The two pushed open the door and entered. The conference room was large, with about seventeen or eighteen people inside. After the two entered, everyone looked over. Wen Ruan couldn't describe the way some people looked at her.
She thought those eyes held a kind of hope, perhaps they thought their family had come to take them home, but they were disappointed. Wen Ruan's heart ached terribly.
Upon entering the meeting room, Wen Ruan was unsure of what to do. After asking Wang Xia, she was told that the first priority was their safety, and the second priority was to listen patiently and offer guidance if anyone wanted to chat with her or express their feelings.
Never ask them questions that might upset them, unless they bring it up themselves.
Wen Ruan felt somewhat helpless as she looked at the women who were originally about her age, but whose faces had been ravaged by suffering.
"You're very beautiful!" Wen Ruan, who had been sitting awkwardly in the conference room for more than half an hour, suddenly saw one of the women walk up to her and say with an envious look.
Wen Ruan was a little unsure how to answer, so she paused for a moment and then sincerely replied, "You too!"
The woman shook her head with a wry smile: "Maybe it was before, but it's not anymore."
Wen Ruan looked at her, her eyes filled with pain, and even as she spoke those words, a hint of hatred inadvertently flashed in the corner of her eye...
Wen Ruan was unsure how to comfort her, so she could only reach out and hold her hand, looking at her gentle face, indicating that she was willing to listen.
The woman's name was Wang Jing, from Z province. She was only 16 years old when she was abducted. It was a winter day like this, with a biting wind. She had just started high school and was walking out of school when she passed an old woman...
From the moment she met Wang Jing, her fate changed. The old woman claimed that her relatives had moved to the county town and she couldn't find her way. Taking advantage of Wang Jing's kindness, she asked Wang Jing to lead the way. When they reached that alley, someone suddenly appeared and covered her mouth and nose. After that, she remembered nothing...
When she opened her eyes, she found a banquet being held in the courtyard, and that she had been sold to a village to be the wife of a widower in his forties...
At this point, Wang Jing's face was filled with hatred: "When I woke up, I thought about running away..."
"But I couldn't escape at all. I didn't know where I was, and the whole village knew that I had been sold into the village. They were very united, and over time, they gradually realized that there were other people like me in the village."
"Look, look at the one squatting in the corner. I don't know her full name, I only know she's called Xiaohua. She's like me, someone who was trafficked to that village."
"I was relatively lucky; I was only sold to an older widower. Xiaohua was much worse off. She was the only woman in that family, and it's said that the 'old beast' of that family bought her specifically to be the wife of his two sons because they were too poor to afford to marry two wives. And behind the scenes, that 'old beast'..."
"After a while, Xiaohua's spirits started to wane..."
"Oh, right, she also has a five-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter..."
“When I went to the riverbank to wash clothes before, I saw her son and daughter. They were throwing stones at Xiaohua like crazy, and calling her a ‘madwoman’.”
“You know, her two children look just like her…” Wang Jing said, her tone revealing an eerie calm.
"Hell is empty, all the devils are here." It seemed to describe this group of people, and Wen Ruan felt a little uncomfortable listening to it.
"I want to escape so badly, I want to go home so badly, I want to go back to my old life..." Sobs broke out as she spoke, her voice choked with sobs.
Suddenly, she stood up abruptly, her face filled with hatred and extreme agitation. Grabbing Wen Ruan's hands, she shouted, "They all deserve to die! They're all beasts! They all should die! You should kill them... You're the police! Go now..."
Wen Ruan then realized something was wrong and felt a little scared, but she was also afraid of upsetting her, so she didn't dare to struggle violently. She could only look at the people around her with fear in her eyes.
Wang Xia, who was standing at the front, had just finished checking the list of people in the conference room when she heard a sound and saw Wen Ruan's pleading look in the corner. She quickly called another policewoman to come forward and pull the two apart, and then kept comforting Wang Jing.
The two of them together could barely hold her down, but fortunately, a female doctor was specially approved to accompany the team. The female doctor took out an injection and injected her, and Wang Jing gradually calmed down and fell asleep. Afterwards, the group worked together to send her back to her room.
Even after Wang Jing was taken back to her room, Wen Ruan was still in a daze. Wang Xia saw this and reached out to pat Wen Ruan, who seemed to be in a daze: "Were you scared just now?"
"Hmm... a little..." Wen Ruan finally came to her senses and replied.
“We all experienced this a few days ago. Wang Jing told everyone about her experiences. She was very calm while she was talking, and everyone thought she was normal... But... this wasn't the first time this had happened.”
"Actually, she did alright; at least she spoke out and had a way to vent. But look, in this huge conference room, there are nearly twenty people, but apart from us staff members talking, there's almost no other sound..."
Wen Ruan then realized that it was indeed a little too quiet...
“Those who don’t talk are the most troublesome. Sometimes when you want to ask them about their past, or their home address, or their parents’ names, it’s hard to get a clear answer. Most of them prefer to remain silent and quietly immerse themselves in their own world.” Wang Xia sighed helplessly as she said this.
“There was even someone who tried to take advantage of the staff’s inattention… That person is still in the hospital, and we don’t know if her family will be able to come and pick her up…” As a woman herself, and even older with children of her own, Wang Xia couldn’t imagine what she would do if her own child were to suffer the same fate.
Wen Ruan understood somewhat; their symptoms, in modern terms, might be called "depression." Suffering from both mental and physical torment for a long time would be unbearable even for the most wonderful person.
Wen Ruan looked at the remaining women in the conference room. They were all listless and thin. Long hours of labor had caused their cheeks and palms to crack. It was hard to imagine that they were a group of women who were not much older than herself.
Some of them were fiddling with their nails, some were lost in thought, and some were staring intently at the door, hoping that the person they were waiting for would appear...
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