy meals for Ning, rubs her feet, rubs her back, giggling in her ear about how nice it's going to be when they have a kid, how his plans for the nursery, he would leave little post-it notes around the house, little love letters for Ning when she comes home from work.
52:32The minute that she walked in, she would smell fresh cooked, home cooked meals just crawling up her nostrils. It would smell so delicious. And it just felt like her hopeless romantic husband was back. And one night while rubbing her back, you told her, you know my cousin works in the insurance industry oh my gosh they said that we need to get life insurance since we have a little one on the way he said it's really standard everyone does it you know it's time to start thinking about our child's future too you know and then kind of smiled it was kind of heartwarming when you think about it you was going around asking family members for tips on what to do now now that he was about to be a dad and his cousin happened to be in the insurance industry and was like, you know, here's a big tip.
53:21He was taking it very seriously. He had even thought of something that had slipped Ning's mind. It was something that she didn't even think about. She's like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Of course we need life insurance. We're going to be parents. It is the responsible thing to do. Well, it was all a lie. Her whole, the marriage was a lie. The hopeless romantic was a lie. Even the insurance thing was a lie. I mean, trust me, he got the life insurance, but it's not because his cousin works in the industry. Ning realized it when she woke up at the bottom of the cliff. At first, she didn't even know where she was.
53:58She was out for like 40 minutes. She was unconscious for 40 minutes. Her eyes adjusted to the bright light and she could see these clouds and leaves and a sky. And she's like, where am I? And it was honestly kind of beautiful for a second. And then it was painful. Slowly, everything started coming back to her she felt the cold rocks just jabbing into her body her whole body felt like it had been hit by an 18 wheeler that reversed and then ran over her again she tried to scream but she couldn't even she couldn't even talk nothing would come out and even if she could scream would someone even hear her nobody was at the cliff when they were up there is it like a miracle that she lived yeah so she actually hit a bunch of massive tree branches so she thumped on multiple tree branches on the way down and that kind of saved her from the impact had she fallen directly onto the rocks she would have died so it's not like she fell fully 11 stories it's like she fell hit tree then hit another tree then hit another tree and then hit the ground i mean her body was still obliterated and like shattered but yeah it was a miracle that there were so many tree branches in that particular spot yeah because otherwise don't you think he would have gotten away with this and he would have gotten millions of dollars because she was the beneficiary he also was entitled to all of her earnings and all of her wealth and the life insurance i don't know exactly how much it was but he would have walked away a rich man a killer and a rich man yeah yeah and she just she laid there she couldn't scream all she could think about were how her husband had told her the hateful words go die like imagine waking up knowing that your husband that you trusted threw you off a cliff after saying go die i feel like the words go die are worse than just throwing someone off a cliff it's so like it's like you don't even feel guilty you don't even have a moment of sadness yeah it's not even a moment of evil and it's it's you don't even see her as a human and i i think that's the only time that he actually expresses how he truly feels about her yeah right this is like you know someone's about to die so you don't care you can you he can finally say how he really feels yeah you know what i mean and this is what he chose to say go die go die yeah yeah like that's a level of hatred that i don't understand Even pushing someone off a cliff is a level of hatred.
56:33I don't understand, but this is an added layer of evil. Yeah. So side note, you did wait around the cliff for about 30 minutes to make sure that she was dead and not screaming for help. Thankfully, Ning was passed out and did not scream. So she would regain consciousness after he already left. I don't know what he would have done if she had screamed while he was there. Wow. And even more fortunately, that day, there weren't a lot of tourists. but one of the tourists that were there at the national park got lost. They went off the trail and were like trying to get back on the trail, ended up at this area at the bottom of the cliff and found Ning.
57:13Wow. Ning felt hot tears dripping down her face. She was unable to move. She just felt someone holding her hand. And this person was screaming at her. You're safe. You're safe. It's okay. You're safe. I'm going to get help. The ambulances were called. and this is crazy because Yu was driving out of the park area, but as he's exiting, he sees the ambulances coming into the park area. Now, let's be real. He knows exactly what the ambulances are for and who it's for. So what does he do? He parks his car, waits for the ambulances to leave, and he starts following the ambulance to the hospital. And the minute that Ning is taken out of the stretcher, he's screaming in time, my wife, my wife, what happened?
