“Help me... I sprained my ankle...”
Zhou Xiaowei was still caught up in the ghost story he’d been thinking about, and only snapped back to reality when he heard the soft, timid plea for help.
“You...” He barely started speaking when a sudden commotion erupted behind him. A dozen flashlight beams pierced the darkness, sweeping straight toward him.
“Stop right there! You bitch, I’ll beat you to death!”
The shouts grew closer, and Zhou Xiaowei panicked. He still had urgent business—he needed to deliver a message!
This group was clearly chasing the woman, but who was she? Why was she running? He had no idea.
Out here in the middle of nowhere late at night, no one wanted to pick up trouble, especially when he was in a hurry and couldn't afford delays.
But seeing the woman sitting on the ground clutching her ankle, her face pale as a ghost, he couldn't bear to leave her. He quickly pulled her into a roadside ditch.
“Hide here, don’t move. I’ll send them off.”
The woman crouched into the withered grass of the ditch, and Zhou Xiaowei pedaled his bike forward. But before his foot even touched the pedal, the pursuers caught up.
“Stop!”
Before the words faded, a group of men surrounded him. Rough voices thick with anger barked, “Who are you? Prowling around here late at night—are you meeting someone?”
“Where’s that bitch you hid? Hand her over now!”
Zhou Xiaowei knew in his gut these men were after the woman. Her accent wasn’t local—ten to one she’d been trafficked.
He scratched his head, putting on a confused look. “I just saw a woman limping off in that direction. Don’t know if she’s the one you’re looking for.”
He pointed toward a barren slope in the opposite direction. The group, dead set on catching her, swarmed off that way.
After watching them disappear, Zhou Xiaowei scooted his bike to the roadside and jumped down into the ditch to help the woman up.
“Thank you!” she gasped, her fingers still trembling. “I was sold here by human traffickers. Do you have paper and a pen?”
As village accountant, Zhou Xiaowei carried paper and pen every day. He quickly pulled them out and handed them over.
She took them, scribbled a few lines on her knee, then shoved the notebook back into his hands. “Send a telegram for me with this content and address.”
Zhou Xiaowei stuffed the notebook and pen into his pocket. “What about you? How will you get away?”
“Don’t worry about me—just go!” She added quietly, “Thank you for helping me. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Zhou Xiaowei!” He pushed his bike to leave, but stopped mid-step.
In this dead of winter, out here all night, she’d freeze to death—or worse, if those men came back, she’d be caught again.
“Come on, I’ll take you!” Zhou Xiaowei gritted his teeth, swung onto his bike, and patted the back seat. “Get on!”
But they hadn’t gone far when the flashlight beams swept back—the group had doubled around.
His heart tightened. He pedaled hard, but they were surrounded again.
“Damn it, kid, you’re in on this!” The men were red-faced as they closed in.
A short, stocky man grabbed Zhou Xiaowei by the collar, puffing out his chest. “You dare trick me!” He raised his hand to slap him.
Zhou Xiaowei—tall and strong, having learned a few moves from Zhou Zhijun—shot up a hand, grabbed the man’s wrist, and barked, “Let go!”
The man’s wrist smarted, and his grip on the collar loosened on its own.
But the woman on the bike’s back seat had already been dragged off by two men. “You little tramp, where do you think you’re going?”
A hunched man in his fifties, Hunchback, gave her a hard slap across the face, spraying spit. “When we get back, I’ll break your legs! Bitch! So you’ve had an accomplice all along!”
Hunchback turned to the crowd. “Tie this punk up too. We’re taking him back!”
Zhou Xiaowei usually came off as lighthearted, but when push came to shove, he didn’t back down. He stuck out his neck and shouted, “Who the hell do you think you are? We’re in a strict crackdown period right now. Let her go!”
“Don’t give me that crackdown bullshit. I don’t buy it!” Hunchback held the woman’s wrist in a vice grip. “I said tie him up and bring him along!”
Though Zhou Xiaowei had some strength and some rough fighting skills, he couldn’t beat so many men. Before long, he and the woman were pinned to the icy ground.
Someone pulled a cloth strip from his waist and bound Zhou Xiaowei’s arms behind his back.
“I don’t even know him! Let him go—I’ll go back with you!” Blood ran from the corner of the woman’s mouth, but she didn’t shed a single tear as she screamed.
Zhou Xiaowei knew the woman was doomed for now, but he had to get away. He needed to deliver the letter to Liujiagou, and he needed to send that telegram. As long as the telegram got out, she’d still have a chance.
“She’s right. We don’t even know each other. Just let me go—I’ve got urgent business!”
“Urgent business? In the dead of night? Are you trying to fool ghosts?”
“I’m visiting relatives. My relatives are in Dongshan. That’s why I’m traveling at night—it’s a long way.”
One man leaned close to Hunchback and murmured, “He’s got an accent from Qingshan Commune. Probably really is just visiting relatives.”
“Yeah, I’m visiting relatives! Let me go! If this messes up my plans, I won’t let you off!”
“Visiting relatives, out meddling in other people’s affairs!” Hunchback glared. “Tie him tighter! Throw him in the ditch for the wolves!”
Meanwhile, not long after Zhou Xiaowei had left Wangjia Village, Baldy Zhang and Liu Cuilan slipped into the commune’s family planning office without a sound.
Director Zhang and a few clerks were already ready and waiting, eager for directions to Dongshan to make an arrest.
When they saw Baldy Zhang and Liu Cuilan arrive, Director Zhang stomped his foot in urgency. “Hurry! We have to get there before dawn. Once the sun’s up, it’ll be much harder.”
After all, Dongshan was outside their jurisdiction. If the locals resisted, an arrest would be tricky.
For this operation, the family planning office had even borrowed a truck from the grain depot.
Baldy Zhang sat in the cab giving directions. Director Zhang, his subordinates, and Liu Cuilan all squeezed into the open back of the truck.
The truck jolted over potholed dirt roads. Everyone in the back got their insides churned, their bones nearly rattling apart.
Winter had long passed Minor Snow. The night wind was like a knife, creeping through collars and sleeves straight to the bone. They hunched their shoulders and kept blowing on their hands.
In his heart, Director Zhang cursed. For the sake of meeting the family planning quota, I’m really risking my old bones!
In the cab, Baldy Zhang kept nagging. “Driver, faster! If they run off, we’ll be in trouble!”
The young driver, from the grain depot, was already fuming about being dragged out in the middle of the night for a hundred- li trip. “Am I driving, or are you? Shut it!”
Baldy Zhang, silenced, forced an obsequious laugh. “Driver, don’t be mad—I’m just trying to help the family planning comrades.”
“Bullshit! You’re a goddamn curse on this world!” The driver shot him a glare, and Baldy Zhang shut his mouth, shrinking down without another peep.
Suddenly, the screech of tires cut through the air as the driver yanked the wheel, cursing, "Damn it, you looking to die?!"
