Episode 3 recap: The top financial executives were also deceived.
When Chen Shu Fa returned to his villa and called his daughter's name at the door, there was no response. He opened the door to the bathroom and saw his daughter lying lifeless in the bathtub, having slit her wrists in a suicide attempt. The water had turned red from the blood. Cheng Hao speculated that Chen Jia Jia may have shown signs of depression, but Chen Shu Fa, who was busy and overwhelmed at the time, did not notice.
Another issue is why they didn't investigate Fei Ke's background thoroughly. He Shan said that Fei Ke used this to select people to deceive in the next step. If someone doesn't even bother to investigate his situation, it means that person is easily trusting, making it a piece of cake to carry on with the deception.
The reason Chen Shu Fa didn't dare to report to the police was also because he feared that Fei Ke held all his secrets. After Chen Shu Fa finished speaking, his phone got half a bar of signal, and he received a message from the bank. It turned out that Fei Ke had returned the stolen over 40 million.
Next, it was Cheng Hao's turn to recount what had happened between him and Fei Ke. Cheng Hao was the Managing Director of the Mergers and Acquisitions Department at Pointstone Fund, and his family lived in Yu Jin Hao Ting. In 2014, Fei Ke stayed at his house. Cheng Hao and Fei Ke met on a plane. At that time, because Fei Ke had upgraded using his airline points, the cabin crew only provided him with economy class meals and drinks. Out of kindness, Cheng Hao ordered an extra meal for him. After learning that Fei Ke had a background in materials science and was now in finance, with his graduate advisor specializing in lithium batteries, they struck up a conversation. They exchanged WeChat contacts and kept in touch. Cheng Hao stayed in contact with Fei Ke because he felt that Fei Ke had a special charm that made people feel an instant connection. They often hung out together and later Fei Ke even stayed at Cheng Hao's house. Cheng Hao had graduated from Columbia University and would often talk to Fei Ke about his experiences at the university and nearby shops. Later, Fei Ke lied to Chen Jia Jia, saying that he had material from Columbia University, which probably came from Cheng Hao.
Originally, Fei Ke was only supposed to stay for two or three days, but he never mentioned leaving or fixing his own place. Moreover, he started helping Cheng Hao with household chores, cleaning the cat litter, doing laundry, and gradually, Cheng Hao became accustomed to living with him.
Someone gave Cheng Hao a gift, which was a Bai Mudan cake, a gift from a state banquet that couldn't be found on the market yet. When Cheng Hao saw it, he said to keep it to serve guests.
Afterward, Fei Ke took Cheng Hao's Columbia University graduation certificate and the packaging of the Bai Mudan cake to have replicas made. This became his capital and tool for later scams. Xia An from the charity foundation contacted Cheng Hao, and Cheng Hao asked Fei Ke to help decline the request. However, Fei Ke impersonated him and attended the charity gala, where he met Chen Jia Jia.
Since then, Fei Ke rarely came back. Sometimes he would say he had to work overtime, and other times he would claim to be staying in a hotel. But Fei Ke started learning stock trading from Cheng Hao, and out of trust in him, Cheng Hao engaged in insider trading using Fei Ke's account. The account was registered under Fei Ke's name, but the password was set by Cheng Hao. At first, Cheng Hao remained cautious, investing only a small amount of money and occasionally logging into the account to check the last login time, ensuring that Fei Ke hadn't accessed it.
After a few times, Cheng Hao completely trusted Fei Ke, until one day when his flight got canceled during a business trip. Upon returning home, he found that Fei Ke had prepared a lot of fruits, and there was a photo of Fei Ke with his parents on the table. Upon questioning, Fei Ke admitted that he had deceived Cheng Hao but told another lie.
He claimed that his parents were coming from their hometown to visit him, and Fei Ke wanted to use Cheng Hao's house to deceive his parents. However, it was actually Chen Jia Jia and her father who came at that time.
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