57:52Where did you go? Why did you wander off alone? You have to save my precious wife. and he whispers in mandarin like no one speaks mandarin there were no cameras if you don't want to die behave yourself he told the hospital staff that his wife was pregnant and feeling dizzy she had wandered off from the trail to get some fresh air and accidentally fell off the cliff he tried looking for her for about 30 minutes but because she had wandered away from him he didn't know exactly where she had even fallen or like where she had gone he thought maybe she had walked down the down the mountain he didn't even know that she fell off the cliff so after about 30 minutes He got in the car to go look for some help to get the police, but he saw the ambulances.
58:30So he followed the ambulances just in the hopes that it wasn't his wife. He is really good at making up stories. Later, when Ning was able to gain consciousness and could speak again, authorities asked her what happened. And she glanced at her husband and said, I was dizzy. I must have fallen off the cliff. No way. So at this point where Ning stands is she doesn't really know Thai that well. She doesn't know Thai authorities that well. I think that things would have played out differently if she had been in China. Right. So she's not exactly sure how to play these cards because she doesn't have proof that he pushed her.
59:08She doesn't know if these officers are even going to believe her. And most of the hospital staff, they felt bad for her. Right. Everyone was like, oh, my God. But thankfully, you have your husband with you. Right. Thankfully, you survived. But there was one nurse who called the cops and she was like, by chance, this is crazy. Okay. I speak Mandarin. What? Yeah. This one nurse is like, I speak Mandarin. It's my second language. And the husband, like they were in their room in the ICU. And when she was finally able to talk again, when the wife was able to talk again, I heard her screaming, not screaming, but like kind of crying.
59:42Why did you do this to me in Mandarin? The nurse just heard and said nothing. no the minute she heard she called the cops oh because this is after a few days that she finally was but the nurse never like butt in like hey what do you mean so she heard this and she's like oh my god i gotta call the cops the husband did it yeah wow so she calls the police right and the police do probably the worst thing possible that made ning not trust them they immediately confront you and it's like hey why did why was your wife saying why did you do this to me and you was like what oh that she was yelling at me because i wasn't taking well enough care of her when she was pregnant and i made her go to the national park and then she was upset because i wasn't holding her hand the whole time and like i wasn't making sure that she wasn't getting dizzy so yeah she was screaming like why did you do this to me because i wasn't taking care of her like it was my carelessness they would ask ning and because they're literally asking her in front of her husband.
1:00:40She's like, yeah, that's, that's why I said that. And this helped you relax a lot. He was no longer staring her down every second of every day in the hospital. And in fact, he felt good enough to go to breakfast every morning. Yeah. He would leave, go eat breakfast each morning. And on one of those mornings, Ning waited for that nurse and she grabbed her hand. She felt this adrenaline pumping in her body. And she said, please, she didn't want to say too much. she just said, please, my husband makes me nervous. It's making me depressed. Do I have to have him in the room all day? And the nurse looked at her and said, okay, yeah, let me talk to the doctors.
1:01:22The doctors did what they should do, not what the police did. Instead of being like, hey, husband, you're making your wife uncomfortable. You can't be here every day. They just inform you. Hey, so we just changed our hospital rules right now and guests now have to abide by visiting hours. I know I know it sucks but we were just having too many guests stay over and it's become a safety hazard so there will now just be visiting hours and you can only visit during those specified hours and slowly without Yu's constant presence Ning starts opening up slowly to the nurses and she doesn't tell them right away she wanted to guarantee that she would have some level of protection when she's released because the worst case would be the police investigate her claims find no evidence and they basically tell you like your wife is talking and they're like sorry you got to move on with your life and we got new cases she would be out of the hospital without any protection from her husband who clearly tried to kill her so she was really worried about that thankfully the police promised they were like we promise we'll protect you just tell us what happened she opened up and they followed through they arrested you brought in for attempted homicide charges.
1:02:34And in March of 2020, his trial began. This is 10 months after the incident. Yu was pretty emotionless during the entire trial. He pled not guilty. He was very calm, almost indifferent. Meanwhile, the state presented the motive. Yu is in debt. He's employed, unemployed, recently pulled out life insurance for his wife with himself listed as the beneficiary. And with all of his wife's assets, he stood to gain more than$3 million. So yeah, it makes sense that he killed his wife. Very quickly, he was pronounced guilty and sentenced to life in prison. This is the first time he gets emotional during the trial and he gets up and like a little boy, like a little kid, he starts whining.
