13-Year-Old Chinese Girl Secretly Spends Family's Life Savings on Online Artists, Father Discovers Accounts Nearly Empty

A 13-year-old girl from Sanmenxia in Henan Province, China, obsessed with anime and manga, secretly spent nearly 180,000 yuan (approximately 850,000 baht) from her family's savings to commission artwork online without anyone's knowledge. Her family faces financial hardship, with her mother suffering from schizophrenia and her father experiencing brain damage from a gas leak accident in 2025 that affects his cognitive function and reaction time. The girl's father, who trusted her completely with his phone and ATM card, and the limited supervision by other family members, allowed her to gradually withdraw money through online platforms to support artists in exchange for special artwork she desired. When the father needed to pay for car repairs and discovered his accounts were nearly empty, he tearfully explained that the 180,000 yuan across three cards represented his life savings accumulated over years of migrant work, originally intended for his daughter's future. Upon realizing the gravity of her actions, the girl broke down in tears and apologized to her father, saying she was unworthy of being his child, while her father, deeply saddened, comforted her with gentleness. The girl admitted to spending heavily on hiring online artists because of her love for anime and manga, and before she realized it, all the family's savings were gone. The family is now attempting to contact the relevant platforms seeking assistance and hoping to recover at least some of the money to sustain their livelihood. The girl has apologized sincerely to her father and promised never to touch his hard-earned money again, nor to spend money on such expensive pursuits in the future.