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Since Netflix released all the episodes of the highly anticipated spin-off series Bling Empire: New York on Friday, January 20, 2023, fans have had their say on the series. Much of this season focused on the love lives of the seven cast members — with Dorothy Wang and Tina Leung trying out the dating scene while Lynn Ban faced some marital struggles. However, the pick of the love story was between Richard Chang and his girlfriend, Vika Abbyaeva. Despite the 11-year age gap between them, the duo appears to have a healthy and strong connection, which helped them warm their way into fans’ hearts.
At the beginning of the season, Richard admitted that he had been on several dates before eventually meeting Vika and falling completely in love with her. Although the two have only been dating for a year, Richard sees a future with Vika. After getting approval from his brother and mother, Richard eventually proposed to her.
The rooftop proposal featured in a tense season finale that showed Richard’s proposal getting rejected by Vika before he could even get through his lines. Vika explained that she did not want to get married because it was not a “good time.” Richard was heartbroken, but their respective Instagram pages suggest they are still together a year after filming for Bling Empire: New York. Despite their tight relationship, viewers noticed Richard gave off some red flags, and that has formed most of the fan conversation surrounding the couple’s postseason.
Fans Think Richard is Grooming and Manipulating Vika
Throughout the season, Richard found it difficult to connect with other cast members, especially Tina Leung and Dorothy Wang. So when Vika told him about a girls-only trip to the Bahamas, he told her not to go. He did not trust the girls and did not want Vika alone with them. Richard’s refusal caused an intense fight between them, with Richard calling her “stupid” in the heat of the moment. Although he immediately apologized for his utterance, Vika proceeded to the Bahamas with the girls and ignored him the entire weekend.
Many viewers saw this as a major red flag, along with some of his other actions toward Vika. Recently, fans took to Reddit to respond to a thread about the duo’s relationship. Man fans expressed their dislike for Richard and tore into his personality with little restraint. One of the Reddit user’s comments read:
“He’s extremely dense, and it’s really pathetic to see. I’m happy he got such a bad edit. I bet he is LIVID. his gf is amazing for not even letting a proposal happen.”
Other users expressed their reservations about the 11-year age gap between the couple and pointed out that Richard may be using it to his advantage to groom 26-year-old Vika.
Fans Think Vika Can Do Better Than Richard
Fans do not like Richard one bit. Most of the Reddit users commenting on the thread did not just stop at his relationship with Vika but proceeded to tear into other aspects of his life — going as far as labeling his business a scam. For Bling Empire: New York fans, they do not see anything extraordinary about Richard, and they feel Vika could get a better person to date. One of the commenters even likened Vika to Deborah Hung — wife of billionaire Stephen Hung — to drive home the point that she could get a wealthier man. However, many fans believe Vika would struggle to leave Richard because of the many gifts and benefits she gets from him. While commenting, one particular fan wrote:
“Vika is also there for the gifts and benefits”
It is easy to make judgments when looking in from the outside. Nevertheless, the couple still seems to be waxing stronger despite all the drama that has trailed their relationship over the last year. Whether they get a happy ending is a completely new story that may require a season 2.
