12/22/25 - How did she only get 7 years? Why is she still alive?
[Warning: The story I cover today was from a very, very long time ago, and is one of the most horrific I’ve heard coming out of China. It gets brought up every once in a while—I personally stumble across it about once a year—and it warms my heart that people have not forgotten about this, the same way that you never really see the Chained Woman get brought up before. Not only is it the first post I came across today genuinely, but I also think it’s valuable to record here in its entirety.
But this story involves extremely graphic child torture. The article goes into details in almost exploitative scrutiny, in a strangely obsessive and loving way. So I’m just going to give a summary of the facts of the case and avoid most of the dramatisation. I’m going to leave a link here to the original story, but be warned.]
On the 10th of March, 1993, Suli was found dead at home.
When the police coroner checked on Su Li, what he found was a 5-year-old child who was under 95cm, completely skin-on-bones, yellowing malnutritioned hair that had been yanked out by the handful. There was nowhere on Su Li’s body that wasn’t covered with injuries and scars except for the bottom of her feet. A lot of her injuries were infected and bleeding pus. Someone had recently poured hot oil down her throat and her mouth and chin were severely burned. Her finger and toe nails were black with bruising. Even her genital area was covered in injuries.
She had been made to sleep in the corner of the wardrobe, where the police found the only thing she owned—a bloody fleece blanket.
Two years ago, a neighbour had seen three-year-old Su Li kneeling on a washing board with yellow string sewing her mouth shut. Her mother claimed it was because she had been eating chicken feed. She panicked when the neighbour saw and ripped the thread out of Su Li’s lips.
The neighbour immediately reported the case to the HOA, who arrived to find Su Li with strangulation bruises on her neck and needle scars around her lips. And despite it being the middle of winter, Su Li only wore tattered single layers and sandals on her feet.
This case was reported in the People’s Public Safety Experts News, Qinghai Daily News, and Xining Evening News. It rocked the whole state. But nothing ever happened to her mother, Yan Zhiyun.
The HOA went to Yan Zhiyun’s residence multiple times after that about her abuse of her daughter. But nothing ever changed.
Apparently, Yan Zhiyun used to work at the Xinghai Province Xining City Shoe and Hat factory, and she secretly had Li Li despite the One Child Policy. She tried to keep Li Li hidden by keeping her with her sister-in-law, but her workplace eventually found out and fired her. After that, she became a housewife. But she vented her anger at losing her job on Li Li. The injuries on Li Li’s genitals are because at the time, Li Li was less than 2-years-old and wasn’t potty-trained yet, and every time she would wet or soil herself, Yan Zhiyun would pinch her genitals until she drew blood.
Li Li was regularly starved. She was taught to beg for food before every meal, and if she had “behaved badly” that day, then she wouldn’t get anything to eat. She was only fed two bread rolls a day, or two half bowls of noodles. She would sometimes beg the neighbours for food, but after her mother found out, she was never allowed to step foot outside again.
The bruising on her fingers and toes are from when she stole bread to eat, and her mother smashed her fingers and toes with a hammer. She had hot oil poured down her throat because she stole some pork fat. And Yan Zhiyun would rather feed perfectly good rice to her chickens than to her daughter.
Li Li had to wash all her clothes herself, even if it was the middle of winter, giving her severe frostbite on her fingers too, which would often bleed and flow with pus. And her room never had any heat.
Whenever people would try to talk to Yan Zhiyun about not beating her kid anymore, she would argue back, “She’s my child! I can beat her however I want! Even if I killed her, they can’t sentence me to death! It’s none of your business.”
Some people have offered to adopt Su Li, but Yan Zhiyun told them she’d rather beat Su Li to death herself than let someone else adopt her.
Her husband held the same opinion. He was rather confused that it was even against the law to beat your own kids.
And Yan Zhiyun was right. In the end, she was only sentenced to 7 years. And the first thing she did upon getting out of prison was to find Su Li’s grave, dig up her urn, and step and spit on her ashes.
Then she went into hiding with her husband and her son (who was never abused), and the government never found the time to track her down to charge her with defiling a grave. Now, she’s probably still alive somewhere, in her 50s.]
