Oriental Today (Weibo) intern reporter Li Chang, reporter Shen Chunmei, intern Fu Yuhan / text, reporter Yuan Xiaoqiang / photo. "According to the current information we have, we should send a group of people to investigate the situation and figure out the terrain of the residents to prevent her from escaping through the back door, but absolutely we must not alarm them; besides, according to informants, there are dogs where the woman is being held, but the exact number is unclear, so we need to prepare protection measures..."
Yesterday at 11 a.m., on the Oriental Today hotline bus heading to Qi County in Kaifeng, Ms. Meng, an informant, told the reporter about an incredible event she had witnessed: "Pale-skinned, pretty, but with a look of fear in her eyes." This was the deepest impression the woman left on Ms. Meng. On April 5, 2010, while visiting relatives in Zuowavillage, Hugang Township in Qi County, Ms. Meng personally saw this woman that relatives had been talking about for many days when her neighbor Wang Luan was not at home.
Amid sighs from the onlookers, the woman was helped onto the police car, and the entire rescue process took only a few short minutes. "Her face was pale, yet half of it was bruised, and she was completely naked." Ms. Meng said that she only stayed by the small house for a few minutes before someone appeared behind her, leaving her no time to talk and forcing her to hastily retreat.
The woman sat in the car, head bowed, her body emitting the smell of pigeon droppings. Li Chuanzhi said she immediately arranged for female officers to take the woman to take a shower.
"When we entered, she was lying on the bed, wearing very thin clothes, with a few pigeons in the room. Judging by the condition inside, she probably defecated and urinated in bed," Li Chuanzhi told Oriental Today reporters. "At first, she didn't react much, but later, when we told her we were from the Public Security Bureau and here to rescue her, she finally put on her clothes."
Rescue of the imprisoned woman
At 5 p.m., Deputy Director of Qi County Public Security Bureau Li Chuanzhi led ten riot control team members and five security officers to the Hugang Township Police Station.
Under the reporter's suggestion, Fan Guosong went to nearby residents' homes to find some clothes and brought over a quilt.
Yesterday morning, Oriental Today received a shocking news tip: In Zuo Wa Village, Qi County, Kaifeng, a single elderly man named Wang Luan (phonetic), around 60 years old, had imprisoned a woman in her twenties for more than two years! At 6 p.m. that day, Oriental Today, Henan TV Legal Channel, and the Qi County police jointly successfully rescued the trapped woman.
After Li Chuanzhi and the female officer dressed the woman in the clothes they had brought, they opened the door and helped her out. Her body was frail and hunched, her legs seemingly having lost their ability to walk, relying solely on the support of those beside her. One leg was deformed. Her long hair was messy, tangled into clumps hanging in front of her eyes, making her face hard to see, but from the mouth visible, it could be seen that she was missing at least two front teeth.
Ms. Meng's relatives recounted to her: During the wheat planting season in 2009, the woman was originally from Weishi County in Kaifeng, and after quarreling with her family and leaving home in anger, she later arrived in Zuo Wa Village. That evening, under the persuasion of Wang Luan, an old bachelor in Zuo Wa Village, the homeless woman had no choice but to move into Wang Luan's home.
Initially, Wang Luan treated the woman relatively well, but after a week, when she expressed her longing for her children at home and wanted to return, Wang Luan locked her in the house and used his dog to guard the door. To prevent the woman from sneaking away from home, Wang Luan stripped her of her clothes and frequently used violence to warn her not to go home.
Thus, Wang Luan imprisoned the woman for more than two years. During this time, Ms. Meng's relatives often heard the woman's screams at night.
Tragic She Was Treated as the Old Man's Wife
"You don't need to be afraid, we're here to save you, what's your name?" "How old are you? Do you miss your children?" On the way to the county public security bureau, no matter how the reporter asked, the rescued woman always answered with just one word, "Ah."
Deputy Chief of the police station Fan Guosong, upon learning the reporter's intentions, decided to wait for assistance from higher authorities.
At 5:45 pm, under the guidance of informant Ms. Meng, the rescue team rushed all the way to the courtyard of Wang Luan, the bachelor in Zuo Wa Township.
After the police quickly sealed off the roads leading to Wang Luan's house, Li Chuanzhi led a female officer to open the gate secured with iron bars and rushed into the house first.
However, regarding the imprisonment of this outsider woman, Wang Luan's neighbors responded thusly: The woman had already shown signs of mental instability when she arrived in the village. The bachelor Wang Luan kindly took her in.
Is this really the clean, pretty woman described by the informant? What inhuman treatment did she endure over these two plus years?
In response, the police stated that if, as the villagers claimed, Wang Luan knew the woman was mentally ill and still engaged in sexual relations with her, he would have committed rape. Just then, two policemen returned Wang Luan to his yard and locked the door. Faced with the sudden visit from the police and reporters, Wang Luan seemed neither surprised nor frightened. His first thought was for the livestock in the yard: "Don't let my sheep get out!" Wang Luan locked the door, with an expression of indifference. "She's the wife I picked up," Wang Luan said, claiming he didn't know the woman's name or exact age, but he believed she voluntarily lived with him, "If you don't believe me, you can ask her." And Wang Luan didn't know that on the way back, in the safe confines of a police car, accompanied by a gentle female reporter from Oriental Today, the woman who had "voluntarily" lived with him for over two years was constantly trembling, saying nothing, unable to say anything. Perhaps, in her eyes, each of us posed a threat to her and could cause harm.
F Tip provided by Mr. Mai (fee 100 yuan)
Action All-media journalists join hands with the police to rescue the woman
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