Song Xiaonu's injury
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Ma Yuping
27 years have finally passed. The imprints of time on Song Xiaonv's body are clearly visible. The dark skin was exposed to the sun by the sea, and the calluses on the tiger's mouth on the right hand were left by the scissors of the killing fish factory. In 1993, her ex-husband Zhang Yuhuan was imprisoned for being accused of killing two children in the same village. Since then, Song Xiaonv has not had much stability.
Her current husband lives by fishing and rents a house with her only one or two hundred meters away from the sea. She used to work in the killing fish factory, holding scissors from 4 in the morning to 12 in the night. While working as a part-timer, she appealed to her ex-husband. The younger son had no impression of her before the age of 7.
Song Xiaonv suffers from high blood pressure and cervical cancer. After the operation, she lost only a handful of bones. Now the side effects of the drug have made her puffy again.
In 1997, Song Xiaonu took a photo with her two children. Photo courtesy of respondents
Ever since Zhang Yuhuan was detained, it has been difficult for her to sleep all night. At around 4 in the morning on August 4, the 50-year-old Song daughter woke up from her shallow sleep. On this day, Zhang Yuhuan, who had been detained for 9778 days, was acquitted.
She wanted a hug from her ex-husband, "have to hold me around." The daughter-in-law asked her if she had the courage to face such multimedia. "I couldn't see the media at all at that time." She said, "If Zhang Yuhuan was by my side, he would definitely give me a hug when he saw me (the hardship). So this hug is very good for me. Meaning, I will not lie to you."
After Zhang Yuhuan's accident, she discovered that the photo with Zhang Yuhuan was only one taken when she was married. Since then, she has become obsessed with taking pictures. Every time she comes back from work, the first thing she does is take her son to the photo studio to take pictures. Now, she wants to "return" 8 people—son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter—to Zhang Yuhuan. "These eight people have had a hard time. No one can imagine how they have come over so many years. I hope he can cherish them.
However, Miss Song still didn't wait for the hug. In order to prepare for the moment of meeting, Song Xiaonu took twice the dose of antihypertensive medicine, and the moment Zhang Yuhuan got out of the car and walked towards the crowd, she still fainted. She lay on an old chair outside, blushing and panting to witness the reunion.
Many days later, there were still nail marks under her nose and a large purple sha mark on her throat. That was the rescue of the day, leaving another scar on her body.
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Not all scars are enough to show people. For example, Song Xiaonv hardly mentions the big scar on the dial on her left wrist to outsiders—when she was working in Shenzhen, she burned it with a cigarette butt. She missed her son and her husband. “Working during the day, biting her mouth and crying at night, I live with Like a dog".
"Little girl" means "Yao Nv". She is the youngest daughter in the family. She was 23 when Zhang Yuhuan was arrested. In her previous life, she had never worried about her livelihood. Because of her poor health, she spent 4 years in the first grade and occasionally helped her family cattle. After marrying Zhang's family, Zhang Yuhuan took over almost all of the farming work for spring planting and autumn harvesting. During the slack, he went to Shanghai and Fujian to do carpentry work, and went to the county town to pull boards and do odd jobs. Zhang Yuhuan is also responsible for the family's firewood, rice, oil, salt, and human relations. Song Xiaonv feels that she is "spoiled like a daughter".
This life continued until the autumn of 1993. On October 27 of that year, 26-year-old Zhang Yuhuan was taken away by the police as a suspect. At that time, the two sons in the family were 3 years old and 4 years old.
Since then, the family of four has been divided into four places: Zhang Yuhuan is in the detention center, the eldest son is taken care of by his grandmother, the younger son is handing over to his grandfather, and Song Xiaonv is out to work. In the following 26 years, this "home" was never complete.
The families of the victims vented their anger on Zhang Yuhuan's mother, Zhang Binglian, and his wife and children. "Come to my house to snatch food, throw a stone into the house, and one piece hit me on the head." Song Xiaonv recalled that in order to avoid retaliation, she listened to her mother-in-law's words and took her two sons back to her family's home. The elderly father has been supported by older brothers in turn, and she and her son "wander around" with their father.
"Murder family members" are like mice crossing the street in the village. Song Xiaonv's best old sister would turn around when she saw her. When she was really sad, she would run to the mountain alone to cry.
