Last year, I had spent a week in a city in the middle of the Loess Plateau. Before I left, I sent a WeChat red packet to 13-year-old Xiaohua. She quickly gave me a voice back, “What’s the matter? WeChat is my mom’s, and then it’s also been authenticated with her real name.” She asked me where I wanted to go, and later said, “But my mom is dead, I can’t use it.”
Her voice was wet, as if she had just dragged herself out of the water, with weight in her trailing voice, but her tone was smooth. When it comes to “death”, it’s as if it’s an everyday thing, sandwiched between asking me where I’m going.
One and a half years ago, Xiaohua’s father killed her mother in the kiln.
1
One night in August 2018, Da Qiang, the 47-year-old village chief, walked out of his family’s kiln. Earlier, he had called the village chief, saying that his wife, Yan, had fallen ill and was not doing well, and he was going to the township to find someone.
The village clerk went to Da Qiang’s house and saw 53-year-old Yanzi lying in bed, her face bruised, her calves swollen, her breath gone, and a pair of daughters crying on the sidelines. The village clerk called Yanzi’s brother from a neighboring village, who called the police.
Yanzi’s brother said he concluded that everything must be related to Da Qiang, “because the two of them usually love to fight at home. I also asked the secretary, I asked if there was a fight, he said he might have fought and had injuries on his body.” But Yanzi’s brother did not go to the scene, “people are gone, what’s the use of going.”
The police arrived naturally also want to first find Da Qiang, “but looking for the night he did not appear” until five or six o’clock the next morning, “he walked back on his own, near the village council, we took control of him.”
Da Qiang live in the city of a brother also rushed over, the night before, Da Qiang also called him – “he said, I had an accident, your sister-in-law is not there.” At that time, Da Qiang’s brother was with some friends, heart “thud”, do not dare to drive their own, find friends to drive back to the village.
Da Qiang’s brother told me that he also saw his brother the next morning, “I saw him walking up from below, I went over to take a look, the public security people do not let say anything. He gave me an explanation, saying that the family where to put a few hundred dollars, which owes a few thousand dollars, how to do the aftermath.”
I can not help but ask, did not ask a pair of daughters how to do? Da Qiang brother thought about it and said, “No, the daughter was not in front of it, in which neighbor it. He did not explain.”
When reappearing, Da Qiang explained his whereabouts this night. He said his wife was sick, heartache, he asked his daughter to go to a neighbor’s house to borrow quick-acting heart pills, the neighbor to his house when he felt his wife’s pulse, there is still gas. Later, the doctor he found came and said the person was gone, “I was blank”. Da Qiang said he cried for a while, and so calm down, thinking that only 700 yuan cash at home, went to a family in the village owed him money to ask for money, the other said to go to the county to get, he waited for an hour. “I came out of his house after sitting in the ground outside the door for more than 1 hour, then I went to another family to borrow money …… I stayed in his house until dawn more than 5:00, came out to the village committee …… then I was taken to the Public Security Bureau. “
For how Yanzi “sick”, Da Qiang said lightly, a small conflict between the couple, he also took action, “take a small wooden stick, a small willow in her body hit.
Da Qiang and Yanzi’s county has a population of more than 100,000 people, criminal cases rarely occur, Yanzi’s death immediately set off a considerable storm. As the case involved two daughters a 12-year-old (Xiaohua), a 9-year-old (Xiaoduo), the prosecutor’s office intervened in advance to guide the investigation, prompting the police on the scene, “to work on two minors to pay attention to the way, try to calm, do not cause secondary damage.
The morning after the crime, the police conducted an interview with her sister Xiaohua, asking her whether her parents had quarreled, the girl replied, “No quarrel”; asked her whether her father had beaten her mother in recent days, she replied “No”, “I did not see my mother’s face hurt”.
“The older girl was stammering and felt like she was hiding something.” Xiaohua’s unnatural performance did not escape the eyes of the investigators, but they were also in a difficult position, did not want to pressure Xiaohua again, decided to ask others first.
Three days before the incident, several villagers saw Da Qiang couple clash. Swallow even fled to a villager’s yard, still found by Da Qiang. A villager said, “I saw him (Da Qiang) with his arm dragging her, one hand dragging. The woman could not eat much (describing Yanzi as thin), and he dragged her by the hair.”
