■ In November 2011, Wang Wenfen was seen searching for her daughter Lyu Yangju on the streets of Guiyang. File photo.
A decade after being rescued by Sichuan police from human traffickers in Guizhou, Lyu Yangju went missing again.
■ Report by Xin Kuai Daily reporter Liu Hu with text and photos sent from Xifeng County, Guizhou Province, and Nanchong, Sichuan Province.
On February 5, inside a three-story old building on the ring road of Xifeng County, Guizhou Province, 60-year-old Wang Wenfen quietly wove a broom made of palm leaves. During a brief rest, she picked up a photo on the table and carefully scrutinized it. The photo showed a young woman wearing a floral dress, a white straw hat, and smiling broadly.
The woman in the photo is Wang Wenfen's youngest daughter Lyu Yangju (also known as Lyu Hongyang), who was abducted and sold to Sichuan in 2000. In 2002, Lyu Yangju, whose mental state had become significantly abnormal, was rescued by the police. However, ten years have passed, and the daughter has never returned. Where did she go? This question has become a nagging mystery that haunts Wang Wenfen and her family.
Disappearance
20-Year-Old Daughter Never Returned
Wang Wenfen's home is in Deng Jiawan Village, Dashuijing Township, Liuchang Town, Xifeng County. She and her husband Lyu Mingcong gave birth to their eldest son Lyu Chaoyang in 1975, their eldest daughter Lyu Huiyang in 1977, and their youngest daughter Lyu Hongyang (also known as Lyu Yangju) in 1979. The family of five barely survived on more than two acres of thin farmland and over two acres of mountain land, living a very humble life.
Unfortunately, misfortunes always come in various forms. In June 1999, a landslide occurred at the Yongjing Brick Factory in Xifeng County, burying Wang Wenfen’s 24-year-old son Lyu Chaoyang to death in the accident.
Lyu Mingcong could not bear the immense mental blow and fell seriously ill. Wang Wenfen and her two daughters came to the county town to take care of her husband. Due to the high medical expenses and the need for long-term recuperation, the family rented an old house on the Ring Road and started a small business selling vegetables, and they never returned to the countryside.
On the twelfth day of the second lunar month in 2000, tragedy struck the family once again. That morning at around 8 o'clock, the youngest daughter Lyu Yangju left home with a basket to sell vegetables and never returned.
"Sometimes Lyu Yangju would make mistakes in accounting when selling vegetables, but earning twenty or thirty yuan a day was no problem," Wang Wenfen recalled.
The disappearance of the 20-year-old daughter caused great anxiety in the family. Where had she gone? Had she encountered bad people? Given the frequent occurrence of abduction cases in Guizhou at that time, this could not be ignored.
After a month of anxious searching, a phone call from the local police station confirmed the news of Lyu Yangju's abduction - according to Wang Wenfen, a police officer named Xiong Yun informed her that Lyu Yangju was now in Sichuan, suffering from mental illness, unsellable, and needed to be retrieved by the family.
In a state of extreme urgency, Wang Wenfen and her eldest daughter Lyu Huiyang embarked on a completely unfamiliar journey to Nanchong, Sichuan.
Search
Daughter With Mental Illness Sold Twice
Later, Wang Wenfen recounted to Xin Kuai Daily reporters that they arrived at Shuangdian Township, Jialing District, Nanchong City, but failed to find their daughter. They only heard from a pesticide-selling woman who told them about a mentally ill woman who was pitifully beaten and stripped by traffickers.
It took Wang Wenfen a long time to identify the trafficker – his name was Du Genmao, residing in Dujiazhui Village, Shuangdian Township, Jialing District. His wife Wu Qun was from Xiaozhaiba Town, Xifeng County. Wang Wenfen couldn’t understand why Du Genmao had abducted her daughter, except that he used to travel around Xifeng repairing tin pots and rented her husband’s brother’s old house in Liuchang Township.
The search for their daughter was fraught with difficulties. After searching for 15 days in Nanchong and seeking help from the police station without success, they had to return home first. Later, hearing that their daughter was still there, they returned to Nanchong.
"We went to Jianshan Town and Han Tang (a village under Lishud Town), but we couldn't find Lyu Yangju," Wang Wenfen said. In Han Tang, a hotel owner saw the two women desperately searching for their relatives and not only waived their accommodation fees but also gave them 50 yuan for living expenses.