During the two years of working in Nanchang, Xiaonv Song went to the Provincial Public Security Bureau, the Political and Legal Committee, and the court when she was off work. She could only take a taxi without knowing the road. She felt distressed that she “spent a lot of money”.
In order to save money, sitting in a taxi, she began to look at the name of the unit from afar, and immediately asked the driver to stop when she saw it, and she walked over by herself.
Once, the staff member was annoyed by her asking, "A woman's house, running here and there, is there no man in the house?"
"My man is 8 years old and the other is 7 years old, is that okay?" Song Xiaonv said.
Zhang Baogang remembers the experience of the brothers and mother going to redress grievances. The mother and son were tired and sat on the side of the road, resting their feet while eating. Someone passed by and put money in front of them.
Sometimes at home she couldn't help crying and getting angry, "Let Zhang Yuhuan come out, let me in, let's change it!"
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In the first year of Zhang Yuhuan's arrest, Song Xiaonv took the child with her father to eat and live at her brother's house. She became sensitive. She always felt that her brother-in-law's quarrel was related to the three of them. "There are children in the family to raise. Who can add 3 more mouths."
They moved to Zhang Yuhuan's eldest brother Zhang Minqiang's house for a period of time, and his sister-in-law helped her to set up a small vegetable stall, but because Song Xiaonv had something in her heart, she always looked for money when she sold vegetables, and the business was quickly over.
In the second year, Song Xiaonv went south to work with her relatives who had returned home to recruit. For the first time, she experienced separation from the child's flesh and blood and endured the "heart-wrenching pain". From 1994 to 2002, there were only a handful of moments when the mother and son were reunited.
From the age of seven or eight, the brothers often have to get up at three or four in the morning to work with Zhang Binglian, planting rice, sesame, peanuts, and corn according to the season, "the water in the field does not reach the thighs". Zhang Binglian is reluctant to use herbicides and fertilizers. The corn stalks in her home are several times thinner than those of others. The three grandparents go to the fields to pull weeds every day.
Except for the endless farm work, Zhang Baogang and his brother are often bullied and "do not have a friend" in Zhangjia Village. Zhang Bao has just seen a few children hit his brother on the ground, stuffing cow dung into his mouth for him to swallow.
Song Xiaonv’s younger brother Song Xiaoxiao told her that someone in the village said that the two children would not die like this, "God hates them and refuses to accept them."
When the brothers were naughty or lazy, they often suffered from Zhang Binglian's bamboo pole. There was an "ancestral tree" at the door of Zhang's house. Zhang Yuhuan's younger brother climbed up to sleep after being beaten when he was a child, and later it was Zhang Yuhuan's son. Later, they all slept in the pigpen and vegetable field, "like two wild men".
The brothers barely wore new clothes. The pants were picked up with patches on them. When hungry, rely on sweet potatoes, cucumbers and wild fruits to satisfy your hunger. The school organizes vaccinations, and those who need to pay, they have never given a shot.
They would not mention these things with their mothers, "because it is useless to mention them." Zhang Baogang recalled, "She only came back for a long time and only stayed for a day or two."
"Which mother doesn't feel bad about it? How much hardship did the two brothers have." When the second son was 12 years old, he went to work with Song Xiaonv in Xi'an, and when he was 15 he went to Guangdong alone. Song Xiaonv felt guilty that she couldn't get the two children to read more books, but she couldn't help it. "If you don't work, three people starve to death. If you go out to work, we still have a way to survive."
She sent her own knitted sweaters to her children. Although she hadn’t seen them for a long time, the size was always the right size; she split her salary into three and remitted home, the living expenses and tuition of the two children, and there was a sum to save for Zhang Yuhuan’s appeal .
She did not return home after working in Shenzhen for three years. In 1997, Zhang Baogang saw her mother again at her grandfather's funeral. This is the first time Song Xiaonv came back after 3 years away from home. She pierced her ears on her birthday, and together with her workers, she bought some second-hand clothes from Hong Kong, such as bell-bottom pants, puff sleeves and big polka dot shirts, "not to be looked down upon by the villagers."
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In the sixth year of Zhang Yuhuan’s imprisonment, Song Xiaonv broke down. She had uterine fibroids, and the doctor recommended her surgery. This woman did not understand the disease, but the word "tumor" made her feel terrified. "My son has no father's love anymore. If I can't get on and off the operating table anymore, they will be too pitiful."