That day, Yanzi was dragged home by Da Qiang; later she ran once more and was chased back by Da Qiang; then she ran again and was chased back again. This was repeated 3 times.
The case officer held the first case analysis meeting at the entrance of the village, the blackboard in the village committee to draw out the route of Yanzi’s three escapes, looking for villagers to verify one by one, fixed evidence.
But the police in the forensics is quite laborious. They heard a lot of small talk with the villagers, but once they said sit down to make a statement, they have waved their hands reluctant.
This is an aging village, some of the old stereotypes are deeply rooted. Some villagers said “Daqiang and Yanzi good feelings miles,” and others said, “husband beat his wife is not normal?”
After leaving the scene, the case officer learned more about the situation from the woman’s relatives. A history of domestic violence was gradually pieced together.
2
This is a reorganized family. Both Da Qiang and Yanzi had their own families and children. Many details of how the two came together are difficult to verify.
Yanzi’s brother said the family had been strongly opposed to the marriage. “Her original husband was a good person, thinking about how to earn money, nothing wrong, work hard.” Another reason for opposition is the fear that the matter will have an impact on the pair of children born to Yanzi and her ex-husband.
Yanzi’s son Xiao Wu was born in 1989, daughter Xiao Li was born in 1991. When their parents divorced, they were in their adolescence. After the divorce, Xiao Wu followed his father, Xiao Li followed his mother Yanzi.
In 2005, Xiao Li went to the county to prepare for junior high school, when Da Qiang and Yanzi just together, rented a house in the county. Xiao Li witnessed several quarrels and fights between the two, Da Qiang beat up people is very scary, “swing up what is what, burning the honeycomb stove is not a fire hook, take that, sometimes take the rolling pin.”
“Once after the fight, held my mother in the vat.” Xiao Li felt very difficult, “I feel that people are deliberately targeting me.” — In Xiao Li’s opinion, her stepfather just resented being in her way. After living together for a few months, she went to live in school.
Not long after, Da Qiang actually went to the school to find Xiao Li, said her mother Yanzi disappeared, asked her if she knew where she had gone. This has happened several times, “he could not find my mother to go to school to make a scene, a find not to go to make a scene ……” Xiaoli felt she could not hold her head up in front of her classmates and soon dropped out of school.
“Think about it, my sister, dropped out of school at the age of 13 and went to work for someone as a nanny.” Speaking of the past, brother Xiao Wu’s emotions are much more intense than Xiao Li, “He (Da Qiang) such people should not live in the world, a waste of air.”
After the parents divorced, Xiaowu said he was awarded to his father, and in fact has been living in his grandmother’s house. Once, Da Qiang cursed and came to Yanzi, was seen by Xiaowu. “He did not come to talk properly, and then send a bastard (trouble), I was also small, I thought, you are also a head, I am also a head, big deal, one life for one life.” It may be that the words of Da Qiang “your whole family do not live well” angered Xiao Wu, or perhaps the cowardly mother stung the eyes of her son, Xiao Wu and Da Qiang fought that time.
It was also in that year, Xiao Wu dropped out of school. He hated his age, “I was a little older, he can live? I do not kill him with a knife? At that time I could not fight him, I know in my heart.”
The two siblings went away and completely cut off contact with their mother and stepfather, not even calling. They were told about their mother’s recent situation: for example, Yan and Da Qiang had a daughter in 2006 and another in 2009.
Over the years, being far away and hearing less, they thought the conflict between those two had died down a bit.
In 2017, Yanzi’s mother died and the family went back to mourn.
Xiao Li later recalled to the police, “(Grandma) the day of the burial, I saw my mother had bruises near her eyes, on her face, and on her body. I asked what was wrong with this, my mother told me that the grandmother died to buy something to spend money, Da Qiang asked my mother to go to the street to buy him cigarettes, my mother did not buy, came home and beat my mother.”
Waiting for that summer, Yan suddenly found Xiao Li, “there are many bruises on the body again, she still does not show me. When I went to the toilet, I unintentionally saw a bruise on my leg and buttocks. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. She then said a lot of words of indebtedness, saying sorry for me.”
Xiao Li found an odd job for her mother, but she felt that her mother was always distracted, “Within a few days she saw her video chatting with her little sister at home, and that little baby was crying.” Xiao Li felt that if Yanzi didn’t contact the family herself, no one would know where she was. Since the contact, within a few days, Da Qiang came looking for.
