A path to quick riches in 50 days, discovered in desperation

At the age of 23, he lost all the money he had saved for marriage in the stock market, and also lost his job in the city. In his predicament, he found a path to wealth in just 50 days. From then on, he said he could make money whenever he wanted. Secrets others guarded as precious treasures, he gave away freely. When others were terrified, that was his best opportunity. In a wealth game that cycles every 50 days, how does he effortlessly seize every most profitable moment?

Qiao Guowei: The chickens are hard to catch. During the day, you basically can't catch them.

The man catching the chicken is Qiao Guowei. Meeting the reporter for the first time, Qiao Guowei enthusiastically showed off his chickens, saying his chickens had quite extraordinary abilities.

Qiao Guowei: The chickens are too hard to catch. Our chickens, during the day, if you don't have any tools, you can't catch them. If this chicken flies level, it can fly fifty or sixty meters. Take a look.

Qiao Guowei was clearly not too satisfied with this chicken's performance, so he performed with two more for the reporter. This kind of chicken is small in size, flies fast and runs fast.

But look at this kind of chicken: large in size, yet not very active. Relying on one active and one calm breed, one small and one large, Qiao Guowei reaped generous returns.

But those who know Qiao Guowei all know that his return to the village to raise chickens was entirely forced by a shameful incident from a few years ago.

When Qiao Guowei was 23, he had a girlfriend and was preparing to get married. Qiao Guowei's father gave him more than 20,000 yuan to prepare for the wedding. But unexpectedly, Qiao Guowei used that 20,000-plus yuan to trade stocks.

Qiao Guowei: My dad gave me the money for marriage. He said, this is all the money you get for getting married, put it away first. At the time I had just lost money in the stock market, so I took this money directly to add to my position. In the end, after adding to the position, I still couldn't get out.

Father Qiao Tiaoying: In the countryside, tens of thousands of yuan - I only earn twenty or thirty thousand yuan a year working away from home.

Reporter: So giving him more than 20,000 yuan was about giving him a whole year's wages.

Father Qiao Tiaoying: Right, gave him a year's wages, and at the start it was all borrowed money.

With no other choice, Qiao Guowei ran back home. In this remote village, Qiao Guowei's story quickly spread.

Village Party secretary: Earning money in the countryside isn't easy. You earn tens of thousands of yuan for him to get married, and in the end he loses the money in the stock market, so he's facing the prospect of staying a bachelor.

Friend Yue Zongxian: He just didn't work seriously, that slacker kind of feeling - that's the worst way to put it.

But just two years later, when people mentioned Qiao Guowei again, they described him as someone who could make money whenever he said he would. Some even used the word miraculous to describe Qiao Guowei. What exactly happened in between?

Friend Yue Zongxian: Every time he was right. Well, I can't say every time, but ninety percent of the time he was right. I think it's amazing, so I've always worked with him.

Villager Qiao Liusheng: He really didn't let me down. He's truly like that. I could tell at a glance this person was different, because he reads the market quite accurately. He says when selling will be profitable, and when the time comes, it is profitable, so everyone follows him.

From losing all his marriage money to quickly being seen by everyone as a miraculous person who could make money whenever he said, does Qiao Guowei really have such ability?

In 2008, Qiao Guowei worked at a chemical enterprise in Dongming County, earning a salary of more than 2,000 yuan a month, which meant that when dating, Qiao Guowei didn't dare take a girl to the cinema, and didn't dare eat out at a restaurant. He was always searching for a path to rapid wealth.

At the time, the stock market was booming. Qiao Guowei put the 20,000 yuan his father had prepared for his marriage into the stock market. At the peak, he could earn more than 1,000 yuan a day. A close colleague also lent Qiao Guowei 20,000 yuan to trade stocks. In the end, not only did he lose all the money his father gave him, he also owed outside debts. Qiao Guowei panicked.

Qiao Guowei: To put it bluntly, I'd lost until my eyes were red, lost until I was frantic. Altogether more than 40,000 yuan went in, and in the end only a little over 10,000 yuan came back.

Wife Cao Yi: With a monthly salary of more than 2,000 yuan, if we used it to pay off this debt, it might take several years. Plus with daily food and drink, we couldn't save much in a year, so paying off that debt was a bit difficult.

The money his friend lent him had to be repaid, and his own marriage money was gone. Qiao Guowei felt desperate. At that time, what Qiao Guowei thought about most was still things like getting rich quick. At a gathering with friends, Qiao Guowei finally learned of a path to wealth in just 50 days.

Qiao Guowei: I felt that in these 50 days, the money would come back pretty fast, so I thought I'd give it a try myself.

Reporter: You saw hope?

Qiao Guowei: Right, I saw hope. I felt that if it was 45 days, 50 days, it really did make money much faster than other industries.

So what exactly was the 50-day path to rapid wealth that Qiao Guowei found?

This is a large meat-type breeder rooster introduced from abroad. Using this breeder rooster to crossbreed with pink-shell laying hens, the next generation is commonly called a small meat chicken. It grows fast and only needs about 50 days to be ready for market. Qiao Guowei wanted to introduce small meat chickens from a hatchery.

Reporter: It can grow more than ten jin in a year?

Hatchery owner Jiao Huaiguang: About sixteen or seventeen jin.

Reporter: How heavy has this chicken grown?

Hatchery owner Jiao Huaiguang: More than four jin to five jin.

Reporter: This one has also been raised for a year.

Hatchery owner Jiao Huaiguang: Using this breeder rooster, crossed with this kind of chicken, the next generation can grow to about three and a half jin in about 45 days.

The more Qiao Guowei thought about it, the more reliable it seemed. He simply quit his job at the chemical plant and, with his fiancée, ran back to the countryside to raise chickens. When they learned that their son had spent his marriage money and wanted to go home to raise chickens, his parents, who had always hoped their son would succeed, would have none of it.

Dongming County in Shandong Province is known as the hometown of calligraphy, with many calligraphy enthusiasts. Qiao Guowei had been obsessed with calligraphy since middle school, hoping to one day be admitted to the calligraphy major at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Qiao Guowei's parents were both farmers, with an annual income of only twenty or thirty thousand yuan. To support Qiao Guowei's dream, they were willing to borrow money to let him go out and study calligraphy, spending more than 120,000 yuan in total.

Qiao Guowei: Spending more than 120,000 in three years is equivalent to a laborer going out to work for five or six years. This figure is also a huge number for our family. Seventy or eighty thousand yuan of it was spent on buying books. These four or five hundred yuan ones are an old copybook - it was photocopied exactly from the original.

Mother: Since I can't read, as long as he wants to do something, I support him. That's my way of thinking.