She therefore decided to remarry to her current husband Yu Guoqing (pseudonym). That was in 1999. She made three requirements for marriage. One was to treat her two children well; the other was that she could see Zhang Yuhuan at any time and could not stop her; and the third was that she could see Zhang Yuhuan's mother.
After remarrying, Song Xiaonv went to Fujian to fish on the National Day. Yu Guoqing also had one son, and five people formed a new family.
The husband was introduced by his younger brother Song Xiaoxiao. Before deciding to marry him, Song Xiaonv learned from her younger brother Yu Guoqing's attitude towards the dead wife-his ex-wife had leukemia, and he sold cows that the rural people regarded as the lifeblood of his life, and borrowed money for his wife to treat his illness everywhere; the doctor said there was no rescue He still insisted on leaving only a few cents of travel expenses on his body, and the rest of the money was spent on his wife; while he was still alive, his wife asked him to spend too much money on the treatment, so he didn’t need the coffin after he died. Wrap it in a straw mat.
"We are just two hard-working people holding a group to keep warm." Song Xiaonv said to Yu Guoqing, "I can't forget Zhang Yuhuan."
After 20 years, she and Yu Guoqing can no longer be separated. On a typhoon day, Song Xiaonv could only get news of her husband's coming back via satellite phone, I wonder if she could get home before the typhoon. She would stand at the window and wait anxiously every day. After Yu Guoqing went out to sea, he would go to Shayuchang to help Miss Song ask for leave, hand over cigarettes to laugh with the leader to let the leader leave, and then take her out to play and eat something good by the way.
Once, Yu Guoqing broke a finger while working on a ship, and he was still in a coma when he was sent to the hospital. Song Xiaonv was so distressed that she kept crying, and the doctor told her that she might need surgical skin grafting. She immediately stretched out her arms and cried out in her throat, "Cut from me, cut my flesh."
But she still missed Zhang Yuhuan. She once called "Zhang Yuhuan" to Yu Guoqing. The two were angry about this. Seeing her husband sad, Song Xiaonv was also sad, but it became a habit to think about her ex-husband. She would think when she was happy, and when she was sad, she would think about what would happen if Zhang Yuhuan was in any scene in her life.
After her husband and son went to sea, she worked in the fish-killing factory in front of her house. The husband was worried about her hard work and advised her to go home and take her grandson. She refused. She wanted to work hard for two years to build the house in her hometown in Jiangxi. The house was built in her husband’s village, and Song Xiaonv told her two sons and daughter-in-law that this house "does not have your share."
In 2012, Song Xiaonv underwent cervical cancer surgery. Before the operation, she went to visit Zhang Yuhuan for the last time. She cried and asked, "I'm already dying. You tell me the last time you did it? I waited and waited, and I did what I should do. I was tortured so sad that I don't want to live. Up."
"Zhang Yuhuan really didn't. He was wronged. He made me live." Song Xiaonv recalled.
There were twists and turns before and after the operation. Yu Guoqing first initiated her suicidal thoughts, and then rushed to take care of her.
"After this incident, I think I should give him (Yu Guoqing) a name." That year, Song Xiaonv and Zhang Yuhuan signed a divorce agreement.
After Zhang Yuhuan was acquitted and released, her husband saw her being pulled away by an ambulance at the scene. My husband took the train to Nanchang overnight.
She longed for a hug video to be uploaded on the Internet. She was not worried about her image, but she was afraid of embarrassing the National Day. In follow-up interviews, she will repeatedly express her love and gratitude to her current husband.
She has been working around Zhang Yuhuan in recent days. A reporter called her phone and wanted to interview Zhang Yuhuan. She handed the phone over, pinched the time, and observed Zhang Yuhuan's expression. Zhang Yuhuan showed fatigue, and she immediately grabbed the phone to terminate the interview. "Still can't help but want to protect him."
"Zhang Yuhuan is so good to me, so I will not hesitate. I am willing to bear the hardship for him." But Song Xiaonv said that she will not return to Zhang Yuhuan, she will go doubly love her husband, "because of him Too much for the three of us, mother and son."
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After Zhang Yuhuan was imprisoned, Song Xiaonv added two "problems": she likes to cover her head with a quilt when she is insomnia, so that she "a sense of security"; she likes to take pictures and puts her favorite photos in WeChat favorites—— There are too many photos and small videos in the phone album and it is difficult to find them.
