10/28/24 - She has her own temple, filled with monks, all praying for just her around the clock…
A compilation of cases that were solved based on a small detail:
“Story from my law professor: a cash truck got robbed somewhere, no clues, no tells, but the case still got solved not long after. The suspect couldn’t figure out how he got caught for the life of him. It was because the crime was so perfect, there was no way an outsider could’ve been familiar enough with things to plan it out, so they were certain it was an inside job. So they investigated the workers and voila!”
“A couple of years ago, the wife murder case in Hangzhou, they discovered the water metre on the house was really weird and solved the case. He’d flushed her down the drain.”
“2007, working in Dongfeng Honda, and a couple of cops came with a piece of front light glass, and figured out the model of the car based on it, and used the shard to trace it to a car mechanic. My mind was blown. That was when I learned that the lines on those car light glasses are all unique.”
“A decade or so ago, there was a case where a businessman hadn’t returned home for a couple of years. Since he had no family left anymore, nobody noticed. Then one guy got too drunk and got into an argument with somebody, and he blurted out, “I’ll kill you! Oh, believe me, I kill Whoever and tossed him in the well!” And someone in the bystanders went to the well and saw a lot of trash at the bottom so he called the cops. The cops cleaned up all the trash and saw a skeleton at the bottom and immediately arrested the guy.”
“I heard a coworker say that somebody in his village beat another villager really badly and ran away for ten years. He changed his appearance and accent and everything out of state, and when he came back to visit family, he still got recognised because of the way he walked, and got arrested by the police.”
“A laptop computer got stolen out of my store. The police came to investigate, and the neighbour restaurant owner, who I’ve never met before in my life, suddenly came over and asked, “What’s the password to start up your computer?” And I was like, “Well, he probably stole my computer.” And the police were like, “Don’t make up bullshit.” And then…nothing happened after that.”
“There was a guy in the next village over who stole stuff all the time. Around the 2000s, he got called out one night and was discovered dead in the woods by the river. The final conclusion was that he was trying to steal some trees and got crushed by one. But somebody definitely called him out that night. The police asked his wife who was calling for him, and his wife was like, “I dunno. I just heard someone calling from outside, and he went out.” Everybody knew something was fishy, but that was all his wife had to say about it and the police couldn’t do anything about it either. There wasn’t any cameras or phones back then, so that was the conclusion. But it’s not like the dead guy was a good person or anything, so nobody felt bad for him.”
“Around where I live, almost 30 years ago, a thief went into a house to steal and got caught, and he murdered the couple that lived there. Their 5-year-old daughter hid herself. It was a really hard case to crack, but the bastard didn’t run for it. A couple of days later, he went out wandering at night again and got caught by the patrols, and he admitted to everything after a bit of questioning. So they paraded him around town the next day. God is watching everything you do. Never break the law.”
“The third story [not actually included in this compilation] happened in my hometown, and I’ve seen the scene of the crime (it was right next to highway 318), but you got the sister’s wrong. It was the older sister that was always really nice to the younger sister. She went out to work and stopped for a night in her younger sister’s house and even gave her 1000 RMB (back in the days when an average month’s salary was just a couple hundred bucks!), and got her throat slit by her younger sister and her husband. Then, just like you said, their kid saw the whole thing and ended up blabbing about it.”
