After Losing 2 Million in Five Months, How Did He Turn His Life Around?

A reckless investment cost him ten years of hard work. He borrowed money to raise fish and became a laughingstock. His rash actions drove his life to rock bottom. Starting over, he cleverly leveraged a folk custom event to sign a 2 million yuan contract in a single day. Today, the cooperative's annual sales have reached over 9 million yuan.

Chang'an Town, Rong'an County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is a place where multiple ethnic groups live together. Among them, Dapao Tun in Anning Village is a village community primarily made up of Miao people. Today, a folk custom event with over 400 years of history is being held here -- the Fish Catching Festival. The purpose is to welcome the upcoming most important Zhuang festival, the Third Day of the Third Month. Fish are placed into a pool like this for everyone to catch for free. This event not only attracts locals but also many out-of-town tourists who come to join in the fun and experience it.

Tourist Qin Ruixue 1: From Yulin,

Reporter: You came from Yulin. Have you participated in this fish catching event before?

Tourist 1: I've seen it, but never actually participated.

Reporter: What are your expectations for the fish catching event today?

Tourist 1: Actually, I'd really like to go down and give it a try.

Tourist 2: It's very hard to catch them, because the water is this deep, and wild fish like these are naturally very active.

Tourist: I learned about this event from WeChat Moments. It's like giving myself a little vacation from work.

A series of shots of the lively fish catching scene: entering the pool, catching fish, frolicking + music. Wide shot of the pool. Catching and tossing shown separately.

To catch the fish, everyone showed off their own skills.

Method one:

Some lined up in a row to catch fish together; some formed a circle with a few people to trap the fish in the middle; and others chased the fish into a corner to catch them (mark with circles) (text overlay).

Everyone tried every trick to catch fish because there is a local saying that the more fish you catch, the more good fortune you will have. Besides letting tourists catch fish on site, the event organizers also set up another activity -- catching tossed fish.

Reporter: Why are you stretching out your clothes?

Tourist: So I can catch it when he tosses it.

Tourist: I caught a fish.

Reporter: Caught a fish.

Tourist: Yes, caught a fish.

Reporter: Where is it? Let us see. You caught it pretty accurately.

Everyone was busy catching fish in full swing. One person, though he did not go into the pool to catch fish, cared about this event more than anyone else. He is Liu Wenkuan, and the fish in the pool today were provided by him for free.

Reporter: How many fish did you sponsor today?

Liu Wenkuan: We sponsored 700 jin.

Reporter: 700 jin? Wasn't it originally said to be 600 jin?

Liu Wenkuan: Seeing this crowd, I added another 100 jin.

700 jin of fish, with a market value of nearly 10,000 yuan. Liu Wenkuan just let everyone catch the fish for free. Why would he do this?

In Chang'an Town, when it comes to fish farming, everyone admires Liu Wenkuan. In the branch of the Siwei River Reservoir, he has over 10,000 square meters of aquaculture cages.

General Manager of a fishing resort in Liuzhou: Gao Qingguang

His techniques are relatively stable, because he really believes in science. He stays in contact and communicates with experts from various fields. He can be called the king of fish farming. 00815D Document 11

Not only does he raise fish himself, but he also established a cooperative, leading 92 impoverished households to raise fish together. In 2016, the cooperative's sales reached over 9 million yuan. Yet just four years earlier, when the village held a banquet, he could not even come up with 100 yuan for the gift money.

Protagonist: I truly did not have a single cent on me.

At that time I really had no money. You could say we couldn't even find 100 yuan.

He could not even produce 100 yuan for gift money. Now, relying on fish farming, annual sales are nearly 10 million yuan. In four years, what exactly happened to Liu Wenkuan?

In early 2012, after drifting away from home for ten years, Liu Wenkuan returned to Anning Village, Chang'an Town, Rong'an County, with 2 million yuan in savings.

Liu Wenxiang: He came back with several million. Our whole village envied him so much, extremely envious. Firecrackers and lion dances.

Wei Zijian: How could anyone here make that much money?

Liu Wenxiang: The whole village bought firecrackers. They set off firecrackers at my brother's front gate, performed lion dances, and set up fifteen tables.

But no one expected that five months later, Liu Wenkuan would go from a rural capable man with 2 million yuan to a person with nothing. How did those 2 million yuan vanish within five months? It turned out that not long after Liu Wenkuan returned home, a friend he had not been in touch with for years came to visit, saying there was a very profitable timber processing business and wanting to bring him in as an investor.

Liu Wenkuan: Invest this 2 million. Given the current market, I can earn about 500,000 a month. In half a year I'd recoup my investment, and in a year I'd multiply it several times over. So I thought this business was worth it, and I invested. That's how it was.

In less than a month, Liu Wenkuan made his decision. He put in all his savings. But what he never anticipated was that due to poor management, the investment failed after 5 months. He could not even recover the 2 million yuan principal. Ten years of hard work went up in smoke in just five months. During that period, Liu Wenkuan fell into extreme anxiety.

Sync sound: Liu Wenkuan: I couldn't sleep at night. Out of twenty-four hours a day, I slept at most two or three hours. I truly broke down. I lost eight jin during that time.

Wife speaking: He would just stand there, as if he might be completely empty, as if he had no thoughts left at all.

Narration: The news of Liu Wenkuan's investment failure quickly spread through the village, and gossip came pouring in.

Wife speaking: Others were laughing at us behind our backs. Really, at that time, we didn't even want to talk to anyone we saw.

Sync sound: Liu Wenkuan: Everywhere I went, people pointed at me from behind. "This spendthrift is back," things like that. "He does things like a madman."

To avoid the villagers' gossip, Liu Wenkuan often went alone to the Siwei River Reservoir, where he would stand for half a day at a time. The 2 million yuan in savings was gone, but his two daughters were still in university, and the annual tuition alone cost fifty to sixty thousand yuan. What was Liu Wenkuan going to do next?

This is Rong'an County town. The Rongjiang River runs through it. The vegetation is dense and the water is clear. The wild fish in the river, prized for their delicious meat, are called Rong'an riverside fish, which also gave rise to a famous dish -- braised riverside fish.

Step one: deep-frying (text overlay):

Chop the riverside fish into chunks, place them into hot oil, fry until slightly golden, then remove and set aside.

Step two: sautéing aromatics (text overlay):

A handful of fresh red chili peppers, along with garlic and ginger slices, sautéed over high heat until fragrant.