Chapter 6
Edward Quan ·
26
I requested an extended leave from the firm, packed my bags, and bought a train ticket to Zhang City.
After a night of rattling along the tracks, I arrived and immediately prepared to continue to Zhangnan County.
It was extremely remote. Several more hours jolting along mountain roads on a coach left me feeling shaken to pieces before I finally reached it.
I had done some research and knew it was notorious for poverty.
Even so, what I saw shocked me.
The county seat was less prosperous than an ordinary town back home.
The streets were almost empty. Young people were rarer still.
I had booked a hotel online. On arrival, I discovered that the so-called International Hotel was a little inn that looked like a guesthouse from the 1990s.
I had come this far. I gritted my teeth and checked in.
Zhangnan's permanent population wasn't large, but it still exceeded a hundred thousand, spread across five towns and dozens of villages. Finding Zheng Luohai would not be easy.
If Chen Yu hadn't told me directly, he must have had reasons he couldn't explain. I couldn't make open inquiries either.
All I could do was search for a needle in a haystack, wandering through the county seat and its villages, studying faces against my memory of Zheng Luohai.
More than two weeks passed without a result.
One day, I was eating in a small restaurant. There were only a few customers.
The owner, with little to do, came over to chat.
“Young man, you've been around a while. Not local, are you?”
I smiled.
“No. I'm from Ping City.”
He looked puzzled.
“We're no tourist destination. No industry to speak of, either. Outsiders hardly ever come. You don't look like you're visiting relatives. What brings you here?”
I invented an explanation.
“I'm a writer. When I'm not busy, I like to travel, see local customs, find inspiration.”
He laughed.
“What is there to see in this godforsaken place? Mountains, then more mountains. Nothing else.”
“I wouldn't say that. Spend long enough in a city and a writer starts wanting a walk in the mountains. Every village has its own customs. They say ten thousand miles of travel are worth ten thousand books. I thought I might visit some of the most remote villages in a few days.”
His expression changed. He frowned.
“What's there to see in mountain villages? Listen to me, young man. Don't go up there alone. I'm telling you for your own good.”
“Because the roads are difficult?”
He seemed reluctant to explain.
“Just don't go.”
He got up and walked away.
I was puzzled.
Apparently there was more to those mountain villages than met the eye.
I finished eating and stood to pay when someone collided hard with me. I staggered, nearly falling.
Before I could get angry, a man's harsh voice rang out.
“You filthy bitch! Are you blind?”
I looked up.
A dirty, frightened woman stood in front of me, looking helpless.
Something about her seemed familiar.
Before I could speak, the man beside her grabbed her and dragged her away.
“What are you standing there for? Come on!”
I stood there, bewildered.
Well, that was something.
She knocked into me, didn't apologize, and simply walked off as if nothing had happened.
Were all the locals this aggressive?
I shook my head and reached for my phone to pay.
Then my hand touched something else in my pocket.
A tissue.
I was certain there had been nothing in there but my phone.
When had that appeared?
I acted as if nothing was wrong, laughed off the incident with a curse, and paid the owner.
Then I went straight back to the inn.
Only after carefully shutting the door did I take out the tissue.
It bore uneven marks and creases, as though someone had clutched it tightly.
I studied it for a long time.
Suddenly, I understood what those marks were.
“SOS.”
27
Someone was asking me for help.
I began to tremble. I carefully retraced the day's events. The only person who could have slipped that tissue into my pocket was the woman.
Who was she? Why was she asking me?
My mind raced as I tried to recall her appearance. I had seen her only once, but she had left a strong impression.
Most importantly, she had a butterfly tattoo on her neck.
That was what had seemed familiar.
Where had I seen it?
I lit a cigarette and thought for a long time.
Then it came to me.
A missing-person notice.
A year earlier, a notice had been pasted on a utility pole below our law office. An eighteen-year-old girl had run away after an argument with her family and disappeared.
The case had caused quite a stir in our city.
That girl had a butterfly tattoo on her neck too.
Could it be her?
My breathing quickened.
I searched online for news from Ping City a year earlier.
After a long search, I finally found the notice.
The moment I opened the photograph, the distinctive butterfly tattoo stood out.
I hadn't had a clear look at the woman's whole face, but I thought she bore some resemblance to the photograph.
Why was she here?
A terrible possibility occurred to me.
Human trafficking.
The thought made me shudder.
In all my years as a lawyer, I had never handled a trafficking case, but I had heard enough about them.
Once women were sold into remote mountain villages, escape was extremely difficult.
Even if they could ask for help, most people they encountered knew the traffickers. Instead of rescue, they might face even more brutal retaliation.
There might even be people working with them at the local police station.
Perhaps she had chosen me because she heard I was from Ping City.
In a tiny county where outsiders were rare, meeting someone from her own city might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Reporting it locally could be dangerous. Without hesitation, I called a friend at the Ping City Public Security Bureau and told him what I had found.
A reply came soon.
Ping City police had sent an official request for cooperation to their counterparts in Zhang City. They were bringing the girl's parents to Zhangnan County.
28
They moved fast.
They arrived early the next morning.
To my surprise, the group included provincial officers as well as city police.
My friend quietly told me the missing girl was called Yang Yingxia. Her father had considerable influence, with connections reaching provincial leaders.
This was going to be a major operation.
I told them everything that had happened the day before.
They immediately obtained the restaurant's surveillance footage.
It showed the girl's face clearly.
“That's my daughter! Xiaxia!”
Her mother burst into tears.
Her father shook all over. An officer gently patted his shoulder.
“We've found her. Don't worry. We'll bring her back this time.”
They soon identified the man with her.
He lived in Yanggou Village, Zhangnan County.
With the tactical unit leading, we headed straight there.