1:03:14Why does everyone believe Ning and not me? I'm innocent. I'm not lying. He would appeal, resulting in a second trial in Thailand. And if you're wondering where he gets it all from, the apple does not fall far from the tree. His mom is giving typical, my son could never. My son is perfect. He's basically Jesus reincarnated, an absolute angel, the drugs and gun in his room. He's just keeping it for a friend. The girl that he's holding hostage in the basement, she's a whore anyway. Like that's the vibe that his mom gives. That's the exact energy throughout the entire trial. Her son could do no wrong.
1:03:49She comes to court and tries to argue that the state's motive that her son wanted money from Ning was a complete and utter lie. It was bullshit, she said. why because he had a successful business that made even more money than ning's little business his business was bringing in tens of millions of dollars a year as evidence she pulled out a company business card and identified herself as a shareholder of the company with very minimal surface level investigations it was revealed the company does not exist and the business cards were made using photoshop what yeah but she thought that people would just take a look at her business card and take her word for it that the business was making tens of millions of dollars a year.
1:04:30And she was like, you don't know because it's in China. And Thailand was like, well, we do know. All we had to do was some quick search and some quick little chats with Chinese diplomats. Your business doesn't even exist. Side note, she, the mom, did later reach out to Ning and said, I'm sorry. I think I was too greedy. I wanted too much and I put too much pressure on my son which caused him to do this again what even just like how is that sufficient for an apology after your son tried to murder his pregnant wife like oh i just put so much pressure he was so stressed he did this ning is a way better person than i could ever be she did not lash out at the mom instead she wisely and coolly just texted yeah well everything has cause and effect.
1:05:22Oh shit, okay. And that was that. Finally, March 24th, 2021, Yu was convicted of attempted homicide and sentenced to life in prison. He was also ordered to pay Ning $180 ,000 in compensation, but let's be real, how was he going to pay that back? Meanwhile, Ning had lost almost everything. She couldn't work for a long time since she had multiple steel plates placed in her body. Her legs can't even bend properly. She had more than 200 stitches. She can't even use the toilet properly. She has to, to this day, put her body up against the wall or handle of the side of the restroom and slowly support her body to squat down because her legs don't work.
1:06:01Every morning after waking up, she needs to do three to four hours of rehabilitation exercise or she could lose her ability to walk. She could lose all of her progress and it's not just painful, but it's repetitive. It's boring. It takes so much of her time. and the worst part is she can't be independent anymore and again this is a woman who values independence so much the most that she could even do to take care of herself was brush her teeth and even that took her so much strength she couldn't use the restroom alone she couldn't shower alone her little sister had to quit her job and be her 24 7 caretaker and it just broke her heart to see her sister give up everything to take care of her during her recovery she had the most awful news from the morphine and all the medication she had to take after the attempted murder her child was no longer viable to survive outside of the womb and add to that with Ning's current state even her attempting to give birth would likely result in her own death.
1:07:06So the doctors were like, this baby is not going to survive outside of the womb anyway, and it will most likely kill you to give birth. So she lost her child. She lost her husband. She lost her child, her independence, her career, and her trust in, I don't know, humanity all at once. She still had to undergo eight different surgeries. And for about a year, she said it was just nonstop mental breakdowns. And then in 2022, like early 2022, she picked herself up from rock bottom and said, why am I doing this? I am a successful woman and I can be successful again. So she started social media, got back on her feet.
1:07:46As of 2023, she doesn't cry anymore about what happened. She said that she had time to reflect. And side note, netizens really broke down like every part of this case and they really used it as a way to showcase how people can be so manipulative in relationships and these aren't even I guess at the time netizens were under the belief that the biggest red flag is someone hitting you like you always think okay if someone kills their partner there must be some evidence of violence up until that point right but this was a huge wake-up call there might never be violence until one day they kill you they also noted something in the letter that I think is very, very true.