Yanzi did not meet with Da Qiang directly, it was Xiao Li who came out. “I did not say a good word to him, and almost made a scene to call the police.” The more Xiao Li thought about it, the more angry she became.
The next day, Yanzi himself proposed to go back. Xiao Li said she first felt dismayed, “I feel my mother are beaten brain is not right,” and later is understanding, “is relieved that a pair of daughters,” and finally the heart is left with a sinking bitterness, “think at first, who cared about I and my brother”.
After that, Xiao Li never saw her mother again. The first time I saw her, my mother died – in fact, I didn’t see her on, Xiao Wu said the village people do not allow, “to the coffin, when the coffin sealing people said you do not look, too scary. They said that my mother’s body is all rotten.”
3
They did not know that after leaving from Xiao Li, Yanzi had “escaped” several times.
In February 2018, during winter break, Yanzi went to Hebei and found a person she knew in the village to work with. In a few days, a friend of Da Qiang saw it, and Da Qiang called up the village secretary to find it. “The first day I heard, the next day and I drove to find, drove 5, 6 hours it.” The village clerk said they went to Baigou, Hebei, and brought the swallow back home.
Then there was July 2018, 1 month before the crime, the two made a lot of trouble. Yanzi hid to the neighboring village brother’s house, “she came to me, to the bed a day can not get up, said the body pain, eat from the street to buy anti-inflammatory drugs.” For many years, Yanzi never went to the doctor after being beaten, it is so carry over.
This time a big fuss, not only family members have more persuasion, outsiders also tried to intervene. Because Da Qiang as the village director, when several township cadres to work in the village heard about the incident, but also opened a special criticism of Da Qiang will, the minutes of the meeting is written – “I heard that you and your family do not get along, the impact is not good, you as the head of a village, should set an example “.
At that time, Da Qiang promised, “I will handle my family well and give a good example to the villagers.” After the meeting, he went to a neighboring village to pick up his wife.
1 month later, the tragic case happened.
“Don’t understand, really don’t understand.” Da Qiang brother is familiar with the quarrel between Da Qiang and Yan, “I advised him many times before, also scolded my brother, the children also know. I said that even if the feelings are not in harmony, you should deal with it reasonably, should not fight.”
Da Qiang’s parents divorced when he was young, and then his father remarried and had three brothers. The brother who lives locally is four years younger than Da Qiang, the two have the same father and mother, the best relationship, “my other two brothers in Beijing, Qinghai, so far away, can not return.”
Da Qiang’s brother opened a small hotel in the city, Da Qiang has been living in the village, the two are not frequent, “but my sister-in-law as long as a run away, can not find, he called me, ask me if I can find a relationship to trust individuals, always. He also followed along to find, my daughter-in-law also went to, always crying quite poorly, said you pick up the person back, I absolutely do not fight with her. I also said, brother you quarrel with people again, you will be sorry for me.” Looking for people also cost money, over the years, “not 100,000 also have 80,000.”
In the past few years, Da Qiang domestic violence, Yanzi fleeing seems to have become the norm, the family members remembered four or five times. As for why the conflict more frequent, the family also some speculation –
Xiao Li said that in the past few years, Da Qiang in the village “seems to be powerful”, may want to have a boy, some dislike Yanzi. She even heard that Da Qiang had an affair, one year the New Year did not spend with his mother.
Da Qiang’s brother, on the other hand, said that it may be related to the fact that two or three years ago Da Qiang saw his ex-wife again. “After they divorced, his ex-wife took his daughter to the field, a few years ago the New Year came back, we saw, ex-wife and daughter are dressed up, feel full of life.”
As for the identity of the village cadres, the brother said, “when the 4 sessions of the village director, this year is the 4th. 12 years, in the village for people or more can.” He did not hear that Da Qiang and others have clashed.
4
The police officer in charge of the case has a bad impression of Da Qiang, “like a performance emperor, I do not see what he has inside remorse.” For the crime, Da Qiang’s confession has been tossed around.
In the initial statement, Da Qiang admitted to a conflict with Yanzi. He said he hit her with a mulberry branch on August 7, “on my daughter-in-law’s back,” and “hit her hard on the buttocks a few times,” “because my daughter-in-law wanted to run, so I hit her.” .
