If Next Media still existed, far fewer people would have fallen prey to the scams of 七仙羽. The Next Magazine, which published the interview of her in 2004, would have exposed her even before she became popular. She would not have successfully constructed her persona, which, though full of discrepancies and sounding utterly incredible, did attract a huge following in Hong Kong. Regardless of your politics and your views of its founder Jimmy Lai 黎智英, who is widely deemed a political prisoner, you cannot convincingly deny the important role played by Next Media.
source: 貓花的瘋狂世界: 七仙羽身份謎底解開！珠海同學終極現身！大義減親！踢爆七仙羽大話連篇！(口誤更正：七仙出書的年份應該是2004年，並非2024年)
One should note that Qi’s “memoir,” published in 2004, was her attempt to ride the wave of popularity of erotic fiction (“erotica”) in the early 2000s. One famous writer back then was Wei Hui, whose semi-autobiographical Shanghai Baby banned in China and sold many copies in the underground market and in the Western world. I have not read Qi’s book. According to two seasoned journalists who are excellent at spotting liars (see the screenshot), Qi’s story as well as her persona was very likely made up.
I wonder what happened after Qi’s interview in 2004 and before news about her surfaced again around 2010, according to which she was already wealthy. She did not find fame through a successful feng shui industry during this period. I only heard of her a couple of years ago, around 2021. If she was famous before 2020, I would have heard of her much earlier. Given Her “husband” or “partner” Gerald Alserda was still married to Michelle Chan in 2013, it was not very likely for her to have acquired her wealth through marriage to Alserda. Did she find some wealthy businessman to partner with and get rich herself?