In 2022, 45-year-old Chen Qiming lost his job due to the epidemic, and was reduced from an international cruise supervisor to working in a Manila hot pot restaurant. On an ordinary night, he won a jackpot of 7.69 Million pesos in the casino - that golden rain became a watershed in his life. Not up, but down.
Falling down into high-end gambling, falling into loan sharking, falling down into Clark Park, falling down to a name called "Oliver". There, he learned the "pig-raising method" - treating the person on the other end of the phone as a pig, fattening it and killing it. He lied and vomited at the same time. The old ghost said that if you don't feel uncomfortable, you won't be a human being. Later he didn't feel bad anymore.
The debt was paid off and he wanted to leave. The general took out a folder: every record, every name. "If you leave now, you will be a wanted criminal. Stay, you are Mr. Chen." He stayed.
On February 13, 2024, he was arrested. Charge: human trafficking. He never sold anyone, he was sold into it. During the online court session, the screen in the family room was black. No wife, no son. Life imprisonment.
Now he's in jail, picking at the cracks in the wall with his nails. After two years of digging, it was only an inch deep. The prison guard asked what he was digging for, and he said he was digging a way home.
This is not a story about good guys or bad guys. This is a story about those who are swallowed up - those who are deceived, those who are forced to deceive, those who die in the rot, those who are still digging the cracks. Their voices are too small and they need someone to speak for them.
Chen Qiming is writing. This was the last match he lit for himself.
