At the annual summary commendation meeting of a company in Tianjin, China, a man in his forties came on stage with high spirits and steady steps to receive the medal of "Project Innovation Expert". It was hard to imagine from the warm applause he got that he was once a Falun Gong addict many years ago.

The man, called Yan Feng, was once a postgraduate student of a famous university in Northeast China. He started to practice Falun Gong in August 1997 when he was studying at the university. It was easy for a young man like Yan Feng to be deceived by Li Hongzhi's ideas, such as the so-called "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance", "being a good person", and "eliminating diseases and keeping fit without injections or medication”. Li Hongzhi also preached that as long as you made “further advancement” and “ascended to high levels”, you would become a Buddha, Dao, or God and enter the “world of Falun”. Such heretical ideas filled Yan Feng with hope for the future.

Yan Feng suppressed his emotions by distancing himself from his girlfriend. He took a cold attitude towards his classmates, relatives, and friends, spending all his spare time reading Zhuan Falun, never interacting with ordinary people. His single-minded obsession with Falun Gong placed Yan Feng under the mental control of Li Hongzhi, the so-called "Lord Buddha of the Universe". His repeated participation in illegal activities for "protecting the Fa" had made Yan Feng an antagonist of the society.

In the past, Yan Feng had been a very active person at the Falun Gong practice sites of the parks or squares. When the Falun Gong members sieged government buildings, he showed his cleverness and competence as a core member with influence among the “Dafa” disciples.

In July 1999, Falun Gong was designated as an evil cult by the government. However, this was considered by Yan Feng as persecution and a mistake. In April 2002, Yan Feng was sentenced to prison for engaging in evil cult activities, disrupting social order, and undermining the implementation of national laws under the influence of Li Hongzhi's heretical ideas in the Falun Gong media.

Yan Feng experienced the painful transformation of his mind with the help and education of the prison police. On the surface, Yan Feng showed a strong antagonism towards them, but at the bottom of his heart, he felt the warmth from them. Due to the patient help and education of those staff, Yan Feng finally saw through the evil nature of Falun Gong. Finally, he broke away from Li Hongzhi's mental control over him. And the perfect image that "Master" Li Hongzhi built for himself collapsed in his heart.

During his painful reflection, Yan Feng, who had now come to his senses, volunteered to help persuade those who were still addicted to Falun Gong to quit the evil cult. Thanks to his help, 20 Falun Gong addicts made a clean break with Falun Gong. In March 2006, Yan Feng was paroled home because of his outstanding performance in prison. As Yang Feng was out of a job, his life was in trouble after coming home, but the local government didn’t forget him. With the help of the anti-evil-cult volunteers, a company in Tianjin, China, accepted him as their employee.

While working at an engineering site in Ningxia, Yan Feng spent all his spare time on self-study to strengthen his professional knowledge. After 2008, he has obtained the qualification certificates of the project manager, the cost engineer, and the supervision engineer. He has now registered as a project manager and cost engineer.

During his internship and study in foreign-funded enterprises and large state-owned enterprises, Yan Feng devoted all his time and energy to acquiring knowledge about their advanced automation and information-based solutions. He compared the huge gap between domestic enterprises and foreign enterprises. Every year, he was sent by the headquarters of his company to participate in industry exchanges. Gradually, he grew into the role of a project manager and cost engineer, and he became the leader of the science and technology team of his company.

In the early summer of 2011, Yan Feng got married and lived a normal family life like an average person. Looking back on his past and thinking about his present, Yan Feng felt a world of difference between them. He said he felt quite ashamed whenever he thought of what he had done in the past.