The father made 15 trips abroad to search for his child in the 'den of evil'.

"It happened almost 10 years ago, but I haven't forgotten a single detail of that journey to find my child," said the man, over 60 years old with a weathered face, slowly recounting his story in his old house in Me Linh, Hanoi.

In 2007, like many teenagers, Luong – Mr. Thang's third daughter – asked her father to buy her a mobile phone to help with her studies. From random messages from strangers, the 16-year-old girl was lured away by a con artist who drugged her and sold her to Guangxi (China).

When their daughter went missing, the whole family was in a panic. They searched every nook and cranny of 11 northern provinces, including Phu Tho, Hung Yen, Quang Ninh, and Lang Son. Mr. Thang traveled everywhere, visiting internet cafes, bus stations, hair salons, and karaoke bars to find his daughter. He also reported it to the police, but after many days, there was still no trace of her.

In his despair, Mr. Thang suspected his daughter might have been trafficked to China. Following advice from others, he went to meet a father in Phu Tho who had found his missing child to learn from his experience. From here, his journey began.

In November 2007, Mr. Thang boarded a train to Po Chai bus station (Bang Tuong, Guangxi province). Alone in a foreign land, not knowing a single word of Chinese, he looked at the long line of people at the bus station and tears welled up in his eyes: "Where can I find my child in this endless sea of ​​people?"

Fortunately, he met a Chinese man named Huu, who was fluent in Vietnamese and volunteered to help. Mr. Huu took Mr. Thang to the police station to report the incident and then drew a map showing the towns and cities where Vietnamese people usually live, so that he could use it as a guide to find them. "I didn't know Chinese, so he even wrote down common phrases on paper so I wouldn't get lost," Mr. Thang recalled with emotion.

With that money, Mr. Thang continued his journey to several towns in Guangxi province. This time, a local girl took him to Nanning city and led him to the Vietnamese Consulate to file a report. After several days of fruitless searching, he returned to Vietnam when his money ran out.

From his first two attempts, he realized he couldn't rely on others' help indefinitely, as the journey could last for years, even several years.

In March 2008, Mr. Thang decided to study Chinese in Hanoi. Regularly, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening, he would cycle to the center, which was 7 or 8 kilometers from his house.

"Mr. Thang always arrived earliest in class and left latest. He often lingered to ask me how to read and write some Chinese place names. At first, I was surprised. But when I learned about his circumstances, I was deeply moved," shared Tran Thanh Hoa (Cau Giay, Hanoi), Mr. Thang's Chinese language teacher at the time.

"There was a time when, during class, I noticed he was absent for many sessions. When he came home, he told me that he had gone to China to look for his child but hadn't found him yet," teacher Hoa recalled.

With his limited foreign language skills after four months, plus the money from selling a piece of land, Mr. Thang went to Guangxi again. This time, he printed thousands of flyers with a reward of 50 million dong, but still without results.

In his subsequent searches for his daughter, instead of traveling everywhere, he disguised himself as a customer at brothels and visited these places—where he suspected his daughter might be—to inquire. From Guangxi, he traveled to Yunnan, then to Guangdong.

"In total, I've traveled about 30,000 km, sometimes covering thousands of kilometers in a single day. For long distances, I take trains or buses; for shorter distances, I walk or take a taxi," he recounted.

However, he never felt tired because every time he lay down, the image of his daughter would appear, causing his heart to ache. "She was so young, being sold into prostitution was nothing short of hell," Mr. Thang recalled.

Once, while passing through a village in Yunnan province, he was attacked by a group of young men wielding knives, who mistook him for a thief. After he explained his situation, they let him go and wished him a speedy reunion with his daughter.

Whenever he takes a taxi, he only chooses those driven by women, because "my Chinese is limited, and speaking too much would give me away. If I were to encounter a male taxi driver with bad intentions, I might lose both my money and my life, let alone find my child."

They kept searching and returning, and after more than a year and 15 trips to China, good news arrived at the end of 2008 when the missing girl unexpectedly sent a message to her older sister on Yahoo. The message was brief, saying she was in Chongzuo, Guangxi. Later, Mr. Thang learned that due to a lapse in security by the protection group, his niece had managed to escape and send the message.

Upon hearing the news, Mr. Thang forgot to eat and sleep and immediately went to find a place called Sung Ta. Discovering a brothel there, he called Mr. Huu for help.

Playing the role of customers, the two men went in and asked the madam, "Do you have any Vietnamese girls?" After a nod, a young woman came out. "Oh my daughter!" Mr. Thang cried out, then clenched his mouth to hold back tears. His daughter also choked back sobs but then fell silent. "If my daughter and I hadn't controlled our emotions at that moment, I might have lost my life there too," he recalled.

His heart pounding, his hands and feet trembling, he quickly regained his composure, made up an excuse about finding the girl unattractive, and left. Outside, they quickly called the Chinese authorities, anxiously waiting, fearing that the brothel owner would discover them and take the girl away.

Shortly afterwards, the police arrived and raided the prostitution den. Mr. Thang and his daughter, along with 10 other Vietnamese girls, were taken to the police station.

Before the Lunar New Year in 2009, the Chinese police handed over Mr. Thang's daughter to the Mong Cai Border Guard Team of Vietnam, ending her journey of more than a year of being sold into slavery in a foreign land.

Returning to Vietnam, Mr. Thang's daughter continued her unfinished studies. Ten years have passed, and putting the painful past behind her, she now has her own family with two children and a husband who is understanding of her past. "Many people ask me how I can persevere like that, but I think any father in my situation would do the same. Simply because I am a father," he said.

An officer from Department C14 of the Ministry of Public Security, who was involved in the case, said that Mr. Thang's case was quite unusual because he found his child in a foreign country on his own and reported it back. Although the incident happened a long time ago, the officer never forgets Mr. Thang whenever he talks about him.

Vy Trang