After chasing his wife home, Da Qiang hit her again with the family’s long rolling pin. But at the same time, he emphasized that afterwards Yanzi “hit herself” – “My daughter-in-law hit herself on the calf with the short rolling pin, and she hit herself on the left and right calves…. … asked me every now and then if I believed her.”
Da Qiang said that on August 8, Yanzi’s situation was not good, “my daughter-in-law and I said she had leg pain, when walking you have to bend over, walking slower than usual, the rest of the situation and the usual.” Then there was the death of Yanzi on August 9, according to Da Qiang, Yanzi that morning had “picked up scissors and stabbed himself in the calf”, “by 7:00 p.m., my daughter-in-law said she was panicking.
Daughter Xiaohua said, August 9, her father had fed her mother water, “my mother just drank a small mouthful of immobile, has been gasping for air”, Xiaohua panic to find a few neighbors to help, but “they saved half a day my mother did not wake up”, “my mother can not, then I fell on the ground and cried ……”
Da Qiang has always said that he only used mulberry sticks, willow to whip the swallow’s back and buttocks, while the swallow’s main injury in the size of the leg area. Waiting for the results of the autopsy process, the case officer did not pressure Da Qiang, but rather Da Qiang several times with the case officer stressed: “My daughter-in-law she is not well.”
Da Qiang did not deny that Yanzi had left home several times before. Asked why, he said he did not know, he commented that Yanzi’s personality “more eccentric”, “I do not know what she was thinking”.
In September 2018, the detailed autopsy report came out, Yanzi died of hemorrhagic shock, the identification conclusions make the case officers feel cruel – “the victim’s leg muscles were beaten into fish flesh, you can imagine how hard this hit, is multiple, gravity blows to cause this result.
The identification conclusion is to be shown to the suspect, Da Qiang does not recognize the word, the case officer read to him, he nodded and said no objection. After that, Da Qiang said very little about the case.
After that re-interrogation, Da Qiang did not even admit that he had whipped Yanzi. When the law changed, the police took the past statement to check with him, he said: “I did not sign, I do not know the words”. The police stressed that the case officer must have read it to him at the time, Da Qiang still said, “I don’t know the words anyway, it’s not me who put down the handprint.”
Da Qiang never answered any questions positively again, always talking about the east and the west. The police prompted him, “I asked what you say,” see can not escape, Da Qiang said: “I can not figure out, brother, I really can not figure out.”
Several times during the interrogation, Da Qiang rarely asked about a pair of daughters, but several times with the police said, can help contact the villagers who owe him money. In addition, Da Qiang also took the initiative to ask the police if they could contact his mother, who had long since remarried and gone to another country.
5
Standing in front of this earthen kiln, watching the sunset give it a gentle golden edge, this scene is really beautiful. In the distance, a dog was barking, seemingly calling people home.
I pushed the door open and walked into the cave. It looked like no one had been here for a long time. It was a space of about 20 square meters, with a clay bed connected to the stove and another kang …… with clothes piled up randomly, old newspapers glued on the walls, and a small but thick TV set.
On the wall, between the black and white, there is a colorful New Year’s painting, which reads “East Kitchen Sifu”, that is, the Zao King holding a fat doll, and “Good things are said in heaven, and peace is ensured in the next world”. On the wall, there are awards of small flowers and small dolls, “art star” and “model child”. On the TV there is a photo of the two of them together. They were standing in a slightly restricted manner, with Xiaohua looking like her father, Daqiang, and Xiaoduo looking like a replica of her mother, Yanzi.
Before I left the house, I suddenly noticed that there was a blond Barbie doll on the bed, the color was very eye-catching in a scene of disrepair, and both of the doll’s arms were raised upwards in a surrender pose.
After standing in the house for a while, there was a feeling of crampedness. It may be because the kiln is relatively high, the top surface is uneven, and the windows are small. Walk out the door, the open space in front of the house is large, there is a row of pigsties opposite. Heard the village people said, big strong one year raised a lot of pigs, sold the day they all saw, according to say earned a lot. The pigsty is next to a dry toilet, the ground threw a plate of finished aspirin, I do not know if it is Yanzi’s.
