Chapter 145: I Was Abducted Too

The suspect begins to explain why she is willing to talk to Evan.

“Interesting.” The suspect smiled. “You're an interesting doctor.”

Evan said nothing, giving no sign of what he thought.

She watched Evan, her expression slowly changing as she remembered.

“Actually, you're a lot like an old Chinese medicine doctor I once met. Of all the people I'd met before you, he was the only one who was kind to me. That's why I'm willing to talk to you. Just chat.”

Evan looked up at her.

Propped up in bed, she gazed at the white wall opposite and spoke slowly.

“I was abducted and sold too.”

“What?” Surprise showed on Evan's face.

Outside the door, Marcus Cao had been listening to the conversation the whole time. He, too, looked surprised.

The other officer, who was recording the conversation and taking notes, also paused in surprise.

Only Leo Cao, standing there with nothing to do, had no idea what was happening. Seeing the sudden change in both their expressions, he grew impatient.

“What's going on? What are they talking about in there?”

Marcus glanced at his older brother. “Confidential case information. What are you prying for?”

Leo immediately objected. “But Evan got to go in! Can't I even listen?”

“We invited him in. Stay out of it. It's confidential. If you've got nothing to do, go away.”

“Hey, you little—! I was the one who got Dr. Xu here for you. Use me and throw me away, will you? Your own brother!”

Marcus could not be bothered with him and went back to listening.

Leo had only made himself look foolish. He stood there, burning with curiosity and unable to find out a thing. It was maddening for an old gossip like him. Silently cursing his younger brother, he finally stalked off.

Inside the ward, the suspect was lost in her memories. She spoke slowly.

“It's been so long I've forgotten what my name was. After I was sold, that family locked me in an iron cage. They called me May, so May was my name.

“I don't remember how long they kept me in that cage. They were very poor. They had three sons, all unmarried. Once they bought me, I became a wife to all three of them.^[1]

“I don't know how long it took, but when they saw I'd finally stopped resisting and accepted my fate, they let me out. Then I worked in their fields, did their housework, worked like an animal for them.

“But they treated me terribly. If they weren't hitting me, they were shouting at me. I was never allowed to eat at the table. They gave me whatever they had left over. Often there wasn't anything. They didn't even have enough grain for themselves.

“So I was hungry all the time. Once I sneaked into the kitchen and stole a little food. They caught me and beat me half to death. I couldn't get out of bed for days.

“Later, their mother died. Then I became the old man's wife as well. He loved to drink, and when he drank, he liked to hit people.

“Once, after he'd been drinking, he beat me badly again. Afterward my belly hurt so much I couldn't bear it. They wouldn't do anything. They wouldn't get me a doctor.

“An old Chinese medicine doctor came up into the mountains to dig for herbs and treat people. He saw me lying by the road. He brewed some medicine for me and put in a few acupuncture needles. He told me I'd had a miscarriage. I'd been pregnant. But I didn't even know whose child it was.^[2]

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“That old doctor saved my life. But I didn't tell him I'd been abducted. He wanted to keep treating me, but they found out and drove him away.

“Then they beat me and shouted at me again. But I didn't cry that time. I smiled instead. Later I found some rat poison and poisoned the whole family.”

Evan was stunned.

Outside, both officers were startled too. She had a whole other set of murders to answer for!

Yet a smile spread across the suspect's gaunt face.

“After I poisoned them, I took a stick for stoking the fire and started hitting them. Once, twice. I kept hitting them, kept going, until I had no strength left. Until you couldn't tell what they looked like anymore.

“I didn't know why they'd treated me that way, but I hated them. I spent the night with their bodies. I cooked for myself. I made so much food. It was the first time I'd eaten my fill since I was sold to that family.

“The food that night was so good. I still remember the taste. It smelled so good. I ate until I was full, really full. It felt so good to have enough to eat. Then I brewed the medicine the old doctor had given me and drank it. I felt much better after that too.

“I took all the money in the house, and all the food I could take with me. Then I set fire to that miserable house and burned them all up. Then I ran. I really got away.

“But I didn't know where to go. I could barely read. I'd been taken from one place deep in the mountains, and this was another place deep in the mountains. I went to town. I was afraid of being caught, so I hid in a truck carrying goods. I didn't know how far it went or how long it drove.

“I just slept and slept. I hadn't slept that well for so long. When I woke up, the truck had stopped. I got out. I didn't know where I was, and I didn't know where to go.

“Then I saw a man coaxing a child with candy. I knew he was a trafficker. Hah. I may not be educated, but I can tell a trafficker by his smell. Do you believe me?”

She looked at Evan.

He paused, not knowing what to say.

She smiled again. “You're like that old doctor. He wasn't much of a talker either.

“I'd been taken by traffickers. I could smell it on them. I really could. I knew he wanted to take that child.

“But I didn't go to the police. I knew he wouldn't be able to trick that child into going with him. So I went over, took the candy from his hand, and coaxed the child myself. It was a little boy. He liked me. As soon as he saw me, he wanted to stay close to me and go out and play with me.

“I asked the man, ‘Where are you headed?’ He just stared. Ha ha…”

She laughed again.

“I still remember that stupid look on his face. That was the first child I abducted and sold.

“They all said I was good at it, that I had a gift. Children liked me. They trusted me. Lots of the people I sold still trusted me even after I'd sold them.

“The man asked my name. I said it was May. Later I became his woman and went all over the country with him, doing all kinds of bad things.

“Then he got sick. There was nowhere to get him treated, and no way to cure him. He died. It was an ugly death.

“After that I became the leader of our gang and carried on!

“Doctor, do you believe good people are rewarded?”^[3]

Taken aback for a moment, Evan nodded.

“I don't. I was a good person, so why was I abducted? I worked like an animal for that family. Why did they treat me like that?

“I was a good person. Why did all the worst things have to happen to me? Why was I the one who had to suffer so much? Why? I couldn't understand it.

“So I didn't want to be good anymore. I went with him and abducted lots of people. Every day I was happy. I could do as I pleased. I think the person who sold me in the first place must have been just as happy. It feels good to be bad!”

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ “Wife” under coercion. May uses the household's domestic language to describe what happened after she was bought and imprisoned. Her account describes forced labor and sexual exploitation, not a freely chosen marriage arrangement. Calling her a wife here does not establish that any marriage was registered or legally valid. The distinction is consent: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that marriage requires the free and full consent of the intending spouses. Source: United Nations — Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16.
2. ↩︎ Herbal medicine and acupuncture. The old doctor's two treatments are separate: medicine prepared by boiling and simmering medicinal ingredients in water, and acupuncture using thin needles inserted into the skin. No ingredients, formula, dose, or needle locations are supplied here. His diagnosis and the claim that he saved her life are part of May's recollection. These general descriptions explain the actions; they do not independently verify what caused her symptoms or the outcome she reports. Sources: Hong Kong Department of Health — Preparing Herbal Decoctions; NCCIH — Traditional Chinese Medicine: What You Need To Know.
3. ↩︎ Good people and good returns. Hao ren you hao bao expresses the hope that good people receive good in return, closely related to the proverb “good deeds bring good returns; bad deeds bring bad returns.” May challenges that expectation by contrasting her earlier suffering with the pleasure she says she took in doing harm. “Rewarded” here means a favorable outcome, not a payment or an official award. The wording does not identify either speaker with a particular religion. Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education — “Good deeds bring good returns; bad deeds bring bad returns,” Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (in Chinese).