1:08:26A lot of netizens said that one thing that stood out was in his initial letter to her before they got married, he keeps talking about how the whole letter is so narcissistic. It's all about what he wants, what his wife can do for him, him, him, him. And then what he brings to the table is like, I'm going to fix your life. But her life doesn't need to be fixed. Her life is better than your life. Right. But one thing, a lot of female netizens pointed out was if you ever meet a guy that says that they want you to have a gentle personality and yet be career driven, that basically means they want you to make money, work hard, but still be submissive.
1:09:03And a lot of female netizens were like, this is the biggest red flag these days. When people say they want a woman who has a career, but still has a gentle personality, because women are saying, do you know how hard it is to maintain a gentle personality if you're out there working like that literally you cannot have both at the same time it's impossible so they're like that's the biggest red flag people need to look out for now so guys look out for that and the whole letter is just it's a mess do you guys think the letter was a mess like did you get it from the get-go or do you feel like it's hindsight let me know yeah it's weird yeah it's weird it's a weird letter it doesn't feel romantic yeah it doesn't feel sincere it doesn't feel normal yeah it's like what are you saying it's just really weird but also like long hair good figure like it's like whoa if i read that in a letter i'd be like this is very creepy yeah anyway ning had to basically start from scratch again she lost her business she from not being able to work all the time a lot of money was poured into not only fighting the legal battles and her recovery you know rehab physical rehab all of her medical bills traveling from thailand back to her home country, like everything.
1:10:15It just, it was a lot of costs. But Ning remains positive. It's so interesting. So she was interviewed and she was asked, looking back on the past three years, when was the darkest moment of your life? Like, how did you even survive this? She said, from the moment that he pushed me down the cliff till the moment that I could stand up on my own, every moment between that was dark. the event destroyed my life. I mean, my little family was gone. My lover betrayed me. My child was gone. My health was gone. My career was destroyed. All my plans were gone. My life was in ruins. I was a successful person before this.
1:10:50I lived a decent life. And for someone like that to go from being independent to urinating and defecating in bed every day, it is a level of torture and humiliation that you won't understand unless you experience it yourself. My parents are older, so they were helping me recovery. But I was thinking, you know, when my parents get even older, I'm supposed to help them. But are they going to be old, barely alive and helping me? Or will all of us just lie in bed together and look at each other as we die? And I thought, how can I prevent this, you know? And my only option that I could think of was I got to get better.
1:11:34She said, you know, I've seen the best of people. I've seen the worst of people and it's made me feel some relief at least because now I've seen it all and I have courage to face my new life. She also said that she's very happy that our story can inspire netizens to get out of bad relationships and she also said 17 bone fractures, over 200 stitches, multiple surgeries, what doesn't kill me does make me stronger and she said my flash marriage with him was extremely risky and it's my fault that I didn't do my homework and investigate. I hope everyone can learn. Get to know people more. Take them to your parents.
1:12:10You can also investigate through formal means to see if they've been involved in criminal or civil cases or if they have debt. These are things I didn't do and I hope everyone knows this and they start doing this. Protect yourself. What's crazy is that when she was asked if she still believes in love and marriage, she said, marriage is beautiful. Love is beautiful. And I don't think that he can represent marriage or love because he's not worthy of either. And she is now active on doing. She, I mean, I'll just say like her ability to take this in strides and really come out stronger on the other side is not only impressive, but it's like unbelievably inspiring.
1:12:49So what are your thoughts on this case? I thought it was, it was very strange in the sense that, I mean, statistically it's the husband or it's always the wife right but just the way it went down it was enough red flags to know that he's a toxic person but was it enough red flags to know that he was a killer it's terrifying yeah what are your thoughts please stay safe and i will see you guys on sunday for the mini sode bye
From the publisher
A young Chinese couple were vacationing at a National Park in Thailand. It was the husband’s gift to his pregnant wife with one last trip before their family grew!
But during their sunrise hike the husband claimed his wife wandered off and fell off a 110 foot cliff. He screamed in Thai at the first responders -
“You must help my wife! Please save my precious wife, she’s my everything!”
He leaned down and caressed his wife’s face. She was alive but unable to speak or move. He held her hand and whispered in Mandarin so the Thai authorities couldn’t understand him -
“Nobody speaks Mandarin here. There’s no evidence that I did anything. If you want to live - behave.”
Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com
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