Set in a remote mountainous region of the Chinese countryside today, The Wife Who Wouldn’t Be Buried with Me tells a family story spanning several decades.
The story begins during the difficult years of the 1960s and 1970s. The protagonist is born into a poor farming family, and his elder brother and sister-in-law marry under unusual circumstances. Their family’s finances gradually improve through the couple’s hard work, but tragedy strikes when his brother dies in an accident, leaving behind his wife and two children. The protagonist, still unmarried in his thirties, follows his relatives’ suggestion and joins forces with his sister-in-law to form a new family.
But fate has more hardship in store. His wife develops a spinal condition after years of toil and remains bedridden for over a decade, while the protagonist cares for her devotedly. He believes they will be buried together, but after she dies, she is buried alongside his brother instead. Left alone and adrift, he no longer knows where his own final resting place will be.
A story filled with the hardships of life, the warmth of family, and the uncertainty of fate, it portrays the joys and sorrows of a rural family through changing times. It also captures the protagonist’s steadfast devotion through one hardship after another, and his helpless dismay at the unexpected ending he ultimately faces.
