On Mid-Autumn Festival, flipping through old letters, I found out my big brother in Southeast Asia had invited me for dinner back in 2024. I was snoozing away in a hotel then and missed our last chance to meet. It reminds me of that Zen saying about how losses are compensated elsewhere, but all I feel now is regret.
Looking back, my brother was the one who bailed me out of a Laotian jail for 120,000. We spent half a year in Tachileik, tapping away at keyboards. When things got hot there, we moved to the Asia-Pacific region. In those first three months, I wasn’t aiming to climb the ladder, just trying to build a network.
I started in HR, and within two months, I unexpectedly made hundreds of thousands. After that, I followed my brother’s lead, switched to being an agent, and found it much smoother. In six months, I had over two million saved up.
I bought a car in the Asia-Pacific, and with my blue access card, I moved freely in the shadiest areas, feeling like I had my own slice of freedom. At 21, I felt like I’d transformed from a pawn to someone with control, so I moved out of the compound and into a hotel. I had a Vietnamese girlfriend who later returned to Vietnam and had my child.
Living outside the compound, I met all sorts of people, moving between places like Apollo, Jock, and Dongmei. In two months at Dongmei, I made another million. In my downtime, I even traveled to Thailand.
Some folks from Guangxi at the company, seeing my success, spread rumors to undermine me. I barely showed up at the office, but they tried to brainwash my team, offering 200,000 to lure them away. I didn’t know or care much about it.
Later, I met a girlfriend through work who treated me well, just like my brother did. I lived off her for six months, feeling guilty, but she wouldn’t take any money from me. I heard she went back home after we split last year. Two years on, I still feel I owe her, living off her kindness so easily.
Those two years with my brother were my best in Southeast Asia, filled with both wealth and genuine connections. I’m most grateful to him and that ex-girlfriend.
Though I’ve moved on from my brother and life isn’t as it was, it’s my choice, and I can’t blame anyone. In Southeast Asia, early success can ruin you because you’re too young to handle it. No regrets.
In this part of the world, when someone says “come back for dinner,” they see you as family. Cherish those bonds, my friends.
