The next day was New Year's Day, which was also the last day of Song Yan's leave.
Wen Ruan originally thought that, according to custom, the two of them would go to the courtyard to celebrate the festival with Song's parents.
However, Song Yan suggested that since Wen Ruan was the only child in the Wen family, and especially after she got married, only Wen Ruan's mother and son would be left at home, which would surely make them very lonely. So they discussed celebrating festivals together, just like they did before with the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The two families were already very familiar with each other, and after Song Yan and Wen Ruan got married, their relationship became even closer.
Wen Ruan naturally had no objections and stayed home to prepare the holiday meals, waiting for Song Yan to return.
Song Yan then set off to discuss the matter with both sets of parents and invited them to the courtyard house to celebrate the festival together.
The two families were very happy together. Wen Ruan spent her first New Year's Day here. Today is the new year, and also her second year here.
......
The first day after New Year's Day was a workday. Before leaving home, Song Yan told Wen Ruan that he would be busy for the next few days and that she should go to sleep first and not wait for her.
Wen Ruan verbally agreed, but whenever she lay in bed and looked at the empty half of the bed beside her, she found it difficult to fall asleep and kept tossing and turning.
A few days ago, Song Yan returned to the compound to handle matters with his father. Wen Ruan also slept alone, and she would toss and turn until very late before falling asleep.
Therefore, habit is truly a terrible thing...
Every night after Song Yan returned home, Wen Ruan would ask Lin Qi about the progress of this matter, and Song Yan would tell her the truth. Not only that, he even told Wen Ruan about how he was collecting information on how Guo Shengcai had used his personal connections to arbitrarily place his relatives in positions of power, form cliques, and wantonly interfere with the factory's administration during his years at the steel plant.
They said they wanted to take advantage of the situation, by bringing down Lin Qi, to also bring down Guo Shengcai...
Although Song Yan didn't say it, Wen Ruan knew that Song Yan estimated that the appointment to be transferred to the Commerce Bureau would be coming soon. Doing these things would not bring him any practical benefit, and might even cause him trouble.
On one hand, he might genuinely have an attachment to the steel plant; on the other hand, perhaps it was his father, Wen. He was a strong rival to Guo Shengcai for the position of factory director...
Wen Ruan felt a little touched. Every time, although Song Yan didn't say anything, he always put his words into action...
About half a month later, the newspaper suddenly published a report about a joint operation by the Beijing police and the Bai Province police to rescue 23 girls who had been abducted and sold to remote villages. This incident caused a great sensation and a huge uproar throughout the country.
Wen Ruan carefully read the newspaper and discovered many details she didn't know before. It stated that this was just a den for buying and selling girls, or even just a small transit point to avoid the victims' families and the police investigation.
A large number of trafficked women are transferred from here to other places, or even picked up by "buyers". Countless tragedies are repeated here. Wen Ruan felt a chill run down her spine as she looked at the shocking contents.
Fortunately, after more than half a month of covert investigation and interviews, the police arrested all twelve human traffickers involved in the trafficking...
The specific follow-up investigation is still ongoing. At the end of the newspaper, the names of the twenty-three trafficked girls were published. In order to protect them, no photos were posted. Only their provinces and cities before they were trafficked and their names were mentioned.
Looking at the number, Wen Ruan felt something was off. She knew of at least a dozen people from the village where the original owner of this body had been trafficked, and considering the group had been committing crimes for so many years, if that village was just a transit point, the number shouldn't be this high...
Could there be someone who hasn't been caught yet? Wen Ruan couldn't help but wonder, thinking she would ask Song Yan when he returned.
Around 11 o'clock, Song Yan finally returned home in the wind and snow.
Wen Ruan quickly fetched hot water for him and helped him change his clothes. After asking him if he had eaten, she learned that he hadn't eaten yet, so she hurriedly went to the kitchen to cook a bowl of noodles and then made a simple stir-fry of green peppers and eggs.
Song Yan sat at the dining table and ate his noodles with gusto. Wen Ruan had specially saved sweet and sour pork ribs for him that evening. The ribs were brought by Song's mother that morning, saying they were for Song's father, and the two families shared them.
After Song Yan finished eating, Wen Ruan went to the study and placed the newspaper she had bought that morning in front of him.
Song Yan picked up the document and glanced at it: "You saw it?"
Wen Ruan nodded.
Any thoughts?
"Everything else is fine, but there's one question. This number seems a bit off. Twenty-three?" Wen Ruan couldn't help but ask.
"Does it seem like the number is less than you expected?"
"The numbers are correct. All those involved have been apprehended. However, regarding Lin Qi, he has been placed under investigation and the organization is currently investigating him."
“But there are indeed some issues with the numbers… Actually…” Song Yan hesitated halfway through his sentence, unsure of how to continue.
"In fact, it involves a large number of people, even hundreds of abducted girls! Apart from those who died in accidents, there are probably more than a hundred others."
"Based on the confessions of the traffickers, the police visited all the villages where the trafficked girls lived, trying to bring them back and send them home, but very few people were willing to go with them..." Song Yan couldn't help but sigh as he said this.
"Huh? How could that be?" Wen Ruan was somewhat shocked by his words, feeling it was unbelievable.
Wen Ruan, who had always lived in a peaceful era in her previous life, had never experienced or seen anything like this before.
Don't they want to go home? Don't they want to see their fathers, mothers, and families? Why don't they want to leave that cannibalistic place? Wen Ruan felt as if her thoughts had been shaken.
“Some of them are because they have already married and had children there, and their children are even in school. Because they have been sold here for a long time, they have gradually lost the idea of escaping and have even integrated into the local life. They are unwilling to leave their children.”
"Another reason is that they're afraid to go home... afraid of embarrassing their parents and families, so they simply plan to stay there..."
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