There is a relative in my family who can be considered a true Shenzhen native, a Deep First Generation. In the early 2000s, she and her husband moved south to Shenzhen. At that time, Shenzhen was full of opportunities. Relying on hard work and seizing the era’s red dividends, they started with odd jobs and saved their first pot of gold by running errands and sourcing building materials.

Later, she opened a shop, and her husband worked in real estate-related industries. Before the housing prices skyrocketed, they paid in full for several properties in core Shenzhen areas and an entire floor of small产权房 (small property rights houses) for rental. Over more than a decade, their assets grew to hundreds of millions, making them an old middle class who achieved financial freedom.

Originally, she could have continued living a dull life of playing mahjong and collecting rent, but when she had free time, her mind started to drift. She gradually became addicted to mahjong and met a group of card friends with various motives. At her most reckless, she could lose tens of thousands of yuan in a month playing mahjong. These “friends” also frequently encouraged her to invest and buy land, claiming she could easily double her money. Blinded by promises of high returns, she forgot how hard she had worked, and she was repeatedly exploited, quickly depleting her savings.

Unwilling to give up, she started selling properties to “recoup losses,” but her investments only grew more亏损 (losses), plunging her into a vicious cycle. The final straw was her investment in Ding Yifeng—she mortgaged her remaining properties, borrowing several million yuan, to invest. When the project eventually defaulted, she lost everything. Her properties were auctioned off by the court at only half their original value, still not enough to cover her debts. Decades of hard work were wiped out in an instant.

What’s most heartbreaking is her newly graduated child, who could have calmly chosen his life path, but overnight, he went from a “middle-class young rich second generation” to a “负二代” (second-generation burden). His eyes no longer hold the youthful vitality, and he no longer knows if he still has a future.

Shenzhen has witnessed too many rises and regrets. It offers opportunities for the diligent to turn their lives around, but it also plunges the greedy into deep abysses.

In society, the middle class is like sheep; the entire society’s wool is woven from the wool sheared from sheep. So, protecting the sheep is impossible.

This relative’s story proves: wealth freedom is never the end goal. Staying true to your original intentions is the most difficult cultivation, and in the end, the ones who pay the price for life’s setbacks are often the closest people.