After the crime, the little sister did not return here. I’m not sure if getting out of the kiln was a good or bad thing for them. On the one hand, they were removed from the violent environment of the past, but on the other hand, they lost both their father and mother, and it was a challenge for them to find someone to take care of them for a while.
Yan’s parents have both died, Da Qiang’s father is old and his mother cannot even be contacted by the police.
Xiao Wu and Xiao Li are considered the little sister’s brother and sister, but their feelings for the little sister is very complicated. Xiao Li said to give some living expenses is still acceptable, but to take care of is unable to do things. Xiaowu said more bluntly, “Your two little girls are not raised, and I have nothing to do with it. You should not let others pay for the mistakes you make, right?”
The order of guardians, “grandparents, grandparents, brothers and sisters” are excluded.
Can only look at uncles and uncles. Brother Yanzi said it is difficult to take care of. “I’m on my own now. And I’m not close to the two children, and when my sister was alive, she didn’t fight to get to my door.”
It was the big strong brother who extended his hand. Usually the little sisters call him little dad, he went back to the village to help deal with the aftermath of the swallow those ten days, the actions of the little sisters make him a little heartbroken, “I go where they follow, it feels like I am their closest person.”
After witnessing his father beat his mother to death
After that, the little father took Xiaohua Xiaoduo to the city to finish the summer vacation, to start school, his care is also difficult to continue – the little sisters are ready to go back to school in the original school, the little father’s home in the city, a long way away. The prosecutor weighed several options and finally decided to have the village clerk act as temporary guardian for the sisters – which in effect activated the “state guardianship” measure.
The school where the sisters attend is not in the village where they live, but in a neighboring village a dozen miles away. Considering the actual situation, the village clerk found a foster family near the school. The sisters live at the school from Monday to Friday and go to the foster home on weekends. The prosecutor’s office applied for another 20,000 yuan in judicial assistance and allocated 800 yuan to the foster family every month.
The matter was solved temporarily.
6
In late October 2018, the police came to the sisters’ school.
Xiaohua was a very important witness, and at the time of the case, considering her young age, the case officer decided to give her some time to calm down. At this point the case was about to be transferred for review and prosecution, and they decided to question Xiaohua one more time.
When appearing in front of everyone, Xiaohua rickety back, looks a little scared. The principal said that previously Xiaohua’s state had adjusted quite well, but called her alone to the office, she understood what it meant, “surely to ask her questions related to her mother and father again”.
Temporary guardian village support in, the class teacher is also in, the police let Xiaohua don’t be afraid, first and she talked for a while, and then said, “some things we still don’t understand, now want to ask you, know you tell me. Do not lie, okay?”
“When your mother was alive, did your parents have fights and quarrels occur inside the home?”
The other side is a long silence. The police said it felt like the little girl was sitting in front of herself, embarrassed like she was going to cry.
“Don’t you be nervous …… you remember if there has been? It does not matter. You just say, yes, or no ……”
Xiaohua suddenly interrupted the police, “had” – these two words, is with a crying voice very hard to say.
“When is this had?”
“There are many times. Some times he took his hand to beat, and some times he took his shoes off and smacked my mother’s face.”
The police unscrewed a bottle of drink and handed it to Xiaohua, the girl shook her head and waved her hand, the police said take it and put the drink next to Xiaohua.
The next small flower said a lot, saying that in the past, his father often beat his mother, “Dad said, let me watch my mother, do not let my mother run, run he will beat me. But I can not watch, my father came back to beat me.”
Xiaohua also said that at home, her father beat her mother the most, followed by her, also beat her sister, but less. Throughout the conversation, Xiaohua cried the most aggrieved time, is to recall a time when her father beat her, “he drank a little wine on the roadside, I got off the study, he picked me up, halfway he did not know what nerve, suddenly hit me, stepped on me several feet.”
The police did not expect Xiaohua to tell the whole story, what they want to know is what happened before Yanzi died.
Xiaohua said intermittently, those days the parents were very fierce. The first day “played a day, then sleep at night, the next day did not play”, to the third day, that is, the day of the crime, “my father got angry again, hit my mother”.
Xiaohua said her father took the rolling pin and said to her mother, “This is not your bed, why are you lying down? I’ll beat you with this if you don’t get up.” The mother wanted to struggle to get up, but she couldn’t, “her body hurt,” and then her father went back to beating her, “breaking the rolling pin.”
