CHINA, NATIONAL, NEWS, For the Love of a Prostitute
By Shi Rui
(This is an in-depth report of a previous article, The Editors)
It was the deep night of September 3, 2005. A prostitute was strangled to death with the brake wire of a bicycle in a rented room in Lanzhou city, Gansu province, China.
Later, the police found two volumes of diaries in her relics, imbued with her sincere love and profound care for her husband. "Amazing! It's hard to believe a whore can be so amorous, a whore can still have true love," a police officer said.
The victim's name was Gou Li, and her life story as a wife is told by her husband, Mr. Chen.
* * *
Gou Li and Chen met on the train at the end of 2003 and they fell in love almost at first sight. One month later they got married.
The couple's hometown was in the poor mountainous area of Linyou county, Baoji city, Shanxi province. Gou Li's father died early so her two elder brothers brought her up; she left the penniless family to work immediately after her graduation from a technical secondary school. Chen's family was in no better situation, since their income was only 2000 Yuan (about $245 U.S. dollars) per year.
"I told her I was skint before marriage but she said she would never complain about poverty," Chen can still remember Gou Li's words, "she said she was willing to stay at my side for all her life, as long as I did not abandon her."
In order to give the young couple a decent wedding, Chen's parents borrowed 30,000 Yuan (about $3672) to prepare food for at least three hundred guests. They expected to pay off the debt with gift money from the guests (In China people give newly married couples money instead of gifts). Only a few kin came on the wedding day, however, because Chen's home was too far away and too hard to get to.
To pay the heavy debt, Chen's younger brother went to Beijing to do manual labor, and his 60-year-old father went to a quarry to carry stones. Gou Li also wanted to go out and work but her parents-in-law asked her to stay home so that she could bear a baby for the family. She finally got pregnant in July 2004.
"She once asked me while shepherding 'Honey, do you know what is a woman's happiest time in her life?'" Chen said. "I did not know the answer so I just shook my head. 'It's when she is bearing a baby,' she said tenderly with a big smile on her face." Chen's eyes were filled with tears when he imitated Gou Li’s feminine voice.
Unluckily their baby was aborted by accident, so the young couple decided to leave their hometown and work in a big city to help pay the debt.
They arrived in Lanzhou city in May 2005. Chen soon found a job in a factory with a wage of 350 Yuan (about $43) per month and Gou Li was employed by the local dress market with a wage of 300 Yuan (about $37). Counting the rent of their shanty and food expenses, they would be able to save 5000 Yuan ($612) if they worked full-time for a whole year. Realizing they would never pay off the debt at that rate of income, both of them resigned their jobs half a month later.
Chen borrowed some money and bought a second-hand motorcycle to do transportation work. Gou Li went to work in a hairdressing salon where she washed the hair of guests (about half of the hairdressing salons in China are actually bawdyhouses and Gou swore not to betray Chen before she went to work there).
"Every night we would return to our shabby home. She never came back late. She said my job was more tiring so she always fetched water and washed my feet for me," said Chen. "We always listened to the radio, and our favorite song was Two Butterflies. She would lean on my shoulder and sing, "'My dear, come and dance with me. There is no dark night in the spring of love.'"
Life went simply on. Chen became busier and busier and sometimes he could not return home at night. Chen didn't know his wife had become a prostitute until their landlady told him that Gou almost never came back at night if he did not.
They had a big fight, and Chen even proposed a divorce.
"She cried sorrowfully saying she loved me and all she had done was to relieve the financial burden of our family. She said she could not bear seeing my father carrying stones of several hundred kilograms every day. I cried too. I felt wordless because I was so poor and so incapable that I did not deserve the name of a man."
After the quarrel Chen acquiesced in Gou Li's 'job'.
Gou Li was not able to 'work' long, however. The police in a severe governmental inspection aimed at striking down criminals and eliminating prostitutes caught her. The police sent Gou Li into the penitentiary where she had to stay for 6 months receiving moral education. It was in this penitentiary that Gou Li began to write the loving diaries.
After her death, people found that all her diaries started with "Honey...." In the diary she wrote of her steady love for Chen:
"I'm looking forward to staying in your arms."
"I miss you so much. Why not answer the call today?"
"No matter if you are rich or poor, I am yours. Both my body and my heart have been given to you."
She also wrote about her deep concerns for him:
"It's dark outside. Are you home?"
"Are you in lack of money these days?"
"I'm so happy because I saw you today, but you looked more emaciated."
"You must be very tired these days. Please take care of yourself. Do not wear yourself out."
Due to her good behavior, Gou Li was released from prison two months early.
To pay her cost of living in the penitentiary, Chen had sold his motorcycle and borrowed more money. Thus his effort to redeem his wife put them in even heavier debt, of which a sum of 1300 Yuan ($159) was the most urgent. So as soon as Gou Li came out they set a plan for making money. Chen would go to Beijing to earn 800 Yuan, and Gou would stay in Lanzhou and write to her own family to borrow 500 Yuan, then they would get together for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
At the train station Gou Li cried when she saw Chen off. Chen did not know it would be the last time he'd see his wife alive. He got on the train and left for Beijing.
Chen cannot figure out why Gou Li went back to her old 'job', "I guess maybe she felt ashamed to borrow money from her brothers, but was so anxious to meet me, so..."
The customer who killed Gou Li was captured on September 15, 2005. He confessed he didn't know Gou Li before and his motivation was to revenge himself on prostitutes as a group, for he was once robbed and beaten by a whore in another city.
"She came to say good-bye to me before she went to the rental room with that man," Gou Li's neighbor said. "She told me it would be her last time to do the job, because she had saved 500 Yuan. She said she would go to Beijing to meet her husband the next day. What a pity!"
