Guide to Rising to Power as a Wife in Beijing's Elite Circle

On the third day after returning from Baizhou, Chen Nuo received a letter.

The envelope had no sender's name or address, only the blurred characters "Yunzhou" on the postmark. Yunzhou is 1,200 kilometers away from Baizhou.

Chen Nuo opened the book, pulled out a few pages of letter paper, torn from a lined notebook, the edges rough, the handwriting crooked. Tucked in the lower right corner was a photograph: a girl standing in a rapeseed field, her hair in a ponytail, wearing a white dress, her eyes crinkling with laughter. Her face was thin, but her eyes were bright.

"Sister, actually my name isn't Yueyue. My original name was Li Mei. Mei means beautiful. Yueyue was given to me by Wang Longjie. He said it was the first man who slept with me who gave me this name, and it's been around me for five years. I don't want to be called Yueyue anymore."

"I was born in the mountains in March 1999. My parents called me a money-losing good-for-nothing and a jinx. When I was eight years old, my younger brother was born, and they wanted to sell me to the 56-year-old man next door."

"In April 2009, a strange man came to the village. He was wearing a white shirt and his leather shoes were polished. He asked me if I wanted to leave the mountains. He said he had started a school in Baizhou, providing food, lodging, and education. He said that as long as I followed him, I could go to university. I picked up that sliver of hope and followed him."

"When I got here, I found a group of girls my age. He gave us school uniforms, assigned us dormitories, and started classes. I thought this was the beginning of happiness."

"In May 2010, he suddenly announced that the student aid funds could only be collected from his office. I went there. He told me to close the door and sit on his lap. I refused, and he said that if I didn't obey, he would send me back to the mountains. He started touching me and then assaulted me. He recorded a video and took nude photos, saying that if I didn't obey, he would send these to everyone in the village."

"During the summer vacation in June 2013, under the guise of 'comforting' the bosses, he forced me to meet those bosses with nude photos. The bosses all had strange fetishes; some liked to burn me, some liked to do it in groups, and some liked to strangle me and see the look in my eyes as I was about to die. In three months, I received sixteen bosses. My world turned gray again, like garbage thrown into a sewer, rotting and stinking, without a ray of light. I wanted to die like this, but I was unwilling."

"Finally, Wang Longjie was arrested today. I thought the nightmare was over. But my parents said I was a prostitute and that I've brought shame upon myself. I want to die."

"Sister, the phone you made me hide, the videos I took, were the best thing I've ever done in my life. Thank you for buying me a train ticket to Yunzhou. I'm working at a small shop now, and the owner is very kind to me. I have a cat, and I learn to cook every day. My name is Li Mei, the 'Mei' of 'beautiful.' When I save up some more money, I'll go to Zhongzhou to see you."

The last line in small print reads: "Sister, I heard Wang Longjie has recanted his testimony again? I'm not afraid. If I have to go to court again, I will still go. This time, I won't be afraid."

Chen Nuo pressed the letter to her chest and cried silently for a long time.

Almost at the same time, another message came back from overseas.

At the press conference held by the Zhongzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, Huang Jinwen stood on the stage, with a photo displayed on the large screen behind him. The photo showed Bai Yan being arrested by Interpol at the border, his hands cuffed behind his back, his head hanging down.

The evidence seized at the same time filled three long tables, including surrogacy agreements, organ trafficking bills, and videos of blood transfusion surgeries.

In the video, the basement walls, floor, and lights are all white—blindingly white. There's an operating table in the room, next to several metal racks with blood bags hanging from them. The blood bags are labeled with the date, blood type, and a number.

The number corresponds to a girl locked in a room upstairs. Every so often, she has her blood drawn until she turns pale, until she can't stand up, until her body automatically stops producing blood.

If they keep drawing blood, she'll die. Nobody cares. Because her blood will be transfused into someone else's veins. That person is either incredibly wealthy or powerful. They spend hundreds of thousands to buy a bag of youth, millions to get a new body, and tens of millions to buy a chance at rebirth.

They call it a rejuvenation therapy.

On the second basement level, there are rows of transparent glass jars, big and small, tall and short, containing various organs: hearts, livers, kidneys, and eyeballs.

Organs removed from fetuses several months old. These fetuses did not die of natural causes. Their uses were designated while they were still in the womb; one's heart was to be sold to a certain boss, another's liver was to be reserved for a certain leader.

Bai Yan calls this "customization," his doctors call it "harvesting," and the girls who are treated as vessels call it "pregnant with a child they can't give birth to."

When the time comes, they cut open her belly, take her out, sew her back up, and start carrying the next one. When her body is worn out from carrying the baby, she's sold. Sold to another facility, to be another container.

When Chen Nuo read this part, her fingers trembled. She thought of Meimei, Yueyue, and the girls in the student aid academy who were being kept by Wang Longjie.

The final destination of those girls, the once blank column for leaving school, is now finally filled in. It's not for further education, not for employment, but for Bai Yan's basement, the iron cage, and those transparent glass jars.

Wang Longjie raised them under the guise of charity, tamed them under the pretense of helping them with education, and sent them away under the pretext of arranging jobs. He wasn't sending away students, he was sending away goods. Truckload after truckload, transported from Baizhou to Baiyan's Angel's Home.

They squeezed out their sexual value, drained their blood, removed their organs, and then threw the rest into the trash. This is the truth about Baizhou Education Assistance Academy, the truth about Angel's Home, and the final destination of those girls rescued from the mountains.

Chen Nuo's name was thrust into the eye of the storm. Major media headlines read: "From continents to overseas, how a female cadre uncovered a shocking scandal" and "Chen Nuo: I am not a hero, I just couldn't bear it."

The merging of two cases into one, coupled with the public outcry, propelled Chen Nuo from a suspended deputy director to a figurehead of the anti-gang campaign. She had no idea who was behind all of this.

On Fang Jingxiu's computer screen was a private message from Guo Huaimin's secretary: "Director Fang, hello. Representative Guo asked when would be a suitable time to hold the report meeting on the heroes' deeds?"

That publicity plan was drafted by Qin Yang at his request. The timing of each trending topic, the angle of each media outlet's selection, and every word revealed by insiders were all carefully considered. Too fake and it would backfire; too real and it wouldn't be effective. It had to be just right, hitting the line where the authorities couldn't say but the public was willing to believe.

The timing of Bai Yan's arrest was that he made Huang Jinwen wait two months, releasing him only when the public was most outraged by the Wang Longjie case. With these two events colliding, Chen Nuo's image shifted from simply reporting a school principal to becoming a whistleblower exposing an entire black market supply chain.

Guo Huaimin's questioning was also arranged by him. The report meeting on the heroic deeds was chaired by Guo Huaimin, attended by Ren Yijun, and backed by the Central Economic Audit Office.

After going through this whole process, it won't be long before Chen Nuo's deputy director title can be changed to director title. After becoming a director title, he will be the youngest deputy director-level reserve cadre in the film and television system.

He spared no effort in using all his connections, resources, and methods to pave the way for her with the blood and tears of those girls.

He won't let those secret doors reopen. Not for justice, but for her, so that when she stands on the stage, she doesn't have to fear someone kicking her from behind.