My Wife Glows with Fragrant Sweat, While I Sweat Like a Pig

The novel The Fragrance of My Wife's Sweat, the Stench of My Husband's Sweat tells the story of Liu Jiang. He grew up poor but was a gifted student. In his second year of middle school, an accident left him without his left hand, but he carried on studying with only his right. After graduating from high school, he returned to his hometown and got married. Later, he taught himself to write well and became a teacher.

His passion for literature led to a provincial association hiring him. He brought his wife and children to the city, where his wife was repeatedly assaulted by several construction foremen while trying to find work carrying bricks. Over time, their family grew more and more troubled, until it finally fell apart.

With his family gone, Liu Jiang had to keep an association afloat as its literary fortunes steadily declined, while also paying for his child to attend an expensive school in the city. He ended up with over a million yuan in debt...

Eventually, he gave up on literature. He went elsewhere to collect scrap, scrubbed blackened pots and greasy kitchen hoods for people, and worked in factories with just one hand. He hauled boards through a laminating machine and stacked bundles of Jiaduobao herbal tea...

Later, unable to let go of his teaching credentials, he returned to the teaching profession...