96 BEST FRIEND'S WIFE'S "FRIEND"

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MAN’S ONLINE “GIRLFRIEND” IS HIS BEST FRIEND’S WIFE!

A Chinese man whose best friend’s wife introduced him to his online girlfriend, one year ago, recently learned that the woman he had fallen in love with online was actually his friend’s wife, who was trying to scam him.

Mr. Zhou, a middle-aged man from China’s Henan province, was trying to raise money to start a family by growing watermelons in Myanmar. He had been gone for years, but he still kept in touch with his best friend, Xiao Li, to whom he confessed last year that his business was going well and that Mr. Zhou wanted to meet a good woman.

Li told Zhou that Li’s wife had a female friend who was also single and that Li’s wife would be glad to introduce them.

Because Zhou was still abroad, tending to his fruit business, online dating was his only viable option. Zhou and Li’s wife’s friend hit it off and agreed to continue their long-distance relationship until Zhou could return to China.

About three months into their online relationship, Zhou’s online girlfriend told him that her brother had been in a terrible accident on a construction site and that she desperately needed 5,000 yuan (USD$730) for medical expenses.

Thinking that it was not too much money, Zhou agreed to send it to her, but only a few weeks later, she once again asked for money, claiming that her father was sick. He ended up sending her over 80,000 yuan (USD$11,650) during the period of one year.

Earlier this year, Zhou told his friend Xiao Li how well his relationship was going and how he had finally decided to return to China to meet his girlfriend and, he hoped, to marry her.

At the time, Li did not have anything negative to say. However, earlier this month, he called Zhou and told him that his “girlfriend” may not exist and that Zhou might have been dating Li’s wife all along!

“You seem to have been cheated. Your “girlfriend” is my wife!” Xiao Li said over the phone, adding that his wife had left him without a word, after Li discovered evidence of her scam on her Douyin (TikTok) account.

At first, Zhou was dumbfounded by the revelation, but when he tried contacting his online girlfriend, she did not even bother replying, which suggested that Li was right.

Zhou considered alerting the authorities, but his best friend begged him not to do it, promising to return all the money himself, in installments. Zhou agreed to let his friend resolve matters, but after Li failed to return the entire sum his wife had stolen, Zhou went to the authorities.

Zhou’s story went viral in China and was picked up by several major international news services. As of this writing, an investigation into this case is ongoing, and it is unclear whether Xiao Li’s wife has been apprehended or whether Li had played any part in this heartless scam.