"This is not only the love of a Chinese peasant, but also a symbol of humanity after the great destruction."
In May 2008, a photo of a Chinese man appeared on the front page of many domestic and foreign media.
In the photo, the Chinese man uses a rope to tie his wife tightly to his body, and then rides a motorcycle, about to set out on the way home.
This man is Wu Jiafang, the protagonist of our story today, and the woman on his back is his wife Shi Huaqiong.
On May 12, 2008, Shi Huaqiong was killed in a major earthquake.
Wu Jiafang dug up his wife from the rubble, and then carried his wife's body on his back, his face did not have any expression, but his heart was already turbulent.
He wants to carry his deceased wife home, and he wants to work hard to give his wife dignity after death.
So what kind of story is happening in Wu Jiafang's body? What happened to him?
Let's find out!
1. A loving husband and wife who love each other
The story of Wu Jiafang and Shi Huaqiong has to start from 1985.
Because of his poor family background, Wu Jiafang dropped out of school very early to work, and that year, at the age of 22, he met his lover who had been with him for more than 20 years, Shi Huaqiong, on the construction site where he worked.
Talking about the impression of meeting Shi Huaqiong for the first time, Wu Jiafang said that she looked very gentle, wore a pair of glasses, and although she worked on the construction site, she was always dressed beautifully.
When she got married, Wu Jiafang couldn't give Shi Huaqiong anything, but Shi Huaqiong didn't care, because she didn't like Wu Jiafang's conditions, but Wu Jiafang as a person.
After getting married, the couple has been in love for more than 20 years, and Wu Jiafang always feels sorry for his wife, because he feels that he has no ability to let Shi Huaqiong live a better life.
So he was reluctant to let his wife do farm work, and he always tried his best to make his wife dress up beautifully, add clothes in the seasons, and always tell Shi Huaqiong to buy whatever he liked.
On weekdays, the husband and wife always sing and follow each other, and rarely separate.
On the day of the accident, Shi Huaqiong's mobile phone had no phone bill, and at that time, she couldn't pay the phone bill directly online, and she needed to go to the business hall or the phone bill collection point, so Shi Huaqiong took a car to the town to charge the phone bill, and then she thought that she had nothing to do when she went home, so she went to a teahouse to watch people play cards.
As a result, she didn't expect to be engaged, and suddenly an earthquake came, and she didn't have time to react, so she was buried in the rubble.
After the earth returned to calm, Wu Jiafang, who was building a house at home at the time, immediately took out his mobile phone and called his wife.
The phone couldn't get through, maybe it was because the husband and wife were connected, Wu Jiafang already had a bad premonition in her heart.
He rode the second-hand motorcycle that Shi Huaqiong insisted on buying him, and hurried towards the town.
Their hometown was severely affected, so Wu Jiafang made a lot of effort to finally arrive in the town.
He searched like crazy, and finally recognized his wife's hairpin in a ruin.
For two whole days, Wu Jiafang finally dug up his wife's body, and saw his wife, who had long since lost her breath and was covered with dust, Wu Jiafang was grief-stricken, and he wiped his wife's face clean while shedding tears.
He had only one thought in his mind: I'm going to take her home!
He used a rope to tie his wife to his body, and then took a motorcycle to prepare to go home, on the way he found that his wife's head was crooked, and he was worried that the rope was loose, and his wife's feet would rub on the ground, so he stopped the motorcycle to check, and this scene was also filmed by reporters looking for news materials in the disaster area.
As an ordinary farmer in China, Wu Jiafang's photo not only touched countless people around the world, but also became the "most affectionate husband" in everyone's mouth.
However, Wu Jiafang later said that if he could do it all over again, he would rather never take that photo.
So what's going on here? Later, what kind of story happened to Wu Jiafang?
2. From being affectionate and righteous to becoming "unkind"
News is time-sensitive, and as time goes by, Wu Jiafang gradually fades out of people's sight.
However, at the end of 2008, Wu Jiafang's name appeared in the media again, and at the same time, he also changed from the "most affectionate" husband in everyone's mouth to a heartless person.
There are even villagers in Wu Jiafang's hometown, when interviewed by the media, they said that Wu Jiafang is not what everyone sees at all, on the contrary, before Shi Huaqiong was killed, the relationship between the couple was very bad, the two often quarreled, and Wu Jiafang also mentioned divorce with Shi Huaqiong.
Not only these, in the mouths of the villagers, Wu Jiafang has become a "heinous" person.
People in the village said that Wu Jiafang's character was corrupt and that he was an "unfilial son".
Some people even said that the reason why Wu Jiafang went home with his deceased wife on his back was because he was coerced by Shi Huaqiong's mother's family.
In this way, in the narration of many "insiders", Wu Jiafang also stood on the cusp overnight, and everyone said that Wu Jiafang was a "liar" and that he would be punished sooner or later.
Especially when these rumors appeared, Wu Jiafang had also remarried, and his original wife's bones were not cold, so he couldn't wait to marry someone, and said that it was "love at first sight", so through this incident, many people felt that Wu Jiafang did not really have feelings for Shi Huaqiong.
So what is the truth?
Let's talk about the quarrel between him and Shi Huaqiong first, Wu Jiafang said that the two have been together for more than 20 years, and it is impossible not to quarrel without a time, when they are angry, they will always say two angry words, but in fact, they are all jokes, and no one takes them seriously.
There is also the fact that he does not support his father, Wu Jiafang said that it is because he was abused by his father since he was a child, and when he grew up, he was kicked out of the house by his father and said that he would cut off relations with him, so he did not support his father. As for why his father abused him, Wu Jiafang cried and said that he couldn't figure it out.