“There was a kidnapping and murder where I’m from that wasn’t solved for years. Then a handwriting analyst came in and analysed the note the kidnapper left, and there was a word in it, “read”. And the expert took one look and said that the kidnapper was a teacher, and they investigated the local schools and discovered it totally was a teacher that did it.” [There’s a lot of homework in China where you’re just asked to copy passages down so many times, and teachers will write this word on the homework you hand in to confirm that you completed it, when there’s no marking to be done. So it’s a highly used word for teachers]
“One of my older coworkers told me a story. It was a murder that took place in the countryside in the 90s. The scene of the crime was super clean, no clues at all. All they found was three cigarette butts not far from the house, and a bunch of little segments of cigarette ash. We didn’t have DNA technology back then, but an old detective at the station deduced from the ashes that this person frequently uses both of his hands to do his work, and he has a deep cigarette addiction. They used that profile and eventually found the murderer, a basket weaver. He was used to never actually ashing his cigarette and just letting it fall off naturally, and this habit got him caught…”
Another compilation of kids’ reincarnation stories:
“When my brother was this age, he randomly told me that he was a beggar in his past life and I once gave him a piece of bread and some hot water. But the problem was, I really did hand an old man a piece of bread and some hot water on a rainy day before.”
“When my son was this age, he insisted he was a firefighter and he went to sleep during a forest fire. A lot of people had fallen asleep. And then he asked me, “Mom, did the fire get put out?” He’s told me this story a lot, and every time, it makes me sad. I’ll hug him and tell him the fire’s been put out, the forest is safe, new saplings are growing there now. And he’ll always get supper happy and bouncy. Ever since he was only a few months old, if I sit with him next to the road and a fire truck drives by, as soon as he hears the sound, he’ll sit straight up and look really stern.”
“My son says he used to be a cat named “Tiger”. My cat passed away 50 days before my son was born. It was named Tiger.”
“Are you sure you’ve never mentioned Tiger to your son?”
“When he was a little over a year old, he happened to see a photo of my cat and he said, “Mommy, this is me.” I’ve never told him we used to own a cat before that. Then, when he got older, I asked him and he insisted he used to be cat named Tiger.”
“My son loves Ultraman. He’s been babbling in Japanese lately, saying he was Japanese in his past life, and I immediately told him that was impossible. He asked me why, and I told him Japanese people would never get to reincarnate in China. God, I was furious.”
“My daughter said when it was her time to pick a mommy in heaven, there was two choices, one with short hair and one with long hair, and she picked me because my long hair was prettier, and the short-haired mommy was really chubby and she didn’t like that. She only had one choice in dad, and it was my husband. (The problem is, my husband’s ex-girlfriend had short hair, and she’d miscarried a child before.)”
“When my daughter was three, I told her, “Baby, mommy can’t pick you up anymore because there’s a little baby in mommy’s tummy.” And she was like, “I know, mommy. It’s a little brother. But don’t tell grandma. I told my little brother to come. He was picking his mommy in heaven, and he should’ve come first, but he said he was scared, so I said I’d come and be his big sister and tell him if you’re a good mommy. And now he’s here.” And at the time, I was just like, “Wow, she is good at making up stories.””
“When I had my son, it was all normal during my hospital stay so far, and in the middle of the night, I suddenly felt like my son wasn’t comfortable in there. I never actually felt anything, but my instincts kept telling me something was wrong. So I asked the doctor to come check on me, and everything was normal, but half an hour later, the foetal heart rate started dropping like a stone, my water got really murky, and I got pulled into a C-section right away. Thank God it was in time and everything went well. And during my month-sitting, in the middle of the night, the baby started crying. My husband and I got up. He went to get the formula, while I picked up the baby, but no matter how I comforted him, he kept crying. All of a sudden, I heard a kid’s voice say, “I’m too hot! I’m too hot!” And I was like, “Okay, mommy’s got you.” And I pulled off his blankets, and he stopped crying. My husband and I were both shocked, because he heard it too.”
“When I was giving my daughter a bath, she said she was a puppy. Nobody wanted her except me, so she followed me home. I asked her what colour dog she was, and she said brown T_T (I had a dog back in middle school that looked really messy. Everyone called him ugly, but I thought he was gorgeous. My mom ended up giving him away while I was at school T_T) My daughter looks exactly like that puppy when she smiles, with her teeth all bared and her nose crunched.”
“My second son told me that he has 10 more younger brothers waiting up on the mountain. I had two sons. After I told my husband this, he said he was never touching me again. It’s just too goddamn scary.”