“He beat my mother to death, and then he said, let me throw away that rolling pin.”
After the crime, the police did find a rolling pin broken in half in the village garbage pond. But Da Qiang said during interrogation that he couldn’t tell that it belonged to his family. On this rolling pin, no information about his DNA was extracted either.
As for why he lied when he first made a statement, Xiaohua said that her father told her at the time, “As soon as the police come you will kneel down”, “and others said, do not dare let your father go to jail, your father is in jail, no one cares about you”.
The police asked who specifically said this, and Xiaohua was silent. Finally, she said in a very subdued tone: “I don’t want my dad to go to jail either.
When the statement is almost done, it may be the end of class, many children out of the classroom, playing and playing in the playground, those sounds set the room’s silence is very “harsh”.
In the police law enforcement recorder, it was clearly recorded that some of the adults accompanying them had been smoking, and some had been looking down at the ground throughout, and the only time the atmosphere was somewhat lively was when the police confirmed with Xiaohua, “From the time you remember, your father beat your mother? Xiaohua quickly replied, “It started long ago, before I was born.” Someone laughed and said to Xiaohua, “You don’t know about what you weren’t born with.”
Getting this crucial testimony, the police took Da Qiang back to the village and asked him to identify the location and process of chasing his wife several times. Da Qiang refused to cooperate with the police also expected. As soon as he got out of the car, Da Qiang began to dry howl, the police had to repeatedly prompt him to “stop for a while”.
Da Qiang stumbled down the slope, towards his own kiln, the police asked him where to drag his wife’s hair, he said: “I did not pull her hair ah”; police stressed that there are witnesses, Da Qiang glared, “what witness testimony, I have never heard”; police insisted several times that he raised his hands to identify the photo, he refused, said a moment to feel ashamed, and then said no.
In the village walked a large circle, a number of people came to watch. Da Qiang cursed and said: “who testified, I came out to find who”. The police told him to shut up.
7
In the process of handling the case, the prosecutor’s office contacted the league committee. Since 2018, the local league committee has trained a group of people with professional skills such as social workers, lawyers, counselors and teachers to serve the minors involved in the case.
In fact, the sisters Xiaohua and Xiaoduo are not in the common category of service recipients; they are not minor suspects or direct minor victims, but the prosecutor believes they are in great need of professional service intervention, “They are the most affected people, they witnessed their father’s violence against their mother, and this psychological shadow can be imagined. “
In January 2019, two women’s rights commissioners sent by the mission came to the school.
The principal told the pair that Xiaohua was wary of strangers, and the time the police came for her, she could barely walk back to her classroom. That night, it was two female teachers from the school who spent the night with the sisters.
This time, the principal did not recommend that the rights commissioner contact the sisters directly. They decided to give a safety and self-care lesson to all the elementary school students as winter break approached. During the lesson, they kept secretly observing the sisters.
“Little flower has been curled up, as if at any time to take the outside world a feeling of a blow.” The rights commissioner noticed that Xiaohua’s body was somewhat constrained, “but with her classmates, she didn’t resist.” The state of her sister Xiaoduo is much more natural, “Xiaoduo is naive and innocent, as if she doesn’t care about anything.”
After the lesson, the rights commissioner went to see the foster family again, and did not expect to learn a new situation.
The first foster family the village clerk found for the little sisters lasted only a month or so. The elderly family suddenly became ill and could no longer be cared for. The village clerk urgently found a family with good personal relations and begged them to help take care of them for a few days. The second family told the commissioner that they could no longer take care of the sisters.
The rights commissioner learned that the children’s relatives, only the children’s “little father” is more active, so he discussed with him. The other side said they could bring the children to the city for the winter holidays, and then let the village clerk find a suitable foster family at the end of the winter holidays.
During the winter break, the sisters lived in the city, close to the activity base of the Youth League Committee, the human rights commissioner then made his identity clear to the sisters, “I am sent by the Youth League Committee to help you, you can talk to me if you have any problems”.
The human rights commissioner gave Xiaohua a psychological assessment and found that she had some anxiety and hostility. After getting acquainted, Xiaohua also talked to the rights commissioner about her parents. She said she wouldn’t go to see her father after he was sentenced, “I asked her why? She said I was afraid my mother would be sad.”
