It started out as a family reunion story but soon took a darker turn.
A 45-year-old woman identified only by her surname Bu, had lost contact with her family for more than a decade and was found in late 2024 in a rural area in Heshun county in the central Chinese province of Shanxi, more than 100km (62 miles) from her home.
Bu had an advanced university education but she also had a history of mental illness, and the discovery that she had given birth to several children with a villager raised…