Next, it is Wu Jiafang's remarriage.
Wu Jiafang's remarried wife is called Liu Rurong, and she is a Chengdu woman.
The year she married Wu Jiafang, Liu Rurong was 45 years old, although she worked in Shenzhen, she had a very wonderful life.
When Liu Rurong was young, she resigned from the Urban Construction Bureau to go to the sea to do business, she was a strong woman with a successful career, but because of the failure of her marriage and bankruptcy, she finally became an ordinary person with nothing.
However, in the face of these ups and downs in life, Liu Rurong accepted it calmly, in her opinion, it is impossible for people to live a lifetime and be smooth sailing forever, no matter whether it is good or bad, we must learn to accept it.
What people didn't expect was that Liu Rurong and Wu Jiafang, an urban woman with rich and colorful life experiences, and a rural man with nothing in debt, the two of them came together, and they turned out to be Wu Jiafang pursued by Liu Rurong.
After Liu Rurong saw Wu Jiafang's experience, she felt that the other party was a good man who valued love and righteousness, so she finally obtained Wu Jiafang's contact information after several rounds.
At that time, as Wu Jiafang became famous in the country, in fact, many single women in China had contacted Wu Jiafang and wanted to recreate a family with him.
Wu Jiafang said that after Shi Huaqiong's death, she was alone at home every day, and she felt very lonely and painful.
So when he got in touch with Liu Rurong, he felt that the other party was very understanding, and the communication between the two was also very pleasant, so in early November 2008, when Liu Rurong took a car and plane to Sichuan to meet Wu Jiafang, and after the two got along for 9 days, they went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a marriage certificate.
After the news of Wu Jiafang's remarriage spread all over the country, he also changed from a good man who "values love and righteousness" in people's hearts to a "ruthless" person, especially what the people in the village said, which made Wu Jiafang a "despicable villain" in everyone's minds.
After Wu Jiafang remarried, not only did he not give Liu Rurong a penny as a bride price, on the contrary, Liu Rurong also took 40,000 yuan to build a house for Wu Jiafang in the village.
At that time, the idea of the two of them was to wait until the house was completed, open a small teahouse on the roof, and then the two of them lived in peace in their hometown.
However, the teahouse has not yet opened, and his marriage has come to an end.
The controversy on the Internet is getting louder and louder, especially the "backstabbing" of the people in the village, which makes Wu Jiafang unable to stay in the village.
In 2009, Liu Rurong asked someone to find him a job in Shenzhen, but although Wu Jiafang went to Shenzhen, he and Liu Rurong couldn't see each other for a month.
On the one hand, the two of them are not working in the same place, and on the other hand, after the photos of their group wedding were posted on the Internet, Liu Rurong walked on the street many times, and everyone recognized her and pointed at her, which made Liu Rurong's heart also under great pressure, so she didn't dare to live with Wu Jiafang and go out together.
In their relationship, there is no emotional foundation, and everyone knows it, so the contradiction between the two people is getting bigger and bigger.
In the end, the relationship lasted only a year and a half before it ended in divorce.
Later, some media learned the news of Wu Jiafang's divorce, found him for an interview, and asked him why he didn't cherish this second relationship.
Wu Jiafang said that the reason why he married Liu Rurong actually didn't have much to do with everyone's gossip, and the fundamental reason was because of his ex-wife Shi Huaqiong.
It turned out that when building a house, Wu Jiafang used his own land to exchange with others in order to get closer to his ex-wife's tomb, at first, Liu Rurong didn't know, but later Liu Rurong knew, she felt that in Wu Jiafang's heart, there was no self at all.
Later, Liu Rurong always asked him, if Shi Huaqiong suddenly lived, would Wu Jiafang divorce him immediately?
Because such a problem could not happen at all, Wu Jiafang felt that Liu Rurong was a little unreasonable, so he ignored Liu Rurong, but Liu Rurong cried, and she yelled at Wu Jiafang: "In your heart, I can't catch up with a dead person!" ”
In this way, the contradiction is getting bigger and bigger, and naturally the marriage between the two of them cannot come to an end.
So now that more than 10 years have passed, what happened to Wu Jiafang?
3. 14 years of living alone
Since her divorce from Liu Rurong, Wu Jiafang has been living alone.
He repaid the money that Liu Rurong gave him to build a house as early as when he got divorced, so he could live in the new house with peace of mind.
He still does odd jobs in the town or county, and every day when he comes home from the construction site, he will go to sit at his wife's grave.
Wu Jiafang said that he has lived most of his life, and he no longer plans to find someone to spend the rest of his life with, he just wants to live a good life in his hometown and accompany his sleeping wife.
In addition to Shi Huaqiong, Wu Jiafang is most worried about his son who is in his 30s and has not yet started a family.
However, because he made a lot of gossip on the Internet before, his son was ashamed, and over the years, the relationship between father and son was also very average, and if the two of them couldn't say two words together, they would break up unhappily.
In 2018, on the 10th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, Wu Jiafang reminded him of the events of that year in an interview.
He said that if he could do it all over again, he would like to never be photographed.
At the same time, he also said that he has never been a person who values love and righteousness, and if he is another man, when he sees his wife in distress, he will dig it out, and then take his wife home to "return to the roots".
As a survivor of the earthquake, Wu Jiafang said how much he wished he could leave with his wife at that time.
Because then he will not have these "unbearable pains" in the future.
So friends, what do you think of Wu Jiafang's story? Feel free to leave a message and tell us what you think!