Comments say, “If only ghosts really did exist.”
“This case gets posted every once in a while.”
“How did she only get 7 years? Why is she still alive?”
“The hand of my 180cm internet boyfriend.
He sent me this photo. He claims to be 180cm and 70kg. Is that believable, friends?”
Comments say, “I’d believe 140kg. There’s no way he’s under 100kg with hands like that.”
“You’re definitely dating a pig. Bad lung and heart function so the bottom of his nails are purple-black. It turns white in the middle of his nails, plus all the meat pockets on his hands, and the strange lump of meat on his wrist means that he’s got very high body fat percentage.”
“Based on the length of his fingers, he’s probably not 180cm. Even if he was, he definitely has super short legs. He’s probably 170cm, plus or minus 2cm. Thick palm, no curvature to the knuckles, weight probably around 90kg. No muscles, so he’s got a fat belly. Shiny nails, so he has plenty of nutrition, if not too much nutrition, so probably fat. Too much hair above the wrist, so you can imagine what his legs look like. Too much testosterone means he’s probably bald. And he’s probably covered in hair on his chest and belly too. Like gaming and playing on his phone, probably all night long. He has a very deformed pinky finger which doesn’t happen in a day. Addicted to smoking, the first knuckle of his fingers have been turned yellow-black by smoke. Probably has smoker’s teeth and smoker’s breath too. Bottom of his nails are black, so probably a bad heart. That’s a sign of low blood oxygen. And his skin looks kinda oily. In conclusion: it’s a short, balding fattie covered in body hair that likes to smoke, drink, and stay up all night gaming. And he’s trying to scam people into dating him online.”
#Next year sending sexy messages to your friends will be illegal. “I agree that the new policy has filled a loophole in managing the internet, and it’s drawn a clear red line for normal people’s socialisation. What happens in PMs is not aobve the law. This boundary should be kept by everyone. The law reminds us that you need to be extra aware of your words and actions in the digital age.”
Comments say, “I’m betting the birth rate is going to fall by another 80% next year.”
“So is it illegal for me to send selfies to my wife now?”
“So, it’s fine for the rich and powerful to have mistresses, but if I send a sexy photo, that’s illegal?”
“I want to make a fandom joke now. Bad news: starting from next year, sending sexy messages to friends is going to be illegal. Good news: it only violates the Public Safety Management Law, so you can have your records sealed afterwards.”
Comments say, “Lol, climbing the wall is also illegal. I’m breaking the law every day.”
“So it’s just as severe as abusing drugs?”
“Nah, it’s a little more severe than abusing drugs.”
“But is it not illegal for websites to have inappropriate little popups? It’s not illegal to make them pop up, but if I look at it, it’s illegal? Dammit.”
“I came across a post lately—when someone is feeling vulnerable and helpless, they’ll miss their home and their mom. But if you have a bad relationship with your birth family and your mom, would you still think of your mom?”
Comments say, “I remember coming across posts like this on Rednote, and one reply was that she doesn’t want to cry out for her mom in moments like these, but she doesn’t know what else to do with herself. So she bowed to the Buddha and asked the Buddha to be her mom, and whenever she’s vulnerable and helpless, she’ll cry for her Buddha mommy. It made me really sad.”
“When I was at my most helpless, when you solve captchas on your phone, it’ll display a “Good job!” afterwards. And I actually solved a whole bunch of captchas just for that preprogrammed line. Thinking back, that was so awful.”
“I love an abstract mom. An imaginary mom. The gentle mom that the world thinks of. Loving your mother is a biological instinct. I just don’t love my actual physical mom. Every time I think about it, it feels like my heart is getting torn open by a tornado. I’ve cut off my umbilical cord but it’s still strangling me. When I’m in pain, I’ll cry out for my mom, but as soon as I think of her, it’s a new layer of pain on top of my current pain.”
“It’s just for peace of mind. Before Qingwen [character in Dream of the Red Chamber] died, she cried for her mom all night, even though she’s never even met her mom.”