NANNING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Huang Mingzhen goes home once every three weeks, only to see the sullen, expressionless face of his 13-year-old son.
"He's been like this since he was brought home in 2009," said Huang, 42. "He rarely talks to me."
His son, Huang Bo, went missing near their home in Du'an County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in July 2005. The couple searched every corner of the county in the following four years, but to no avail.
Toward the end of 2009, police told them the boy had been sold to the eastern province of Fujian, but that he would be returned home.
The reunion, however, did not turn out to be a "happily-ever-after" tale, as the preteen, who now speaks standard Mandarin instead of the native Guangxi dialect he spoke as a preschooler, often sits alone in total silence, shedding tears and missing his "family" from Fujian.
The couple who had purchased Huang from child traffickers treated him well, and he had forgotten about his biological parents during the four years he spent in Fujian.
After he was returned to Guangxi, Huang insisted that he would keep in touch with the couple who bought him in Fujian. "I said no, and he burst into tears," said his mother Su Qingfeng.
Eventually, Su and her husband had to give in. The "father" from Fujian came to visit them once. Huang Bo appeared to love him more than his biological parents, and cried desperately when the man had to leave.
"He's been home for more than three years, but it's still difficult to approach him," she said. "His teacher said he could not concentrate in class. His mind is apparently on something else."
The mother said she feels like she can never make up for the lost time.
The separation, meanwhile, created a fault line in Huang's childhood. He feels lonely in his new environment. He has no friends and is reluctant to meet new people.
Like Huang Bo, it's not always a happy ending when abducted children are returned home.
Modern movie dream in retro Mingguo street
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