Every time after returning from a part-time job, the first thing Song Xiaonv had to do was to take the child to take a photo, so that she would be upset when she came to see the photo later, why not buy a set of clothes for the child and take the photo? In a photo taken in winter, the son is wearing a sweater knitted by her on the upper body, and underneath is a pair of pants with several patches.
She regrets that there is only one photo of herself and Zhang Yuhuan, and the four of them don't even have a family portrait of Zhang. After Zhang Yuhuan was imprisoned, she often touched the photo. The upper left corner of the photo had faded and turned white. She hurried to the photo studio to reprint a few.
She usually washes three copies of the photos she takes, one by herself, one at Zhang's house, and the other with Zhang Yuhuan when she visits.
Zhang Baoren closed his eyes in a photo taken in 1998. He wrote two lines of words with a ballpoint pen on the back of the photo, "Hello Dad: Dad, I did not take the photo this time, please forgive me. We will take the photo together when you come home." His name is in the sign office and the date is April 19.
In 27 years, Zhang Yuhuan received a total of 17 photos, which are all the traces of his family’s changes.
In prison, he did not stop complaining. According to Southern People Weekly, Zhang Yuhuan had just served his sentence in Nanchang Prison and was assigned to make clothes. Because he refused to accept the sentence, he cut off all the clothes he made with scissors and was sentenced to confinement. After his brother Zhang Minqiang found out, he comforted him and continued to appeal with him for a year. "We will write to the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the National People’s Congress, and the Central Political and Legal Committee. We will write one letter a week, and write it in all four places, one month. It's over." Zhang Yuhuan sent one letter a week inside the prison, and Zhang Minqiang did the same outside, until 2017.
In 2016, Jiangxi Leping rape and murder case was retrial. The plaintiff was commuted not guilty. This allows Zhang Minqiang, who has been complaining, to see hope.
Also concerned about the case is Zhang Youling, a doctor who worked in the nearby Beiling Forest Farm. He contacted a reporter in Jiangxi and found the lawyers Wang Fei and Shang Manqing he met while reporting on the Leping case.
Song Xiaonv learned that a reporter was following Zhang Yuhuan's case in Fujian, and she immediately booked a ticket to return to Jiangxi. After the interview, she felt that "Zhang Yuhuan was saved." Back in Fujian, she suddenly thought of it at the dinner table, first crying, and then laughing until she couldn't stop. "Crazy, my husband said." That day, she was finally taken to the hospital by her family for a tranquilizer.
In June 2018, the Jiangxi Provincial Higher People's Court filed a review of the "Zhang Yuhuan Case", and decided to retrial in March 2019, and a public trial will be conducted on July 9, 2020. On August 4, the Jiangxi Provincial Higher People's Court pronounced Zhang Yuhuan not guilty.
On August 7, the eldest son rented a car and reunited his wife, brother-in-law and all children in Nanchang.
The first thought of Song Xiaonv was to leave her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren with eight people to Zhang Yuhuan, so that he can enjoy the family happiness. But they found that renting a "house with so many people" was too expensive, and the sea was going to open on August 15. The income of the two sons was the entire source of income for the two families.
"I suddenly felt that I couldn't do this. I couldn't let my grandson drift as my son was when I was a child." Song Xiaonu decided to follow the decision of the elder son: the old lady first returned to Fujian to make money, and the second family stayed with his father.
That hug did not materialize. A reporter suggested to make up a photo of them embracing, because that was "Thousands of times and tens of thousands of times thought of Song Xiaonv." But this time, Song Xiaonv refused.
"No more." She said with a smile, she waited for 27 years, because (when we met) "no hug", so "Zhang Yuhuan will always owe me a hug."
Zhang Yuhuan moved with his son into a rental house in the old town of the county seat. The house is on the sixth floor. It stood here more than 30 years ago. Zhang Yuhuan is relatively familiar with this area.
He is trying to adapt to new things-how to play with the remote control of the air conditioner, the mobile phone, and how the prices are so high. There are still reporters visiting the door every day, which makes him a little tired-when communicating with people, he always has to think about it before responding, and some questions need to be explained by reporters.
On August 11, Song Xiaonv and her husband Yu Guoqing left for Fujian. She was going to the hospital to check for new tumors in her ovaries.
She thanked lawyers, journalists and netizens on social platforms. "I'm leaving, with the ups and downs, I am going home, I wish I will be well for the rest of my life." After writing, she added 3 exclamation points at the end.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Ma Yuping Source: China Youth Daily