Unemployed and In Debts, 25-yr-old Postgraduate Ends His Life

Owing 60,000 RMB from online loans and unemployed, the 25-year-old postgraduate had lingered between cheap lodgings and internet cafes for a year. No one knows exactly why he chose such an ending, he could have gained everything he needed.

Luo's suicide note left on his phone. Photo: Changjiang Daily.

The Suicide note: What the adults told me was right

On January 31, reading his son’s suicide note on the phone, father Luo Lijun burst into tears. 

“I’m going to die. 

I will kill myself. 

Played one year in Wuhan, didn’t do anything, didn’t leave anything. 

Got plenty of debts, I won’t pay them.

I’m too naive, what the adults told me was right. 

But I understood it too late. 

All my fault. 

I’m sorry...”

“January 13 was his 25th birthday and we planned to go home together,” Luo told a reporter. On January 20, the son charged 100 RMB into the father’s phone number. They planned to take the journey home for Chinese New Year together on January 30. The son would pick up the father in Wuhan Railway Station.

But on the morning of 29th, police informed Luo that his son had killed himself. The same night, Luo came to Wuhan from the city he worked and saw his son’s body. Police showed him the surveillance video of the night. Luo Junior wandered up and down along the staircase. He was seen at 3:40 in the morning the last time. 

He also left a note to the guest house owner: “Boss, go call the police right now. I’ve killed myself on the rooftop.”

A homeless year in Wuhan

Luo’s family couldn’t think of any reasons why a young man like Luo Jr. with bright future would choose such an ending. In 2010, he was enrolled to a key university in Wuhan with great marks, studying transportation engineering, a major too good to fail to find a job. In 2016, he graduated with a master degree in hand and was picked by a state-owned city railway company to work on a project in Hangzhou, taking 6,000 RMB a month, not bad at all for a fresh graduate. But after half a year, Luo Jr. resigned against family’s dissuasion. 

After the Spring Festival of 2017, Luo Jr. set for Wuhan to look for a job, claiming to have over 10,000 RMB savings with him. In August of 2017, he announced that he found a job in a technology company.

Luo Jr. was one of China’s 61 million left-behind children brought up by his grandparents since one year old when his parents got divorced and father went away to work. According to Luo Sr., his son was always a good student in school with top grades. Until three days before the suicide, he had been telling them that things were going great for him. 

“I can’t believe it was all lies,” said Luo Sr. He visited the technology company after the incident and found out his son never worked there.

Living on loans

For one year in Wuhan, Luo Jr. had no income and homes. On January 23, he moved in this cheap lodging charging him 55 RMB/day with only a bed in the room. All Luo Jr. left were a tore suitcase he had been using since university and a blue backpack, several old clothes, a cashless wallet and a cheap smartphone. 

His phone installed 13 online micro-lending apps with 52,000 RMB debts in total, arranging from 15,00 RMB to 8,000 RMB per debt. According to records, every new loan was used to pay the old debts, leaving a small amount for daily expenses, which went to internet cafes, convenient stores and food joints. 

Except for online loans, he also borrowed money from WeChat usury. On January 22, a WeChat usury lent 3,000 RMB to Luo Jr. and after one week, the debt snowballed to 3,900 RMB. Luo’s family members had received threatening phone calls and messages from lenders after he died. 

Luo’s family suspected that the pressure from loan sharks contributed to Luo’s tragedy.

A good student with high self-esteem

Luo’s death was rather pitiful to his teachers and classmates. It seemed like Luo lied to his classmates about working in Wuhan too. 

“He has very high self-esteem, rarely talk to us. He’s very quiet in the groups, even quieter in 2017,” commented his high school classmate. 

University teacher Du said he was an outstanding student with an introverted personality, but not good at interacting with other people. “He could easily find a good job with his major,” said Du. “He could have told us if he had trouble, we would definitely help him.”

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