The Big Bad Wolf’s Little White Rabbit

A large kitchen, haphazardly constructed from simple tin sheets and wooden planks, housed two or three shirtless middle-aged men bustling about, preparing meals for over a hundred people.

Xiaxia squatted by the faucet near the doorway, washing vegetable leaves in a large basin. Her long, dark hair was casually tied up into a high bun, revealing the smooth, delicate curve of her swan-like neck. Her slender, jade-like arms peeked out from the short sleeves of her outfit. Even dressed in plain, dark cloth, her ethereal grace couldn’t be concealed.

Her delicate, oval-shaped face carried a faint trace of melancholy and numbness—because she had been abducted.

In fact, most of the girls here had been trafficked. Some were snatched locally in Rui City, while others were lured from neighboring Myanmar.

At nineteen, Xiaxia was about to enter her sophomore year of college. In the first nineteen years of her life, she had never known what “hardship” meant. She was the cherished only daughter of the Xia Group in Jiang City, basking in the glow of being the center of attention. But six months ago, a car accident claimed her parents’ lives.

To allow her to focus on her studies, her aunt and uncle—who had emigrated abroad years earlier—returned to China to take over the family business on her behalf. The reason Xiaxia ended up trafficked to this remote village in Rui City began a month ago.

Xiaxia’s mother had been an abducted child herself. Taken at the age of seven, she retained fragmented memories of her childhood. She recalled that her hometown lay at the border between Rui City and Myanmar, that her original name was Meng Shu, that her village’s name included the character for “tower,” and that several blue fruit trees grew in front of her family’s home.

With so little to go on, Xiaxia’s mother had never managed to find her lost family before she passed away.

Determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish, Xiaxia set out alone on the first day of summer vacation, boarding a flight from Jiang City to Rui City. She was resolute—she would find her mother’s family. If one trip wasn’t enough, she’d come again. If two trips failed, she’d keep returning until she succeeded.

But the moment she stepped into this unfamiliar city, her fate took a drastic, earth-shattering turn…

Rui City in 1993 existed in a completely different world from the bustling, modern Jiang City. Poor transportation was already a major hurdle, and with its proximity to the border, the area was a chaotic mix of complex environments and diverse people. A striking girl from a big city like Xiaxia, with her standout looks, drew countless stares from locals the moment she appeared on the streets.

Before coming to Rui City, Xiaxia had prepared thoroughly, studying maps and terrain. She checked into one of the better local hotels, ready to begin her search.

Rui City was vast, with countless border regions alone. Villages with the character “tower” in their names numbered in the dozens, if not hundreds. The Meng surname was common here, making it nearly impossible to track down anyone specific.

That day, Xiaxia emerged from a place called Haota Village, once again disappointed. Suddenly, an old van screeched to a stop in front of her. Several menacing men leapt out, and in an instant, they used a sedative to knock her out and drag her into the vehicle.

When she awoke, she found her hands and feet bound with coarse rope, taken to a place called Tasang. She had been abducted—along with several other young women kidnapped that same day.

All their belongings were confiscated. The ones who trafficked them to Tasang belonged to a local criminal syndicate, a ruthless gang known as the Shenglong Company.

Tasang was originally just an ordinary, underdeveloped village. But due to its proximity to the commercial district of a county-level city in Myanmar, Shenglong Company exploited its location to transform it into a so-called “Little Eastern Pearl.” They built up various businesses here, with the most profitable being the sex trade.

The area boasted extravagant foot massage parlors rivaling those in big cities, noisy dance halls, sprawling bars, and unconventional hotels. To fuel this enterprise, the gang continuously lured and abducted girls from outside to work here.

Xiaxia had thought about escaping, but there was no way out. Tasang was crawling with lookouts and informants. Just yesterday, a girl tricked into coming from Myanmar managed to flee for barely two minutes before being caught. She was beaten to death on the spot by the people here.