The presence of two female elders may have made up for the sisters’ lack of affection for their parents. Once, when another child came to the base for an activity, the VPC felt that Xiaohua was not too happy, and it was only after the activity was over that Xiaohua explained, “I don’t want to watch you being nice to other children.”
At the end of the winter break, the village secretary found the sisters a new foster family. At the start of the new school year, the V.R.C. used WeChat more often to contact the sisters – the two took their parents’ phones and used their parents’ WeChat, respectively.
One weekend, Hana told the V.R. commissioner that a classmate said the sisters were children without a mom or dad. “I asked her, what was going through your mind at that time. She said I hate them, I don’t want to play with them.”
“She can’t lose her normal friends because of this incident. It’s something she has to deal with.” After the discussion, the rights commissioners prepared some books and brought them to the school in April, announcing that there would be a library in the school, with a librarian for each grade. Xiaohua is the sixth-grade librarian.
They wanted Xiaohua to work on her ability to interact with people, “so that she could experience more good feelings and create opportunities to reinforce them.” Xiaohua was very serious about this position, and one weekend even sent a special voice to ask the V.R.C., “Teacher, I want to put away all those books that were given out and redistribute them.”
Under continuous guidance, Xiaohua’s mood became more and more stable. She also often uploads some small videos of playing with her buddies. on Mother’s Day 2019, Xiaohua also sent a blessing video in which she rushed to the camera and said, “I wish all the mothers in the world good health and all the best.”
8
At the end of June 2019, Xiaohua’s promotion exams were over and her sister Xiaoduo’s final exams were underway. Xiaohua was obviously a little anxious, and as soon as the exams were over, she sent a WeChat asking the rights commissioner, “Where are we going for the summer?”
The grandmother in the foster family wanted to go to the city for the summer to take her grandchildren, but after communication the grandmother also said that she could continue to take care of the sisters in the village if she really needed to.
The rights commissioner contacted the children’s young father several more times, but the other side’s attitude was wavering. Calling, sending WeChat always do not get a timely response, after a day or two and said, because in a village, the signal is not good and so on.
Faced with several urgent sounding inquiries from Xiaohua, the rights commissioner did not know how to reply. This stalemate lasted for two or three days, and when Xiaoduo’s exams were over, we went to the village together to see the child. The principal, the mayor, the human rights commissioner, all of us sat down together and decided that if Xiaoduo did not come to pick them up, the children would spend the summer in a foster home, and then the living allowance would be raised accordingly.
I finally got to meet the sisters.
Outside of the cold case files, outside of everyone’s descriptions. Xiaohua was a little shy when she saw me, and Xiaoduo was less shy. The rights commissioner prompted Xiaohua to call out to someone, and Xiaohua coyly said hello to me.
After a while, Little Dad showed up unexpectedly. He said he happened to be in the county for something and thought he would simply drive back to the village. I hadn’t seen my dad for a semester, so Hana didn’t say anything and Duo called out first.
The young father and the foster family’s grandparents chatted for a while and went outside to smoke in silence. Xiaoduo followed her out, and through the window I heard her answering Xiaodad’s questions about how she did on her final exams.
When she returned, Little Dad sent word that he was taking the sisters back to the city for the summer. The sisters immediately began to organize their things – after packing two or three books, Xiaohua turned out a photo of the two sisters and their mother, A4 size, sealed in plastic – the rights commissioner asked if the photo would be brought, Xiaohua, as if embarrassed, raised her voice and said “When she was asked again, she said, “Yes”.
The next day, I went to Xiao Dad’s restaurant to find him, he said he did have concerns. For a while, he was resistant to the intervention of the rights commissioners. He felt that the rights commissioners were too polite to the children, and that “the criticism was still needed. During the winter break, Xiaohua and he had a bit of a disagreement, he criticized a few words and said in anger, “I should not have taken care of you at that time,” but he never expected Xiaohua to immediately talk back and say, “You should not have taken care of me. If you don’t care about me, the government does.”
Xiao Dad has two sons, the older son is more than 20 years old, the younger son is 18 years old, he never thought in his life he would deal with little girls, sometimes he wanted to buy clothes for the two sisters can not buy, have to let his wife take to.
“Like my two sons I sometimes hit two, these two children, never move a finger.” The words are spoken with discouragement in their tone. Soon, and as if relieved himself, “We are after all older, and their father’s affection is also in, I still have to manage.”
