In 2005, sketch actor Gao Xiumin died of a heart attack at the age of 46.
Soon after her death, He Qingkui, who had lived with her for 14 years, returned to his wife Zhang Yanru, until Zhang Yanru also died of illness.
In 2022, seventeen years after Gao Xiumin left, He Qingkui swept her grave to express her sorrow, and was praised by netizens for being "affectionate and righteous".
However, is this the case? What is the relationship between He Qingkui, Gao Xiumin, and Zhang Yanru?
1. "The Love of Three People"
Before becoming a well-known screenwriter, He Qingkui was just a fish seller in the county seat, watching customers come and go every day, and Gao Xiumin was among them.
The market where He Qingkui set up his stall was the only way for Gao Xiumin to go home, and over time, the two became acquainted, and Gao Xiumin also knew that He Qingkui could write scripts.
So in the winter of 1988, Gao Xiumin bought all the fish of He Qingkui and urged him to hurry home to create, and she would play it after it was ready.
In this way, the two-person turn "Who Marries Whom", created by He Qingkui and performed by Gao Xiumin, appeared on the stage and received a great response.
The two began to cooperate for more than ten years, and their relationship also deteriorated in frequent contact.
At that time, the two had already formed a family, Gao Xiumin's husband was Li Yunqi, and the two also had a daughter; He Qingkui's wife was named Zhang Yanru, and the two had three children.
But out of the pursuit of love, Gao Xiumin and He Qingkui both decided to divorce.
In 1992, Gao Xiumin and Li Yunqi divorced, but Zhang Yanru resolutely disagreed with He Qingkui's divorce, and He Qingkui was with Gao Xiumin without severing the relationship with He Yanru.
Gao Xiumin and He Qingkui left their hometown and ran around for their careers outside, while Zhang Yanru took her three children to rent a house to live and swallow the bitter fruits of marriage alone.
In 1993, He Qingkui took Gao Xiumin to find Zhang Yanru and asked for divorce again, but was still refused.
After a long talk, the three finally decided: to retain the marriage relationship between He Qingkui and Zhang Yanru, but He Qingkui and Gao Xiumin live together.
This distorted and perverse relationship was thus established.
However, in the following years, Gao Xiumin and Zhang Yanru had a good relationship, they were both friends and relatives, but they were strangely harmonious.
In 1994, Gao Xiumin and He Qingkui's sketch "Password" appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and met Zhao Benshan, and the cooperation between the three began.
In 2001, a sketch of "Selling Abduction" became popular all over the country, and the sentence "What else do you want" is still frequently used by netizens.
Later, "Selling a Car", "Heart Disease" and "Water Delivery" are also classics in the history of sketches.
However, during the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala in 2003, because of Gao Xiumin, their program was almost killed, and Zhao and Gao had an estrangement, and after "Water Delivery", the two no longer cooperated.
He Qingkui naturally chose to stand in line with his lover Gao Xiumin, so he also stopped cooperating with Zhao Benshan.
But that's not the worst thing......
Second, after Gao Xiumin left
On August 8, 2005, He Qingkui's eldest son died in a car accident.
And just ten days later, Gao Xiumin also passed away due to a heart attack, and under the double blow, He Qingkui was discouraged.
At the same time, Zhang Yanru, who lost her son, also fell into heavy sadness.
In this case, the two people who were tortured by pain chose to huddle together for warmth: after 14 years of separation, He Qingkui still returned to Zhang Yanru's side.
He Qingkui once said: "I am very grateful for those 14 years, she can understand my career and Gao Xiumin's career, she loves me so much, after my eldest son is gone, I have to take her back no matter what." ”
After "reuniting", the two lived together for ten years, and it seemed that they had returned to the days when they used to be together, until 2015, when Zhang Yanru passed away due to illness.
In the once complicated relationship, He Qingkui was finally the only one left.
It is worth mentioning that in 2010, He Qingkui created the sketch "Donation" for Zhao Benshan, and the two were also "reunited".
After Gao Xiumin's death, He Qingkui's script output was not as good as before, perhaps because he was old, or because he lost his "muse", and his inspiration dried up a little.
In 2022, He Qingkui was exposed to sweeping Gao Xiumin's tomb and carefully wiping Gao Xiumin's statue, as if he had never forgotten the love he once had.
In this regard, some people called him "love and righteousness", and some people accused him of "interpreting the beginning and the end of the abandonment into a deep love".
The experiences of He, Zhang, and Gao are quite similar to the stories of Fu Lei, Zhu Meifu, and Cheng Jialiu, but Cheng Jialiu finally chose to quit voluntarily, while Gao Xiumin ended up with death.
This kind of love is really laughable.
Now, He Qingkui has slowly faded out of public view, and he can probably only be seen occasionally from the videos of his son He Shucheng.
It seems that at the age of 77, he is still in good shape.
Resources:
Huashang Morning News "He Qingkui admits that he did not register with Gao Xiumin and is currently living with his original wife"
BTV Science and Education "Extraordinary Names"