Girl sold herself for mom: Dilemma of Internet charity (Southern Metropolis Daily/zonaeu) Updated: 2005-11-07 09:39 On October 10, Bafenzhai met Chen Yi at Southwestern University. According to
the investigative report published by Bafenzhai afterwards, "Chen Yi was simply
dressed. She wore a leisure jacket on top, gray Nike pants (which she said were
counterfeited), a pair of well-worn Nike shoes and her hairstyle was just as
shown in the newspapers but dyed, curled on top and straight downwards. By
appearance, she was an ordinary university student and not living in luxury as
the rumors go."
During the investigation, Bafenzhai confirmed the basic situation and the
mother-daughter team were cooperative. Chen Yi let Bafenzhai and others verify
the account information at the Industrial and Commercial Bank.
Up to the day when donations were cut off, the total amount was about 104,000
yuan. Bafenzhai told a Chongqing netizen Huaideguang who was generally more
sympathetic to Chen Yi that the bank accounts looked alright. Bafenzhai also
visited the Luzhou Prosecutorial Office to learn about the donations and
expenditures from last year. Chen Yi also brought Bafenzhai and others to visit
their home in Luzhou.
But Chen Yi was still dishonest about certain matters, and that left
Bafenzhai quite disappointed. The most touchy point was the remittances that did
not go through the bank. At first, Chen Yi told Bafenzhai that she only received
2,200 yuan from such remittances. But the CCTV reporter at the scene
interjected: "Didn't you say more than 7,000 yuan?" Chen Yi began to cry: "I
trust CCTV. I don't trust the netizens and I don't trust you people!" Finally,
she admitted that there was one remittance of 6,000 yuan and the total was more
than 10,000 yuan. There were also foreign currency remittances.
After returning to Shenzhen, Bafenzhai published his investigative report in
serial form. The report was immediately placed at the top of the Tianya Club
home page and caused quite a stir. By the second day, there were more than
20,000 hits with more than 2,000 comments. People praised what he did: "The
Internet is a virtual world, but there are still people who have their feet on
the ground and taken concrete actions in order to bring the truth to the
netizens. This is truly admirable!"
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