Mother and daughter traveled back and forth to Nanchong four or five times but were still unable to find Lyu Yangju. Every time they thought of her suffering outside, not knowing how she was doing, they would cry bitterly.
After the accidental death of their son and the disappearance of their daughter, Lyu Mingcong suffered a heavy blow. The previously strong man who could make bricks and tiles completely collapsed. Wang Wenfen became a patient needing sedatives, often forgetting where the chili peppers and salt were, and laughing foolishly when seeing others.
On September 17, 2005, Du Genmao and Wu Qun, who were wanted, surrendered themselves to the Xifeng County police. Lyu Yangju's family then learned about the details of her abduction: On March 17, 2000, Du Genmao and his wife lied to Lyu Yangju, telling her they would take her to Sichuan for fun, deceiving her to their rural home in Jialing District, Nanchong City. Subsequently, Lyu Yangju was sold to a bachelor named Tang Lin from the same township and village for 3,000 yuan. Later, because Lyu Yangju repeatedly tried to escape, Tang Lin handed her back to Du Genmao after catching her. Du Genmao and Wu Qun had to refund the money.
On April 15 of the same year, Du Genmao and Wu Qun sold Lyu Yangju again, this time to another bachelor named Wu Qiang from Village One, He Ping Township, Jialing District, for 1,800 yuan.
In January 2006, the Xifeng County Court sentenced Du Genmao to four years in prison and fined him 3,000 yuan for the crime of trafficking women; Wu Qun was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
Another Disappearance
Rescued by Police But Only Sent Off on a Train
After Du Genmao and his wife surrendered in 2005, Wang Wenfen also learned from the Xifeng County police that Lyu Yangju had been rescued by the Jialing District police in Nanchong in 2002. However, the daughter whom she hadn't seen for five years never returned home.
To avoid her daughter coming back and not finding the place, Wang Wenfen continued to rent the original house and dared not move.
"My daughter had slight mental issues before, but it wasn't serious. It was the abduction that drove her crazy," Wang Wenfen said painfully.
"I went to the Xifeng Public Security Bureau, and they said she was 'stretching her legs' (a Guizhou dialect meaning tall legs), asking us where to look?"
Xin Kuai Daily reporters found that in a letter dated May 30, 2007, regarding Wang Wenfen's complaint about "the whereabouts of Lyu Yangju after being abducted and the serious dereliction of duty by public security organs in Sichuan and Guizhou", the Xifeng County Public Security Bureau replied after investigation that Lyu Yangju had been rescued by Sichuan police and sent back on a train.
"Why didn't the police realize she was mentally unstable when rescuing her and just buy her a train ticket instead of sending her back?" Wang Wenfen said she couldn't understand this and had no idea where her daughter might be or whether she was still alive.
To find her daughter, whenever Wang Wenfen had some money, she would go to the county town, Guiyang, and other places, embarking on another journey to search. She was unsure which train station her daughter might have disembarked from or if she got off at the wrong station. She searched among homeless people hoping to discover her daughter's whereabouts.
In early 2009, Lyu Mingcong passed away at the age of 61 due to "long-term frustration harming his liver." The same year, Du Genmao, who had sold Lyu Yangju, was released from prison. Yet, Lyu Yangju remained missing.
"I want to see my daughter," Wang Wenfen told Xin Kuai Daily reporters. "I hope to see my daughter immediately."
Where is Lyu Yangju now? Can she return home? Xin Kuai Daily reporters separately interviewed the local police in both Xifeng, Guizhou, and Nanchong, Sichuan.
Deputy Director Mei Yinxue of the Political Work Supervision Office of the Xifeng County Public Security Bureau told Xin Kuai Daily reporters that the person was rescued by the Sichuan police. She knew about Wang Wenfen's current situation and felt deep sympathy, but "we can do nothing."
After learning about the case, Jiang Hui, a member of the Party Committee and Director of the Political Work Supervision Office of the Jialing Branch of the Nanchong Municipal Public Security Bureau, gathered the personnel from the police station and anti-human trafficking officers at the time to inquire about relevant situations. Jiang Hui's reply to Xin Kuai Daily reporters was: "More than ten years have passed, and everyone has no memory of the incident. It is very likely that it was not our rescue team, but rather the Guizhou police who came to rescue her." Jiang Hui added that out of a sense of responsibility, they will continue to investigate.
Xin Kuai Daily will continue to follow the fate of Lyu Yangju.
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