(This is an in-depth report of a previous article, The Editors)
It was the deep night of September 3, 2005. A prostitute was strangled to death with the brake wire of a bicycle in a rented room in Lanzhou city, Gansu province, China.
Later, the police found two volumes of diaries in her relics, imbued with her sincere love and profound care for her husband. "Amazing! It's hard to believe a whore can be so amorous, a whore can still have true love," a police officer said.
The victim's name was Gou Li, and her life story as a wife is told by her husband, Mr. Chen.
Gou Li and Chen met on the train at the end of 2003 and they fell in love almost at first sight. One month later they got married.
The couple's hometown was in the poor mountainous area of Linyou county, Baoji city, Shanxi province. Gou Li's father died early so her two elder brothers brought her up; she left the penniless family to work immediately after her graduation from a technical secondary school. Chen's family was in no better situation, since their income was only 2000 Yuan (about $245 U.S. dollars) per year.
"I told her I was skint before marriage but she said she would never complain about poverty," Chen can still remember Gou Li's words, "she said she was willing to stay at my side for all her life, as long as I did not abandon her."
In order to give the young couple a decent wedding, Chen's parents borrowed 30,000 Yuan (about $3672) to prepare food for at least three hundred guests. They expected to pay off the debt with gift money from the guests (In China people give newly married couples money instead of gifts). Only a few kin came on the wedding day, however, because Chen's home was too far away and too hard to get to.
To pay the heavy debt, Chen's younger brother went to Beijing to do manual labor, and his 60-year-old father went to a quarry to carry stones. Gou Li also wanted to go out and work but her parents-in-law asked her to stay home so that she could bear a baby for the family. She finally got pregnant in July 2004.
"She once asked me while shepherding 'Honey, do you know what is a woman's happiest time in her life?'" Chen said. "I did not know the answer so I just shook my head. 'It's when she is bearing a baby,' she said tenderly with a big smile on her face." Chen's eyes were filled with tears when he imitated Gou Li’s feminine voice.
Unluckily their baby was aborted by accident, so the young couple decided to leave their hometown and work in a big city to help pay the debt.
They arrived in Lanzhou city in May 2005. Chen soon found a job in a factory with a wage of 350 Yuan (about $43) per month and Gou Li was employed by the local dress market with a wage of 300 Yuan (about $37). Counting the rent of their shanty and food expenses, they would be able to save 5000 Yuan ($612) if they worked full-time for a whole year. Realizing they would never pay off the debt at that rate of income, both of them resigned their jobs half a month later.
Chen borrowed some money and bought a second-hand motorcycle to do transportation work. Gou Li went to work in a hairdressing salon where she washed the hair of guests (about half of the hairdressing salons in China are actually bawdyhouses and Gou swore not to betray Chen before she went to work there).
"Every night we would return to our shabby home. She never came back late. She said my job was more tiring so she always fetched water and washed my feet for me," said Chen. "We always listened to the radio, and our favorite song was Two Butterflies. She would lean on my shoulder and sing, "'My dear, come and dance with me. There is no dark night in the spring of love.'"
Life went simply on. Chen became busier and busier and sometimes he could not return home at night. Chen didn't know his wife had become a prostitute until their landlady told him that Gou almost never came back at night if he did not.
They had a big fight, and Chen even proposed a divorce.
"She cried sorrowfully saying she loved me and all she had done was to relieve the financial burden of our family. She said she could not bear seeing my father carrying stones of several hundred kilograms every day. I cried too. I felt wordless because I was so poor and so incapable that I did not deserve the name of a man."
After the quarrel Chen acquiesced in Gou Li's 'job'.
Gou Li was not able to 'work' long, however. The police in a severe governmental inspection aimed at striking down criminals and eliminating prostitutes caught her. The police sent Gou Li into the penitentiary where she had to stay for 6 months receiving moral education. It was in this penitentiary that Gou Li began to write the loving diaries.
After her death, people found that all her diaries started with "Honey...." In the diary she wrote of her steady love for Chen:
"I'm looking forward to staying in your arms."
"I miss you so much. Why not answer the call today?"
"No matter if you are rich or poor, I am yours. Both my body and my heart have been given to you."
She also wrote about her deep concerns for him:
"It's dark outside. Are you home?"
"Are you in lack of money these days?"
"I'm so happy because I saw you today, but you looked more emaciated."
"You must be very tired these days. Please take care of yourself. Do not wear yourself out."
Due to her good behavior, Gou Li was released from prison two months early.
To pay her cost of living in the penitentiary, Chen had sold his motorcycle and borrowed more money. Thus his effort to redeem his wife put them in even heavier debt, of which a sum of 1300 Yuan ($159) was the most urgent. So as soon as Gou Li came out they set a plan for making money. Chen would go to Beijing to earn 800 Yuan, and Gou would stay in Lanzhou and write to her own family to borrow 500 Yuan, then they would get together for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
At the train station Gou Li cried when she saw Chen off. Chen did not know it would be the last time he'd see his wife alive. He got on the train and left for Beijing.
Chen cannot figure out why Gou Li went back to her old 'job', "I guess maybe she felt ashamed to borrow money from her brothers, but was so anxious to meet me, so..."
The customer who killed Gou Li was captured on September 15, 2005. He confessed he didn't know Gou Li before and his motivation was to revenge himself on prostitutes as a group, for he was once robbed and beaten by a whore in another city.
"She came to say good-bye to me before she went to the rental room with that man," Gou Li's neighbor said. "She told me it would be her last time to do the job, because she had saved 500 Yuan. She said she would go to Beijing to meet her husband the next day. What a pity!"
1 Comments:
At 6:03 AM , beforestforever said...
Nice work!
Post a Comment
<< Home