“I’ve found my people! When my son was a little over 4 years old, he told me that he used to be a western European, really tall, could play the violin. This is all stuff he’s never encountered as a 4-year-old. I have no idea how he even knows about western and eastern Europe, much less all the other details. Really blew my mind.”
“My daughter said when she was really little, “I made a good choice picking you. Your family has great food.””
“When my son was around 5-6 years old, I don’t know how the topic came up, but he said all the little kids work in heaven to make money. Whoever had more money would get first picks for mommies. He said he didn’t have a whole lot of money, but he figured I looked okay and I was the most bang for his buck, because I was cheap, so he came to me. He said he came on a slide.”
A compilation of what rich people spend their money on:
“It took me until 26 to finally taste this fruit that we all learned about in second grade [starfruit]. And the Youth Palace. I’ve travelled for 32 years and haven’t reached it yet. What do people even do in there? [take art lessons]”
“I’ve read a story a long time ago, about a girl who saved up forever to buy a shirt from a luxury brand. It was beautiful and she only wore it on special occasions, but when she washed it, it shrank. She thought she’d gotten a knock off and she was furious, went to the store to get a refund. At least she had all her paperwork, so the store immediately took responsibility and apologised. But the workers were curious too, because they’d never had a customer complain about this problem before, so they contacted the brand, and they’d never heard about this either. But they took the problem very seriously and they called up the designer.
And the designer replied that when he designed, he never even considered what would happen in the wash, because people who buy a shirt at this price never do laundry. They’ll wear it once or twice and leave it to gather dust in their closet, or even throw it away.
And this girl was really hurt, that she’d saved up for so long and treasured this shirt so much, but in the eyes of rich people, it’s just like a pair of socks.”
“I’ve ran a pet store before, and I imported a bunch of New Zealand dry dog food. Because it was so expensive, nobody bought it, and it was about to get expired, so I put a discount on it. One day, a customer came in with two big dogs. Their collar had broken, so he was wanting to buy a replacement collar, and I handed out some of that dog food for them to try, and they loved it. The customer saw they were on sale and said he wanted all of my stock. I was like, “Can they even finish it all? These are all about to expire.” And he was like, “These dogs can go through 2kg of dog food every day. Your supply is only going to last 2 months.” …I thought he was buying these as a snack. Never thought it’d be main food…so I drove 250kg of dog food to his house and got paid 100K.”
“It’s probably buying life with money. A friend’s mother got diagnosed with Lymphoma, middle stages. She rented a plane to send her mom to Yanghe Hospital, do T-cell treatment. No idea how much it all cost, but her mom was discharged in 4 months with almost no cancer cells left. The whole thing apparently cost about 10 million…”
“I saw a news story before where a lady thought only 2-3 people rode on a plane. It wasn’t until she went to Hong Kong that she realised that many people can fit on a plane.”
“There was this brand of bottled water that was 70 RMB per bottle. And this businessman spent 300K to get retail rights to this brand in his city. But he didn’t want to actually sell the water. He just wanted to drink it himself, because as a retailer, he got a 50% discount on buying the water. His whole family spends probably six figures on just drinking this water.”
“This billionaire bought a mansion in the countryside because he wanted to eat “organic, fresh vegetables”. The mansion was right next to a field, and he rented the field and hired a couple from the village nearby to grow veggies for him year round. But he’s almost never in Zhengzhou. One year, all he ate out of that field was two tomatoes. This couple+rent+HOA dues and utilities on the mansion probably added up to 200K a year. And the mansion cost about 3 million RMB at the time too.
He also really loved this type of tofu from his hometown that he ate as a kid, so he got the tofu maker to come to Shanghai and make tofu in the cafeteria of his company. And he eats it maybe 3-5 times a year.
