Chapter 3

Officer Li asked:

“You stayed to catch the traffickers?”

“As soon as I reach Aunt Huang, I'll contact you. This village sticks together. Bring plenty of officers when you arrest her.”

7.

A tree-cutting frenzy swept the village.

People neglected their fields. Every household threw itself into felling boxwood.

They dreamed of money.

They didn't know that each falling tree brought a death warrant instead.

Chen Jin was the happiest. More than once, he said he would buy another wife with his timber money.

I casually asked where he had buried the woman who froze to death.

He pointed at the mountain behind the village.

“Where else? Took her up there and buried her.”

My daughter's youth had stopped here forever.

Eighteen.

No cremation.

No coffin.

Guoguo had always been afraid of insects.

I could imagine her lying on the earth after death, flies and crawling things covering her.

I'm sorry, Guoguo.

Don't worry.

Soon, all the evil that hurt you would end.

8.

Two months later, the weather turned to heavy, then torrential rain.

That day, I left the hotel and walked alone through the streets.

Not another soul was out.

Everyone feared the rain. It meant destruction.

To me, it looked righteous.

It could destroy cruelty and ignorance on my behalf.

I wandered aimlessly.

Guoguo.

I'm sorry.

I should have taken you to school that day.

I was selfish. All I cared about was work. I didn't pay attention to you.

I miss you so much. Can't you come back?

Tears spilled from my eyes.

I could no longer feel their warmth or taste their salt.

The downpour washed my face and diluted them.

My grief, anger, and hatred poured into the rain.

Hold on a little longer, Guoguo. I'll avenge you soon.

It rained for six days.

As soon as it stopped, I headed to the village.

The usual two-hour walk took twice as long.

I felt no fatigue.

It was exactly as I had expected: devastated.

Most homes were built of mud brick and roofed with tiles. After days of rain, the village had become a landscape of broken walls and shattered roofing.

“Brother, I thought you weren't coming.”

The chief wiped his tears and sniffed.

“A landslide! Mud and rocks swept everything away!

“We never had debris flows like this in heavy rain before.”

Chen Jin was crying.

“The house I worked so hard to build—gone! Now I can't use the timber money for a wife. The Chen line will end!”

I watched them coldly.

At that moment, I admit, I was cruel.

Their village was destroyed.

The immediate cause was rain.

The true force behind it was me.

I traded in timber. I knew how important trees were in holding soil.

Once the slopes lost the support of the boxwood, the ground would loosen.

So I had offered high prices for trees worth very little.

The villagers felled them in great numbers, destabilizing the mountainside.

Loose soil, followed by five or six days of uninterrupted heavy rain, would inevitably slide.

Now everyone lived in dangerous ruins.

They were miserable.

I was delighted.

I hated every person there.

Their coldness. Their indifference.

I believed Guoguo must have asked them for help.

I believed they had ignored her, perhaps even told her to endure it and obey Chen Jin.

If only—

If only one of them had helped, she might have escaped. She might not have frozen to death.

So I waited two months for the rain and brought this revenge about.

Through my calculations, their home was wrecked. They had nowhere to live.

I felt no guilt.

This was the price of buying and selling women.

9.

The chief wanted me to buy the timber immediately. They needed the money to rebuild.

I gave him the ten thousand yuan I had with me.

I said I would return to town, withdraw the rest, and bring it back.

Chen Jin saw me out.

On the muddy, thorn-lined path, he moaned.

“Brother, I'm so unlucky. Finally bought a woman, and she died. Now my only house is gone too.

“My whole home's destroyed. I haven't got a penny.”

Perhaps he didn't know that the more he complained, the more I hated him.

Losing your home hurts, does it?

Did you ever think my daughter might have hurt when she was taken from hers?

I gave a cold smile.

“What has your ruined home got to do with me?”

He stared, clearly not expecting that.

“Right… yes. You're right.”

I glanced at him.

“Stop following me.”

I was afraid I would lose control and kill him.

He shamelessly trailed me a little farther before speaking.

“Last time… you said if I introduced Aunt Huang and helped you buy a woman, you'd give me ten thousand. Right?”

“Yes.

“But she doesn't deal with strangers, does she?”

He stroked the hairs on his mole. His eyes shifted.

“How about this? I've known her for years.

“I'll ask for a female university student in my own name. When she brings the new ‘stock,’ I'll hand her over to you. What do you think?”

I nodded.

He rubbed his hands.

“But… the full amount has to be paid. Aunt Huang takes the money before delivery.”

I said I would withdraw it in town.

That evening, I messaged Officer Li.

“I may be about to reach Aunt Huang.”

He warned me against acting hastily.

I told him to prepare more officers.

When Chen Jin came to my hotel, he shook his head.

“She says the authorities are cracking down. It's hard to find stock.”

For traffickers, nothing was impossible to find.

The money simply wasn't enough.

I handed him all the hundred and twenty thousand yuan I had prepared.

“A hundred thousand is the deposit for the wife. Ten thousand is for you.

“Find me a woman, and I'll give you another ten thousand when it's done.”

“You really are rich!”

He bent over the money, pressed it to his face, and inhaled deeply.

“Never seen so much in my life.”

Alone with him, I always found it especially difficult to control myself.

I carried a dagger all the time.

Honestly, I wanted to cut his throat.

Not too deeply.

I wanted his blood to drain slowly.

Wanted him to watch it leave him, little by little, until he died.

Fighting that urge, I got up and opened the window.

“You've got the money. Do the job.”

He bowed and scraped his way out to see Aunt Huang again.

Six hours later, he grinned, showing yellow teeth.

“She says she's just found a university student traveling alone. We can do it tomorrow.”

Aunt Huang was extremely cautious.

The exchange would take place in Chen Jin's ruined village.

The sky was clear after the rain, but yellow mud coated everything left by the debris flow.

Groups of villagers gathered outside his shabby house.

Everyone wanted to see what sort of woman Aunt Huang had brought this time.

“I told her I'm the buyer,” Chen Jin warned me repeatedly. “Don't show your face.

“If you do, she'll take the woman and run.”

I agreed.

Once he went out to meet her, I messaged Officer Li.

“Are your people here?”

They had been hidden in the village since the night before.

I let out a breath.

After so much waiting in silence—

At last.

At last, today had come.

Guoguo, soon everyone who hurt you would pay with their lives.

Through a gap, I saw Aunt Huang.

Heavyset, a flowered scarf around her head, a mask over her face. I couldn't make out her features.

But I knew.

This was the woman who abducted and sold my daughter.

My breathing quickened. My fingers pressed so hard into the earthen wall that it crumbled.

Trembling, I took out my phone and secretly began recording through the gap.

A man accompanied her. Between them, they carried a sack with a person inside.

Thud.

They dumped it in the mud.

“I stayed up all night getting this stock.”

She opened the sack, seized the girl's hair, and pulled her head up.

“Look. Not bad, eh?”

The villagers looked at her like livestock.

They applauded.

“Not bad! Aunt Huang knows how to pick them!”