An undated photo of Yuan Hongping. [Photo/Yangtse Evening Post]

Twelve years after Yuan Hongping's sudden missing, his family couldn't believe it when police officer said on the phone that he was still alive. Even more unbelievable is what Yuan has went through in those bygone ages, an ordeal of forced slave labor in brick kilns that is packed with brutal abuses, the Yangtse Evening Post reported on Friday.

Yuan, now 40, was found begging for food in a remote country in Southwest China's Yunnan. Alarmed police officers soon contacted his family. Yuan returned home in East China's Jangsu province, staggering with wounds, scars and mental health illness.

Twelve years ago when Yuan went with his matchmaker to Yunnan to meet a girl, he lost contact with his family. Yuan's family spent years searching for him, but was unable to track him down.

According to the newspaper, Yuan was kidnapped midway in Chengdu and taken to a remote county in Yunnan, where he was forced to work in small brick kilns for the ensuing twelve years. He tried to escape several times, only to be recaptured and added with even more brutal punishments. At last, he was set free by his captors, only because of his illness that rendered him useless.

Back at home now, the still jittery Yuan would involuntarily kneel down whenever a stranger comes near, repeatedly murmuring "don't beat me, don't beat me." 

At nights, he would wake up in shudder at the smallest provocations. The severely traumatized man would instinctively sit up early in the morning before sunrise, whimpering "work, move the brick," the routine he suffered too much to leave behind.   

This case is under investigation.