If Min Li did everything right, she would never have survived in the fast-changing world of modern China. Growing up in the countryside, Min Li knew that doing well in school could change her family's history and end the abject poverty in which they lived. But Chinese custom dictated that she obey her father who sold her into a marriage with a boy who had twice attempted to rape her.If she obeyed her father, not only would she remain in poverty, but she would have suffered abuse the rest of her life.

Min Li fled the countryside and took her chances in the big city without the permission of the government or her family. Here, she learned to be independent and to rely on herself. But that independence came with a price, and Min Li came face to face with the conflict between traditional Chinese society and the trappings of modern China, including corrupt government, organized crime, and even human trafficking. Trapped in the Middle East, Min Li became an unwitting victim only to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes, an American teacher whom she once loved twenty years before in China.

Disillusioned with practicing law, Patrick Nohrden gave up his law practice and became a high school English teacher in Nevada and taught in China for 31/2 years and in Kuwait for a year. Upon resuming teaching in Nevada, Pat wrote The Crystal Monkey (Cedar Fort Publications, 2014), which is banned for sale in China, and has published around 40 articles on Chinese and Middle East culture and politics. Pat's next book, A Peek Through the Bamboo Curtain, is a collection of observations of Chinese culture.