After several hours winding through mountain roads, we arrived.
The sight before us stopped me cold.
A dense crowd of villagers blocked the entrance, carrying rakes and hoes.
A Zhangnan County officer spoke helplessly.
“Poverty breeds savagery. We'd heard rumors about women being sold here, but these mountain villages are extremely difficult to police. You can see for yourselves. How could we normally dare come in and investigate?”
The senior provincial officer shot him a look.
“We'll deal with this first. Then we'll deal with your problems.”
The tactical officers formed a human barrier in front of us and raised their guns.
The villagers showed no fear. They brandished their tools, swore at us, and demanded we leave.
The provincial commander spoke through a loudhailer for a long time. Nothing worked.
At last, he ordered warning shots fired into the air.
That had an effect.
Some villagers visibly faltered and stepped back.
A few stubborn ones still refused to move.
The commander lost patience and ordered the riot police to arrest the ringleaders.
Chaos erupted.
The provincial force was formidable. Before long, they had the situation under control.
Yang Yingxia was soon found in a pigsty.
Her mother held her and wept.
But the girl's expression was blank. She seemed unable to believe she was finally free.
The operation achieved a great deal.
More than ten trafficked women were rescued.
The village's trafficking operation was dismantled.
Yet I knew that, apart from a few ringleaders who would be convicted, most of the others would receive no more than temporary detention. Soon they would be released.
That was how the law stood.
Selling a human being could sometimes bring a lighter punishment than selling a bird.
As for the buyers, a few claims that they didn't understand the law could earn leniency. Sometimes they received nothing more than a lecture before returning to their ordinary lives.
If Yang Yingxia's father hadn't been so influential, the village might still have been operating beyond the reach of the law.
I drew a deep breath.
At that moment, I felt the sorrow of those of us who had studied the law.
29
The raid brought an unexpected discovery.
Zheng Luohai, whom I had spent more than two weeks searching for, was from Yanggou Village.
And he was an accomplice in the trafficking case.
I immediately requested a meeting.
He looked surprised to see me.
“Aren't you the lawyer who defended Chen Yu eight years ago?”
I nodded.
“I came here to find you. Breaking up your den was an unexpected bonus.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I knew this day would come. What do you want?”
“Let's talk about Chen Yu. What do you know about him?”
He looked puzzled.
“Chen Yu? What's happened to him now?”
“He killed his father, Chen Bing.”
First he froze. Then he burst out laughing.
“Serves him right! Karma!”
I watched him coldly without speaking.
He gave a couple of awkward chuckles.
“Mr. Wu, if you've come all this way, you must have guessed what Chen Yu really is.”
“I can guess. I want to hear you say it.”
“All right. I'll tell you.”
He spoke slowly.
“Chen Yu isn't Chen Bing's biological son.
“He was a trafficked child.”
30
The moment I met Yang Yingxia, that possibility had occurred to me.
Hearing Zheng Luohai say it still made my scalp prickle.
The story began more than twenty years earlier.
Chen Yu's father, Chen Bing, was then in his early twenties.
He had little education but a quick mind. He knew there was no future in spending his life in a mountain village, so he left early and found work in Zhang City.
Diligent and hardworking, he soon won his employer's favor. The man even gave him his daughter's hand in marriage.
Chen Bing thought a happy life was beginning.
A few years later, he discovered a serious problem.
His wife couldn't have children.
He was the sole male heir in a line that had produced only one son for three generations. Having no child was unthinkable to him.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to divorce her.
Whether it was genuine love or her family's money, he had never betrayed his wife.
They went from hospital to hospital and drank traditional medicine as if it were food. Still, she never became pregnant.
Just as he was losing hope, he met Zheng Luoshan back in his home village. Zheng had also returned after years away.
He mocked Chen Bing endlessly for having no children.
Chen Bing finally lost his temper and fought him.
Even after being beaten, Zheng Luoshan grinned.
“Brother Bing, three generations of only sons. Is the family line really going to end with you?”
“What the hell are you talking about? I'm still young! I'll have a whole bunch of sons one day!”
Zheng kept grinning.
“Don't be so stubborn. Why not take in a child from a relative?”
Chen Bing glared.
“Still making fun of me? What close relatives do I have? I'm the only Chen left!”
Zheng's eyes shifted.
“Then how about adopting from an orphanage? I hear that's what city people do.”
“No! Those children either have something wrong with them or come from complicated families. What if I raise one all those years and its real parents show up? I'd be raising someone else's child!”
Zheng Luoshan smiled slyly.
“Then… what if I found you one?”
That had been his real purpose all along.
During his years away, he had joined a group engaged in the despicable trade of selling children.
Chen Bing was startled.
“What nonsense is that? How could I do such a thing?”
Zheng leaned close and lowered his voice.
“I hear Uncle Chen isn't well. He might only have a few years left. Are you really going to let him die without ever holding a grandchild?”
That struck Chen Bing's weakest point.
He was a dutiful son. Add the weight of three generations of only sons, and his desperation for a child had become overwhelming.
Zheng pressed further.
“If we weren't from the same village, I wouldn't bother helping. I'll get some friends to find you a child in Xing City. They're professionals. They do a clean job. No one will ever come knocking. Don't worry. We're fellow villagers. I won't charge you too much.”
At last, Chen Bing began to waver.
31
A few months later, Zheng Luoshan really did bring him a two-year-old boy.
Chen Yu.
Nervously, Chen Bing paid him two thousand yuan. They agreed never to meet again.
He had no idea Zheng Luoshan was so eager because he had pocketed a thousand yuan for himself.
Chen Bing told his wife that a relative back in the village had given him the child to raise.
In the countryside, families with too many children often gave one away.
But his wife wasn't a fool.
The children given away were usually girls. Who gave away a son?