Instead of charging them for their extra children, the local family-planning official put them in touch with baby smugglers. The women made money, and families who wanted children could have them. The police weren't amused. Last spring, Wang was arrested, along with nearly half of the 145 residents of Maocaoba village. Today, stillness weighs on the isolated hamlet.
Wives quietly plant rows of cabbage, waiting for their jailed smuggler husbands to return.
Among those imprisoned are the Zeng brothers, Guangkun and Guangbing, who joined the people-trafficking business in 1998. Now the brothers' wives and four children idle in the remodeled house, knowing that the pair could be executed for their role in the baby trade. The mothers should be allowed to do what they want with their children. All they want is for them to have a good life. Despite their parents' best hopes, not all of the children make it to a better life.