The rights commissioner told me that the little sisters did have some problems, such as the little flowers did not treat their elders with respect.
In May 2019, the case officer had gone to the foster family to ask the children’s living conditions, when asked the children at home how to call them, grandfather awkwardly laugh, “called not on, never here, just never called me.”
So this summer, the human rights commissioner is also very worried about the sisters in the little father family situation, urged Xiaohua several times, “you should take the initiative to care about the little parents, every day they come home, you can ask them if they are tired ah.”
To this end, the rights commissioner also designed a special class.
The class started with the sisters’ favorite singing and dancing, and after jumping around, the atmosphere warmed up and the two children sat down. The first part was a balloon tying game. The VPC took out a toothpick to demonstrate first, lowered the balloon to the far side and took the toothpick and stuck it.
“Pop,” the balloon broke.
The sisters exchanged a scared and excited look. They also learned, but after several stabs, the balloon did not break.
The rights commissioner took a balloon and said, “Feel the balloon, is it soft at the head and tail, and then feel its belly where it bulges the most, is it a little hard? You just need to take a toothpick, zap it the most bulging place, so that it can be broken at once.”
“Pop”, the balloon burst, the sisters laughed.
“Balloons bulge to the middlemost surface of the tension is the largest, a touch will burst. It’s the same when making friends. Some children are chubby, some are more stuttering, and that’s where they have the most surface tension. If we don’t pay attention and casually touch the weakest point, the other party will be upset and explode at once. So we have to be polite when we interact with others, accept their weaknesses, and not touch them easily. Isn’t it?”
The VPC also prepared a story.
“One day in the big forest, the bear had a birthday and he was going to invite his four best friends to his house for a cake. First he called the giraffe, ‘Hey, are you the long-necked guy? You come to my house this afternoon to eat cake.’ The giraffe was not happy to hear that and said I’m not going and hung up the phone. The little bear was a little puzzled. Then he called the little monkey, ‘Hey, you’re the red-ass monkey, right? Red-ass monkey, today I have a birthday, you come to my house in the evening to eat cake’, the monkey was not happy to hear, the words did not say directly hang up ……”
The two sisters listened very carefully, Duo giggled from time to time. After the story was told, the V.R.C. asked the little sisters to correct the bear for him.
Little Flower spoke first, she stood up, thought about it, and said, “Hello Giraffe, it’s my birthday this afternoon, why don’t you come to my house and eat cake.” Little Dorothy followed, and she said, “Little Monkey, I’m sorry, I was too anxious about what happened last time. I apologize to you. This afternoon is my birthday, you come to my house to eat cake.”
Postscript
Before I left, I said goodbye to Hana and she asked me where I was going, and afterwards, in a childish but very serious tone, she said, “Why can’t you just stay here?” “Don’t you have a place to stay here?” After I explained she said, “Well, goodbye.”
Should we just give the kids pocket money or not? I also asked the advocacy specialist. Hana was a little overly dependent on her phone, and the adults didn’t recommend giving her money directly. But I still wanted to make my child happy, so I sent Xiaohua a WeChat bonus and told her to buy a few books for the summer. When my plane landed, I saw a dozen unread messages, all from Xiaohua, asking if I was there, saying she didn’t have a WeChat payment password and couldn’t use the money.
Xiaohua has a habit, but where WeChat to find someone, a moment to find, will be very eager to send a lot of voice, are a second or two, open to listen to is she is asking – “in?”, “Are you there?”, “in not ah”.
In July 2019, the case of Da Qiang suspected of intentional injury went to court. For intentional injury causing death, he faces a sentence of about ten years and a long period of time in the future when he will not be able to assume responsibility for his daughter’s care. By the time he rejoins the sisters, he will also be a man over 100 years old.
The rights commissioner talked to the children’s young father about what to do in the future. Repeatedly changing foster homes was not stable enough for the sisters and there were many risks of accidents. They also considered whether to send the sisters to an orphanage, but Xiaohua did not want to. Little Dad heard and understood what the rights commissioner didn’t say, and said he would wait until the day he saw his brother Da Qiang again and ask Da Qiang’s opinion.
The summer vacation of 2019 passed in a flash. The little dad said the children did quite well this time, “it seems like all of a sudden they know how to behave.
(All characters are pseudonyms)
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