The pair knelt shoulder to shoulder on the cold cement in front of about 30 fellow villagers in the Puqi county market square in Yueqing city, Zhejiang .
'We're begging you to help us retrieve our father's body so we can bury him in peace,' shouted 31-year-old Qian Chengxu, tears trickling down his face, as his younger sister Qian Xuling sobbed beside him
Their father was Qian Yunhui, the 53-year-old chief of Zhaiqiao village, whose six-year struggle against land requisitions ended in his suspicious death under the wheels of a heavy truck on Christmas Day.
Qian Yunhui's body was still in the hands of the local government, and no one knew when he would be released to his children. 'As a son, how can I feel at ease until my father is buried?' Qian Chengxu cried.
The cause that Qian Yunhui was fighting, the circumstances surrounding his death and the government's involvement come together in one of the most vivid examples of corruption and collusion seen all too often on the mainland.
Police insist that Qian's death was nothing more than a traffic accident, a claim rejected by the few villagers willing to speak on the matter and journalists covering the case. In the words of one villager who did not want to be named, fearing reprisals, it looked like 'murder and a massive cover-up'.
Gruesome photos of Qian's crushed body beneath the wheel of a construction truck were posted online within 20 minutes of his death and have circulated widely on the mainland.