Li Ming is a crypto trader in his early thirties, who has made a fortune in the cryptocurrency market thanks to his sharp market intuition and precise trading techniques. His wife, Xiaoya, is a financial analyst, busy with work; although their marriage seems perfect, Li Ming has always felt that something is off with Xiaoya lately.
This morning, Xiaoya, as usual, dressed in a sharp business outfit, picked up her bag and said she was going to the company for a morning meeting. Li Ming was, as usual, staring at the K-line chart in front of his computer, preparing for another round of fluctuations in Bitcoin. Just a few minutes after Xiaoya went downstairs, Li Ming heard the door lock click; she actually came back. He peeked out and saw Xiaoya standing in front of the mirror in the hallway, taking out an electric razor and carefully trimming her armpit hair, her movements skilled and focused. After finishing, she smiled at the mirror, touched up her lipstick, and hurriedly left again.
Li Ming was stunned. As a trader, his sixth sense was always sharp, and any subtle anomaly could alert him to risk. This behavior was too unusual—Xiaoya usually didn’t care about such details, let alone go back home to shave before heading out. He remained silent, continuing to stare at the screen, but doubts had already taken root in his mind.
By 10 AM, Bitcoin prices began to fluctuate, but Li Ming was a bit distracted. He picked up his phone and dialed Xiaoya's video call, wanting to see what she was doing. After a long ring, no one answered. He then made a voice call, and this time Xiaoya picked up, her tone as cheerful as ever: 'Hi, husband, I’m busy at the office; what’s up?'
Li Ming frowned. The silence on the other end of the line was eerie; he couldn’t even hear keyboard typing or the phone ringing. Xiaoya's company was a noisy open office, and usually, you could hear background noise when making a call. He said casually, 'It’s nothing, just asking what you’re doing and what you want to eat for dinner.' Xiaoya casually replied a few sentences and hung up.
Li Ming couldn't sit still. As a trader, he was best at spotting flaws from subtle data. He closed the trading software, grabbed his car keys, and headed straight to Xiaoya's company. When he arrived at her office building, he first circled the parking lot but didn’t see Xiaoya’s car. He went upstairs and headed straight for Xiaoya's workstation—empty. A nearby colleague said, 'Xiaoya? She took leave today, saying she had personal matters.'
Li Ming's expression darkened. He opened his phone and logged into Xiaoya's crypto wallet tracking software—something he had installed years ago to help Xiaoya manage her investments, which he rarely used. The software showed that Xiaoya had transferred some USDT to an anonymous address last night; the amount wasn’t large, but enough to pay for a night at a high-end hotel. He quickly checked the transaction records associated with the address and pinpointed a five-star hotel in the city center.
Without thinking much, Li Ming drove straight to the hotel. Relying on his intuition as a trader and his usual decisiveness, he went directly to the front desk and reported Xiaoya's name. After the front desk confirmed her registration, he asked to go upstairs to 'find his wife.' Outside the hotel room, he knocked on the door. It opened, revealing Xiaoya in a bathrobe, standing next to a strange man holding a glass of red wine. Scattered around the room were laptops, and on the screen was the trading interface of the crypto world—clearly, this man was also in the industry.
Xiaoya panicked and wanted to explain, but Li Ming had already turned to leave. He didn’t argue or make a scene; he was as calm as if he were cutting losses in the market. A few days later, he filed for divorce, dividing the assets, even taking no extra Bitcoin that Xiaoya held. He left behind just one sentence: 'In the crypto world, any abnormal fluctuation will expose your position. Life is the same.'
Since then, Li Ming became more focused on trading. He incorporated the lessons of this marriage into his trading philosophy: details determine success or failure, and the sixth sense never lies. As for Xiaoya, he heard that her reputation in the crypto circle had plummeted because no one believed that someone who could hide even their marriage could maintain their bottom line in trading.
The crypto world is like life; no matter how deep you hide, flaws will always be exposed. If you want to keep it a secret, you must not act.