He also loves the pancakes from his hometown’s market, and he got the pancake guy to Shanghai too. And there was a noodle shop owner who apparently made excellent handmade noodles. Also got him to Shanghai.
Just for the sake of eating whatever he wants whenever he wants, he spend hundreds of thousands a year on keeping these people around.
These aren’t his only whims, though. One time, he suddenly remembered right around when he started this business, he was really inspired by two workers in his factories playing chess, so he found these two guys again and paid them every month to play chess for him when he wants to watch. These two people have been on the payroll for 6 months now, and the boss has only wanted to watch once. They have no idea what the hell they’re doing here and got so uneasy that they ran away. It was over a year after they left that the rich guy finally wanted to watch them play chess again, and that’s when he found out they were gone.
His assistant is the most busy during the holidays, because they have to send money to over 500 people based on a list, anywhere from a couple thousand to tens of thousands. No idea who these people are. Last Chinese New Year, he spent about 3 million.
Another rich guy wanted to drink tea next to a certain lake and spent 2 years making it happen. Finally managed to get building rights on about 3 acres of land, build himself a little garden, with a scenic tower. The sign over the door says, “XX Station, XX Garden” to not draw attention.”
“When I went to tutor a princess from a true tycoon family and saw a gramophone just sitting there, spotless, and I’m absolutely certain they’ve never listened to it. Just by sheer price alone, I’m sure a lot of people could afford these. I could even probably afford one. But that was the only family I’ve ever seen actually buy one.”
“I work in a household textiles company, and my company has retail counters in malls in every city. One year, we came out with a new product, a duck down blanket using imported Icelandic ducks. I can’t tell you the cost of making these blankets, but we sold them for 278K. They are super warm, but by god, they’re expensive. There was a famous line in Big Shot’s Funeral, “We don’t want the best. We just want the most expensive!” So, the whole point of these blankets is to be expensive, so that no normal person could afford them. Your’e not even allowed to touch them. They’re displayed in glass cases. Your socioeconomic class could easily be divided with a nice set of blankets.
278K is the price of a pretty decent car. If you’re in Hegang, you could afford a house. But in our counter, it’s just a set of blankets.
Do people buy them though? Absolutely.”
“My house is 125 square metres, and I have to pay 3.3K in heating fees. While standing in line, I ran into a coworker of mine. The workers there were confirming with him, twice, that his house’s heating fee was 40K.”
“Happened upon this huge cake on tiktok, bigger than a grown man. It’s custom made from a special store. I went out of my way to look it up, and yup, it’s 10 million per cake. Yes. A 10 million RMB cake.
But it was huge though.”
“Hi, guys. I’m poor. When I’m out delivery takeout, I often see orders like this, where a customer will spend 15 RMB on delivery fee to have me buy him a single bottle of iced tea, when the convenience store is just downstairs of him. Or spend 15 RMB on delivery fee for me to ride 5 km to his house, go to his package station downstairs, take his packages out and deliver them upstairs. Someone got me to buy 1RMB’s worth of tofu, with a 10 RMB delivery fee, because he wanted to make tomato tofu soup. I ran into another delivery driver who had to buy him a single tomato. I’ve been paid 5 RMB in delivery fees to buy a single box of bandaids at a specific pharmacy. The delivery location was literally next door. It took me all of 3 steps of walking, and 5 seconds of my time. I’ve delivered a 30RMB meal to someone’s door, just to have the customer tell me that he doesn’t want it anymore because he wants noodles from a different place, so I can have it.
I’m just a normal person. I think that you don’t tell someone is rich because they blow a ton of money on luxury products. It’s that they spend money like it’s as simple and free as breathing. They never consider the cost of life, they only consider their own comfort and convenience.
It must be nice to have money.”
“My boss’s boss is a Buddhist. How do you think super rich people spend money on faith? Even if you tried you best, you would never be able to guess, just like I could never imagine…
She has her own temple, filled with monks, all praying for just her around the clock…”