Working in a karaoke bar in the county town, Yang Yi described himself as "tired of this dark life." His life has reached a dead end: like his parents at the construction site, he can't be with his family. If he wants to return to the county town to start a family, a monthly salary of two thousand is obvious. It is unaffordable; a stable job with a satisfactory income will not be open to this young man with no education or skills. Lack, despair, and the determination to have nothing breed great desires. Despite the continuous loss of principal and loans, Yang Yi could not stop fantasizing about getting rich suddenly.
In the summer of 2021, Yang Yi speculated in coins for the second time and lost more than 20,000. This made him fearful, "I felt like I was losing no matter how I played." He deleted all his friends and trading software in the currency circle, and determined not to speculate in currencies again. He didn't expect at the time that a legend would be born soon after he retired from the industry.
In the currency circle, "Liang Xi" is almost unknown to everyone. The name has three digits tied together: 519, 1000, 1000. "519" refers to the virtual currency crash event on May 19, 2021. Data shows that the total liquidation on that day reached US$6.28 billion, approximately 40.4 billion yuan. On this day, while countless people abandoned their positions to escape, Liangxi took 1,000 yuan of principal and used high leverage to roll the position to 10 million yuan. He was 17 years old at the time. No one thought that it would be a child who caught this historic plunge. The initial capital is 1,000 yuan, which is the "starting threshold" that almost everyone can reach. Entering the market with a thousand yuan in hand and becoming a multi-millionaire, Liang Xi realized this almost absurd possibility.
Although Liang Xi's tens of millions of profits have now turned into liabilities, at least in that year, he got everything. With sudden wealth and traffic, several founders of trading software sent Liangxi dream funds one after another to reward him for his "spirit of becoming more courageous with every setback." As one stimulus after another, Yang Yi's determination continued to weaken.
Jumping Pole and Sickle Last year, he came to Shanghai to run a takeout business with a friend, also for money. He heard that he could "earn 20,000 yuan a month." This is the first big city he has visited since leaving the county. In this city, delivery people run around like bees.
杨壹在上海送外卖时拍下的，他觉得照片里的人们像蚂蚁一样「各自忙碌又井然有序」他二月来，跑得不够快，没赚多少钱。四月上旬被封控，一房间里十个人，从早到晚地在美团抢菜。骑手们提前解封后，他和朋友住在桥洞，全城送菜。五月他把业务跑熟了，很少再超时。六月，他攒下了些钱。欲望也许就是这时找上来的。「去那边就见识到更富有的生活。」 杨壹停顿了下，「感觉差距太大了。」 
Shanghai made him yearn for a better life. Running for takeaways and working on construction sites would wear down his body, so it was not a long-term solution. Looking around, there was only speculation, a jumping pole that he could grab in his hand. In late June, Yang Yi started his own currency speculation for the third time. I invested 5,000 on the first day, but it didn’t work. He still has 20,000 yuan saved from taking out food on hand, which is all his savings.
For money, he traveled around during the lockdown. Unable to return to his rental house, he spent the night in parks or under bridges with his rider friends. For more money, Yang Yi gritted his teeth and threw them in. The squandering went faster than he expected. Two days later, he only lost money for food. He was very sad. He originally planned to stop here, but he felt that "if you want to do something big, do it big", so the sadness turned into a kind of determination.
It happened that the limit of an online loan software on his mobile phone suddenly increased sharply. He first borrowed 50,000 yuan, and then borrowed 30,000 yuan. It was difficult to stop things from getting to this point. He continued to download other online loan software, and eventually borrowed more than 130,000 yuan. On July 1, Yang Yi spent all the money. At 10:30 in the morning, he posted the word "waste" in the circle of friends, announcing the end of this game. During this period, he thought about stopping, but in the end he was convinced by himself and felt that there was no way out.
He is always afraid that there will be big fluctuations in the next second after he stops, and he will regret it if he stops. It is better to put the hope of a comeback in the next order and fight until the end. Even with the 700 yuan on hand for eating, he Will also invest in it. "I feel like I have nothing, so I want to fight for it." He said, "The less I have that opportunity, the more fanatically I want to create opportunities for myself." When currency speculation becomes a wealth game, most people's motivations , all hope to develop through it.
They don’t know what the Lightning Network is, the forks of Bitcoin, or what the abbreviation of ICO is. These ordinary investors who failed to understand the nature of the blockchain rushed into the market and became the most primitive fighters in the "ring" of currency speculation. They were also the victims who anonymously promoted the appreciation of Bitcoin. After many liquidations, Yang Yi now admits that ordinary people like him are just leeks waiting to be cut. "We all know that we are leeks, but we still want to eat meat from the lions." He made himself laugh.
"If you can't get meat, soup will do." Where to find a way out? Last year he owed a loan of 130,000 yuan, and debt collectors called his home. Only then did his parents realize that somewhere invisible, he had embarked on another track. For this small town family, it was not easy to be in debt of 130,000 yuan. His mother cried for him for the first time, and Yang Yi felt uncomfortable. He followed his parents' advice and returned to work at the construction site with peace of mind. His family raised enough money for him and canceled his debts. But Yang Yi didn't want to stay on the construction site all the time.
It has been six or seven years since he dropped out of school, and his days on the construction site alone took up nearly five years of his youth. "The construction site is too dangerous." He sighed as he said it. The year before last, he worked on a construction site hired by a pair of brothers. One minute, the foreman's brother was still chatting with him, and the next minute, the wooden plank on the tower crane slipped and fell on the other person's head, killing him. The terrifyingly high tower crane, the accident-prone trucks, the steel bars and potholes on the construction site all made him want to escape from here.
In his diary, Yang Yi wrote: Is the construction site my destination in this life? No, I will come out again after I heal the injury. Even if I am bruised and bruised, I don’t want to see the end of my life. He is twenty-four years old this year and plans to work at the construction site until the Chinese New Year. As for his plans for next year, Yang Yi counts them out for himself on his fingers: construction site, entering the factory, and running takeout. "But none of these three are what I want."
